Creating a "Can Do" Culture

A concerned Senior Manager asked me yesterday, “Peter, how do you create leaders in your business?” He then added, “You always seem to have so many people who are willing to step up to the plate.”

“Leaders create leaders,” was my response.

It’s no use putting the onus on the employee or the other person to lead, if you are not prepared to wear that responsibility yourself. Leadership is evoked by examples of it in practice.

I have found that it is far too easy to be distracted from the main game of being a leader and owner in our own businesses.

As the owner of the business, or as a Senior Manager, the hard questions have to be first asked of ourselves:

• How do I create leadership qualities in myself?
• When do I step up to the plate and put in the extra hard yards required to get the job done?
• When do I take time to think deeply about how to fix a problem? To find an effective solution?

We must set the pace of what leadership means in our business by making it visible and tangible for others. This is what builds what I like to call the ‘Can do’ culture. This is what builds leadership capacity into our business and into those around us.

We must show the way.