If you ask the average person, they may say the focus of leadership is to:

• Attain results
• Meet goals
• Share vision
• Service customers
• Get people to perform
• Create culture
• Manage daily operations

Leadership is a balance of all the above, but one essential piece that most leaders fall short on is this:

Development of your people in their skills to the highest level they want to attain.

This can manifest in the following ways:

• Helping them gain mastery of core job functions
• Developing skills in new areas
• Strengthening those areas they are already strong in
• Building desire to grow through increased engagement
• Casting vision of the organization to help them see what they can accomplish
• Fostering a desire to lead in varying capacities
• Placing them in situations where they can grow and stretch
• Increasing their knowledge by giving access to learning resources of all types

Developing your people is key to sustainable growth of the organization. A good culture cannot grow and refresh if its people do not grow. A great strategy can be executed but if your people don’t learn something new the next strategy may not go as well.

At the core of every action, goal, and metric attained in any company is the need to have your people learn as much as they can. This only strengthens the foundation of your organization and builds more connected, committed, and long-term engagement in your workforce.

Purpose daily to develop your people. That is true leadership.

More From Paul LaRue

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Paul LaRue is the creator of The UPwards Leader and Instigator for Lead Change Group. His background in senior leadership, strategic planning, culture change, and people and organizational development gives him unique insight into the workings of successful organizations. Paul has given speeches and training sessions for many public and private entities and stresses the virtue of a culture that centers around core values and character in leadership.