How to Lead Like a Buffalo with Dan Kopp

On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that your leadership style is effective and successful in building and leading a powerhouse team? Our guest, Dan Kopp of Leading Like a Buffalo, knows firsthand what it really takes for a so-so manager to become a powerhouse leader and how to address bad leadership, poor culture and climate, and the lack of appropriate leadership development that too many organizations today deem acceptable. In this episode, you're going to learn how everyone has the skills and values to be a good leader. Also, that leadership is unique to the individual and the situation at hand. Specific leadership tenets that will make you a better leader. And most importantly, you will learn to lead with confidence. Are you ready to lead like a buffalo? Then stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm, along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Follow Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work life you deserve. Let's do this. Dan, how are you? Welcome to the program.

I am doing great, and it is my honor to be here today. This is great.

Oh, why, thank you very much. So before we dive into all of the nitty-gritty about being a Buffalo, um, tell us a little bit about Dan.

Well, I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin with my beautiful wife and I love— we, we love to travel. We've traveled literally in every state in the country, or in, in the country, and then we've also been to— I lost count— like 16 other countries. And I like to eat burgers wherever I go. I have to eat a burger. I'm like, every day I could have a burger, which is probably not the healthiest thing.

Yeah, but you know what, you only live once. Correct. Once.

Yes.

And it's probably not 365 days out of the year.

So I did do it a couple weeks ago, and I've been late because I had a nice half pounder for lunch and then another one at supper. So I have— I've toned it down since then.

So, well, I'm in Hilton Head, South Carolina right now, usually in Atlanta, and I have yet to find a good burger. Well, I, I'll rephrase this. I have yet to actually find a burger on a menu that was enticing enough for me to want to order it.

Oh, they're out there. You just gotta look.

I do. I do. For the channel suggestions, you can send me an email.

Right on.

Okay, so we are going to talk about, um, Leading Like a Buffalo and the 9 tenets, um, that you write about, you talk about. But the whole idea of leading like a buffalo, I just absolutely love. So help us, help us all understand what that means to you and where did it come from as being a foundation for your work?

I want to take one step back. Just, I'm going to talk about tenets today that aren't mine necessarily. They're an approach to leadership that everybody watching and listening can embrace to become a better leader tomorrow.

Right.

So I've got examples. We're going to talk some anecdotal examples. But if you embrace these and make them your own,, you will be a better leader because everybody's got to lead in a manner that is aligned with their personal values and ethics and in their context. Awesome. So being a buffalo, I've always lived my life as if I were the buffalo. I'll get to what that actually means in a moment. I didn't have words for it until about 2010, I'm guessing. So in essence, be the buffalo means you approach things and address things in front of you that need to be addressed. So it's not about liking confrontation. It's not about being a bully. It's not about being a corporate bitch. It is about addressing things in front of you. Most people I've encountered don't like confrontation. I absolutely abhor it. I want it— don't want anything to do with it. However, if it's in front of me, I really don't like it. I'd rather have it behind me. So I'm going to go out and address what needs to be addressed so that confrontation is now behind me. So in essence, 2010, again, I'd always lived my life this way. I think I, based on my self-development throughout the years and being sort of coached and mentored, but from my business partner, he got me to understand why I do this. And I'm pretty sure it goes back to when I was 18, 19-year-old military police officer responding to incidences in which there was violence or domestic disturbance and assault, something like that. And when I showed up on a scene, theoretically someone was still in danger or could be in danger, was going to get hurt. And maybe that someone was going to be me. I better control what's in front of me so nobody else gets hurt. So I think that's where it really started. So in 2010, I'm reading a magazine. It happened to be my wife's Oprah magazine. She was about 2 minutes behind me from getting ready. I'm not a pick up a magazine and read a magazine article type guy, but I am a pick up a magazine and look at a chart. So there happened to be a chart in there, and it was written by political pundit Donna Brazile, and it was the top 10 things I've learned in life. I thought, this is intriguing, you know, I could get my mind— well, the first one, I read the first one and don't remember the rest because the first one resonated with me. It was be the buffalo. And she said she had learned from the head of the Cherokee Nation, a woman by the name of Wilma Mankiller, that the buffalo on the Great Plain is what they model their lifestyle after. So when a storm comes Some will turn tail and run. And if you can envision a storm in the Great Plains, you can see forever. Well, they're running from it. It takes a while to get through the, through the storm.

