The Mindset Mentor - How to Be a Leader That People Want to Follow

Episode Date: May 20, 2021

In this episode, Rob and Dean dive into 5 of the most important traits and qualities of a true leader. Follow me on IG here: https://instagram.com/robdialjr Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Welcome to the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. And if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And today is Thursday, which means that it is the business edition of the Mindset Mentor, which also means that I am joined by my best friend and business partner, Dean DeVries. Dean, what's going on, buddy? It is great to be here on this wonderful Thursday here in Austin, Texas, here in the studio. I know. Dean has now moved to Austin, just so you guys know. So you're going to hear a lot more of Dean in these episodes and other stuff that we're going to do. Today, we're

going to be talking about the five P's of a great leader. So the five P's of a great leader. So Dean, you want to take us through the first P? Yeah, let's just go ahead. The first P, sir. Yeah, let's just dive right in. So when we were planning this episode out, I was really excited about this because we love leadership. In fact, we have a whole program literally dedicated to just helping leaders really embody their highest leadership potential. So these five Ps I think are just so important. So the first one is purpose-driven. And one thing that we say a lot is when you're focused on the purpose, you can't be focused on the self. And by focusing on the purpose, it makes it a lot easier to get through challenges. But it's also that that is such an important quality to have

as a leader, because when we're focused on ourself, we're focused on, oh, what do I feel like doing versus like, hey, what's important to my mission? What's important to, you know, living in alignment with my purpose and operating with my purpose in mind. Yeah, this comes up a lot. So we, if for those of you guys that don't know, one of the things that we do, Dean and I, is we teach coaches how to grow coaching businesses. And we talk about being on self versus being on purpose pretty often. And the reason why is because a lot of people have fear stepping out of their comfort zone and stepping into being a coach or putting up a post that talks about something vulnerable or even announcing that

they are a coach, something like that. Or they're worried about someone else's opinions or they're worried that their mom might say something like, oh, you decided to be a coach when, you know, you went to school to be an engineer. And whenever someone's worried about other people's perceptions, whenever they're worried about what could happen, that's when they're thinking about their self, right? And so when we say self versus purpose, what we mean by that is if I'm sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, I don't want to put this post up because I'm worried what everyone might think of me, what they might say of me, that is me focusing on myself. But if I say I'm going to put this post up, I don't give a damn what anybody else thinks of me because I know

there's someone out there that needs to hear this. I know there's someone out there that needs to be affected by this. And if I don't post it, they're not going to get it. That's the difference between being focused on yourself versus being focused on your purpose. Yeah. So that brings us to number two, which is people and, uh, or people oriented. And what, what comes up for me when I think about a leader that really cares about people, there's this philosophy that I know you and I, we talk about all the time and we say all the time, but it's a philosophy of when you help enough people get what they want, you'll always get what you want. And so a leader really understands that. A leader is always oftentimes putting their people first. There's a great book called Leaders Eat Last, which is like the perfect personification

of what a leader really does. You know, leaders making sure that everybody else's needs are taken care of because the way that the leader looks at other people is your needs are my needs as the leader. Yeah, for sure. And it's like, for us, we don't ever talk about how much money we make. We talk about how much money our team makes. Because essentially, we know that if we take care of them, and they're making more money than they've ever made before, we're going to be fine. Like that's our business is going to be great. But how many people sit out there and they wake up in the morning, and they worry about the income coming into their business. And because of that, they start driving, like if we talk about salespeople, for instance, they start driving their salespeople

harder nuts, not because the fact they want them to succeed, but because they're too worried about their business's own health versus going, okay, how can I show up to each one of my employees, each one of the people around me? And even if we're talking about just being a leader, period, not even in a business, right? How can I make sure that every single person around me and my family is performing at the level they want to be at? and my family is performing at the level they want to be at. All of their needs are met because I know that if everyone else around me gets what they need and what they want, then I'm going to get what I want from it as well. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent.

And it's not what you know, it's who you know, right? And so in the context of a leader, as a leader, you're carrying out your mission and focusing on your purpose with other people. So it's not the clarity or the certainty or the amount of knowledge that you might have about the mission. It's actually who you're on this mission with that matters most. And this is something that we live. Like on our team, on our company, we'll literally hire people where we're not hiring for a position. But when we find somebody that we're like, man, I want to work with you.

I know. I see you as being a great culture fit and all the things that we look for in somebody that helps us fulfill our mission as a company. Instead of filling a position of like, hey, we've got the, you know, executive, you know, or account executive position that we're trying to fill. Would you like to apply for it? It's like, hey, we like you. We're going to find how to take your genius zone and see how that piece of the puzzle fits into this this bigger

picture of us fulfilling the mission yeah and it's a good example too of you know some businesses they hire somebody and a person is a great person but they just don't happen to fit the role very well we've done that before we actually have somebody that's on our team that we had the same thing where where they were on the team and their sales weren't as high as they wanted to. But as far as culture fit, they were the perfect freaking person. And we're like, how can we create a role that this person can go into? And we created it and they're crushing it at that role, but there's such a culture fit. But we've also had people that we've let go from the team simply because of the fact that they weren't working the role,

but they also weren't a culture fit as well. And, and one of the things that's super important, I think about a leader as well, that a lot of people have trouble with, especially when we consult with businesses, is that a lot of times the owner of the business or the CEO of the business has trouble letting go the reins of the business because their ego is so frail that they're worried that somebody else can do their job better than them, even though they own the damn business. And so they're afraid of actually giving up pieces of their business to somebody else. When in reality, a true leader doesn't have people that work for them. A leader creates leaders that can create leaders, that can create leaders, that can create leaders.

The true sense of a leader is somebody who can go and create other leaders, not someone who can just sit up, you know, inspiring people and all that stuff is great. But if I can create other leaders, I'm a really damn good leader. And that's the biggest part of it. Let me tell you guys about one of my favorite drinks that I have multiple times a day. It's called Element. It's a tasty electrolyte drink with everything that you need and nothing that you don't. That means there's a lot of salt, but no sugar. An Element is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs, and it's perfectly suited for folks who have keto, low-carb, or paleo diets. An Element contains a

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and enter the code dial. Yeah, I love that. So let's get into number three here, which is practiced. And another way of saying this is prepared. You know, somebody that, like I think of a leader that's practiced, which is, you know, like I think of some, a leader that's practiced, which is, you know, I just envision a leader that's really taking their craft seriously, where they're just super committed to whether it's, you know, their product, whether it's their, you know, sales process, you know, whether it's their business or whether it's just the people that are around them in business and outside of business.

They take that so seriously, and they're so practiced as a leader, where they're constantly checking themselves on where they can grow as a leader. And practice is what makes perfect, even though there's probably no such thing as perfect. It's all about progress. And I think that's another thing that's important for, uh, for leadership, but being practiced somebody that, that is working every single day or, you know, just every moment that they can to just get better and better for the greater purpose. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's super important too, is that is, is they look at, they never rest on the laurels of their success. They always know they can get better.

Right. One thing I had a conversation with someone on our team and, uh, and we were talking about, you know, just the standards that we hold ourself to. And he had been a manager at another company, you know, we've known him for 14, 15 years and, you know, he came up in a business under us. Then we left that business. He stayed in there for a little while. He left the business and he was a manager of a lot of other people before. And now we are seen as quote unquote above him in a leadership position. And one of the things that he said was just like, you know, it's, it's been a while since I've had somebody that's, that's a leader above me. And I'm like, I don't even think you

see it the right, I don't, I don't even see myself as above you in a sort of like, sure. I started the business before anybody else was around, but I don't see myself as above in any sort of way. I see myself as equal to everybody. And I said, the one thing that you have to be obsessed with is acting like you don't know anything. Cause I wake up every morning, actually, like I don't know anything. The old Rob used to wake up thinking that he knew everything. The older I get, the more I realize, I don't know shit. So I'm going to stop acting like I know anything. Right. And so it's like, how can you have this beginner's mind and just be obsessed with getting better every single day? Right. And the, the, the leader strides to always be progressing, always be getting better,

knowing that they could be 1% better today and 1% better tomorrow, and they can grow their team 1% more. And it's not about perfection, a sort of way, you know, it's, it's actually the exact opposite. It's about progress, not perfection. It's knowing that I will never be perfect. And I'm completely okay with that because my ego is not so frail that I have to be perfect. I will fuck everything up at some point in time, probably seven times a week, right? Like that's just the way it's going to go. But a leader knows that it's not about being perfect. That's going to hold them back. It's about progressing. How can I get better today? How can I make my people get better? How can I

help them get what they want out of this business and grow and improve and make them feel like they're somebody that's important in this business? Yeah. I just want to echo something that you just brought up that I thought was a really big point. So I just want to reiterate that. Um, and that is as a leader to wake up every morning, recognizing that, or at least like having the perspective of, I don't know anything. So let me be open to what I can learn from every situation. And I think that's, we didn't write this down as like one of the P's, but I think that's a really important aspect of being a leader because that

is the type of leader that creates other leaders because you're, you're, you're making space for people to emerge in their leadership versus, you know, the quote unquote leader or the old paradigm of leadership is like steamrolling every conversation and showing how great they are because they're the best at what they do. And hey, look at me, this is how you should be one day, right? It's like this old paradigm that doesn't create space for leadership. And yeah, I just, I thought that was a really profound point.

