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Leadership Series Part IV: Leadership Traits 1 of 5

November 27, 2008 By 4 Comments

Continuing the series of a leadership speech I gave in Oklahoma City.

Leadership Trait 1 of 5:

1. Leaders are not afraid to stand up and say “I’ll do it”.

When I was younger I was taught somehow somewhere – I don’t remember exactly where – that volunteering to help and raising my hand was a bad thing. You didn’t want to get called on by the teacher. And when the teacher or somebody else called on people to help with something you should slink and hide out of the way and hope the teacher didn’t see you.

Do any of you do that?

I know I did. But as I starting getting older I learned something that I am going to share with you right now. I learned that raising my hand and volunteering to help was the coolest thing around. It was not to be feared. It was something to look forward to. Why? Because when people see that you are willing to volunteer to help them or your class they remember that. They remember that that person is not afraid of a challenge. They are not afraid to do something hard.

And as you get on in life you are going to learn that people LOVE people that volunteer. Because people that volunteer to help other are showing one of the traits of a great leader. They are not afraid to stand up and say “I’ll do it”.

Filed Under: Goals, Leadership

Leadership Series Part III: Why would you want to be a leader?

November 20, 2008 By 1 Comment

3rd part in the series.

You can see part I here and part II here:

Part III
It is incredibly rewarding. Your ideas get to be used and implemented. Leaders start things.  They get the ball rolling.

Being a leader means that you are going to have to do things that MOST people do not want to do. You are going to have to stand up and say things that most people are afraid to say. And you are going to have to believe things that most people do not want to believe. And for the long term you are going to have to have the courage to stick to what you believe in and follow it through to completion.

Sometimes you are going to have to embarrass yourself. [Bring up audience member for example]

You are going to have to put yourself in front of your friends and your foes and tell them “I
believe this is what we should be doing and this is where we should be going”. They might
ridicule you and put you down. They might tell you that what you want to do cannot be done.
People have tried it before and have failed. But you have to have faith in yourself and your
ideas. Sometimes you may be the only one that does.

Leadership is scary sometimes. Here is an example of family leadership: My wife and I had decided that we were going to take a different direction than all of our friends had taken: We were going to go into business for ourselves. I had to visit another business in Sacramento, California that I was going to be doing some work for. As I was laying on the bed in the hotel room thinking about what I was getting ready to do – to become a leader/entrepreneur this panic overwhelmed my body all of sudden. I remember that it came over me like a wave starting from the tips of my toes and consuming me all of the way to my head. I started having doubts about whether I could do it or not. What if I fail? What if I fail so badly that it hurts my family? What if we run out of money and we cannot eat? These are the things you have to look at and find a way around as a leader. You have to know that you might fail, but you have to believe in your soul that you will succeed.

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Filed Under: Attitude, Leadership, Productivity
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