TEACHING LEADERSHIP IS one thing, and for the most part, teams who hire The Program already do a decent job of it. Developing leadership is another matter.

Down by 17 at half-time, the coach gives a screaming, profanity-laced speech. Red-faced and with spittle flying, he grabs his star player and yells, “I need you to be a better leader.” After seeing her three-year team captain graduate, the coach calls one of her incoming seniors into her office and says, “Now it is your turn. I need you to lead.” A managing director or regional sales manager unexpectedly departs a firm. The CEO tells the next most senior person or best salesperson that they are now the new leader of that branch or region.

In all these scenarios, those athletes or individuals are set up for failure. Teaching leadership makes people aware of what good leaders (and bad) do. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make you one. To become a leader, we must be developed. In order to do so with the future leaders within your organization (family, athletic team, corporation, school, etc.), leaders must take—or more probably, find—opportunities to provide subordinates with three things:

1. A task they are to accomplish
2. Conditions under or with which they must work
3. A standard to which it must be completed

Nearly everything we do in the Marine Corps has a task, condition, and standard associated with it, from making your rack (bed) at boot camp to engaging a moving target with an M40A4 sniper rifle. We constantly put young leaders in charge of smaller tasks, and then hold them accountable for the results. We do this so that the first time they must lead isn’t when they are unexpectedly thrust into the role during a combat patrol in Marjah, Afghanistan.

Leadership Means Accountability

An easy example of where this process can be applied for leaders of athletic teams is the locker room. Messy locker rooms drive coaches crazy. How we do small things is how we do all things. If we are going to be disciplined on the field, it needs to start in the locker room. However, this can be difficult for an 18-year-old (or a 44- or 64-year-old) to grasp. As discussed earlier, the head coach must stay focused on the details, but that is not to say that they must be the person who is responsible for the cleanliness of the locker room. Instead, assign one athlete who has influence, as well as the desire and ability to be a leader, to be in charge of the locker room. Better tasks for subordinates’ leadership development are those that entail them working with and influencing other co-workers. That person’s “task” is to ensure the cleanliness of the locker room, and the “conditions” include the cleaning supplies available and the help of teammates. Set up one locker that looks the way you want them all to look. This is “the standard.” Explain to the student-athlete leader that all lockers must look identical to this one and that they will be held accountable for the results.

The next time you, the coach, walk into the locker room and see a towel on the ground, you don’t lose your mind on the team. You don’t even yell at the athlete who threw the towel on the ground. Instead, you call into your office the student-athlete whom you assigned as leader and who accepted the responsibility of the locker room’s cleanliness, and you hold that person accountable. Hopefully, that athlete will improve communication and accountability with teammates. You can offer to help with this. If the person complains that it isn’t fair to be held accountable for someone else leaving a towel on the floor, that communicates either a lack of understanding that leaders are responsible for the performance and actions of others (and it needs to be explained), or that the person simply doesn’t want to be a true leader. As discussed earlier in this section, a leader needs influence and both the desire and the ability to be one. Although still challenging, ability can be developed more easily than desire.

On most athletic teams, however, team captains are allowed to call themselves “leaders” merely for calling “heads or tails” prior to a game. If you are not responsible and held accountable for the performance of anyone else on your team, you are not a leader of it. In corporate America, leaders must simply assign greater responsibility (a task) to their subordinates. If there is anything (conditions) that can help them (and their teammates) to accomplish this, communicate it to them, along with your expectations (standards) for its successful accomplishment. Then hold that individual accountable. Remember that to best develop a subordinate’s leadership ability, assign a task that entails them working with and influencing other co-workers. If the task doesn’t involve these two things, you are not developing your subordinate’s leadership—you are just giving them more work.

Start with Small Responsibilities

Certain things are critical to mission accomplishment, and the leaders or their immediate subordinates must stay responsible for them. Delegate everything else to those whose leadership you wish to develop. The challenge initially is that they won’t be as efficient or effective as you or your immediate subordinates. Manage your own expectations and remember that, initially, you weren’t as efficient or effective as the guy who came before you either.

When we work with teams, at the conclusion of the first day of training, we select one participant and tell them everything they need to know for the following morning’s training. It is then their responsibility to communicate that information to everyone else on the team and ensure that they show up on time and in the proper uniform. This can make coaches or business leaders very uncomfortable. Many would rather tell the team themselves or put an assistant in charge. We look at it differently: if someone shows up five minutes late the next morning or in the wrong uniform, we will still have a great day of training, and by holding the individual accountable whom we put in charge, they will learn a valuable leadership lesson.

Leaders get held accountable to two standards: accomplish the mission, and take care of your people. Giving young leaders a task, condition, and standard is a great way to develop them. If you expect your subordinates to lead, don’t let the fourth quarter, a big project, or a combat patrol be the first time they have done so.

The Process of Developing Leaders

1. Select some upcoming leaders whom you want to develop.
2. Assign them a task to accomplish and explain the conditions they must work under and the standard to which the task is to be completed.
3. Hold those teammates personally accountable for the results.
4. As they develop as leaders, give them increased responsibility and more challenging tasks.