Berger Leadership Blog

Part of being a leader is ensuring you put the right people at the top of your organization. Developing future leaders takes time and effort, but can make your job a lot easier if done correctly.

“Putting properly trained front-line personnel in positions that enable them to make decisions that stick enables you to gain their trust and build their enthusiasm for the job,” writes James Kerr, global chair of N2Growth. “In turn, that trust will spread within the organization and lead to the delivery of outstanding performance by eliminating the bureaucracy that often stifles the progress of your team.”

Kerr explains that once we put the right people in the right positions and prepare them for their roles, we can have confidence in their decision-making skills. He provides six tips to accomplish this. They include:

1. Spot and grow talent across the organization. These are often people who don’t shy away from taking on new responsibilities.
2. Prepare them to make the call. You must train future leaders before allowing them to call the shots.
3. Resist the urge to prescribe how the work is done. In other words, once you’ve set your team, don’t micromanage.
4. Design the decision rights. Feel free to involve your team members in setting their “decision rights,” Kerr writes, but everyone needs to know the boundaries on the decisions they are allowed to make.
5. Use the veto sparingly. If a team member makes a bad call, use it as a teaching lesson instead of changing their “decision rights.”
6. Hold your people accountable to get things done. Maintain clear expectations for those you’re developing.

As you look to develop future leaders, you should become more selective in your hiring process. Make sure they share your same goals and those of the teams they will lead. By doing this, you’ll cultivate future leaders you can depend on.

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