LEADING INTO THE FUTURE
Leadership in Economic Development: Developing the Leaders Around Us
By Joy Wilkins, CEcD
The asset that truly appreciates within any organization is people… People can grow, develop, and become more effective if they have a leader who understands their potential value… Adding value to a person is much more than personal promotion or organizational improvement. It is the enrichment of people’s quality of life. It is the expansion of their life purpose and capabilities. People development is life-changing for everyone involved. – John C. Maxwell
In our respective journeys, we have each been blessed along the way with one or more special people who have had nothing short of a profound influence on shaping who we are and why we do what we do. And likewise, we have each had the privilege of serving as such people in the lives of others as well.
As leadership expert John C. Maxwell points out, even the most introverted among us will influence 10,000 other people. 10,000! Still, we tend to not fully understand who and how much we influence. And sometimes we have no clue about the indelible mark we’ve made.
Maxwell has long served as a leading voice to explain how true leadership is not about our titles, positions, and authority but is rather all about our influence – our ability to inspire others to act. In times characterized by great chaos, adversity, turbulence, and uncertainty, it is our ability to have a positive influence on those we encounter that matters most in making a difference.
Therefore, the pivotal question today for those of us serving in economic development during these uncomfortable times is how do we become more positive influencers for those around us? It is a refreshing question for us to consider because while there is so much in life that is outside our control, how we help others is something more within our control.
To help us answer this question, it’s good to go back to the basics. Thankfully, a Maxwell classic, Developing the Leaders Around You, provides helpful coaching wherever we may be in our journeys to develop as leaders.
Create a nurturing climate for potential leaders to emerge and thrive
According to Maxwell, successful leaders are environmental change agents who know how to create momentum before asking people to change. How do they build momentum? They encourage people to do great things through believing in them and building an atmosphere that makes it easier to succeed, he says.
“Part of creating an appealing climate is modeling leadership,” shares Maxwell. “People emulate what they see modeled.” Observing how leaders set the tone and followers can only go as far as the leader goes, he explains out how leaders must also be followers of other great leaders to continue to grow and improve as leaders. Says Maxwell: “Successful leaders recognize that personal growth and the development of leadership skills are lifelong pursuits.”
In our profession of economic development, we can attest to Maxwell’s observations when we look at the lives of successful economic development leaders. Non-stop learners regardless of how long they have served in this profession, they tend to surround themselves with people they can learn from in a 360-degree style.
Years ago, a well-known economic development icon and mentor to many was having lunch with one of his mentees. The mentee was startled when this 80+ year old leader asked for her thoughts regarding an economic development strategy. She replied, “I should be learning from you.” His response: “We learn from each other.” Not only did this lead to an insightful conversation where iron sharpened iron, the mentee was empowered by his belief that her thoughts had value.
“When a leader does not believe in us, success is very difficult to achieve,” says Maxwell. “It becomes nearly impossible. And as leaders, we cannot allow this to happen to those we lead if we expect our organizations to succeed.”
Maxwell advises some practical steps for identifying and maximizing the potential of future leaders, such as:
- Find the one thing that you believe is the potential leader’s greatest asset, and then give 101 percent encouragement in that area.
- Determine what your potential leaders need or desire, as this is the source of their motivation, and then do everything possible to help them get it.
- Look for one or more of the following traces of “leadership gold” within each person to further develop: positiveness, servanthood, growth potential, follow-through, loyalty, resiliency, integrity, “big picture” mind-set, discipline, gratitude.
- Place an emphasis on production, not position and title.
- Create the right opportunities for growth that fit what each person needs in order to grow.
- Cast and model the vision that others respond to and think big when doing so.
- Recruit undeveloped players and allow them to start contributing at their own level so they gain the experience to up their level of play. (In baseball terms, think “farm team.”)
- Make the difficult decisions when it comes to poor performers that enables them to find a place and position where he or she can be a winner.
- Share yourself and what you’ve learned up close with those who will become tomorrow’s leaders.
Equip potential leaders for excellence
“All good mentoring relationships begin with a personal relationship, “says Maxwell. “As your people get to know and like you, their desire to follow your direction and learn from you will increase.”
Developing personal relationships requires showing genuine interest and care in another’s life stories, one conversation at-a-time, explains Maxwell. And while getting to know others, he advises to take the time to share our dreams and where we are going. “There’s no act that will better show them your heart and motivation,” he says.
Getting to know others involves ensuring that they are spending time on those activities that align well with their strengths, shares Maxwell. Each of us should be spending 80 percent of the time doing things that require our greatest gifts and abilities, the things we love to do, he advises.
For successful economic developers, building the kind of genuine relationships that Maxwell describes is a matter of everyday practice. Such relationships help reveal who should be doing what in this team sport we know as economic development.
Make a lifelong commitment to developing potential leaders
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership,” says Maxwell. While great leaders create a great, nurturing environment, and surround themselves with people equipped for success – all of which enables them to serve as positive influencers in the lives of others – the very best leaders, the top 1 percent, go beyond this to truly develop their people to reach their potential, he explains.
Developing others is hard, demanding work, notes Maxwell. “Living, breathing human beings require continual attention.” According to the leadership developer, this work involves bringing out the best qualities in others, developing their character, and helping them discover themselves along the way.
Because of the time, attention, and commitment this work involves, leaders who work to develop others can only work with a few people at a time, Maxwell notes. His advice for developers? “Nurture all of your people and equip many. But develop the few who are ready and willing.” And as Maxwell’s experiences reveal, over the course of a lifetime commitment to developing others, the few become many.
Develop a dream team of leaders
Says Maxwell: “Anyone who has ever experienced being on a team – from playing on a professional sports team to being a member of the junior high band – knows that being a part of a successful team can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. And on the right team, it can also be one of the most powerful.”
For economic developers, the opportunity to build a dream team extends beyond one’s own organization and into the community. And as successful leaders know, developing a community dream team takes intentionality, foresight, and inventiveness. Yet, it is also one of the most difficult things to achieve given the mix of interests, priorities, histories, and social-cultural experiences among leaders within the community. And times of polarization only exacerbate the difficulties.
The good news for many of our communities, however, is oftentimes when leaders aren’t working together, it is because they don’t know each other. And they don’t know each other because they’re never in the same room together. Therefore, the first step in community dream team building is finding a reason, no matter how small, to bring leaders together in a room. Bringing leaders together around a simple project or problem is often a constructive means for helping them discover other ways to work together.
“Developing leaders is wonderful,” says Maxwell. “it’s fulfilling and rewarding. But developing a team of leaders – that’s incredible.”
Maxwell identifies the following qualities of a dream team:
- Team members care for one another.
- Team members communicate with one another.
- Team members grow together.
- Team members recognize and appreciate each player’s unique qualities.
- Team members place their individual rights beneath the best interest of the team.
- Each team member plays a special role.
- The team has a strong bench of good players who can rotate in as the situation warrants.
- Team members know exactly where the team stands.
- Team members are willing to sacrifice time and energy to practice and prepare.
In closing
Many of us serving in the economic development profession see it as a calling to help those around us navigate ever-challenging times to provide for their families, neighbors, and other loved ones. We have seen that there are great and abounding opportunities for our profession to make a lasting difference by investing in others, especially in the watershed moments of life.
Why? Because we humans are most embracive of personal growth and development when we are at our most uncomfortable. It is these times that challenge us to reassess our values and what’s most important to us. And it is during these times when we are most open to the kind of heart-to-heart relationships that enable us to serve with our hearts and reach our true potential.
Indeed, as Maxwell explains, leadership development is above all else a matter of the heart. It is all about showing people you care and enabling them to also care for you. As successful economic development leaders know, leaders who have won the hearts of those they lead win trusted relationships for life – relationships that can lead to building something truly special and beautiful together. Talk about meaningful work!
ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Economic development leaders are true change agents for the world around them. The impact of their leadership on those they serve is untold and often cumulative in nature. This article is part of IEDC's ongoing series of articles on "Leadership in Economic Development" that focuses on the application of leadership principles to economic development practice. How do we respond to the call for dynamic and adaptive leadership given the ever-evolving economic, social, environmental and political considerations affecting our communities and organizations? This article, and the series as a whole, aims to contribute to the conversation.
[This article first appeared in Economic Development Now, a publication by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), in November 2021 and appears here with permission. Special thanks to IEDC's former managing editor Louise Anderson for her partnership in producing this article.]