October 17, 2024 • 30 mins
In this conversation, Doug Suchecki discusses the essential elements of effective leadership, focusing on the importance of delegation, communication, and developing future leaders. He emphasizes the need for leaders to empower their teams, communicate effectively, and identify key leadership qualities. The discussion also highlights the significance of compassionate accountability and the role of vision in guiding teams towards success. Real-life examples illustrate the impact of strong leadership on team growth and development.
Takeaways
- Let people do the job you've delegated to them.
- Effective communication is crucial for team cohesion.
- Develop leaders who can train others.
- Identify leadership qualities in your team members.
- Vision is essential for guiding teams.
- Compassionate accountability fosters growth.
- Invest time in developing future leaders.
- Empower your team through delegation.
- Leadership is a daily development process.
- Exponential growth comes from leading leaders.
Titles
- Real-Life Leadership Lessons
- Effective Communication in Leadership
Sound Bites
- "Train and develop people who will train and develop people."
- "You want to build your team up and communicate effectively."
- "Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less."
Chapters
00:00Introduction to Leading Leaders
01:05The Importance of Developing Leaders
02:50Identifying Potential Leaders
03:42Key Characteristics of Effective Leaders
07:09The Role of Vision and Delegation
10:49The Art of Delegation and Trust
13:24Passion and Decision Making in Leadership
16:09Respect, Influence, and Leadership Qualities
19:17Growing Leaders: Commitment and Vision
22:01Investing Time in Leadership Development
25:18Focusing on Strengths and Mentorship
25:41Giving Leaders What They Need
27:37The Impact of Leadership on Growth
30:06Introduction to Results Leadership Podcast
30:08Exploring Leadership Strategies
leadership, delegation, communication, developing leaders, compassionate accountability, vision, empowerment, identifying leaders, team growth, mentoring
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to Results Leadership Podcast.
(00:07):
Thanks for joining us.
Welcome to Results Leadership Podcast.
I'm Doug Suchecchi.
And I'm Don Suchecchi.
And this is our second podcast.
And we're real excited about what we're going to be talking about today.
Today we're going to be talking about leading leaders.
Leading leaders is super important.
Of course, we're going to start with Doug's life mission statement.
(00:30):
This is something that's been part of your, you know, not only your career,
but your mantra for how many years?
How about 25 years?
I really kind of developed it as I as I was growing in in my career
and started becoming a leader and realized I had kind of hit the wall
as far as what I could do.
So I realized I had to develop leaders around me.
(00:52):
So I came up with this statement of train and develop people
who will train and develop people.
And it's really what I've tried to do for the last 25 years
and focusing on finding those leaders and developing them
to maximize my overall reach.
And you've been really good at it because we have led some incredible teams
across the country, you know, and today we're going to talk about,
(01:14):
yes, how do we develop leaders?
We're going to talk about the benefits of leading leaders,
how to identify them and then why don't we lead leaders?
Those are all things that are really important in your organization,
whether you manage a team, whether you manage salespeople,
whether you manage employees, whatever that is.
(01:36):
So we're going to talk a lot about the development of leaders.
Yeah. And as you move up in your career, you're going to find that you're
not just leading people, but you're going to be leading leaders.
And so staying focused on developing that, it's important.
But, you know, how do you find them?
Yeah, how do you find them?
We're like, where are they?
Yeah, you can't just put an ad out and say, hey, looking for leaders.
(01:58):
Hey, looking for leaders.
Yeah, that person looks good.
And, you know, it's kind of funny that we're talking about this
because I've seen this happen in the organization.
And I know you have to, where somebody is like a really good salesperson
and they've done excellent work and they're the top sales or they're
the top in the organization.
And then immediately people look at him and go, oh, you would be so great in
(02:21):
management, you would be so great at managing a team.
And you know what?
Yeah, they stumble at all.
Their overall production goes down and their team falters and just fails.
And we've seen it time and time again.
And it's not just in one central place.
We've seen it in organizations across the country that we have had the,
(02:42):
you know, not only the privilege of managing, but also observing other
other leaders in their leadership roles.
You know, your best salespeople, they might eventually get to that place,
but they might not be the ones who can manage others immediately.
That has to be developed.
You're not just born with leadership skills.
(03:03):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Well, you know, some of the things we look for, we've got some of the characteristics.
What's the first one we've got, Don?
I think the first one that you look at, and we've got 12 different things.
So if you're taking notes, that's great.
And then also the transcript of our podcast will include the 12 things to
identifying leaders on your team.
(03:25):
Because it's important to find these characteristics, but it's not limited to just these 12.
But the first thing is you've got to have a person on your team that has integrity.
You know?
Right.
They, you know, say what they're going to do and then do what they say.
You can always count on them for that.
Right.
And we've had so many great people on our team have that integrity.
(03:47):
They're just a joy to be around.
They're somebody that not only you like, but you know that you can.
Like you said, you can count.
That's so important.
Yeah.
They have that level of trust.
Yes.
And number two is accountability.
Right.
I love your, when you talk about compassionate accountability, and you have an
(04:08):
entire seminar on compassionate accountability.
If you go to Doug's website, you'll learn more about this, but explain to us just in
a few words what compassionate accountability is.
Well, compassionate accountability is really about setting a greed upon set of goals that
the person wants to reach and folding them to it on a regular basis on a regular cadence.
(04:30):
But I think even more importantly of this on the accountability is really that they,
the person that you're holding accountable is taking ownership of it.
They're not doing it because you ask them to do it.
They're doing it because they know they need to do it and they're accountable to you to
say, hey, I want to grow and this is, I need your help to do it.
And you have that level of accountability there.
(04:51):
In a short period of time, right?
It's not a long period of time that, because we know like when I was in college and the
professor would say, hey, you've got, you know, 900 days to get this done.
And then on, you know, day 899, you're like, oh crap, was that due today?
And so, you know, it's a short period of time on the accountability.
(05:12):
But back to our leaders, you know that you can count on them and you know that you can
hold them accountable.
