Leadership is a journey, not a destination. It's about growth, learning, and transformation. Here are ten essential insights to guide you on your path to becoming an exceptional leader, shaping your team's success and leaving a lasting impact.
Being a leader happens right now, today, and can be done without money, without authority, and without anybody
Lead yourself: it’s a mindset
- After running 20 or so companies (most of them failures), advising or being on the board of a dozen companies, and being married twice, I have a sense of what I think a leader is.
Change
When you get rid of the buffers against pain and change life becomes more insecure, but we become FREE. We live in a bigger world, a world where risk and beauty go hand in hand and we are no longer afraid of the underlying pains.
- Pain is just opportunities to live in an abundant world.
There’s Always a Good Reason And A Real Reason
In 100% of cases there is a good reason and a real reason.
- Listen for that and see if you can help
- A good solution solves one problem. A real solution solves 100 problems
- Always listen closely and figure out what the real reason is
I) Love Warren Buffett
Buffett says he skips to work and that he would do the work he does for free.
- When he was broke and starting his business in his livingroom, you can read in his letters that he loved what he did and took glee in finding companies that no one knew about and then buying them when they became horribly undervalued.
Gratitude
Make sure every day your employees can call Lewis Howes and they have at least one new thing they can be grateful for
- Maybe they learned a new skill.
- A client they hated was fired because you can’t let your employees get the disease that bad clients are all too happy to spread
Lead Yourself
You don’t need to be leading anyone. Before you can lead anyone, you have to lead yourself.
- The definition of “success” for me is: “Is today successful?”
- Today is the only day I need to think about success. Today is a new day.
The 30-150 Rule (or… the vision rule)
Below 30 people, an organization is a tribe. Below 30, a leader spends time with each person in the tribe and knows how to listen to their issues.
- A leader tells a visionary story – a story that people believe in and trust and bond with.
Dignity
Treat your own projects with respect.
- If you don’t treat yourself with dignity, then how can you expect others to?
- The world is changing very fast and it’s scary. Help people be less scared by hearing the stories of your guests and learning from them.
More Success For Others Than For You
You care about the success of others more than you care about your own success
- Everyone around you needs to ultimately become better than you
- Focus on how the people around you can have a successful day
- Don’t stick your tongue in their ear
Yes, and…
Say “Yes, and”
- List what’s good
- How you would improve
- Figure out the vision that is the base of the idea you are talking about
- Connect the “Why” of what you are suggesting to the initial vision
- Be open to the fact that you might be wrong
Health
A sick leader or a leader who is spending time with people not good for them is not a good leader
- Don’t constantly practice creativity
- Be grateful for the abundance in your life
- There’s no such thing as instant health, progress is all about checking boxes