Text us. Share your thoughts. Ask Questions. We would love to hear from you.
When I faced a professional setback that shook me to my core, it became a profound turning point. It's these moments of adversity, and how we respond to them, that Douglas Ford and I explore in our enlightening conversation about the unexpected roots of leadership. Our podcast peels back the layers of misconception that educational qualifications are the sole ingredients of effective leadership. Instead, we delve into the fundamental role of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and, most importantly, perseverance. Through sharing personal experiences, we demonstrate how these traits are vital in molding a leader who serves with humility and resilience.
Our journey doesn’t just stop at personal anecdotes; we draw lessons from historical and biblical figures. Moses, a man known for his significant leadership and spiritual journey, becomes our point of reference as we dissect the essence of growing from one's trials. As I recount my own six-year battle with ego and professional reinvention, Douglas and I reveal how life's toughest episodes can serve as a crucible for leadership. The narrative of Moses in Exodus 18 serves as a stark reminder that it is the combination of our experiences and our reactions to them that forges our ability to lead and inspire.
Finally, we tackle the art of delegation, as illustrated by Moses' encounter with his father-in-law Jethro's sage advice. Leadership isn't a solo act; it's an ensemble performance that calls for identifying and empowering others to share the stage. We discuss the parallels between Jethro's counsel and modern organizational structures, offering valuable insights for today's leaders. Whether you're steering a company, guiding a family, or navigating your own personal challenges, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom on balancing ambition with personal well-being. Join us to uncover how you can transform your hurdles into stepping stones for success.
Text us. Share your thoughts. Ask Questions. We would love to hear from you.
When I faced a professional setback that shook me to my core, it became a profound turning point. It's these moments of adversity, and how we respond to them, that Douglas Ford and I explore in our enlightening conversation about the unexpected roots of leadership. Our podcast peels back the layers of misconception that educational qualifications are the sole ingredients of effective leadership. Instead, we delve into the fundamental role of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and, most importantly, perseverance. Through sharing personal experiences, we demonstrate how these traits are vital in molding a leader who serves with humility and resilience.
Our journey doesn’t just stop at personal anecdotes; we draw lessons from historical and biblical figures. Moses, a man known for his significant leadership and spiritual journey, becomes our point of reference as we dissect the essence of growing from one's trials. As I recount my own six-year battle with ego and professional reinvention, Douglas and I reveal how life's toughest episodes can serve as a crucible for leadership. The narrative of Moses in Exodus 18 serves as a stark reminder that it is the combination of our experiences and our reactions to them that forges our ability to lead and inspire.
Finally, we tackle the art of delegation, as illustrated by Moses' encounter with his father-in-law Jethro's sage advice. Leadership isn't a solo act; it's an ensemble performance that calls for identifying and empowering others to share the stage. We discuss the parallels between Jethro's counsel and modern organizational structures, offering valuable insights for today's leaders. Whether you're steering a company, guiding a family, or navigating your own personal challenges, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom on balancing ambition with personal well-being. Join us to uncover how you can transform your hurdles into stepping stones for success.
There is hope on the other side of pain.
Speaker 2:Welcome to First Lead you a podcast dedicated to building leaders, expanding their capacity, improving their self-awareness through emotional intelligence and developing deeper understanding of selfless leadership.
Speaker 1:Hello American, welcome to First Lead you where we believe selfless leadership is essential. America is suffering a leadership crisis. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence is the key to developing selfless leaders.
Speaker 2:Now here is personal growth coach John Ballinger. Hello world.
Speaker 1:I'm John Ballinger, with First Lead you. I'm here with my trusted co-host, douglas Ford. John, how are you this week? I am good, good. I'm blessed to be sitting in this chair alongside you talking about something personal today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think today's going to be a little bit different than kind of our normal repartee in the podcast.
Speaker 2:Did you say party.
Speaker 3:Repartee.
Speaker 1:Repartee yeah.
Speaker 3:Is that French for party? It could be a party. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, I agree. So today's topic is education doesn't make you a leader. I think I just heard people scream just now. I think I touched a sore spot.
