EntreLeadership - How to Lead When You Feel Inadequate

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Today we’ll hear about:  A new leader struggling with how to effectively leader her older team  Dave Ramsey's Eagles Group came to be  How not to settle for being an average leader   A small-business owner looking for a way to protect profit from taxes    Next Steps  💡 What is transformational leadership: https://ter.li/transform-leadership    📞 Have a question for the show? Call 844-944-1070 or send us a message: https://ter.li/askus    👣 Find out what stage of business you’re in:  https://ter.li/axd39b  ✉️ Sign up to receive tactical tools, advice and resources in your inbox every week: https://ter.li/y8qdo7     🏢 Attend EntreLeadership Summit: https://ter.li/fcazl2     🎤 Attend EntreLeadership Master Series: https://ter.li/wcjhpu    💭 Learn more about EntreLeadership Elite Advisory Groups: https://ter.li/ag    ☎️ Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: https://ter.li/ycznhl    💵 Learn more about Ramsey SmartDollar: https://ter.li/4imot0    🗳️ Help us make the show better! Please fill out this quick survey form.  https://ramsey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_01hjJ6UN8mnQPNI     Offers From Today's Sponsors  NetSuite: https://ter.li/x1t20q   BELAY:  https://ter.li/yohiu6  Payority: https://ter.li/fh2oau  Trainual: https://ter.li/a8zexl  Found: https://ter.li/ggwmrv    Listen to More From Ramsey Network  💼 The Ken Coleman Show  🎙️ The Ramsey Show    🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour  💡 The Rachel Cruze Show  💰 George Kamel  💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show    Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy  https://www.ramseysolutions.com/compa…    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Rate calls from leaders like you about what it takes to win at any stage of your business and leadership. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, with over 30 years of experience in the trenches, in the ditches, shoveling with you. Know what it feels like? I did this stuff today, all day, before I turned on the microphone. So we're glad you're here. This is not a think tank.

This is a practitioner. I actually do this crap. That's where this comes from. We're glad you're here. We appreciate you joining us. If you want to participate in the show, we'd love to hear from you. Please leave us a voicemail at 844-944-1070

with your question about your business, particularly your small business, and we will try to get back to you and make you one of the callers. 844-9-4-1070 or go to Entreeleadership.com slash ask, and of course you can leave the question there. Eboo and the team will go.

with you, get you figured out and help you get on the air here and we'll try to help you move to the next stage in your career. Anna, starting today off in Kansas City. Hi, Anna, welcome to the Entry Leadership Podcast. Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor. Honor to be with you. How can I help? Definitely. So I am the admin department supervisor of a workers comp insurance company. Our gross revenue is around roughly $65 million. I personally have six direct reports for me. And my question is, I'm an extremely young leader that's fairly new to the company. I've only been here for about 18 months, only 11 months in my current position. And I just want to know how I demonstrate good leadership to a team that is several decades older than I am.

Okay. How old are you? 24. Okay. Have you ever had a leader that you considered to be a world-class leader? Yes. My current boss, it's just one of those weird questions to ask. Okay, so he or she's a great leader, right? Yes.

And what makes them a great leader in your mind? Why would you call them a great leader? What is it they do that demonstrates leadership? They always have the heart of a teacher and always available. And they always say there's no such thing as a dumb question. And just they're cheering me on from the sidelines. So they're there to help you, to serve you, to knock down blockers that only they can knock down that you can't knock down. And that's servant leadership, right?

Mm-hmm. I think that'll work. Okay. I think that's what you ought to do. I think it's perfect. And so, because listen, they don't care how old you are unless you act stupid, right? Correct. I mean, but if you're there helping them and you're truly interested in them and you're curious and you're asking questions, how can I help, how can I serve, and you give them the credit when things go right and you take the blame when things go wrong, we hand blame up and credit down, right?

that's a good leader. If something goes wrong, it's the leader's fault. Correct. Because even if someone that works for you, broke it, you hired them or you kept them and allowed them to break it. So it's your fault. So, you know, if it goes wrong, it's your fault. If it goes right, it's their fault.

