Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: When I was 16 years of age, my adopted parents left me on a street corner with a suitcase.
My mother was jealous of my relationship with my dad and Brendan. Every day she'd tell me one of three statements, you're the stupidest kid I've ever met. You'll never amount to anything in life. My greatest day would be when you're no longer in my house and I won't have to look at you.
My dad drove up and he opened the car door and he walked over and I saw what he was carrying. He was carrying a suitcase. And he told me, richard, I don't want to do this, but I have to. He said, son, I love you very much. And he said, you take care of yourself.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Imagine being just 16 years old, standing on a street corner with nothing but a suitcase, abandoned by your parents, left to figure out life on your own. Well, this was the turning point for today's guest, Richard Flynn, who could have given in to defeat, but instead chose to transform his life through sheer resilience and determination.
In this episode, Richard shares the life changing lessons he's learned, including why confident leaders never make excuses. How they build a culture of us and we, not me and I. And the power of creating a positive presence that lasts long after they've left the room. You won't want to miss this conversation. Richard's insights could change how you lead forever.
So, Richard, really great to have you on cultural leadership podcast today. Before we dive into our exciting topic, I have to say I'm really keen to learn a bit more about this. I've got to ask you because I know a bit of your background about these shirts, but you were wearing a wonderful shirt. Tell us about it. What's this whole thing to do with your loud shirts? Let me say.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Well, I used to wear suits all the time and every suit I had had three ties to it. And depending on what I wanted to achieve, it depends on what tie I was wearing. And I was in Las Vegas one day and walked into a men's store and I saw this shirt and I thought, oh, I love that shirt. I love the color. So I bought it and the next day I wore it on stage and I just got so many compliments on it that it just became my trademark. And so actually I get people from all over the world who share material with me to have shirts made. This material is from Australia.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Fantastic.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: From a group I spoke for in Melbourne and they gave me a material for five shirts. And so I am known for my shirts and my shoes.
I used to wear a lot of dress shoes. And I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, the airport, and a lady tripped me, and I broke my big toe. And the doctor told me, you know, we got to let this heal, but you can't wear these shoes you've been wearing. So I went down to a place called Fit to Run, and, Brendan, I bought me 30 pairs of tennis shoes to go with every outfit I have.
Every shirt has a pair of shoes that goes with it. So I'm known for my shirt and my shoes.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: And you sound like you're the original Imelda Marcos.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yep. Maybe. Maybe we were. No, we weren't related.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Well, mate, that is a very cool shirt for our watches on YouTube. YouTube, they love to see that. Now, I am disappointed, though, turning this back on me. I've actually worn a loud shirt in recognition of this interview. This is the loudest shirt I could find in my closet.
And you can probably see got a bit of a Christmasy feel to it.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I get men who tell me, man, I'd love to wear a shirt like that, but my wife would never let me.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: To be fair, my wife would let me because she loves to see me embarrassing myself from time to time.
I love it. I love it. And there is a. I guess again, from what I read, there is a bit of a serious undertone to this, too, because you talk somewhere about, you know, I guess, the fabrics and people sharing these fabrics with you and getting shirts made and stuff, but that's real. That's sort of life, isn't it? We have this sort of weaving our life through the. And, you know, what we do and who we are is the fabric of what makes us up. Can you talk to that a bit?
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, everything we do creates the fabric of our life.
And I have 16 laws that hold my life together, and I don't break my laws. And one of those, which is the second most important law in my life, is that what I want for my life is I want to have a positive presence that is present when I'm not present.
And I think people remember energy.
I think people remember content.
And you'll never forget me. Once you see me on stage in one of my shirts, you'll never forget me. And I have people in audiences where I go who have kept track of the different shirts I wear.
And one time in an audience, I wore the same shirt I'd worn last time I was there. Lady looked at me and said, why didn't you wear a different shirt this time?
I actually keep a record of what, the shirts I wear with different audiences? Yeah.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: That's amazing. So sorry to our audience for diving into these shirts. And we'll get into the leadership stuff for a minute. This is fascinating, but is there a shirt that holds special significance for you?
[00:05:33] Speaker A: There are two of them.
One of them was given to me when I was in South Africa on a tour there.
And a gentleman must have been in his late 70s.
After I finished the presentation and everybody had almost left, he walked up to me with a bag and he pulled out some material, and he said, I went shopping for you this afternoon.
He said, you have no idea of the impact you have made on my life.
And he said, when you get that shirt made, I want you to take a picture and send it to me, and I want you to always remember the person that gave you the material. And then, with tears in his eyes, he hugged me and he said, thank you.
And that has. Brendan, that has never left me.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Do you know what the impact was that you had on him?
[00:06:30] Speaker A: He didn't tell me. He just told me that he had been struggling for three years with something. And that one statement I made, and he never told me the statement, but he said, one statement you made was the missing piece to my puzzle.
And he says, I'm free now.
And, boy, tell you what, that just sent goosebumps all over my body.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Sorry, go ahead.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: I never got his name. He never told me his name. I asked him three times and he never gave me his name.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: I was going to ask you, like, the impact on you, so, I mean, the goosebumps, but how does that make you feel to know that you've had that sort of impact on somebody?
[00:07:17] Speaker A: If you could walk around my house here in South Florida, you'd find in three different places, there's a sticky note. And on each of those sticky notes is the same message. And this is what gets me up every day and allows me to walk into a world looking for presence. And the statement simply says this. Somebody's going to need me today.
And there are days, Brendan, when the person who needs me is me.
But in every day of my life, I just believe someone is going to need me.
The other day, it was the guy who came to spray my house for bugs. And I was. I was doing some typing, and he came over and he said, what do you do? He said, I saw the books in your library. He said, there's a lot of them with your name on them. I said, yeah. So we spent an hour and a half sitting in my living room talking about a situation in his life.
And I believe that sometimes what happens, we get so busy being busy with busyness that we don't pay attention to the people around our life.
And I believe every day in their life we can bring value to somebody else. And that's why I want that positive presence that has presence when I'm that present.
I want my teachings to live.