Speaker 3:Education doesn't make you a leader. Meaning what?
Speaker 1:Well, before we get into that, let's talk about our word for the show.
Speaker 3:Yes, a word of the day.
Speaker 1:Word of the day. The word of the day is perseverance. Definition of perseverance continued effort to do or achieve something, despite difficulties, failure or opposition.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 1:Perseverance.
Speaker 3:One more time.
Speaker 1:Continued effort. I think that's critical.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So we're going to take this effort to do or achieve something, despite difficulties, failure or opposition. I really, truly believe, when we chose that word for the day, in the show and surrounding our topic and surrounding the story that we're going to tell, it'll all kind of come together. Perseverance is so important in leadership.
Speaker 3:So what's our adventure, for us today?
Speaker 1:We're actually going to talk about my failure.
Speaker 3:Just the one.
Speaker 1:Well, this was a big one. This was a big one. However, we're also going to talk about what it led me to go search. I kind of went on a journey of searching myself after that failure, with some guidance of family and friends and you know people that didn't abandon me after that failure. Because it's easy when you're, when you're doing the thing, Everybody wants to be part of the thing. But when you fail, it's like where'd everybody go?
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah, I think today people can take away from this your own personal reflection, like that you had to do to go through this. And then, obviously, the perseverance to keep going after, after a major life blow, and the ability then to come out the other side of it and be better for it Not better.
Speaker 1:Better, not better, that is that's tough to absolutely. That is tough because we we know, as as humans, how to harbor resentment and bitterness that can turn to hatred and self loathing, and I mean we know how to do that. Well, what we're not as good at, of taking those life experiences and actually turning them into being better people, better leaders, better for our team, do something bigger and better. We thought that thing that we'd lost was the thing. May just been a lesson. May not been the thing.
Speaker 3:So, so, let's you want to start us down the road?
Speaker 1:Sure, this is tough. So, um, I was retiring from service and trying to, like most people do that have been in the military. You, you are service minded, your service oriented and you want to do something with the next half of your life, and so you're. I was sitting around trying to think about what that was and it was kind of pressed on me to really tackle something that I think was just ginormous, and and it and it was, it was making creating an organization that would create leverage for small business owners. Much like the way it was portrayed to me and my in this impression that I was having. Much like Walmart did for the consumer. You know, the Walmart said we build, we buy more so we can price it less and out our price, our competition. And so that was Sam Walton's philosophy. If you read his book Made in America, it was he wanted to buy more than Sears and Kmart, and Sears and Kmart thought he was foolish and they said let him buy it, let him buy all he wants to buy. Well, look what happened to Sears and Kmart, because they thought that they were smarter than Sam.
Speaker 1:And so I had this, just this urge to to serve small businesses, because I didn't feel like that. I felt like they were underserved, I didn't feel like they had the leverage that big corporations had. And so I set on a journey and it was a long journey it was. It was years to build what small business owners say that were pain points to them. And we were at a point where we were Julie and I were my wife were running out of money. We had done everything imaginable to get this to the point where it was ready to launch nationwide, and I found a partner that had the financial capacity to help me launch it and even had some good friends that had come along the way working for us. And one day I go to go in the door of the corporate office and the key card wouldn't work.
Speaker 1:The electronic key card that lets you in the door wouldn't work.
Speaker 3:Wouldn't work. Did you have that like in bad spot in your wallet or something I mean?
Speaker 1:no well, I thought. So I called and said hey, you know I can't get in the door. I don't know if something's happened, de magnetized or whatever. And my then partner said we've decided, we don't need you anymore.
Speaker 3:Wow, I'm sure that was quite the shock.
Speaker 1:You think it was, and I automatically had this moment with Steve jobs because of reading his book where the board told him we don't need you anymore. And when you build something for years through perseverance and passion and feel like it's a calling because you, we were actually building businesses while we were building a business, to be able to pay for the business we were building, so all that was weird.
