Follow A (True) Leader

Welcome to the latest edition of my Weekly Content Rundown. Here, I shine a light on the most inspiring and insightful Linkedin content I've seen over the past week. Content that's unique, thought-provoking, and relevant.

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This Week's Rundown

This week I came across some gems that got me thinking about leadership. It's a concept that conjures thoughts of managers and coaches - people who are leaders. Leaders can be great and terrible and everything in between. But in the simplest terms, I think about leadership as style of guidance.

• How does a leader guide their people toward action? (What do they say & do to get results?)
• Do people feel called to action in pursuit of a higher purpose?
• Do people feel inspired to contribute? (vs. avoiding consequences)

When the answers to these questions are yes, there's a strong element of leadership at play. And when the answers are no, leadership is lacking or missing.

So leadership, IMO, is less about the coach and more about the feelings (and ultimately the culture) the leader creates.

This week's Linkedin content comes from Calista Atmadja, Alfie Isa Marsh, Claude Silver, Allen Gannett. Let's take a look.

Linkedin Content

Here's a little leader in the making. Note: he didn't grab the ball and make the shot for her. What purpose would that serve? Instead, he provided the support she needed to do it on her own. This video should be required training for people entering leadership positions. Simple (yet so complex) and to the point.

Love Alfie's breakdown here. Whether you're trying to become a leader for the first time or want to become a better leader, this is a great framework to inspire your leadership goals.

Why will people follow you? What's your purpose? What do you represent?

Claude's heart-forward leadership lessons are the culmination of a lot of people management experience. In my experience, it takes a long time (and a lot of mistakes) to finally appreciate the key to leading people effectively: leading with inspiration vs. barking orders.

It's pretty easy to command people to do things, and sometimes they will obey. But that's amateur hour. It's much more powerful to inspire people. And that really starts with establishing trust. People have to believe their leader has their best interests in mind and is rooting for them to succeed.

That's when discretionary effort comes into play and teams get productive. If you're interested in people-centric leadership advice, Claude is great person to follow on Linkedin.

In the wake of such tragedy, it's been heartwarming to hear stories about Kobe Bryant over the last week. It's always refreshing to hear about great leaders (particularly celebrities) who take random opportunities to be nice to regular folks.

Kobe's quote reminds me of Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. The premise is that true leadership means putting self-interest aside and acting in service to your people. If you haven't read this yet, I can't recommend it enough. You can also watch a great video about it HERE.

Beyond Linkedin

The most common topic people ask me about is how to accelerate their careers - how to break into a management position or climb the ladder faster. The ideas on how to go about it are typically geared toward leveling up on skillset, getting more experience, and taking on more responsibility.

But there's a much bigger opportunity hiding in plain sight - one that anyone can take. And you don't have to wait for your boss to bestow it upon you. Become a company culture influencer. Be the example of living your company values, whatever they may be. Illustrate what it means to be inclusive, collaborative, and so on.

Employees tend to think it's the leadership team's "job" to create the culture and set good examples. But in reality, it's up to everyone. In my leadership experience - when I've seen people at the bottom of the totem pole going the extra mile as culture carriers, those are the people I start looking at for leadership positions. The skillset actually becomes my second consideration.

Here's a short article I enjoyed about the correlation between company culture and customer experience. It reminded me that company culture can (should) be everyone's job. So when you find yourself stewing about that promotion you want, think about ways you can be a positive influence in your company culture. That will be key to progress.

Thinking about leadership and people management reminded me of one of my favorite books of all time, StrengthsFinder. This book guides you to realize your natural talents and consider how you could take advantage of them. The basic idea is that we should capitalize on our natural abilities.

The way it works is you read a few chapters of the book, and then you take an online assessment which identifies your top strengths. After you know your top strengths, you then read the relevant chapters that dive into those strengths. I've done this a few times over the years, and it's hauntingly accurate.

For a great leadership / team building exercise, you can get your team to read the book and take the assessment, and then share the results with each other. Teams can learn a ton about themselves and each other from doing this, and ultimately find better ways to work together.

Well, that concludes this week's rundown. Thanks for reading! If you have any feedback about this project, drop me a note at hello@theofficialjustin.com or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn.

You can also find me around the web at:

• The Official Justin Website
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Cheers,

Justin