Page 220 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Leading Yourself 209

take the time away from doing everyday real work. But the longer-term
dividends of growing others, as well as building more extended networks
of relationships for the future, more than justifies the effort and apparent
risks. Good leaders never fear helping others grow.
The strategic benefit of mentoring and developing other professionals
holds equally true for partners or other members of the value chains on
which your company depends. Instead of seeing them only as transactional
providers, consider whether helping partner leaders improve their compa-
nies’ performance wouldn’t help you also succeed, too. For example, in the
1990s, Toyota famously invested in training its manufacturing partners, so
that working together, they could all make major leaps in quality.

Broadening horizons
Many leaders we have worked with are confident people, motivated by a
broad sense of obligation to advance the common good and generally help
others. But their volunteer service also enhances their leadership: helping
them build skills and extend their personal networks. For example, Dom-
inic Barton of McKinsey keeps himself sharp—and also in touch with in-
teresting people, ideas, and innovations beyond his daily work—by serving
as a volunteer at buildOn, an initiative to help inner-city students graduate
from high school, along with being a trustee for the Brookings Institution
and a director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and other social and
research institutions. Ferguson demonstrates his personal commitment to
the educational and research sectors core to TIAA’s mission by giving some
of his own advisory time to the Smithsonian Institution, the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Commission on the Future of Undergrad-
uate Education, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Such service also
builds his relationships with key decision makers across various domains
that TIAA serves.
Even a personal interest, properly chosen, can positively redound to
your own growth as a leader. John Lundgren, of Stanley Black & Decker,
is an inveterate golfer and a director for the golf equipment company Call-
away. As he told us, “I love the sport, but it’s also instructive for me to help
that company wrestle with some pretty challenging business issues.”