Ep. 205: Leadership Skills that Can Boost Your Business

Hey everybody, this is David Chudick and this is episode number 205 of the weekly Wealth Podcast.

And today I want to talk about a topic that is not exactly a financial planning topic, but it's a topic that, if you get this right, it will help you to enhance your financial position if you are a business owner.

So leadership is today's topic and I want to give you some of my lessons about leadership that I've learned over the last few years.

I've done some things well with leadership, but I've also done some things not so well, and I want to share those with you.

So I hope that you enjoy this episode.

And here we go.

Welcome to the weekly Wealth Podcast.

I am certified financial planner David Chudick.

This podcast and my wealth management practice are both designed to help the mass affluent to live better lives by how.

They handle their money.

We talk about financial strategies, prosperous mindsets, and simply how to build true wealth.

So come on and let's enjoy this journey together.

So when I say the word leadership, what comes to mind?

Is it maybe a military leader who is very strict?

Is it a coach who gives a great raw session and maybe gets in your face?

Is it a parent who gets down on a knee and gets down down to their child's level and consoles them and helps to guide them?

Or it is maybe a former manager at a, at a place of employment that explained to you why you needed to do things differently.

So what comes to mind with leadership with you?

What are some of the characteristics that make a leader and who are some of the great leaders that have led you in your life or that you have been around?

Of course, in my career, I have been around some great leaders and I've been led by some great leaders.

And I've also been in the position of having to be a leader.

And the first thing that I want to say about leadership is I believe it's like anything else.

There may be some inborn talents, if you will, that some people might be better born leaders than others.

But just like any other skill, I believe leadership is a skill that if practiced and if used purposefully, it can improve.

So just like some athletes can throw a ball further or make the jump shot or run faster than others, everybody can improve their athletic skills with practice and coaching.

And I believe that it's the same situation with leadership.

Everybody can improve their leadership.

And I think that we all need to, to consciously work on our leadership skills.

So let's talk about some characteristics of great leadership and let's talk about are these Some areas where you excel, or are these some areas where you need to purposely work at your leadership?

So I think that leaders, number one, have integrity.

They uphold the strong moral principles and they drive behaviors in accordance with their values or the values of an organization.

Leaders also provide accountability.

They they take responsibility for their own success and they teach those who they are leading to take responsibility for their success.

Great leaders encourage personal growth.

Great leaders don't micromanage.

Great leaders empower.

So what do I mean by empower?

I mean that leaders will set expectations, leaders will give some instructions, leaders will give some guidelines.

And then assuming that you're the right person, the leader will get out of your way and allow you to flourish with what you are good at doing.

And we'll look at the results.

So I don't know about you, but one aspect of leadership that I think is very important is I think a leader, a truly great leader, needs to be able to be real and needs to be able to admit their faults, need to be able to admit their fears, admit their shortcomings, and just be open and vulnerable with those whom they lead.

And what do I mean by that?

I mean that nobody's great at everything and nobody is without struggle.

So I think that a great leader should be able to say to the people that they are leading that, hey, I know this is hard.

I struggle in areas myself, but let's put processes in place, let's do the hard things, let's get uncomfortable and let's get the results as opposed to just acting like they have it all, all under control and acting like they don't have the fears and they don't have some of the struggles that everybody else has.

So if you're a leader, are you vulnerable to those to whom you are leading?

Do you show that you have fears?

Do you show that you have shortcomings?

Do you.

Do you say, hey, this is difficult for us?

Not this is difficult for you, and do you have empathy?

So I'd be really interested to know what your thought is on showing vulnerability.

If you are a leader, go to my website, www.weeklywealthpodcast.com and click on the microphone icon and leave me a voice message about what do you think about leaders being vulnerable and making sure that those who they are leading know that the leader has fears.

So in addition to being willing to be vulnerable, I think a great leader also needs to be willing to lead from the front.

And that means that this leader is going to do the thing that the leader is telling everybody else to do.

And typically leaders are telling, they're preaching the importance of getting uncomfortable and doing hard things in order to reach the goals.

Not always, but very typically, the leader is the first, first at the office and the last to leave.

Very typically, the leader needs to be setting an example with the leader's performance and with the leader's willingness to do the things that are difficult to do.

But these are the things that drive results, These are the things that bring value to clients and these are the things that typically will bring increased revenue into the business.

So what do you think as a leader?

Are you displaying the willingness to do things?

Because remember, when you're leading, everything that you do or don't do is sending a message.

So when your team is seeing maybe you are missing some details, they are going to think that's okay.

That's part of the culture.

Missing details is okay.

When your team sees that you are letting some small problems go without attempting to fix them, then your team, whether consciously or unconsciously, will begin to understand that your team's culture is that we don't really try to fix problems, we just coast.

What is your thought and how do you feel that you do as a leader in leading from the front, are you being a great example?

Are you modeling the right behavior for your team?

Or are you someone who your team can look at and say he or she doesn't really do the hard thing?

So why should I now should the leader be doing some of the lower level tasks?

And my answer is no, or maybe not all of the time.

That's not because the leader is too good to empty the trash.

And I use air quotes.

It's not because the leader is above answering the phone.

It's that sometimes a leader has some other skills and abilities that have a higher payoff for the company and the organization.

But with that being said, if it comes down to that the trash needs to be emptied or that the phones need to be answered and things like that, yes, the leader needs to be willing to do that and show that the leader will do what it takes to reach the ultimate goal of success.

So speaking of success, I think a great leader defines success for their team and their organization.

So success does not always mean making as much money as possible.

It doesn't always mean having the largest profit as possible.

It doesn't always mean selling the most widgets as possible, although it could.

So success sometimes means that you have standards that need to be lived up to.

Maybe all phone calls get returned by the end of the day.