They get the credit. You knock down blockers for them when there's some kind of a issue coming up. You go to your boss and say, hey, my folk over here got an issue, and I need you to help me take care of it for my folk. You take care of your people, right? and so you're always taking up for them, you're sticking up for them, and you care about them personally, you learn about them personally, you ask lots of questions of how they do their job and what do they think you can do

to help them the most? And nobody's going to like that. Now, on the other side of the coin, what could you do that would mess it up? That's a great question. Well, let me think about the worst boss. ever had what'd they do oh they were horrendous they screamed and yelled they sucked at communicating and they were just not a good person at work or in their personal life yeah they cared about they had no character they cared only about themselves they're horrible communicators they were

bosses pushing people around not leaders pulling and helping okay bosses push leaders pull Okay. And so just don't be that person, right? So, which I don't think it's capable for you. You're sweet and you've got good character and you're a hard worker. People that have bad character don't call and ask a question like you asked because it never occurs to them that they're the problem, right? And so, you know, I already know you're in the good camp. And so that we know, and you know that. So you're not going to mess that up. But, you know, coming in throwing your weight around when you don't have any weight is a bad idea. You know? that nobody wants that and so if you just go in and just you know you just kind of sit around the edges of the room and ask questions and figure out how you can help them get their work done the easiest and if they need support from something you're there to help them and if they've got a sick kid you you know you make sure they get take take care of their kid you know their grandmother passes away you make sure that petty cash sends flowers over there to the funeral home and you know you actually care about the human beings on the planet and man that's a

that's what small business does the best because corporate America pisses on their people, you know? Yes. And so you get the opportunity to go in there and just be a human being to a human being, and it sets you up. That's the brand differentiator for small business. We actually treat people right, most of us anyway. And so, you know, you're that kind of a person, and you're already going to be a world-class leader.

You're at 24, and you're asking these questions. I was 24. I don't even know to ask the question. So you're way ahead. You're going to be amazing as a leader. You're going to do really, really good. So very, very cool. Congratulations, Hero. I'm proud of you. Yeah, and you keep that level of humility and how you're approaching this. That's a level five leader characteristic humility. So that's the perfect way to doing this. All right, all you old leaders that are so smart, you probably ought to listen to Anna. I think she just taught you. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. If you're struggling to know the right next step for your team, well, then you're in good company. Most business owners deal with seasons of uncertainty. Seasons?

I thought it was days. Every day. But anyway, it doesn't mean you have to keep blindly stumbling along from one obstacle to the next. I know how to get you from where you are to where you want to be in 10 years. It's called the Entree Leadership System. and it's the roadmap that takes the guesswork out of business growth. So you can build the life and the business that you want where you're running your business instead of it running you.

If you'd like to learn more about the Entree Leadership System and how to solve the right business problems at the right time and the right way, go to Entreeleadership.com slash system. That's Entreeleadership.com slash system. I am Dave Ramsey. Thank you for joining us America. You can call us and be part of the program at 840. 449-4-10-70, leave a voicemail.

We would love to hear from you, and we'll get you on here as a caller. Blake is with me. Blake is in Missouri. Hi, Blake, welcome to the Entree Leadership podcast. Hey, Dave, thanks for the opportunity to talk with you this afternoon. Sure, how can I help? So a little background about me. I'm a full-time W-2 employee, and my wife and I own and operate small business on the side,

and we have no employees. We make hand-crafted waterfowl decoys, and last year, our gross revenue was $88,000. My question for you today is to see if you could go into detail about a group you were involved in. I'm not mistaken it was called the Eagles. I've recently had the desire to dive deeper into Scripture and would love to find a group of guys who also want to grow in their faith, also growing their business and leadership skills. So I was curious if you had any wisdom to share on how to structure something similar. Okay.

