082: Leading People with Passion and Purpose
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Summary:
If you had been chosen to run an organization at 19-years-old, how would you have managed? Scary for most of us to think about, right? But that s what happened to Laura Whitaker when she became the Executive Director of Extra Special People, Inc.
13 years later, Laura is still ESP s Executive Director. Today on the podcast, she s sitting down with Kevin and sharing her greatest lessons and advice from her years in the trenches.
Welcome to episode 82 of the Executive Minds Podcast.
Links + Resources:
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
Laura s Blog HopeSweetHome.com
Three Takeaways:
1. Hope Dealers + Priority Givers
As the leader of a team, company or organization your job is to be a hope dealer and priority giver. Being a hope dealer means constantly reminding people of the vision, the why, and how it s possible. People rally around passion. Being a priority giver means guiding your team on what they should be working on, when. If you come to work each day with a plan to provide hope and clarify priorities, you might be the best leader they ll ever have.
2. View your organization as its own person
Leading people is hard, hard work. And finding the balance between serving your team well and serving the company well can feel like a perpetual tightrope walk. One piece of advice Laura shared was: View your organization like it s a person. It s a person who has the highest value of anyone on your team. So when you make decisions about the team, think: Does this positively or negatively impact our highest value person?
3. You are not your organization
You have unique value outside of who you are at work. You are more than a people leader, entrepreneur, intrapreneur, director, etc. To be the best leader you can be, you need to know that you are much more than just a leader.
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