A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world

In order to be a leader, you must be brave.  I’ve focused on leadership for many years now, and my wife even says I focus on it too much sometimes J. I see countless people that have so much potential for leadership, but have never stepped out and gave it shot due to fear. Now Fear isn’t always bad.  There are good fears too.  For example, I’m afraid of snakes.  God gave me that fear so that I don’t get bit by one of those suckers and die.  That’s a healthy fear, at least I tell myself it is.  Okay, another example.  I want my kids to have certain fears.  I want my son to be afraid of crossing the street without holding an adult’s hand.  Having that fear may save his life.  But I don’t want him to be afraid to have fun because of what others might think.  Two different kind of fears. It’s amazing that my 5-year-old daughter will sing at the top of her lungs when a song comes on that she knows.  She has no fear of what others will think.  That’s something we learn.  I’m afraid to sing in public, although I was known for rapping at karaoke in college. I bet I wasn’t afraid when I was 5.  I learned to be afraid of what others might think.  We can call that fear, or maybe shame.  I’m ashamed of how I sound when I sing.. Many leaders have a fear, or shame of their leadership.  They don’t know if they are good or not, because they never tried.  Maybe this isn’t the best example, but the point I’m getting at is that your fear isn’t a healthy one.  Its not in place to save your life.  Its something you learned to protect yourself from a perceived risk.  In order to be good at something you must be brave, or as Todd Henry put it in one of his talks, Brilliance Demands Bravery. I want to break down 5 tips on being Brave. 1)Breathe – Last year at TEDxCharlotte I heard Jonathan Winn tell his story on the power of one breath. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oqYovTjD6Q He talks about how deep breathes can calm your nervous, relax your mind and body.  When I’m nervous. I breathe.   2) Reason with yourself why you’re afraid – Figure out what your fears are all about.  Many time its not the act that we’re afraid of, but rather the reaction of others.  Before I started teaching college, I was afraid to speak in front of people.  On my frist day of class, I suffered from The Imposter Syndrome and I didn’t want to go.  But I muscled through it.  I just knew that when I got In front of that class they would find me out as a fraud.  They would ask me a technical question that I didn’t know the answer too, then start booing and throwing papers at me.  Well, they did ask some questions that I didn’t know the answer to.  But they accepted that I didn’t know, and a quick Google Search got us the answer and got the class back on track. People actually liked and learned from what I had to say. I was helping people.  My fears had not justification.  Now, to break this down. I wasn’t afraid of teaching, or speaking.  I was afraid of some reaction that I thought the people I was teaching might have.  I was afraid of something that I thought might happen, but was 99.9% likely to NOT happen.  Figure out what you’re really afraid of.   3) Accept your fears – Accept the fact that you’re afraid, and that its okay to be afraid.  But also play out that fear.  What’s the worse that can happen?  No Really, what’s the worse that can happen.  So, let’s play out the teaching gig… I show up the first day of class, with my fly down.  The students laugh at me.  They ask me questions I don’t know the answers to.  I freeze, the students through things at me. One of the students works for the local news and writes a story about how dumb I am.  I get fired from my day job… Really?  Really?  Doesn’t this sound ridiculous?  That’s because it is.  Most of our fears are for things that have never happened and most likely would/could never happen. In the 4 Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris, says to list out your fears, play them out, then list how you would recover from them if they actually played out as you think they might.  That’s some good advice, but I like to add one more thing to it.  If you’re afraid of something, then you need to evaluate if that’s a good fear, or a bad fear.  Will the fear save your life?  If not, then its probably hiding something that’s meaningful for you and it might be where you need go.  If you’re afraid of stepping out and taking the lead, then its probably the one thing you need to be doing the most.   4) Visualize the Win – Visualize yourself overcoming your fears.  When I talked about negotiation, and when I was learning about negotiation, I was taught that you need the to let the other party, visualize the win.  Let them see a way for this negotiation to be over and them to get an outcome they are satisfied with.  When I’m bartering a deal, like some computer work or web work for some landscaping or something, I show them what the website might be like, or help them understand what it will be like to not have any more computer issues (for a short while), then work our way backwards to the win.  Getting over your fears and being brave is sort of like negotiating with yourself. You have to convince yourself that the bad things you think might happen, likely won’t, and if they do, you can get past them, and be stronger for having gone through them.   5) Execute – Gary Vaynerchuk says ideas are $H!+, execution is everything.  That statement is spot on.  Sometimes I let fears get in the way of my execution, but in order to be brave, step out and be a leader, you must execute.  If you don’t execute, you’re leaving your best work in the graveyard.  You’re depriving the world of something you should give them.  If you want change, you must execute. If you want things to get better, you must execute. If you want to be a leader, you must execute.  Be BRAVE – Breath, Reason, Accept, Visualize, Execute. On a side note, I got the idea for the acronym for BRAVE from a sermon series at Elevation Church, How to be Brave.  Give it watch, that Pastor Steven is good stuff. I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

As I’ve said before, I’m reading Richard Branson’s book, The Virgin Way.  This book is full of amazing nuggets of greatness.  There’s a whole section on hiring the right people, which, is where these three rules come from.  I’ll be adding in some of my own tips at the end. Don’t Delegate, Do it yourself. Hiring is important.  So much so that you can’t always trust others to hire the right people.  I’ve found that many times when interviewing someone, I just get a “feeling” whether they will fit in or not.  Our company has full-time recruiters to help us find amazing talent.  They do a fantastic job, but sometimes they find candidates that check all of the boxes.  They’ve got the skills, experience and have a great personality…but something just doesn’t feel right to me.  That’s why its important for me to be there and to do the final hiring.  I’m not alone on this either.  Larry Page, CEO at Google, and Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin, also stay close to the pulse.  So much so that Larry Page is still involved in the hiring of all senior level positions at Google. Prioritize Character over (experience/skills) Resume. If you focus too much on past experiences, you’ll end up with a team of clones.  Focus more on character, work ethic, integrity, and personality.  Having a diverse background in your team will help your team be more creative and innovative in the long run. Many times its hard to fully understand the character of someone during a short interview, but some of the tips that I do is to ask situational questions, not at all related to the job.  For example, I’ll ask things like, “What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done… wow me?” or “What’s the most ‘out of character’ thing you’ve ever done?”  “If you could never fail, what would you do?” The important part here is to focus on the soft skills, because a new hire without the soft skills can kill a team. Beware of candidates who want to be “set free.” Richard talks about how “you can take the person out of the cage, but you can’t take the cage out of the person.”  Some people require a structured environment, and you’re trying some of the leadership things I talk about, such as Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose, then they might not be the right fit for you, even though they really think they want to be free.  I’ve got 2 dogs, Lilly and Apollo.  They are crated most of the time while we’re gone.  When we return, they immediately want out of their crate, however, at the first signs of a thunderstorm, they want back in it as quickly as possible.  The crate is a place of safety and comfort.  The cage of structure at work can be the same for people that need that order.  If you can’t/won’t provide that structure, then those people probably aren’t a good fit for you. Other tips… For me, its important that the hire fits in with my team. Team fit is the most important thing for me, followed shortly by character, personality, hobbies then skills. Yes skills come at the end of the important list.  With the right work ethic, defined by their character, the necessary skills can be obtained rather quickly. I also try to follow the Spanx’s CEO, Sara Blakely’s advice “The smartest thing I ever did in the early going was to hire my weaknesses.” Be sure to listen to the podcast above to hear the questions that I like to ask the most… To read more from Richard Branson on hiring, check out this article on Inc. I hope you liked this episode, please share it using the links below. Also, head on over to iTunes and leave me a rating/review… and don’t forget to subscribe. Check out my Surviving a 5K Race book to help you get in shape before the holidays.

Below are some things you can do to improve your luck.  I hope you enjoy this episode and please leave me a review in iTunes to help spread the word. 1. Go to where the luck is. – People get lucky when they are in the right place at the right time.  The more often you’re in the right place, which is something you can totally control, the more likely that you’ll be there, when the right time comes. Make sure you’re working hard and going where the opportunities live. 2. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. – Lucky people usually have many things going on at the same time.  That’s partly due to the fact that we don’t know which one will be successful, but we understand that we’re more likely to have something work out well if we get several things going at once.  I know this is contradictory to many books that talk about doing just the “1 thing” that’s most important.  I think once you find which thing is your “lucky” one, then you can shift your focus to that one thing. 3. Work hard. – I love the quote below by Thomas Jefferson.  I’ve found that I tend to get lucky more often when I work hard at it. In the podcast I tell a story about Odell Beckham’s catch (see the video below) and how he trained for years on making that catch. It wasn’t a lucky catch, it was one he practiced, it just appeared lucky to everyone who hadn’t seen the work he put in beforehand. “I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” – Thomas Jefferson The Catch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxbz3DDQzHU The Practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY8xrmkN9w4 4. Take a leap of faith. – Many times in order to be lucky, you must first be brave.  You have to sometimes believe in yourself and take a leap of faith.  Put yourself out there, and hope for the best.  That’s what I did when it game to speaking publicly for the first time. Now I get paid to speak at events and companies. 5. Think in the margins. – Creativity comes in the margins.  When you work outside the lines of what is normal.  This is when brilliant, dare I say, lucky ideas and opportunities come. 6. Don’t assume there is only 1 way of doing things. – Great things happen when people think outside of the box and question the obvious. As I said in #5, creativity comes in the margins. It also comes when people question why we do it this way. 7. Be prepared to pivot. – Lucky people understand that someday their luck will run out.  And when it does, they are prepared to pivot.  Being ready to change directions and understanding that there are always other routes to your end goal is away to stay lucky and be prepared for the unlucky times. 8. Keep your perspective. – Sometimes you don’t know if something is good luck or bad luck until you well after its taken place.  I’ve heard some many people talk about not getting what they wanted at the time, then find out later it was actually a good thing. I talk a lot about perspective because I think its one of the most important things to have a happy life.  I mention perspective’s roll in purpose in my TEDx Talk. “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

  A lot of time people confuse being a good speaker with being a good leader.  They aren’t related, but usually, with a little practice, you can become a good speaker, just like with practice you can become a good leader.  It does help your influence if you’re a good speaker, whether you’re speaking at meetups, conferences, or just to a small team in a conference room. To see some of the best speeches or talks, check out TED.com Know your subject.  Be sure you are an expert on the topic you are presenting… Bear in mind that an expert is someone who knows more about the subject than 50% of the people you’re presenting too.  If you’re only a sudo-expert, you can become an expert with in no time. Tell a story.  Be sure you have some case studies or good stories to add.  Always tell a story.  People relate and respond to a story more than just facts.  If you can provide a personal story you’ll have more impact with your audience. Some of the best TED Talks I’ve ever seen are stories. Prepare, practice, and repeat.  Prepare your presentation and practice it.  Then repeat and repeat again.  Anticipate problems that may arise and have contingencies for those problems (i.e. projector doesn’t work, etc.). Be sure you practice out loud. I’ve found that I talk faster out loud than I do when practicing in my head. Most people don’t know how to practice. I like to record my talks on my phone and listen to them while I drive, so I’m forced to hear them through.  No one likes to hear themselves talk, but if you do it, you will get better.  Practice like you play… its not only true in sports, but in speeches too. Know your audience.  Get an idea of who you’ll be talking to and find a way to relate to their experiences.  If you’re talking to GIS folks, talk geography or maps, if you’re talking to software developers, talk debugging, IDEs, etc.  Relating to people on their level helps them relate to you and your subject matter. Don’t say “hmm…Ah…”  Practice not saying “hmm… ah…” or words like that.  If you need to stop and think, stop and think.  Don’t add filler words.  Sometimes a pause can be used to add emphasis.  Also don’t apologize for mistakes, roll with them.  Most people won’t notice them if you don’t point them out. Know your environment.  Visit where you’re going to be speaking if possible.  If not, ask what the room is like and be there early to get acquainted. It makes a huge difference in your comfort level if you’re familiar with your environment. Relax.  What’s the worst that can happen?  Play out your worse fears and how you’ll recover from them in your head.  If you bomb (and believe me I have) you’ll recover in no time.  Understand that everyone there to hear you speak wants you to be successful and is rooting for you. I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again! Check out my TEDx Talk here.

Things aren’t always going to be good as a leader.  As a leader we must learn to lead in the good times and in the bad.  Leading through a crisis is just a fact that will come along with being a technical leader.  I recently was able to both witness a good leader lead through a crisis and be the leader in a different crisis.  I want to share a few things that I took away from it. Stay Calm. The best way to lead in a crisis is to stay calm. I try to tell my team that no one’s going to die here (we’re in IT not the military). Understand that you’ll get through this and probably have a good story or lesson from it. Don’t worry so much about the cause and never point fingers. Focus on the solution and moving forward. Sweat the small stuff. During a crisis, celebrate the small wins in order to motivate and keep things moving forward. Be overly transparent. Hide nothing about what’s going on.  Let your team know that you’re a human with feelings and emotions too and you’ve chosen to control them and not let them get the best of you. Over communicate. This is a time when its okay to over communicate.  We talk about letting people be creative, but let’s make sure they are fully aware of all the details in in crisis mode. Don’t be afraid to be a dictator. During a crisis is the only time I can currently think of where its okay to be a dictator.  When a decision has to be made and it must be made now, don’t worry about autonomy for motivation’s sake, focus on the task and issues at hand, and be a dictator if needed. Be prepared to pivot. During a crisis, things don’t always go as planned and they usually won’t follow an easy path. Be prepared and expecting to pivot and deviate from you game plan.  Prepare your team for it as well.  Some personality types don’t handle rapid change and deviations too well, prepare them that its going to happen and to plan for the pivots. Document, document, document. Keep track of what’s going on and when.  When you get out of the crisis, and realize you will, nothing is worse than to have no idea what you did to resolve it. Never waste a good crisis. They don’t come around too often, so when they do come around, find what you can learn from it and make sure you and your team learn your lesson. Learning is the most important thing that can come from a crisis.  Celebrate your overcoming of it and communicate what you learned.   Now its your turn. What are other ways you can learn from a crisis or get through a crisis?  Tell a story where you wet through a similar situation.   Be sure to leave a rating and review in either iTunes or Stitcher Radio.  Also please check out my Surviving a 5K Race book to help you get in shape before the holidays. Surviving a 5K Race   I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

As a Professor and a leader, I’m passionate about college student’s success both in and out of the classroom. I should be an expert at this, seeing as I’ve been either in college or working for a college (I’m a professor) for more than 15 years.  Here are a few tips that will help students be successful. Stay busy (get involved) – Studies show that students that are involved in more than 1 campus organization or student activity have higher GPA’s than students that are not involved at all (source Department of Health and Human Services).  Plus involvement helps you build social skills, friends and a resume. When I was in college I was president of 5 campus organizations, in a fraternity and played lacrosse. Having little time helped force me to focus on what’s important. Make good habits early – You need to establish good patterns in your first two semesters of college.  After that, it becomes increasingly difficult to break bad habits.  Good habits include going to class, reading prior to class, eating healthy, staying active and staying safe. There will be future podcast on Habit forming… stay tuned! Take risks – I need to qualify this one… Take “Healthy” Risks.  Don’t play it safe.  Try new things (not dangerous things).  College is a time to find yourself and to meet your life long friends.  If you don’t take risks and get out there, you’ll be missing out on valuable experiences that you can never get back. Try starting a business, freelancing, meeting new people, just live with no regrets! Don’t delay (major courses, cultural events, etc) – Take your major courses early and get them out of the way. Save electives for last . Sometimes the major courses aren’t offered every semester and if you need to re-take one, or if you mess up your schedule, you might find yourself spending an extra semester or even year in college. I tell my kids.. to delay is to disobey.  Don’t Delay! Set goals and set triggers – Set goals for yourself every semester.  Be sure the goals are obtainable.  One study found in the book “Switch” states that if you set triggers, like specific times or places where you’ll work on your goals, you’ll be significantly more successful in meeting them. Set SMART Goals – Specific, Measurable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound. Take notes on paper (or a writing app) then type them up – Don’t take your laptop to class and type out your notes.  One, this is distracting and it gives you lots of opportunities to focus on something on your laptop instead of class itself.  Two, by writing your notes and then typing them up, it forces you to review them. Track your time (see where it goes) – Use a time tracking template to track where your time goes.  I recommend spending one week per semester doing this.  It’s eye-opening how much time goes into playstation and partying. Keeping a time journal is great, and you should record you time every semester as your schedule will likely change. Be safe and don’t be stupid – I’ve heard countless stories of students that did something stupid in college (like drinking and driving) and either killed themselves or put a big blemish on the rest of their life.  You can have fun and still be safe.  Please do so. Don’t ever say “I don’t have the time.” – You’ll understand this one a little bit better after you’ve graduated and have a full-time job with a toddler.  You ALWAYS have the time.  You just need to prioritize it (i.e. Make the time). Try saying, I’d rather ___ than ___. Just don’t say you don’t have the time. Get an internship or a job in your field while going to class – One of the best experiences that I had in college was working for UAV.  UAV gave me an opprotunity to work on websites, troubleshoot software and develop a love for IT.  It also gave me a really good piece of experience.  I took the job at UAV as an intern and gained valuable experience.  Oh, and I got hired for the internship because the hiring manager liked that I was involved on campus (See #1). Get to know your professors – I have 2 reasons for adding this one… 1) Professors are bored and we want to know our students.  We love to see students that take the effort to talk to us. 2) If you have some sort of professional relationship with your professors, you will subconsciencely work harder not to disappoint that professor.  This leads to better grades! Get in shape – College is a time when people usually put on some weight and get out of shape.  Speaking from experience, its a lot harder to build a habit of staying healthy after college than it is in college.  Be smart, get fit.  BONUS: Members of the opposite sex like fit people :) Volunteer for non-profits – There is no better piece of experience that you can get on your resume than from volunteering. It’s great to volunteer and give back. I can’t describe how good it makes you feel, and as a hiring manager, I look for people that volunteer. It speaks a lot about their character. And as a side note, I met my wife volunteering for a non-profit. Stay out of debt – One of the biggest mistakes that you can make is getting into debt.  It’s hard to get out of debt.  So my last piece of advice is to stay out of debt.  If you can’t pay for it from your checking account, then you don’t need it. I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

You’ll never have more opportunity for salary negotiation than you do just before you accept you job.  If you already have a job and you’re happy where you work and the idea of looking for something else scares the crap out of you, there’s still hope.  You can still negotiate your salary or other perks at your job. So let’s say job negotiation isn’t what you’re looking for, you can negotiate other things too, basically, everything is negotiable.  If you have skills, you can also barter, which usually requires some negotiation skills. Do your pre-work.  You have to be confident going into the negotiation.  You have to know your facts and be able to answer all the questions on our pre-work checklist: What? – what are you negotiating? Don’t try to negotiate too much, its usually best to pick one or two things and focus seriously on those. When? – When do you need to make a decision, is this something you can wait on, or is time your enemy…or do they need to make a sale and is time your friend? Know this. How? – how will you communicate? Email, Face to face, Phone… technique will vary based on the how… Choices? – Know all of your options, what are your choices here? Goals? – What you really want. People mess up here, if you get your goal, stop… you win, game over.  Don’t get greedy and keep going. Ground? – The lowest that you’ll accept. B.A.T.N.A.? – Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement. Other Info that might be useful… The Ask.  Most of the time you can get what you want, just by asking.  You don’t always need to negotiate, just ask.  I was able to get an additional 10% discount in annual maintenance on a software agreement at the time of renewal, just by sending a simple email that stated: “…since we’ve been such a good customer during our first year, I think it would be great if you could offer me a 10% discount on this.  What do you think?” The reply included a new agreement with a 10% discount applied.  Sometimes, just asking is all you need to do. When doing the negotiation,  a few things matter more than just the words you are saying. Communication is far more than just words.  There’s a 7-38-55 rule which states that 7% of communication is the words you say, 38% is how you say it, i.e. your vocal tonality, and 55% is your body language.  Now, if the negotiation is on the phone, you loose 55% of your communication tools and if its over email, you loose 93%.  Its best, when possible, to negotiate face to face. For more on vocal tonality and body language, be sure to listen to the podcast above. Most people just don’t ask.  The are afraid of rejection.  For those people, please check out Jia Jiang’s TEDx Talk on 100 days of rejection. https://youtu.be/ZFWyseydTkQ If you liked this episode and want more like it, please head over to iTunes and leave me a review, and feel free to tweet to me @johnrouda, I’m pretty active on twitter and respond to most mentions.

Dan Pink gave what might be one of my favorite TED talks of all time as he explained the puzzle of motivation (It’s also one of the most viewed with over 14 million views at the time of this posting).  This talk made me want to read his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This book changed the way I motivate my employees and teams.  It also inspired me to use the information in the book to motivate not only the people that reported to me, but others above me, and to the right and to the left. I liked this book and Dan’s TED Talk so much that I incorporated it in my own TEDx Talk in 2015.  In this book Dan tells us that our thoughts on motivation are wrong and that business doesn’t do what science shows it should do.  Dan talks about several research studies that have been done on the science behind motivation.  Motivating others is a huge part of leadership.  Leaders are required to influence others.  There are 2 ways to influence others, either to manipulate them or inspire them. Dan states that we can use Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose to inspire and motivate others. Autonomy Humans are designed to be self-directed.  I have a 5 year old and an 1.5 year old… I see it first hand.  The innate desire for people to control themselves is real and starts from the time kids can crawl. There are some ideas in this book that I don’t necessarily agree with 100%, but that’s just because I haven’t tried them yet.  There’s an idea of a ROWE, Results-Only Work Environment, where people don’t have schedules and they do what they want, when they want and they are only held accountable by their results. I think this might work for Sales, but I don’t see how it could work for jobs that require heavy teamwork and communication, like project management or software development, but maybe I’m wrong.  But you can motivate others, by giving them freedom and holding them accountable to high standards.  Give your people autonomy over Task; What they do, Time; When they do it; Team, Who they do it with; and Technique, How they do it. Mastery Mastery is being Good at something that matters.  In software development its about giving your team the tools and opportunity to learn and work with the latest and greatest.  In this book Dan Pink says that Mastery abides by three rules: Master is a mindset – you must have the ability to see your skills as improvable. Master is a pain – its hard work and requires effort, and determination, its a process not a project.  Master is an asymptote – its not possible to fully achieve, so it can be frustrating. Purpose Purpose was the hardest for me.  This book talks about purpose is not being about profits, but more about being part of something bigger than yourself and making a difference.  For me it was hard to find that in my work, but I did find it eventually.  Stepping away from this text, I came up with my own formula for finding purpose, its perspective plus teamwork.  For me and my team, we served together and that made a huge difference in our purpose.  We also adopted the mission statement of “Making Life Easier” and applied to all work we do. To buy this Drive on Amazon, click here.

In Todd Henry’s book “The Accidental Creative” he talks about five elements of Creative Rhythm.  As an IT Leader you’re called to make creative decisions and come up with brilliant solutions at a moment’s notice.  In a future episode I’ll do a full book review of “The Accidental Creative,” but I feel the 5 elements of creative rhythm is worthy of a show by it self. Creative Rhythms are important because as leaders we must understand that we can’t go all-in 100% of the time and expect to maintain our productivity, mind, and joy for our work. Consistency is important, and if we understand our rhythm then we can adapt to it and maximize it. “What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while.” — Gretchen Rubin The Five Elements make up the acronym F.R.E.S.H, which stands for Focus, Relationships, Energy, Stimuli, and Hours. One thing I noticed about all of these is that they are all finite resources.  We only have so much focus, we can only maintain so many real relationships, we only have so much energy in a day (without Red Bull), we can only consume so much stimuli, and we only have 24 hours in a day. “Mediocrity doesn’t just HAPPEN, it’s chosen over time.” — Todd Henry If you would, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe and leave me a review and rating.  Thanks so much!

If you do want to be a leader, you have to train. You have to work hard at it. It’s not just something that you can just try to do without work. Have you ever run a marathon? It’s not something that you can just go out and try. You have to put in a lot of time and effort to train for marathons. Becoming a leader is the same thing. You have to train hard. There is a difference between reading leadership books and training. Reading books is education, not training. Let me ask you this: Do you want your kids to go through sex education or sex training? In order to truly understand and be able to do something, you have to train for it. Most companies have ‘training programs’, but they are really just education programs. Until you actually go out and practice building relationships and inspiring people, you’re not really training to be a leader. One of my favorite stories is about Picasso. He was pretty famous later in his life. People knew who Picasso was before he died. He didn’t just die and then become famous. Picasso had a drinking problem and he spent a lot of time in bars. Usually before he left he’d doodle something and give it to the bartender for his fee because the bartender knew the drawing would be wroth more than the bill. He was leaving one of these bars and a lady stopped him and said, “Oh, Picasso, Picasso, I’m such a huge fan of your work! Can you please draw me something?” She handed him a pad and a pen, so he spent thirty seconds drawing something. He ripped the drawing out, handed the pad and pen back, held the paper out to her, and said, “That’ll be one million dollars.” She said, “Picasso, that took you thirty seconds.” He replied, “No, ma’am, it took me thirty years to learn to do that in thirty seconds.” That’s the way that leadership works. It takes a lot of work for you to get to the point where you can actually lead someone. You can’t just go out one day and lead. You have to train for it. While you’re training to become a good leader, you need to understand that it’s a process, not a project. We are all creative in the strictest definition of the word. We create for a living. We create solutions to problems. Our projects have a start and an end. Leadership doesn’t work that way. There is no end; the end is a mirage. You’re only going to get better the further along you go in the journey. Don’t get frustrated; just understand that leadership is a process without an end.