Yeah.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: I was going to bring this up later in the show, but you talk so much about it now, it'd be crazy if I didn't. One of your top five philosophies, you talked about your 16 rules, but what I found was those top five philosophies, and one that did stick out to me was that you have a presence that is present when you aren't present. You've spoken a bit to that just with the story you've given. But how did. How did this one come to be like, what is it? What is that significant moment in your life that these were. These were evolved from? And particularly that one.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Well, that one evolved over a few years of, you know, being different places.
My wife and I were in Hawaii and we were just sitting out having ice cream, and all of a sudden this guy came running to Morgan and he went, flint, Flint.
And there in the middle of nowhere, he came over and he said, would you mind if I hugged you?
I said, no. He says, I was in a program you did three years ago, and you said two or three things that I've never forgotten. And every time my life gets complicated, I pull those three statements out and I look at them. I'm walking through the airport in Detroit, and all of a sudden I'm changing planes and I hear this guy. Hey, Flint, over here, over here. And I. I go over there and this gentleman had been in an audience five years before, and he says, I have never forgotten you.
My favorite one. I'm sitting on an airplane and this lady gets on the plane. We're boarding the plane, and she comes to where I'm seated and she stopped. And she looks at me, she goes, oh, you're Richard Flynn. I love you. I love you so very, very much. And I just want to thank you for what you've meant to my life. And she walked on the guy next to me and said, who are you?
[00:10:51] Speaker B: What did you say?
[00:10:53] Speaker A: I just. I didn't know what to say to her. And I just said, well, thank you. I don't even know who she was.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: So there's a few of these stories coming through and obviously the impact you have, but how about you Tell people what you actually do and a bit of that background experience that's brought you to where you are today in the hybrid working world. I've seen too many business owners and their businesses suffer because of poor performing employees leading to below average results. If you want to improve your employees performance to deliver consistent results for your business, you have to master one on one meetings. The doors to our master one on one meetings training program are opening soon. I'll teach you how to improve employee performance and deliver consistent results using one on one meetings. To be one of the first people notified when the doors Open, go to LeaderByDesign AU waitlist. Don't wait. Sign up now.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: When I was 16 years of age, my adopted parents left me on a street corner with a suitcase.
Only thing I've ever known about my real mother was that she was a prostitute in New Orleans. And I was the result of a one night stand that she had with a guy and she didn't want me. So I was given away. And the home I was given away into, I found out years and years later the only reason I was ever adopted is because my dad wanted a son. They had adopted three daughters and my mother was jealous of my relationship with my dad and Brendan. Every day she'd tell me one of three statements. You're the stupidest kid I've ever met or you're never amount to anything in life are the one that I had the biggest struggle in life overcoming was that my greatest day would be when you're no longer in my house and I won't have to look at you.
So When I was 16, I was working at a grocery store there in Ardmore, Oklahoma. My dad drove up and he opened the car door and he stood out and he walked over and I saw what he was carrying. He was carrying a suitcase. And he told me, richard, I don't want to do this, but I have to. He said, son, I love you very much. And he said, you take care of yourself.
And he set the suitcase down and he ran back to the car and he drove off. And I was in the middle of the street and a guy grabbed me. He said, what are you doing? Because I was. My heart was about to jump out of my chest and I was there struggling. If you love me, why are you doing this?
And from the age of 16, I have been on my own.
I have raised myself. No one's ever given me anything. I've worked for everything that I have. And I just hate it when people tell me, you don't know what it is to struggle.
And. Because life is just a series of choices.
And so I finished high school and I was good enough. I got scholarships to college, and I got my undergraduate degree in English and speech.
And after doing some practice teaching, I decided I didn't want to teach kids. I just didn't want to do that. So I went on to seminary and I got a degree in ethics and a degree in philosophy.
And I decided then I didn't want to pastor a church. I had the opportunity, but I wanted to teach.
So I taught for a few years at Ohio University and then was offered chair of philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit.
And I was told one day that by the president of the university I needed to donate 18% of my salary back to the university because I was making too much money. So I gave him the whole salary. Brendan. I told him I'm not coming back because one of my laws is never stay anywhere in life where your presence isn't appreciated and didn't have any job or anything to do. And then I got a phone call one day from a gentleman by the name of Dr. Jess Moody, who was pastor of First Baptist Church here in West Palm Beach, Florida, and asked me if I would consider coming and running their counseling center for them. This was a huge, mega, mega church. And I did that for a few years. And I wrote some magazine articles that got some international attention. And I started getting people asking me, would you come share your thoughts with us? You're different.
And I did that on a limited basis for a year and a half. And then one day I decided this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. And for the past 35 years, all I've done is travel this globe, shared my research and my insights with people.
I believe the greatest gift I have is I can take what looks confusing to you and show you a pathway to clarity, if you want it.
If you want it. Because I won't build an orphanage.
I won't collect people who simply want to plug into me and drain me.
People ask me all the time, what percentage of people do you think ever use anything you teach? 2%.
And that's why our world is in such a mess today.
We. We live in a world where we travel in a circle of sameness, and we live from yesterday to today, rather than from today to tomorrow.
And I love what I do. I mean, I. I was before COVID here, here in the States, I would do somewhere between 140 and 160 engagements a year all over the world.
And I miss that in some respects, but it's brought my creativity alive and I'm creating things today, Brendan, that. I mean, it's just as clear as anything in my mind. My mission is to free people and to show them how to have life rather than existence.
That's me.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: I love it, mate.
What goes through. I mean, there's so much to unpack there, but what goes through a 16 year old's mind when something like that happens to them?
[00:17:23] Speaker A: I was frozen there on that street corner, probably for about 30 minutes, didn't know what to do. And I finally told myself, you can't. You can't stand here on a street corner for the rest of your life. So I went into downtown Ardmore, Oklahoma, and I went to the Hotel Ardmore and I got a room. They looked at me funny because I was young, but I had the money to pay for the room, and I went up to the seventh floor and I put the key in the door. Brendan never turned the lights on, just dropped the suitcase, walked across the room, opened the window and sat on that ledge for probably an hour.
And I was struggling with do I live or do I die? And I finally came to the conclusion, if I jumped, my mother would win.
And I was not going to give that woman that victory in my life.
And that was one of my turning points in my life. Everybody has turning points.
That was one. And then when I was a sophomore in college, I made the decision. I had to confront my mom and dad. I believe that anything you don't confront, you validate.
And I went to see my mom and dad, and my dad let me in the house. My mother was in the kitchen. And when my dad told her, hey, come see who's here. And my mother walked into the living room, she looked at me with probably the ugliest look I've ever seen in my life. Dropped her apron on the floor, picked her car keys, walked out her back door, got in her car and drove off.
And I never saw her again. But I'll tell you something, Brendan, that was the greatest day of freedom in my life. Because I had lived my life trying to prove to my mother that I wasn't stupid and that I was lovable and that I was someone who had value. And when she walked out that door, all of a sudden, the freedom came of no longer wanting to prove myself to her.
And I was set free.
And with that freedom came a tremendous amount of mental energy.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. What is it about Richard Flynt's character that puts you on the path that you've been on for so many decades, as opposed to, you know, that fork in the road you talked about, as opposed to that victim side of things. Because again, it is that fork. And hearing that story, it could have been so easy to play that victim card for the rest of your life. So what is that, your character that's taking you down a very different path and a very impactful path.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: First of all, I believe that God has a purpose for my life and that I am living that purpose. I'm doing exactly with my life what God wants me to do.
Number two, I respect my mind, and I.
You talk to anybody who knows me, and I never stop creating.
I mean, I have the last. I've written 19 books.
I've got two more that will be coming out. My next one's entitled so what's your excuse?
And. And I just. My mind is just never let go. I was telling you before became on the air, my new program coming up, the leadership table, where it's going to be limited to 15 people, and we're going to take the concept of leadership beyond where the other programs stop. This is the deepest thing I've ever written in my life because I love the name of your show. I just absolutely love the name of your show of culture of leadership. Because leadership is a culture that you have to develop.
And most people. I was talking to you about this, that most people who call themselves a leader are not leaders. They're participants in the confusion. When I go inside of a company, first thing I want to do is sit with the core group of leaders, and I ask them, what do you think is the number one issue inside the walls of this company? 99% of the time, it comes back to one word. Communication.
Communication.
I'm working with a company right now that I told the owner of the company the other day, if I own this company, I'd fire these seven guys that are in here as leadership. I'd fire every one of them.
Because what they're doing is they're destroying this company from the inside. I believe the most important people in the company are the internal customers.
You have internal customers and external customers. And the internal customers become the face of the company.
But if we don't face the people and know who is here to help us and who is here, that's going to destroy us. Then the company becomes very, very dysfunctional.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: So what are those? I mean, just to flesh some of that out, what are those seven leaders doing, in your view? That is being destructive.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: They don't communicate the Message from top leadership.
They hang on to people who don't share. You know, for their to and for there to be harmony in a company, you got to have a common, common agenda. I mean, common purpose. A common agenda and a commitment with conviction. Not just a. Not just a commitment.
I mean, I can tell you story after story of people who are in a, quote, leadership role, who don't share the purpose, agenda, and commitment. And every day they're working against what the company could be.
And because so many times we don't hold people accountable for their behavior, so what happens? We create the Wild west, and people do whatever they want to do.
I mean, I go to a little restaurant almost every morning for breakfast, and I go there just to study the owner of the restaurant, because the guy, he has a temper, and he'll scream at customers. He'll scream at employees.
And the other day, he sat down with me and he just looked at me and said, what's wrong with my business?
I said, do you have a mirror?
I said, gabriel, you're running people off because you're tired, which I'm seeing today in business. Leadership is tired today. And beyond tired. They're fatigued.
And when you and I are tired and we're fatigued, we lose our passion for what we're doing.
One of the things I've noticed about you and I study your eyes because I think people communicate with their mouth and their eyes and their ears. But you seem to have a love for what you're doing, and this seems to be a passion for you.
And passion is what generates motivation, and motivation is what creates momentum, and momentum is what feeds desire, which then strengthens our determination and then gives us the discipline that says I can, because I will.
But, Brendan, that's missing today.
It's become a job.
And three of my. Three of my books I've written are dictionaries. And what I've done is. Each one of them, I've taken 150 words that are used every day, and I've redefined them. And my definition of a job is an environment that a human goes to every day where they prostitute themselves for a paycheck.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Understand?
[00:25:23] Speaker A: And what we've done.
Most people in the leadership role have lost their passion for what they're doing.
It's because they're not burned out. I coined a word probably 14 years ago, a flame out. You got to go through flame out before you can go through burnout. And flame out is when my desire begins to diminish and I look for the excuses my Determination to have that positive presence weakens.
And then you know what? I just don't care anymore.
I was working with a major 500 company and one of the young men in the company came to me and he said, richard, he said, man, he says, I think I'm leaving. I said, why? He said, because my boss has retired, but he's still here.
And he said, I brought him an idea the other day that was perfect for what we're struggling with. He said, my boss looked at me and said, you know what, that's a great idea, but if I accept it, I got to go back to work and I'm going to retire in two years.
And that's a disaster.
It's a disaster.
I'm doing all the talking. You ask questions.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: It's very pleasant to sit and listen and I'm so focused on it. And thank you. I definitely love what I do. Actually, this is a great example of why I love what I do. Because even though I do as much research as I can on the guests and what's happening, but you also just never know what you're going to get. And that's what I find fascinating. There's so much under the hood stuff story that you just can't read about. And I love the fact that people feel comfortable in having a conversation and sharing some of these things. It just, you know, makes for me a fascinating episode. And certainly for people that follow us on YouTube and on the audio podcast, it makes for fascinating conversations.
I just want to refer back to one of your top five philosophy in all that you've just said. One of the things that just keeps playing over in my head and particularly at that 16 year old moment, but probably many other moments through the journey of your life, one of your philosophies, you say you are exactly in your life where you want to be.
I mean, I did read about the adoption side. I had no idea about that 16 year old story. But how does that philosophy relate to that situation? I'm sure that's not where you wanted to be.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: No, but at that time, I wasn't mature enough to know what I wanted to be.
But I tell you what, when you're 16 years old, you're standing on a street corner with everything in your life in a suitcase.
You got to grow up in a hurry.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: And I was lucky because God put three men in my life at three strategic points that were there to take me through that valley of darkness.
