As a leader, you should inform and be informed
Leaders and influencers who attract loyal and lasting followers are people who are trustworthy and transparent and not afraid to share information.
Personally, I need and expect access to information to help me make judgements. Before reaching a decision, I first make sure I am fully informed. Then I find it really easy to draw a conclusion. In the past, I've based most of my big decisions on gut feel, but that's changing now that so many people rely on my decision making. As my company has grown, more people have come to depend on me at work. Our children rely on my wife, Kate, and me to make informed decisions. So even though I still find it easy to make decisions, these decisions now need to be a lot more conscious. And I need influencers around me who will tell me the truth, provide me with all the facts and figures I need, and prioritise my needs and the needs of my colleagues or family over their own interests.
Decisions about who I'll employ and who I'll work with must be based on having all the relevant information about those people. If this means talking to others who know them, even meeting them with their family to see them in a different environment, then that's what I'll do in order to make a conscious choice.
This is the style of leader and influencer I have chosen to be: honest, open, transparent and inclusive. It's not always easy or comfortable to share information, but it's essential to inform.
Leading to the future
I identify two major shifts in what people look for in the leaders and influencers they are prepared to follow today and going into the future.
One is that we're now looking to leaders who are part of what I regard as a beautiful push towards authenticity and transparency, even vulnerability. Think of the worldwide movement of ordinary people who are standing up and demanding that governments become more accountable and transparent, and that corporations be more open and trustworthy.
The other is that increasingly we aren't following organisations, governments, logos, products; rather, we are following other people.
Let's look at the three L's of leadership and influence:
Loyalty. A good leader generates deep and sincere loyalty in his followers. A good leader will earn the loyalty and respect of their followers through what they do as well as what they say. They won't backstab such a leader or jump ship. They have that leader's back.
Longevity. Leadership isn't just about being a leader or influencer once. Through the toughest times, a strong leader will push on with focus and determination. Their leadership will be characterised by consistency and longevity. It's about being there for the long term.
Legacy. Great leaders, through that loyalty and longevity, will create a legacy that will last beyond their own career and even their own life. Their actions demonstrate that they place the interests of the people around them above their own. Leadership is not a title; it is something so much bigger.
If you aspire to become an outstanding leader, think about what you can offer others now and about what you would choose to be your legacy. Consider what will make you an influencer worth following, because ultimately people follow people.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to discover how to lead with purpose in the future of influence. Between the chapters that follow, three outstanding individuals who have also been my clients, Pauline Nguyen, Tony Tan and Fadzi Whande, share their stories to inspire and inform us, and I am grateful for their contributions. I hope their example will encourage you to share your own leadership stories with others.
MY LEADERSHIP JOURNEY
Like everyone, I fill many roles in my life. I'm a husband, a father and a brother, a speaker, an entrepreneur and a leader. I run a business, the Speakers Institute, that has grown in scale from a small startup to a very solid medium-sized company, and it's still growing. We have a big staff, a significant team of volunteers, and clients from all around Australia and the world.
When I started to think about leadership in the context of this book, I reflected on the people in my life who have shown me, through their example, how to lead others. They have been my mentors and taught me about running a business and leading teams, and what traits to value in myself and others.
Here I'm going to take you on a brief journey to introduce you to both my personal and my leadership story.
My first role models
Growing up in a large family in country Tasmania, I was number nine of 11 children. Looking back at my childhood, I can see that the first person who showed me how to lead was my father.
My father was an outstanding leader and a great role model for his sons and daughters. I looked up to him as someone who really stood up for what he believed in. He was a man of strong religious faith. He always held his ground; he spoke his mind when he needed to and kept quiet when he needed to. I don't remember him ever drinking alcohol, smoking or swearing. From a moral standpoint, he was a solid person, and that was something I aspired to; I was determined to follow his example. He set such high standards, though, that none of us really felt we could match them. I think many of us felt we couldn't meet his expectations, and this raised issues that each of us had to deal with.
Mum was amazing. She showed her love through acts of service and always provided for us. She didn't show a lot of affection, but she did the best she could with 11 children. She was not an easy person to live with when we were young, but she has since apologised to us all.
Witnessing the dynamics between my parents as we were growing up was interesting, to say the least. Yet the beautiful thing was that my parents were committed to each other and stayed together. As a couple they set an example that has taught me a lot about dealing with different personalities and finding common ground, even if the path to it can be rocky.
I also started to think about the various ways to lead by watching people in the many different churches we attended when I was a child and a teenager. I saw how what the church leaders, the pastors up the front, were saying and doing didn't always align with what they were telling us to do. I suppose my inner critic was strong and I was sometimes very judgemental of them. Holding up my father as the ultimate role model, I couldn't respect people who didn't live as he did and truly practise what they preached. This was something I thought a lot about as I got older and became a pastor myself.
The principal and some of the teachers at my school were leaders I admired. We went to a small public school in the country, where the staff really worked together. I saw little sign of gossiping between them; rather, the teachers supported each other and wanted the best for us kids.
As a young adult, my leadership mentor was Mr Moro, the general manager of the homewares store where I had my first full-time job; I stayed there for four years. With Mr Moro, you always knew he would look out for you and set a solid, ethical example. I respected him as a leader and aspired to match his strong moral principles.
My first leadership roles
My own first taste of leadership came when I became a kids' pastor in our church. I oversaw a couple of other people when we ran our kids' ministry and realised that I had to set an example for them too. Now I was the mentor. At the same time, I was asked to be the duty manager at Pizza Hut where I was working. I went on to run businesses and juggle everything that came with that role
