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The making of a leader: The Leader behind the Title · Sandra Elizabeth - The Leadership Collective

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to begin by separating two things that we often put together, and that is position and leadership.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are not necessarily the same thing.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can be given a position overnight.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can walk into your workplace tomorrow and someone will tell you that you've been promoted.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly you have a new office, a new job description, new responsibilities, and perhaps a better salary.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: People who were your colleagues yesterday may report to you tomorrow.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And with one announcement, you have a new title.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the question.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Did that announcement make you a leader?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it changed your position, it changed your authority, it changed what the organization expects from you.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it didn't necessarily change who you are.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the real work begins.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because becoming a leader isn't simply about getting the position, it is about developing the person who is going to occupy that position.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Leadership Collective.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Our series is The Making of a Leader, but today's podcast is the leader behind the title.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sandra, and once again, thank you for joining me today.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So who are you behind the title?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've met people over the years who've carried impressive titles.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've also met people who didn't have impressive titles at all.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned something.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the person with the greatest title isn't the person with the greatest influence.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the person quietly sitting somewhere in the organization has enormous influence.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: People trust them, people ask their opinion, people listen when they speak, people go to them when there's a problem.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because leadership has already developed within them.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I want to ask you something today.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: If we removed your title, what would remain?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you couldn't introduce yourself by telling people what you do, who would they experience?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Would they experience confidence, integrity, discipline, wisdom, humility, consistency?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Would they experience somebody who listens?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Would they experience somebody who makes other people capable?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Would they experience somebody who can handle pressure?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or would removing the title remove most of the influence?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's worth thinking about because a title tells us something about your position.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't necessarily tell us something about your leadership.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the title of a lawyer.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Having the title lawyer behind a name doesn't automatically make that person an intelligent or wise person.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: It tells me that you studied law, you've met the academic requirements, and you're qualified to practice in that profession.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that is an achievement.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But your qualification doesn't automatically tell me how you think, how you treat people, or what kind of conversations you entertain.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can be highly educated and still spend time in cheap conversations.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can be articulate and have very little of substance to say.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can know how to argue a case, but lack the wisdom to know when to remain silent.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's important in leadership because we sometimes confuse eloquence with intelligence.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Someone can speak beautifully, use impressive words, and dominate a conversation, but talking a lot doesn't necessarily mean you're saying something valuable.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: The same applies to any title: a doctor, a professor, a CEO.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: A title tells me what you are qualified to do, but your conduct, yes, I'm going to say that again, your conduct tells me who you are.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be overly impressed by titles.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to people's conversations, watch their behavior, look at what they contribute when they enter a room.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Education can give you knowledge, a title can give you status, but neither one of them can be substituted for wisdom, character, and emotional maturity.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, your qualification may tell me what you know.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your conversation tells me who you are.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership is built before it is seen.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we live in a world that celebrates visible success.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: We see the promotion, we see the successful company, we see the awards, we see the person standing on the stage.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: We see the championship, we see the trophy.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: What we don't always see is what happened before that moment.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: We don't see all the ordinary days, the discipline, the preparation, the disappointment, the rejection, the mistakes, corrections, and the learning, including the days when nobody noticed, the days when nobody applauded, the days when somebody wanted to give up but decided to continue.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where much of the making of a leader actually happens.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership isn't only formed in your successful season.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's formed when things aren't working.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's being formed when you are being overlooked, when you are being corrected.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is formed when somebody else gets the opportunity that you wanted.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's being formed when you have to start again.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's being formed when you have to admit, hey, I was wrong.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's being formed when you have every opportunity to blame somebody else, but decide to take the responsibility instead.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those moments don't usually appear on a resume or on a CV, but they build leaders.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this brings me to my next point, which is what success doesn't show you.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I personally don't think that we should study successful people only for their success.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I am more interested in the process behind their success.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: How did they respond to failure?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: What did they do when nobody was watching?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: How did they handle criticism?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: How did they maintain their discipline?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And how did they recover from disappointment?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: What did they sacrifice?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: What happened when success finally arrived?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Who did they become along the way?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can achieve something extraordinary and still fail to develop yourself.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can build a successful company and be a poor leader.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can become wealthy and still lack discipline.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can become famous and still lack character.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can have thousands of people following you publicly while the people closest to you don't respect your leadership privately.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the person behind the achievement matters.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can be the leader of a woman's group.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: But when all you do is beat women down behind closed doors or in private sessions, it doesn't make you a leader.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: It means you just have a title.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you begin wondering how did that person get the title?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Was there a reason that they chose to give the person a title?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, I want to bring up something.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not usually a sports fan.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody knows me, I can't even run.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not the person who can give you every score, every statistic, or even tell you everything that happened in last night's game.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's not really me.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But over the years, there are certain sporting personalities that I've watched.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not because of the game they play.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched their lives, I've watched their careers, I've watched how they handled winning, and I've watched how they handled losing.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched people reach extraordinary levels of success and then have to find the discipline to remain there.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And some of these people have really influenced me, not because of what they taught me about sport, but because of what their lives taught me about leadership.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's something fascinating about sport.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Their talent is exposed, their discipline, their character, and their pressure is exposed.