If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium in which it lives. Sharks can be six inches long and fully mature. But turn them loose in the ocean and they grow to their normal size.

The same is true of potential leaders. Some are put into an organization when they are still small, and the confining environment ensures that they stay small and underdeveloped.

According to noted medical missionary Albert Schweitzer, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others…it is the only thing.” Part of creating an appealing climate is modeling leadership. People emulate what they see modeled. Positive model – positive response. Negative model – negative response. What leaders do, potential leaders around them do. What they value, their people value. The leaders goals become their goals. Leaders set the tome. As lee Iacocca suggests, “A speed of the boss is the speed of the team.” A leader cannot demand of others what he does not demand of himself.

As you and I grow and improve as leaders, so will those we lead. We need to remember that when people follow us, they can only go as far as we go. If our growth stops, our ability to lead will stop along with it. Neither personality nor methodology can substitute for personal growth. We cannot model what we do not possess. Begin learning and growing today, and watch those around you begin to grow. As a leader, I am primarily a follower of great principles and other great Leaders.

“Leaders Around You, by John C. Maxwell. Pg 20 & 21