The Leadership Compass

This is an introduction to Becoming a Person of Influence.  I will discuss with you some of our issues with our present leaders and begin showing you that you can be the change we all want to see in world.  I will also demonstrate that regardless of where you are in your life and career, you are already a leader!  I want to walk with you on a journey of change and influence to make our world a better place.

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The Leadership Compass

The world is suffering from a deficit of good leaders, you don't believe me? Take a look at what's going on in the world.

What do you see? We're currently in a realm devoid of good solid leaders. Oh, there's some good ones out there. They're all drowned out by the noise of the so called leaders who quite frankly, couldn't lead a chicken across the road. They're all too busy chasing their own selfish agendas. And they have absolutely nothing to do with trying to lead our world to a better place. All you got to do is turn on the news, and it's right there slapping you in the face. They don't even try to hide it anymore. Why do you think that is?! Well it's because they think we don't know how to make it better. They think we can't make a course correction to get ourselves back on track. That's why! Look, in our own nation, our so called two party system continues to play our people against themselves. As long as the people continue fighting over something as trivial as a party affiliation, we will continue to follow our current path to nowhere fast. So now you're asking me, how can we get ourselves back on track? And how can we make our country a more desirable place to live? Well, it most certainly is not, and in storming the Capitol building and trying to hold Congress hostage. It most certainly is not violently, protesting and looting businesses in your own neighborhoods. And most definitely is not ignoring the institutional as problems that have been in our country and overlooked for far too long. It starts with you.

That's right.

You are the one who start bringing our nation back around to the great place we were all taught it was when we were in grade school. We were raised that this country was the melting pot of the world. I know some of you remember Schoolhouse Rock, and for those of you that don't know what Schoolhouse Rock is, get on Google, look it up and watch the episodes, you won't be disappointed. So we were taught about the process of how to pass a bill into law for the betterment of our lives. Our lives! The lives of every single individual within the border of the United States. Not just those with money, or those in positions of power, or those in leadership, every single person, regardless of race, creed, nationality, whatever, we deserve better lives. I'm going to turn the tables on you because this is not a political podcast. I just wanted to grab your attention. And everybody seems to get overheated about politics these days. So I'll take what I can get. But here's the thing, no one in our country's leadership really has a solution to the problems we're experiencing. They seem more interested in creating the divide in our country, because division prevents unity. Division keeps them in positions of power. Not leadership! Power. Good leaders do not create division among the people they lead. They bring the people together for the collective good. 

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Shayne Gibson, and I'm with Momentum: The Leaders Best Friend. I'm a leadership coach with the john Maxwell team and I'm here to tell you that if you want to affect real change in your world, it has to start with you. 

So let me ask you a question. Because right now you're all going to, man this is out of my realm, I'm not a leader. How do you define leadership? Well, the world defines leadership as an office position, a title of leadership, you probably have the same thought when I said leadership or leaders, you're thinking someone in an office, someone with a position someone with a title? Well, I'm here to tell you that not every leader has an office or position or a title. 

Let me give you my favorite definition of leadership. I've read a lot of books about leadership. And my absolute favorite and most accurate, in my opinion, comes from john Maxwell. John's definition of leadership goes like this, leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. Notice that this definition has nothing to do with a position or a title or an office. It's influence. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Now, I've liked a lot of what John's taught me over the years about leadership. And I joined his team because I want to share what he's taught me with you, which is the reason for this podcast. Now, I want to share something with you called the Leadership Compass. This is how we introduce leadership to people who don't believe that they're in leadership. We're going to debunk the myth that you have to have a position to be a leader. So if you're in a place where you can, and you want to write this down, get a sheet of paper and a pen or a pencil and just just draw a circle, make it a big circle, one big enough for you to write in, leave enough room on the outside just so that you can label the compass right north, south, east and west. So that's north on the top, south on the bottom, West on the left, east on the right. So that's west on the left, east on the right. That's "WE". We'll talk about that in more in a minute. 

Now you've got your circle, and you've got it labeled north, south, east and west, I want you to put a dot right in the center of that circle. Now that dot, that's you. You are in the center of the leadership compass. Now under that dot, I want you to write self leadership. You see, this is where all leadership begins. It begins with self. It all begins with you. 

