Ep. 393: A Hard (but Worthwhile) Lesson in Leadership

The 4 Pillars of Leadership

Who should listen: This episode is for anyone who aspires to be a better leader.

Key idea: Effective leaders must fulfill many functions that often leave them standing alone.

This Stay Paid Silver Dollar episode opens with a story. We share what happened at ReminderMedia (the producer of the podcast) a while back and how we missed a few things about leadership that led to 17 salespeople quitting within 2 weeks. (At the time, 17 was a sizeable chunk of our people).

As Luke explains, he takes full responsibility for the exodus. But, while he’s a “buck-stops-here” kind of guy (which is exactly what you want in a leader), what happened wasn’t only his fault. We all learned something from the experience.

It’s against this backdrop of failed management that we explain the 4 pillars of leadership, and how we missed the mark on several of them:

• Leaders must set a vision. There are many resources that can guide you in developing a company vision, but Luke makes several observations about creating a vision statement you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere. One of the points he makes is about how a vision functions for those who are tasked with fulfilling it.
• Leaders must inspire others to fulfill the vision. To have your vision accepted—let alone considered—isn’t easy. We offer several ways to ensure that your vision statement doesn’t simply get written down and then forgotten or ignored.
• Leaders must “walk the walk.” An effective leader will model the behaviors and execute the actions necessary to fulfill the vision. To walk the walk describes a facet of servant leadership—it describes leaders who, among other things, are humble and willing to get into the trenches and do what they are asking others to do.
• Leaders must first hold themselves accountable before they can hold others accountable. Reading this statement, you might think, “of course.” But this is precisely where so many people who aspire to be great leaders fall down. We explain why leaders don’t hold themselves to standards of accountability and the damage it does.

Please enjoy this episode, and we’d appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review and comment on Apple Podcasts.

Connect | Resources

Blog: Here’s How to Prepare Your Salespeople for Leadership Roles [Updated]

Your Very Own Professional Publication: remindermedia.com/branded-magazines/

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