People & Leadership
A business needs more than one person who can lead
Some businesses have a founder and a team of capable people, none of whom has ever been asked to lead anything. When the founder is away, people wait. When a good employee gets an offer elsewhere, the founder realises there was nobody to replace them. This session is about building a second layer of leadership deliberately: finding people with potential, giving them a stretch, supporting them, and making it worth their while to stay.
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Leaders are rarely found. More often they are grown.
Many owners wait for a ready-made leader to appear, whether through a hire or a lucky promotion. In practice, most leadership capacity in a small business is built by giving capable people harder work, support and honest feedback, over time.
It needs attention, because day-to-day pressure always pushes it down the list. A business that has not decided to grow its own leaders will usually find itself short of them just when it needs them.
Growing leaders inside your business
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven practices that need time and attention more than money. 6 apply to almost any business; the rest only in a particular case.
Spotting PotentialLook at behaviour, not just seniority or tenure.5
- People who help colleagues without being asked
- People who raise problems with a possible solution
- People who take ownership when something goes wrong
- People others naturally go to for advice
- People who want to learn, and ask good questions
Stretch AssignmentsPeople grow by doing something slightly beyond their comfort.5
- Leading a small project with a clear outcome
- Running a weekly team meeting for a month
- Training a new joiner
- Handling a supplier or customer relationship
- Standing in for you at a meeting, with a short briefing before and after
Development ConversationsTwice a year, and separate from any pay discussion.5
- Asking what they enjoy most and least about their work
- Asking where they would like to be in two or three years
- Giving honest feedback on strengths and what could develop
- Agreeing one or two specific things to try over the next six months
- Writing down what was agreed and reviewing it
Coaching, Not RescuingThe skill every owner needs, and finds hard.5
- Asking 'what do you think we should do?' before giving your view
- Letting a manageable mistake happen, then discussing it
- Offering your experience as one option, not as the answer
- Praising specific actions, not just the outcome
- Being available, without hovering
Why Good People Stay or LeavePay matters, but is rarely the only reason.5
- Whether the work is interesting and growing
- Whether they are trusted with real responsibility
- Whether they are treated fairly and respectfully
- Whether there is a visible path, even in a small business
- Whether pay is reasonable in the market where you compete
Sharing LeadershipGive leaders real areas of ownership.5
- Handing over a function, such as customer support or dispatch, with a named lead
- Agreeing what they decide and what they report to you
- Setting a few clear measures, so they know what success is
- Meeting regularly to review, not to take back control
- Recognising publicly that this person is leading
Bringing in Outside HelpIf it appliesWhen the capability is not there yet.5
- A mentor, adviser or peer group of owners
- A short course for one person on a specific skill
- A senior hire with experience you do not have
- A consultant for a time-bound problem
- Being clear on what you want the person to leave behind
Try this week
- Write down the names of two people who could lead something in the next year
- Note one stretch assignment you could offer each
- Book a thirty-minute development conversation with one of them
- Ask yourself what they would need to hear from you to stay
Questions for a development conversation
- What part of your work do you find most satisfying right now?
- What would you like to learn this year?
- What gets in your way most often?
- Is there anything you would like to take on?
- What could I do differently that would help you?
How the session runs
A practitioner or experienced owner explains the seven practices with short examples, labelled as hypothetical where they are not real. Participants identify two people in their own team, choose a stretch assignment for each, and prepare the questions for a first development conversation. The session does not promise that anybody will stay or succeed. It is about making that more likely through attention and practice.
What your students leave with
- A practical way to identify people with leadership potential, beyond who is most senior
- A set of low-cost stretch assignments they can offer this quarter
- A simple development conversation they can have with each person
- A clearer view of what keeps capable people in a small business
- A way to share leadership of a function or a project without losing accountability
- A one-page leadership plan for the next year
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
A second layer of leaders gives a business room to grow, and the founder room to breathe.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.