How to Raise Up New Leaders: the Power of Self-Duplication

It’s been said that the ability to spot talent is one of the greatest talents a person can have. This is especially true when it comes to being a leader. Your ability to lead a team or organization is always going to be limited to how available you are to each of your team members. So if you hope to expand your influence beyond these limits, you must duplicate yourself by raising up other leaders to help you lead the members of your team or organization. Let’s look at some guiding principles which can help you to do this:

Learn to Spot and to Value “Trim Tab Leaders”

The term “Trim tab leader” was used by Steven Covey in his book “The 8th Habit” to describe people who have the capability to influence or to “lead” people (even their appointed supervisors). This ability has nothing to do with the person’s title or position, and more to do with their ability to manage themselves, to inspire others and to get results.

Most leaders are VERY good at spotting these “Trim Tab Leaders,” the problem is that many leaders and become threatened by them and seek to squash their potential or suffocate their influence.

However, if you value the Trim Tab Leaders within your team or organization and help them discover their gifts and find their voice of influence within the organization, they can become powerful allies. Finding Trim Tab leaders and building good relationships with them is much more valuable than promoting people because of seniority or because they know how to kiss up to the supervisors.

On the other hand, attempting to devalue or squash them could end up backfiring and will cause you to miss out on a LOT of opportunities for self-duplication.

How to Spot Trim Tab Leaders

You can normally spot a “Trim Tab Leader” by the rapport that they have with other team members or even with other supervisors. Team members respect them, not because of their title, but because of their ability to build meaningful relationships with others. These Trim Tab Leaders are more people oriented than they are task oriented and usually make good motivators and would be good for managing the human resources within your organization.

Other types of “Trim Tab Leaders” have a strong sense of responsibility and are very self-motivated and independent, but might not have as much of a relationship with their team members. These are the more task oriented workers who prefer to work alone.

However, they are also well respected by their team members and supervisors because of their ability to produce results. These are the Trim Tab Leaders who can be appointed as project managers or put in charge of managing processes or systems within your organization.

Working With Trim Tab Leaders

When working with Trim Tab Leaders and raising them up as leaders, the hardest job for you will be to get out of their way and let them grown into the new title or role that you’ve appointed to them. To make this easier, it’s best to entrust them with a few tasks or responsibilities to help build their confidence and prepare them (and you) for the role that you have in mind for them. Most of the time, it’s best not to mention the role, as that might influence them to do a good job out of the desire to attain the role more than a passion and commitment to do a good job.

You can tell a lot about how they will act AFTER they have secured their role as a leader by testing them with a responsibility BEFORE you express your interest in making them a leader. Use these principles to guide your selection and training of leaders, and you’ll end up with candidates who do a great job because of their predisposition towards becoming a great leader.