Who has had the greatest impact on your leadership development over the years?

Our reader poll today asks: Who has had the greatest impact on your leadership development over the years?

• A boss I’ve worked for: 64%
• A peer: 7%
• A member of my team: 5%
• A family member: 8%
• A leadership coach/expert/speaker/author: 12%
• A business personality (CEO, well-known executive): 4%

Bosses by far. The vast majority of you have been most impacted by a boss you’ve worked for in terms of developing your leadership skills. Let’s flip that around – if you’re a manager, what are YOU doing to develop your people? Clearly bosses have a disproportionate impact on team leadership skills development. Are you spending enough time on it? Are you creating development opportunities for team members? Are you investing in their skills through training, resources, and most importantly, giving them your time and attention? A leader’s job is to create the next generation of leaders. Make sure when your team members answer a poll like this in their future that they’re thinking of you and selecting their boss as having had the greatest impact on their leadership development.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.