Maybe that is one of Your success factors.

For my organization, one of our success factors is that everybody that works in my organization feels blessed to be part of it.

And another one of the success factors is that our office and every part of the team continuously grows income.

So I think it's important for the leader to define success and then to match behaviors, match habits, match systems, match processes, and match decisions to the success and give the organization the best chance of reaching what they've already determined that success is.

I love it when leaders give public praise to their team members, whether it be for large accomplishments or even smaller accomplishments.

Because sometimes the small accomplishments and the small tasks, those are the ones that over time add up and create really great results.

So maybe in a team meeting you can recognize somebody who is always early to work.

Maybe in a team meeting you can publicly recognize somebody who has done the small things.

And also you can recognize those team members who have done the big things, who have made the big sales, who have gone out and gotten the big accounts, and who have done the things that are maybe a little bit more noticeable.

But I think it's hugely important as a leader to give recognition when it's both in public and in private to a job well done and both to the big needle moving activities and results and also the small things, because I think over time they're both equally as important.

And then on the other side of giving praise, I do think that part of being a leader, and this is an area where I sometimes fall short, is we have to have some difficult conversations with our team members.

And I think sometimes it's tempting to send an email or a teams message, but I think ultimately a conversation, whether it be on the phone, in zoom or in person, which would be preferable if you're local and just talk about what's going on, talk about if there are some shortcomings, talk about what the expectations are, talk about where the expectations haven't been met, show empathy and sympathy if it's appropriate, be very clear on what the next steps need to be and get information.

Talk to your people about why are we coming short of this goal or why are we not having the results that we want and learn.

Oftentimes it's not that your team is not trying, they may not be empowered enough and that, let's face it, falls on the leader.

But I think it's important to not assume the worst.

So have these conversations.

Sometimes they're a little bit difficult, but as a leader you can learn a lot about your organization by simply having conversations.

Now, a common misconception is that leadership and management are the same thing, which they are not.

But oftentimes they overlap, especially in small businesses.

So leadership inspires and sets a vision and it motivates people towards a common goal.

But management really organizes the plan and ensures that tasks are completed efficiently.

So if you think about back in the days when Steve Jobs was introducing the new Apple products, the newest iPhone, wearing his black shirt on the stage, that was leadership.

But Steve Jobs was probably not managing the manufacturing and all of the day to day operations of Apple.

No, there were managers for that.

So the leaders and the leadership of organizations, they are the big picture.

They're setting what the culture is, they're setting what the values are, they're setting what the goals are.

And then managers who may sometimes also be in a leadership position are the ones who are making sure that the daily things that need to be done are getting done.

So let's go back to our example of a standard where all phone calls need to be answered by the end of the day or returned by the end of the day.

That would be an initiative from leadership.

But then if it comes down to it, that's not happening.

Management would get involved.

So let's make sure that we're understanding the difference between leadership and management, and let's make sure that there's not too much overlap in your life with both of those roles.

It's really hard to be a leader and a manager.

And in many cases the business owner or the CEO needs to make sure that they are delegating the management of the business, delegating the operational tasks, and simply using their time and their efforts to build the culture.

So if you're a regular listener to the weekly wealth podcast, you are likely a leader.

You might be leading your family, you might be leading an organization, but more than likely you are leading somebody or leading a team.

So I challenge you, and I'm taking this challenge myself.

For all of us, to improve our leadership actually indirectly is a financial planning tool.

Because the better that we can lead, the more financial success we and our organizations will have.

Here are some items that you and I can both work on.

Some of these may come natural to you, some of them may come natural to me, and some of them we're going to really have to work hard on.

Let's look at learning.

Make learning and growing a constant in your life.

You can read books, you can attend workshops, and you can also just talk with the people in your life who are in similar positions.

You can learn to handle conflict effectively.

We want to have a problem solving mindset and we always want to defeat the problem, not necessarily the people who we think are causing the problems.

We need to empower and inspire others.

Sometimes it's easy to tear people down, but let's look at how can we build people up, how can we empower them?

How can we give them the tools to reach the goals that we all want to have?

What about a growth mindset?

A leader should have unlimited thoughts.

A leader should know that there are almost no restraints with what's possible and should portray that to their team that we can all always grow.

We've already talked about leading by example.

The leader has to set high standards for himself or herself and be a role model and model the behavior model the culture model the decision making processes that the organization wants.

And finally, communication skills.

One of my favorite authors, Brian Tracy, says that fully 80% of our earning potential and our influence comes from communication.

So let's work on active listening.

Let's work on making sure that we are using the proper words in a confident style.

Make sure that you're not taking the easy way out and only communicating with written word or emails or texts.

And hey, one thing that has really improved my communication is listening to myself, listening to my recordings of my own podcast.

So sometimes if you record yourself, you can learn a lot about your communication style.

So what do you think?

What are some of the ways that you can improve your leadership?

Where would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 as a leader?

Some days I think I'm a 9.

Other days I think I'm not even up to a one.

So leadership is tough, but it's a privilege to be a leader.

It's a privilege to lead an organization and it's a privilege to empower and motivate people.

So I hope that everybody enjoyed this episode and I hope that you learned a lot.

If you've ever wondered what it might be like to work with me personally as your financial advisor, the process is very simple.

Go to my website www.weeklywealthpodcast.com Click on the Contact Us link at the top.

That will take you to my schedule and from there you can set a 30 minute appointment where we can talk about some of your hopes, some of your dreams, and some of the 30,000 foot level aspects of your personal finances and we can point you in the right direction.

It really is that simple and there is no cost for that appointment.

So www.weeklywealthpodcast.com click on the Contact Us button at the top and set that appointment.

And I look forward to speaking with everybody next week.

So until next episode, I wish everybody a blessed week.

Thanks everybody.

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