But that philosophy, you are exactly in your life where you want to be. I get so many people who argue with me about that, and they will say that that's not true.
I said, well, are you in your life where you really want to be majority of time? No. Then why are you there?
You have made the choice to be there.
You have allowed, most of the time, you've allowed the outside forces to define you. I believe that you leave, you live either outside in or inside out.
There's only two foundations in life that you can stand on. Outside in. Your foundation is built in three things. Doubt, worry, and uncertainty. And, you know, I bet I got 27 cents laying over here. I bet you 27 cents that you've gone through times when you've really doubted yourself, and you can't doubt without worry.
And when you have doubt and worry together, you have uncertainty. Uncertainty paralyzes you. Are. You stand on the foundation of belief, trust and faith.
And I grew to the point where I had to come to the place where I believed in me.
And I do, Brendan. I believe in me. I throw parties, and I'm the only one I invite. And they are such great parties because I enjoy being with me. I enjoy who I am, and I live from the inside out, and I don't let the wrong people into my life.
I'm very particular who I let into my life.
And if you're here and all you want to do is take from me, you get evicted.
Because if I don't protect me from the outside world, the outside world will overwhelm me.
And I live on that foundation of belief, trust and faith. Do I ever doubt myself? Yeah.
Yeah.
But when I realize the doubt, I can work through it with my beliefs about me, because I think there's a solution to everything in life if you really want to find it. Most people would rather go in the corner and lay in the fetal position and blame life for what hasn't happened. And I could have chose to do that. That could have been my choice, but I chose not to.
And I can't tell you exactly why, but I just had this inner part of me that says, richard, you can make a difference in life, but you got to work at it.
And so we are exactly in our life where we want to be. You can tell me that's not true all you want, but that is a factually true statement.
And you're only. You only stay there because you want to stay there.
I don't live from yesterday to today. I live from today to tomorrow.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: Richard. You won't get any argument from me as far as that goes. I'm with you 100%. It just actually takes me back to a. I'm involved in a community of carers, so myself and my wife are into foster caring that we look after young children as well. So again, your adoption story really resonated with me.
One of the things that conversations was happening and some carers took exception to was about everyone has a choice. And you know, I understand there's, I'm not trauma trained or anything, but there's, you know, trauma in background. You've just shared elements of your trauma as a 16 year old and even just coming through life, some of the statements that your stepmother, or sorry, your adoptive mother had said to you. So there's.
I guess what I'm just saying is I resonate so much with that and support that so much in that. That is my 100% belief. Like we all have a choice. Yes. Some of these choices are very difficult and there's experiences slash traumas in our life that have impact on maybe what choices happen or what choices we take. But we still all have personal responsibility and choice to move that forward and what we do with that. And I think again, I resonate with you as far as there's just so much victimhood mentality and it's so much easier to blame other people, Richard, isn't it, rather than do something and carve a path for yourself.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, some. I respect you and your wife very much. What y'all are doing is very, very, very important.
You know, in working with children I've.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: Worked with, somehow I seem to bring it in. There's so much of that experience that we love and kudos to my wife. She's the one that sort of raised it with us initially and we sort of dived headfirst into it. But again, the impact you're having on people, the impact that I like to have in my business and at an adult level and a child level, it's that coaching, it's that mentoring, it's that guiding light. God knows we've all screwed up in life from time to time, but if we can help somebody else make a few less screw ups, then hopefully we've done okay. Right.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: You know, something, something you said. Because everything in life is a choice and we get to make the choice. Other people may influence us, but when it comes down to the final place, it's our choice.
And what I have found and what I work with people on is that I, I believe that every, I believe that life operates in threes and I think that's biblical and I Think I can. I can show it everywhere. But I think in order to make sure you're making the right choice, there are three P's that you have to live by.
First one is pace.
You got to make sure that your pace is allowing you to manage your life. Not your life, manage you.
You can't live inside out if the pace is not there.
The second P is huge patience.
And what I find is that most people become very impatient with life. I want it now.
And they don't understand that there is a process in everything that life hands us.
And then the third P is prepared every day. You got to prepare yourself.
And if I could go back to my statement here in my house, somebody's going to need me today that drives me to make sure that every day I am better than I was yesterday.
And that every day I need to seize upon the opportunities that are there.
And to do that, I have to be a risk taker. Because you can't find the opportunity if you're not really willing to walk into the possibility.
And the difference between that is possibility is based in excitement and possibilities can be negative.
What you want is, you want that opportunity that creates enthusiasm within you.
And what I find is that most people settle because they don't want to work. They don't want to do the work.
And, you know, again, go back to the culture of leadership. Most leaders today take a position and get a title and they don't understand the difference between the three words, leader, leading and lead.
And those are three. Those are three words. And they have to be in order. If I'm a leader, I have to be one who has accepted the responsibility and I hold myself accountable to continue to make sure that those that I'm leading are. I'm leading them from today to tomorrow, and I'm not locking them from yesterday to today.
And then once I accept the leader, then I have to understand what leading is.
And leading is the process of taking people beyond where they were.
And then to lead, I got to build that culture where we have that common purpose. And purpose is why we do what we do. We gotta have that common agenda where we're all on the same page. I go into so many companies where there are clicks and there's cliques among the leaders because they don't share that common agenda.
Can I tell you a quick story?
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Okay. I'm in California in a place called Rancho Cucamonga, California. Love the name of the city. And this was a sales organization that had about a thousand salespeople in it. And the owner of the company, Daisy Burlingame, had invited me in to see if I would come and spend a year in their company and help them rebuild their culture. And so she laid out her plan and she asked everybody, are you with me? And everybody said, yeah. And we walked out. And I walked out behind two of our managers and I heard one manager say to the other manager, well, that was sure a bunch of crap.
So I just walked over and tapped him on the shoulder and said, hey, you don't know me, but I'm Richard Flint and I'm going to be here for the next year working with the leadership. Now you and I have two things we can do here. We can go back in together with and tell Daisy you think all of this was just a bunch of crap. But if you're not comfortable doing that, I'll tell her for you.
Three months later, I fired him.