That's somebody that you can identify on your team.
That's a future leader, somebody that you know that you can count on and they will hold
others accountable.
Right.
Exactly.
So in number three is self-awareness.
(05:32):
The ability to know the person knows their strengths, knows their weaknesses,
and is aware enough of that and they don't have blinders to their own self.
That's a really good point and that's certainly something that we've both looked at for leaders
on our team.
Number four is communication skills.
You've got to have good communication skills.
(05:54):
And it's not that, you know, that they are, you know, text you or call you.
It's that they really communicate what needs to be done.
What needs to be done when we're talking about communication, we're talking about not only
are they consistent, but they're concise in the way that they communicate.
And this is all sorts of communication.
(06:15):
A lot of times people think leaders have to be good in front of a group and communicate
and be able to stand up there and deliver.
It's not just about that.
I mean, that's a great skill to have.
It's not ultra important, but the ability that they can communicate clearly whether it's
through text, email, just speaking directly with you and also on a regular basis.
They don't ghost you and go dark on you.
(06:38):
You have regular communications and they're quick to respond to you also.
Right, right.
Especially when your team needs to clarify something and then, you know, the leader is
going to get back to them in a certain amount of time.
They're not, like you said, they're not going to ghost them because your team is like,
what is, what do I do now?
I mean, I don't know how to do it, you know, or I'm not really sure or I need some clarification.
(07:03):
So a good leader is going to be communication skills.
Right, right.
Yeah, number, what is that?
Number five?
Number five, yeah.
We're on number five, confidence.
They have just that confidence that a leader needs.
Confident in what they're doing.
I think it kind of builds off that self-awareness that they have confidence.
They research the problem.
They feel good about where they're going.
(07:24):
They're confident moving forward.
And you're right.
I think that not only has to do with their skill set, but they're confident as a person.
Right.
And you feel like you can, we always say, I want to work with people that I like and trust,
but I also want to work with people who have that level of confidence.
You're so right.
And then next, we're on number six.
(07:45):
They've got some resilience.
You know, being a leader is tough, right?
I think that when I first started in leadership, I didn't understand all of the nuances of it.
I didn't understand all of the things.
I didn't know at the time how resilient I needed to be in my skill set.
Have you experienced that?
(08:06):
Oh, I think so.
And I think this is good that it comes after confidence.
Because the confidence is not only that I'm going to do well, but even if we hit problems,
we're going to be able to push through.
That's that resilience that we talk about.
So they really go hand in hand, confidence.
Hand in hand, confidence and resilience.
Absolutely.
Just to elaborate a little bit more, they got to have a quick reset, right?
(08:28):
I always say to members of my team, I have a quick reset.
I didn't always have that where I would be like, you know, I've got to get through this
and it would take me forever, but I do have a very quick reset.
So I think that's part of that resilience that you need.
And then let's see, we're number seven.
Number seven.
That's vision.
Vision.
Yes.
They got to have a vision and to be able to look long term of what ultimately needs to get done,
(08:53):
have that vision of where they want to be, whether it's a year or five years from
that type of perspective in what they're doing and not just focused on the here and now,
but looking ahead, looking down the road, as we say.
This is my favorite part of being part of a team or being a leader is casting the vision
and being able, again, the communication skills to be able to do that and cast that vision to
(09:16):
every single person on the team.
And remember when I had just a few years ago created like every year I would create a vision board
and I would put that together and the team would see it and we'd be able to communicate
exactly what the goal was.
And one year, this is so funny.
One year I spelled vision wrong and I left out one of the eyes and it was the Vizen board.
(09:38):
And so we just went with it because I had spaced it out improperly,
but it was a Vizen board for a really long time.
You've got to be able to cast a vision, but you don't have to be able to spell.
So that's great.
Yes.
That's excellent.
Excellent.
Oh, and then we've got delegation.
Delegation is so important as a leader.
(10:01):
You have to be able to empower others and delegate tasks and duties to them and really be able to say,
listen, this is yours.
You've got to own it.
That's where the communication comes in, set expectations, communicate it clearly,
timelines, all those type of things, but be able to delegate and not feel like you have to own and do everything.
Exactly.
(10:21):
I think this is so super important because especially when you do delegate to someone else to do the job,
then you don't have the guess what's the word I'm looking for.
You don't have the instinct to go back in and grab the ball and run down the field.
You let them do it.
Right.
And you resist going in and jumping in, even if you can get it done faster,
(10:44):
even if you can do it differently or whatever.
I think it's important that you let people do the job that you've delegated them to do,
and especially you never give it to somebody else.
And if you do, you always communicate it to your team and you send them an email and tell them what you're doing.
(11:05):
You don't tell them in a text, hey, I'm giving this to somebody else because it creates tension.
It creates division.
It creates like, well, what happened?
Why?
And then your confidence is all just crushed.
So I've seen leaders do that to team members, and it's something that you want to build your team up and communicate effectively
(11:29):
and delegate properly.
Right.
Yeah, when I think of delegation, I think of a great story.
From that great TV show or episodes, I guess, of Band of Brothers from HBO.
I think it's a seventh or eighth episode, and Lieutenant Winners is guiding his team through a battle,
(11:49):
and they're out there on the battlefield, and things start going bad, and he goes to go out there.
And his commander, Colonel Sink says, stand down, do not go out, stay right there.
And he has to, as a leader, trust in his people to do that.
Ultimately, they prevailed, but what's amazing about that is through that, they gained even more confidence in themselves.
(12:10):
And their team, the easy company performed even better, was able to do through that final push
and be successful ultimately because of that struggle they went through, but they did it themselves rather than him jumping out and trying to get involved in it.
That's really what is so important about delegation.
Yeah, that's a really great point because you're right, he could have done it himself.
(12:34):
He could have jumped in there or gotten somebody else, but he trusted the team that he had.
And I think that they learned some just confidence, and it galvanizes your team instead of dividing them.
I think that was just brilliant leadership on his part on the delegation.
And then number nine.
Passion.
Passion.
Having a passion for what they do, and not just for being the best, but for what they do and what the team does.
(13:01):
And it kind of goes along with the vision of having the passion to be successful and to grow.
I think that's also a great point.
And when you're passionate about something, I think you go the extra mile.
Yeah.
I know I do.
When I'm passionate about a project, I'm going to, I'm going to give it my all.
And when you're looking for leaders on your team, those people who are passionate about your project
(13:25):
or your goal or your sales or your product, whatever that is, those are the kinds of people
that you look for on your team to be good leaders.
Right.
Because that energy, that passion is infectious among the team.
Yeah, they're going to be able to infuse that passion to somebody else, especially if they are
(13:47):
a person who has integrity and self-awareness and really good communication skills.
People are going to want to work with somebody who has all of those qualities.
And that person might be able to help recruit others to the team as well.
Exactly.
Number 10 is decision-making.
They make good, wise decisions.
(14:07):
That doesn't always happen, right?
Yeah.
And that's just part of the process, right?
Right, right.
But they have the ability to do that, to weigh all the factors and make decisions,
rather than not make a decision.
Right.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, I'd rather have a bad decision that you can fix than no decision.
(14:27):
And it's just crickets, right?
That drives me like baddie up the wall.
And I know that we try to make decisions in a timely manner and not leave our team going,
what do we do next, right?
We don't want people scratching their head.
So decision-making in a timely manner.
Exactly.
Number 11, respect.
(14:48):
Showing respect to the team, to one another, showing respect to those who are in leadership,
and showing respect to the people that they lead also and the people that they work with
and just that camaraderie that comes with that.
Yeah.
And I think that goes with integrity too.
People want to work with people they like and trust and who have integrity, but also who they respect.
(15:12):
And quite frankly, sometimes it might be a person who has kind of gone before who has
not only all those qualities, but they have the street cred too.
Right.
They have the credibility.
So I think all of that comes with the respect.
Right.
And then number 12, sorry.
Number 12, joy.
Number 12, influence.
(15:33):
And so I'm going to throw this one to you because I know this is one of your favorites.
Right, influence.
I mean, you know, John Maxwell says leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing.
It's that ability to influence people, whether you have a title or not, an influence team
and drive people to results just through what you do.
And it kind of encompasses everything that we've laid ahead.
(15:56):
The first 11 all blend together to become influence.
You know, you have the respect to people.
You're good at making decisions.
You're self-aware.
You communicate well.
All these different things that we talked about earlier brings that level of influence
to the people you work with.
It's so true.
And we're not saying that people need to be a level 10 on all of these things.
(16:20):
These are just the things that you look for as a leader when you're growing other leaders,
that you look for those who have these qualities.
And they don't have to have every single one.
But these are really, really important when you're looking at people who can lead others.
So we're going to go through that list one more time.
(16:40):
Number one, integrity.
Number two, accountability.
Three, self-awareness.
Number four, communication skills.
Number five, confidence.
Number six, resilience.
Number seven, vision.
Number eight, delegation.
And number nine, passion.
Number 10, decision-making.
And number 11, respect.
(17:02):
And finally, 12, as we mentioned, influence.
And like I said, that will be on our transcript for our podcast.
So if you didn't get all of those or you're in your car, please don't jot those down while you're in traffic.
We'll make sure that you can get those on the transcript after the podcast is over.
Drag safely.
(17:23):
And so also, we talked about identifying those leadership qualities in growing the
team. I know Maxwell says this a lot, is that when you are trying to grow your team, you have to grow
your leaders. And if you want to grow exponentially, you have to invest time and energy into those
(17:45):
individuals and into those leaders. And so how do you do that?
Yeah, because if you're a leading followers, you're going to add growth.
But if you're leading leaders, you're going to multiply your growth.
And so some of the things that you need to do when you're working with leaders and starting to develop them,
it is first of all, ask for their commitment, but then tell them what your commitment to them will be.
(18:10):
Making it very clearly.
That's where this communication comes in.
Of, here's what I need from you as a leader.
Here's the expectations.
But here is what I'm going to do to help develop your leadership skills and ultimately what it can mean for you.
So it brings in that communication, but also you're starting to cast a vision.
Yeah, and casting a vision isn't just do this and do that.
(18:35):
It is, here is the big picture.
You know, we talk about the big mo, but we also want to talk about the big picture.
And so when you're casting that vision of what can be with their, not only their participation,
but their skill set and their knowledge and their commitment, that's where you see the growth happen.
(18:56):
It's not just do this and do that.
You have to have buy-in and you have to ask them, can you do this?
Will you do this?
Here are the tools to get this done.
It's not just do this for me and get back to me, right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
And the second part is when you're leading leaders as part of your team, you got to understand this is something that's done.
(19:20):
Daily.
It's not done in a day.
Leadership is developed daily, not done in a day.
It's a process.
And, you know, I always like to say it's caught on thought.
So you really have to spend the time with those people and invest that time with them rather than spending time with them.
And really think about what you're going to do each time you have a connection with those people that you're, those leaders that you're starting to lead and develop.
(19:46):
So say that again, so you're saying that you want to invest time with leaders rather than spending time with them.
Kind of elaborate on that.
Well, the difference between that spending time is just getting things, taking care of tasks.
Whereas investing time is building things for the future.
(20:06):
When you think about that, you know, we've got two things.
I mean, you can you can spend that time with people and getting things done, just basic tasks.
But if you invest time with people of why these are important, how we go about determining what's important, given, given a vision to them, helping them understand the overall goals here and the overall growth that is happening for them.
(20:32):
That's when you're really investing times with people rather than just saying, do this, do that.
Here's how you do it.
Go.
Yeah, I think some of the best investment in me is when I've had leaders or I've had mentors, especially in our sales life and in our corporate journey, is that where they would sit down and say, here's why it's important.
(20:57):
This is what I need you to do.
And I know that your skill set can do this and this and this.
Can you handle this?
Can you do this?
Can you get this done for the team?
And we had a really good leader that did that for both of us.
And the collaboration was so important because I had to have buy-in.
And when I don't have buy-in, I'm like, what am I doing?
(21:17):
Why am I doing this?
And I think that's so important for leaders to remember is that people have to have your buy-in.
But they also want to have your gratitude when it's done and you've done a really good job.
Because I'm going to go the extra mile if somebody says thank you and somebody shows their gratitude.
I'm going to always go the extra mile.
(21:39):
But if it's just the expectation, then it's like, okay, I'm going to do my best always.
But I'm going to go the extra mile when people appreciate me and are grateful.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you've got to focus on that time to connect with those leaders daily.
Then I think probably most importantly is you focus on their strengths.
(22:02):
As you're developing leaders and you have that awareness of what their strengths are,
you also focus on their strengths and make sure that you're developing those and really leaning into those.
I always believe that as a leader of leaders, you have to put together a diverse group that have multiple skill sets and abilities and complementary strengths.
(22:23):
Not everybody is going to be great at one thing.
But find what they're great at and lean on that, but then hire around that to cover any weaknesses that might be there.
Yeah, and that's so true.
It's like not everybody is going to be all things to the team.
And sometimes it takes a minute to figure out what people's strengths are.
And so as leaders, the trial and error is it's okay.
(22:47):
It's part of the process.
And when I was a young leader, I was like, oh, it has to be perfect.
Oh my gosh, we have to get this done.
You know, XYZ, bam, bam, bam.
And what I've learned over the years is that it's okay.
If it doesn't work out the first time, we can readjust.
That's what the readjustment is for.
(23:07):
Right?
And so if we didn't get it right, we've got another opportunity to do it.
We just don't let it drag on for a long period of time.
We've, you know, it's messed up.
Okay, we need to fix it.
And because you can't just throw money at something to fix it.
Would you agree with that?
Oh, totally.
(23:28):
Yeah, I completely agree with it.
Exactly.
And that's, again, where that daily connection comes in is that you're able to identify where
slippage may be or things need to be addressed and you address them then rather than waiting
for it to get to be to where it's, you know, unrecognizable or unfixable.
Yeah.
And then you, because you don't want to have a bad experience.
(23:48):
Yeah.
Right?
You want, you want the good experience.
So, so in training and develop people who train and develop people just to review and
how to develop leaders, we've already identified them, but you said ask for their commitment
and while telling them your commitment.
I love that.
I think that is such a really smart move.
(24:09):
And you also said it's done daily, not in a day.
I really like that because I think sometimes we expect people to just get it.
Yeah.
And they don't always get it.
Maybe they don't have a fast brain.
Maybe they don't.
You maybe it takes a minute to process what the task is or what the goal is or maybe it
(24:32):
takes, you know, 90 days to get something done.
Maybe it's a four quarter goal that is not going to get completed in less than 365 days.
Right?
Exactly.
And this is, you know, this is new for them too.
You got to give them that growth period of where they got to learn and go before they
(24:53):
really go out and do it, you know, repetitively.
It takes time to learn and you as the leader of leaders has to be patient with that.
Well, I think that's where your compassionate accountability comes in.
And I love that.
And you also said focus on their strengths.
That's something that we have really taught for a very, very long time.
(25:15):
I know for the last 15, 17 years that we worked with teams in the field is that we did focus
on their strengths.
But in order to focus on strengths, you have to find out what those are.
And so that's part of the process too.
That doesn't happen, you know, over a salad at lunch, figuring out what that is.
It comes from trial and error.
(25:37):
And so that is part of the process as well.
Right.
Right.
And you have to give them what they need so many times what they want is for you to step
in and help them.
And this is really where you have to come in and be the leader and mentor.
I know, Don, you had a situation when you were leading leaders of how you handle that.
Oh, yeah.
(25:58):
So yeah, so many times.
Oh my goodness.
And so I haven't told her I'm going to talk about her today, but a really good, not only
friend, but somebody that I led on a team way back when, and she was brand new in the
business of working in sales.
(26:18):
And one of the things that she, in being a new person, she didn't know all of the things,
right?
She didn't know all the things about sales.
And so she needed help.
She needed not only additional training and she needed additional mentoring, but she,
you know, she needed some confidence that she could do it.
And it would have been really easy for me to just jump in and do it for her.
(26:42):
And you know, I remember we were driving up in the high desert and we were actually working
with a school system.
And you know, I could have just done it for her.
I didn't.
I took her with me.
I gave her some additional training and I helped her.
And you know, to get to her next goal, I think she was trying to win a prestigious award.
(27:05):
And the team before me had just kind of given up.
And so when you asked me, Doug, to go in and lead her, I was like, yes, I will certainly
do that.
And what was so great about it, and her name is Valerie, and she's amazing.
And I have to brag on her because not only did she do all the things that I asked and
(27:27):
I was able to help and mentor her, but she is a leader of leaders as well and a very
successful one and has done incredible things in California.
And so I need to call her after this podcast that we're going to be talking about her and
make sure that's okay.
But what was so great about it is that it helped me develop not only an accountability with
(27:51):
her, it helped her confidence, it helped her resilience.
It helped me be able to delegate and then see that she was a true leader.
Even at the beginning, I knew that she was and I knew that she would be great at this.
That helped her later on be able to influence others because she leads her own team.
And like I said, has been very successful at doing that.
(28:13):
But in casting that vision, and we'll have more to talk about casting the vision because
that's got some really great stories with my team in California.
But that's just a great example of somebody who heated the call, who did everything that
she was asked and she was a developing leader, but she also was successful at what she did
(28:35):
and she didn't give up.
And I know that she had wanted to, but she didn't and she just kept going.
And that is a testament to her resilience.
That's a testament to not only her fortitude, but also her courage to do something that
was hard and difficult.
And she did it.
(28:55):
She won.
She's successful.