And I just wanted to echo that. Yeah. I think it's, I think it's important to realize that no matter who somebody is, no matter how much money they do or don't make, they have some life experience that you can learn from. And to think that there's people on your team that you can't learn from is ridiculous. There's always somebody who can come up with an idea that could be amazing. And the more that you empower the people around you to be the best version of themselves and to empower them to learn and grow and to get better, they're going to surprise you and your business is going to grow

because they feel like they are an important part of the team, but also at the same time, they feel like they're learning and growing and getting better. And as long as everyone on your team, including you as the leader, is like a sponge and saying, you know what, I'm going to take the mindset of I'm going to just focus on learning and growing, not that I know everything. That's when you're going to see your team looks like or what your company looks like, being a leader is not a, you know, a hierarchical position. It's not like, you know, you are now a leader because you have a few people reporting to you.

A leader is a leader before they lead any other person, right? We've got to lead ourselves first before we can lead others. And so if you're a solopreneur and you're listening to this, this totally applies to you, right? If you're an individual contributor to a company, right? This totally applies to you because in order to create those opportunities and possibilities in the future where you are leading people, you've got to lead yourself first.

So these five Ps are totally applicable to anybody who wants to step into the identity of a leader, even if the role isn't there. Yeah. How could you possibly think that someone's going to want to promote you in a business if you're not already showing leadership qualities for yourself and even people around you? You know, like if you were to take all people that are account executives even people around you, you know, like if you were to take all people that are account executives and you were to watch them five, 10, 15 of them together in a room, someone's going to stand out as a leader. It doesn't mean that that person is the manager of them or that they get paid more. It's just that some people have this, this natural quality and other people need to develop this natural quality. But it does come from, like you said, from literally, if you're just by

yourself, just working on yourself and being a leader in yourself in order to bring that out to others as well. Yeah. Yeah. That's big. So let's go to the fourth P here, which is positive. So the way that I see a leader that's positive is somebody that sees the best in people that sees the best in situations. Uh, I also, um, you know, a big thing is seeing the possibilities versus the problems, right? Leaders aren't just about fixing problems to getting things back to normal. It's about propelling forward and stepping into new possibilities. And so, you know, the person that's just always focused on the problem versus the possibility is just going to be consumed with, all right, how do I just fix

more problems versus the person that's, you know, that's focused on possibilities. There are no problems when they're, they're focused on, you know, on moving into something bigger and better. The, what might look like a problem to the person that's the problem solver is actually just a necessary challenge that they need to go through a necessary step that they need to go through an obstacle that they need to learn how to overcome to prepare them for their bigger possibility. Yeah. And I think the important thing too is, and I've heard a lot of people say this because obviously I've had a lot of people send me messages on social media and stuff. And

they say, well, you can't ignore the negative, right? They think for some reason, if I'm going to be positive, I'm going to ignore the negative. What it is, is you look at the negative and you understand it exists and you can look at a negative thing and say, how can I turn this negative thing into a positive? How can I take this, like, give you a perfect example. The thing I always think about is like, when my father passed away, my immediate thought was, this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. How can I take this negative thing and turn it into something that will in the long term eventually be good, right? And that's why I do what I do now. Like, I wouldn't be doing this had that not happened to me. But that's somebody looking at it and saying, this is a negative thing. I'm going to turn it

into a positive. And so when we say be positive, we're not saying ignore the negative. What we're saying is that if you can look at something from a different frame, you can always find some sort of positive in it. And when you find the positive in it, it allows you to deal with the negative aspect of that or anything else that's around you in a better way, simply because you're coming at it from a positive standpoint versus a negative standpoint. Yeah. And actually, even by just naming something as like, hey, this is a negative thing that's happening right now. I mean, if you just say that out loud, like for me, when I say that out loud, it literally like drains my energy it's like

oh there's a negative thing I got to deal with right now I got to just put out fires how many times do we hear people say that exactly and so like what if those things that once were negative things were now opportunities like that to me is just there's more energy in that and so if there's more energy in that I'm gonna show up better to, which is, and so I think it's not about ignoring to your point. It's not about ignoring the reality. It's about taking in the full scope of the reality because there are also people that literally will just focus on the negative. Right. And I would say that they're ignoring reality because not everything is all negative, right? Not everything's all positive, but to just take in the full experience and say, okay, from here, what's possible and what can I appreciate about this?

