The Power of Selflessness in Business

summary

In this episode, Branden Sewell explores the importance of selflessness in leadership, emphasizing how leaders can cultivate an attitude of giving and loyalty, especially during challenging times. Drawing from John Maxwell's 'Leadership Promises for Every Day,' he shares practical insights on decision-making, team loyalty, and grace.


 keywords

leadership, selflessness, team loyalty, decision-making, John Maxwell, leadership advice, business challenges, grace, humility


 key  topics

Selflessness in leadership
Building team loyalty
Decision-making during crises
The role of grace and humility in leadership
Long-term thinking in business


 takeaways

Leaders should prioritize the benefit of their team over personal gain.
Loyalty and interdependence foster team success.
Hard times reveal true leadership qualities.
Decisions should be made with a long-term perspective.
Grace and humility are essential in handling mistakes and challenges.


 guest  name




Titles

Give Yourself Away: Leadership Lessons from John Maxwell
The Power of Selflessness in Business


 sound bites

"Independence taken too far is selfishness"
"Hard times reveal true leadership qualities"
"Grace and mercy are essential in leadership"


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Selflessness
01:28 Cultivating Selflessness in Leadership
03:15 Challenges of Selflessness in Difficult Times
05:30 Decision Making in Leadership
07:55 Evaluating Team Members and Their Attitudes

 resources

Leadership Promises for Every Day by John Maxwell - https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Promises-Every-Day-John-Maxwell/dp/0785288394

Grow Your Business with Jobber
Sign up for a 14-day free trial or get a special discount when you sign up!

Get More Reviews w/ NiceJob
NiceJob Automates Your Review Requests!

The Perfect Payroll Solution
Gusto is a powerful and user friendly payroll provider. With Gusto you can integrate with Jobber and

Maximize Marketing Dollars w/ CallRail
Attach call tracking numbers to all your marketing campaigns and track their success!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.452)
I'm Brandon Sewell, owner of Seal Pro Painting and the host of the Off the Ladder Podcast. We exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. Welcome to today's episode. if you guys can tell, I took a couple days off with the 4th of July and a little short vacation. I'm glad to be back, but jumping into a short episode today.

And tomorrow, Wednesday, the eighth, July eighth, I will have a special guest on, which is going to interrupt our five levels of leadership. We'll take a break from that to do that special guest episode and then I I've actually got a few special guests lined up, so we'll probably

Put those in there and then get back to five levels of leadership when I don't have a guest. so just stay tuned for that. got some exciting guests coming up on the Wednesday podcast episodes. So definitely be looking for those longer episodes. but for today, this is a shorter one. so let's jump into this. I've been reading from Leadership Promises for Every Day by John Maxwell. today's title is Give Yourself Away.

The scripture is and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Ephesians five two. John Maxwell goes on to write As a team leader, how do you cultivate an attitude of selflessness? Begin by doing the following one.

Being generous If team members are willing to give of themselves generously to the team, then it is being set up to succeed. 2. Avoiding internal politics. Good team players worry about the benefit of their teammates more than themselves.

Branden Sewell (02:18.434)
Three, displaying loyalty. If you show the people on your team loyalty, they will return loyalty in kind. Loyalty fosters unity and unity breeds team success. four. Valuing interdependence more than independence. In the United States we value independence highly because it is often accompanied by innovation, hard work, and a willingness to

To stand for what is right. But independence taken too far is characteristic of selfishness, especially if it begins to harm or hinder others. Seneca stated, You must live for others if you wish to live for yourself. This is a really good topic today.

And I think ultimately, what it really has to do with is thinking less of yourself and more of others and doing what you do for the benefit of others and not just yourself. And I think as leaders, I think sometimes we like to say that we're doing that or we believe it. however

I think what really determines whether you're operating in that selfless selflessness or not is when it's hard, right? So it's easy to be selfless when everything is going great in your business, when there's no mistakes made, when everybody's doing a good job. When I think it's harder to be selfless.

is in the moments when there are mistakes that are made, when struggles come, when people on your team are facing hardships. And you know, I think that it's easy in those moments to think about ourselves or protecting ourselves or you know, protecting the the business. And I think in those

Branden Sewell (04:44.16)
Moments we have to realize that people's lives and what people go through and the challenges that we're going to face as a business, it's not always convenient for us. And oftentimes, hardships and challenges and mistakes are going to happen at some of the most inconvenient times. And

think that's really when we're tested as leaders to show our true colors on how we serve in those moments, how we treat and take care of those on our team or even customers, excuse me.

Branden Sewell (05:35.215)
so I think excuse me, take a moment as a the leader of your organization and reflect on maybe challenging moments. Maybe you're in a challenging season now and you're questioning what do I do in this moment? You're at a crossroads and you don't know what decision to make. I would challenge you

To think beyond yourself. Think about how your decisions affect not only you, but how they affect your team. try to have a long term perspective on the decisions that you're going to make. And don't just make the decision for your own benefit. Think about your people, think about the benefit of others. And

You know, it it it's weird because there's this dichotomy of decision making in in those those hard times. And I think that dichotomy is, you know, if somebody makes a mistake or struggles, you have to ask yourself, is this by keeping let's say it's like someone makes a mistake and you gotta decide, okay, do I fire this person or or do I keep them? what do I do? I think that

One of the things that is challenging is that one person is affecting the whole team. Right? Their decisions or mistakes affect not only themselves, but affect everybody around them. And as leaders, we have to kind of we have to take into consideration the person.

But we also have to take in consideration how that person affects everybody else. And in both ways, we're not thinking of ourselves. We're thinking of the team. We're thinking about the person. I don't think this is an easy thing to do, but at the end of the day, I think you have to evaluate whether somebody is worth investing in, whether somebody is worth going through some challenges with, right?

Branden Sewell (07:59.535)
And you know, I always try to think about this as a Christ follower. I'm like, man, I'm so glad that in in my life, that God didn't give up on me, right? In the moments where I was unworthy, the moments when I was you know, an enemy to myself, when I was the reason for this bad situations I might find myself in.

Just thankful for grace and for mercy and second chances. And I think that for me, the way that I determine whether somebody is going to stay or go in the midst of challenging times or mistakes that they made is their attitude about it. Do they have a repentant heart or do they have are they hardened? Are they humble? are they still teachable?

Are do they have ego and pride or are they humble and ready to accept criticism? And so I think that's really important to evaluate. And I think s the the wrong people will find themselves out and will naturally you know, walk away or find themselves out of your company. And the people who are meant to stay, they will naturally adjust and fall in line. So

Hope that's encouraging. I'm going bring this episode to a wrap. So hopefully it gives you something to think about quick and actionable. again, these episodes are meant for you to listen to on the ride to work or on your drive home and just give you some quick actionable leadership advice. and thank you guys so much for tuning in. And I will see you next time on the next episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast.