Chapter 28.
Refuse to Buy
Their Limitation

Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.

—Tom Peters, Author/Business Consultant

Your people limit themselves all the time. They put up false barriers and struggle with imaginary problems.

One of your skills as a leader will be to show your people that they can accomplish more than they think they can. In fact, they may someday be a leader like you are. One of the reasons your people will wind up admiring you is that you always see their potential. You always see the best side of them, and you tell them about it.

It could be that you are the first person in that employee’s life to ever believe in him. And because of you, he becomes more capable than he thought he was, and he loves you for that, even though your belief in him sometimes makes him uncomfortable. That discomfort may return every time you ask him to stretch. But you don’t care. You press on with your belief in him, stretching him, growing him.

One of the greatest leadership gurus of American business was Robert Greenleaf. He developed the concept of “servant leadership.” A leader is one who serves those following, serving them every step of the way, especially by bringing out the best in them, and refusing to buy their limitations as achievers.

Your people may be flawed as people, but as achievers, they are certainly not.

Greenleaf said, “Anybody could lead perfect people—if there were any. But there aren’t any perfect people. And parents who try to raise perfect children are certain to raise neurotics.

“It is part of the enigma of human nature that the ‘typical’ person—immature, stumbling, inept, lazy—is capable of great dedication and heroism if wisely led. The secret of team-building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be.”