Okay.

But the buffalo who charge it, they get through it faster because they're going in the opposite direction. So they charge through it and get it behind them as opposed to running with it. So be the buffalo, address things in front of you. There are some caveats, and I've had these situations when I've been less than happy about a situation that I need to address. You've got to have your emotions in check. You can't— it's not about going in gunslinging. It's about addressing the situation in front of you. You don't have to be a bitch. You don't have to be any other four-letter word. You address it, stick to the facts, but you have to have your emotions in check. You also have to have the requisite information to the background information to be able to address what's going on. You may have witnessed something, heard about something, whatever. It doesn't mean you know the full story. So get the requisite information, get your emotions in check if they're not ideal, and then address it. Because think about any situation you've ever had that's been less than ideal that you've had to address, right? Talking to a significant other, a coworker, a boss, a coach, a mentor, a child. 99% of the time, the dread leading up to that conversation is worse than the conversation itself. So have the conversation, get it behind you. It's not about liking confrontation, it's about getting it behind you, right?

Well, I think also what I'm picking up on too is the fact that having the information and getting your emotions in check, it's like the preparation. If people were more prepared and they really were thoughtful and intentional about the conversation they're about to have, then it wouldn't be as dreadful. Is that part of all of this? Is it?

Is because you, you know, when you're at a heightened sense of emotion, whether you're sad or angry, you're not thinking straight. You just want whatever is causing that negative feeling to be done, right? So you want to stop it. And then if you don't know everything about what you're about ready to address, you're just waiting in and just lead with emotions. And most of the time that doesn't work, right?

Right.

So you've got to be able to harness those emotions. You've got to know what you're getting into. And then address it. Because we've all heard, if you don't address it, you condone it. Because if you saw it or aware of it, others are also, and they're just waiting for you to do something. If you don't do it, they get— well, and I've seen this, I've had people say this, all I know in my organization, if I don't do what Johnny over there is doing, I'm good. Because if Johnny's not getting fired, I'm not getting fired.

Right, right. And it's funny you should bring that up because, um, I was just writing about leading by example. And so that also kind of triggers me to say, yes, if you're avoiding and you're ignoring, you know, kind of dealing with that situation, then you're modeling that to your people as acceptable.

Yeah, absolutely. One of my tenets that we're not really going to discuss today, which is in my book, is let your actions speak for themselves. Well, lack of action speaks loudly as well.

So people see you not act, Right, well, we're gonna mention the 9 tenets, but we're gonna have you kind of then just highlight a few of them. But before we do, or you embrace the buffalo to the point where, if you're open to sharing, to the point where you just showed me— that's so awesome. All right, for those listening, he's showing me his tattoo that's on his whole forearm that says, be the buffalo. It's awesome. Yeah, if you're listening, go over to YouTube, check out our video interview, and, uh, and go to about 8 minutes and 20 seconds, and you'll find, uh, you'll find that that's awesome. That's awesome. All right, so from that, you also found, um, from what I, you know, kind of saw around your book, which I I mentioned your book here, uh, for those watching, but for those not, The Power of Me Leadership: 9 Leadership Tenets for Every Leader. You can check that out and, um, and go and buy that. Uh, you can go right to Amazon, and you can also go to tiny.cc/thepowerofmeleadership. Uh, but you— the power of me, how does that tie in to someone being a buffalo and really leading through that, right?

