Monday Motivation, 11.4.19

Written by: Benjamin Rogers

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

A Leadership Poem

 

Seven things one must do,

To be a leader right and true. 

Have vision that is strong and clear,

Communicate so they can hear. 

Have people skills based in love,

And character that’s far above. 

The competence to solve and teach,

And boldness that has fearless reach. 

A serving heart that stands close by,

To help assist and edify. 

I heard this on “Positive University,” the name of Jon Gordon’s podcast. The guest on this episode was Pat Williams, who is a Hall-of-Famer, co-founder of the Orlando Magic, and still serves in sports executive roles. Paraphrasing here, but he said he got this poem from a friend who took what were Pat’s “7 keys to leadership.” His 7 keys are as follows, but remember – you are a leader no matter what your “job title” is. You can be a leader to your clients, a leader to your children, a leader to your friends. See if you can apply some of these to your life – no matter which part you’re applying it to.

• Key #1: You have to have a vision that extends beyond yourself. What is your vision that reaches out beyond you, yet loops back to enrich your own life?
• Key #2: You must be able to communicate your vision. Remember, you can communicate verbally but as a leader – your actions are the best way to communicate where you’re headed.
• Key #3: A leader must have people skills. Author Patrick Lencioni says that you must be “hungry, humble, and smart” to be a successful team player. When he says “smart,” he doesn’t mean academically smart. He means the same thing Pat Williams is saying here in this poem – having strong people skills is what being smart is all about. As a leader, your people skills must be based in love.
• Key #4: Character doesn’t only count in leadership; it must be far above the rest. Look at the classic definition of “character”: what are you doing when no one else is watching?
• Key #5: It’s one thing to have character, but if you’re not competent enough to teach others, it’s difficult to make a large impact. Mark Cuban says that in sales, we “solve problems for profit.” What problems do you get to solve today? It’s not what problems do you have to solve today, it’s what problems you get to solve today.
• Key #6: Leaders have courage; they are bold. Great leaders make a decision and stick with it. Be confident in your decisions and handle the consequences – good or bad – with fortitude.
• Key #7: The most important of the 7 keys, a leader must have a serving heart. A few weeks ago, a student asked me what I thought the most important quality of leadership was. I told him that the largest misconception about being a leader is that others serve under you, and that is a mindset that will lead to the slow painful death of your leadership role. As a leader, you are taking ownership of your actions and of others’ actions. When you agree to be a leader, you are agreeing to be responsible for much more. As leaders, we’re here to serve others. It’s the “you don’t work for me, I work for you” mindset. To lead is to serve others first.

In conclusion, Pat Williams said whether you study Jesus, you study George Washington or Churchill or Bear Bryant or Pat Summit or Ronald Reagan – any of those great leaders – all seven of those qualities are there in great fashion.

So, whether you serve as a leader to your teammates, family, friends, and/or your clients, this one’s for you – “To be a leader, right and true!”

Ben Rogers, The Team Leader of The Rogers-Long Team, has been in the real estate business since 2012. In 2014, he began The Rogers-Long Team with Kevin Long, which produced over $25,000,000 in volume production in 2017. In addition to selling homes and leading the team, Ben hosts a podcast show called the “The Bottom Line”, which can be found by clicking here. The Bottom Line is a Podcast that links lessons learned from sports, business, and life and is targeted at those who are striving for excellence, while ‘Average Sits on the Bench’.