“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership”  

Harvey S. Firestone

Harvey was the founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. He founded his tire company in 1900. He became one of the early millionaires who built an organization on honesty, opportunity and creativity. Growth was a key component to all of Firestone’s thinking, planning and organizing. He knew that not only was the product critical, so to was the growth and development of the people in his organization. He developed a partnership selling tires that enabled him at one point to sell and equip more than 25% of all vehicles’ tires. In 1906, Firestone recorded the largest ever order of tires with a single sale of 2,000. Firestone tires would later adorn millions and millions of vehicles.

Firestone’s growth came because he was prepared when he met opportunity. Growth will remain dormant if opportunity is not seized upon.

Harvey grew up the son of a farmer. He left the farm and became a rubber tire salesman. He worked tirelessly and relentlessly. Around 1895, Firestone met a young engineer who believed the horse and buggy days would soon be over. This young engineer believed his new creation would change the world. Firestone convinced this young engineer that his new creation would need rubber tires. The young engineer agreed. His name was Henry Ford. Ford would go on to sell by 1927 over 15 million of his Model T automobiles—all equipped with Harvey Firerstone’s tires.

Harvey Firestone was prepared when his opportunity came. He built a relationship early on his career that would pay great dividends and not to mention a life-long friendship and loyalty with Henry Ford. He grew his business. He grew from his opportunity.

Let’s establish this one fact above all else: you can’t make anyone grow.

However, leaders and organizations have a responsibility, moreover, a calling to facilitate the growth and development of its’ people. Organizations and leaders that fail to see this fact as mission-critical will soon find themselves in critical condition.

Growth occurs when ability meets opportunity. You might have established the ability, but you lack the opportunity. Conversely, you might have an opportunity to grow, but you miss it due to a lack of ability. The result of growth will ultimately yield an increase. Development, maturation or fulfillment may all be synonyms for growth, but, generally, the constant is that there is no growth without increase.

Growth = Increase

You can grow (increase) in your thought process (this is called critical thinking). You can grow (increase) in your skill-set or technical ability (critical skills). And you can grow (increase) in you capability (critical capacity).

The Three Critical Conditions: Thinking, Skills, Capacity.

But you can also grow in your responsibility, accountability and loyalty. We will focus on these three critical elements of growth.

“Why I am not growing?”

This expression is often the mantra of the un-promoted and passed-over employee. This is because they are linking their personal growth to a promotion or an increase in authority, position or payment. In order, to fully develop, mature, bloom or increase in the organization the Growth-Opportunity Paradigm must align. The GRO-OP Paradigm provides insight into three critical components of Responsibility, Accountability & Loyalty that when combine attribute to producing opportunity in the organization.

Responsibility: You Can Grow without the Green Light to Go

Frustration often mounts when a developing leader thinks they are ready for the green light—to hit the gas. The green light means stepping on the gas or acceleration. The green light of authority, promotion, to launch a project, to terminate something or someone, or even just mentally to “move forward.” Developing leaders must first focus on personal growth and development—not promotion. Work on perfection (maturity) before promotion. You must take the ultimate responsibility for your own growth. This does not mean promotion or position. This means an increase in (a) critical-thinking, (b) critical skills, and (c) critical capacity. You should be asking your own questions and coming up with the appropriate answers. Then activating those answers in manner that is both consistent with the organization structure & goals (loyalty) and aligns with the organizational governance (accountability).

There is a difference in acknowledging responsibility and accepting responsibility. Acknowledging responsibility is unattached recognition. It’s the equivalent of a head-nod when a superior is speaking of responsibility, but there is not a listening of the heart or an understanding that you are receiving the responsibility. Acceptance of the responsibility is the reception of the burden of responsibility. It is an agreement when another is talking of the burden, that says, “I own this responsibility.” Acknowledging is like saying, “I am only renting this responsibility, if something goes wrong or doesn’t work like I think it should, then I will turn it back in.”

Acceptance of responsibility doesn’t mean you have all the answers or that you might even know what to do. It means that you are taking ownership of that responsibility and any adjacent or connected outcomes. You are not just responsible for the thing, you are responsible for the outcome—the life. This is real responsibility. Developing leaders don’t grow without receiving the burden and outcome of real responsibility. Aggressive, developing-leaders will take-responsibility, instead of waiting for it to be given (this is often the sign of a natural-born leader—it is an innate trait for them to take on responsibility—they are drawn to it).

Growth occurs when there is an increase in given-responsibility and an increase in received-responsibility.

Accountability: Found in Answerability.

