By Dana Phillips.

How many of you finished your conference this summer wanting to promote to a higher level in your company?  The recognition, income, and benefits of those levels are exciting.  Maybe you were excited about a trip that can be in your future.  The problem is that you are more excited about your pending promotion than anyone else on your team.  When you stop, step back, and think about it, you understand why.  Your promotion matters more to you than to them.

How about flipping your goal on its head?  Rather than focusing on your promotion, focus on promoting the people on your team.  This is your opportunity to create a rising tide, and your leadership boat is raised as a result!  Think about it.  Becoming a “leader of leaders” is the key to moving up in most companies.

Start by setting your goal for how many you want to promote to reach your goal. Life happens, so not all of your leaders are going to make their qualifications each month or keep their title.  You always want to have more leaders.

Second, focus on having many future leaders in your pool. This makes it easier to promote enough leaders to reach your goal. You will want to start by making a mental distinction between a prospective future leader and a future leader who is ready to work with you to become a leader.

A prospective future leader is someone with whom you’ve not had a leadership interview.  They are the people who are selling, recruiting, or have potential (in your eyes).  A future leader is someone with whom you’ve had a leadership conversation.  You’ve discovered their what and why, agreed on a target date for promotion, made an action plan together, and scheduled follow-up calls. In other words, you have partnered with them to achieve their goal.  Making the distinction between prospective and future leaders will keep you focused on the right people.

Creating a big pool of future leaders is the foundation to creating your promoting machine. You know that you will have to have more leadership interviews to keep your pool full.   Many top leaders have five or more future leaders working to promote at all times.  Each month, they add new ones to the pool and take out those who aren’t progressing. Their pool stays fresh and avoids the “I’m working on it” staleness.

Ask yourself…”If my intention is to promote leaders, where’s my attention?”  Remember, promoting is the only answer to becoming a leader of leaders. How deep is your pool?

You will want to be clear in your mind that having a pool of leaders is only the beginning.  Just because you’ve identified and set a plan doesn’t mean they will become leaders.  They need you and your coaching skills to keep them focused on getting to the next level.  Early September is a great time to sort out which of your future leaders are going to promote this fall.  When you build leaders on your team and help them have the opportunity that you’ve found, your business will thrive as well.

Make your list of prospective leaders, and turn them into future leaders.

Who’s Interested in Free Coaching?

As part of our Back To School Celebration, Team Connections will be drawing for 10 free coaching sessions.

Your kids have things to do other than be underfoot! Cool!
Homework!  Yeah!
You get your time back!

Dana and Neil Phillips, International Coach Federation credentialed coaches, are giving away 10 sessions of 30 minutes each.

We’ll do a daily drawing for each session. So the sooner you enter, the better your chances.

Registration is free with no future obligation. Click below, answer 6 questions, and you are done.