#leadershipdevelopmentplan

One of the most important things you can do in your life is to design your Leadership Development Plan.  I love talking about leadership, there are very few topics that I like to discuss because leadership has such a Strong Impact on people.  Everything Great that has ever happened in this world has happened because of leadership.

IF you don't believe me, just think about the Dream of Every Great Leader.  Every Great Leader Has a dream, a vision. A Dream is the energy that Fuels a Leader and the group or team that he Leads.  It give them something to come together and focus on achieving.  It motivates, inspires and builds excitement. Show me a Great man, and I will show you a Great Leader with a Dream.  This topic of leadership is such a Broad subject, and there are so many different moving parts of leadership, that I got Trained by the Best Leadership Development author and coach in History, John Maxwell.

After  following him since 1998, since his 21 irrefutable laws of leadership book came out, and after becoming a certified coach, I want to give you a Really quick and easy run down everything you need to start designing your Leadership Blueprint.  

Leadership is Influence, nothing more Nothing Less

Before you can start to design your Leadership Development Plan, you first need to understand what leadership is.   Leadership is Influence. Pretty simple right?  So how can you increase your influence? Same what you increase anything at first, we need to take an assessment. How is your influence now?  Who are you influencing?  How are you influencing them. Remember, you are going to attract who you are.  So  as a leader, you need to start with an inventory of they type of influence you have now, the type of people that you can influence.  The next thing you want to do is list the type of people that you want on your team.  If you want people on your team and you don't share some of those qualities, that is ok.  There are several points that you want to become aware of, Your level of influence, your willingness to change, and your desire to grow and get better.

Make Your Leadership Development Plan a Daily Habit

Another great law that John teaches is Leaderships develops daily and not in a day.  Make it a Habit to always be working on your leadership every Day.  This over time will compound and you will become more influential with your families and friends. So, you probably are wondering, how you can make this a daily habbit?  The Best way I can share

this is sharing with you some of my personal stories.  Every morning, I try to spend the first part of my day either studying leadership, or focusing on sharping some type of skill.  During the day, every day, I either listen to audio books when I'm driving around, or listen to speaches on youtube.  Every night, I either read myself to sleep, or I will fall aspleep listening to audio books. I Have made this habits probably over 10 years ago.  I have been reading self development books since I was in college in the late 90s.  The audio books when I fall asleep, I think I have been listening to since 2009 or so. My point is, I am always learning something new, or refreshing on skills and habits I need.  The only way you can get better and help other people get better is to continue learning and applying what you learn, so that you can have the wisdom and experience to help others do the same.  You can't fake this. If you have a bad habit, The best what to kill a bad habit, is replace it with a good one. The point of this is, in order to lead others, you have to lead yourself first.  This is also the first step in building teams.  You accomplish this by making leadership development a habit, not a choice. It becomes a way of life.

Leaders Use what they Learn and Help others do the Same.

Great leaders raise up other leaders.  They help them reach their full potential.  Sounds great doesn't it right?  Well, let me stop and also mention a huge point.  Most people don't want to be leaders.  They don't want the responsibly that comes with leadership.

I would also guess that for everyone that doesn't want to be leaders, you have some people that want to be authoritative leaders, or dictators.  They want to be the Boss. Just so you understand what you are going to be faced with, you want to design your leadership development plan so that you are raising up other potential leaders.  John Maxwell says that a leader that has no followers is only taking a lonely walk.  I agree.  IF you did like I did in my 20s and only studied leadership, but didn't apply it and help develop other potential leaders, then you won't be increasing your leadership or influence. The other bad part about this,  you will be attracting or training the wrong type of people.  This will burn you out, leave you feeling confused, frustrated and make you question yourself.  Make sure you have 2 things in mind, the genuine desire to improve yourself, and also help improve those that WANT to improve.

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to help people get better that don't want to get better.  The sad fact is, most people are ok with average.  Here is the other sad Fact.  That is Ok,  it is ok if other people want to be average. I used to think that everyone was naturally motivated to be the best they could be.  It's probably from  me growing up on Really competitive sports teams, and being on a lot of championship teams throughout my carreer and in college.  If you want to hear my life story when i was younger, I mention some of it in the First episode of the Innovative Marketer Podcast.

But back to raising up other people.  You want to improve your leadership, so you can pass that skill on to others that are on a growth plan and leadership journey themselves.  Don't try and turn followers into leaders, It won't work.  This took me a long time to figure out on my own, even when John Maxwell is telling me not to do it.  Sometimes it is hard to just let people live their own dream and purpose, and if they don't have one, That is Not Your Fault, Or your problem, unless they have a Burning Desire to Change.

Every Great Leadership Development Plan has a Dream

What is your Dream?  What is Your Life Purpose?  These are some of the most important questions you can ask yourself.  I have posted other posts on these topics, if you click on those links, you will want to read those articles.  WE all want to be Good people and Parents.  That is a Given. What Legacy will you leave your family and friends when you are done?

A leadership development plan without a purpose and a dream is not complete.  You have to include these in there, and also, I coach course on Putting your Dream to the Test, developed by John Maxwell.  This course will walk you thru 10 questions about your dream, and if you can answer those questions, then your chances of achieving that dream dramatically increase! If this sounds interesting to you, or you want to learn more, sign up for a Free Strategy Call

What is your Leadership Level?

In John's first Law of leadership, the Law of the Lid, he states that, " ……leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential. The higher the individual’s ability to lead, the higher the lid on his potential. To give you an example, if your leadership rates at 8, then your effectiveness can never be greater than a 7…Your leadership ability – for better or worse – always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization. " You will need to take an assessment and determine what your leadership level is?

John always starts his teaching off with this, and if you are in business, then you will want to make sure that you take note.  Your business will never outgrow the level of your leadership. This is a huge point, and if you start making small steps that develop leadership habits, over time, you will become a stronger and wiser leader, and the people in your business will also.  You have to keep raising your leadership lid and make it a habit.  This will do 2 things.  It helps forge a habit of continued growth.  It also will attract people that are more likely to be the kind of people you want in your businesss, and on your team.

What type of Team do you want to Build to help with your Dream?

This is without saying but you have to have a team to build anything great.  You will need to take some time and plan out your life and what type of people you will need to help accomplish your goals.  John Maxwell says that you will never have someone with more leadership follow you.  That is why it is sooooo important to raise your leadership so that you can truely build a championship team.  What type of skills do you need to have to attract the right type of players?  If you don't have the skills can you afford to hire people with those skills?  Even if you can, your leadership will directly affect the type of people that will work and follow you. It took me a long time to realize this.  I learned it many years, even decades ago.  After coaching younger people that own companies, it was obvious.  John Maxwell always says, the leader makes the position, the position doesn't make the leader.  That saying is sooooo true. To build out your Leadership development plan, You have to answer these questions.  Continue growing into the leader you were meant to become, and never stop.  Always help people on their growth journey also.  It's not really the way you do it, but the consistency in which you do it... If you want to raise your level of leadership, the first steps are to Design your leadership Development Plan, and Book a Free Call. Our call will be brief and we can list out 3 things. Where you are, Where you want to be, and how you will Get there...