Dan Martell - Four Levels of Leadership

In this episode, I talk about how leadership has changed over the last 20 years and the 4 levels of leadership you need to be in order to be successful in your business. If you have ever had someone on your team that you've hired, trained and/or a team member quit, or every time you sit down and review what they've gotten done, it looks like they haven't made any progress, or you just feel like they're not committed to your business, then you're going to want to tune in to this episode.

00:00:00.000 I really think that entrepreneurs make it way harder on themselves

00:00:04.360 based on the way they communicate, based on the way they lead other people.

00:00:07.660 I think there's this new trend to think that because it's a distributed team

00:00:10.980 or transactional contractors that we shouldn't take the human part to it

00:00:15.900 and that's just crazy.

00:00:17.260 So that's the message I want to share today.

00:00:20.080 Yo, what's up, today I'm talking about leadership in your

00:00:31.420 business, specifically around the four levels of leadership.

00:00:34.760 You know, if you've ever had somebody on your team that

00:00:37.040 you've hired, trained and they quit or you're having meetings

00:00:40.240 with your team and every time you sit down and you review what

00:00:42.600 they've gotten done, it looks like they haven't made any

00:00:44.860 progress or you just feel like they're not committed to your

00:00:48.080 business, then you're gonna want to watch right to the end

00:00:50.440 because I'm gonna share with you guys how leadership has

00:00:53.280 changed over the last 20 years and really understand how if

00:00:56.740 you do it right, you can have people that are on that shared

00:00:59.280 journey, shared mission that are not only loving working for

00:01:02.640 you but are recruiting their friends, the smart friends, 0.86

00:01:05.440 not the dumb ones, to come work with them because they want 0.51

00:01:08.020 to have a bigger impact in your business. 0.98

00:01:09.940 You know, I really learned this style of leadership when I was

00:01:12.640 22 and when I worked for a guy named Darcy.

00:01:14.980 You know, I was, I just got hired as a contractor at a place

00:01:17.680 It's called Syncrude, Alberta in Fort McMurray.

00:01:20.580 Yes, if you know where that is,

00:01:21.860 it's like in the middle of nowheres 0.60

00:01:23.160 and kind of north of that.

00:01:24.960 And I was hired to manage a team of 15 people.

00:01:28.620 And at the time, I think Darcy looked at me,

00:01:30.700 I was a young kid, and said, you know, like,

00:01:33.360 hey man, I know when we interviewed you,

00:01:35.160 I was a contractor, that I didn't realize how old you were,

00:01:38.360 but you've got two weeks to really show me

00:01:40.140 that you can lead these people

00:01:41.780 or we're gonna have to find somebody else.

00:01:43.340 So that was crazy because I didn't really have

00:01:45.340 a whole lot of other opportunities

00:01:46.940 outside of that job, but not only did I get a library card,

00:01:50.500 maybe you guys remember those things,

00:01:52.120 those little cards where you get books,

00:01:53.980 like physical books, not Kindle,

00:01:55.500 and studied things like project management

00:01:58.200 and statements of work and Gantt charts.

00:02:00.060 Don't you ever study Gantt charts, it's not necessary,

00:02:03.180 but anyways, I was just, I wanted to go all in

00:02:05.120 on project management, but what I learned more than anything

00:02:08.380 over the next two weeks was not how to manage a project,

00:02:11.140 but more how to lead people.

00:02:13.120 And that, to me, with Darcy as an example,

00:02:15.940 really transformed the way I show up as an entrepreneur,

00:02:18.780 as a leader, as a father, as a husband.

00:02:21.380 And I want to walk you through exactly how people

00:02:23.080 are doing it wrong, especially in places like San Francisco

00:02:25.520 where there's so much high turnover.

00:02:27.280 So the first level is a title leader.

00:02:30.080 So a title leader is pretty much like here's who I am,

00:02:32.420 I'm the director, I'm the CEO, I'm the manager,

00:02:34.760 and you gotta listen to me.

00:02:35.760 And I don't know if you've ever worked with those kind of

00:02:37.160 people, but it works for a little bit,

00:02:39.460 but it does not create a sense of community,

00:02:42.660 it doesn't create a sense of team,

00:02:44.260 And really that doesn't last.

00:02:46.080 So most people that are in those scenarios,

00:02:49.000 anybody that's great, the A players,

00:02:50.500 they're gonna probably take like three months of it

00:02:52.640 and then they're gonna bounce.

00:02:53.500 And the people that are left over

00:02:54.740 are usually the Cs and D players, not the great people

00:02:57.020 because anybody that knows their worth

00:02:59.300 won't put up with somebody saying,

00:03:00.760 do this, don't challenge me, I'm the boss,

00:03:04.040 you listen to me, let's get it done.

