Of course, each of these styles of leadership comes with costs and benefits, but when the leader demonstrates to his staff through mentorship that he values their roles in the organization, he or she can expect to see:
- Increase in-office morale
- Improved inter-office communication
- Smoother buy-in from staff on new ideas
- Staff willingness to collaborate with passion
- An inspired group of individuals excited to serve their organization
- Increased personal initiative from staff
- An improved client experience
- More free time in his or her own schedule to handle upper level business concerns
Mentoring your staff to take on new roles and head up new initiatives not only benefits them as staff members, but benefits the organization as a whole. When reflecting in Part 2 of his series on his first-hand experience with this type of leadership, Booker explains, “[…] becoming closer to my peeps and thereby being positioned to serve them more impactfully, they, in turn, were able to serve our clients better and our performance improved dramatically both quantitatively and qualitatively. In other words, because we became a more communicative and aligned group, our productivity increased consistently and sustainably while our Client Satisfaction and Employee Engagement scores rose to best in class as well. In two words, we got both bigger and better.…”
Of course, anything worth achieving will come with a cost, and when it comes to mentorship, that cost is time. It takes time, most notably on the part of the leader, to create and foster a new company culture centered on higher engagement and increased opportunities for each individual staff member to achieve success.
But when you take the time and money to invest in your staff, the rewards are priceless. The more your staff can do, with passion and purpose, the less you need to do or manage. The more your staff climb, the sooner you will have a succession plan that you can trust and feel comfortable with. And above all, the more that others do to manage the clients and business, the saner you will become. There is nothing worse than going to work each day and dreading the workload and all the hats you need to wear to keep the firm running smoothly. Overall, investment in your staff is well worth the return. Once the “time debt” has been paid, so to speak, the returns are exponential—not just for the staff or the organization, but for the leader, as well.
Jennifer Goldman, CFP, is a business transformation specialist and president of Jennifer Goldman Consulting.