Today, we are talking about how to become a good leader. So listen in and get some very practical tips on how you can become a good leader in your business.
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Welcome to the Breakthrough Mastermind Show. I'm your host, Jen Argue and I facilitate masterminds for women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses to help others and create financial independence.
When I think about being a good leader, I tend to think about people who have been good leaders in my life and also those who haven't been so good. And I kind of wanna just give those people the benefit of the doubt that they were on their leadership learning journey, because I know I always need grace myself, so I like to extend it freely to others as well. But today, let's focus on the positive let's focus on what it takes, what you can add to your life in order to become a better leader.
I've been blessed with some pretty good leaders in my life. And one of my earliest memories is of my high school principal, Mr. Martin [laugh] it's kinda funny to think that your high school principal could stand out to you, but you know, he had these leadership qualities and one of those was that he was very steady and calm.
Now, I think you could have all different types of personalities and be a good leader, but he was the calm and steady type. And this was a big high school. So I don't know why exactly he chose me, but he reached out to me at one point in my senior year. And asked if I could lead up a new program. And at that point, I, you know, I was kind of surprised, like how did he even know about me really?
And then also that was really a turning point for me because here my principal, who I always admired and trusted and respected was reaching out to me and saying he believed in me. And I think that's a quality of leadership. That always has stood out to me that if you can look at the people who are under your care and be able to see potential in them and invite them into playing bigger roles, that is a really great leadership quality.
So I was super impressed with his leadership. And that was probably the beginning of my own leadership journey of being able to start to see myself as a leader. So think about the leaders in your life. What were the qualities that they had that you think would be possible for you to exhibit as well?
Now, when we talk about leadership, if you go online, you will see that there are all different types of leadership styles and there's, you know, different types of leadership. Uh, some articles will say there's, uh, three types of leadership, some say seven, some say ten, but the fact is that all kind of overlap with each other.
And so I think that in general, we're gonna paint a picture of leadership here that is going to help you. That's going to make a difference in your life and those who are in your life. So when I talk about leadership, I always like to think about three ways that your leadership is impacting the world. First, there's your self-leadership.
So how do you lead yourself? What kind of qualities do you hold yourself to when it comes to your own life? Second, there's your leadership with your staff or anybody who's on your team. And the third thing is your customers. How are you showing up as a leader with those that you're serving? I know I've said this before, but honestly, when I started running a business, being a leader, wasn't really on my mind.
I, was thinking about running a business, but the longer I've been doing this, of course, the more I see and understand why being a leader is so important. And we talked about that in the last episode, but the longer I've been running my business, the more I realize that the aspect of leadership is in every part of my business.
And it's in every part of your business too. And when it comes to personal branding, like my business is a personal brand and probably your business is too. If you're listening to this, because I tend to work with people who are personal brands, your leadership is part of your branding. So depending on your leadership style, which depends on your innate personality qualities and also your preferences and the way that you interact with the world.
That's going to influence your leadership style, but we can always try learning new ways of showing our leadership and living out our leadership. So when I think about leadership, I remember when I was in grad school, I learned about... two different types of leaders and how it impacts a company. And one of the leaders was more of a task-focused leader and...
This leader really focuses on more of the tasks, uh, needed to help a business succeed versus being relational. And that type of leader was typically more helpful to the company that was in chaos or in crisis. They would typically call in a leader who is more task-focused, could bring some calm to the chaos and help the company succeed from that point.
Now, the other type of leader was the relational leader and the relational leader was always a better leader to have when things were very steady in the business and kind of predictable. That point people really grew from having a relational leader. Now, I remember I worked at this one company where it actually had both.
It was so clear in my mind that there were these two leaders, uh, they were co-owners of the business and they both were in the building at the same time. They both worked there at the same time. And in my head I couldn't help it, but I always labeled one as the mayor and the other one as the sheriff.
And, they both were wonderful people and they were good friends colleagues, uh, but they definitely had their own leadership style. And one was definitely more relational. Uh, never really cared too much about the rules. And then the other one was definitely, you know, caring about the rules. Now, relationally, we kind of see that as a seesaw effect, like in couples, right?
When one is less one way the other overcompensates, maybe a little bit of that was happening, but also I could just see how it was part of their personality styles. And so, it worked well. And it worked really well having those two leaders who are very different in the same business. Now, depending on your business, you have to decide, you know, what type of leadership style is best for where your business is right now.
And you kind of have to wear all hats. If you have a smaller business, like less than 10 people on your staff, you're probably still wearing most of the leadership hats. So. It's good to think about how you live out your leadership style. So the most important part about being a leader is that the people that you are leading trust and respect you.
If they don't trust and respect you, it's going to be really hard to lead them. They might still try to, you know, follow through on your vision, but they're probably not going to enjoy it as much. And so how do you earn their trust and respect? Well, it's by leaning into the qualities we're going to talk about today.
Okay. So the first quality is being congruent. When you are congruent, when your actions are in line with your words, that really helps people to trust and respect you. I remember being under the leadership of somebody who always had said that he believed in a certain belief. And if you believed in this belief, you would have a certain type of behavior, and other people under his leadership, we're not doing this behavior. [laugh]
And it frustrated him so much that, you know, he couldn't understand what was going on. When I could clearly see, they're probably not doing it because you are not doing it. If your actions don't align with your words, you're not going to see that in the people that you're leading as well.
Because if you're asking them then to do something and you're not doing it yourself, or you're not willing to do it yourself, you're not making time to do it yourself. They're gonna see that you probably don't actually value that. And so they're probably not going to value that either. It's really important for our actions, at our words, to be aligned and congruent.
