BUILDING YOUR BENCH

By Nels Lindberg, DVM, Production Animal Consultation

Leading a team or an organization can be one of the most fulfilling purposes of your life. Getting the honor to do so should never be taken lightly because you have the ability to influence your team in a positive or negative manner each day. The next step is to “build your bench” so that not only do you and your family enjoy your achievements, but your team and organization also go far beyond where you ever dreamed they would! You are only as good as the leaders and the team that you build. We must be intensely focused on building, growing, and nourishing the next generation of leaders for our future world, not today’s world.

The following five points are key to successfully building your bench and ensuring your team will be fine when you are gone. We as leaders must be humble enough to venture down this vulnerable road because our organizations must be able to go on without us.

1. Understand the law of the lid. The law of the lid is one of John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. It means that you (the leader) are the limiter, or the lid, to your team. Your team can only go as far as you can grow. Your leadership capacity typically grows with experience and years in the trenches, but we as leaders also need to put in the work to learn better ways to lead, communicate, create healthy conflict, have crucial conversations, and improve the culture through non-negotiable core values. Most of us never had any formal education in these leadership areas, yet we all have opportunities to learn more. Be intentional about adding value to yourself, so that you in turn can add value to those you lead. The lower your ability to lead, the lower the lid on your potential and your team’s potential. The higher your ability to lead, the higher the lid on your potential and your team’s potential.

2. Create clarity in mission, vision, values, and purpose. Leaders will come and go over time, but we must ensure the mission, vision, values, and purpose are deeply engrained in the organization. We want our next generation of leaders to be tremendous decision makers. How many times have you asked yourself what a former owner, leader, or mentor would do? Leaders make decisions virtually every minute of the day. Have you educated the next generation on how to make sound decisions? The most important component in helping them make sound decisions is having clarity in the mission, vision, values, and purpose of the organization. It is the values that provide explicit direction or guidance to answer virtually any question that may arise. Once we have clarity in these four things, making any decision becomes easier.

3. Identify the workers and the helpers. Stop focusing on the declining nature of the human work ethic. Focus on those that do work hard and build those leaders. Doing this day after day will begin to attract other incredible young folks that believe in the same intense work ethic and culture of execution to your organization. You may be reading this now and thinking, “I really don’t have anyone on my team I can focus on to build my bench.” If that is the case, take another, deeper look at the people on your team. They may be there; you just have not invested in them enough to know. Always be thinking critically about this, hiring for this, and leading for this. We must also look to lead those on our team in the direction of our values and hard work. If you want to influence the younger generation on your team long term, you must show them respect. We often fail by thinking that they should respect us and then after they show us they can work hard and get the job done, we will respect them. But it does not work that way anymore. We must show them a basic level of respect and trust by including them, asking them questions, and letting them share some of their thoughts about what we are doing every day. Do these things, and you will find your bench!

4. Have the actions of a courageous, understanding, compassionate, resolute leader. More is caught than is taught. We can talk about leading all we want, but are we modeling the daily life of a great leader and mentor? You cannot simply teach these bedrock objectives and expect the next generation to execute them. We must be an example for the whole team through our actions. To better ensure you are doing this, ask yourself daily, if not multiple times a day, “Am I exhibiting the traits of a leader?” You must be courageous and resolute in doing this, so that these actions and traits have a contagious effect on others. Ask yourself that very same question after any intense moment, conflict, or crucial conversation. It is in those intense moments we as good, solid leaders still often fail. These moments test all of us, and we must step back to reflect and examine how we did, identify what we did wrong, learn from our mistakes, and clean up the mess. If we said the wrong thing or if we acted in a manner not worthy of a leader, we must step up and take responsibility for our actions right away. Be the example in all that you do!

5. Make daily deposits into the relationships with your bench. In my younger years, I was very selfish. Life was all about me, having fun, working hard, achieving my goals, and probably a few too many beverages. The average human brain does not fully develop until about 22 or 23 years of age. I was 32 when my kids were born, and it was only then that I finally realized life was no longer about me! It was about my kids and my marriage. I do regret my shallow mind and actions for all those years, but those years also make me who I am today. Today I am devoted to pouring value into others to see them achieve the best versions of themselves possible. We as leaders have the noble responsibility to deeply care for those we are entrusted to lead. The greatest way we can care for our people is by pouring into them all that we can. If we want to build our bench, we must first fulfill the needs of those we lead. We must make it a routine habit to add value to the lives of the people on our teams by thinking of ourselves and our needs less often and focusing on how we can help others and prioritize their needs. Seek out those who are coachable and work hard, and make daily intentional deposits into them just like you do your 401(k) or your cattle account. We always focus on results, but I am asking you to focus on relationships!

If you are reading this, you are likely thinking about the legacy of your team or organization. You may be thinking about the next generation of leaders in your organization and how to grow them. I hope this gives you some information to help ignite this process. If you serve your people, create a transparent mission and values, lead by example, and focus on pouring into those who are coachable and talented, you will build your bench! If you do this, they will do more coaching than you! Just ask Kansas State University Men’s Basketball Coach, Jerome Tang!

“…we got a ton of faith in each other. They have faith in me. I got faith in every one of these guys right here. They probably did more coaching than I did. I just try to love them, man. And when you love people, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”

– Jerome Tang

Dr. Nels Lindberg is a people coach, team coach, business coach, and keynote speaker, available virtually or in person. If you have any interest in these opportunities, please reach out to his of fi ce at 620-792-1265 and visit with his right-hand lady, Jill.