Become the Leader others Respect and Follow

 keywords

leadership, personal growth, self-reflection, holistic leadership, business advice, John Maxwell, extreme ownership, discipline, community leadership, podcast


 summary

In this episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast, Branden Sewell discusses the importance of leadership and personal growth. He emphasizes the need for self-reflection and honesty in assessing one's leadership abilities. Drawing from John Maxwell's teachings, he highlights that effective leaders command respect and must continuously work on themselves. The conversation also touches on the holistic view of leadership, where personal life and business success are interconnected. Branden encourages listeners to take ownership of their growth and set achievable goals to improve their leadership skills.


 takeaways

Leadership requires respect and self-awareness.
Self-reflection is crucial for effective leadership.
Continuous improvement is necessary for personal growth.
Holistic leadership encompasses all areas of life.
People assess leaders based on their overall character.
Extreme ownership is essential for leadership development.
Setting achievable goals can facilitate personal change.
Community leadership is as important as business leadership.
Honesty with oneself leads to better leadership.
Feedback from the community is valuable for growth.


Titles

Leading with Integrity: A Holistic Approach


 sound bites

"You have to take extreme ownership."
"You have to be honest with yourself."


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Personal Growth
01:00 The Importance of Self-Reflection in Leadership
05:14 Holistic Leadership: Beyond Business
10:03 Encouragement for Continuous Improvement

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.966)
Good morning. I'm Brandon Sewell, owner of Seal Pro Painting and the host of the Off the Ladder Podcast. And we exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. thank you so much for joining me today. if you're on the drive to work, maybe listening to this or on a job site or maybe even on your drive home or wherever you listen to podcasts and whatever that time is,

These daily episodes are meant to be short and meant to give you a quick leadership tip or guide for you in your business and help you get off the ladder. So, what I've been doing currently is reading from Leadership Promises for Every Day by John Maxwell. It's a devotional. Just reading that and then giving some advice practically from my own.

personal experience based on what the topic is. So let's jump into today's says take the lead. And Barak said to her, if you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. Judges four eight.

John Maxwell goes on to write, people follow men and women whose leadership they respect. The less skilled follow the more highly skilled. In general, followers seek those who are better leaders than themselves. Deborah's leadership gifts commanded the respect of both men and women, even though few women in her day rose to leadership positions. Even Barack.

The military commander of the northern tribes of Israel sought her help. The more leadership ability someone has, the more quickly they recognize leadership or its lack in others. When groups of people get together for the first time, take a look at what happens. Leaders in the group immediately take charge. They think about the direction they desire to go.

Branden Sewell (02:19.808)
And whom they want to take with them. At first, individuals may make tentative moves in several directions, but after they get to know one another, it doesn't take long for them to recognize the strongest leaders and to follow them. I think this is really good. And I think reading this with humility is important because the reality is.

You may not be the leader today that you need to be for others to follow you. and I think that takes you know, the ability to be honest with yourself, to let go of your ego or your pride, and to say, Hey, you know what? Like, I wouldn't follow me if I were my team either. I wouldn't respect me if I were my team.

and so I think what you have to do is you have to get really honest. You have to do some just diving deep within yourself and saying, Hey, you know what? Where am I not meeting the mark? Where could I get better? maybe looking at leaders who you respect and saying, Okay, what characteristics or quality do they have that I am lacking in this season of my life? And

What do I need to do? What do I need to change in order to become that leader that I respect, the leader that I would trust and follow. And I think when you do that work on yourself, then you're going to have the ability to lead better. People are naturally going to follow you. people are naturally going to trust you because they can see.

the leadership that you bring to the table. And you know, I've had to do this personally. I've g ob honestly, business is a it's a journey. right. So who I was and the leader that I was when I started my business is certainly not the leader that I am now. the decisions that I have to make to change and to improve and to get better

Branden Sewell (04:44.79)
There have been many of those decisions. So I guess my encouragement if you are listening to this today is think about that. Think about what hard work you need to do. I I reference this book probably enough to be annoying, but extreme ownership, you have to take extreme ownership and you have to say, you have to look at yourself and you have to say, okay, where am I missing the mark?

how am I not meeting the standards that I would want a leader in my life to have? And then you go and you put the work in and you become that person. man, that really I think s I I talk about this all the time. It starts with really looking at your life in all areas. It's not just business, but you know.