Well, the title came— I was on a podcast being interviewed. I was probably the spring of '22, maybe early summer, and we were talking about these tenets, and I was in the final stages of writing the book and ready for publication. And the, the podcast host said, well, I've got a title for your book. And I'm like, well, okay, I'm all ears because I sure don't have one. He said, well, how everybody has the ability to lead and everybody can lead in alignment with their personal values and ethics within their context. So you're talking about the power within each person. They have it to lead. So that's Power of ME Leadership. I'm like, oh, okay, that's where it came from. Because literally everybody can lead. And the essence of the book is I started as sort of a self-reflection. Here's how I discovered who I am and why I lead the way I do. And why, most importantly, why I'm wired the way— why do I do the things I do? The why behind the what. I got— so that was in a goal of helping other people do the same thing. And then when I read the first draft, I'm like, wait a minute, this is, this is deeper than just me sharing who I am and why, right? These are just simply good leadership tenets. For example, the 'be the buffalo.' You don't have to be Dan to be the buffalo. It's got nothing to do with me. That's just a phrase. It's way— because Confront the address. Sorry, Freudian slip. Confront, address things in front of you that need to be addressed. It's as simple as that. That's not me doing it my way. It's you doing it your way in your context. That's the key to this. And in a manner that's comfortable for you. And so the tenets, yes, I give anecdotal examples of where each one manifested itself in my life or when I became aware of each one, not unlike the one I just talked about, be the buffalo. But at the end of the day, somebody could take all those— 9 of those tenets. There's no particular order, and you can, you can take baby steps. And, and I've talked to leaders like, oh my gosh, I'm already inundated, where do I squeeze this in? It's a way to do what you're already doing, right?

I love that, love that, love that. All right, so like we mentioned, I'd love for you to mention the 9 tenets, but then we want to drill into a few of them. So can you walk through the 9 tenets?

Gut leadership is one, and that's the ultimate where you've got to trust your gut. But we talked about leading like a buffalo. We talked— I'm going to talk about lead like King Arthur. I'm going to talk about take care of your people, identify and address inequity, let your actions speak for themselves. Oh my, I don't have a list in front of me.

I think that was 7. That's quite all right. That's fine.

You got to buy the book.

Yeah, yeah, there you go. Yes, you do. You have to buy the book, and you can get that at tiny.cc/thepowerofmeleadership. Um, now, okay, so King Arthur— love it, love it— because I'm all about imagery. All right, um, so I'm kind of creating this image in my head. What is it? What does it relate to?

All right, I've got a, uh, longtime colleague who's a former school district administrator, and now he's in the financial world, and he said, hey, I read your book, and That King Arthur. I had no idea where you were going that. Oh my God, I love it. So lead like King Arthur. Most people are aware of the myth or the reality of who King Arthur is. Not sure if he's a myth or reality. Anyway, they're aware King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. So he had that round table where his trusted advisors, his leadership team in essence, would meet around that table and they all had a voice. He embraced the voice of his trusted advisors. That in essence is leading like King Arthur. Because he had diverse— well, as diverse as it could have been 2,000 years ago in England. But your goal as a leader should be diversity, not just to embrace the idea of diversity, which is a great thing, but to literally make the organization and you better. So the more diverse your organization is, the more diverse your team is, you're going to encounter points of view you may not have even known existed.. And you won't know that until you embrace those points of view your leaders may have.

Okay. And, but at the same time, I want you to elaborate on, because it's just so overused and beat up and whatnot nowadays, but help us all to really understand what diversity looks like. What does it mean to be diverse?

Sure. It's very easy to think Black and white. Let's talk about race. That's part of it. But we're also talking ethnicity. We're talking gender. We're talking age. Shedding the corporate bitch goes right back to the gender. The more diverse, whether it's in age, experience, because those are different things. Somebody could be new to the profession but older than you. So age, experience, ethnicity, diversity, socioeconomic status, where they grew up, everything that makes us unique. That's what you're looking for in a team. Because when I— and I've been leading like this my entire life— when I've engaged other leaders and discovered the way they think, it's helped me make better decisions, or our collective decision that we've had to make is better because conceptually it sort of becomes an average of all of our points of view.