If you don't have the common purpose, common agenda and common commitment with conviction, there'll always be confusion.
But that's the role of the leader.
He's there to provide leadership. They're there to lead.
And if you're, if you're living in the corporate, in the company from yesterday to today, only thing you're creating is confusion.
But if you're building a culture that's living from today to tomorrow, you're building a company that can grow.
Four things destroy a company. And I've seen this everywhere that I go.
Inconsistencies, which are there because leadership accepts them.
Inefficiencies, which are there because leadership doesn't establish and hold people accountable for the agenda.
Non partnership people, people who have a job and are only there for the paycheck.
And then the one that really solidifies all of it, exhausted leadership.
So many leaders today. I don't know if you see this in people that you around or maybe people you talk to who are in a leadership role, but the majority of people who are leaders today are fatigued.
The world, the world of leading a business has changed.
And it takes an inwardly strong person who has that conviction that I am where I'm supposed to be in this company.
And that's one of the reasons I've put together my leaders table is I'm serious, we're going to take people to a level of leadership that they've never been before. And I joke with people, I tell them, I'm going to take you beyond where other leadership programs have stopped.
And you're going to be exhausted in this program.
But I'm going to show you the difference between a great company and an exceptional company, exceptionally simply means going beyond where other people stopped.
And, you know, so many people who own small businesses or average businesses, they. They struggle today because they don't really have the inner skills to do. Deal with what they need to deal with. And most of them don't know how to work with their people.
So what I do.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: What are the. Without giving too much away around the sort of leadership table that you've got happening next year. But what are those sort of couple of patterns you're seeing around leadership? Exhaustion.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: Their passion has diminished.
They don't have the love for what they're doing as much as they used to have it.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Because what's driving those things, though?
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Finding people who are committed.
You know, I do a lot of work with country clubs, and here in South Florida, some of the country clubs that I work with, the larger ones, they can't find American kids who are willing to work. So one club brings in 300 kids from Ireland. Another one brings in 200 kids from South Africa. There's another one that brings in kids from Australia because they seem to have a little different work ethic.
And the rule is, here's who you are, here's your role, here's what we expect of you, and if you don't do it, next day you're on a plane back home.
Brings a lot to light about being accountable, holding people accountable.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: You and I could have a whole discussion on this, But I think most of what we're dealing with with kids today is that they don't have homes. They have houses.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: I love that. Talk to that a little bit. Homes versus houses.
[00:42:52] Speaker A: A home is where people gather with a purpose.
A house is where we meet.
I mean, I did a research project a couple of years ago for a couple's retreat I was doing, and I took 100 couples that had children, and I asked them out of a possible 21 meals together that you could eat during a week as a family, how many meals do you eat together as a family? What do you think the answer was?
[00:43:23] Speaker B: Not many.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: Three.
Three.
And that family meal table is so important. I have one company I work with that won't hire you if you didn't grow up on a farm.
They're out in the middle of Kansas, a large company, and one of the things they look for, they look for young people who grew up on a farm. Why? They have a work ethic.
[00:43:49] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:43:51] Speaker A: And they have respect, and they're responsible for what you give them.
I had a lady come to Me one time, a young girl come in one time, and she had fingernails that were about out to here. And we were looking for a receptionist. And she said, will I have to type?
I said, yes. She said, but I pay so much for these nails and I can't type with them. I said, well, that's good to know because there's not a role here for you.
And so many times, and I don't know if this is true in Australia, but companies today need bodies and they're willing to hire just anyone.
I have a company in Arizona that I'm working with, and one of the things that the owner came to realize, he wasn't building a company, he was building an orphanage.
And he was bringing all these people together that didn't share what he shared. And one day he looked at me, he said, I've made a decision. The orphanage is closed.
And what he did is he let go a lot. A lot of people in the company.
And he became particular as to whom he would bring into his company. And today he has fewer people, but their sales are up over 300%.
The right people understand customer, not service, but customer care. Number one thing in human life wants to know is that they matter.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: Absolutely.
The really interesting thing I find in just what's processed through my head as you're talking, and particularly accountability, that again, there's some fairly solid research out that tends to. Teams and leaders find accountability, particularly to behavior, as one of the most difficult things. But actually, when you unpack that at a deeper level, it's actually easier to keep people accountable than to clean up the mess. When you're not keeping people accountable, that is a much, much tougher leadership task to clean up that mess, isn't it?
[00:46:06] Speaker A: You want to know why that happens? It's because years ago in business, our philosophy was this, people first, product second, profit third.
But in business today, it seems like it's profit first, product second, and people are the evil necessity.
And so when we changed that around, what we did is we took the emphasis off of our internal customers being our value.
And so we treat them as an evil necessity.
I checked into a hotel the other day, and I got up to the counter and I told. I looked at the young man, he was on the phone, and I knew instantly he was on the phone with his girlfriend. And they were talking about their date that night. And I looked at him, and he looked at me and gave me one of these.
And I stood there for about two or three minutes, and I finally reached across the counter and I disconnected his phone call and he said, what are you doing? I said, young man, all I want to do is check in and get to my room. I've had a long day. He said, I would have gotten to you. I said, son, I'm not sure I would have lived that long.
But that was a reflection on leadership, was it not?
[00:47:30] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: The behavior of all people is consistent with what leadership accepts.
And what happens if you and I are tired.
We don't confront.
And confrontation is the skill of resolution.
And one of our sessions at the roundtable is going to be on the five skills that every exceptional leader has to have. And they come in an order.
First is listening.
Second is communication.
Third is confrontation.
Fourth is delegation.
And then fifth is decision making.
And if you don't master those skills, you will become a participant. Now let me say one more thing because this is controversial.
I believe that between the top leader and the core of people that the leader is surrounded with, you cannot build a team there.
That has to be a partnership.
When you can get from that core group down to the people every day, you can build a team.
But if you don't have the partnership between the leader and those that support the leader, everything falls apart.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: Why do people find that controversial?
[00:49:05] Speaker A: Well, because we don't. Most people are not prepared to lead.
