Hello, and happy Monday.
First a quote: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” — Jack Welch
More than forty years ago, my boss’s boss’s boss invited me to lunch.
At the time, I was a young man without much of a career plan. I worked hard and tried to do a good job, but I hadn’t thought very far ahead about where my future might lead.
So, when a senior executive asked me to lunch, I remember wondering if I had done something wrong. Instead, that lunch turned into a conversation that changed the way I saw myself.
During our conversation he shared that he had been observing my approach to working around the office. He described me as a hard-working employee with strong people skills. He said my “can-do” positive attitude was a characteristic he valued when looking for new members on his team.
Then he said something that surprised me… he told me he saw untapped potential in me.
And the truth was… at the time, I didn’t see that same potential.
But he did.
“Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” — Bill Bradley
He went on to ask if I might be interested in the company’s management training program. With some reservation, I said yes and then began to see my future through a very different lens of possibilities and hope.
He encouraged me to continue my education and begin reading a long list of leadership and business books as part of my ongoing development.
Looking back now, that conversation planted a seed which sprouted and grew. I went back to school and eventually earned an Executive MBA, an accomplishment I’m still proud of today.
I went on to become a Vice President of a Fortune 50 company and until this day, continue to “pay forward” my experience through workshops around the country and even the world.
“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” — Galileo Galilei
Someone, with far more experience than I, had looked at me and essentially said, “I believe there is more in you.”
Great leaders do that!
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They see possibilities before they are obvious.
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They recognize strengths that haven’t been fully developed.
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They help people imagine a future they may not yet see for themselves.
I was fortunate to have one of those leaders in my early career. While I’ll never be able to repay that person, I can continue to “pay it forward” and encourage others to do the same.
Now, some 40 years later, I still like to tell that story in leadership development workshops. And I like to offer participants a simple challenge…
Take someone to lunch or coffee.
Find someone on your team who may not yet recognize their own potential. Tell them what you see in them. Encourage them. Challenge them. Help them imagine what might be possible.
Legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said:
“A good coach can win a game. A great coach can change a life.”
Leadership works the same way.
And who knows…
Perhaps if you take someone to lunch, point out their potential, and invest in their development, maybe, just maybe, forty years from now someone will be telling a story about how you changed the direction of their career and life.
The greatest leadership legacy isn’t what we accomplish ourselves—it’s the people who rise because we believed in their potential.
Bonus Quotes Below
Related Articles & Resources:
How will you live, love, or lead, differently, or better, this week?
Sincerely,
Bryan Yager
“Expanding Your Capacity for Success”
PS
Many of the ideas shared in this MMM series, show up in my recently released book, “How to Transition into Leadership …and Why that Changes Everything.”
While the book focuses primarily on management and leadership, the lessons apply just as powerfully to experienced leaders and our important relationships outside of work.
Save $5.00 off retail now.
What others are saying:
As a leadership consultant who has read hundreds of books on leadership, I’ve seen just about every approach to this topic. Fortunately, How to Transition into Leadership and Why That Changes Everything by Bryan Yager stands apart from the usual pattern. Too often, leadership books start strong with an interesting premise, only to drift into story after story of consulting successes that simply repeat the author’s main idea. Yager takes a very different approach. He organizes powerful, thought-provoking concepts into short, easy-to-read chapters that get right to the point. Each one offers something valuable—not just for managers or executives, but for anyone who influences others. His insights challenge readers to think deeply about how we show up in the world and how we can grow as people, not just as leaders. This is a leadership book that feels fresh, practical, and genuinely human. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make a meaningful difference in their work or relationships.
James Gehrke
Bonus Quotes:
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“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” — Ernest Hemingway
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“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” – Henry Kissinger
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“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own.” — Benjamin Disraeli
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“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“When you see potential in someone, you have a responsibility to help them grow.” — Mary Kay Ash
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“The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are.” — John C. Maxwell
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“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” — Harvey S. Firestone
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“People become really quite remarkable when you start thinking they are remarkable.” — Stephen R. Covey
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“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” — Ralph Nader
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