There is an old idea about managing people that still hangs around more than it ought to.
Get people dependent enough on the paycheck and they will work harder.
Encourage them to buy the bigger house. The new truck. Take on more debt. Raise their lifestyle. Then they cannot afford to slow down.
I have heard versions of that idea most of my working life.
Sometimes it is said as a joke.
Sometimes it isn’t.
Either way, there is something underneath it worth examining because it reveals how easily leadership can become centered on what we can get out of people rather than what we can help them become.
Businesses need performance.
Let me make that clear.
Work has to get done. Customers have to be served. Bills have to be paid. Equipment has to run. Projects have deadlines. Companies that consistently fail to perform eventually cease to exist.
I spent much of my career in businesses where poor performance had consequences very quickly. A locomotive sitting in a shop instead of pulling freight wasn’t an abstract leadership problem. Somebody had to figure out what was wrong, decide what to do, and get it back into service.
Results mattered.
They still do.
But somewhere along the way, good leaders discover that managing production and developing people are not the same thing.
And if we only learn how to manage production, we eventually become the limiting factor in the organization.
The first question most managers learn
Early in a leadership career, the question is usually some version of:
How do I get these people to do what needs to be done?
That isn’t necessarily a bad question.
The work really does need to be done.
But if we stay there too long, people gradually become instruments of production.
We measure what they made.
How many hours they billed.
How many calls they completed.
How much product moved.
How many mistakes they made.
All of that information may be useful.
The problem begins when those numbers become the primary way we see the person.
A technician becomes labor hours.
A salesperson becomes revenue.
A supervisor becomes output.
A mechanic becomes equipment availability.
A person becomes a number on somebody else’s report.
Leadership ought to ask a bigger question.
What can this person become, and what does that require from me?
That changes the conversation.
Now I am not simply thinking about what I need from them.
I am thinking about what they may need from me.
Training?
Clarity?
A difficult conversation?
More responsibility?
Encouragement?
Better tools?
A chance to fail safely and learn from it?
A standard that has not been clearly communicated?
Or perhaps someone finally willing to tell them the truth?
That is development.
Development is not lowering the standard
This is where leadership conversations sometimes get soft.
Developing people does not mean tolerating poor performance.
Quite the opposite.
One of the most disrespectful things a leader can do is allow someone to continue performing below their capability while everybody quietly works around them.
That isn’t kindness.
It is avoidance.
I have said for years:
You are what you tolerate.
If a leader tolerates unsafe work, unsafe work becomes acceptable.
If a leader tolerates missed commitments, commitments become optional.
If a leader tolerates a high performer who poisons the team, the organization learns that production matters more than character.
People watch what leaders permit.
Standards are not what we write on the wall.
Standards are what we consistently require.
Caring about someone sometimes means putting an arm around a shoulder.
Sometimes it means looking them squarely in the eye and saying:
“This isn’t good enough. I know you’re capable of better, and I am going to help you get there.”
And sometimes it means saying:
“This cannot continue.”
Those are all forms of leadership.
The situation determines which one is required.
That is where discernment enters the picture.
People are not projects
There is another mistake leaders can make once they discover the importance of developing people.
We can start believing their development belongs to us.
It doesn’t.
I can teach.
I can challenge.
I can encourage.
I can tell the truth.
I can open doors.
I can provide resources.
I can create opportunity.
I can hold someone accountable.
But I cannot make another adult grow.
That choice remains theirs.
One of the principles I have come to believe deeply is this:
I am committed to another person’s success, but not one ounce more than they are committed to their own success.
That line matters.
Without it, development can become dependence.
The leader becomes the rescuer.
The employee waits to be motivated.
The manager solves problems others should be learning to solve.
Pretty soon everyone is busy, everyone is frustrated, and nobody is growing.
The objective of good leadership is not to make people dependent on us.
It is to help them become increasingly capable without us.
Prepare them to win without you
One of the tests of leadership is what happens when the leader leaves the room.
Does everything stop?
Does every decision wait?
Does every difficult problem climb the ladder?
Does the organization require the boss’s fingerprints on everything?
If so, we may have created control, but we have not created capability.
A mature leader wants people to win without him.
That means teaching judgment, not just instructions.
It means allowing someone else to make decisions.
It means occasionally watching somebody do something differently than we would have done it—and resisting the urge to interfere simply because it is different.
It means letting people experience consequences.
It means helping them think.
Early in leadership, success can feel like being needed.
Later, if we are paying attention, success begins to look like being needed less.
That is not a loss of importance.
It is evidence that leadership worked.
The leader’s responsibility
Over the years, I have come to think about leadership through three images:
Mirror. Window. Bridge.
Sometimes people need a mirror.
They need someone willing to help them see themselves clearly—the strengths they may underestimate and the behaviors they may not recognize.
Sometimes they need a window.
They need someone to help them see possibilities they cannot yet see for themselves.
A different role.
A bigger responsibility.
A better way to solve the problem.
Another way of thinking.
And sometimes they need a bridge.
They can see where they are.
They can see where they want to go.
But they have not yet figured out how to get from here to there.
Leadership can help build that bridge.
But there is something important to remember.
You cannot make someone cross it.
Eventually they have to walk.
That is their responsibility.
Performance and people belong together
There is a false choice that shows up repeatedly in leadership discussions.
Do we care about people?
Or do we care about results?
I don’t accept the premise.
Healthy organizations require both.
Performance without regard for people eventually consumes them.
Concern for people without accountability eventually weakens the organization.
Neither is sustainable.
The harder work of leadership is holding both at the same time.
I care enough about you to help you grow.
I respect you enough to tell you the truth.
I believe in you enough to hold you to a standard.
And I recognize your agency enough to understand that what you do with all of that remains your decision.
That is not harsh.
That is respect.
A different leadership question
For years, leaders were taught to ask:
How do I get more out of my people?
I think there is a better question.
What can this person become—and what does that require from me?
And then there is one more question.
What does leadership require from me right now?
Not yesterday.
Not according to some management book.
Not according to my ego.
Right now.
Maybe encouragement.
Maybe patience.
Maybe teaching.
Maybe a harder standard.
Maybe a difficult conversation.
Maybe getting out of the way.
Leadership requires discernment because people and circumstances are rarely identical.
There is no script that works every time.
There is only the responsibility to see clearly, decide wisely, and act.
Leadership leaves something behind
Production matters today.
Development matters tomorrow.
A good leader can improve today’s numbers.
A great leader can develop people who keep improving the numbers after the leader is gone.
That is a different kind of legacy.
We should want the people we lead to become more capable, more confident, more discerning, and more able to lead others because they spent time with us.
Not dependent on us.
Stronger because of us.
There is a difference.
So manage the work.
Hold the standard.
Expect results.
Tell the truth.
Develop people.
And then give them enough room to become something neither of you could fully see when you started.
That is leadership.
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