Ignite the Fire - Management That Sparks New Leaders

How do you develop leaders?

As you scale, you get more specialization and focus. However, you also get politics, boundaries, and less of a sense of ownership for anyone on the team.

Leadership is not management. Management is really about predictability. If you're a good manager, a large part of your job is producing predictable output. Fundamentally, leadership is about change. You bring in a leader if you want something different to happen.

Leaders lead through influence and vision, not hierarchy.

Positional leadership doesn't scale. You want many team members not to be leaders, not just the managers.

To scale leadership, we must get our employees to look for opportunities instead of positions.

Whenever you draw an org chart, the smart people are at the bottom in my experience.

One of the keys is rewarding the behavior of people participating in leadership.

Anyone Can Be a Leader

Many of today's top leaders don't actually meet the common criteria of what makes a good leader.

Instead of traits, look for passion.

Use a tool called blue flame one-on-ones. The idea is you have perfect alignment between the needs of the organization and the passion of the individual.

One additional tool you can do is ask your team members what they think you're good at.

Create Leadership Moments

The first rule of leadership is everything is your fault.

Every leader has a moment in their career where they decide to step up and lead.

Leaders take responsibility for what happens next.

We need to create a culture that eliminates fear of stepping up.

One tool you can use to help leaders step up is to sponsor individuals. Push the idea like it was your own, but give away the credit. If you give away the credit, you'll encourage others to step up.

To make a leader, you need opportunity, passion, and permissions.

Leaders make new leaders.