Yes. Yeah. And have you found in your work that it's even, it's even more powerful to intentionally go and look for people who have different beliefs, either one, even like beliefs and viewpoints and opinions that you don't agree with, just so you can ensure that you have a full breadth of understanding.

Absolutely, because you could be set in your opinion on something— notice I said opinion— and they've got them, theirs, that is the exact opposite. They think they're right. You've got to figure out the reason why they think they're right, because it may be something you've not thought of before. I encounter that all the time, like, huh, I never thought about that before. I used to work in public schools, and as a principal and then as a superintendent, I would encounter philosophical discussions about athletics, about things I never even thought of before. And here are coaches, athletic directors, parents, other administrators having this very provocative discussion about things that I'm like, I've never even thought about this stuff before, let alone have an informed point of view.

Yeah.

So there's a prime example. I became better because I embraced the voice of those I led who had had those experiences, and that helped me form my own opinion, my own ideas.

So why, why do you find through your work there are so many lead managers so-called leaders that can't get beyond, you know, kind of their own stubbornness and their own points of view and not be open and inclusive and diverse in that way? What is holding them back in doing that?

Sometimes it's ego, but sometimes it's ego set up by the context of the institution, because I grow up in an institution and I get promoted along the way. And it's always been that the managers say it, I'm just following that. I don't know anything different. Or I'm an outsider coming in to lead. Well, they must have hired me for a reason. I know what I'm doing. And these people who are internal don't, right? But for those in security too, quite honestly, security, like, I'm supposed to be leading, how can I profess ignorance about a topic when I'm supposed to know everything? And there I'm the go-to person for answers. So all that rolled in, as many, we could get 10 people in the room who display that quality and we'd probably get 10 different answers. But it all comes back to ego, the expectations of the organization, insecurity. And that's our main focus with my book and a lot of the presentations and trainings we do. It's let's help people lead with confidence. And that goes right back. We talked a little bit before the show started, shedding the corporate bitch, goes right back to that. So many people act in a manner that is not normal for them because most people don't want to be a bitch or another 4-letter word, right? They don't wake up in the morning and say, hey, how can I be nasty to people? But they fall into a role that's either expected or they're so vulnerable and insecure or lacking confidence that the only thing they can do is lash out to domineer, if you will, over those they're leading. Yeah.

Now, I do want to— I do want to put a little spin on what you just said, because there are people— I was one of them. Who did intentionally wake up and say, okay, so who can I go and, you know, create chaos and fear and insecurity and diminish them and make them feel small? And I knew, kind of, you know, you attract who you are, right? And I knew others that were like that, male and female. And so, um, don't be— let's— I mean, just for everyone listening and watching, don't be blind to the fact that there aren't people who intentionally go out and do that. Not that it's right or that anybody should, um, but they do. And that is why, you know, that— yeah, and that is why what you're working on and what you're doing and what you're training and teaching is just so powerful. So what have you found to be the approach that you need to take in addressing King Arthur? And I, and I know we wanted to also talk about, um, taking care of your people. But what is the approach that you would take to get someone to really kind of be a King Arthur and to look for that diversity?

It's— it starts with the hiring process. I mean, I did— I do a lot. I, I think I mentioned I've got two companies, but one of the companies is a consulting company. We deal with compensation systems, and we can help clients create and build systems that ensure compensation equity, which is huge. It's unfortunate that the pay gap was— the decrease in the pay gap was sort of stopped by COVID, and it's sort of become stagnant, but it's still there. Let's get to a point where, you know, 10 years from now we say, what's a gender pay gap? Nobody knows what we're talking about. Or the DEI goals that exist— it's great that people have them, it's unfortunate that people have them. Yes, because we got in that situation. So it starts with proper hiring, and you've got to examine all your hiring practices. You've got to go where the candidates who are diverse, where they are. If you routinely post on Indeed, maybe that's too broad and you're not drawing in people because people are going to search on your website and see a bunch of white males leading your company. Well, geez, whatever. But if you go to traditionally Black colleges and universities, those have job postings. There are other organizations that cater to people of color for job posting. So even if you've got an internal application system, you can at least post there, point them back to your internal. Go to DiversifyJobs.com, go there if you're looking for diversity. There's some that are focused on women, go to those. If you're looking for— don't do the same thing because you keep doing the same thing, you're gonna get a bunch of guys like me, middle-aged white guys.

