Have you seen the movie Top Gun: Maverick? In the film, Captain Pete Mitchell (a.k.a. Maverick) is charged with preparing a team of ace fighter pilots for a dangerous mission. Besides prepping his team for the logistics and strategy of the mission itself, Maverick also decides to grow his team together. One way in which he does this is by facilitating a game of football on the beach to foster both competition and comradery (cue some super-cool song, here!). When his commanding officer questions why Maverick is doing this, his answer is along the lines of, “You told me to build a team. That’s exactly what I’m doing!”. To this the commander shakes his head, clearly not understanding.
A wrinkle in this plotline is how Maverick is leading a team of leaders. This alters the dynamic of how someone goes about doing this, as opposed to building a team composed of people who don’t have a leadership mindset. It made me wonder: How much attention and effort is being directed toward expanding the capacity of leaders of leaders? School boards, church boards, boards of directors, and other governing bodies have an obligation not only to supervise the leaders they oversee (and this is important) but also to invest in their growth so they can grow other leaders. To neglect the latter is to limit the development of other leaders in the organization, which in turn jeopardizes the future of that organization.
All the Best,
Chuck