One of the things I find in majority of companies I deal with is that they have people with a title but they've not trained them what that means. And that's why I do, I want to do this leadership roundtable is because I want to get into the heart, the depth, the understanding, the psychology of the leading. I was working with one of the Fortune 500 automobile companies and I did this presentation on no excuse management, which is another one of the leadership, the leader table topics and when I finished, I went through the four stages that a company goes through to die. And I can pinpoint death in a company.
And after I was finished, the vice president of the company came to me and he said, if I accept what you said, we're out of business.
Two months later they closed 300 dealerships in one day.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: I've got to ask, mate, what's the death point?
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Well, it's when we don't, we don't pay attention to what's actually going on in the company.
Inconsistencies are because leadership allows it to happen. Inefficiencies goes back to leadership not paying attention.
Non partnership people is because leadership does not know their people.
And then exhaustion fatigued leaders soon don't care.
I turned a company down the other day that wanted me to work with them and God, do they need me. I did a program for their company, but the owner came to me and said, will you, will you help us? I said, are you willing as the owner of the company, are you willing to make the changes that are necessary in order to improve?
He says, richard, if I answer you honestly, I'll probably tell you no.
I said, then I'm not the person for you.
I don't play games with anybody.
And that's. I tell people all the time, I can be the best friend you've ever had, but I can also be the biggest SOB you've ever had in your life. Because if you fight me, you're not.
[00:51:31] Speaker B: Going to win, which is why you're respected and have such great impact. There's no doubt at all in my mind I want. There's two points that I guess I would make or ask you to talk to. So in some of the, in a lot of the stuff you've shared going back to exhausted leadership again, I feel like I'm a Richard Flint fanboy because I agree with everything you're saying. The whole. What I see is that exhaustion sits at the root of so much. It's like that center point. If you can get leadership over the exhaustion piece, then you. Because it's almost like exhaustion to me. And you mentioned they don't care. So we're settling for mediocre, which is just a vicious cycle to get in. So when talking about people, you're accepting that we'll just get that warm body. We're not setting expectations that I know you can be better. I believe in you. All that sort of stuff that takes work.
Yeah, a lot of hard work. But there's a lot of satisfaction attached to that hard work, isn't there?
[00:52:34] Speaker A: Yes, yes. But if the leader is not leading, the people have no one to follow except the negative group within side the company.
You and I both know this. In any company, training is going to happen.
Someone is going to train the people.
And in my, in my three groups that I divide a company into sponges which are the new people. Spectators are the people who come to work every day not to work, but to watch. And the camels, which are the backbone of the company, which is the number one group leaving companies today is the people you can't afford to lose. And they don't go to other companies because of money. Most of them go for less money. They go because of the environment, quality, people want quality.
And the spectators are the people who Every day they want to take these little naive, excited, desirable, wanting to learn people. And because leadership doesn't really have training. They have, they have courses.
But training says, I hold you accountable.
And we don't have back to our word. We don't have the accountability.
You know, if I go to training and I come back excited, and yet no one shares my excitement. But that group of spectators says, well, what did you learn? Oh, they told me that years ago and I haven't done it yet.
Who's training the little new people with the sponges in the company? It's the spectators.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: Sorry, just tell me sponges. I just want to be clear. What's your definition of sponges?
[00:54:23] Speaker A: A sponge is the new person. And just real quickly, they have certain characteristics they're eager to learn.
They bring excitement with them every day. And boy, the negative people do not like excited people don't like them.
They believe they can do anything, even if they don't know what it is.
They're searching to find their place.
And then they don't want to disappoint the leader. So that's why they go overboard.
They're naive and they don't understand that there are people in the company who don't want them to grow.
And then they don't have a history.
They don't have a history with the company.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: Well, let's, let's look at the, you know, we certainly don't want to turn sponges into spectators, is my understanding. But what's the, what's one thing you see people who are supposedly leading that does turn those eager new people from sponges into the spectators that you don't want?
[00:55:34] Speaker A: Well, what we learned is what they, what they expect from management.
And here's what we learned.
They, they want patience.
You know, so many times companies don't hire until they, they need somebody. So they bring them in, they don't train them, they just drop them in. And they don't realize somebody's going to train them.
So they want the patience. They want training.
They want guidance with their training.
They want to have somebody that they can ask questions to. And what I find in exceptional companies is they want an accountability partner. And that accountability partner is the, is the camel. And then huge. And I heard this all the time, they want time to develop because they don't know what they're doing.
And the training they're getting is not the training they need.
You know, so many times the spectators will look at a little sponge and go, little sponge is busy working. And they'll Tell the sponge, slow down.
You're going to make the rest of us look bad. Slow down.
But you know, it's interesting because in, in most businesses today, little sponges will make up somewhere between, I think what our research told us was somewhere between 9 to 11% of the company. And today we're keeping 0.5 to 1% of them.
That's expensive. Absolutely, that's expensive. And that's a leadership issue, Brenton. That's a leadership issue.
You see, especially in small to average companies, most people who call themselves a leader are busy doing two things, fighting fires.
And it's the spectators that start to fire.
And while the, while the leaders trying to deal with that fire, they're busy starting the next fire.
And they overwhelm leadership with their presence.
And the spectators know exactly the weaknesses of a leader and they attack them.
But because that person in the leadership role basically is tired and they got so much on their plate that they lack the energy.
And when you lack the energy, it wears you down on your passion.
I've had a lot of leaders who told me small, average companies, you know, every day I get up and I question why am I doing this?
I have leaders tell me a lot of times, every day I drive up to the office and part of me doesn't want to get out of the car or the truck.
That's sad.
[00:58:44] Speaker B: Bad place to be in.
[00:58:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially if you're the one that's supposed to bring the energy, the motivation and the excitement to the, to the company.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:58:55] Speaker A: So what I do, I avoid, I don't confront. And what people need to learn, confrontation is not criticism, confrontation is the skill of resolution.
That's what clarifying.
[00:59:10] Speaker B: You mean, you confront, you don't avoid.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, one of your philosophies, anything you don't confront, you validate. And you've given numerous examples of stories like that where you've addressed things head on, you've confronted things in a, in a very respectful way, mind you.
[00:59:29] Speaker A: I had to fire my mother in law.
