The goal of every leader is to accurately assess each team member with an eye toward moving people up or (in some instances) out.  I help leaders clarify the difference between leading, contributing, participating, observing and detracting, with an eye toward improvement.  Any initiative needs a bell curve skewed toward levels 3, 4 and 5. Leadership development empowers leaders with the attitude, knowledge and skills to positively impact people and their resulting behaviors on that scale.

Finally, it is important to discriminate between leadership and celebrity. Leaders are often a standard deviation ahead of everyone else’s thinking. What leaders see is often not seen by others, not yet!  Leaders often bear the brunt of critics; those who want to evaluate you, test your assumptions, question your judgment and advocate for alternatives to your plan.  Leaders must learn to accept this as a natural phenomenon and develop a pathway for others to eventually arrive at the place where you need them. Leadership requires the patience and the tolerance to lead people through the process which will move them through detractor, observer, participant and contributor. Great leaders develop other leaders.

Lastly, don’t take it personally!  If I asked your organization to list the most important leaders in American history, George Washington’s name would inevitably appear on everyone’s list.  When Washington decided to retire, Thomas Paine, perhaps the most influential writer of that period wrote “we’re pleased to see you go” and then asked whether “you have simply lost all of your integrity or if you had any to begin with”.  The confidence and certainty that comes with leadership is, and always will be, the conversation happening in your head regardless of external praise and validation, or the slings and arrows of those who may currently be hampering your success. Washington stood tall in the crisis despite his critics. That's why he still makes the list of most important leaders.