She's very successful to this day and I felt so privileged to even be her leader for a
small time on her journey.
So congratulations Valerie.
You are amazing.
Star.
You are a rock star.
You are certainly a rock star.
So we're going to wrap this up.
Yeah.
So all of that as it comes together, we talked about identifying how to, we went through
(29:17):
that, but the benefits of leading leaders is first of all, most importantly, is you
get exponential growth in your organization.
That's again, it's not the addition, but it's the multiplication.
Well these are been a great discussion about identifying leaders and how to develop them.
So we look forward to speaking with you again.
(29:37):
I guess that's a wrap for us on our results leadership podcast.
For more info about results leadership, you can go to our website, DougSuchecki.com, and
look for our podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else you can find podcasts out
there available.
I think this was a good discussion.
I think it was a great discussion and we'll talk more about mentorship and more about
(30:00):
vision and more about results leadership on our next episode.
Look forward to seeing you then.
You're listening to Results Leadership Podcast.
(00:07):
Thanks for joining us.
Welcome to Results Leadership Podcast.
I'm Doug Suchecchi.
And I'm Don Suchecchi.
And this is our second podcast.
And we're real excited about what we're going to be talking about today.
Today we're going to be talking about leading leaders.
Leading leaders is super important.
Of course, we're going to start with Doug's life mission statement.
(00:30):
This is something that's been part of your, you know, not only your career,
but your mantra for how many years?
How about 25 years?
I really kind of developed it as I as I was growing in in my career
and started becoming a leader and realized I had kind of hit the wall
as far as what I could do.
So I realized I had to develop leaders around me.
(00:52):
So I came up with this statement of train and develop people
who will train and develop people.
And it's really what I've tried to do for the last 25 years
and focusing on finding those leaders and developing them
to maximize my overall reach.
And you've been really good at it because we have led some incredible teams
across the country, you know, and today we're going to talk about,
(01:14):
yes, how do we develop leaders?
We're going to talk about the benefits of leading leaders,
how to identify them and then why don't we lead leaders?
Those are all things that are really important in your organization,
whether you manage a team, whether you manage salespeople,
whether you manage employees, whatever that is.
(01:36):
So we're going to talk a lot about the development of leaders.
Yeah. And as you move up in your career, you're going to find that you're
not just leading people, but you're going to be leading leaders.
And so staying focused on developing that, it's important.
But, you know, how do you find them?
Yeah, how do you find them?
We're like, where are they?
Yeah, you can't just put an ad out and say, hey, looking for leaders.
(01:58):
Hey, looking for leaders.
Yeah, that person looks good.
And, you know, it's kind of funny that we're talking about this
because I've seen this happen in the organization.
And I know you have to, where somebody is like a really good salesperson
and they've done excellent work and they're the top sales or they're
the top in the organization.
And then immediately people look at him and go, oh, you would be so great in
(02:21):
management, you would be so great at managing a team.
And you know what?
Yeah, they stumble at all.
Their overall production goes down and their team falters and just fails.
And we've seen it time and time again.
And it's not just in one central place.
We've seen it in organizations across the country that we have had the,
(02:42):
you know, not only the privilege of managing, but also observing other
other leaders in their leadership roles.
You know, your best salespeople, they might eventually get to that place,
but they might not be the ones who can manage others immediately.
That has to be developed.
You're not just born with leadership skills.
(03:03):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Well, you know, some of the things we look for, we've got some of the characteristics.
What's the first one we've got, Don?
I think the first one that you look at, and we've got 12 different things.
So if you're taking notes, that's great.
And then also the transcript of our podcast will include the 12 things to
identifying leaders on your team.
(03:25):
Because it's important to find these characteristics, but it's not limited to just these 12.
But the first thing is you've got to have a person on your team that has integrity.
You know?
Right.
They, you know, say what they're going to do and then do what they say.
You can always count on them for that.
Right.
And we've had so many great people on our team have that integrity.
(03:47):
They're just a joy to be around.
They're somebody that not only you like, but you know that you can.
Like you said, you can count.
That's so important.
Yeah.
They have that level of trust.
Yes.
And number two is accountability.
Right.
I love your, when you talk about compassionate accountability, and you have an
(04:08):
entire seminar on compassionate accountability.
If you go to Doug's website, you'll learn more about this, but explain to us just in
a few words what compassionate accountability is.
Well, compassionate accountability is really about setting a greed upon set of goals that
the person wants to reach and folding them to it on a regular basis on a regular cadence.
(04:30):
But I think even more importantly of this on the accountability is really that they,
the person that you're holding accountable is taking ownership of it.
They're not doing it because you ask them to do it.
They're doing it because they know they need to do it and they're accountable to you to
say, hey, I want to grow and this is, I need your help to do it.
And you have that level of accountability there.
(04:51):
In a short period of time, right?
It's not a long period of time that, because we know like when I was in college and the
professor would say, hey, you've got, you know, 900 days to get this done.
And then on, you know, day 899, you're like, oh crap, was that due today?
And so, you know, it's a short period of time on the accountability.
(05:12):
But back to our leaders, you know that you can count on them and you know that you can
hold them accountable.
That's somebody that you can identify on your team.
That's a future leader, somebody that you know that you can count on and they will hold
others accountable.
Right.
Exactly.
So in number three is self-awareness.
(05:32):
The ability to know the person knows their strengths, knows their weaknesses,
and is aware enough of that and they don't have blinders to their own self.
That's a really good point and that's certainly something that we've both looked at for leaders
on our team.
Number four is communication skills.
You've got to have good communication skills.
(05:54):
And it's not that, you know, that they are, you know, text you or call you.
It's that they really communicate what needs to be done.
What needs to be done when we're talking about communication, we're talking about not only
are they consistent, but they're concise in the way that they communicate.
And this is all sorts of communication.
(06:15):
A lot of times people think leaders have to be good in front of a group and communicate
and be able to stand up there and deliver.
It's not just about that.
I mean, that's a great skill to have.