Another example of that might be for my own business. If I am coaching my business clients I'm being consistent in their marketing, you know, whether it is doing email or posting on social media, whatever the case. If I'm not doing that myself, it's going to be really hard for the people who I'm coaching to feel like that really is important for them to do.
So, leading by example, and being congruent really helps the trust and respect aspect in those that we're leading. Okay. Second, it's important to be clear. When we are clear in communicating our vision and our mission and our why, then people can wrap their minds around what your passion is all about, and probably helps them to communicate your passion more easily as well.
And when people can communicate your passion to others, you know, that they have probably bought in. To what you're passionate about and that they're going to show up for you and not only you but for the people that you're serving and that you're passionate about. Imagine if you were under somebody's leadership and you weren't really clear about what their mission or vision or they’re why was.
I imagine that energetic impulse in that group would be pretty low. I don't think people would really know what the purpose is. And people really are more driven by purpose than by money, especially in the long run. So third, show an interest in people. Have you ever been on a team and the leader just doesn't even talk to you or even worse doesn't even look at you to feel like you exist is like an essential human desire? And so... as a leader, it's really important to even just say hi to people. So I will bring up an example of a bad leadership example. This was right out of grad school. I was working at a clinic and the director of the clinic probably just busy or probably just not his personality, but he would never go around and say hi to anybody. And I remember walking the halls and just talking people, you know, standing in their doorway, talking to them and... them thinking that they just didn't feel close to this leader or this leader didn't even know them.
And so didn't know what aligned with them and what motivated them. And I remember thinking like what an impact it would be if that person just said hi like that would be amazing. Just even if you don't touch base with your team very much. Maybe start off with like once a month team meeting. I have one woman in my mastermind who never really met with her team.
They just always functioned off of, um, like a project management board and, you know, they were a very- high functioning team, but she decided maybe I will just try reaching out to them and set a standard of touching base once a month. And her team just lit up and the productivity got even higher. She was kind of surprised by that and a wonderful way, you know, but it was so great to just know that you can do that one little thing and it makes a big difference.
I have another story to tell you about that, a good one. So when my husband was outta college, he went to work for a small fortune 500 company. I small, it was like thousands of people in this company. [laugh] So we were on a ski trip. And in the lift line was the president of his company that he just started working at.
And he went over, he said, hello, introduced himself. And the president was like, let's take the lift up together. And so they did and they chatted and had a good time. And then they skied on their own way for the rest of the trip. But how neat, right? That he did that. Well, get a load of what happened next.
After the ski trip and my husband was back at work and this company had lots of buildings. So the president was not in the building that my husband worked in. But he went out of his way to go knock on my husband's office and say, hi and small, you know, small talk a little bit and catch up, ask how the rest of the trip was.
And then he left and that just knocked his socks off and everybody on the floor too, because they got to see this, but they had this new level of respect for the president because he was friendly. He made somebody feel like they counted and that goes above and beyond. You know, anything like that is real currency that you can have as a leader with those that you are leading to be friendly, connect, make people feel like they count, show an interest in others.
Fourth, is hold the weight. Now teams are never gonna be perfect. Right? They're made up of people. And as a leader, you'll never be perfect either, but we strive to be. And so when your team does make a blunder as a leader, it is up to you to hold the weight, take responsibility and own it. And what happens with that is that you are always leading by example.
And so when your team sees that you can be humble enough. To take the responsibility of somebody else's blunder because they're on your team that will speak volumes without having to say anything at all. Now, of course, if things go really well for you. Also, thank your team, give them some credit because you probably got there because you had their help.
So if you're holding the responsibility of something that went wrong, that's really trust building. And if you share the credit, when things go right, that is also trust-building and builds respect.
And fifth, Passion. If a leader is a great leader, they are going to be passionate, passionate about the things that light them up about their mission, their vision, their why, the people that they're serving, they're going to be so passionate about it.
And that passion speaks volume. Passion is contagious too. I honestly can't think of a leader who is somebody that we respect and that we trust and that we admire who doesn't have a passion for something they are focused and on fire. You can tell when a passionate leader walks into a room, they just hold this big energy, right?
Their voice is clear. They know where they're headed and they value the people around them to be part of the team to make this, this passion and this interest happen.
Okay! So let's sum those up. How to be a great leader. Be congruent, make sure your words and your actions align. Be clear, make sure everybody on your team or whoever you're communicating to knows your mission and your vision and your why, and that they can even repeat it themselves if they had to. Show an interest in others, it is so important at the very space minimum to say hi to people that you're leading and even better to be a good delegator, to see the possibility in people to see their strengths and to call them into bigger way of living, because you believe in them. Four, hold the weight and share the credit.
And five passion, show that passion live, that passion lean into it, embody it, and others will catch it to, if you feel like you're falling short in any of those areas, you're human. It's going to happen. But leaders, get back on it [laugh] they start focusing in again, they sharpen their vision, they sharpen their skills and they get right back at it.
I think that's the part of healthy leadership that really requires self-awareness and the more self-aware you are, the better leader you are going to be. I'm so glad that you joined me today. And I would love to hear from you, which of those are your favorite leadership skills and maybe which one is the most challenging.
And I'd also love to hear. If you have another one to add... email me, let me know about it, or direct message me on one of the social platforms. I'm pretty much on all of them. So I would love to hear your input. Thank you so much for joining me on this three-part series on leadership.
And if you are looking for more support, challenge, and inspiration in running your online business, I would love to have you apply to my mastermind.
Check it out! @jenargue.com
