Kings and Kingmakers

I came across a company the other day, which offers a program called Kings and Kingmakers.  It struck me as a perfect analogy for what we need to do in business.  We have lots of Kings – leaders at all levels.  What differentiates the best kings/leaders (in my view) is whether they bring their people up behind them, to fill their shoes one day, or to fill another King’s shoes. 

Sure, as Kings, we all need to manage the business of today, but we also need to figure out what the business of tomorrow will look like, to meet the needs and desires of our clients and other stakeholders.  And we need future leaders (kings) who can tackle those emerging needs.  So in fact, being a Kingmaker is about developing people to meet those future needs, not to be a carbon copy of ourselves meeting today’s needs.   

Tying that up with something else I have read about the finite resources in the world.  Our future leaders (and our leaders of today) need to start using those resources more sparingly.  And reusing resources.  Otherwise, we will make ourselves extinct before we know it.  Gosh, that’s pretty depressing!  But this is where our Kings/leaders of today really do need to think about who they choose and develop as future Kings, those who can lead in times of ever decreasing resources.  So we need Kings who can work in that world, themselves being Kingmakers for a world that we can hardly predict. 

What are your thoughts about the future generation of leadership attributes; and how you can help future leaders to develop those attributes?

(Sorry if you were expecting me to write about Prince George – our newest UK Royal.  But look also at how his father – Prince William – will develop him for a different Kingly future to the one where his grand-father – Prince Charles – grew up)