So the very first question you have to ask yourself is what I follow me? Now this is a serious question. 30 years ago, if I had asked myself that question, I would have screamed "No way!" There's no way I would have followed me 30 years ago! I wouldn't have followed me into the grocery store to buy a carton of eggs, because that's just the kind of guy I was just so you know. Just to let you know, there's hope for everybody. If, if there's hope for me, there's hope for everybody. Now, you have to truthfully answer the question, would you follow yourself? If the answer is no, don't worry, it doesn't mean you're not a leader. It just gives us a place to start. But I'm pretty sure but when we're through talking about this Leadership Compass, you're going to be like, you know, Shayne, you're right. I already am a leader. So you see, we have to always work first hardest and longest on ourselves before we can even think about influencing anyone else. If we can't lead ourselves, we really can't expect to lead anyone else. It's really that simple. It starts with simple things. You get that? It starts with simple things. Let's say it starts with something like you show up to work on time. That's pretty simple. Now some of you are going to say that's not that simple. You know, because I have a problem. We get down to bed on time, and all this and all that. And, well, it's really just a change of your habit to get out of bed on time. So we won't go into that discussion. But it's simple. You get to work on time. Now you get to work on time, and you have a smile. Well, what happens when you smile at someone? Well, they smile back, right? Of course they do you know that? Now let's take this a small step further, you show up on time with a smile, and a good attitude. Now, that's three very simple things that you've done, first thing. What happens? If you walk around with a smile, and you have a good attitude, you can shift the attitude of those around you. You can influence other people. You got that? You can lead other people to have a better attitude. But we have to lead ourselves before we can lead other people. So that's self leadership. And that's where we have to start. 

If we draw a line from that center dot, you, down to the bottom to the south. That's what we call positional leadership. I can already hear your wheel spinning, I can hear your brakes screeching. Shayne, you already said that leadership is not a position. Well, unfortunately, there are positions of leadership. We can't get away from that. It's just it's just the way we are. But the position does not make the leader. Note that. The position does not make the leader. Positional leadership is the absolute lowest level of leadership. Now it's the lowest level because at this point, people follow you because they have to. So you have the position of leadership, and you're over so many people, however many that may be it could be two, it could be 22. They do what you say. But that's right. There's a but. But if you take the paycheck away, you let them clock out, you let them get out the door, and your influence will drop from an eight to a two, just like that. Why do you think that is? Well, like I said, At this level, they follow you because they want to get paid, because they have to. Not because they want to. 

Now if we draw a line from west to east, through the center dot, you're still in the center. This is called peer leadership. Now this is a much higher level of leadership. Well, now you're asking me, why is this so much higher level of leadership? Well, because on this level, people follow you because they want to not because they have to. That's why it's a higher level leadership, it takes influence to get them to follow you. Sadly, this is a level we commonly miss as something important because we think, "Well, why would I want to do anything to develop the relationship with my peers? I mean, we're in a competition, right? I want to get the promotion before they do." Well, let me ask you this question. If you got promoted tomorrow, how will your peers accept you? Who will follow you? Who will not? Every single day you need to be looking for how you can influence and develop relationship with your peers. So peer leadership is the line across from west to east. That's "WE" remember I said back before, West to East is "WE" so "WE" are the peers. 

So if we draw a line straight up to the north from the center, you're still in the center. That's what we call leading up or influencing the influencers. Now, this is the highest level of leadership, because at this level, there's no reason whatsoever for these guys to follow you. You have to have a track record, you have to have a proven reliability, that you do what you say you'll do, and you got to have some results behind it, you have to have some accomplishments in your portfolio, you have to be consistent. They have to know who you are. But when you begin to influence the influencers, now you begin to make a difference. So here's what you need to understand about this compass, in every single room that you walk into, you're somewhere inside this compass. Now, you may be in multiple places within this compass in the same room, depending on how many as well as who is in the room with you, you will be somewhere in this compass. It'll be different for everyone. But you're always somewhere in that compass. So you have to identify how to influence those above you, those below you, those beside you and yourself. But it starts with you. It all starts with you.

So that takes us back to what I said earlier, if you want to affect real change in our world, it has to start with you. I know most of you have heard of Mahatma Gandhi, where he's got this rather long quote, I cut it down a little bit, you'll get the gist of it. So Gandhi says, "We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him." Now this is summed up a lot, you see it all memes or whatever on the internet. But it's summed up as "Be the change you want to see in the world." 

So another source from Dr. Tony Evans, who's a pastor of a church in Dallas, Fort Worth area, puts it another way. So Dr. Evans says, if you want a better world, "you have to start with yourself. You create the better home, which influences the neighborhood where you live to be better, which influences the schools, the kids from your neighborhood attend to be better, but influences the community around your schools to be better, which influences the city in which your community resides, to be better, which influences the county in which your city resides to be better, which influences the state in which your county resides to be better, which influences the country in which you live to be better, which influences the world we share to be better." 

Again, it all starts with you. It has to start with you. If you want a better world, for you and your children, start with yourself. What you do to improve yourself will show in your character and others will want to share in what you have. It calls out to the very souls of those who have witnessed a struggling world we live in today. And they will want to grow with you. What you begin with yourself will go out to the neighborhoods, to the communities, to the cities to the States, the country and the world. It's infectious. 

So thank you for listening to my podcast. I hope you'll join me next week as I talk more about Becoming a Person of Influence. If you're truly interested in learning more about Becoming a Person of Influence, you can find the book Becoming a Person of Influence by John Maxwell, on Amazon for about $12 for the paperback. Or if you own a Kindle like me, you can get it all digitally for $9. $10! I'm sorry. You don't have to have the book to listen. But it will take you deeper into how to build your influence. So again, this is Shayne Gibson with Momentum and I'm a member of the John Maxwell Team. I hope you'll join me again next week.

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