Three L’s of Leadership: Part 2 (Ep.9)

Episode 9 - Part 2: “Three L’s of Leadership” 

 

Part 1 Recap: These three L’s represent three very important actions that leaders must take and last week we covered the first two: 

 

Listen: 

• Anyone can bloviate, and most people do
• All leaders are good listeners
  • "Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking." — Bernard Baruch

Learn:

There are two questions I always ask someone who wants me to coach them and embark on the leadership journey with them, and those questions are:

• “What are the three books you are reading right now?”

• “Who is teaching you?”

 

Today’s Episode:

 

LEVERAGE

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Archimedes, Greek philosopher. 

 

Remember, leaders cannot do anything by themselves.  The essence of leadership to the very core is needing other people to come alongside you and to help them so that you can get to a common vision. You can’t lead if there is nobody following you.  So, think about that, and then apply the quote, and you have a recipe for great leadership.

 

Leveraging is about “maximizing your advantage.”   

 

REFLECTION QUESTION 1: Are you maximizing your advantage? 

• Your job is to maximize what is in front of you.  
• Leaders always do the best with what they have.  
• Leaders do one of two things:  They can make excuses or make things happen.  But, they can’t be both.”  

 

REFLECTION QUESTION 2: Are you the type of person who makes excuses, or the type of person that makes things happen?  Because one is a leader, and one is not.

 

There are three specific things that leaders can and should leverage, if they really want to make things happen. 

 

1. Leaders leverage TIME

 

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” — Warren Buffett

 

REFLECTION QUESTION 3: What do you need to say ‘no’ to more? 

 

When you think about time as a leader I want you to think of the word DISCIPLINE.  

 

Book Tip: Getting Things Done, by David Allen.  

 

2. Leaders leverage RESOURCES

 

Resources - the tangible parts of your world.  What is it that you have at your disposal that otherwise might just be sitting there unless you leveraged it properly? 

 

REFLECTION QUESTION 4: Are you using those resources correctly?

 

If you don’t learn to leverage those resources, your company will not grow.  

 

Put your people in a position with the maximum amount of resources, without wasting those resources of course, so they can get the job done.

 

Peter Drucker once said, “Unless such commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes, but no plan.” 

 

Book Tip: Dare to Serve, Cheryl Bachelder - When she put the right resources in front of the right people, things started to happen. It was not easy. It was tough. It put a strain on every other part of the business, but leaders make the tough decisions. 

 

3. Leaders leverage TALENT

 

"I hire people brighter than me and I get out of their way." Lee Iacocca

 

Henry Ford got people around him who were smarter than he was. “I’m not successful because I’m the smartest guy in the room, I just make sure to get people around me who know what to do”.  And THAT’S the essence of leadership.

Cornelius Fichtner famously said, “The ‘P’ in PM is as much about People Management as it is about Project Management.”

 

 As leaders, we all know that people are our biggest asset.  John Maxwell said in his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, that if you get the people for long, nothing else matters.  

 

Nothing is more important in your business than people.  In fact, it doesn’t matter what company you work for, or alone, people ARE your business.  

 

MO’s Final Thoughts: 

If you don’t have a coach in leadership, you’ve got to get one! The way to get these three L’s ingrained in who you are is to walk alongside other leaders. Don’t go at it alone. Leadership can get lonely. That’s why you need other people alongside you. If you take these three L’s and start applying them, you will start getting some great results. 

Amazon Book Links:

Getting Things Done, by David Allen.  

Dare to Serve, Cheryl Bachelder

 The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell

Special thanks to:

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