Where are You on the Leadership Scale?

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                             (Estimated Read Time 4 minutes)

Leadership is one of those words that is confusing, and people get it mixed up all the time. There's a difference between being a manager and being a leader as a shop owner. A lot of times when you're in the trenches at the counter or in the shop, you think leadership is getting things done. It is to an extent, but it’s getting things done through other people, with other people. Management is all about the results. It's all about compliance. It's about direction. It's about rigidness. It's about accomplishing the goals, and the directives.

Command-style leadership is the least acceptable form of leadership.

Don't get me wrong, we need to have a management component in every business. Leadership is not telling people what to do. Leadership is not holding people accountable. That's management stuff. Leadership is not the military type of leadership.  Command-style leadership is the lowest and least acceptable form of leadership. It’s leading by authority which doesn't work.

What you are looking for instead is servant leadership.

What you are looking for instead is servant leadership. Jocko Willink, the co-author of Extreme Ownership and the dichotomy of leadership with Leif Babin calls it silent leader. A servant leader is there to help the team grow so that you all can achieve your mission or your crusade. Servant leadership is putting the team before the leader. The servant leader is about being humble. The servant leader is about helping your team grow and get to the point where they become their own leaders.

The primary responsibility of a leader is to grow other leaders.

John Maxwell said it best. He said that the primary responsibility of a leader is not to lead. The primary responsibility of a leader is to grow other leaders. That's what it's all about. I think we sometimes get confused because we see in the movies the basic training mentality. We think that's all of the military I did not have the pleasure or the honor of serving, but I know many that did. If you read any of Jocko's books, it's very clear. They have an objective to accomplish, but they leave it up to the team to figure out how to do that.

I’ll talk to you in the next few episodes about getting that leadership style into play to help your team become what they're capable of becoming. And at the same time, helping yourself get to something bigger than you.

Our purpose is to figure out something higher on the pyramid that gives back.

We can all go into business for money and money is important. But when you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it starts with your basic survival needs and then its emotional needs, et cetera. We don't want to stay in the money end of it. Our purpose is to figure out something higher on the pyramid that gives back, that contributes to our team, our community, and our clients in a way that makes it easier and makes it joyful to go to work every day.

Where are you on the leadership scale?

Where are you on the leadership scale? Or are you in the command style, the military structure of leadership, or are you really into the servant leadership where you're growing your team? Yes, you all have an objective. Yes, you must agree on that objective, but by being able to be more of that servant and be there to help your team grow, that's where all the magic happens. That's where it goes from being a business and making money to changing people's lives and feeling so fulfilled by the fact that you had an impact, a positive impact on someone. This is amazing.

I want you to step back this week and ask a couple of questions.

• Where do you think you are on the leadership scale? Are you a manager, military, or servant leader?
• What's your crusade? When everyone understands what the crusade is, no one will come to work for money. Everyone's coming to work to make a difference, and that's where this takes off.

If this message resonates, please share it. If you want to deep dive into the Foundation of Leadership, join my Pocket Business Genius Webinar series.

Also, if you know someone who needs some help, or needs some direction, my Shop Owners Round Table is a lot of fun. It’s on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM Eastern Time.

God bless. Stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.

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