Well, I mean, the principle behind it is, or behind having a group that you hang out with is that, that you everyone should always remember you become who you hang around with. Charlie Tremendous Jones used to say that five years from today you'll be the same person you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read. And so if you run around with people who are, whatever they are, positive or negative,

you're going to find yourself the more time you spend with them mimicking their behavior. It's very hard for a human being not to do that. So once I deposited this, that piece of information into my brain, then I need to be intentional, which is what you're doing with this call, about who I'm hanging around with.

Now, if you meet with a bunch of guys who are the best guys on the planet and do a Bible study for one hour a week, but you hang out with a bunch of deadbeats the rest of the time, you're still going to be a deadbeat. One hour a week isn't going to fix it, okay? Don't misunderstand. So it's the overall idea of,

I can be kind to people, but not spend immense amounts of time with people that I don't want to be like. Okay? So I don't want to run with that group. I don't have to be snobbish or arrogant or anything towards them, but I just don't spend the majority of my time with that kind of a person because I'm going to become like them,

and I don't want to be like that. So anyway, then once I knew that, the first thing I did was I joined a formal Bible study on leadership that was taught in our area. It was a two-year program we read, we read, I don't know, 40 books in two years, memorized a bunch of scriptures and had a formal accountability system

with guys that wanted to study biblical leadership. And it was a curriculum, okay? That may or may not be available in your area, something like that, but that's the first thing I did. Out of that group, I really started seeing the value of a structured, regular meeting with people I wanted to be like. Okay, because that particular, that first group was more of a learning, like I was going to class,

but I was going to class with like-minded people and formed relationships with like-minded people during that time. So it scratched the it initially. Then I came out of that and I didn't have that weekly update with my guys because that ended, it was a two-year curriculum. And so a couple, three of us that were in that group together said, hey, we're going to do this on purpose, but we're just going to make it up. And it doesn't have a beginning or an end. It's just going to be a, we're going to call it a Bible study and we'll read some

scripture, but we'll also probably read some great books. And that's when we formed the Eagles. And what we did there was at that point in my life, I was already a teacher. I was already doing this. And so almost all of the meetings I was in or situations I was in around a table, I was the one there to give information. And I knew if I didn't get myself in a situation where I was filling rather than just pouring out, that I was going to have a problem. So I thought I've got to get guys that are as successful or more successful than I am in their chosen field, okay, to where they're going to add stuff to the room without me being the only one adding to the room.

You see what I'm saying? I didn't want to be the leader of the group. I wanted to be a member of the group. and so I just made a list of people that I knew and or knew of some of them I didn't have a close personal relationship I just knew who they were and I reached out to 12 guys that were amazing in their areas and they were all people that I knew that had a walk with God because I'm a Christian and that's why I wanted to be running around with that and I was going to form a Bible study so it'd be inconsistent to do that otherwise so anyway and I was honestly a honestly

Blake, some of these guys were like way beyond me in terms of success level, and I was a little intimidated by the whole process, and I was really surprised pleasantly that all of them came. Every single one of them said yes. I figured someone would go, oh, no, I'm too busy, or you're just a gober, go away, or I figured somebody, you know, and all of them came. and what I figured out it had nothing to do with me, it had to do with us a thing that we all, those of us that want to have growth,

personal growth in our life, we all have this void, and when someone presents us an option to fill that void, we jump on it. And so, because guys just don't do this very well. Ladies do it better than guys do. This idea of I'm going to have a group,

I'm going to have a posse, I'm going to have a gang, and not a bunch of parasites. I'm talking about people that add value to your life. And so they all came because the idea was good, not because it was, ooh, I get to be with Dave, because it really wasn't that at all. Truthfully, it wasn't. And so that group, we started reading, we would read about a book a month, and I read a whole bunch of books I would have never read in my life.

