Two Are Gathered Leadership Podcast

One of the key areas that separates those who lead and those who follow is the ability and willingness to make difficult decisions.

Many times you don't learn this, until it's decision time...and you see all of the heads turning...and looking towards you and saying, "Well?"

In many cases, your teams, and those who are following you aren't even requiring the perfect decision. They just need you to decide.

However, these are importan...

As an entrepreneur, there are always obstacles in the road, things holding us back, making us swerve and risk heading off into a ditch.

Much about being competitive in today's business is having the ability to steer away, to avoid running into those boulders that seem to fall into the middle of our paths.

However...that's assuming that we're actually moving forward. That we're on the road. The truth is, that for many entrepreneurs,...

There are few things more exhilarating and frightening than building a business from scratch.

Starting a business, keeping your doors open, battling the storms, and defending yourself constantly from your own delusion...is not easy.

In fact, it will probably be the most difficult thing you've ever done in your life. And, often it will seem like it's taken you four lifetimes to get to where you want to go. And that's only if you get...

If you examine the backstory of any successful leader, you'll discover they have their own list of "Most Valuable People" of sorts, and that's influencers in their lives who were always in their corner, who cared about them, and invested in their future.

We call those people mentors. They often are in the background, and unknown to many, but they are essential to the development and success of leaders.

This is why it's so important...

One of the greatest traits a leader can have is their ability...just like a prize fighter...to take a hit.

Because if you're going to take a leadership role, you're getting into the ring...and your opponents aren't going to be taking it easy on you.

When it comes to launching or managing an organization, there is no sugarcoating this...it won't be simple. In fact, it will probably be the hardest thing you'll ever do in your lifetim...

As leaders and entrepreneurs...we are all about growth. In fact, some would say we are obsessed with growing.

We like to captain our ways to new revenue records and to reach new levels of profitability. That's natural for entrepreneurs, and in some ways it's the drive that is needed to actually keep us in business.

Yet, there are those times when you look out at sea and in the future you see darkening skies and you go, "Oh my!"

It'...

"I've got a strange feeling something bad is about to happen." Have you said to this yourself before?

If you've been in leadership for any length of time, you've probably experienced this feeling many times throughout the course of your career. 

This feeling is actually something valuable to you in your leadership role. It is a sixth sense of a sort. The ability to discern what will happen before it eventually does.

The challenge i...

In a perfect world, the people we lead would be highly skilled individuals with extraordinary work ethics, and with a strong appreciation for the opportunity they have.

Sometimes, however, those you lead have some of those characteristics, but not all. Some of them are highly skilled, yet don't necessarily hold you with the highest regard.

There can be several reasons for this, some of them beyond your control.

It's a harsh fact wh...

There are so many different essential traits of a gifted leader. Few are more important than planning.

No one wants to get lost in their business or with their careers. Everyone in the building is going to be judging the leader by the quality of their planning ability.

In most organizations, the difference between a business having to shutter its doors...or being highly profitable is the quality of the leadership's planning.

Join M...

When it comes to being successful in business and life, it's all about relationships. 

Most elite leaders will tell you that developing a circle of trusted friends, colleagues, and partners is as important as any other task before them. 

However, building business relationships does not come easy for many entrepreneurs and leaders. Isolation and loneliness is all too prevalent in entrepreneurship. Often there can be sadness behind ...

Have you ever started off a day or week by saying to yourself, "There is no way we're going to get everything done that we need to do?"

If you're like most business owners, this experience occurs with too much frequency, and over time can cause great harm to your health and well being.

It brings this crushing feeling where the walls are coming closer and closer to you on all sides.

When you're a leader or entrepreneur, this is exas...

 Can you imagine what it would be like if you had no competition in your business? None at all.

Theoretically, our company's offerings would be in high demand and we could negotiate in our favor with all of the leverage.

The phones would be ringing...the cash registers would be singing...at least for a while.

That's because competition is actually a leadership friend. One that makes us stronger. As leaders, competition is good for ...

Many people decide to start a business with the idea that it's going to change their lives in so many marvelous ways.

It will change your life alright. They got that part spot on.

The truth is this is a high risk journey...being a business owner. That pathway can lead to financial ruin, a loss of friends and a break-up of a family. You need to know this heading down this road.

Which is why being a successful business owner entails ...

In this special episode of the Two Are Gathered Leadership podcast we hear from Co-Host Jim Johnson only six weeks after his recent open heart surgery. 

After more than 50 years of being a hard charger in the business world he shares what his most intimate thoughts were about leadership, success and life as he was being wheeled into the surgery room for what might have been his last moments here on earth.  

What really matters when...

There are few things leaders and entrepreneurs enjoy more than being in control.

The truth is we never really are in control. It's one of the great leadership delusions.

There are so many things well, well beyond our scope of control...such as rain falling, earth shaking, waves crashing and most of the world's geopolitics that affect even the smallest of businesses. Then there are health crises. 

All out of our control!

If we accep...

If we're in leadership. If we're entrepreneurs. There is an excellent chance we're heard this phrase throughout our lifetimes: You are SO stubborn.

What's interesting about the word stubbornness is that it's used both positively and pejoratively. That is...it's both a complement and a criticism.

The reason is...there really is a LIGHT SIDE, and a DARK SIDE to stubbornness.

The goal in leadership is to tap into all of the qualities ...

One thing virtually every leader and entrepreneur wants to do...is to grow.

They want to experience interpersonal growth...intellectual growth...they want to grow their skillsets and those of their teams...they want to grow their network, their net worth...their revenues...their bottom line...their vision.

Growth is exciting. Which is probably why so many leaders can be reluctant to do the exact opposite. 

That is to exercise the d...

How future proof is your business? How well prepared are you for all of the things that could go wrong?

This is one of the least enjoyable parts of being an entrepreneur. Going through all of the "What if's?" and having a strong response in place for as many of these challenges as you can.

It's not as exhilarating as charting out plans for new product and service launches and dreaming up ways for more growth.

But future-proofing yo...

When you get into a leadership role one of the first great challenges you'll have to face is realizing that things are much different than they are advertised.

Yes...those dreams of leadership and entrepreneurship. That you'll be the captain of your own ship...that you'll be able to create a schedule and a lifestyle well beyond anything you could have imagined.

These may be true in part or in whole. But they also arrive with the tr...