That is a really powerful way to look at leadership, and honestly, you've hit on a truth that a lot of traditional bosses completely miss.
True leadership isn't about creating followers or dictating every single move; it’s a cycle of empowerment. If you train someone but micromanage them or strip away their freedom to make decisions, you aren't building a "leader of tomorrow" you're just training an assistant to follow orders.
When you deny someone freedom in their development, a few things happen that hurt their leadership potential:
No Room for Accountability: If they don't have the freedom to make a choice, they can never truly take ownership of the outcome—whether it's a success or a failure.
Stifled Innovation: Critical thinking and problem-solving only grow when someone has the space to try their own approach, even if it looks a little different from yours.
Loss of Confidence: True leaders need to trust their own gut. If they are constantly waiting for permission, that trust never develops.
The best leaders act more like coaches. They give you the foundation, the vision, and the safety net, but then they step back and give you the autonomy to actually lead.
The rule of thumb in Scouting:
Plan with the scouts, not just for them. The more input they have, the better the program runs.
NOTICE
Plan backward to know where you are going, but execute forward to make it happen. A vision without a timeline is just a dream, and a timeline without a vision is just a treadmill.
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