Speaker 3:you know that was you and Julia were doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and. And people I had? I had some incredible people come alongside me that tried to persevere and just couldn't withstand the pressure and the stress and the strain. And so then it was gone. And I remember for several miles, because it was the distance from the headquarters to my home was about two hours. I remember just kind of not even understanding how I got from one point to another because I had so much going on in my head and I called a dear friend of mine and he told him what had happened and he just gave me some of the most simple advice go home and grieve. So just grieve, he said. If you don't grieve, you become angry and bitter, there'll be hatred, you'll do things, say thing. Just go grieve.
Speaker 3:Was that like, were you able to do that immediately, or did that take some time to kind of work into? I mean, this shock and everything I'm sure was still there and that it takes some time to build into that, or not actually didn't.
Speaker 1:I actually drove straight to the house and laid down on my living room floor and just grieved and cried, you know, wondered and just all the things. You know why. And I remember just feeling this impression of saying God saying I told you to build it. I didn't tell you what I was going to do with it. I know that was the and that was a startling moment for me because I'm like you know, he just he didn't tell me what he was going to do with, he just told me to build it. And I'm not saying at all, don't be giving me. I'm not saying I'm Noah's art, I'm the building. I don't know, I'm not saying that at all.
Speaker 1:That was years, that was decades. This was almost a decade, but it felt like a hundred years, right, because of having to build a business, to build a business, to grow business, and you know the financial strains it puts on and stress and the wondering, like what's this guy doing? I did feel like that people like man, are you nuts? You're going up against the 1% of corporations in America. They will crush you. I mean, I heard advice from people. I heard, you know, people talking about me, people talking about behind my back, you know, and so I grieved and I remember getting up out of the floor and thinking, all right, he did tell me what was going to do with it, but it did.
Speaker 1:It did tell me that there was another journey because, man, the information and knowledge that I learned while I was building it, it's still with me. It's like you can't take that away. And so it's still there and it's still doing things. I think we'll do things greater than that thing and I've seen it start manifesting since then and being able to speak so clearly about all those things, about the legal side of business and the insurance side of business and the oil side of business and the financial side of business. I can speak so freely about all that because of that journey and it helps me advise companies today and consult with companies, because I can go into very, very large companies multi-million billion dollar. I could go into those companies and understand the dynamics of all those industries and how they impact, the largest to the smallest. So that was the, that was the perseverance that I went through, and now I had to go through some more perseverance because now I had to recover from that.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, yeah, so that was, that was my next question. So you said that you went home, you grieved and then, you know, kind of felt like you God was talking to you and giving you the, the message that you needed, but that didn't immediately make like everything perfect and hunky dory.
Speaker 1:No cause. At the point I get out of the floor while I'm emotional and mentally I'm trying to figure out what to do next, you do feel like you've had to heck me out of you and and there is a what's next, and and you don't want to make a mistake. So when you've made this huge mistake cause, it's a contractual mistake. I didn't put in the operating agreement that the board could not vote me out. I could not be removed from a company that I founded. I didn't do that. It made me hyper aware of how important language is in contracts, which I still use to this day.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And and when somebody says I oh so-and-so attorney did this for me, I'm like, was it boilerplate, right? What's that mean? I said that they just, you know, go in and ask a few questions and all of a sudden now it's there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't long at all, I'm like mm.
Speaker 1:no, every contract is different, has some nuances in it. The majority of it can be boiler boilerplate, but there's just a few things that you need to be hyper aware of, especially when they're partners and boards involved and things like that. And you know, don't do not become jaded by the fact that you think that because an attorney did something on a contract that it's iron clad and going to protect you, not going to happen.
Speaker 3:And so what would you say? How long you think it took for you to kind of fully recover emotionally, spiritually, mentally, after all that took place?
Speaker 1:Wow, um, probably 70, seven or eight years Really. I mean to the point where I'd say I was emotionally, spiritually, financially probably seven years, but that didn't you didn't just get stuck right there.
