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You’ve probably heard it said that seeds produce after their own kind. In other words, apple seeds don’t produce cucumbers, they produce apples. Acorns produce oak trees. A seed produces what’s in it.

At the top of most organizations and/or divisions, there’s generally one of two types of leaders: Reproducers or Producers.

Reproducers, generally, are reproducers because they reproduce reproducers. It’s what they’re wired to do.

Producers, if given a leadership position, typically produce producers.

Stick with me, and think about your current team, and who falls in which category: recognizing what kind of leader you are (a reproducer or a producer), and recognizing what kind of leaders you have in your organization, can go a long way in eliminating frustration and setting realistic expectations. It will also help you in determining who should be championing what, and why you should hand off responsibility of cultivating a leader to a reproducer, versus handing off the responsibility of executing a project to a producer.

A reproducer is wired to reproduce reproducers, and gifted at spotting them quickly. In other words, inside him/her is the capacity to identify, develop and release other leaders who can exponentially reproduce other leaders so you as an organization can expand capacity, add other services and products, a lot faster. A sign of an organization led by a reproducer is rapid horizontal growth. New division rollouts, more risk taken to penetrate new markets, etc.

Producers, however, if put in a leadership position, will typically raise up other producers. A producer in a leadership position can typically build a strong unit of production capacity, and continue to find opportunities for efficiency, savings, and increase output capacity. A sign of an organization with a producer at the helm tends to be laser-beam focused in a single discipline and vertically competitive (multiple layers of experience and depth within a single market space). However, don’t place a false expectation that out of that unit will come your organization’s next reproducers.

Every organization needs both. Just make sure the right one is in the right seat on the bus.