To Add Growth, Lead Followers—
To Multiply, Lead Leaders
Ihaven’t always felt the way I do now about leadership. My belief in the power of leadership and my passion for training leaders have developed over the course of my professional life. When I started in my career, I thought personal growth was the key to being able to make an impact.
My father had been very strategic in my development as I was growing up. He actually paid me to read books that he knew would help me and sent me to conferences when I was a teenager. Those experiences provided a great foundation for me. And after I began working, I discovered the Law of Process. That prompted me to take a proactive approach to my personal growth.
As a result, when people asked me to help them be more successful, I focused on teaching personal growth. It wasn’t until I was forty years old that I began to understand the Law of the Inner Circle and the importance of developing a team. That’s when my ability to grow an organization and reach greater goals began to increase. But it wasn’t until I began to focus on developing leaders that my leadership really took off. I had discovered the Law of Explosive Growth: to add growth, lead followers—to multiply, lead leaders.
HELPING OTHERS TO LEAD
In 1990, I traveled to a country in South America with my wife, Margaret, to teach leadership in a national conference. One of the great joys of my life is teaching leadership to people of influence who desire to make a difference. I was really looking forward to this conference because it was an opportunity to add value to people outside my regular sphere of influence. But it didn’t turn out the way I expected.
Everything started well. The people were very gracious, and I was able to connect with them despite the language and cultural barriers. But it wasn’t long before I could tell that the attendees and I were not on the same page. When I started to teach about leadership, I could tell my comments were not connecting with them. They didn’t engage, and what I was trying to communicate didn’t seem to make an impact.
My read on the situation was confirmed after my first session with them. As I spoke with individuals, they didn’t want to talk about leadership issues. They didn’t ask questions about growing their organizations or fulfilling a vision. They sought advice about personal issues, problems, and conflicts with other people. I felt that I was back doing personal counseling similar to what I did at the beginning of my career. For the next three days, I grew more and more frustrated. The people I spoke to didn’t understand leadership, and they had no desire to learn anything about it. For someone like me who believes that everything rises and falls on leadership, it drove me crazy!
This wasn’t the first time I had experienced such frustration. I noticed that whenever I traveled to developing countries, I faced similar situations. I suspect that in nations where there is no strong business infrastructure and where government doesn’t allow the citizens much freedom, it is difficult for leaders to develop.
On the flight home, I talked to Margaret about all my frustrations. I finally summed it up, saying, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I traveled thousands of miles just to counsel people on petty conflicts. If they would just turn their attention to becoming leaders, it would change their lives.”
After listening patiently, Margaret replied, “Maybe you’re the one who’s supposed to do something about this.”
THE NEXT STEP
Margaret’s exhortation to do something about the leadership problems I had seen overseas stirred something within me. For the next several years, I reflected on the issue and thought about possible solutions. Finally in 1996, I decided what I would do. I brought together a group of leaders to help me create a nonprofit organization to develop leaders in government, education, and the religious community. I named it EQUIP—encouraging qualities undeveloped in people.
For the next five years, EQUIP made modest progress in its goals. But in the months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we went through a difficult period in which we had to lay off half the staff. But we took that as an opportunity to reexamine our priorities. We narrowed our focus and developed a new goal—one so large and daunting it looked almost impossible. We would try to develop one million leaders around the globe by 2008. How could a small nonprofit organization hope to accomplish such a feat? By using the Law of Explosive Growth!
THE STRATEGY
EQUIP’s strategy, which came to be called the Million Leader Mandate, was to develop 40,000 leaders in countries around the world. Those leaders would attend a training session every six months in a city near them for three years. The only thing that would be asked of them in return was that they commit to personally develop twenty-five leaders in their own city, town, or village. EQUIP would provide the training materials for the 40,000 leaders it trained, and it would provide materials for the twenty-five leaders each of them would be developing.
EQUIP already employed some excellent leaders, including John Hull, president and CEO; Doug Carter, senior vice president; and Tim Elmore, vice president of leadership development. They assembled a top-notch team and began creating the training materials. Then they formed strategic alliances with organizations overseas. These organizations would help EQUIP figure out the cities in which to do the training, identify country and city coordinators to run the training sessions, and identify and recruit the 40,000 leaders to be trained.
The final step was to recruit excellent leaders who would be willing to volunteer their time to do the training in these cities around the world. Two trainers would travel to a city twice a year for three years, paying their own way and donating funds to help underwrite the materials the attendees would need. They would train the 40,000 who would in turn train twenty-five each. If the strategy succeeded, we would develop one million leaders. It was an ambitious plan. The question was, would it work? I’ll give you the answer to that question later in this chapter.
MOVING FORWARD WITH LEADERS’ MATH
Leaders are naturally impatient. At least, all of the leaders I know are. Leaders want to move fast. They want to see the vision fulfilled. They delight in progress. Good leaders quickly assess where an organization is, project where it needs to go, and have strong ideas about how to get it there. The problem is that most of the time the people and the organization lag behind the leader. For that reason, leaders always feel a tension between where they and their people are and where they ought to be. I have experienced this tension my entire life. In every organization I’ve ever been a part of, I had a strong sense of where it should go. I even felt that way as a kid. (I wasn’t always right about where we should go, but I always thought I knew !)