People who are looking to you for leadership are going to be looking at your life holistically. They are going to be looking at, okay, who is Brandon spiritually? Who is Brandon as a husband? Who is Brandon as a father? Who is Brandon in his physical health? Who is Brandon with his personal finances? Who is Brandon?

as a community leader, you know, all of those things are going to matter. And look, I haven't arrived. There's areas I want to get better. But what I do realize is that those all of those things matter. It's not just about the the business side of things like can I build a brand? Can I market it to the marketplace? Can I sell? Can I you know get the work produced? Can I offer an extremely

world class customer experience. You know, of course all of those things matter, but I I think of for myself, and I I I mean it's hard for me to say because I have compassion and empathy for people, but when I look at people in business, I'm oftentimes looking at the totality of their life. you know, so I I can lose respect

Branden Sewell (07:10.37)
For somebody very easily, if I don't see them leading in other areas of their life. And because for me, the lack of leadership in those other areas of their life communicate a a breakdown in character, a breakdown in integrity. And so it makes me nervous to work with some people. I mean, of course, there's exceptions to this, but

you know, some people I will look at the totality of their life and I'll say, I don't want to work with that person. It seems a little more risky, just based on observing their life and every area of their life and how they're doing. So I think people do that to us as well. I think they look at our lives and and they it's almost like a risk assessment. Like, is this if this person is leading really well?

In every area of their life, I feel like I can trust them more. whereas if they're not leading in, you know, other areas of their life other than business, then there could be like a lack of trust that is developed. And it's almost like it's it's it's it's happening in the background. You're not like in intentionally making that decision. It's almost like a feeling that you get of.

Ooh, like that doesn't feel right. I like and it leads to a lack of trust or a lack of confidence in that person and their character. And so, man, if you're listening to this, hear me and no, I am not you know, everybody's in a different season of their life. and that look you know, how we're able to lead in every area of our life looks different, right? Everybody's circumstances are different. So please understand I have

Compassion and empathy. But the reality is that you have to take ownership and realize that people are observing your life from a holistic standpoint. And you have to be honest with yourself and you have to say, How can I get better in this area? And there's gonna be that you know, that takes courage to look at your own flaws.

Branden Sewell (09:34.734)
to look at the areas where you're failing and say, hey, you know what? I'm missing the mark. And to be honest and and say like, hey, like that's not okay. And I need to do the work to fix it. And so my my encouragement is do that work. Do that hard work. Look at your own life and say, hey, where where am I missing the mark? And don't make excuses. Don't excuse away,

you know, the behavior or the decisions. take extreme ownership and say, hey, you know what? I'm gonna own this area of my life and then set some goals. you know, Atomic Havocs is a great book to read. it's sitting right over here on my shelf. and that book really helps to explain how to to change your habits, to set small goals, make them

trackable and achievable and you know get after changing your habits and change who you are. another book that's really great to read if you're on that journey of working on yourself is Discipline is Destiny. and that's Ryan Holiday, another great book that will just help you in a season of working on yourself and trying to get better. Well

I hope that this episode was encouraging to you today. I'm gonna bring this one to a close. if you're new to this community, I'll say that these episodes are short daily episodes that I'm doing to supplement our longer form podcasts that we release every Wednesday. these these shorter podcasts are meant to give you some just actionable

advice that you can take and implement today. so I hope that you enjoyed it. give me some feedback if if you're if you've been listening, if you're part of the community and you've been listening, please let me know what you think about these shorter podcast episodes. Are you listening to them? Are they helpful? do you want me to keep doing them? I've been just kind of putting these out to to see how they perform and see what the feedback is. So please share feedback. You can reach out to me.

Branden Sewell (11:59.846)
through social media. you can reach out to me by email. that would just be info at brandonsool.com, B-R-A-N-D-E-N-S-E-W-E-L-L dot com. you can also you know, reach out to me through Instagram or Facebook. Those are two really good places because I'm pretty much live on those two social media platforms.

And then you know, lastly, I'd say if you're you know, on a journey of getting off the ladder and you need some resources, check the show notes below. I do get credit if you use any of those resources. So please use my affiliate links. I do get paid if you choose to use any of those. and the other thing that you can do to support me is share this with somebody else who you think would get something out of this.

podcast, as well as rating and reviewing wherever you listen to it on any major podcast platform. All right, guys. Well thank you so much and I'll see you next time on the next episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast.