S2 E65: Traits of the Level 3 Leader

You can’t help but be aware of the leadership, lack of leadership, and the leadership inconsistencies that we’ve seen recently here in America.  

Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum (or political awareness spectrum), the recent events have been part of everyone’s consciousness. 

I’m not talking politics in this episode but we can all take leadership lessons from the events that have occurred.

This week, you don’t want to miss diving into:

• Who you have to lead first to be successful
• The question of whether mastery is attainable
• A surprising twist to looking at richness in business
• How love actually is leadership
• Why being called to be generous isn’t necessarily talking about money

And, you’ll hear how exemplifying the characteristics of a Level 3 Leader can transform your business...and, dare I say, the world?

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Transcript

Winston Faircloth: 0:02

Hey there multipliers. It's Winston Faircloth and welcome back to Episode 65. For love of team. This is the podcast where leaders simplify teamwork helping you surround yourself with others doing the work they love. Simplify your business by eliminating automating and delegating so that you serve more doing only the work that you love. Now, last time, we talked about how important it is in the world of business complexity, to prune extra words away until you can capture the essence of your offer your service to just three words. So our challenge last time was, what three words would you use to describe your business or next offer? Well, here's our love of team, it comes down to three words, leaders simplify, teamwork, leaders simplify teamwork. Each word represents a pillar of our vision for the forward thinking intentional teams built with love. And each month here on the podcast, let's go deeper into one of those three pillars. And this month, we've been focused on pillar number one, which is leaders. Now, the events of the last 100 or so days here in the US, show us the importance of leadership. And as I think about our leaders in Congress, for example, it's been really interesting to me to watch how some of our members are acting consistently with deep held values. Now we're others seem to be controlled by circumstance, the latest polls, their ability to raise money from their supporters, I bet you can think of some examples from each camp, people working from consistently held values, or people who seem to be controlled by circumstance. And I bet you can take those examples in each camp regardless of your political affiliation. Now, I'm not trying to make a political point here. Quite the opposite. I want to bring this back to us as leaders of our businesses, how are we showing up for our team members, our clients and on social media? are we coming from a position of deeply held values self awareness, cognizant of how our words influence others, or from circumstance going where the wind blows feeling or fueling fear unmoored inconsistent, as I've always said, the best leader begins with a competent leader, have one yourself, you are the foundation, and the ceiling, within your business. And when you're grounded in a firm conviction, and clarity of mission and values needed for maximum impact, you've created a foundation built on rock and not the shifting sands, you're also the ceiling, it's highly unlikely that your product, your client experience, your team's growth will ever exceed the limiting beliefs and personal practices that we as the leader embody and for our business to reach its potential. We've got to be continually learning, growing, expanding, we never settle. But this is one reason I'm, I've said, I'm never going to retire. My work has become my play. My mission resonates deeply with myself, and others. And together, we can change the world. And the more that I learn, the more that I see that I need to mastery is at hand, yet it's elusive. I'm constantly scanning, connecting with people who may end up being future team members, both individuals and businesses who can help us multiply this impact. help us reach this mission. And I bet you feel the same way about your business, your vision, your mission. Once you've unlocked your alignment, you're unstoppable. So let's talk about three defining characteristics of what I'm calling a level three, leader, as we've discussed in some previous podcast, level three leaders love their team, as much or more as they love their products and their clients and customers. That's a pretty hard love, experience. And, you know, leadership calls us to level up. And so level three leaders loving their teams, as much as they love their products and clients is I think that next stage of evolution for so many leaders today. So let's look at some characteristics defining characteristics of what I'm calling a level three leader characteristic number one, I call a be rich leader. Now, if you go way back to the beginning of this podcast, back to Episode Four, I talked about building a rich business. Now I got this term, in part, as a description of culture from one of America's most iconic businesses. At the time that I've recorded that podcast, I was really drawing a contrast between my first and second businesses, one business had succeeded and grown to four and a half million dollars a year. The other business had been mired, and stuck at about 200 to $250,000 a year. And I was puzzled, I was trying to figure out, I'm the, as the leader as the founder, I'm the common denominator. What was what was different about those two businesses? And why did one soar in one stumble? Well, when I heard this description from this iconic business, it resonated with me right away, and how everything in their culture was coming from a position of abundance, mutual respect, seeing the best in people versus the worst in people. And fundamentally, it was the leadership who had a focus on the well being of others, than in a position of self interest. They were being RICH IN LOVE, and caring, and faith and abundance and trust, versus a posture of Getting Rich. And I'm going to use some terms here for the personal brand space, getting rich and building authority, personal brand, or your bank account at the expense of others. Now, let this contrast settle in your spirit for a moment, being rich, getting rich, and building a personal brand business. This can be tricky, if we're not careful and intentional. Now, I'm looking forward to bringing some guests here on the podcast very soon, we're going to help us unpack this idea of the be rich leader. And you're going to hear it from their own experience. They may not call it that. But you'll see this characteristic of people who are approaching leadership from a position of being rich versus getting rich. But you know what, you'll immediately tell the difference in the way that they work with their team, the way they interact with their clients, and ultimately in the services that they create. So let's now talk to characteristic number two, and I'm calling this FC 13 values. First Corinthians 13, is widely known as the love chapter of the New Testament. And I bet you've heard this verse dozens and dozens of times at wedding ceremonies. Let me read it to you. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it's not self seeking. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. And that's just one part of that chapter. And since leadership is love, let's reread those verses, with a level three leader firmly in mind. Now, this is my paraphrase. Leaders are patient. Leaders are kind. leaders do not envy, do not boast are not proud. leaders do not dishonor others, are not self seeking, are not easily angered. Keep no record of wrong. leaders do not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Leaders always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere. Wow, how beautiful is that picture of a level three leader and such a high bar. Whoo. Oh, I fall so short of those things. As a leader, we'll look we'll go and unpack these values in some upcoming podcast episodes. I think this standard is a critical part of having a team that you love being this kind of leader. And then now characteristic number three, radically generous, I think we have to go beyond just a mindset of be rich. As a leader, I think we have to be willing to demonstrate our actions of how we are rich in our mind, body and spirit. And I think one of the best ways I can think of is the term radically generous, being radically generous. Now, when I say those two words, probably lots of different meanings across our community come up and I think this is part of the beauty of this as a third characteristic as a level three leader rather than being prescriptive. This is a chance for us to really redefine, in our own actions in our own way we conduct ourselves as leader is the end in the way that we build our businesses. What is radical generosity mean? What it's something we can observe. It's something we can feel is not just a mindset. But here's some words I thought of when I was trying to redefine, or re Express radical generosity. selfless, bountiful, Grace filled, over and above, unexpected. Now notice how none of those terms were necessarily financially related. I think most people go straight to a financial transaction when they think about generosity. In turn, level three leaders are generous with their resources, yes, yet they also stretch themselves in many, many other dimensions of that word. And I am so looking forward to re thinking, expanding and learning from you, the leaders in our community, how to become a better level three leader with these three characteristics, a B rich leader with FC 13 values, who also embodies radical generosity. Together, we're going to explore this expanded challenge ourselves. Becoming a bee rich leader, a level three leader is a B rich leader with FC 13 values, and embodying radical generosity, and that's a level three leader to me. And as I said a moment ago, it is a very high bar. But as a leader of one, we're interested to become a leader of many. So how could we afford to become anything less than a leader with these kind of qualities and characteristics. So next time, we're going to talk about our second pillar here at for love of team simplicity. And friends, I'm curious about where you are on your journey of building a team that you love. I believe that this is the path to multiply your impact your income, your margin and your freedom in business. Imagine just for a moment of world where you are surrounding yourself with others doing work they love simplifying your business by eliminating automating and delegating so that you can serve more doing only the work that you love. So text me right now, at 1-754-800-9461. Now, there's no autoresponders or bots on the other end, it's just me, not my team. Share your story, and your name, because I want to hear from you. This us text number again, is 1-754-800-9461. Or if you prefer, leave a voice message. I'll respond to your texts and voicemails on weekdays, here on the Eastern Time Zone at 1-754-800-9461. And finally, remember, leaders simplify teamwork, multiplying your impact, income margin and freedom in business people ask friends