Speaker 3:I mean, I came along and really got involved with you. We'd known each other prior to, but I really kind of started getting involved with you probably Two years, three years after that, or was it probably, I would say. And so I mean we were. We were in a group of people that were talking about trying to start some businesses and do some things and you know I remember your level engagement in those was not as much as like everybody would want it to be and I think as you were still processing some of that like we didn't, we didn't realize that you were still processing that no, and obviously cause I was very close to the vest with this, I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't wear a T shirt or you know, have a son Like I've been crushed, my company's been stolen, it's cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. I didn't say that, I just. I just and I'm a digger, you know, by nature, when I come up against the obstacles, I just dig. And sometimes that digging puts you in a place where you're not letting people around you or you're not letting things out that you should let out. And there was a dark period of time in between the grieving part and the healing part where it almost feels like probably like Moses when he was in the desert, cause I did feel it a period of times that I was alone in the desert, which is dangerous. If I could tell you anything, if you have a bad event that happens in your life, the worst thing to do is to burrow and to hope. Don't do it. Find there are. Everybody cares about people at some level and wants them to help and help people. I really think there are people that truly want to help people and find you that person or persons that can help you when you're in that hole. Get out of that hole and I had people come around me.
Speaker 1:Matter of fact, one of the people that challenged us to talk about this and what happened on the other side of that was a gentleman that I think, chris Ackerson, who, uh, I actually he graduated one year behind me in high school, so that's how long we've known each other. I mean well, the audience doesn't know, but we've known each other for over 40 years and, uh, and he just challenged me, he's like you know, you've got a story to tell and you've got to talk about the failure and you've got to talk about the victory out of that failure. And we really never talked about that. And 30, what? Five episodes, 34 episodes. And I told you this week, I'm like we got to tell that story and so that's the story. And then we may go a little bit long in this story and I want to caution the audience because I think it's one of the most impactful leadership lessons in the Bible and it's what I was drawn to, to take me through the desert, out of the desert and into victory.
Speaker 3:Well, you mentioned uh, moses, uh in that uh little, uh, my log there and we'll hear more about that and how Moses has connected all this. We want to come back from break Absolutely big energy every day. Welcome back to FirstlyGee. We are today on a bit of a personal reflection. John is sharing with us some things that he's walked through from a business development standpoint as well as a personal growth standpoint, and before we went to the break, you had mentioned some things that you had been led to to help you kind of walk through this process.
Speaker 3:Even though it was quite a journey, you mentioned that it was took about six to seven years to fully kind of walk through that and come out of that. And though, as I got to know you, it really was you walking out of it, it wasn't being stuck in a spot. It was a long journey and there were certainly times that I'm sure you felt more stuck at times and struggling to keep moving forward. But you know, as an outside observer of that process and not fully knowing exactly what was going on, looking back I can see that you kept moving out of that, like that's how you got to where you are today, because you could have very easily just stopped there and so so bring us alongside you now. And what messages did you receive? Where were you pointed and led to start helping you? Walk through that.
Speaker 1:Before we do that, I want to tell the listener this there is hope on the other side of pain. However, you can't stop, because when you stop, when the pain takes place, satan will attack you and he will convince you that every decision that you are going to make from here on out is going to point back to that failure or be part of that failure. And that's not true. You need to embrace the fact that the failure did take place and it could have even been a lesson that was needed to be had to you. Because, I'll be honest, douglas, I had the big head. I actually thought I had figured the thing out and in reality, I had figured the thing out, but it gave me such a ginormous ego that I didn't listen to anybody and I just got my legs cut out from under me. And I really think today that you know. People say that God is not a God of anger. I don't think that at all, but I think he's a man who will teach you a lesson, especially if he wants you to be walking in this way in your life. And I got knocked around a little bit, I got humbled, and that's not a bad thing to be humbled if you know how to come out of that in a positive manner, and I believe that I've been allowed to with a bunch of great people and a lot of prayers. And so he led me to a specific chapter in the Bible, exodus 18, and I went and I read it and I'm like you know what's that mean. I mean we've heard that guy's Moses, we know the burning bush, the tap, you know the 10 Commandments and we've heard all these stories about this guy. And so now you want me to read this particular chapter and so I read it again, I read it again and about the fourth time I read it I'm like, oh, four times into it. And then I'd start doing some research. So I'm going to give some context to why we labeled the show like we did.
