[pullquote align=”normal”]You can’t take someone where you haven’t gone yourself [/pullquote]
This is a popular saying among coaches and other transformation workers. It means that as coach, you can only take your client as deep as you have gone yourself. The depth you have encountered in your own journey of transformation, sets the limit for how deep you can lead your clients.
You can’t help others transform, unless you have experienced what it is to undergo transformation. You can’t help others overcome limiting beliefs and habits, unless you have struggled with your own gremlins and inner saboteur.
And while this goes against the maxim that coaching is not about the coach’s knowledge and experience, at a deeper and foundational level it is. And people get this instinctively. They prefer coaches who have experienced situations they find themselves in and have grappled with the dilemmas and decisions they face.
Developing Your People Starts With You
And yet, when it comes to leadership development, leaders don’t quite practice what they preach.
When asked whether they are committed to developing people, leaders are quick to claim that they want their people to grow and develop. However, when it comes to their own development as leaders, they are not willing to invest time, effort and energy, often considering it a waste of time.
Yet, it seems to me that this commitment is hollow unless they are committed to their own development. You cannot develop others if you do not value development yourself. Marshall Goldsmith, author and leadership coach, puts it best:
[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”Marshall Goldsmith”]Great leaders encourage leadership development by openly developing themselves[/pullquote]
The best way to demonstrate your commitment, to developing your people, is to show that you are keen to develop yourself. To invest in yourself. To role model your commitment to continuous learning and growth by taking your own development seriously.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”2Uhbe” via=”yes” ]The best way to demonstrate your commitment, to developing others, is to show that you are keen to develop yourself @NKoachIN[/ctt]
Unless you do this, you are telling your people that you are paying lip service to the notion of personal development. You may claim you value development, but unless you work on developing yourself, such claims will ring hollow. People believe what they see, not what they hear you tell them.
As a leader, what steps have you taken recently towards your own growth and development?
Image: Maldives by Gilda via flickr