Sure. So how, how about those, you know, existing, you know, leaders out there who are very close-minded, very old school, very traditional, very biased? What, what, how does your work really kind of help to shift and transform them?

So we started with hiring. Now it's the hard part of changing the mindset of those once people are hired. Now what? Well, you've got to have processes in place to give the equal opportunity to everybody. You've got equitable representation in all facets of your organization, which would include ultimately your leadership team. If 40% of your workforce is of a certain demographic, well, 40% of your leadership team should probably be the same as that. There's the goal, but it goes back to working with the individual leaders or teams. To have them understand what leading confidently means. It's not about giving up power. It's not about professing ignorance or showing people you're weak. It's about becoming a better leader. And if their ultimate goal is to be a better leader and make their organization better, we help them see the light in regard to embracing diversity because that is going to help them be better individually and the organization.

Love it. Absolutely love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. All right, King Arthur. Yes, love that, love that.

Before we go on, I'm gonna spare you the— I have, uh, Excalibur tattooed on my back about 2 feet tall. I'm gonna spare you that one.

Thank you very much, Dan.

You're welcome.

Okay, so we talked about be a buffalo, we talked about King Arthur. So you mentioned the other tenet of take care of your people. I love this one, and, you know, I, I'd go into it, but we don't have time. I love this one, so help us dig in deep to it.

I love it too. That's why I can stand on stage and talk about it for hours. I absolutely love taking care of people. It's one of my personal values that I hold dear, and it comes in so many shapes and sizes. I was talking to an executive director of a nonprofit about a year ago, and he— 42-person organization, and he's like the only C-suite level person. He's running everything. And he said, well, what's leadership? And I went into it. He was sinking in his chair. Like, how do I do this? I said, dude, it's simple. You already told me some things that you're already doing. For example, although they didn't have team leads, he designated some people who were reputable enough within the organization to be on his leadership team, even though they weren't in leadership positions. So I said, you meet with them every 2 weeks. Start every meeting with talking about wins and accolades. Something is going on here that's going great, or else you wouldn't be in existence. So celebrate that. I said, I know you've— they happen to run a coffee shop as part of their nonprofit. I said, I know you have great employees out front as baristas because I bought a cup of coffee in here. Not only was the dude great and nice, he gave me exactly what I— he tried to upsell me. So I said, I know that's what you wanted him to do. So it was a Tuesday. I said, Friday when you walk past him, consciously think about what could I do to make somebody's day today. 'Hey, I know you're doing a great job. You're upselling people. Keep up the great work.' That's it. It may have taken you 7 seconds as you're passing the counter Friday morning. I said, 'So these are not something to make you feel like, oh my God, I've got something else to do. These are just a way to approach things.' And he was a good reminder when I was talking to him that so many small business owners and leaders of smaller, 50 people or less, organizations, they've got so many tasks on their day-to-day list that they forget about the people they are leading.

Oh, we could talk about that for hours. Yes, we could.

So it's not earth-shattering, but when people read that and think about it, hear me talk, we talk about how it could come to life in their context. They're like, oh, it's a—

it's—

for most, it's a good reminder. For some, it's like, oh yeah, I should be taking care of them, hadn't thought about that, right? So what I do on LinkedIn every Friday, I do the Spread the Love post. I've been doing Spread the Love for the last 15 years. I'd be out wandering amongst the people on Fridays, and it was to get a pulse of things, to talk to people, but it was to take care of them. At times I would call them wander aimlessly wandering around, but in essence I was taking care of them by spreading love, making people feel good, engaging with them about their weekend plans, seeing how their week went, that type of thing. So spread the love under the guise of take care of your people is important to me also because that's on this arm. Whoops.

Spread the love. Oh my gosh, he has a tattoo on his other forearm, spread the love. That is awesome.