So it was good in that, because there's some of that, it's awful, but they were theology books and they were just horrible. But I ingested things into my brain and my spirit that I otherwise wouldn't have because I put a structure in place. And we had some really good, healthy arguments in that room every Wednesday morning. And in those days, I did a Fox and Friends appearance at 6 a.m. every Wednesday morning by fiber. And so I would go in and do the Fox appearance, and then we walk across the hall to my conference room, and that's where we would meet. So it was very structured into my schedule.

schedule as well. And so we did that for 14 years. And it was three pastors of large churches running mega operations and having operational issues and all the stuff that goes with running a big church, which is a dadgum circus. And, you know, two or three authors in there, two or three people that were just business people that nobody even knew who they were hardly, except I knew their gross ribs were outstanding. And so I just put eagles because eagles don't naturally flock, turkeys do. And so that's why we called it. That's why we called the Eagles. You have to gather eagles. They don't naturally flock. They don't come in flocks. And so I put the room full of rock stars, full of eagles. And that group, one of the guys passed away after 14 years. And it lasted about

another year after that and it had run its season and so uh and then i've formed now i've formed several different guys groups that that are all at my best um and aren't quite as formal as that but those two or three things i've always going to have men in my case men in my life that are close to me six of them are going to carry my casket if i go before them i'm going to have those guys right there with me and i need to be they need to be you know in my case these are, I've been married 43 years. All the guys in my group right now have been married one time and I've all been married to 30 or 40 years. And it's not that I'm mad at you if you've been divorced. I just need guys around me that manage to pull this thing off, you know, and that kind of stuff.

So all of that, that's the whole thing. That's all I did. And, and then a couple of my guys that were in that group got divorced after like long marriages. So that was weird. But we didn't throw them out. I mean, we just walked through with our brothers, walked through the pain they were going through. And so we're not lacking in grace that it wasn't the point. But, you know, but the, so we're looking for people of character. We're looking for people of shared values.

We're looking for people that have competency at levels. We don't even have because I'm going to become who I hang around with. And that was the idea. today in Entree leadership, we've got advisory groups, for those of you that are plugged into that, and it's somewhat modeled after that, in that what we do is we put together businesses that are of like mind or like geography or like industry, and they're solving the same problems at the same time, and so you've got a group of people with shared experiences, and a coach is watching over that in the process there.

So the advisory groups are very, very effective for accountability. for encouragement, for teaching, and the same sense that the Eagles group was. And so we've got that, if you want to plug into it, the Entry leadership system, it's real easy. You go, okay, you know, you're at the treadmill stage and here's what you need to be doing.

And, you know, we're going to talk you through every bit of that, and that's how this whole process works. So you can form your own, but you just, you know, have an idea of what it is you're wanting to accomplish with the group. The first group was about teaching. The second group was about personal growth and fellowship and accountability

with people at the same level or higher than me. The third groups are more informal and they're more about social gatherings and just friendship and being there for each other. But still, you're going to become who you hang around with. So just choose carefully who you're spending time with because that's how it's going to work out. That's how it goes. Blake, you're a smart man for asking that question. I'm honored that you thought I would know the answer. I don't know

that I know the answer. I know my answer. That's what I did. And it worked really, really well. I'm really sure that Ramsey's partly where it is right now because of that whole concept right there. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Welcome back to the Entree Leadership Podcast. We're glad you're here. In the show notes, you can click a link that says, what is transformational leadership? It is one of our blogs there, and it's a really good article on transformational leadership. Now, that does, when I say it out of my own lips, when I say it right now, it sounds like corporate mumbo-jumbo. Transformational leadership. Oh, God, shoot me, right?

I'm getting ready to go to the most boring seminar in the world. That's what I think when I heard that. But if you actually think about the words, leadership that causes the team to transform. Romans 12 says, be not conformed to this world. Don't be normal, in other words. But be transformed.

