Is Your Leadership Scalable

The ability to scale leadership is among the most vital determinants of a company’s future success. Scalability allows companies to foster a leadership culture that empowers its leaders to guide and nurture the succeeding generation of leaders while establishing consistency in their leadership style.

While many leaders possess unique qualities that make them effective, their leadership may not be scalable. Scalable leadership implies that a leader can create a conducive environment for people to lead each other. It involves translating certain positive traits into transferable knowledge and skills while assessing who to develop. Among the reasons why many leaders cannot scale their leadership include:

• Addiction to Applause
  Unfortunately, many leaders who actively seek the high that comes with praise and admiration find it difficult to share the spotlight with others.
• Lack of Faith
  Many leaders do not trust other people’s ability to perform as well or better than them. Additionally, some leaders are not confident in others’ ability to learn fast enough without compromising their work quality.
• Not Letting Go
  While it is important to take pride in past accomplishments, some leaders bask in their glory too much to focus on the opportunities that lie ahead.

How to Achieve Scalable Leadership
1. Start at the Personal Level
Scalable leadership begins with leaders identifying their unique balance of strengths and weaknesses. Leaders should clarify how they need to change as individuals to drive their organizations to greater heights of performance. This involves learning out loud by consulting their respective leadership teams.

2. Build Leadership Teams
Scalable leadership entails leaders on the same team doing the same thing. Leaders can encourage others to learn together by creating a team environment where support and constructive feedback are encouraged. Additionally, leaders should align their teams by clarifying their higher purpose, the strategy to follow and the results that matter most.

3. Develop A Leadership System
The design of an organization can set it up for development or failure. Leaders can achieve scalability by establishing feedback, support and development processes throughout their organizations. Developing a culture where individuals are encouraged and expected to grow as leaders is a sure way of scaling effectively.

4. Empower Champions
Teaching a concept is arguably the best way of learning and understanding it. Leaders should employ the leader-as-teacher method to cascade their positive leadership attributes throughout the organization.

Originally published to daviddevries.org.