The “Natural Leader” Bottleneck
Your people aren’t stuck because they lack skill. They’re stuck because they lack leadership.
Wow! That was a bold start. Can I really say that?
If you’re reading this, chances are you intuitively lead people. Your natural ability has gotten you farther than most. Maybe you’ve even found some other “natural leaders”. But your natural leadership ability, your personal capacity, and your dependance on finding leaders who are already developed is a bottleneck to team performance and the growth of the business.
Your team lacks leadership because you aren’t multiplying leaders.
The Myth of the “Natural Leader”
If you’ve been leading for very long at all you’ve bumped into a capacity issue. We are all limited beings. Some might have a higher capacity than others, but there’s always a limit — to our time, influence, productivity, etc. The only way through this limitation is more leaders pursuing the same vision.
If you’re honest, discovering new leaders has been mostly accidental. You hope that you can find good leaders to hire and you hope that the leaders you have will be the leaders you need as the business grows. But hope isn’t a strategy.
There comes a point for all of us when we hit the ceiling of our “natural” leadership ability. This ceiling is well below our leadership potential, but we will only get beyond that leadership ceiling with intentionality. That’s true for me, for you, and for those that you are leading. Relying on “natural leaders” will always bottleneck growth. Leadership is a skill to be intentionally trained and honed over time.
Great Leaders Lead Leaders.
No one is born with the full skillset to lead healthy, high-performing teams. Some may have natural charisma, others a strong work ethic or strategic mind, but everyone has blind spots. What we call “natural leadership” often centers on managing tasks and driving outcomes — or inspiring people who manage tasks and drive outcomes — not developing people. Most training focuses on execution: how to hit deadlines, drive performance, and deliver the product. Meetings become status updates. Problem solving simply fixes today’s issues to keep things moving.
But good leaders don’t simply lead the work. Good leaders lead people to be healthy, to work together, and to produce the right outcomes.
GREAT leaders lead leaders that move together toward a compelling vision of the future and intentionally develop new leaders.
Leading For Growth
If you really want to scale your impact and see your compelling vision of the future become reality, then you must have more leaders. You need others who don’t just carry out the work, but carry the weight of leadership alongside you. And you can’t just hope you will find the leaders that you need. You need an intentional strategy to develop leaders who lead leaders.
That starts with knowing yourself to lead yourself — your strengths, your deficiencies, your blind spots, your opportunities, your liabilities. It requires an intentional strategy to develop healthy, multiplying leaders. And it necessitates a strong organizational culture that provides the environment for productive communication and collaboration toward a clear, compelling vision for the future.
Three Shifts To Start Leading Leaders
1. Clarity, Clarity, Clarity
Clarity is the soil leaders grow in. Leaders and teams need clarity to row in the same direction with enough authority and responsibility to stretch their leadership skills. Ensure that everyone is clear on your…
Vision - Where are we going?
Mission - Why do we exist?
Values - How do we behave?
Roles / Responsibilities - Who owns what?
Feedback Process - How do we help each other grow?
Communication Patterns - When can I talk about what?
You can’t release what you haven’t clarified.
2. Create Ownership Moments
Instead of assigning tasks, assign problems and let them lead the solution.
Example: Instead of saying, “I need you to document the process for X,” say,
“We need a better handoff between sales and delivery. I’d like you to own that. Loop in whoever you need from each team to assess the problem and propose a solution.”
The invitation to solve a problem creates ownership — and demands leadership.
Yes, it might be messy at times. But the benefits of a leader development pipeline far out way that risk.
3. Train Everyone With Simple Tools
Rather than typical cul-de-sac leadership learning that only involves certain people, invest in the entire organization learning simple leadership tools. By equipping everyone the organization develops an objective, common language that facilitates productive communication which builds healthy culture. And you will prime the pump for new leaders to emerge.
5 Voices for Teams helps everyone understand their own leadership voice and provides a proven, industry leading toolkit for building leaders and developing high performing teams.
The Multiplier’s Mindset
If you want to build a team that scales with you — not just works for you — you have to slow down long enough to intentionally build people into leaders and develop leaders who build leaders. You have to multiply.
That’s a culture that will out perform your calendar.
Want help turning your doers into leaders?
The Culture Path helps teams scale by multiplying healthy leaders who build leaders. Let’s talk about how to develop your leadership pipeline.
