It's a question I've heard and read about. Can people be taught leadership? If leadership requires self-confidence, strength, dedication and insight, can we give those positive character traits to others? I believe we can inspire those traits in others. I think that we all have the possibility of leadership, but sometimes the necessary traits are lying dormant inside of us. An insightful, caring leader may be able to draw them out.
I'm reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. She has written about her life growing up in an extremely dysfunctional family. My son was assigned this book for summer reading for college. After he read it he urged me to read it as well. I'm only part way through it, but he's anxious to discuss it. I pointed out that it's amazing that children in dysfunctional families accept their circumstances as normal. He said, "Yes, but as they grow up and become more aware of the world, they start to see that it should be better."
What if the same is true with adults in their careers? What if a caring leader could show their staff that things can be better. What if they could dig in there and awaken those dormant leadership traits in others? Wouldn't everyone benefit, both the leader and the team, and everyone they touch?
Sometimes managers worry that encouraging team members to be leaders will eventually make the manager lose their own importance or even make them unnecessary. Inspiring leadership in those we lead doesn't work us out of a job or position. Rather, it improves morale and the effectiveness of everyone and highlights the impact the leader has on the team.
I really think that Linda Miles has a lot of great information and she has a great attitude toward dental teams. She has an article in the July Dental Economics that talks about recognition for dental assistants that have gone through assisting school. Let me just relay a small segment of her article. A dentist asked his assistant to train another assistant who had no dental experience. The assistant was upset because she felt she had invested time and money in her education and now was being asked to give it away for free. Linda asked her the following 3 questions:
Will it benefit the patients for assistant #2 to be very well trained in clinical and communication skills just like you?
- Will it benefit the practice as a business for your doctor to have two exceptional assistants?
- Will it benefit you personally to have skilled help everyday?
If the answer is yes then it actually is a good thing to be a mentor and trainer for others on the team. Linda explained that our world would be terrible if every teacher felt the way she did, and that as you teach, you also learn. That assistant finally came to embrace that understanding and has since continued to thank Linda whenever she sees her.
Good leaders guide others, they do not command them. I remember a rather abrasive person once telling me this, "I don't earn respect, I command respect." She was fooling herself. Not only did she get very little respect from others, she was disliked. She spent her time frustrated and blaming others for what she say as their inadequacies, when it was actually she who was lacking humility and empathy.
I believe that we inspire others and as a result they respect us. When we guide others into leadership we inspire them. Is is so satisfying to hear someone that you've taught or guided, teaching someone else the same thing. If you really think about it, that lesson being taught could very well go on to be repeated long after you are gone. When you continually teach others and inspire them to pass it on, you give yourself more time to learn, as well. It's a continuous journey leading to greater success and satisfaction. In the process, you may leave a legacy of teaching, learning and inspiring. Not a bad way to be remembered, is it?
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