00:03:05.860 That's just crazy, used to be that way,

00:03:08.180 totally doesn't work like that.

00:03:09.340 It's transformed the way leadership happens

00:03:11.820 over the last 20 years.

00:03:12.640 The second level of leadership is the trader.

00:03:16.420 Now here's what you need to understand about the trader.

00:03:19.040 The trader is saying, hey, if you do this,

00:03:21.820 then I'll reward you this way.

00:03:23.560 And the challenge with being a trader leadership

00:03:25.820 is that as soon as anybody else in the world

00:03:29.120 offers that person more than what you've decided

00:03:31.500 to compensate them with, they'll change teams.

00:03:34.460 So this is what's happening in San Francisco

00:03:36.600 or major hotbeds of talent,

00:03:38.600 where you see the turnover 12 to 16 months

00:03:42.040 Because they start at this company

00:03:43.740 and they're willing to give them options

00:03:45.080 and daycare and dry cleaning and all these perks,

00:03:47.720 but then all of a sudden,

00:03:48.620 the next company's gonna offer them more.

00:03:50.520 The trader leader doesn't scale.

00:03:53.020 It's great, it's better than the title,

00:03:54.920 but it's not gonna get you to where you need to be.

00:03:57.020 The third level, which I believe most great entrepreneurs,

00:04:00.200 great leaders are at, is the servant leader.

00:04:02.900 The servant leader sits down and says to their team,

00:04:06.400 how can I serve you?

00:04:07.760 What are the challenges?

00:04:08.900 How can I improve your situation?

00:04:11.260 What things do you need?

00:04:13.060 What resources can I provide to help you

00:04:15.560 create a better output?

00:04:17.360 Be more productive.

00:04:18.360 Be happier at work.

00:04:19.860 They're serving their team.

00:04:21.860 And that, to me, is where we want to spend as much time

00:04:24.860 as we possibly can when we interact with people.

00:04:27.460 It's managing through questions.

00:04:28.860 It's not telling people what to do,

00:04:30.260 which is more title and traitor.

00:04:33.260 It's really saying, how can I serve?

00:04:35.660 The fourth level, if you want to be ninja,

00:04:37.860 if you want to go to that level,

00:04:39.260 it's going to take years.

00:04:41.060 It's called the spiritual leader.

00:04:43.020 Now, we're talking about people that, like Gandhi, right?

00:04:47.160 Like Nelson Mandela.

00:04:48.680 Like spiritual leaders that believed in a vision

00:04:51.640 and a mission that was so powerful

00:04:53.560 that people that never met them

00:04:56.020 moved through their life obeying and pursuing that idealism,

00:05:00.720 that vision for what's possible.

00:05:02.840 And that is the next level.

00:05:04.620 Some of us might reach it at our company meetings,

00:05:07.400 in communicating our vision with investors.

00:05:09.720 We might get to the point where it's almost this sense of mission,

00:05:13.080 this spiritual embodiment of what we want to do in our business.

00:05:16.660 But to stay there, to be that, we're talking like Mother Teresa level type stuff.

00:05:22.320 But understanding those four levels, right?

00:05:24.420 The title, the person that says, hey, I'm the boss, do it.

00:05:27.380 The trader, if you do this, I'll give you Y.

00:05:31.000 So X versus Y.

00:05:32.120 As soon as somebody comes along that's willing to give them more, they bounce.

00:05:35.660 Or being a servant leader and really trying to ask yourself,

00:05:38.080 how can I serve my team?

00:05:38.980 What do they need from me so that I can ensure

00:05:41.820 that they have the best experience building

00:05:43.780 and growing along with the rest of the team?

00:05:45.920 And then finally, the spiritual leader

00:05:47.920 where if you pull that off, you have people

00:05:49.760 that you've never communicated with,

00:05:51.060 who you've never talked to, aren't even part of your team,

00:05:53.460 but showing up by example, by sharing your stories,

00:05:56.540 you're gonna move them forward and lead them.

00:05:59.460 That is the ultimate form of leadership.

00:06:02.180 As per usual, I wanna challenge you to live a bigger life

00:06:05.140 and a bigger business, and I'll see you next week.

00:06:07.740 If you like this video be sure to subscribe to my channel and also I'd encourage you to

00:06:12.020 subscribe to my newsletter where I share exclusive invites to events and other free training

00:06:17.040 videos and if you're ready to get going click those couple of videos I got ready for you

00:06:21.160 and I'll see you next week.

Dan Martell - January 02, 2017

Four Levels of Leadership

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript