Page 219 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

208 HBR Leader’s Handbook

■ What discipline can you bring to ensure your plan doesn’t get lost in the
everyday hustle of your daily job?

Sharing yourself

Leading yourself is actually not all about you. Your growth will also bene-
fit from contributing to the growth and welfare of others—potential lead-
ers or other people in your organization, stakeholders, and beyond—and
also volunteering for civic or community organizations, or other causes in
which you are personally interested. To lead well, you sometimes need to
share yourself. At first glance, this might seem like a distraction from your
everyday priorities. But smart leaders reap tangible rewards from sharing
themselves with others, and it’s a critical part of how they create significant
impact.

Opportunities for growing others
An important strategy for leaders to increase the scale and performance of
their organization is to develop other leaders, whether a top team or other
key players (as we discussed in chapter 3). Coaching, advising, and helping
other executives, including rising younger staff in your organization, adds
to your company’s overall skill and knowledge base. More and stronger
leaders pulling together magnifies what any organization can achieve—
whether a team, individual unit, division, or the whole enterprise. Even if
you are the CEO, you can’t do it all. The sooner you identify and enable
great help, other leaders who can join you in pursuing the goals you are
striving for, the better the long-term results. And other great leaders work-
ing with you will help make you personally more effective, too.
Some leaders may be reluctant to develop others around them. They
may hold back because of their insecurity, a worry that someone they men-
tor may someday become more valuable than they are. Or they’re simply
being selfish in the short term, not wanting to lose valuable profession- als
who may move on to other opportunities once they develop additional
skills. Or it may simply be the result of poor prioritization, not wanting to