The goal of every leaders is to leave people better than you found them. Unfortunately this is an anomaly in many organizations since the modus operandi is the opposite: not develop employees for fear they’ll take your job or leave.

The common argument for not developing employees is this:

The argument for not making your employees stars is “what if they get too big and leave?”

What a great problem to have.

— Matthew Kobach (@mkobach) December 26, 2020

Well, what if they don’t and stay?

Growing others is the essence of leadership. There are people who are put in leadership positions for being bossy other than having a capacity for developing others. You see, you can’t develop others if you don’t develop yourself.

Just because you’re bossy or are competent at doing a particual job doesn’t mean you develop yourself. I’ve been in situations where I was told not to develop others, that I should command and control them instead. Command and control is a form of leadership that is a relic from the industrial mindset era that still exists today in all types of organizations; not just industrial ones.

Commanding and controlling people doesn’t make you a leader, it makes you an inhibitor to growth. Here are a few ways command and control sucks for leadership:

1. You don’t tap into other people’s potential;
2. You believe you’re always right;
3. You’re blind to other perspectives;
4. You have a false sense of confidence in yourself;
5. You rely on hubris and arrogance;
6. You believe your title or position makes you a leader;
7. You’re not growing and neither are others.

And there are many other reasons command and control sucks for leadership.

The truth is you are at fault for your company’s failure if you limit people’s growth; this is what bad leadership looks like. Your organization becomes irrelevant when your people don’t learn and grow. And the only ones at fault for this are its leaders. So ask yourself: How are we inhibiting people’s potential?

Having ambitious, personal growth driven, employees is a good problem to have. You see, the people driven to give their best want to surround themselves with the best. And if you limit them, people will leave if they can’t give their best.

Bottom line: Your organization grows when its people grow. A true leaders doesn’t command and control people; they create the conditions for people to be their best and unleash them.