Day Seven: Lift Up Leaders and Help Them Grow

 

Being a mentor is a wonderful thing. Helping lift up-and-coming leaders up and help them grow through a mentorship relationship helps the mentor and the mentee. Outside of mentorship, leaders can help one another out too. Your colleagues need your support to help them thrive and grow…. because leadership isn’t for the weak. 

 

Everyone faces tough times- Businesses close, projects fall apart, new launches are delayed, and things at home can impact everything else. Leaders need other leaders to help. No one understands the struggles that leaders face better than other leaders. It’s important to lift leaders up and help them grow in the process. 

 

Be there when your colleagues need you

 

Leadership is its own club. People who lead need other people who lead to be there when times are hard…whether they ask or not. If you see someone in the leadership community struggle, get in there and offer your support. Reaching out and letting someone know you care can make all the difference in how well they cope during a tough time. 

 

Note- leaders aren’t just work folk. A struggling mother or father is a leader. If you see someone who needs support, reach out and help lift them up. 

 

Celebrate when your colleagues win 

 

It’s natural to feel a tinge of jealousy when your “competition” gets a win. Great leaders celebrate big wins whether they’re for the competition or their friends. Your genuine enthusiasm for other people’s success will only make yours stronger. There’s no limit to the amount of success available to you and those you are in leadership with. Get excited about their successes and genuinely congratulate and celebrate with them. 

 

Step in when your colleagues fall down

 

Sometimes people take a fall. An illness, injury, or even a scandal can set someone in leadership back. Be willing and able to step in when your colleagues fall. Offer to take some of their workload, offer to assist them in practical ways, or take the initiative and lead for them in their absence. You’re a leader and there’s no better time to lead than when your fellow colleague can’t. 

 

Being in leadership is a sisterhood and brotherhood unlike any other. There’s a comradery between leaders who have worked hard to encourage, mentor, and motivate their teams. They need the same encouragement themselves. Leaders lean on leaders who understand and have the unique abilities to support them and help them grow too.