It's not ultra important, but the ability that they can communicate clearly whether it's
through text, email, just speaking directly with you and also on a regular basis.
They don't ghost you and go dark on you.
(06:38):
You have regular communications and they're quick to respond to you also.
Right, right.
Especially when your team needs to clarify something and then, you know, the leader is
going to get back to them in a certain amount of time.
They're not, like you said, they're not going to ghost them because your team is like,
what is, what do I do now?
I mean, I don't know how to do it, you know, or I'm not really sure or I need some clarification.
(07:03):
So a good leader is going to be communication skills.
Right, right.
Yeah, number, what is that?
Number five?
Number five, yeah.
We're on number five, confidence.
They have just that confidence that a leader needs.
Confident in what they're doing.
I think it kind of builds off that self-awareness that they have confidence.
They research the problem.
They feel good about where they're going.
(07:24):
They're confident moving forward.
And you're right.
I think that not only has to do with their skill set, but they're confident as a person.
Right.
And you feel like you can, we always say, I want to work with people that I like and trust,
but I also want to work with people who have that level of confidence.
You're so right.
And then next, we're on number six.
(07:45):
They've got some resilience.
You know, being a leader is tough, right?
I think that when I first started in leadership, I didn't understand all of the nuances of it.
I didn't understand all of the things.
I didn't know at the time how resilient I needed to be in my skill set.
Have you experienced that?
(08:06):
Oh, I think so.
And I think this is good that it comes after confidence.
Because the confidence is not only that I'm going to do well, but even if we hit problems,
we're going to be able to push through.
That's that resilience that we talk about.
So they really go hand in hand, confidence.
Hand in hand, confidence and resilience.
Absolutely.
Just to elaborate a little bit more, they got to have a quick reset, right?
(08:28):
I always say to members of my team, I have a quick reset.
I didn't always have that where I would be like, you know, I've got to get through this
and it would take me forever, but I do have a very quick reset.
So I think that's part of that resilience that you need.
And then let's see, we're number seven.
Number seven.
That's vision.
Vision.
Yes.
They got to have a vision and to be able to look long term of what ultimately needs to get done,
(08:53):
have that vision of where they want to be, whether it's a year or five years from
that type of perspective in what they're doing and not just focused on the here and now,
but looking ahead, looking down the road, as we say.
This is my favorite part of being part of a team or being a leader is casting the vision
and being able, again, the communication skills to be able to do that and cast that vision to
(09:16):
every single person on the team.
And remember when I had just a few years ago created like every year I would create a vision board
and I would put that together and the team would see it and we'd be able to communicate
exactly what the goal was.
And one year, this is so funny.
One year I spelled vision wrong and I left out one of the eyes and it was the Vizen board.
(09:38):
And so we just went with it because I had spaced it out improperly,
but it was a Vizen board for a really long time.
You've got to be able to cast a vision, but you don't have to be able to spell.
So that's great.
Yes.
That's excellent.
Excellent.
Oh, and then we've got delegation.
Delegation is so important as a leader.
(10:01):
You have to be able to empower others and delegate tasks and duties to them and really be able to say,
listen, this is yours.
You've got to own it.
That's where the communication comes in, set expectations, communicate it clearly,
timelines, all those type of things, but be able to delegate and not feel like you have to own and do everything.
Exactly.
(10:21):
I think this is so super important because especially when you do delegate to someone else to do the job,
then you don't have the guess what's the word I'm looking for.
You don't have the instinct to go back in and grab the ball and run down the field.
You let them do it.
Right.
And you resist going in and jumping in, even if you can get it done faster,
(10:44):
even if you can do it differently or whatever.
I think it's important that you let people do the job that you've delegated them to do,
and especially you never give it to somebody else.
And if you do, you always communicate it to your team and you send them an email and tell them what you're doing.
(11:05):
You don't tell them in a text, hey, I'm giving this to somebody else because it creates tension.
It creates division.
It creates like, well, what happened?
Why?
And then your confidence is all just crushed.
So I've seen leaders do that to team members, and it's something that you want to build your team up and communicate effectively
(11:29):
and delegate properly.
Right.
Yeah, when I think of delegation, I think of a great story.
From that great TV show or episodes, I guess, of Band of Brothers from HBO.
I think it's a seventh or eighth episode, and Lieutenant Winners is guiding his team through a battle,
(11:49):
and they're out there on the battlefield, and things start going bad, and he goes to go out there.
And his commander, Colonel Sink says, stand down, do not go out, stay right there.
And he has to, as a leader, trust in his people to do that.
Ultimately, they prevailed, but what's amazing about that is through that, they gained even more confidence in themselves.
(12:10):
And their team, the easy company performed even better, was able to do through that final push
and be successful ultimately because of that struggle they went through, but they did it themselves rather than him jumping out and trying to get involved in it.
That's really what is so important about delegation.
Yeah, that's a really great point because you're right, he could have done it himself.
(12:34):
He could have jumped in there or gotten somebody else, but he trusted the team that he had.
And I think that they learned some just confidence, and it galvanizes your team instead of dividing them.
I think that was just brilliant leadership on his part on the delegation.
And then number nine.
Passion.
Passion.
Having a passion for what they do, and not just for being the best, but for what they do and what the team does.
(13:01):
And it kind of goes along with the vision of having the passion to be successful and to grow.
I think that's also a great point.
And when you're passionate about something, I think you go the extra mile.
Yeah.
I know I do.
When I'm passionate about a project, I'm going to, I'm going to give it my all.
And when you're looking for leaders on your team, those people who are passionate about your project
(13:25):
or your goal or your sales or your product, whatever that is, those are the kinds of people
that you look for on your team to be good leaders.
Right.
Because that energy, that passion is infectious among the team.
Yeah, they're going to be able to infuse that passion to somebody else, especially if they are
(13:47):
a person who has integrity and self-awareness and really good communication skills.
People are going to want to work with somebody who has all of those qualities.
And that person might be able to help recruit others to the team as well.
