Leadership and Business Growth

I am here with a tough leadership lesson today grounded in truth.

As a leader, you won’t be liked in the short term.

Why?

As your leading responsibility grows and in most situations, you will be confronted with the need to make hard decisions.

Hard decisions that even if it’s the right decision, will upset people.

This is unavoidable. 

Want an example?

Think about putting your kids down for bed.

This is the right decision for their well-being and that of your family dynamic. 

However, at the moment, they are not happy with you because they want to stay up and play longer.

Hard but the right decision.

This is leadership my friend so embrace it.

I will leave you with a good life and leadership quote by the late Eleanor Roosevelt to put this lesson in context:

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”

Here are 2 truths when leading. 

You will never have all the desired information before you need to take action. Yes, it’s important to source as much data before you begin to move. 

This will increase your probability of success.

Then once you do, charge hard with passion around the direction you believe is right.

However, you also have to be flexible enough when presented with new evidence that conflicts with your initial belief.

When this happens, you need to be able to pivot.

This is the dichotomy of leadership.

Today’s lesson:

Charge hard with flexibility my friend!

In the words of Jocko Wilink.

Discipline = freedom.

Here’s a 2nd truth.

Discipline = leadership.

You can only lead someone else as far as the discipline in which you possess.

So my leadership lesson is this:

Want to be a better leader?

Dial up your discipline.

Then watch your leadership explode!

Stay tuned for next week’s lessons as I will give you a strategy on how.

Leadership is like fitness.

You can get fit.

But you can always get fitter.

You can learn to lead.

But can always become a better leader. 

Depending on how you view it, this can be exciting or depressing.

Exciting because there’s an endless opportunity to improve. 

Depressing because it’s overwhelming to know you need to to improve. 

That’s why leadership can be fickle.

My lesson today?

Realize that Leadership is a journey.

Sometimes you are ahead.

Sometimes you are behind.

The road is long.

The secret is to keep your head up and develop more skills every day.

“1 day at a time” as they say in my 12-step group.

This will help you navigate the fickle waters of this thing we call leadership.

Working with people is hard.

Building a team is hard.

Leading is hard.  

This is the hard truth of life, leadership, and business.

However, here’s the 2nd truth.

While hard.

This is where the value lies.  

My lesson today is this: 

When things get hard.

When people’s issues stack up.

Reframe your frustration to gratitude.

After all, your ability to lead and problem-solve through people issues is where your value & opportunity lies.

So embrace the hard!

A couple of weeks ago, we had our coach facing Elite Training in Southern California. My brother Barrett led an incredible workshop and asked me to speak on Leadership.

In my talk, I laid out a framework for self-leadership called the 2 D’s which are founded on 1) Direction and 2) Discipline.

To lead yourself and others, you need both.

Specific to discipline, here is what I know to be true and shared in the training around your leadership capacity. 

“Your leadership capacity is only as strong as your level of discipline.”

Let this sync in and your leadership will grow.

I was humbly reminded of this famous adage last week.

“A healthy man has a million dreams, a sick man has one.”

That’s right: Your Health is Your #1 Wealth!

Why do I share this today?

Last week I broke a 2-year no-sick streak but grabbed the flu on Tuesday accompanied by a 102 fever through Thursday. 

I was seeing stars, in a world of pain, and wiped out my week.

Today’s leadership lesson?

Your health is your biggest life and leadership asset.

Invest in it.

Without it, nothing else matters.

Today’s lesson is one of acquiring emotional intelligence. 

This is mission-critical to be a strong leader.

Maybe even one of the top skill sets needed for the job.

Yes, much easier said than done which is why leadership is hard and requires self-mastery.

Why do I share this today?

I had a thought back to an embarrassing situation in my youth. I was 20 years old when my girlfriend broke up with me.

I overreacted, overdrank, and made a scene.

I thought the “world was over”.

It was ugly.

The truth?

I look back and laugh as I am 21 years removed from the situation.

There are many lessons I learned from this experience.

One of them is in perspective.

What I learned is that most things in life are not as good or bad as they seem at the moment.

When things are going well.

Guess what?

This too shall pass.

When you’re down on your luck.

Guess what?

This too shall pass.

Today’s leadership lesson?

Keep in control of your emotions, not the other way around.

What I’ve learned in life and leadership is that most times it’s not as good or bad as you think.

So take a deep breath and keep leading!

A leadership truth I’ve learned and was reminded of in 2024 that can be counterintuitive is this:

Your following can and will get behind an idea that isn’t theirs. 

However, there’s 1 important caveat.

Their ideas and feedback need to be heard before they will get on board. 

The opposite is true.

If you don’t create the space to ensure your team’s ideas are shared and they feel heard. 

Human nature shuts down, your influence declines and you will feel noticeable resistance. 

The lesson?

Create space for your team’s ideas to be shared and ask for feedback to ensure they feel heard.

Then decide with conviction, and your team will go with you even if it wasn’t their ideal choice.

Just ensure they feel heard!

Onward.

I received this below leadership message from my friend Craig Ballantyne last week.

I thought it was spot on so I wanted to share it with you.

This way, you can level up your leadership for 2025.

Phases of leadership:

• You must first lead yourself (good habits)
• You must lead with vision (helping your team see their future)
• You must lead with listening (communication skills i.e. active listening)
• And you must keep it all going with accountability and difficult discussions