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Strong leaders do more than delegate responsibility—they develop people who can eventually take their work farther than the leader could alone. In this episode, David Ashcraft shares how he learned to build teams by intentionally investing in people, establishing trust, and giving them room to become experts in their own areas. David explains why development requires more than hiring talented people and handing them responsibility. Leaders need to stay closely engaged early, create shared learning experiences, communicate expectations, and be willing to course-correct when necessary. He also challenges leaders to examine their own role when someone on the team is struggling. The goal is not to remain the most capable person in every area. It is to build people who grow in expertise, ownership, and confidence—and strengthen the organization in ways the leader could never accomplish alone.
IN THIS EPISODE:
02:50 Building Development Rhythms
04:40 Knowing Who to Invest In
06:15 How Trust Develops Over Time
07:30 The Power of Intentionality
09:29 How Leaders Set the Tone
12:00 Setting People Up Early to Become Experts
14:51 Why Leaders Hold Talented People Back
17:17 The Power of Shared Learning Experiences
23:20 Developing People for Their Benefit
WHY THIS CONVERSATION MATTERS:
Organizations grow stronger when leaders stop measuring their value by how much they personally know or control. Developing others means intentionally helping people build expertise, take ownership, and eventually accomplish things the leader could not accomplish alone. That requires time, trust, communication, shared experiences, and the willingness to give both encouragement and correction.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Put regular development conversations on the calendar rather than assuming growth will happen naturally.
• Build trust through consistent communication and demonstrated follow-through over time.
• When someone is struggling, examine your own hiring, training, expectations, and leadership before assigning blame.
• Model the attitudes and behaviors you want to see in the people you lead.
• Hire people who can become better than you in their areas of expertise.
• Invest closely during a person's early months so greater autonomy can come with confidence later.
• Create shared learning experiences that give teams common language and reference points.
• Develop people for their benefit, not simply for what they can contribute to the organization.
• Course-correct when necessary rather than allowing misalignment to become normal.
• Give development enough time and consistent communication to produce genuine trust.
WHO THIS EPISODE WILL HELP:
• Leaders moving from doing most of the work themselves to building and empowering a team
• Managers responsible for onboarding and developing new employees
• Pastors and nonprofit leaders developing volunteers and emerging leaders
• Senior leaders managing specialists who possess deeper expertise than they do
• Leaders who struggle to delegate without micromanaging
• Leaders navigating underperformance or difficult corrective conversations
• Organizations looking for stronger shared-development rhythms across teams
STANDOUT IDEAS:
• “The only way our organization is going to get better is for you to get better.”
• “I want you to take this further than I could ever possibly take it.”
• “We’ve got to be the kind of leaders and people we want.”
• “Often as leaders, we think it's all about us and figuring it out and how to trust others when they're trying to figure us out as well.”
• “If you choose to leave, you're going to leave way better than you were when you came in.”
• “That constant communication over time is what makes it all work.”
LINKS MENTIONED:
GLN: Year-round Leadership Tools
2027 Global Leadership Summit
LISTEN:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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