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be hidden forever.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually you have to perform.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But when you watch somebody's career over many years, you begin to see something beyond the game.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: You begin to see the person behind the performance.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I want to bring some sporting personalities into our conversation today.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to become a football fan.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to become a tennis fan.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to look beyond the sport, see the lesson, the leadership lessons in the person.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of those persons for me is Cristiano Ronaldo.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: When most people hear Ronaldo's name, they immediately think about football.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They think about goals, stadiums, championships, they think about records, fame and money, and his extraordinary career.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the part of his story that interests me the most.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love his game.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love some of the things he does.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's he's amazing.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in what happened before the stadium filled up.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in what happened to him when nobody was applauding.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in the discipline behind his performance.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, the world sees the ninety minutes, but the ninety minutes aren't where the success was built.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: He became known throughout his career for an extraordinary commitment to training and physical conditioning.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Talent gave him an advantage, but talent alone could never explain the longevity of his career.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I believe leaders need to pay attention.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we admire somebody's outcome without respecting their process.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We want their success, but would we accept their discipline?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: We want the promotion, but will we prepare for the responsibility?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We want the platform, but will we do the work when nobody is watching?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: We want to become the CEO, but are we willing to develop ourselves enough to become capable of leading an organization?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership has a price.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: It really, really has a price.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And very often that price is discipline.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's doing something consistently when you don't feel like doing it.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's preparing before you need to perform, it's continuing to learn after everybody already thinks you're successful.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ronaldo's story reminds me: never allow success to give you permission to stop developing.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes success can actually become dangerous because once people begin applauding you, you can start believing you've arrived.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Many people think they've arrived.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: But greatness says there's still another level of me to develop.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's Michael Jordan, one of the most recognized basketball players in history.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's had championships, awards, records, and international brand.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not here today to talk about Michael Jordan at the height of his career.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about a younger Michael Jordan.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: As a teenager, he did not make his high school varsity basketball team on his first attempt.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the irony of this.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: He was a young man who would eventually become one of the greatest basketball players.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: This same man wasn't initially selected for the team he wanted.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if he had allowed that moment to define him.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if he had decided maybe basketball isn't for me.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But he continued working, and that's where the leadership lesson is.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Rejection is information.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to become your identity.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody listening to me today may have been overlooked.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you didn't get the promotion.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you were rejected for your idea.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you started something and it failed.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody that you believed would support you actually walked away from you.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't allow that one season to write the conclusion of your story.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Ask, what is this teaching me?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do I need to improve?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where do I need to grow?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes rejection can become a training ground.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: The making of a leader includes the moments when nobody chose you because those moments force you to decide: do I need everybody else's approval before I continue developing?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at Cristiano, Ronaldo, and Michael Jordan.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: They both had different spots, different backgrounds, different personalities, but there's a common thread.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They both had discipline, resilience, and adaptability.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ronaldo teaches us to do the work when nobody is watching.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan teaches us don't allow rejection to define you.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Never stop developing simply because you've already succeeded.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And none of those lessons belong only to Spot.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: It belongs in the boardroom, it belongs in business, it belongs in management, it belongs in your career, and it belongs in leadership.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: These were secure leaders.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't need all the attention.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is where leadership becomes very personal.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can you celebrate somebody who's becoming better than you?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Can you put somebody else forward?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can somebody on your team know more than you?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Can somebody have a better idea?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Can someone receive applause while you're standing in the background?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Insecure leaders struggle with this.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: They compete with the people they're supposed to be developing.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Secure leaders understand that their success doesn't reduce somebody else's.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if I'm leading them, their success may be evidence that I'm doing my job and I'm doing a great job.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Great leadership is not when people say, Look how much everybody needs me, or when people say, Look how capable the people around me are becoming.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to finish today with an exercise.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if your title disappears tomorrow.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can no longer say, I'm the CEO, I'm the manager, the director, the founder, the supervisor, or the team leader?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: You walk into the same room tomorrow without the title.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now ask yourself: would people still listen when I speak?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Would people trust my judgment?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Will they ask for advice?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Would people still want me on their team?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Would people describe me as being disciplined?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: How do I respond when I'm rejected?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Am I still learning?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And here's perhaps the most important question.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Who has become better because I led them?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Name somebody, not somebody who simply worked for you, not somebody who reported to you.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Who became better because you invested leadership into them.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a total different measurement of success.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the greatest leadership lessons aren't always found in leadership books.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're playing out right in front of us in somebody's life.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Christiano reminds us your public performance is built through private discipline.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was not about his title, it was not about his achievements.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Jordan reminds us, rejection doesn't get to determine your destination.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So don't spend your entire life chasing after titles.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Build the person who will carry the title.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Build your character, build your discipline, build your resilience, build your emotional intelligence, and build your ability to develop other people.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because titles change, positions change, organizations will change, careers will change, but the person you've developed comes with you.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Your title tells people what position you hold.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Your leadership tells people who you've become.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Keep growing, keep learning, and keep developing because great leaders aren't simply appointed, they are made.