Sure, it might be challenging, right? It might take me a step back, but what's a reason why this is necessary for me to take a leap forward? So yeah, I think that's huge is focusing on the positive versus just like this unconditional positivity of like, oh no, yeah, this is know, I just broke my knee and that's perfect. Right. It's, it's, it's about like, you know, taking in the full, full experience, um, and, and choosing to place the focus on where there's going to be the most energy and possibility. Yeah. Especially because, you know, everybody should know, or at least understand that what you focus on, you're going to get more of, right? So if I'm just focusing on how negative everything is, I'm going to find more negative. But if I'm looking at that negative and saying, there's a chance that there's a possible, like there's a chance

there's some opportunities in here that I'm going to start to find more opportunities. So would you rather see more shit around you or would you rather see more opportunities around you? Right. So why don't you go ahead and go, okay, this isn't the most positive thing at this point, but how can I find opportunities in this and turn into something that could be positive down the road? Yeah. Yeah. So the last one is principled. And when I think about a leader that is principled, I think about a leader that is grounded in their values and they hold their standards and values sacred. As a leader, they set the tone for the people around them, they're leading are going to be 70, maybe 80 out of 100.

It's going to set the tone. It's going to set the ceiling where there's not going to be people that exceed the leader's volume, so to speak. And so when I say volume, it's, you know, what is the volume of the expression of these values that they hold, the standards that they hold and, you know, values and standards and somebody that's principled in those values or somebody that stands firm, regardless of the situation, when things get tough, um, you know they're, if, if somebody has a standard of integrity, right? If they're principled in their integrity, it doesn't matter what happens around them. They're going to show up with integrity. If one of their core values is being disciplined, it doesn't matter if they feel like shit one day, they are going to be disciplined and carrying out their mission.

So I think that's important. And that's what people want is if somebody is going to go into a place and work for somebody, they always say, you never quit a job, you quit a boss, right? So people want to be with people and around people and leaders who know their values, who are, who stand firm in their values, who aren't shady, who aren't flip-floppers, who don't go back and forth and what they say they're going to do, who show up all the time, you know, in, in, they want those types of people. People want to be led by people who are, you know, full of values, principled and everything like that. And the reason why that's important for yourself as a leader, once again, in a business or even outside of the business is it makes it really easy for you to

say yes to things. It makes it really easy for you to say no to things. When you are hardcore in your values and in your principles, you will naturally say no, no to more things. One of the things I hear a lot of people is they have trouble with, you know, spreading themselves too thin, right? Well, you actually have trouble saying no to things, which you actually have trouble to, you know, you don't, because you don't know exactly what your values are, exactly what your purpose is, exactly where you're going. And because of that, you're kind of spreading yourself to think, cause you're starting to do too many things. You're starting to say yes to everything versus going, nah, that thing doesn't align. You know, this it's kind of like the shiny object syndrome where it's like, how often do you see somebody who's running a business? And within

six months, they're starting to think about running another business, right? Or they have a plan B because the fact that they're just worried about if plan A doesn't work out. And it's like, no, you've got to go hardcore into one thing. And when you have shiny object syndrome, that takes away from your main objective. And the reason why you have shiny object centers, because you're not basing your values, which means you don't know what to say no to. Yeah, that's so important. And being principled in, you know, like following purpose and being focused on purpose is an expression of being principled. And the reason why people have shiny object syndrome oftentimes is a fear of missing out or a fear of a better option. Like, oh, well, let me start this too, because I'm afraid of not doing it because I've

got, I know somebody that's killing it and I want to kill it too. And so let me spread myself thin here. And it's, it's all driven out of fear versus principle versus, you know, purpose. So yeah, I think, I think these are amazing. And if I don't say, I don't say so myself, I think this was a pretty damn good episode and you look amazing in those glasses. Thanks, everybody. So the five Ps of a great leader, just really quick to wrap up with everybody. Purpose-driven, people.

They focus on their people. Number three, they are practiced. Number four, they are positive. And number five, they are principled. So that's what we got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it with someone that you know and love. And if you are someone who's out there,

you're a business owner, you're a leader, you're in a leadership position, you're a manager, you're a salesperson, and you want to grow your business and you want to work with Dean and I, that is what Dean and I specialize in. We have a special group of people that we work with every single week for an entire year

that is our mastermind. If that's something that sounds like you want to learn more about, go ahead and send Dean an email right now, dean at robdial.com. We've got an event coming up that's going to be in person in Austin, Texas, 11th, 12th, and 13th of June. And we'd love to see you there as part of the mastermind if you're the right type of person and if we're the right type of people for you. So if you want to learn more about it, just send Dean an email, dean at robdial.com, and we'll chat with you about it. But we're going to go ahead and leave you the same way we leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better.

I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.