Apprentice… Leadership Development/Legacy
Next week is my birthday and as I look ahead to that date I can’t help but think back on my journey of life.
There are so many experiences and opportunities to reflect on but mostly the people who have been so instrumental to me. My parents, teachers, mentors all guiding me through the stages of my life.I guess you could say I have been an apprentice many times. Learning life skills from my parents, educated by my teachers and career mentors. One of the first of my career mentors was my instructor in Beauty School, Mr. Paul. He was a very serious man who focused on details. It was back in the day of hair rollers and hooded hair dryers that made an MRI machine of today look small.… Mr. Paul would always say, “Set the hair correctly because what you put under the dryer you are going to have to comb out later”….to the lay person that meant nothing but to the beautician it was a reminder that a miracle was not going to happen under the hair dryer; if you did not do a good job setting the hair you would have to deal with the poor work later.
I have remembered that lesson throughout my life. Whenever I had to do a task I knew that I would have to deal with the results of how I did that task and later take full responsibility for it; good or bad. Leadership is the same way. Especially when taking others through the Mentoring Process. Being a role model is vital, especially when we want to pass on our skills. Successful leaders know an important part of Leadership is to develop other leaders; Successors.Becoming a Legacy Leader is the true reflection of success.
John Maxwell says, “There is no success without a successor.”
I learned in Cosmetology training how important it was to be an Apprentice.To be willing to learn from someone who had mastered the job. To be teachable!
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners in a profession with on-the–job training and often accompanying study.
- Training focused on results not training for the sake of training. Teaching the How To, Why To and When To of the business.
- Detailed step-by-step procedures or the best practices used as guide-lines, with specific instruction and standards of performance.
- To work closely with the Apprentice or Protégé to help them build their career.
As a Leader I enjoyed working closely with someone by showing them on-the-job, what to do and how to do it.
- Inviting them to travel with me to an event
- Occasionally having them work with me in my office as I did routine business so they could observe how I handled different aspects of the business.
Having them take part in a routine training at meetings.
Mary Kay Ash taught me when you are training someone:
- Tell them how
- Show them how
- Then let them show you how.
Letting the person you are grooming for Leadership ‘Show you how’ is the most important part of the success tip. It is true, in the Mentoring Process we first need to Lead by Example but in leadership Development, at some point, we need to Get Out of the Way of the person who will assume the leadership role. We must allow them to be in charge of their team while we continue to encourage them and if necessary redirect them. However, the most important part of the Apprenticeship relationship is to finally let them assume the Leadership position. Control is not leadership; over-managing is also not leadership. Leaders lead by example; they show the way and then pass the torch to their Protégé knowing a leaders greatest success is in developing other leaders.
“A leader who produces other leaders multiplies their influence”. – John Maxwell
What truth there is in that statement! As I near my birthday and I look back on the years of my Leadership experience with a top Direct Sales company, I honestly believe because I was a Legacy Leader the efforts and accomplishments of my work live on. May I encourage you to join the mentoring process by either becoming an Apprentice or to invite someone to Apprentice with you? Lead by example and model the business and behavior of a leader for those wanting Leadership Development.
Leaders Take the Lead by doing what is necessary to build and sustain their personal business …. And then they guide, lead and help others develop into leaders.
