Leadership Development Best Practices Every Week: The Development Exponent Podcast with Bruce Holoubek, Ep. #1

Leadership development is a massive topic, one which I realize has been addressed from a number of perspectives over the years. So why have I thrown my hat into the ring as an “expert” in areas of leadership? Simple: The approach I’ve taken to leadership development over the years simply works – and it’s based on an understanding of 3 interconnected topics.

Those three topics are the basis for everything I’ll be speaking about on this podcast, so I’m using this inaugural episode to outline what they are, give a brief definition of each, and explain how I’m hoping to use this podcast as one aspect of a strategy to energize leadership and thereby enhance the lives of leaders, managers, and team members all across the globe. Welcome, I hope you listen, learn, and subscribe.

Could you use #LeadershipDevelopment best practices every week? Check out the #DevelopmentExponent Podcast with Bruce Holoubek Click To Tweet

Development | potential | growth. A powerful combination

Development cannot be viewed as a stand-alone activity. It’s really an exponent of potential that exists in both individuals and organizations. You can view it like a math formula, where P = potential, D = development, and G = growth. Like this…

What it means is really pretty simple: when the potential of an individual or an organization is raised through development, growth happens at an exponential level. Said another way… as we increase development, potential is converted into greater levels of growth. I encourage you to take a bit of time to think that through and you’ll begin to see why these three things are so important in themselves, and why together they make for a powerful combination.

Mutually meaningful work engagements (MMWEs)

When a significant portion of our lives is spent doing work-related activities, it matters tremendously that we figure out how to make meaningful, fulfilling work happen. But in my view, this isn’t just a concern on an individual level. Work that is accomplished has to be meaningful for the organization as well. When both of those things happen, I call it “mutually meaningful work engagements.” Here’s my basic definition of MMWEs:

Engagements where the individuals develop and organizations grow at a near-equal rate, and where one never happens at the expense of the other.

In this podcast you’re going to learn a lot about MMWEs, so stick around.

Mutually meaningful #work engagements (MMWEs) have to do with meaning for the individual and the #organization. Find out more on this episode of the #DevelopmentExponent podcast with Bruce Holoubek Click To Tweet

Leaders are the interface between individuals and the organization

Those in positions of leadership could look at their roles in a variety of ways. Some have said leadership is influence. Others have said leaders are those who establish a vision and determine direction. But in my model, leaders play a fundamental role in the development and growth of both the individuals on their teams and their organizations.

I call the leader’s role an “interface” between the individuals and the organization. They are the ones who have the responsibility to ensure that the organization is functioning as developmentally as possible and creating mutually meaningful working relationships. And that’s a 24/7 commitment. We’ll get into this concept and what it entails for leaders, on future episodes.

Leadership development best-practices for you, every week

Why am I doing a podcast? I’ve been blessed with many successful years as a leadership contractor (we advise AND execute our advice on behalf of our clients), working with leaders in functional roles ranging from Director of HR to Chief of Operations and have done so in markets ranging from construction to pharmaceutical – all the while applying my ideas about development as an exponent. Doing so, my organization – Contracted Leadership – has facilitated the growth of net profits in client companies by 7X and gross profits by as much as 3X.

But this podcast is not about that – it’s one of the content avenues I’m using to be a part of creating 1 million meaningful work engagements by 2021. I want to expose people to a different type of thinking that enables them to create a development exponent in their organizations. Why? Because it’s a travesty to spend ⅓ of your life doing what we call “work” and not know how to leverage it to its fullest. Worse yet, it’s a tragedy to define that ⅓ of your life as something other than life itself. We’ll talk about that issue of work-life-balance in future episodes.