A leader will not be remembered for the metrics they hit or the resources they managed.
What is the easiest way to tell a pear tree from an apple tree? The fruit they produce. But just being an apple or a pear tree does not make them valuable. In an apple orchard, if a tree does not bear fruit, it gets cut down for firewood. If you want to know what kind of leader someone is, look at the fruit they produce.
When you look at the best coaches in sports, look at the coaches that come from their programs. Hall of Fame NFL Coach Bill Walsh had assistant after assistant become head coaches in the NFL. They call that a coaching tree for a reason. In fact, the fruit coming from his leadership has produced additional coaching trees. Andy Reid, the current coach of the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, once worked for Super Bowl Head Coach Mike Holmgren, who worked for Bill Walsh. Andy Reid now has multiple people who have become head coaches through his leadership.
There are a lot of things that pull leaders away from the goal of producing other leaders. Finances, personnel issues, training requirements, meetings, customer maintenance, and a myriad of other tasks can distract us. These issues can’t be ignored. They just need to be prioritized behind the people we are called to lead and develop.
If the people we lead are not growing and getting better as a result of our influence in their lives, our impact will be short term. Once we leave our current job our impact will be forgotten. However, if the fruit we bear are more leaders, our impact will be generational, much like Bill Walsh’s impact has been.
When it is all said and done, a leader will not be remembered for the metrics they hit or the resources they managed. Leaders will be remembered for the other leaders they produce. It is sad that so many leaders work for so many years and the day after they retire, their impact will be forgotten.
Our goal should be to produce fruit that leaves a legacy beyond us. In fact, the fruit of trees are really just vehicles for the seeds that will produce more trees and more fruit in the future. That is what leaders do. Leaders produce leaders. The question is: “What do you produce?”
Questions:
● Who should you be investing time in?
● How will you prepare them for their future as a leader?
Here is a quick assessment that will take you 5 minutes to figure it out. Nobody will ever see your results but you.
Warning: If you are not going to be honest with yourself this is a worthless assessment.
To take the assessment use the QR code above or go to www.MYCHARACTERTEST.com
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