I attended the simulcast of @Leaderscast 2015 on Friday. For those of you that don’t know, Leadercast is an incredible event where leaders gather (either at the live event or via simulcast) to hear various speakers (@AndyStanley, @BillRMcDermott, @RorkeDenver, @MalalaFund, Peyton Manning, @ThisIsSethsBlog, @EdCatmull, @AjaLBrown and Rudy Giuliani) speak on the topic of leadership.
Leadercast was built on the principle that “the world needs better leaders – Leaders Worth Following”. One of my core values is teachability, so I was eager to receive some actionable take-aways for myself and my consulting company Alignment Labs.
This year’s theme was “The Brave Ones”. Each speaker spoke about how leadership involves “being brave”. All the sessions were great, but the one that impacted me the most was Seth Godin’s session. Seth has a way of delivering content in such a compelling way. He had me listening intently the entire time.
During Seth’s session, he sought to answer the question, “What is Bravery”? In a nutshell, he defined bravery as “playing a note worth listening to” and broke that concept down into 5 points.
Tension – When you are “playing a note worth listening to” there is going to be tension. When you are driving toward your vision, not everyone will agree with you. Telling someone their “baby is ugly” will produce tension. Telling someone that they need to change is not easy. You need to be bold.
Obsession – You need to be absolutely convinced of where you are going. You need to be obsessed with your vision. At Alignment Labs, we are obsessed with alignment. We believe realizing a vision is much harder than it needs to be and we’re passionate about helping businesses drive alignment.
Connection– Godin talked about being a “bridge”. I took that to mean adding value by providing your customers with things they couldn’t get if they weren’t working with you. At Alignment we are able to bring resources to bear that a small business owner may not even know they need. For example, we don’t do marketing, but we can connect our customers to providers we trust. We are able to connect the dots – from vision all the way to weekly meetings to keep customers on track. We think this adds huge value.
Direction – You must lead people somewhere (hopefully toward your vision). If you’re passionate about something you will relentlessly drive to some future state. With Alignment Labs, we’re passionate about leading our clients to greater alignment which means their vision will be realized faster and more efficiently.
Compassion – Godin said, “I see you and I can open a door for you”. Compassion is about approaching others from an empathetic stance and not taking others (your customers) for granted. To treat every opportunity “as if it were the last opportunity”. At Alignment we realize how difficult running and owning a business can be. We want to make realizing your vision easier by removing the inherent problems misalignment causes.
So, are you one of the “brave ones”? Have you clearly articulated your vision and are you driving towards that vision? Is the process causing tension as you “play a note worth listening to”? Are you obsessed with that vision and won’t stop until it’s realized? Do you have a clear direction and are you pointing others in that direction?
If this post resonates with you and you need some help turning your vision into reality, Alignment Labs would love to help.