Articles / Leadership Is About Making Others Better: The Executive Guide
Development, Training & CoachingDiscover proven strategies for leadership that focuses on making others better. Learn how top executives build high-performing teams through development-focused leadership approaches.
Written by Laura Bouttell
What does it truly mean when we say leadership is about making others better? At its core, this philosophy represents a fundamental shift from command-and-control management to transformational leadership that prioritises human potential over mere task completion. Research from Harvard Business School demonstrates that organisations with development-focused leaders see 23% higher profitability and 18% better performance outcomes compared to traditional hierarchical structures.
This principle, championed by leadership luminaries from Sir Ernest Shackleton to modern business icons like Satya Nadella, challenges the conventional notion that leadership is about personal achievement or maintaining authority. Instead, it positions leaders as architects of human potential—individuals whose primary responsibility is to elevate those around them to heights they never thought possible.
The implications for modern business are profound. In an era where organisational agility and innovation determine market success, the leaders who focus on making others better create sustainable competitive advantages that transcend economic cycles and technological disruption. They build what the ancient Greeks called arete—excellence of character that permeates every aspect of organisational culture.
Consider the maritime leadership of Sir Francis Drake, who famously declared that "the advantage of time and place in all martial actions is half a victory." Modern business leaders who embrace the philosophy of making others better understand that their advantage lies not in hoarding knowledge or maintaining information asymmetries, but in creating conditions where every team member can achieve their personal best whilst advancing collective objectives.
This comprehensive guide explores the strategic frameworks, practical methodologies, and cultural transformations required to implement development-focused leadership at the executive level.
The business case for development-focused leadership extends far beyond altruistic intentions. McKinsey's latest research on organisational performance reveals that companies prioritising employee development achieve 40% higher customer satisfaction scores and experience 25% lower turnover rates compared to their peers.
When leaders focus on making others better, they create what organisational psychologists term the "multiplication effect." Rather than being the primary source of ideas and decisions, effective leaders become amplifiers of collective intelligence. This approach generates exponential returns on human capital investment.
The principle operates similarly to compound interest in financial markets. A leader who develops one person's capabilities by 20% has created marginal improvement. However, a leader who systematically enhances the capabilities of an entire team creates geometric progression in organisational capacity.
Key Performance Indicators of Development-Focused Leadership:
Modern neuroscience provides compelling evidence for why development-focused leadership produces superior results. When individuals feel genuinely supported in their growth, their brains release higher levels of oxytocin and dopamine—neurochemicals associated with trust, motivation, and creative thinking.
Dr. Daniel Goleman's research on emotional intelligence demonstrates that leaders who prioritise others' development create psychological safety, enabling team members to take calculated risks and pursue innovative solutions without fear of punitive consequences.
How do we precisely define what it means to make others better in a business context? Development-focused leadership encompasses five core dimensions that distinguish it from traditional management approaches.
Traditional management focuses on ensuring tasks are completed efficiently. Development-focused leadership, by contrast, uses each task as an opportunity to expand individual capabilities. The leader asks not merely "How can this be done?" but "How can doing this help my team member grow?"
This distinction mirrors the difference between teaching someone to fish versus giving them fish—a principle that resonates deeply with sustainable business practices and long-term organisational resilience.
Making others better requires creating environments where individuals feel safe to experiment, fail, and learn. Google's Project Aristotle identified psychological safety as the most critical factor in high-performing teams, surpassing even individual talent levels.
Leaders who focus on making others better cultivate what Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck terms a "growth mindset"—the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This contrasts sharply with fixed mindset environments where capabilities are viewed as static traits.
What's the practical difference between coaching and directing in daily leadership interactions? Development-focused leaders spend approximately 60% of their interaction time asking questions rather than providing answers. They guide team members through Socratic dialogue, helping individuals discover solutions rather than prescribing predetermined approaches.
This methodology draws inspiration from the coaching traditions of British military leadership, where officers were trained to develop junior leaders' decision-making capabilities under pressure rather than creating dependence on superior authority.
Effective leaders recognise that making others better requires understanding each person's unique combination of strengths, development areas, motivational drivers, and career aspirations. This personalised approach mirrors the precision of bespoke British tailoring—creating solutions that fit the individual perfectly rather than applying universal approaches.
Assessment Framework:
Making others better requires structured approaches to capability building. This goes beyond informal mentoring to encompass deliberate practice methodologies, stretch assignments, and progressive skill acquisition frameworks.
Progressive Development Model:
Development-focused leaders create sophisticated feedback mechanisms that provide real-time insights into performance and growth opportunities. This extends beyond annual reviews to encompass continuous dialogue, peer feedback, and self-assessment processes.
The feedback culture resembles the iterative refinement processes used in British scientific tradition—constant observation, hypothesis testing, and incremental improvement based on empirical evidence.
Making others better ultimately means creating conditions where individuals can exercise independent judgment and take ownership of outcomes. This requires leaders to gradually transfer decision-making authority whilst maintaining appropriate oversight and support structures.
How can established leaders shift from traditional management to development-focused approaches? The transformation begins with fundamental mindset changes that reshape how leaders view their role and responsibilities.
Mindset Shifts Required:
Leaders must conduct comprehensive assessments of current team capabilities, engagement levels, and development potential. This baseline provides the foundation for measuring progress and tailoring development interventions.
Assessment Components:
Each team member receives a personalised development plan that addresses their unique combination of strengths, growth areas, and career objectives. These plans include specific milestones, resource requirements, and success metrics.
Development Plan Elements:
The implementation phase requires consistent application of development-focused practices, regular progress reviews, and continuous refinement based on results and feedback.
