Читать книгу Leading from the In-Between - John McAuley - Страница 14

Venture capital investors step out on the edge and throw their weight behind ideas that are unproven and risky—but also carry the potential for being highly profitable. The art is seeking out these ideas in their early stages, before they are clearly valuable to the rest of the world. Venture capital investors invest not only in what things are but also in what they can become.

Leadership development is also a venture. It has both risk and reward. If we are convinced that leaders are strong, visionary and successful, that is who we will seek, and that is what we will equip people to become. Often it seems that people only want to invest in those who have “arrived.”

When it comes to young people and to leadership development, I’m more interested in the people who are rough around the edges. All of us—you, me, any young person we ever encounter—are unfinished. Each of us are both being and becoming. Many emerging leaders are easily missed. Nurturing leaders is not automatic. Leadership development with emerging leaders takes a vision of who young people are and who they can become. It takes intention, and it takes great tools.

The heart of this book is a simple but powerful way to pursue leadership development with young people:

•SEE…emerging leaders for who they are and who they can become.

•STRETCH…emerging leaders to do and be more than they thought possible.

•SUPPORT…emerging leaders as they both succeed and fail.²

To develop leaders that say “It doesn’t have to be this way” and do something about it, you need a framework for change, a philosophy of understanding how people are transformed and how they develop. “See–stretch–support” is that overarching philosophy of leadership development. Whether you are talking about corporate leadership or spiritual formation, a framework to guide your strategy of leadership development is tremendously helpful. The see-stretch-support framework is echoed in other writing and thinking on leadership development. It builds on the wisdom of others and fits with our lived experience with emerging leaders.