How do you do that by the renewing of your mind? Be not conformed to this world. but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. New things into your brain causes transformation and causes you to not be normal like everybody else. You don't want to be normal. Normal is average, mediocre. Why would I want to be normal?

I don't want to be dull. I want to be shiny. What have I got to do? Well, I've got to renew my mind. I've got to do different things. How do I become a leader then that facilitates, creates an environment where transformation occurs, a transformational leader. What is transformational leadership?

Well, it transforms not only the team, but it transforms the culture, it transforms the business, and it's based on a leader that's built trust and respect within their team. When we think about a transformational leader, someone, that means they're they're visionary. It means they're trustworthy, worthy of trust. They're decisive. They're loyal. They're disciplined.

They're passionate. They care deeply. They're influential because they're trustworthy, decisive, loyal, and discipline. They're service-oriented. They're a servant leader. They're eager to listen. They've got some personal charisma. It doesn't mean they're loud, but there's something about them.

They're driven. And in the middle of all that, they're humble. And humble is not some little wimpy, wet dishrag. That's not what humble is. C.S. Lewis says that humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less. That's all humility is. It's other-centered rather than self-centered.

And you have to be that to be a high-quality leader. You have to be looking across the table at the person you're working with, and how can I help this person get better? That's a transformational leader. Winston Churchill, Great Britain's famous prime minister, one of my faves out there. One of his greatest examples of leadership is found in his now famous speech at Harrow's School, 1941, where he rallied the nation with his words, never give in, never give in, never, never, never, nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in,

except to convictions of honor and good sense, never yield to force, never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Never quit, never quit, never quit. That's visionary, that's inspiring, that's charisma. That's a transformational leader. With his sheer force of nature personality, he was one of the things that held Great Britain together during that time,

with the onslaught of the bombs coming out of Germany and just bombing London into oblivion during that time. And other cities just about off the map. But Churchill's just never quit, never quit, never quit. And he picked up his top hat and came and walked off the podium. It was one of the shortest commencement exercises ever done and one of the most effective. Pretty cool.

We had Condoleezza Rice speak at one of our, our Ontario Leadership Summits a few years ago, got to spend a little time with her and a very impressive and accomplished lady. Amazing, amazing. And the former Secretary of State says that what is important is influence. She says, power is nothing

unless you can turn it into influence, causing people to do something that they hadn't done. That's transformation. And so one of the things, this article outlines, You need to get the article now. It's in the show notes and listen to the whole thing, transformational leadership,

is it goes over the four eyes of transformational leadership. Inspiration. They motivate. They cast a vision clear for their team. Individualized consideration. Transformational leaders know their people matter most. It's their job to believe in them and encourage them. Intellectual stimulation, transformational leaders,

encourage creativity and know when. to challenge traditions, shoot the sacred cows, because they will be in the hallway mooing. Shoot them. Idealized influence is the fourth. Transformational leaders lead by example. They walk the walk, not just the talk. These leaders are amazing role models. The work ethic of a leader like this is bar none.

You cannot outwork them. You cannot. It's impossible. And they have amazing. levels of passion too. So what does transformational leadership look like and to what extent do you line up with it? And what do you need to do to up your game? Well, let's go the show notes and click that article, read the whole thing, but that ought to whet your whistle anyway. It's a pretty incredible topic. What is transformational leadership? Click the show notes, read the article,

and become that. Tadda, just like that. So it's all a choice. You get to decide, you get to choose if you want to be one or not. None of these things are taught in school, and you're not born with any of these things. They're all learned skills, learned character qualities, learned processes, changes everything.

