Welcome back brew nation! As the “Friday Coffee Guy” I am excited each week to provide a weekly assembly of material I am reading, listening to, watching, or thinking about that is designed to equip and call you to uncommon leadership, and I am grateful you choose to spend a few minutes with me!
Here is your weekly sip of what I have been reading, listening to, or watching to equip me to:
- Think Positively – How’s your mindset today? Do you have an ABUNDANCE mindset or a SCARCITY mindset. I read a recent post from Jon Gordon that outlined the differences in the two:
| Abundance Mindset | Scarcity Mindset |
| There’s more than enough for everyone | What you have limits what I can have |
| When you help others grow, you grow | Focus only on yourself |
| Celebrate others’ success | Envy the success of others |
| Make the pie bigger | Get your piece of the pie |
I have a competitive spirit and I like to win. I am an entrepreneur and I would like to see my business grow. I did some research on the size of the coaching market and the number of coaches out there: By early 2020, coaching had grown to a $2.85 billion industry. According to a survey by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and PwC, there were approximately 71,000 coaching practitioners operating in 2019. (Source SHRM.org). I am pretty sure I am not going to get all of that business. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t be working to grow my business. This week I am at a networking event with several other executive coaches/consultants and we are sharing successes and challenges with each other with no concern about “our piece of the pie”. That is an abundance mindset.
- Exercise Daily – One of the keys to living a long, healthy life is a daily exercise routine. I read some key points recently from my online exercise mentor, Jeremy Scott, to help to keep my ego in check as I get a bit older with my exercise routine. He suggested five key things “To be FIT OVER 30” :
- Choose smarter, safer & more joint-friendly exercises
- Focus less on strength and more on mobility, stability & stamina
- Take recovery training as serious as your main workouts
- Make light weight feel heavy (or lighter loads go a longer way)
- Become a breathing master
Can I get an amen to all of these? I still need to work even more on #5, but I have clearly moved closer to items 1-4. We need to exercise daily, but we need to be smart!
- Read More – I have committed to reviewing one law per week from John Maxwell’s 25th anniversary edition of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I really hope you are finding these helpful. For me, going back through this read for the third time has been really enlightening. This week’s law is:
Law # 14 – The Law of Buy-In
People Buy into the Leader, Then the Vision
As a leader, your success is measured by your ability to actually take the people where they need to go. But you can do that only if the people first buy into you as a leader. That’s the reality of the Law of Buy-in.
It doesn’t matter who good your ‘cause’ is, or how well you can orate an idea, if people don’t buy into YOU first, your success will be limited. If you want to grow your buy-in, it is a process to follow. In this chapter, John outlines three steps that have to happen in progression to get people to buy in:
1) You have to display character – This goes without saying, but buy-in always starts with trust and if you have poor character, you will have limited buy-in.
2) You have to display competence – Once they know that they can trust you, then people want to know that you can produce results.
3) You have to display commitment – So, if they trust you and you are competent, the time comes when you have to display your commitment. If you are asking the team member to go above and beyond yet they see you leaving early most of the time, or they see you checking emails or your phone during meetings, you are not committed. The difference between being interested and being committed is as simple as eggs and bacon. The chicken was interested… the pig was committed. Read that again. I know it sounds odd, but “be a pig”!
As a leader, having a great vision and a worthy cause is not enough to get people to follow you. You have to become a better leader.
- Quote “An abundant mind sees opportunities. A scarce mind sees obstacles.”
What You Need to Do:
Call to Action: What one area do you need to improve upon to gain more buy-in from those that you lead. It doesn’t matter if we lead a company, a team of volunteers, or a family, we must display character, competence and commitment.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Champions Brew. If you did, I would appreciate it if you would share it with someone who might enjoy it as well and ask them to subscribe! I will make sure they automatically get this email every week.
Until next time, Exercise Daily, Read More, and Grow Champions!
P.S. – Are you a podcast fan? Maybe the Uncommon Leader podcast is for you. Are you interested in being a guest on the Uncommon Leader Podcast? Do you have a story to tell? Email me [email protected] and let’s have a chat and set something up!!
