Do you ever get riled up? Do you read something and it doesn’t set right with you, and instead of letting go you dwell on it, and soon enough you are no longer dwelling but diving into it to figure out why you are so bothered? That’s what happened to me yesterday. 

I read an article about the NFL Draft recently conducted (and by the way, I’m a Denver Broncos fan and we are back and will win with Wilson at quarterback and if that riles you up, well….).

So, anyway, the Tennessee Titans drafted a quarterback. They will develop him, since they already have a seasoned, proven starting quarterback named Ryan Tannehill. Asked about the draft pick, Tannehill said, “I don’t think it’s my job to mentor him. But if he learns from me along the way, that’s a great thing.”

This isn’t the first time I have heard a starting NFL quarterback whose job is not on the line say this about a young player. It angers me. And before I relate this to you and the hot topic of talent gap, let me rant: What ever happened to doing what is best for a team? What ever happened to measuring greatness by the difference you make in a person’s life? How insecure can a person be to feel threatened by investing in someone who one day wants to and should take your job? How shortsighted can a person be to not see that the world needs more and better leaders and that existing great leaders are the ones called to mentor, advise, guide, raise up and release?!

Sports have coaching trees, the acknowledgement of who came from what line of leadership. Why is that not the case at the player level? Especially when those players have it made and are the obvious best. To defer development of another to someone else when it is in your ability and the greater interest of others to bring such development is the epitome of arrogance and insecurity.

Business leaders also have “leader trees.” 

As a member of several boards and C-Suite, when someone is up for consideration for a prominent role in the company, I have one requirement: “Show me your development tree.” 

Are you mentoring? Are you coaching? Are you taking initiative to recommend reading or refer to courses? Are you looking within for who will one day replace you?

If yes, you are noble. I salute you. We have members in our CIO Mastermind who are there because they were mentored and led there. Hats off to the forerunners!

If not, I will assume that you were raised without the benefit of understanding the essentiality of being a multiplier. You are worthy of being followed. You don’t have to have all of your act together to develop another. You just need the conviction that it is essential and must be intentional.

“If he learns from me along the way.” What an offensive statement: way to dodge the responsibility of multiplication by putting it on the one who should be invested into.

Leaders are intentional about developing others who could, and one day should, replace them.

Getting To The Point

I don’t want to write this week about how to mentor. I will save that for next week. This week, I want you to feel it.

• Raising up leaders is essential to closing the talent gap in your company and to recruitment and retention.
• Raising up leaders is the hope that extends beyond your company and into our country. If you ever bellyache about the next generation, then change it. They got there on our watch anyway.
• Raising up leaders is the true measure of your work and legacy. Do you want a funeral where people talk about your accomplishments (which will be forgotten and surpassed), or do you want one where people talk about the difference you made in them and how they will continue your legacy. Why not both?
• Raising up leaders bakes in your tenure. Replacing a person is one thing; replacing an influencer within the company, a mentor to many, that is another.

A young person took his position against a wall in a Washington, D.C. metro station. He was dressed in jeans, long-sleeved shirt and baseball cap. He opened a violin case, withdrew his violin, and threw some change into the case. Then he began to play.

In forty-three minutes he played six classical pieces. He received $32.17 for his effort. More than a thousand people walked by. Seven paused longer than sixty seconds to listen. Only one recognized him: renowned violinist Joshua Bell.

Three days before he had filled Boston’s Symphony Hall where tickets sold for $100 a seat and more. His talent can command $1000.00 a minute fee. In the subway, he played on a Stradivarius worth $3.5 million. 

In trying to get from here to there, we overlook the talent right in front of us, the rare opportunity to share the air with greatness.

Or worse. We see the talent, even if it still needs to be developed, and we hope they can learn what they can with no intentionality on our part.

Many of you read me because I am sincerely encouraging. You know I love you and I am for you. I trust you hear the encouragement in this article, and even feel the love. Because I believe in you. And we need more of you. And it isn’t always true that more is caught than taught. Please multiply yourselves. Next week I will talk about how.

And if you can’t wait or want to hear more, contact me now.