EP01: What is Leadership?

How can you develop strong roots in leading with purpose? Today’s episode will cover the leadership models necessary to earn the role of a leader. Keep tuning in for more vital information you may apply to your leadership journey!

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Born leaders vs. made leaders
• The definition of leadership
• Why do followers become new leaders?
• How leaders could influence others
• The importance of achievement in good leadership
• Why it’s crucial to have a shared purpose with followers

 
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Transcript

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Dr. Nate Salah [00:00]

Before you choose to follow anyone, ask at least two questions many more, but here's two of them, “Do they know where they're going?” one and two, “Do you want to go there?”

[00:15]
Hello, my friend and welcome to this first episode of A Call To Leadership. Well, these first six episodes are a series where really it's a free course on leadership, the foundations, the fundamentals. And so I'm so glad you're here at the very beginning because we'll be building on each principle, each episode. So it's important to listen to all six and if you can listen to them in order. And so this very first one is the basis of our understanding on what leadership is and why your leadership is important. And that's really the heart of the time we're gonna spend together in this episode.

[00:15]
So, the idea of leadership is not new. Of course, we've been talking about leadership as long as there's been people to lead and follow, and we understand how leadership is important. In fact, there's an old proverb that says without vision, the people perish. And of course, that's one thing that leaders do. Leaders help to provide vision of a better future. And the idea behind the parable then is that if people don't have a vision, they won't be able to progress. And they'll perish.

[01:38]
So leadership involves vision and involves progress, hopefully at least good leadership or effective leadership let's call it. But as far as defining it, there's so many definitions of leadership. In fact, it's been said that there are as many definitions of leadership as those who have attempted to find the concept. And so, me as a leadership geek, if you will, a, a scholar in leadership, someone who studied it my entire life. I threw my definition in as well. I'm gonna share that with you very soon. And then we can unpack that and really understand how leadership works. But before we do that, I'd like to just talk a little bit about what we traditionally see in our leadership spheres.

[02:25]
We think of leaders. We can think of what we call great leaders. We can think of leaders, what we would call toxic leaders or ineffective leaders. So if you were to think, you know, who's a great leader, uh, politically right. Instantaneously. We might think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr or Abraham Lincoln. And when we think of maybe toxic leaders, we might think of Adolph Hitler or someone who was really destructive to their environment and ultimately to the people who they were leading.

[03:00]
When we go back to that Abraham Lincoln type or that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr type, we might think liberators, people who are helping us to be free. And ultimately, a lot of leadership is about that, good leadership, effective leadership has a component of liberation.

[03:23]
So as we start to think about what leaders do, it's important to think about how we perceive leaders. And there's lots of data and lots of research around how followers perceive leadership and say, well, are leaders born or are they made? And the answer is yes, right? It's not an either, or it's an and because sometimes there are traits that are natural for individuals that are what we call closely associated with the follower's perception of leadership. So what that means is, is that followers perceive that leaders should be this way. For example, a perception of leadership is drive, that leaders should have some level of drive and determination if you will. Another one is intelligence, not necessarily that they're the highest IQ, but that they're sharp enough to discern and disseminate and have conceptual understandings as well as human and technical skills. As well as integrity. That's another trait if you will, that's closely associated with leadership from a follower perspective because followers want leaders to have integrity. I'm gonna talk a lot about integrity on this show because integrity is one of those essentials that bind us as leaders to be trustworthy. It's one factor. It's not the only one among our followers so that we can stay the course and do a good work and see it through.

[05:01]
Another trait that's closely associated with leadership is sociability, which means that leaders are able to communicate effectively in social settings and really draw followers in to a cause, a movement, a new way. And so you have this idea that leaders should be sociable, not necessarily that they're extroverts, not all leaders are extroverts. Some are introverts as well. But they understand this local setting and they understand how effective communication works in those social settings to attract followers to what we would call a worthy and achievable vision of the future.