This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Hey guys, thanks for your reaction to this show. I took it over about 18 months ago, and first time ever I've done the Entry Leadership podcast, and we've been just taking calls from you guys. The reaction has been extremely positive. Thank you. Our ratings, our views, our downloads, all those kinds of things are way up. We appreciate you. Help us out by subscribing and following and sharing the show. Tell people about it. Clip a link

and cut it out and paste it and send it to somebody in a video. I don't care. Share, like, subscribe, leave a nice five-star review. All of those things help us, and we really appreciate the numbers of you that are doing that. If you want to be on the show, call us at 844-9-4-1070. leave a voicemail, and hey, we'll get back with you and try to figure out if we can put you on the show and talk to you about your life and your business. It's what we do here, and we love it. All right, Andrew is in Athens, Georgia.

Hi, Andrew. Welcome to the Entree Leadership podcast. Hello, Dave. We are in the Finan manufacturers. I am the CEO. We are doing about 15 million in revenue. 15 or 50? 15.

Okay. What are you finishing? Manufacturing parts that other companies make. Like you're putting a coating on them or you're polishing them? What are you saying? Yes, we put a coating on them. Okay, all right, I'm catching on. Okay, cool, good for you.

Yeah. I've heard you reference an ingenious concept years ago of a sinking fund. and how like if you needed a $100,000 roof in 10 years, you would put away $10,000 a year for the next 10 years, almost financing it to yourself at a 0% interest rate is the way I thought of it. But I thought it was ingenious. I have a goal to pay off our business debt

and run the company debt free. The challenge we have is if we keep the cash in the company is sinking funds, it increases our tax liability. And we need extra money for the tax bill. No, it doesn't either. Oh, okay. It's profit. What kind of company, an LLC or a sub-S or what?

S-Corp. S-corp, okay. So if you keep the money in the company, if you make a profit, you pay taxes on it. Correct. Period. Whether you leave it in the company or whether you take it home. Doesn't change anything if you take it home.

That's correct. I guess. What else would you do with it if you didn't save it? Well, I guess, so I've got some partners. The question became, if we left it in the company, then we would have a tax bill, you know, without the money to pay the tax individually. Oh, well, I just disperse enough to pay the taxes.

Is that the problem? Okay. So you leave $100,000 in there, but that creates $30,000 in taxes for the partners. So I distribute $30,000 to the partners to pay their tax bill. So you end up with only $70 net in the company because you've got to pay taxes on profits in America. I mean, it's just what we have to do. Right. There's no way to do retained earnings in small business without paying your taxes on them.

Right. And so because Congress hates small businesses. and they've never fixed this. Oh, we love small businesses, but you keep pissing on us all the time, so we don't believe you. So, you know, it's impossible for small businesses to run, to keep profits,

to turn them back into the business a year later without paying taxes on them. There's no way to do it. It's not that smart anyway. And so, yeah, you're going to pay taxes. But like if we keep a million dollars in Ramsey this year, that lands on me. I've got to pay million dollars in money,

personal taxes, our taxes on a million dollars of income. And so I'm not paying that. I'm taking that out of that million. And so I net out 700 or so, or in my case, more like 600. But yeah. Gotcha. That's the missing piece. Okay. All right. So, yeah, it doesn't change anything to run debt on it or something. I mean, it's just the aggravation of if I distribute the money and take it home, well, I've got the money in my pocket to pay taxes with, and the money's all taxable. If I leave it in the business, the money's all taxable. But what your point is, is that it becomes a tax burden on the individual then for your partners because, you know, they get the tax bill for money they didn't get in their pocket.

That's what you're running into, right? Correct. Okay. All right, I thought I understood it. Okay. All right. So it really didn't have anything about running debt-free. It's just aggravating to save up to pay cash for something.

a bigger item when it's over a calendar year. Right. Yeah, that's how that works out. Okay, cool. Very cool. Good question, my man. Thank you for calling in. Sounds like you guys got a great business going on down there in Georgia, man.

Keep it up. We need people like you guys in America. You are what makes this country great. You are a hero, man. That's how that works. All right, folks, remember better a weary warrior than a quivering critic. This world needs more high-quality leaders. So take courage and lead.

I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for listening to the Entree Leadership Podcast.