I’m going to start something new this fall. I have formed within my department an “emerging leader” team. I asked each of my four managers to pick 1 person from each of their teams to join me this fall for a mentoring group that will last until Christmas. 

We’re going to start off by studying the book by Jeff Olson called The Slight Edge. We will then end with John Maxwell’s book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. I will be also involving them in a all-day education day with our employee group. They’re going to help me with a presentation that I’ll be making.

This is going to be an intentional, one hour per week, time where I can help develop these individual’s growth and potential. Their managers saw something in them that said if we can continue to develop them, they will be our future leaders in our organization. I’ve had another vice president in our organization asked me to do the same thing with one of her teams.

In any organization, leadership matters. John Maxwell states that leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. If that’s true (and it is) then we need to be developing leaders.

I would encourage you and your organization to think about doing the same thing. The people who are going to be in my groups are very excited about the opportunity coming up. Your organization will improve and your people will be excited about the kind of growth that they’ll experience. 

For me it’s a short-term investment that will have long-lasting impact. If you start something like this, please let me know so we can encourage each other through our journey.