“Rarely do we find men that are willing to engage in hard, solid thinking. There is almost an universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
Martin Luther King

Answerability:  The Culmination of Accountability and Critical thinking. Organizations must have developing layers of those willing to think critically and be held accountable.

There is no real responsibility without real accountability. You can’t give a responsibility and not verify that it was received, understood and managed. Otherwise, you didn’t give a real responsibility, you gave a ghost-responsibility. Ghost-responsibilities are those that only exist on paper but not in practice.

Accountability means that you are willing to give an answer and are willing to be held to it. Literally, accountability means answerability. To seize the growth-opportunity paradigm developing leaders must be ready, willing and able to give answers. Not answers that are platitudes, flattery or rubber-stamps. Rather, real answers for real responsibilities. This is what often crushes developing leaders or wanna-be leaders—the inability to answer for their actions or the actions of their subordinates.

accountability = answerability 

Accountability involves discerning the difference between excuses and reasons. Excuses are invalid and demonstrate immaturity. Reasons are valid and demonstrate critical-thought, understanding and maturation. Don’t make accountability about blame, focus on answering. Good answerability is built on a process of learning to ask the right questions, not assessing blame.

Too many developing members of the organization desire a promotion or an increase in authority, but have not demonstrated the ability to get real, positive results. You are known by who you are, what you do and who you do it with. Unfortunately, organizations are filled with any people who think that merely “talking the talk” qualifies them for leadership. A solid, consistent walk is much stronger than a bunch of empty words and meaningless talk. The old axiom says, “I’m from Missouri, Show Me!” Leaders must get results. Because, you are measured by your results. Too many developing leaders have no clue (a) what is being measured, (b) what the measurement means, and (c) what adjustments to make once the measurement is read.

Don’t wait for someone to come check on you and your results to be held accountable—that’s called judgment. Make yourself accountable at all times and in all situations. Leaders must have high responsibility and high personal accountability. Make yourself accountable. Unfortunately, too many people in high positions do just the opposite—the higher in the organization they rise, the more they discount their accountability!

Loyalty: The Lynch-Pin of Allegiance

We’ve established that responsibility and accountability are two of the central pillars in the Growth-Opportunity Paradigm. However, the third and most important is Loyalty. Loyalty is the missing ingredient to why so many developing leaders miss their opportunity.

Loyalty = Allegiance

A good way to describe a portion of loyalty/allegiance is faithfulness. Sadly, many developing leaders and team members are more driven by what they can get out of an organization than what they can put into it. This single statement is often a great test of a team member’s loyalty to the organization—putting in vs. taking out.

“Now, it is required of those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” 1 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV)

Immaturity is the demanding cry of “what’s in it for me?” Developing leaders often make this mistake. For example, they are going along fine until a decision that is made above them, that affects them or their responsibilities in a way they perceive is wrong or unjust, and instead of being supportive, they turn outside the chain-of-command to voice their displeasure or grievances. What they don’t realize is not only is this subversive in the organization, it is also subversive to their position as a leader. Voicing complaints or frustrations to subordinates is the quickest way to erode trust both with those whom lead you and those whom you lead. Unless the decision is immoral or illegal, developing leaders must learn to demonstrate loyalty by accepting the decision and supporting the decision-maker.

“When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I’ll like it or not. Disagreement, at this state, stimulates me. But once a decision is made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.”
General Colin Powell

There is an appropriate time and place to voice concern. If you are a critical-thinker, then you will arrive at concerns as you dissect problems and solutions. However, part of the dissection process doesn’t need to be public. Voice concerns up the chain-of-command, not down and always behind closed-doors or in the proper group setting.

Commitment is a growing struggle in our culture and so to in our organizations. You can no longer take for granted that team members and developing leaders even know what true commitment is and how it is applied. This is why there is such a great dichotomy between some who grasp responsibility, accountability and loyalty—a lack of commitment. Loyalty demonstrates the deepest level of commitment. It is evident that millennials truly struggle with a clear understanding of commitment. If you truly want to be developed as a leader and develop leaders in today’s culture and climate, then you must learn how to engage and train others in the art and practice of commitment.

Conclusion

Growth is dependent upon variables, but in people it is mostly dependent upon the person. Don’t make excuses for why your people aren’t growing—including yourself. Developing and articulating a system for growth can be tiresome, troublesome and elusive. However, focusing on these three elements: responsibility, accountability & loyalty; can and will yield the climate and construction of a system of leadership that teaches, trains and values others toward stronger leadership and maturation.

Alex Vann is the founder of Redwall Leadership Academy the training and development arm of his organization (Chick-fil-A) in Columbus, GA. He holds a Marketing/Communication degree from Mercer University and a Masters in Management & Leadership (M.A.M.L) from Liberty University.