Speaker 1:Education doesn't make you a leader, because at the time Moses was highly educated. If you do any research on the education that he was gifted to have keen and mathematics, engineering, law, I mean he had a top level education. However, he refused to be called Pharaoh's son. He said he didn't want who he was to be labeled because of Pharaoh. He wanted to be who he was because of who God wanted him to be, and he wanted to be seen as a person of God, like other people, not because of this, and so he had all this education and it comes, it comes. It's so just so happens, excuse me, it's just so happens that during all these first 80 years of life, with his education and being a shepherd, that he meets his future father-in-law.
Speaker 3:Well, and if we back up just a step, Moses had a pretty big failure in his life. He did prior to getting out into the wilderness.
Speaker 1:He did. He had his own scars he had to overcome. He killed a man. I did not do that. There were times I did not do that, but I mean he did and he, his life, his first 80 years, was a journey Right 80 years 80 years.
Speaker 3:That's a long time to get to where you're supposed to be.
Speaker 1:I don't know what's crazy is. Then he was tasked to do one of the biggest tasks in the Bible, and that was lead the Israelites out of captivity to what was referred to as the promise land.
Speaker 3:And it took him 40 years to get there. Another journey in perseverance.
Speaker 1:I know the dude was right full of 40 year journeys Right, we got 40 of this and 40 of that as a shepherd down the desert. But what was happening is that he was being prepared for that over that first 80 years Some of the things he learned about being a shepherd. I was researching and it said that at one point there's some you know some research that said that Moses made some reference to learning how to lead people because they're like sheep and there's some truth to that. You know, if sheep want to be, they want to be bad, they want to be watered, they want to be protected and I really think people want to be fed.
Speaker 1:I call it the things I learned army Fed, clothed, housed and paid. In general, as long as we're fed, clothed, housed and paid, we have a good feeling that everything's all right and we won't necessarily raise our head up and say why is that happening or what can I do about that, because we're fine with the four things. And Moses realized that sheep are the same way and so he was learning to lead people by leading sheep.
Speaker 3:We are referred to as sheep. We are quite a bit in the Bible.
Speaker 1:They are.
Speaker 3:But I was doing this sometimes not for a benefit, that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm doing this deep dive on you know who Moses was, who Jethro was, education and all these things while reading and I read Exodus, the actual book, but I kept coming back to 18. And as you understand the point that I'm getting ready to make about leadership and why education doesn't make you a leader, highly educated guy, but his father in law, in the in the exos, chapter 18, he comes to him and he's got his wife with him. So he's got Moses wife with him, he's got Moses children with him. And he comes up to Moses and he's he's already sent them word that he's going to come to have dinner with them and so there's an expectation and this is this is the humor that I see in the Bible. He comes to him and he kisses him on the cheek, greets him. Moses, tells the things the Lord's done to him, doing for them, and you know he's that's great and he's uh, he's looking at how Moses is set up in a chair and it says that there are people lined up from daylight to dark here to get to Moses to solve problems. And Jethro sees this and says Moses and this is critical for leaders. So leaders, please listen to this. He said Moses, what you're doing and how you're doing, it is going to wear yourself and your people out.
Speaker 1:I've asked you and if you look at the numbers that said that Moses was in charge of leading, it says 600,000 men and if you put women and children, there's estimates of two million plus people. Now, douglas, I want you to think about that. For a second One guy two million people who had been held in captivity and now, three days into the journey, they're moaning and groaning and griping and talking about we could just go back there and die. You're killing us. Think about, as a leader, how many times you've heard people troubleshoot you. Second guess you what are cooler? Talk about you. You're these people worth? This guy's absolutely nuts. He has no ability to lead us. Now we're all griping and I use this when I get to talk about this.