Exactly.
Number 10 is decision-making.
They make good, wise decisions.
(14:07):
That doesn't always happen, right?
Yeah.
And that's just part of the process, right?
Right, right.
But they have the ability to do that, to weigh all the factors and make decisions,
rather than not make a decision.
Right.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, I'd rather have a bad decision that you can fix than no decision.
(14:27):
And it's just crickets, right?
That drives me like baddie up the wall.
And I know that we try to make decisions in a timely manner and not leave our team going,
what do we do next, right?
We don't want people scratching their head.
So decision-making in a timely manner.
Exactly.
Number 11, respect.
(14:48):
Showing respect to the team, to one another, showing respect to those who are in leadership,
and showing respect to the people that they lead also and the people that they work with
and just that camaraderie that comes with that.
Yeah.
And I think that goes with integrity too.
People want to work with people they like and trust and who have integrity, but also who they respect.
(15:12):
And quite frankly, sometimes it might be a person who has kind of gone before who has
not only all those qualities, but they have the street cred too.
Right.
They have the credibility.
So I think all of that comes with the respect.
Right.
And then number 12, sorry.
Number 12, joy.
Number 12, influence.
(15:33):
And so I'm going to throw this one to you because I know this is one of your favorites.
Right, influence.
I mean, you know, John Maxwell says leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing.
It's that ability to influence people, whether you have a title or not, an influence team
and drive people to results just through what you do.
And it kind of encompasses everything that we've laid ahead.
(15:56):
The first 11 all blend together to become influence.
You know, you have the respect to people.
You're good at making decisions.
You're self-aware.
You communicate well.
All these different things that we talked about earlier brings that level of influence
to the people you work with.
It's so true.
And we're not saying that people need to be a level 10 on all of these things.
(16:20):
These are just the things that you look for as a leader when you're growing other leaders,
that you look for those who have these qualities.
And they don't have to have every single one.
But these are really, really important when you're looking at people who can lead others.
So we're going to go through that list one more time.
(16:40):
Number one, integrity.
Number two, accountability.
Three, self-awareness.
Number four, communication skills.
Number five, confidence.
Number six, resilience.
Number seven, vision.
Number eight, delegation.
And number nine, passion.
Number 10, decision-making.
And number 11, respect.
(17:02):
And finally, 12, as we mentioned, influence.
And like I said, that will be on our transcript for our podcast.
So if you didn't get all of those or you're in your car, please don't jot those down while you're in traffic.
We'll make sure that you can get those on the transcript after the podcast is over.
Drag safely.
(17:23):
And so also, we talked about identifying those leadership qualities in growing the
team. I know Maxwell says this a lot, is that when you are trying to grow your team, you have to grow
your leaders. And if you want to grow exponentially, you have to invest time and energy into those
(17:45):
individuals and into those leaders. And so how do you do that?
Yeah, because if you're a leading followers, you're going to add growth.
But if you're leading leaders, you're going to multiply your growth.
And so some of the things that you need to do when you're working with leaders and starting to develop them,
it is first of all, ask for their commitment, but then tell them what your commitment to them will be.
(18:10):
Making it very clearly.
That's where this communication comes in.
Of, here's what I need from you as a leader.
Here's the expectations.
But here is what I'm going to do to help develop your leadership skills and ultimately what it can mean for you.
So it brings in that communication, but also you're starting to cast a vision.
Yeah, and casting a vision isn't just do this and do that.
(18:35):
It is, here is the big picture.
You know, we talk about the big mo, but we also want to talk about the big picture.
And so when you're casting that vision of what can be with their, not only their participation,
but their skill set and their knowledge and their commitment, that's where you see the growth happen.
(18:56):
It's not just do this and do that.
You have to have buy-in and you have to ask them, can you do this?
Will you do this?
Here are the tools to get this done.
It's not just do this for me and get back to me, right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
And the second part is when you're leading leaders as part of your team, you got to understand this is something that's done.
(19:20):
Daily.
It's not done in a day.
Leadership is developed daily, not done in a day.
It's a process.
And, you know, I always like to say it's caught on thought.
So you really have to spend the time with those people and invest that time with them rather than spending time with them.
And really think about what you're going to do each time you have a connection with those people that you're, those leaders that you're starting to lead and develop.
(19:46):
So say that again, so you're saying that you want to invest time with leaders rather than spending time with them.
Kind of elaborate on that.
Well, the difference between that spending time is just getting things, taking care of tasks.
Whereas investing time is building things for the future.
(20:06):
When you think about that, you know, we've got two things.
I mean, you can you can spend that time with people and getting things done, just basic tasks.
But if you invest time with people of why these are important, how we go about determining what's important, given, given a vision to them, helping them understand the overall goals here and the overall growth that is happening for them.
(20:32):
That's when you're really investing times with people rather than just saying, do this, do that.
Here's how you do it.
Go.
Yeah, I think some of the best investment in me is when I've had leaders or I've had mentors, especially in our sales life and in our corporate journey, is that where they would sit down and say, here's why it's important.
(20:57):
This is what I need you to do.
And I know that your skill set can do this and this and this.
Can you handle this?
Can you do this?
Can you get this done for the team?
And we had a really good leader that did that for both of us.
And the collaboration was so important because I had to have buy-in.
And when I don't have buy-in, I'm like, what am I doing?
(21:17):
Why am I doing this?
And I think that's so important for leaders to remember is that people have to have your buy-in.
But they also want to have your gratitude when it's done and you've done a really good job.
Because I'm going to go the extra mile if somebody says thank you and somebody shows their gratitude.
I'm going to always go the extra mile.
(21:39):
But if it's just the expectation, then it's like, okay, I'm going to do my best always.
But I'm going to go the extra mile when people appreciate me and are grateful.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you've got to focus on that time to connect with those leaders daily.
Then I think probably most importantly is you focus on their strengths.
(22:02):
As you're developing leaders and you have that awareness of what their strengths are,
you also focus on their strengths and make sure that you're developing those and really leaning into those.