Becoming a leader who develops leaders requires an entirely different focus and attitude from simply attracting and leading followers. It takes a different mind-set.
How do you relieve that tension between where the organization is and where you want it to be? The answer can be found in the Law of Explosive Growth:
If you develop yourself, you can experience personal success.
If you develop a team, your organization can experience growth.
If you develop leaders, your organization can achieve explosive growth.
You can grow by leading followers. But if you want to maximize your leadership and help your organization reach its potential, you need to develop leaders. There is no other way to experience explosive growth.
A DIFFERENT FOCUS
Becoming a leader who develops leaders requires an entirely different focus and attitude from simply attracting and leading followers. It takes a different mind-set. Consider some of the differences between leaders who attract followers and leaders who develop leaders:
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Need to Be Needed
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Want to Be Succeeded
Excitement comes from becoming a leader. When you speak, people listen. When you want to get something done, you can enlist other people to help you. Having followers can make you feel needed and important. However, that is a pretty shallow reason to pursue leadership. Good leaders lead for the sake of their followers and for what they can leave behind after their time of leadership is completed.
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Develop the Bottom 20 Percent
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Develop the Top 20 Percent
When you’re leading a group of people, who typically asks for the most time and attention? The weakest ones in the group. If you allow them to, they will consume 80 percent or more of your time. However, proactive leaders who practice the Law of Explosive Growth don’t allow that bottom 20 percent to take all their time. They seek out the best 20 percent—the people with the greatest leadership potential—and they invest their time developing them. They know that if they develop the best, the best will help with the rest.
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Focus on Weaknesses
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Focus on Strengths
A necessity of working with the bottom 20 percent is that you must continually deal with their weaknesses. Unsuccessful people usually need help with the basics. Problems in those areas keep them from achieving consistent performance on a regular basis. However, when you work with your best people, you can build on their strengths.
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Treat Everyone the Same
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Treat Individuals Differently
There is a myth in some leadership circles that promotes the idea of treating everyone the same for the sake of “fairness.” What a mistake. As Mick Delaney says, “Any business or industry that pays equal rewards to its goof-offs and its eager beavers sooner or later will find itself with more goof-offs than eager beavers.” Leaders who develop leaders give rewards, resources, and responsibility based on results. The greater the impact of leaders, the greater the opportunities they receive.
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Spend Time with Others
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Invest Time in Others
Leaders who attract only followers and never develop them don’t increase the value of those they lead. However, when leaders take time to develop the leaders they attract, they are making a valuable investment in them. Every moment they spend helps to increase their ability and influence. And that pays dividends to them and the organization.
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Grow by Addition
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Grow by Multiplication
Leaders who attract followers grow their organization only one person at a time. When you attract one follower, you impact one person. And you receive the value and power of one person. However, leaders who develop leaders multiply their organization’s growth, because for every leader they develop, they also receive the value of all of that leader’s followers.
Add ten followers to your organization, and you have the power of ten people. Add ten leaders to your organization, and you have the power of ten leaders times all of the followers and leaders they influence. That’s what I call leader’s math. It’s the difference between addition and multiplication. It’s like growing your organization by teams instead of by individuals.
LEADERS WHO DEVELOP FOLLOWERS
ADD ONE AT A TIME
LEADERS WHO DEVELOP LEADERS
MULTIPLY THEIR GROWTH
Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Impact Only People They Touch
Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Impact People Beyond Their Reach
Leaders who attract followers but never develop leaders get tired. Why? Because they themselves must deal with every person under their authority. Being able to impact only the people you can touch personally is very limiting. In contrast, leaders who develop leaders impact people far beyond their personal reach. The better the leaders they develop, the greater the quality and quantity of followers and the greater the reach. Every time you develop leaders and help them increase their leadership ability, you make them capable of influencing an even greater number of people. By helping one person, you can reach many others.
THE CHALLENGE OF LEADING LEADERS
If developing leaders has such a great impact, then why doesn’t everyone do it? Because it’s hard! Leadership development isn’t an add-water-and-stir proposition. It takes a lot of time, energy, and resources. Here’s why:
1. LEADERS ARE HARD TO FIND
How many people do you know who are really good leaders? They have influence. They make things happen. They see and seize opportunities. And they can attract, enlist, and rally people to perform with excellence. There just aren’t that many people capable of doing that on a consistent basis. Most people are followers. Some are producers. Few are leaders. Leaders are like eagles—they don’t flock. That’s why they are so hard to find.
2. LEADERS ARE HARD TO GATHER
Once you find leaders, drawing them in can be very difficult. They are entrepreneurial and want to go their own way. If you try to recruit them, they want to know where you’re going, how you plan to get there, who else you’re planning to take with you—and whether they can drive! What you’re doing has to be more compelling than what they’re already doing.
On top of that, your organization needs to create an environment that is attractive to them. That is often not the case. Most organizations desire stability. Leaders want excitement. Most organizations desire structure. Leaders want flexibility. Most organizations place a high value on following rules. Leaders want to think outside the box. If you want to gather leaders, you must create a place where they can thrive.
3. LEADERS ARE HARD TO KEEP
As hard as it is to find and gather good leaders, it’s even more difficult to keep them. The only way to lead leaders is to become a better leader yourself. If you keep growing and stay ahead of the people you lead, then you will be able to keep adding value to the leaders who follow you. Your goals must be to keep developing them so that they can realize their potential. Only a leader can do that for another leader, because it takes a leader to raise up another leader.
One year in my leadership conferences, I took an informal poll to find out what prompted the attendees to become leaders. The results were as follows:
| Natural gifting | 10 percent |
| Result of crisis | 5 percent |
| Influence of another leader | 85 percent |
Only one leader in ten is able to blossom without the help of another leader. The rest need the help of other leaders who are ahead of them in the journey. If you keep adding value to the leaders you lead, then they will be willing to stay with you. Do that long enough, and they may never want to leave.
THE LAUNCH OF THE
MILLION LEADER MANDATE (MLM)
Convinced that developing leaders was the key to reaching our goal of training a million leaders, EQUIP launched the MLM initiative in 2002 in several cities in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We had chosen those areas because we had the best contacts there and had experienced success there in previous years. The response was overwhelming. Hundreds of hungry leaders traveled to each site to engage in the two-day training. Some attendees spent as many as five days walking to get to the event! And at the end of the training when we asked attendees to commit to developing twenty-five leaders over the next three years using the materials we would give them, more than 90 percent of the attendees signed on.
With the first success under our belt, we moved forward. The next year we began training leaders in other parts of Asia and the Middle East. In 2004, we started training in Africa; in 2005, Europe; and in 2006, South America. On every continent the strategy was the same:
1. Connect with key influential leaders in organizations already working with people locally and enlist their assistance.
2. Ask those key leaders to identify the cities in their country in which to do the training and to host the training events.
3. Rely on those key leaders to recruit leaders to attend the training.
4. Recruit leaders in the United States willing to travel overseas to train leaders and support the effort financially.
5. Receive a commitment from local attendees to find and train leaders for three years while we trained them.
In some cities, we had very modest success, with a few dozen leaders attending the training. In other cities, people came by the hundreds. Many leaders were able to commit to developing twenty-five leaders. Some could commit to training only five or ten. But others were training 100, 200, or 250 in their towns and cities!
As I mentioned, we wanted to reach our goal of training one million leaders by 2008. At times, it was a struggle. In some countries we had a difficult time gaining credibility. In others it took us a long time to make connections with leaders. But to our great surprise and delight, in the spring of 2006 we reached our goal—two years ahead of schedule! Now what seemed to be an impossible goal seems modest. In 2007, we trained our second mil- lion. And we launched an initiative to develop five million leaders in five years. My hope and prayer are that before I’m finished, EQUIP and its partners will train fifty million leaders around the globe. That’s explosive growth.
Now that I’m sixty I’ve found that leadership development compounds. The more you invest in people and the longer you do it, the greater the growth and the higher the return. And though I may not be as fast as I once was or as energetic, I am now in a compounding stage of life. The thirty-five years of investments I’ve made in other people are starting to pay incredible dividends.
Leadership development compounds. The more you invest in people and the longer you do it, the greater the growth and the higher the return.
I don’t know where you are in your journey of leadership development. You may already be a highly developed leader. Or you may just be getting started. No matter where you are, I know one thing: you will be able to reach your potential and help your organization reach its loftiest goals only if you begin developing leaders instead of merely attracting followers. Leaders who develop leaders experience an incredible multiplication effect in their organizations that can be achieved in no other way—not by increasing resources, reducing costs, increasing profit margins, improving systems, implementing quality proce-dures, or doing anything else. The only way to experience an explosive level of growth is to do the math—leader’s math. That’s the incredible power of the Law of Explosive Growth.
Applying
THE LAW OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH
To Your Life
1. In which stage of the leadership development process do you currently find yourself?
Stage 1: Developing yourself
Stage 2: Developing your team
Stage 3: Developing leaders
To validate your answer, cite specific actions you have taken to develop yourself, to develop a team, and to help specific individuals improve their leadership ability. If you haven’t begun to develop leaders, try to identify reasons why. Are you someone who needs to be needed, focuses on the bot-tom 20 percent, tries to treat everyone the same, or isn’t strategic about investing in others? If you aren’t developing leaders, identify what steps you must take to get started.
2. What are you currently doing to find and gather leaders? Are there places you go, events you attend, and networks you plug into to look for potential leaders? If not, start looking for some. If so, then what do you do to connect with leaders and recruit them for your organization, department, or team?
3. What are you doing to gather and hold leaders? Are you becoming a better leader so that leaders will want to follow you? Are you trying to create an environment where leaders can thrive and succeed? Are you giving leaders freedom to lead and be innovative? Are you clearing away red tape? Are you providing them with resources and greater responsibilities? Are you praising risk and rewarding success?