Speaker 1:There's an old electronic store called Circuit City and when you go in, you'd go in the front and you'd have to pick a number out of a turn style and they would call your number when it was your turn and I tell people I said can you imagine being number 156? Then line that day, get up to and you're standing line and what you want to talk to Moses about. You hear all this angst and anxiety and just anger from all these people as you're moving up to number 56 and number 38. And by the time you get there, you've forgotten all about what in the world you wanted to go talk to the guy about, because you're so mad.
Speaker 1:When you get up there, listen to those people. You just look who knows what you talk to him about? But you're inching your way up and Jeffro's like Moses, you can't do this, and so I think it's important for the leaders to know that no, you can't. I mean, that was a that was a major task, but you cannot do it alone, and that's what Jethro was telling him. And so, if I may, I want to read some of the most important scriptures that this literally have been imprinted on my heart and all this.
Speaker 3:Yes, please hear that.
Speaker 1:He says what you are doing is not good. And I want you to just take in context it is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. I know as leaders we feel like we've got the weight of the world on our shoulders. It's almost sometimes where we've got bricks on our back. We feel so burdened by all the tasks that we've got going on in people. And then he says you are not able to do it alone. Now he gets to actually tell him you are not able to. So why are you doing this? Because it's driving you and these people crazy.
Speaker 1:And here's the here's the humor. To the father-in-law and the son-in-law Now obey my voice. Now, douglas. Now if your father-in-law came to you, you've been tasked by God himself to do a job. And your father-in-law comes to you and says you're screwing up and you're doing it wrong. And then he says now obey my voice. You either got to. You've either got a lot of humility you better just muster up or you're going to tell them. You know what? This is my gig, not yours. You just need to get out of here. That's pretty much what would happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's not a lot of other options related to that.
Speaker 1:But he said now, obey my voice, I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws. And so, okay, that's good, but, moreover, here's the here's the lesson part. There's two critical lessons for leaders in this to critical Look for able men from all the people who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate bribes. And I mean Douglas, I just the fourth time I read that. It just hit me like a brick because it just so happened the company that I was building was one that I had understood that there was this fourth branch of government, that kind of dictated business in America lobbyist. And how do lobbyists do what they do? They use money, they buy favor. And I mean, at that moment I had this like two lightning strikes just hit me up top of the top of the head and I'm like, oh my gosh, that far back.
Speaker 1:The last character trait Jethro told to find leaders to help him was people that will not accept bribes, that actually hate bribes. To me that was an incredible moment in my life. So the two. So you got two character traits. He wants them to be able. He wants them to fear God, but he wants them to be trustworthy and not take bribes or hate bribery. And then he says so that's the first big aha moment for me. And then the second aha moment for me was and then place the men over people of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
Speaker 1:And when I read that I automatically went back to the military where I saw you know, a squad, a company, a battalion, a brigade, you know, and I thought my gosh, he was telling them back then. You know the people in this group that are those character traits, but they may only be able to handle 10 people. That's their capacity to lead. But you also know there could be some that are 50 and some that are hundreds and some that are 1000. And he said go find those people and let them judge the people at all times, and every great matter they shall bring to you, but the smaller matters they shall decide for themselves. And I'm telling you, douglas, that whole portion that I just read to you just hit me like a brick and I've been on this journey of recovery since then, using that as a guide for people that I surround myself with, people that I select to go into companies, for businesses I will use.
Speaker 1:I don't. I don't actually bring the Bible out and start reciting scripture. You've been around me. I don't do that.
Speaker 1:I have a unique way to probe and find out what someone's character traits are, without asking them point blank. Are you trustworthy? Will you accept bribes? Do you fear? You know? I don't. I don't do that. I don't even say the words, but through a series of questions and assessments we do, we I could take the assessments that we use to select team members and weave through that information to find out about those, those character traits, and also find out what their number is, because I will actually ask a leader so what's your number? I'll say what number I'm playing, the number which you can lead people without it feeling like there's a brick on your chest, without you being angry, without you having to take it home and lash out at your family. What's your number? That you're very comfortable, that I can lead that team and it doesn't cause me a lot of stress and the team feels like they're being led well.