[05:43]
So, those are some traits that are closely associated with leadership. And of course, traits are generally what we call, they come from, they aren't learned necessarily, but sometimes you're born with certain traits. Now, can't you learn to excel in certain areas that are considered traits. Yes. I don't want to get into the weeds in this episode though, my friend, we’ll get into all of that as we progress through this, through this show, there's gonna be so much great content on leadership. And I can't wait to share all of it with you, but just to stop there, these are traits that are what we call closely associated with leadership, but that doesn't mean that every leader has all of these traits. That doesn't mean that every leader is strong in all of these areas. What it means is that that's how followers perceive what good leadership or effective leadership might look like because leaders come in all shapes and sizes and leadership isn't necessarily that people are born leaders because they have these strong traits, they're made too, and circumstances and settings and context breathe forth great leadership. In fact, if you were to consider our example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he was what we would call an emergent leader where say Kennedy, uh, President Kennedy was an assigned leader. So Kennedy was assigned the leadership role by his presidency where Dr. Marting Luther King Jr. emerged as a leader when there was a movement or a context or a setting that dictated the necessity for his voice, for his message, and ultimately for the change that needed to happen and continues to need to happen, so for you as a leader, that's really important. What kind of context am I in? What is my setting? What needs to change in my context and how can I be a part of that change? And that's where leadership begins to emerge. But before we dive deeply into that, I'm gonna give you my definition. Are you ready?

[08:00]
So I've defined leadership. I like to distill things as we get to know each other, you'll get to know that I like to take very complex ideas and bring them into a way that's, that's easy to understand. And so I like to take things and bring them into like five or 10 words and utilize that. And you'll hear things about that later. You'll hear about my idea of what I think success is, how to be successful. I've got a five-word detailed definition if you will, of what makes success happen. But today we're talking about leadership.

[08:34]
So in 10 words or less, here's my definition of leadership. Leadership is the discovery of influence toward and achievement of shared purpose. So there's 10 words. What do you know? So let's break it down.

[08:50]
Leadership is the discovery of, let's talk about discovery. Leaders are discoverers, explorers. We've got to get out of our own area, our own office, our own room in my home office, this recording, and get out and discover where we may want to go. In fact, I've said like this before you choose to follow anyone, first ask at least two questions, many, many more, but here's two of them, “Do they know where they're going?” one and two, “Do you want to go there?” So there's two great questions. Right?

[09:29]
So discovery starts the relationship between the leader and the direction. And so leaders must be those discovering explorers. And so if you've spent too much time in your office, in your room, not being creative and I don't necessarily mean physically in your mind as well in your spirit as well. And you're not allowing the creative side of you to really question what's wrong with this. Is there a better possible future that I can participate in? How do we do that? Well, we often do that, not by leading, but by following. In fact, I have a formula called follow, lead, repeat because no one starts out as a leader. We all start out as followers.

[10:22]
And so, as we're following, we begin to discover a better possible future that we get to first envision in our mind and then we begin to communicate it and ask the kind of questions is this future possible? And ultimately, it is a better future because most people do not want to go to a worse situation. They want progress. And as I stated earlier, an essential aspect of effective leadership is progress, even incremental progress. I've said it like this small victories build courage. You'll hear me say that again and again. And so, even incremental progress is a small victory.

[11:07]
So, as a leader, the first place I must progress is in my mind. And so what can I envision the canvas of this world. In fact, I've got a leadership group, it's a mastermind, it's my leadership elite group and I took them on one of our retreats to Florida. And we went to Disney world and I studied Walt Disney at length during a lot of my research years in, in my PhD work. And what I did was I took the group on a helicopter ride, and I told them, in order for you to truly see what the future might hold. You've gotta elevate yourself above all the noise. You've gotta elevate yourself to see what's possible. And actually, this is another scholar in the work of adaptive leadership said that you've gotta get on the balcony. That's another way to describe this. So we're in the helicopter over Disney world area and Kissimmee, Florida, and a little bit of Orlando. And I asked the group to imagine just for a moment, what this all looked like before there was any development here when it was just swamps in a few houses and very rural area. What did Walt Disney see as he was flying over? Well, he saw the future, and so what the future looks like, it's a blank canvas friend, and we get to participate in drawing and authoring a better future, and then inviting others to suspend their own reality and join us in creating a new reality. And that's exactly what Disney saw when he was flying over that Florida swamp plan.