[00:59:32] Speaker B: There's probably a few people that might be ringing in. Can I phone a friend, Richard, and let me know how to do that.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: My mother in law was a control freak. And when my wife wanted to hire, when we moved the company from Florida to Virginia, our corporate headquarters are in Virginia. And she wanted to hire her mother. And I said, well, what happens if she doesn't work out? She says, well, you'll fire. I said, you're hiring her so you'd have to fire. And she said, I'm not going to fire my mother. So three weeks before our Thanksgiving, I flew back in town because my, my mother in law had created a huge mess in the company. And I told her, I'm sorry, but I can't, I can't keep you.
That was the coldest Thanksgiving I ever spent because we had it at their house.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: But you got through it.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: You've survived, Richard, because I did what was right.
[01:00:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:00:29] Speaker A: If I had not confronted her, I would have validated her behavior and then what would have happened? I would have been working for her anytime. Anything, you don't mind?
[01:00:41] Speaker B: You.
[01:00:43] Speaker A: I'm sorry.
[01:00:44] Speaker B: Yeah. On that path to it, you just opened the path to exhaustion if you validated those behaviors.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: Because you know what? I don't want to be around him. I don't want to face them. I want to deal with him. And you use the word while ago. That was correct. I avoid them.
And every time I do that, I empower him.
[01:01:05] Speaker B: I know we were going to talk a little bit more around the sponges, spectators and camels and you've led into that. Well, but what we've spoke about is absolutely fascinating. There's no doubt about it. So there's so much gold to be had here. I just want to take us back to the point of. I love getting back to the root cause of stuff. And you talked about leader, leading, lead and people being able to lead. They've got to understand what leading is. But then a mentor of mine many years ago said to me, brendan, leadership, it's not about you, but it is about you. And that's where I see leader. It's actually why I name my business leader by design. You need to focus on self first and then you can focus on others. But it almost seems to me, Richard, in the experience that I'm having, and mine's not as many years as yours, but there's, there's a warped sense of what a leadership badge looks like. And I just mean that figuratively. Like people, people are picking up a leader badge and thinking, this is how I lead. This is how I'm leading and lead people as opposed to. And maybe society has a lot to do with that. What would you say to this is? Are you seeing a warm sense of what being a leader actually means? And if we can't resolve that issue, then how can we resolve leading and then moving into lead of people?
[01:02:28] Speaker A: Well, first of all, if you can't resolve that issue, there is no leadership. There is no leader, there's no leading, and there's no leadership.
[01:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, agree. Tell us more.
[01:02:39] Speaker A: Well, one of the things I find with. I've done a lot of work with multilevel marketing companies, and one of the things that I have watched is how ego can get in the way, you know, And I talk to a lot of people. Small, average, large.
And so many times the owner in a smaller and average company will tell you, this is my company.
And, you know, if you want to learn about people, listen to the pronouns they use.
It's not my company, it's our company.
I mean, I couldn't do what I do today without my staff. I mean, you've come, corresponded with Denise. Denise has been with me 25 years.
And there was a time when I had to fire her because she was going through a divorce. And she and her husband would stand in the lobby of my building and fight with each other, and it would be so loud, you could hear them all over the building.
And I walked out one day and told him, if y'all do this one more time, I'm going to fire her.
The next day, they did the same thing. And I just simply walked out, walked over to him and said, denise, pack your desk. You're fired.
She was gone for three months and came back and begged me to get her job back.
And I knew the talent in this girl. I knew the talent in her.
So I gave her her job back.
And I put together a list of 19 expectations for her, and I had her sign them. And I said, if you don't live up to these expectations, you're out of here. Well, she has moved from my receptionist to my personal assistant.
And, I mean, this girl is just so, so brilliant because she's in the right place.
And, you know, it's. It's just. They can't. There can't be any ego when it comes to leading a company. If you establish that positive presence that has a presence that's present when you're not present, you have the respect of your people.
And I mean, for you, how big is the word respect?
[01:05:05] Speaker B: It's everything, mate. Absolutely massive. You haven't got that. You haven't got much of a foundation to move forward on.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I had this guy want me to work with his company one time, and he said, richard, he said, man, I've heard so many good things about you, and I'd like to have you work with my company. But he said, there's going to be one thing. You have to leave me alone. I am not the issue. My people are the issue. I said, really? I said, okay, listen, I'm going to leave now because you're not ready for me.
Listen to the pronouns that are used.
Singular pronouns destroy leadership.
Plural pronouns build that common purpose, common agenda, and common commitment with conviction.
[01:05:56] Speaker B: Richard, we might have to get in touch with LinkedIn and get them to update all these pronouns. They add and have a we, us, pronoun. They seem to be missing the most important ones.
[01:06:04] Speaker A: Oh, you've noticed. You've noticed that, too?
[01:06:07] Speaker B: Yes, I have, and I refuse to do it. It's not that I respect, disrespect, people's right to have these things, but I don't fall into those traps, buddy.
[01:06:17] Speaker A: I can't do what I do by myself. You can't do what you do by yourself.
We need people who share a commitment with conviction.
[01:06:26] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:06:27] Speaker A: Because that means they're walking the path with us.
You know, I don't mean to be a theologian here, but one of the things I learned in seminary as I was studying the life of Christ, he walked among the people without becoming one of the people.
That's the mark of a great leader.
You know, I tell leaders all the time, you don't socialize with your people.
The worst thing you can ever do is go out and drink with your people, because their respect, their ability to really listen to you goes downhill.
[01:07:11] Speaker B: Great point.
It's funny, I just had a conversation with a leader earlier this week, and in the business improvement world, they use the term going to the gemba, going to the place of work, but again, just resonates with the story of the faith that, you know, being out there in the place of work and seeing what people are doing and having conversations with people and walking with the people, you see so much. You actually see what's actually happening, not what you think is happening. There's a big difference between the two, particularly when you are leading people.
[01:07:47] Speaker A: You know, we got one, One other elephant in the room we have to talk about, and that's the number of people today.
[01:07:56] Speaker B: Sorry, what was that?
[01:07:57] Speaker A: The number of people who are working from home today.
[01:08:01] Speaker B: What would you like to talk about there?
[01:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a. That takes a whole different type of. Of leadership.
And that. That has to be a lot of trust.