Speaker 1:So when you go back to the podcast right before this one, when we talked about patience and then listening, look at the character traits of patients and listening that Moses had to have in order to have the perseverance he had to lead those people that were just all grabbing at him until it got to the point, it says, once he found those, it says Moses immediately went and found those men and all their lives were better, and he listened to his father-in-law.
Speaker 1:He obeyed his father-in-law's voice. He said obey my voice, listen to me. Guess what leaders you should have someone in your life that can be a Jethro. And what I had to come to full terms with Douglas is where I thought I was going to be this big business icon, because I figured all these things out, that what really the lesson that I had learned and lesson that I had been taught was that I needed to be here to be a Jethro for leaders. I was the person going to whisper in their ear or help guide them and move them in the right direction. Hence this podcast. I mean, you know, you know more than anybody. I've got plenty to do, right.
Speaker 3:You're a busy fellow.
Speaker 1:And. But this podcast is really a journey in itself to expose leaders to what they should be doing to lead their people, starting with first learning to lead themselves so that they can lead the 10s, 50s, hundreds and thousands. And I want to make this, I want to make this very clear to a leader when you have a team of people that you're leading, those people are extremely important, but behind every one of your team members is a family.
Speaker 3:So there's really some exponential components to the people you leave, in terms of the families that they represent, the people they care about, the people they're leading is all a part of you being a good leader to those people that you have immediate influence with.
Speaker 1:It really is. Because we do not lead our people well, they can't lead their families well. We're screwing this earth up for kids. For better than that. As a society, if we're better than what we are, why would we not do things better for the kids? We're better than what we're handing these kids, and you, as a leader, have gotten to be better for that team member leadership tempo, because no time in America's history has a family been under attack more than they are today.
Speaker 1:That puts an enormous amount of pressure on leaders. You've had to be stronger or patient, be a better listener, be more compassionate, be stronger, be more bold, be more courageous all the character traits we're talking about Today in America's history. You've got to be all those and more every day that you step into the fire of being a leader. And I'm telling you, if you're not ready for that, if you're not ready to first learn to lead yourself so you can do that, get out of the way and let somebody else do it. There are people that are born to be leaders. A lot of times they have life circumstances that just knock the crap out of them and they don't feel like they can go throw back into a leadership position. You can, you absolutely can. I am proof sitting in this chair.
Speaker 3:And that's really what we talked about in episode four of this season was that idea of what is a leader, what truly is the leader, who is truly a leader, the characteristics that make up a leader versus someone who may be really good at managing a group of tasks for a team. And when we talk about leadership, when we talk, you know. Firstly, when we talk about that, it means that you truly care about the team of people that you're leading and you want them to grow and develop and you're doing all that you can on a daily basis, on a routine basis of learning to lead yourself so that you can lead them well.
Speaker 1:Leaders, if you do not care about your people so much it hurts sometimes. Need to check yourself Really, do.
Speaker 3:Well, john, we appreciate you sharing that journey that you were on and helping us better understand how to persevere the word of the day and walk through some of that. And those journeys look different for everybody, and so we'll leave you with one task to work on between now and our next podcast, which is, if you're on a journey, outline that journey, recognize that journey and determine where you are and start crafting a plan of how you're going to lead yourself out of that journey, and part of that may be finding some other people to walk with you.
Speaker 1:And the secondary to that, find out what your number is. If you've got more people that you're responsible for, then what's your cable of? It's all right to raise your hand and find some people to help you, but don't think just because you want to reach some position that has much more responsibility and much and many more people so you can arrive or make more money, you're killing yourself and them. I mean Jeff Rose words to Moses. You're going to wear yourself out and those people, but also your family.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for sharing, thanks for listening, thanks for being here Until next week. Thank you for listening.