Far too many people today who are attempting to grow and increase the size of their individual business are going about it the wrong way. This fact or truth will always be born out by a stagnating or “no-growth” business model. In other words, if your business is not growing as is proven by no significant increase in the number of people in it, or…few or no sub-leaders being produced,…then rest assured that there is a clear reason why such is happening.

Just putting more bodies, numbers, into your business model maybe a quick fix short term solution, however, such a fix will not last or produce any sustainable long term growth.

In order to grow and sustain what you have grown, you have to do what it required to produce the growth and keep that growth going so as to continue to increase the sub-leaders heading up the newly produced business growth. Put first things first. Leaders gotta lead. Followers just follow. Personally satisfied committed loyal followers never become leaders,…they just continue to follow and use up time, finances, and other resources. That is fine, there is always a place for people like that in any business, but such a person will not go on to become a sub-leader or greater leader of other people as long as they are completely satisfied with the position or level of achievement they possess.

A leader, temporarily imprisoned in a follower’s body, can and always will break out of his incarceration if he is developed further by his mentor helping him raise his personal attitude and mindset. Success always begins in a person’s mind. It starts with a decision coupled with a positive mental attitude and good consistent work ethic.

There are really three major aspects or character traits that all proven leaders possess. There is no particular order to the traits and the quantities possessed are not in any formal amount or value. But rest assured that if a leader is to be developed as the business grows all three of these characteristics must be present in them:
1. Talent
2. Skill,… and
3. Attitude.

Sadly most business building leaders or sub-leaders get these three areas totally backward as they labor to bring new people into and along with the growth of the size of their personal businesses. The big mistake these leaders or sub-leaders make is that they first look for the prospects they are attempting to recruit who have the greatest or best positive mental attitudes. They are looking for numbers as compared to looking for talent and skill in a new recruit. This is where they go wrong. Most leaders erroneously think that a good attitude will carry all of the attendant other weaknesses of a new recruit. They put talent and skill in a minority position. The result usually is slow or no…growth.

Here is what my experience has proven out to be. When it comes to talent and skill any single person can only grow a limited amount. Dr. John C. Maxwell tells us: “On a scale from one to ten, most people can improve in a skill area only about two points.” That means, as a hypothetical case, if a person is naturally a 6 as a leader, he may be able at best to grow to an 8 if he is willing to work long and hard at growing himself to a higher level. However, if he is a 2, he can work as long and hard as he wants and never even reach average. Head coaches for collegiate and professional athletic teams have long had a saying that says it straight: “You can’t get out what God didn’t first put in.” You have to have at least something to work with or your efforts will be for not when it comes to individual talent and skill set.

A person’s mental attitude is an entirely different matter. As regards mental attitude, there is no growth ceiling…None whatsoever, regardless of where you begin. For instance, even an individual with say a 2 mental attitude can grow to become a 10! That fact tells us that a person with a poor or even bad mental attitude can, with a lot of hard work, turn his situation completely around and go on to become a great leader of people as he or she learns how to couple their good talent and skills together with their rising positive mental attitude.

I will tell you the truth. On the very day that you decide, as a leader, to start recruiting people with good Talent and Skill levels regardless of their mental attitudes and then work together with them helping them to develop a good positive mental attitude as they are growing into their new position as a sub-leader within your organization,…your business is going to begin growing at astonishing rates. Your personal life will indeed begin changing for the better.

Using first the gifted or developed personal talent and skills of new people coming into your own business, your entire team will start becoming more productive, and your organization will begin its upward movement as it goes to a higher level of accomplishment.

Now use some good common sense. I am not advising you to start recruiting only those people who have bad or poor mental attitudes. It cannot become an “either/or” decision to recruit. What I am saying is that it really needs to become a “both/and” decision process. If you want to have a winning combination for building a new teachable person into a sub-leader and then on into a real leader of people,…focus your attention onto those new people who possess Competence, Experience, and a Positive Mental Attitude.

The key “take-away” point from this discussion is quite simple. Make it become a permanent part of your business building effort all the time: Coach anyone on your team who needs it to have a better and more positive mental attitude, because the potential for growth in that area is unlimited.

Leaders Gotta Lead…………………