[12:58]
And as my group individual leaders began to think about that in their own lives, they thought, wow, what does the future look like in my world that I can influence? And I can paint a beautiful opportunity for a better future. And then that's when the discovery starts to manifest and matriculate. So at that point, at that point, discovery, remember the discovery of, and then what's the next step influence toward. So that's what we're talking is action, right. Is actually moving that direction. So then how do we influence? We influence by first verbalizing, what that better future state might look like? And then creating an action plan to make that real. And we don't have to do it alone. In fact, that's not leadership. Leadership happens in groups. Some argue that it's a dyadic relationship, which is a $5 word, which means one-to-one; others argue that leadership is many or at least two followers and one leader, which is a group, larger group. Needless to say, I tend to fall on the dyad side where I believe that leadership can happen with one person leading and one person following, but that's not important right now.

[14:22]
What's important is that we must then begin to influence and I'm gonna share actually on, I think it's episode four, how we're gonna turn power into influence and you have to check that one out because it is powerful. Ha ha.

[14:40]
So, how does influence happen? Influence happens first because we are, we believe we're passionate. People say, well, you don't really need to be passionate about your better future state. Well, who would you rather follow, someone who's totally passionate and just is sold out for their cause or someone who is just ho hum like, yeah I kind of like to think this would happen. No. Think about, let's go back to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave his I Have a Dream Speech, that was an impassioned speech. Now you say, well, you know, he didn't have like all of these passionate words. Yes. They were. They were totally passionate, and that was the plight of an individual to paint a better future state. He painted the picture, and others then began to say, this person is speaking what I'm thinking because that's what leaders do. They'll speak what others think. And sometimes they can articulate it in ways that are so moving that others are drawn up and say, yes, I wanna be a part of this cause. This is so important to me. And sometimes, it's a revelation. Sometimes people didn't know they wanted to be a part of that cause. But then they become part of that because they realize they're illuminated, if you will, because a light went off that the leader shined a light, a bright shining light. That's where I think that the verse in the Bible where Jesus says in Matthew 5:16, let your light so shine before others that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. I think that I love that verse, especially for business. And I think that's what's happening in this moment with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He's letting his light so shine, and the good work is what, the good work is the picture, the canvas that he's drawing of a better future then others desire to participate in authoring that future and making it real, that's influence. That's influence. And just one area of influence. We'll talk about all different kinds of influence that we have as leaders and as followers as well, but that's one way to envision influence.

[17:04]
So your influence really starts with the direction you would like to go and that you desire to change because if we don't need change, we don't need leaders because leadership is about change. Because let's just face it, friend, if there's no desire and no need to progress, to improve, then the leader's not necessary. So examining ourselves as leaders and saying, boy, there's something wrong with this picture right now. And I want to be a part of that change. I wanna be that change and then start to share that. And then you begin to organize others around you to make that change real, and you don't have to do it all. And I'll share more about that later.

[17:55]
Then the third part, so leadership is the discovery of influence toward, and the third part is what achievement of. At least effective leaders are achievers. You can have one influence. You can have two, I'm sorry, you can have one discovery, two influence, but if you don't have achievement, you're likely not going to be an effective leader.

[18:17]
Many leaders, unfortunately, start out with great ideas, and then they share it with people, but they just can't make it real. Now there's certain aspects of vision we'll talk about later that are so lofty that maybe they don't happen in your own lifetime. And when you look at like a visionary leader, such as an Elon Musk, and there may be lofty areas of his vision that he doesn't make real, maybe the next generation of leaders makes that real, especially with the space travel and colonizing other planets and things like that. Some of it might happen in his lifetime and it might not because lofty goals, not that yours have to be so lofty. They can be very concrete. They can be very today, tomorrow, next week and, and not in the next hundred years, actually for our leadership development and our ministry, I've challenged our team for a thousand-year vision, if you will. And so. But anywhere along that spectrum, right? The idea is not just discovery, not just influence, but achievement of and achievement is essential to effective leadership.