Implementation Practices:
How do busy executives find time for development-focused leadership when facing immediate business pressures? This challenge requires reframing development activities as investments rather than costs, and integrating growth opportunities into daily business operations.
Time Management Strategies:
Some team members may resist development initiatives, particularly if they've experienced previous cultures that punished mistakes or discouraged initiative. Overcoming this resistance requires patient culture-building and demonstrating genuine commitment to individual growth.
Change Management Tactics:
Executives need quantifiable evidence that development-focused leadership produces business results. This requires establishing metrics that capture both individual growth and organisational performance improvements.
ROI Measurement Framework:
When British Airways faced severe reputation and performance challenges in the early 2010s, new leadership adopted a development-focused approach that prioritised employee empowerment and growth. The transformation illustrates how making others better can drive organisational turnaround.
Key Strategies Implemented:
Results Achieved:
Unilever's "Sustainable Living" initiative demonstrates how development-focused leadership can align individual growth with societal impact, creating what CEO Alan Jope calls "purposeful leadership that makes others better whilst making the world better."
Development Philosophy:
Measurable Outcomes:
As artificial intelligence assumes routine cognitive tasks, the premium on uniquely human capabilities—creativity, emotional intelligence, complex problem-solving, and relationship building—increases dramatically. Leaders who focus on making others better in these dimensions will create irreplaceable competitive advantages.
AI-Era Leadership Priorities:
The shift toward distributed work models requires evolution in development-focused leadership approaches. Leaders must create growth opportunities and meaningful connections across physical distances and time zones.
Virtual Development Strategies:
How can leaders track progress in making others better before results appear in traditional business metrics? Leading indicators provide early signals that development-focused leadership is taking root and beginning to generate positive outcomes.
Key Leading Indicators:
Lagging indicators demonstrate the ultimate business impact of development-focused leadership approaches, validating the investment in human potential development.
Primary Lagging Indicators:
Leaders who consistently focus on making others better create what organisational theorists call "cultural DNA"—deeply embedded patterns of behaviour that persist beyond individual tenure. This cultural legacy becomes a sustainable competitive advantage that compounds over time.
Cultural DNA Elements:
Individuals who experience development-focused leadership often become development-focused leaders themselves, creating exponential expansion of positive leadership practices. This ripple effect extends beyond organisational boundaries as developed leaders move to new roles and industries.
Ripple Effect Manifestations:
The evidence is unequivocal: leadership focused on making others better produces superior business results whilst creating more meaningful, engaging work experiences. In an era of unprecedented change and complexity, organisations cannot afford leaders who merely manage tasks or maintain status quo operations.
The transformation from traditional management to development-focused leadership requires courage, patience, and genuine commitment to human potential. Yet the rewards—for individuals, teams, organisations, and society—justify this investment many times over.
As we face an uncertain future marked by technological disruption, global challenges, and evolving workforce expectations, the leaders who will thrive are those who understand that their primary responsibility is not to be the smartest person in the room, but to make everyone else in the room smarter, more capable, and more fulfilled.
The question facing every current and aspiring leader is not whether they have the authority to make others better, but whether they have the wisdom and courage to embrace this profound responsibility. For in making others better, leaders create their most enduring legacy—not the deals they closed or the targets they achieved, but the human potential they unlocked and the lives they transformed.
The call to action is clear: Begin today by asking not "How can others help me succeed?" but "How can I help others exceed their own expectations of what they can achieve?" In answering this question through consistent action, leaders discover that making others better is not just a leadership philosophy—it is the essence of leadership itself.
Development-focused leadership means prioritising the growth, capabilities, and potential of team members over personal achievement or control. Practically, this involves coaching rather than directing, asking questions instead of providing all answers, creating stretch opportunities for growth, and measuring success by how much others improve under your guidance. It requires shifting from being the primary problem-solver to enabling others to solve problems independently.
Executive leaders can integrate development activities into existing business operations rather than treating them as separate tasks. This includes using routine meetings as coaching opportunities, turning delegation into development assignments, providing real-time feedback during regular interactions, and creating peer-to-peer learning systems. The key is reframing every business interaction as a potential development moment rather than scheduling separate development time.
Organisations with development-focused leaders typically see 23% higher profitability, 31% higher productivity, 40% higher customer satisfaction, and 25% lower turnover rates. Additional benefits include faster decision-making, increased innovation rates, stronger succession pipelines, and improved employee engagement scores. These improvements often translate to significant revenue increases and cost savings over time.
Overcoming resistance requires patience and consistent demonstration of genuine commitment to individual growth. Start with willing participants to create success examples, ensure psychological safety by rewarding learning and intelligent risk-taking, clearly communicate the business rationale for the development approach, and create immediate positive experiences with new methods. Focus on building trust through small wins before attempting larger culture shifts.
Essential skills include active listening, powerful questioning techniques, providing constructive feedback, recognising individual strengths and development areas, creating personalised growth plans, and building psychological safety. Leaders also need coaching competencies, emotional intelligence, patience for gradual development processes, and the ability to measure both individual growth and business outcomes from development investments.
Virtual development requires leveraging technology for consistent coaching relationships, creating structured digital mentoring programs, using video calls for meaningful one-on-one development conversations, and establishing clear communication channels for ongoing feedback. Success depends on being more intentional about development interactions, scheduling regular virtual coaching sessions, and using collaborative tools to track growth progress across distributed teams.
Traditional management focuses on task completion, maintaining control, and solving problems directly. Development-focused leadership prioritises growing individual capabilities, empowering decision-making, and teaching others to solve problems independently. While traditional management asks "How do we get this done?", development-focused leadership asks "How can doing this help my team members grow?" The approach shifts from directing to coaching, from controlling to empowering, and from individual achievement to collective capability building.