Being Intentional About Capacity

We believe that growth happens through leadership. Every organization needs twice as many leaders than they currently have. In fact, the number one issue I hear from organizations is, “We simply need more good leaders.”  The issue might be the quantity of leaders, but I would first start with the quality of leaders.

Raising the levels of leadership is a consistent rally cry of Dr. John Maxwell. He has established new language to help people increase their leadership. As the partner of Dr. Maxwell we spend large amounts of time investing in the topic of raising capacity. The reality is that most everyone knows they need to do it. It is just simply one of the most difficult things to do with the burden of the daily grind.

Be intentional with raising the capacity and quality of the leaders on your team. Start with yourself. We typically will begin helping leaders by giving a 360 or organizational assessment, or a strengths profile… something to give us a framework to begin.

Once we see what level of leadership a leader is on, we can proactively build a plan that raising these levels much like a workout training regimen impacts the physical nature of a person. We call the plan “Leader Pathing.” It is similar to a workout routine in that we give suggestions as to what they should learn (read, listen to, watch, etc.) and what they should do (events, retreats, coaching, training, etc.) We acknowledge that all leaders grow in different ways. That is why it is important to build a nimble plan based on variety to reach every facet of a leader. Our leader pathing for an individual or organization is focused on a calendar year and has measurements and goals along with events, experiences, etc. 

Raising the levels of leadership takes a concerted effort to raise both the quality and quantity of a team. Yet, it is an effort that produces amazing results if done properly.

Posted on August 27, 2009 in Leader Development