The Reflection Of Self And Employee Development

As I teach leadership development skills within my organization, the topic of personal and employee development naturally arises. When asked leaders often admit how little time is spent on their own development or that of their employees. The most frequent reason for why this is a reality is the lack of time. The problem with this mindset is that leaders often feel that they cannot send employees to a training or development activity, because they do not have anyone who can fill in for the employee while they are gone. In other words, the leader cannot develop their people, because the leader has not spent time developing their people. The habitual assessment and development of oneself and others represents a “deliberate practice” (Fullan, 2011, p.25), that must be adopted if the organization will be able to meet the changing demands of its environment and markets.

That is to say, in the act of helping oneself, a leader gains the insight and propensity necessary to serve others through development and training. Greenleaf (1996), and Spears and Frick (1992) identified this model of leadership in which “leaders primarily lead by serving others – employees, customers, and community”(Covey, 2004, p.358). This model of self and team development marks a transformational shift of the old paradigms and meaning perspectives of hierarchical leadership as the leader turns their focus toward building the competencies of others. Leaders must realize that they cannot do it all, nor will they be proficient as every job within their realm of control. “Servant leaders view the continual development of subordinates as vital to the health of the organization (Gupta, 2009, para.5). By building the competencies of the individual, the leader makes the team and organization stronger and efficient. Let us examine the manner in which individual competencies are