I always believe that as a leader of leaders, you have to put together a diverse group that have multiple skill sets and abilities and complementary strengths.
(22:23):
Not everybody is going to be great at one thing.
But find what they're great at and lean on that, but then hire around that to cover any weaknesses that might be there.
Yeah, and that's so true.
It's like not everybody is going to be all things to the team.
And sometimes it takes a minute to figure out what people's strengths are.
And so as leaders, the trial and error is it's okay.
(22:47):
It's part of the process.
And when I was a young leader, I was like, oh, it has to be perfect.
Oh my gosh, we have to get this done.
You know, XYZ, bam, bam, bam.
And what I've learned over the years is that it's okay.
If it doesn't work out the first time, we can readjust.
That's what the readjustment is for.
(23:07):
Right?
And so if we didn't get it right, we've got another opportunity to do it.
We just don't let it drag on for a long period of time.
We've, you know, it's messed up.
Okay, we need to fix it.
And because you can't just throw money at something to fix it.
Would you agree with that?
Oh, totally.
(23:28):
Yeah, I completely agree with it.
Exactly.
And that's, again, where that daily connection comes in is that you're able to identify where
slippage may be or things need to be addressed and you address them then rather than waiting
for it to get to be to where it's, you know, unrecognizable or unfixable.
Yeah.
And then you, because you don't want to have a bad experience.
(23:48):
Yeah.
Right?
You want, you want the good experience.
So, so in training and develop people who train and develop people just to review and
how to develop leaders, we've already identified them, but you said ask for their commitment
and while telling them your commitment.
I love that.
I think that is such a really smart move.
(24:09):
And you also said it's done daily, not in a day.
I really like that because I think sometimes we expect people to just get it.
Yeah.
And they don't always get it.
Maybe they don't have a fast brain.
Maybe they don't.
You maybe it takes a minute to process what the task is or what the goal is or maybe it
(24:32):
takes, you know, 90 days to get something done.
Maybe it's a four quarter goal that is not going to get completed in less than 365 days.
Right?
Exactly.
And this is, you know, this is new for them too.
You got to give them that growth period of where they got to learn and go before they
(24:53):
really go out and do it, you know, repetitively.
It takes time to learn and you as the leader of leaders has to be patient with that.
Well, I think that's where your compassionate accountability comes in.
And I love that.
And you also said focus on their strengths.
That's something that we have really taught for a very, very long time.
(25:15):
I know for the last 15, 17 years that we worked with teams in the field is that we did focus
on their strengths.
But in order to focus on strengths, you have to find out what those are.
And so that's part of the process too.
That doesn't happen, you know, over a salad at lunch, figuring out what that is.
It comes from trial and error.
(25:37):
And so that is part of the process as well.
Right.
Right.
And you have to give them what they need so many times what they want is for you to step
in and help them.
And this is really where you have to come in and be the leader and mentor.
I know, Don, you had a situation when you were leading leaders of how you handle that.
Oh, yeah.
(25:58):
So yeah, so many times.
Oh my goodness.
And so I haven't told her I'm going to talk about her today, but a really good, not only
friend, but somebody that I led on a team way back when, and she was brand new in the
business of working in sales.
(26:18):
And one of the things that she, in being a new person, she didn't know all of the things,
right?
She didn't know all the things about sales.
And so she needed help.
She needed not only additional training and she needed additional mentoring, but she,
you know, she needed some confidence that she could do it.
And it would have been really easy for me to just jump in and do it for her.
(26:42):
And you know, I remember we were driving up in the high desert and we were actually working
with a school system.
And you know, I could have just done it for her.
I didn't.
I took her with me.
I gave her some additional training and I helped her.
And you know, to get to her next goal, I think she was trying to win a prestigious award.
(27:05):
And the team before me had just kind of given up.
And so when you asked me, Doug, to go in and lead her, I was like, yes, I will certainly
do that.
And what was so great about it, and her name is Valerie, and she's amazing.
And I have to brag on her because not only did she do all the things that I asked and
(27:27):
I was able to help and mentor her, but she is a leader of leaders as well and a very
successful one and has done incredible things in California.
And so I need to call her after this podcast that we're going to be talking about her and
make sure that's okay.
But what was so great about it is that it helped me develop not only an accountability with
(27:51):
her, it helped her confidence, it helped her resilience.
It helped me be able to delegate and then see that she was a true leader.
Even at the beginning, I knew that she was and I knew that she would be great at this.
That helped her later on be able to influence others because she leads her own team.
And like I said, has been very successful at doing that.
(28:13):
But in casting that vision, and we'll have more to talk about casting the vision because
that's got some really great stories with my team in California.
But that's just a great example of somebody who heated the call, who did everything that
she was asked and she was a developing leader, but she also was successful at what she did
(28:35):
and she didn't give up.
And I know that she had wanted to, but she didn't and she just kept going.
And that is a testament to her resilience.
That's a testament to not only her fortitude, but also her courage to do something that
was hard and difficult.
And she did it.
(28:55):
She won.
She's successful.
She's very successful to this day and I felt so privileged to even be her leader for a
small time on her journey.
So congratulations Valerie.
You are amazing.
Star.
You are a rock star.
You are certainly a rock star.
So we're going to wrap this up.
Yeah.
So all of that as it comes together, we talked about identifying how to, we went through
(29:17):
that, but the benefits of leading leaders is first of all, most importantly, is you
get exponential growth in your organization.
That's again, it's not the addition, but it's the multiplication.
Well these are been a great discussion about identifying leaders and how to develop them.
So we look forward to speaking with you again.
(29:37):
I guess that's a wrap for us on our results leadership podcast.
For more info about results leadership, you can go to our website, DougSuchecki.com, and
look for our podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else you can find podcasts out
there available.
I think this was a good discussion.
I think it was a great discussion and we'll talk more about mentorship and more about
(30:00):
vision and more about results leadership on our next episode.
Look forward to seeing you then.
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