[19:26]
We have to be able to execute. And so you'll hear a lot about that on our show is actually taking the steps. What are you going to do Monday to make the vision real and reach that desired state? But it's not just your state. Remember, leadership is the discovery of influence toward and achievement of what, shared purpose.

[19:51]
Sharing a purpose with our followers is one of the most beautiful ways that we can interact with people and say that we have a cause that we believe in. And it's a justification. Our purpose is really a justification for our movement to continue forth. So do we share a purpose? Doesn't mean that we share necessarily a reason for doing it, and it can be; we can get muddled with this, but the purpose is this, where are we going? And we wanna reach that. And like I said, some people wanna reach it for different reasons than others, but we all share that purpose to reach that future destination together.

[20:31]
So, I think you've learned a little bit about leadership today. I hope so. I know so, actually. Now this is just my definition, many, many, many definitions, but what it does, it helps me and those I get to walk alongside of to have some solid values that differentiate how we view leadership. Number one, we're discoverers. We're exploring what's out there. Number two, we're influencers, number three, we are built to achieve. And number four, we share purposes with others who also desire to go along that worthwhile cause with us, not just an adventure, it's important, but a cause it's been said that that men will fight for money, but they'll die for a cause. A cause is so much greater than just saying, well, let's just go do something.

[21:19]
And what about you? The second part of this episode is your leadership. Why does your leadership matter? Well, it's because we need effective leaders who are willing to serve and stand in the gap. There's such a crisis in leadership. You know this. You see it all around. You, you see it in institutions, you see it in families, you see it in education, you see it on the streets. You see it in spiritual environments, you see it all over, and we need you. We need you to rise, rise so that you can help turn the tide from the toxic self-serving leaders to those who are self-sacrificing leaders, not the self-preservation, but rather those leaders as Robert Greenleaf said, and you'll hear more about this on the episodes on servant leadership. And I hope you listen to that series because it's phenomenal, but leaders who will be those who will help others to become wiser, freer, healthier, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become the kind of servants that lead and ultimately help not only those who are around us, but perhaps even those who are marginalized, those who are most deprived in society. So that as Greenleaf said, at least they will not be further deprived.

[22:48]
We need you. And I'm so glad that you're joining me because whether you were talking about leadership in your business, leadership in your family, leadership in your life? I come from a family that was broken. I was in lots of trouble, and I didn't have always leadership. That helped me along my journey. And I made a lot of mistakes. I was on a dark lonely road to nowhere. And I'm gonna tell you more about that. You'll hear some of my backstory. So I'm a product of that leadership that could have been more effective. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about helping others to become transforming serving leaders because I know that, especially with young people, teenagers, the youth, the young adults, and the next generation of leaders to guide and impact and help them to lay healthy foundations, no matter where you, what your station is in life, this is a call to leadership. That's the name of the show? This is a call to leadership.

[23:54]
So, I'm calling you my friend to join me in worthy leadership. Leadership that is courageous, leadership that is full of confidence and full of good character so that we can rest our heads at night and know that we are doing a well done good, and faithful servant work today.

[24:17]
Well, that's the end of this episode. Again, I can't wait to see you on this next episode. Well, we're going to unpack what greatness and leadership looks like, and I want you to aim for greatness. And I'm gonna explain how, and I'm gonna explain why.

[24:36]
Well, my friend, we did it. I'm so honored you were able to join me on this episode of A Call To Leadership. Now, this might not be for everyone because you really have to be in a certain place in order to take the kind of steps to level up your leadership. And I want you to be taking steps. And for those of you who feel like you're ready for something like this, there's a place you can go. You can go to our website, greatsummit.com. I'll make sure that's in the show notes, but here's the cool thing that we have. We've got a masterclass. We have all different kinds of events. We even have our leadership club where you can meet other people just like you to go deeper in your leadership journey. You and I will get to spend some time together and really focus on aiming for greatness. I can't wait to see you there. I'm Dr. Nate Salah and this is A Call to Leadership.