Season 7 Episode 18: Leadership Mindset: Top of Pyramid or Bottom?

Season 7 Episode 18: Leadership Mindset: Top of Pyramid or Bottom?
Season 7 Episode 18: Leadership Mindset: Top of Pyramid or Bottom?

Your definition of what true leadership means will impact every single room you walk into, every relationship and team you are a part of. How do you define compelling, influential and exceptional leadership?

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SHOW NOTES

Jason introduces Season 7 episode 18 of the podcast, Leadership Mindset: Top of Pyramid or Bottom? Welcome back to the podcast on corporate culture and leadership and thank you for listening. We engage thought leaders like CEOs, CFOs, managers, VPs, directors, and more for this podcast. We wish to create content that engages your mind and heart and allows you to step back and think and add some positivity to your life. We deep dive into today’s topic.

We can’t control everything but what we can control is our response. Still a lot of work to do but wanted to remind the audience what is within our control is the temperature we create in the organizations and teams we work with. If you have a suggestion, please send it to info@jasonvbarger.com

Please leave a review for the podcast It really helps the podcast to spread these messages out into the world. Please share this podcast with your organization, on your team, or in your life to help spread these messages. Thank you!

“How we think about leadership, matters.

3:00 – Jason introduces today’s topic about Leadership and what it really means. Organizations don’t always define well what real authentic, compelling leadership looks like and so today we dive into exactly what that looks like. We want to make sure we aren’t confusing power and control for the true characteristics of real leadership.

6:00 – We believe that how we think about leadership impacts every room we walk into, every situation that were in and every relationship that we have. If we see leadership one way, our actions will follow that direction, and if we see it another way our actions will look quite different. Jason breaks down leadership using the words he uses to describe how culture is shaped every day by our thinking acting and interacting. In past episodes, Jason talked about culture shaping being shaped by how we think, act, and interact as culture is dynamic.

7:10 – How we think about what it even means to lead matters. Jason had the opportunity to talk with someone as a leader and realized the more they talked the more Jason realized they felt leadership was about power and control. The way they thought about leadership was that the leader was at the top of the pyramid. The leader was the one in charge and you didn’t question them and they were the ones that had the answers. The leaders were at the top of the pyramid and everyone else was down below. This is an old-school way of thinking about leadership and a very hierarchical view of leadership. Growing up, this was the way that Jason often heard people talk about leadership. It was the general, the gruff head coach, typically white male, take charge personality, you don’t mess with me, intimidate others into action.

9:52 – If the above is how you see as a leader then this is where you go. Typically the story ends with the old gruff leaders get angry and they end in scandal, they hit someone, they make a mistake usually abusive in some kind and that is typically how the story ends. The part where they seem to cross the line is when their spirit and style move from demanding leadership to demeaning. There is a loss of care for the people they are leading, relationships are broken, and lack of belief occurs.

11:40 – Jason has asked people all across the world this question, “tell me the characteristics of the most influential, compelling, and exceptional leader you’ve ever experienced in your life and work.” Jason would ask the people to picture this person and tell him the characteristics. Not one time, has anyone described the gruff general, barking orders, that they were the best leader. The actual vision described is not a leader at the top of the pyramid but it flipped upside down. They see what it means to lead is to be at the bottom of the pyramid and serve a mission greater than themselves.

13:50 – The best leaders are listeners, they’re caring, and supportive, this does not mean they are soft, not firm. Their approach is not barking orders but one of support and building a relationship to bolster their development. How they think about what it means to lead isn’t about power and control but sharing power and control. They might be demanding but never tip into demeaning. They have invested so much social equity in relationships they have earned the right to challenge the status quo but never in a demeaning way.

16:10 – Leaders that think more of servant leadership, the actions and interactions typically change. They see it as about sharing power and control to drive engagement. They measure success through growth and development AND output. It’s about a vision that’s connected to a mission and about a two-way street of communication.

18:20 – Bottom of the pyramid servant leadership is NOT soft. In fact, it is soft of the hardest kinds of leadership out there. The easier thing is to yell and scream and bark out orders and say, “Because Im the leader, do this”. It’s oftentimes the harder thing to build a relationship, to collaborate, to have a courageous conversation, and be firm on the direction we are going. To sit down, to care, to listen, often takes more time and is harder to do than just barking out orders and telling people what to do. It’s not just about being nice or kind so everybody likes you, although many are, they are able to stand in tough situations, and make tough decisions but walk with people along the way. It’s the harder thing to do to be clear and firm in direction but not coerce others to get there. A willingness to have courageous conversations rather than just demeaning or devaluing someone.

Questions to Ponder

  1. How do you think about your role as a leader in life and work?

  2. How would you describe the actions and interactions that you hope follow that thinking about being a leader?

  3. What are you and your team doing to help develop this kind of thinking, this kind of acting, and this kind of interacting? 

Please leave a review for the podcast It really helps the podcast to spread these messages out into the world. Please share this podcast with your organization, on your team, or in your life to help spread these messages. Thank you!

If any of these topics are interesting to you please or you want a deep dive on any specific topics, please reach out to us at info@jasonvbarger.com

Listen to more great episodes here


Remember, the best leaders, teams, & cultures stimulate progress by recalibrating their thermostat together.


If you like the podcast, have a question, or just want to share your thoughts about daring to begin please leave a comment below or please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

 

Order Breathing Oxygen now, how positive leadership impacts winning cultures
Order Breathing Oxygen now, how positive leadership impacts winning cultures

 

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ABOUT THE THERMOSTAT

Conversations and micro-thoughts to engage your mind and heart.

A thermostat is proactive. It sets the temperature in a room. Controls the temperature. Regulates the temperature. But in today’s distracted, fast-paced and digital world, it’s easy for individuals and organizations to act more like thermometers, slipping into reactionary thinking, becoming scattered and inconsistent. The most compelling leaders, teams, organizations, families, or collection of humans of any kind operate in thermostat mode. They calibrate their mind and heart to set the temperature for the vision and culture they want to create. Jason Barger, globally celebrated author, keynote speaker, and founder of Step Back Leadership Consulting, is the host of The Thermostat, a podcast journey to discover authentic leadership, create compelling cultures and find clarity of mission, vision, and values.

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