Leaders can be made. What roadblocks are you creating as a leader?

How do leaders make ‘it’ happen?

Hard way: do it yourself (not a leader)

Easy way: Through others.

What to do? Show them what you are doing and why. Leaders have sincerely told me that ‘you can’t teach people to ‘get it’”. It is often defined as the capability of ownership or initiative. Often called the essence of leadership. Once we explore what ‘it’ is, invariably we find out there’s a process for helping people ‘get it’ and it’s quite simple. Tell them what they don’t ‘get’.

I call the leaders attention to the process of simply telling others what they see and inviting everyone else to see it makes the entire process easier.

Does this work for everyone all the time? Of course not. Underneath this all requires a willingness on the part of the leader and the followers. If someone is unwilling to ‘get it’ or if a leader is unwilling to share what they ‘get’ then there’s not much chance of success, if any.

How exactly do people get it? The process of asking ‘why?” ‘Why would they say that?” “Why would they do that?” “What did he mean by that?” “Why is that important to them?” This defines context, creating purpose and meaning to the actions. The benefit of this is the ability to create leaders out of employees, regardless of their role in the organization.

Sometimes leaders ask how something so simple could be so effective. I invite them to notice that this is the exact internal process they use to spot challenges and opportunities. This makes ‘leadership’ much less of a mystery and art. It becomes a skill that can be transferred and taught.

If you are willing to experiment, try inviting your team to ask ‘why’ for 30 days. Before you do this, assess their current level of initiative on a scale of 1 to 5. Look for evidence of increased initiative during the 30 day period and then re-assess. You will notice that this simple technique is an effective way to make leaders in your organization.

Alan Hill is a business and executive leadership coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one coaching company. If you would like to learn more about him or to contact him for a private consultation, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill