Leading Leaders: Where Are Your Next Leaders Learning to Lead?

Some of the most influential leaders in an organization don't have “leader” anywhere in their job title. And some of the people with leadership titles may still be learning how to lead.

In this conversation, Ron Macklin and Michelle Mosolgo explore a question that remains remarkably relevant: What makes someone a leader, and what does it actually take to develop one?

They discuss the difference between managing and leading, how to recognize the people others naturally follow, and why promoting someone into responsibility is only the beginning.

You Don't Have to Be a Manager to Be a Leader

Management and leadership aren't the same thing.

A manager occupies a position created by an organization. Leadership, Ron explains, is a social position. People become leaders when others trust them, listen to them, and choose to follow their ideas.

Ron calls some of these people “roving leaders.” They may not have formal authority, but they have influence. They build relationships across an organization, understand what's really happening, and often become the people others turn to when there's a problem.

Michelle shares an experience from her own career when identifying these informal leaders helped her organization work through a challenge. Rather than relying solely on the organizational chart, they found the people who already had the trust of others.

Your Best Performer Isn't Automatically Your Best Leader

One of the mistakes Ron made earlier in his career was assuming that a strong individual performer would naturally become a strong leader.

It doesn't always work that way.

Being good at the work and being someone others want to follow require different capacities. Ron learned to look for people who care deeply about what they're doing - and who genuinely care about the people around them.

That raises a different question when you're deciding who is ready for more responsibility:

Who are people choosing to follow now?

Once you begin looking for leadership as influence rather than position, you may discover leaders throughout the organization who have been there all along.

Leading Leaders Requires Something Different

Ron makes an important distinction between leading people and developing people who will themselves become leaders.

To lead another person, you need to become curious about their story - what matters to them, what they're trying to create, and how they see themselves.

To develop leaders, you need to help them become curious about other people's stories.

That changes their role. They're no longer simply responsible for accomplishing something themselves. They're learning how to create the relationships and conditions that allow other people to contribute.

And part of that development is giving people the confidence to go all in.

Ron and Michelle talk about the surprising power of hearing a simple statement in a business setting:

“I believe in you.”

Michelle describes the mood those words can create. Ron shares how hearing them can quiet his own fear and give him confidence to move forward.

Sometimes developing a leader begins with letting someone know that you see something in them before they're completely certain they see it themselves.

A Promotion Isn't Leadership Development

Giving someone responsibility isn't the same as developing them.

Ron and Michelle discuss what can happen when someone is placed in a management or leadership role without a coach, mentor, or someone helping them make sense of what they're experiencing.

They struggle. They make mistakes. And without anyone helping them understand those experiences, they may create a very different conclusion:

Maybe I don't want to lead.

But struggling in a new leadership role doesn't necessarily tell you whether someone can become a good leader. It may tell you they are learning an entirely different kind of work without enough support.

Acknowledgment, coaching, and conversation help emerging leaders interpret what's happening rather than simply endure it.

People Are Learning From the Leaders Around Them

Michelle shares a familiar saying: “People join companies and leave managers.”

She remembers working for a manager she didn't believe cared about her or the people around her. Eventually, members of the team began leaving one by one.

But Michelle took something else from the experience.

She learned what kind of manager and leader she didn't want to become.

No one had to teach her that lesson.

She learned it by watching.

And that's one of the most powerful realities of leadership: the people around you are constantly learning from how you lead—not only from what you tell them, but from what they experience when they're with you.

What Are People Learning From Your Leadership?

If you've recently promoted someone—or you're considering who should lead next - there may be a better question than, Who's best at the work?

Look around your organization.

Who do people already trust?
Who do they seek out when they're uncertain?
Who gets curious about what other people think?
Who seems invested in other people's success?

And then ask one more question:

If you gave that person a leadership role tomorrow, who would help them learn how to lead?

The MacklinConnection Method Workshop is an 18-week practice in noticing how you lead, understanding the impact you have on others, and developing new ways of creating trust, connection, and leadership around you.

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Learn more about the MacklinConnection Method Workshop.

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