A Leader’s Job is to Grow More Leaders — Brian Berner, Spotify’s Head of N.A. Advertising Sales

While studying the great leaders and makers of history, we can see an array of different styles. All truly great leaders, be them democratic, autocratic, or laissez-faire, share a number of common characteristics.

Chief among these shared commonalities is an ability and tendency for these individuals to step up as mentors. As they focus on their own professional development and grow their companies, they also step up as mentors to their own teams.

A great leader should never become an entrepreneur or a business owner just to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the form of notoriety or money; they should also want to model how to be a successful leader for the aspiring leaders on their team. After all, you can’t expect to hire top talent without thinking they’re going to one day pursue leadership in some form.

The Responsibilities of a Leader

In any given organization, a leader fulfills many roles. They are mentors, disciplinarians, motivators, counselors, visionaries, decision-makers, and team players. The list could go on.

While each of these roles are indispensable, arguably the most important of them all is mentorship. If a leader does not share the accumulated sum of their knowledge and experience, then they aren’t doing what’s necessary to share in the growth of their own team members. What good is a lifetime of experience if it is not shared and passed on to the talent you surround yourself with?

Read the full article here. Originally published at BrianBerner.com on April 30, 2020.