And that's something that you have to. You have to build, and you build that through the quality of your presence.
And I think if you have a group of people who work from home and they're, you know, they're in the area that every now and every, I think once a month, you bring them all into the office, because I Think there is a need for that camaraderie in the office.
I mean, I've done several zoom meetings with companies where the people are working from home and you know what they're doing, they're there. And while you're on their texting and, you know, the other thing, too, is that when they're home, their dress doesn't say business.
And I'm a big. I'm a big believer in business dress, business casual, because I think the way you dress conveys your commitment to what you're doing.
And, you know, again, we have become very lackadaisical and how people dress.
[01:09:31] Speaker B: I like to say, look good, feel good, play good. We used to use that phrase when we played a reasonable level of football in my day. So same thing with business. If you're looking good. Again, I work from home mostly if I'm not at client premises. But you just. If I haven't started the day well, that normally involves some sort of exercise and a swim and stuff like that. I'm refreshed, I'm ready to go, I get changed, and it's sort of like, game on sort of stuff. If I don't do that process, I just know that I'm not going to be as productive. So I do. I do hear you. I think, again, the. You know, I don't. We haven't sort of got time to unpack the whole remote work and situation. But ultimately, I think my view, and I think what you're saying, you use the word camaraderie. I'd use that word connection. Like, it doesn't matter if we're introvert like you or I naturally. But we still crave that human connection. Some of us need it more than others, and some of us want it for extended periods more than others. But we still need to be able to connect with people. There's nothing like being in the same room with each other. Just being able to put a hand on the shoulder or to shake a hand or just have a, you know, a touch or something like that. That just makes it different to the interaction that people have, doesn't it?
[01:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Or just stand around the coffee cup, the coffee pot and have a cup of coffee together.
We. We are made to interact with people.
[01:10:52] Speaker B: Mm.
[01:10:53] Speaker A: And I'll tell you one. That one more thing about that that I've learned is that working from home, there's a lot of distractions to take you away from your work.
I had a mother one time tell me she worked from home. She said, it is so hard to get to Work in the morning because I walk through the house and I see the dishes over there. So I think I need to do something there.
I got laundry I need to do but it's ready for me to fold it. She said. It is so hard not to be distracted. It.
[01:11:26] Speaker B: It'S certainly a discipline, mate, there's no doubt about it. So yeah, when we have little ones, we've got two little ones, a three year old and a nine week old in the house at the moment. So my clients thankfully are very, very accepting of what we do as far as that goes. And occasionally you see these little ones running behind me and start the three year old running behind me. Anyway, it's a bit crazy, but unfortunately I don't have the door on my office, which is a real.
Yeah, not that smart when we've got little ones running around.
Anyway, like I said, some of my clients, my clients are very, very patient and understanding people. Thankfully.
[01:12:00] Speaker A: Kids give us life, don't they?
[01:12:03] Speaker B: Such a great energy. I agree.
[01:12:06] Speaker A: Sometimes they can wear you out, mate.
[01:12:10] Speaker B: Absolutely that. Look, speaking about leadership, exhaustion and things like that. But look, bodies give us lots of signs and sometimes we listen to those signs. But you know, we've had a lot happening in our family, you know, good stuff, but just a lot of stuff that happened in the last four to six weeks that some of it was planned, some of it was unplanned, it just made for a hectic time. But some I'm just getting over the really bad cold and sort of chest infection and stuff like that. It's that exhaustion and I just need to refresh myself. But look, we won't get into too much of that, but thank you very much for what we've spoken about today. I feel like we could just sit here and speak for probably another two, three, four hours. There's so many avenues we could take this. But I think today we've given people some really. You've given people some really, really solid things to think about and consider in their own leadership journey as business owners, as middle level leaders or as senior leaders, Without a shadow of a doubt. How we like to finish the show is off the back of the name of our show. Culture of Leadership. What's the one thing that you like to leave our viewers, our community with around developing a culture of leadership? What have you done in your experience that has an impact on developing a culture of leadership?
[01:13:25] Speaker A: I've said it probably six or seven times. Work every day to create that positive presence that has presence when you're not present.
If you do that and you build that.
Then you build an organization that has that common purpose, common agenda and that commitment with conviction that will allow a company to live from today to tomorrow rather than yesterday to today.
[01:14:00] Speaker B: Richard, thank you so much for being such a wonderful guest on the Cultural leadership.
[01:14:05] Speaker A: If people would like to contact me and I'm I'm open to it, my email address is real simple, it's richardichardflint.com and my website is richardflint.com and if you go there richardflint.com first thing you're going to see is the information on the leaders table. And if any of your anyone listening is interested in that, I'd love to have you join us.
I think it would be an exciting experience to what was it they said in Starstruck to go where others have never been.
[01:14:45] Speaker B: Love it mate. And we will put all that stuff in the show notes as well and let our community know. No doubt it. And you also at least have started following you recently on Instagram as we've connected and stuff. So you're doing very good little videos and snippets and stuff like that. Well, so you're certainly out and about and you've got an unbelievable level of experience. So once again, thank you for what you shared today on Cultural Leadership. These are my three key takeaways from my conversation with Richard. My first key takeaway Confident leaders have a mindset of no excuses. Confident leaders don't allow excuses to limit their potential or that of their teams. They confront challenges head on, taking responsibility for their actions and outcomes. By creating a culture where accountability is prioritised, these leaders set a clear standard of commitment and resilience.
My second key takeaway Confident leaders use us and we, not me and I. Leaders who inspire trust and collaboration use inclusive language, focusing on collective success rather than personal recognition.
By embracing us and we, confident leaders build a sense of shared purpose and commitment within their teams, building unity and cooperation.
My third key takeaway Confident leaders create a positive presence.
Confident leaders work every day to create a positive presence that endures even when they're not physically present.
Through their principles, actions and connections, they leave a lasting impact that inspires others to carry forward the values and vision of the organization.
So in summary, my three key takeaways were Confident leaders have a mindset of no excuses.
Confident leaders use us and we, not me and I. And Confident leaders create a positive presence.
You can let me know your key takeaway on YouTube or at theculturalleadership.com Again, thanks for joining me. And remember the best outcome is on the other side of a genuine conversation.
