Leadership and Business Growth

Last week for our final Mastermind Retreat of 2024, Barrett asked me to present on the deficiencies in my leadership and the action I take to improve. 

Being I’ve known him for 39 years, he knows all the good, the bad, and the ugly.

As I put together my talk, I was reminded of a dichotomy of leadership.

Leadership requires both confidence and humility.

It requires confidence to charge forward in the face of resistance.

And yes, you will face lots of resistance. 

Why?

Human nature resists change and leadership requires directing change.

There’s conflict in the infrastructure of the role. 

Specific to the dichotomy and the other side of the coin.

Leadership requires humility.

Humility is the quality that shows you that there’s plenty of opportunity to improve.

So one 1 hand.

You must know you are awesome (confidence).

On the other hand.

You must know you are not that awesome yet (humility).

This is a dichotomy of leadership and why it’s so hard, yet valuable.

There is alot to leadership.

However, much of it revolves around 2 basic things.

People and Problems.

If you can solve problems that involve people.

Guess what?

You are a leader.

When you break that down.

The level of complexity of people’s problems you can solve dictates how effective a leader you are.

The more effective leader you are..

The more income, impact, and legacy you will create.

This is the value of leadership.

As a leader of self, you will create a strong life.

As a leader of followers, you will create a big impact.

As a leader of leaders, you will impact the world. 

Given this framework, I was recently asked how to become a leader of leaders in a coaching call. 

Well, leveling up your leadership is a lifelong pursuit was my first answer.

Big things take time.

The 2nd reply is to identify 3 people you admire.

Then create a list of the characteristics of these people.

Then begin to build those characteristics in yourself line by line.

After all, leadership is an inside game.

Just keep in mind, big things take time so keep going!

When you break it down, leadership is about ownership.

Simply put, the buck stops with you.

Whether you are the CEO of an International Fitness Brand or the CEO of your life.

You are responsible for your success.

No one else.

After all, as a leader, the buck stops with you.

Yes, that’s heavy but equally liberating.

Onward.

On a recent podcast of ours, Bedros asked me 5 leadership questions.  In the spirit of serving you, I thought it would be of value to break each question and answer down in the next 5 weeks!

Here is the 5th week’s question and answer.

5.) What do you wish you had started doing earlier in your journey of delegating and scaling your business?

Here are some actions I took and/or should have taken quicker. 

Please note that not all will apply to your situation. However, please review and create an idea list of how you can better your leadership, delegation, and execution. 

• I should have hired an assistant quicker, screenflowed my work, and begun delegating tasks quicker. 
• It took me 1 year to hire an admin.
• It took 4 years to hire a personal assistant Emma who was heaven-sent!
• In hindsight, I was just scared of the unknown or how to lead/manage people.  
• The good news is that delegating is like a muscle, you get stronger with more reps, sets, and time.

On a recent podcast of ours, Bedros asked me 5 leadership questions.  In the spirit of serving you, I thought it would be of value to break each question and answer down in the next 5 weeks!

Here is the 3rd week’s question and answer.

3.) What does “delegate and elevate” a company means, and why is this process crucial for taking a business to the next level of scale?

As a leader, you need to delegate work that needs to be executed. This way, you can lead, market, and sell which are your highest priorities. 

With this in mind, leadership requires you to work both in and on your business to drive success. 

There’s a misconception that it’s one or the other which is false.

The truth is that you need to work on both aspects to ensure you steer the ship to your target while having insights that allow you to make good navigation decisions.

Here’s the breakdown:

In the business:

You must dive into the weeds sometimes. This way, you have context and proximity to necessary information. This approach will enable you to provide better guidance to your teammates. 

On the business:

You also need to work at your pay grade and ensure you have people who have situational authority are given space to execute.

This empowers your team, allows for decisions to be made closest to the information. The result is that this approach creates better decisions and frees you up to focus on the few levers that open big doors for company growth. 

The value of EOS in executing your off-site Annual and Quarterly meetings.

Every quarter we step away and work on the business to steer the ship while executing the daily action steps needed to grow.

The desired outcome is that you delegate and elevate your business to success!

On a recent podcast of ours, Bedros asked me 5 leadership questions.  In the spirit of serving you, I thought it would be of value to break each question and answer down in the next 5 weeks!

Here is the 2nd week’s question and answer.

2.) How important is self-leadership for every aspect of your life?

Leadership is not about you, but it starts with you.

Here are the 3 pillars of the leadership framework:

• Lead yourself
• Lead your family
• Lead your empire

Self-leadership is at the foundation of leading your life, your team, and your empire. 

Taking a step back, there’s a leadership deficit in our world and you can see it 1) physically and 2) emotionally in society’s physical and mental state.

• People’s Fitness – 80% of our population is obese or overweight
• Victim mindset and the blame game are prevalent 

This leadership deficit is easy to see. 

This is why leadership is needed and valuable.

When you learn to lead through intentionality and discipline, your leadership and life will explode.

After all.

Leadership is not about you, but it starts with you.

Now go lead!

On a recent podcast of ours, Bedros asked me 5 leadership questions.  In the spirit of serving you, I thought it would be of value to break each question and answer down in the next 5 weeks!

Here is the first week’s question and answer.

1.) Bryce, the term leadership is a vague term often thrown around to indicate achievement, growth, status, etc. It’s something we know we need but not easily defined. What does leadership mean to you?

Leadership is influence, nothing more or less. 

If you can influence others, you can lead. 

Please note, most young leaders overlook that the first step of leadership is an “inside job”.

To influence others, you must first influence yourself through discipline and persistence. 

Therefore, my outlook on leadership is a focus on setting the standard and then being the standard through discipline and persistence.

No one has any factory-installed magical powers as a leader. 

However, the 1 thing I’ve learned is if I lead my life in a way that’s standard in all aspects of life.

This influences others to do the same.

The great John Maxwell calls this leading life with “Morale Authority”.

In leadership, it’s a useful tool to influence.

Simple, not easy!

Most leadership skills are developed.

A rare few are factory-installed.

One of my rare superpowers as a leader is my curiosity about people.

I feel lucky because, for me, it’s factory-installed.

I find humans fascinating and am curious almost to a fault. 

But when you lead people, curiosity is a good thing.

Why?

Well, the truth is that people want to be valued.

They want to share and feel appreciated.

This is ingrained in human nature.

So when you get into a state of curiosity and ask questions about them.

It connects with people and makes them feel valued.

The best part?

You learn not only about a person, but it gives you an incredible life perspective. 

2 important things to lead.

My message is today is if you want to a better leader.

Ask questions, learn about people’s upbringing, childhood, background, family, and beliefs.

Be more curious!

When you do, watch your leadership explode.

As a leader, you will encounter problems.

Lots of them.

In fact, the stronger the problem solver, the stronger the leader.

This a simple truth that’s many times overlooked.

The very reason a leader is in place is to be the solution to the onslaught of problems your team or organization faces.

If there are no problems, there’s no need to lead.

So today’s message is this.

Next time you get overwhelmed or frustrated with professional problems.

Remember the very reason you get paid is to solve them.

This is your value.

Now go be the solution.

This is leadership.