Leadership Development Is About Balloons and Ceilings

Leadership development is about opportunities and limits

The main goal of a strong leadership development program or initiative is empowering, enabling and developing talent. It is furthermore about providing the key resources, support that these talents need to rise to optimum levels beyond their imagination and equally important, eliminating the barriers that limit these potentials.

 

Leadership development is about people!!!

Ballons and Ceilings

Balloons and ceilings, accurately capture the essence of leadership development, an analogy described by Dr. Sam Chand in his book, “What’s Shaking Your Ladder”, where he narrated his observations from a birthday party. He described how the ceiling acted as a barrier to the balloons released inside the party room compared to the ones released outside, in the backyard.

That analogy does capture how many opportunities are missed when talents are misidentified and wrongly placed or aligned. Leadership development is that unique process of intentionally, consistently, and continuously raising the abilities, capabilities of human talent as well as eliminating the ceilings, barriers that could be preventing their ability to be amazing, some of which could be human, institutional, mental, emotional, geographic or social.

When evaluated further, leadership development at its core is about opportunities and limits; inflating “balloons” and eliminating “ceilings”. When we fail to identify the uniqueness of people, fail to empower them to rise and lack the know-how or refuse to eliminate ceilings, as leaders, we’ve truly failed.

It is therefore noteworthy that often when asked about leadership development, we share stories of bad bosses, nasty encounters, and sadly missed opportunities. What many fail, to see is the long-lasting damage to the brand as these experiences inevitably frame the ’emotive’ of the brand for these individuals. It is these stories and the missed opportunities that drive our quest to empower leaders, enable future leaders and develop next generation leaders.

Leadership development is about learning from the past, maximizing the present and adequately preparing for the future

Here are 5 reasons why leadership development matters:

1. Leadership development is about preparing for the inevitability of growth
2. Leadership development is about maximizing the different types of interactions and relationships that exist across multi-levels
3. Leadership development is about preparing and planning for life across the three dimensions – past, present, and future
4. Leadership development is about managing and maximizing the uniqueness of people
5. Leadership development is about identifying and eliminating barriers (ceilings)

Lastly, it is important to remember that the leadership development is not the panacea for all ills or an endgame in itself but rather it is a continuous cyclical process of empowerment, enablement, and development. And it is important to note that leadership development when effectively implemented infuses the organization, society, and ecosystem with life that elevates to greater heights.

To your continued success,

Dr. Flo

Dr. Flo is a Ph.D-trained organizational leadership consultant and coach. A Management Consultant/Leadership Coach and the Founder of The Hybrid Leadership Institute (NGO). Dr. Flo is referred to as The Hybrid Leader™- American Born, British Educated, and Nigerian Raised. A YALE Scholar, Fellow of the Institute of Information Management and certified Project Management Professional. 

 Follow Dr. Flo on Twitter @DrFloFalayi  & on his blog, www.flofalayi.com

If you want to discover more, subscribe to my newsletter here; The Newsletter