So I, I hold it dear. It's important. Maybe it's note cards. Maybe you have a leadership team meeting every month or every week for an hour. Throw some blank note cards on the table, said, hey, while we're meeting today, there's some blank note cards, send some notes of appreciation out to some. Because I know you've seen We just talked about accolades and people doing great things. Send out a note card. It doesn't take any more time. They can do it during the meeting and it's going to pay huge dividends. That's a baby step. It's got nothing conceptually to do with leading like King Arthur or being the buffalo. You could just do that one thing to become a better leader tomorrow.

Yeah. And like you said, it's not difficult. It could be 7 seconds as you're walking down the hallway and you might see somebody and you just figure out how you can make their day better.

Yeah. And maybe contextually you don't have— you can't cross paths with that person. Maybe that person doesn't like the personal contact.

All right.

Email them, text them, right? Send them a handwritten note.

Yeah.

There's 4 different ways to address the same thing. And it's going to take you, if it's a handwritten note, maybe 1 minute out of your week.

I have to— I have to tell you, I was just on a call earlier And she was talking about how the biggest impression her new CEO has made on her is the fact that she's noticed that her— that the CEO writes handwritten notes. And she happened to be talking about somebody that, you know, that they wanted to hire and the person turned it down. And the CEO turned around and wrote a handwritten note to ask her why and to let her know why she would want her to come. I mean, that has left an impression for months on this one employee. And what a wonderful impression to leave, right?

Absolutely. When I'm— so you can, you can have a job out there and you get 100 people apply and then you end up maybe having 8 worthy of interview. So whoever I interview and don't hire, I call them and say, hey, thanks for coming in, you're not the right fit, good luck, etc. They sometimes— what'd I do wrong? And that's— so you don't avoid— well, you're you avoid getting yourself in trouble, but I just focus on the positive fit. So I did that about 4 years ago and I had a lady I had interviewed and I think she would've been a better choice, quite honestly. She sent me a handwritten note, "Thank you for the call. I really appreciate it. I want to work with you now more than I did before you interviewed me." So I'm like, "Oh, missed that one." Nice.

Yeah, yes, yes, yes. No, it is, that's why we could talk about this forever 'cause it can't be that difficult people to just take care of your people.

They're our most valuable asset. Without them, our organizations, our companies, our whatever, we're nothing. And if you've got disgruntled people, you're probably not going to be the best organization, right?

I really am disappointed that the, you know, the old mantra— I think it was like the '80s and '90s— around people are your number one asset, it was used so much that it got so watered down where it didn't mean anything. But yet today it just, it, you know, it needs to get resurrected because it means everything, especially with these, you know, younger up-and-coming professionals. They're looking for more meaning and purpose than what some of us accepted over the last several decades.

Yeah, they want to make a connection with their employer and they want to make a difference. They're simply requesting that that effort and that difference be acknowledged.

Yeah, yeah.

And they're not looking for, you know, markets— I'm just going to throw a number— markets this and I want $10,000 more. But if markets this and I'm delivering that, I don't care I'm 20 years junior to the person next to me. I'm delivering on the things you— that you want. This person isn't. I should be being paid more than that person is. And that's— that my other company, that's what we help employers do.

Agreed. Absolutely great. Okay, so I want to make sure that we touch on one other aspect of the work that you do, which I absolutely love, and that ties to, uh, Leading Like a Buffalo. And that is the fact that we all have skills and talents to make ourselves, uh, you know, already a powerhouse leader.

Yep.

Um, and yet, what's your stance on why that's so important to understand and believe within yourself?

I have spent my career thinking about two things that I thought were unrelated, but in hindsight they aren't. I was finding it hard to learn from other leaders because I couldn't find examples of good leadership that I could emulate. And I can't lead like other people do. Put those together. Well, that's why I couldn't learn from other leaders, because I see good leadership, but I can't enact— I'm not them. I can't do it like them. It doesn't mean I can't lead in a manner that's comfortable for me. So we encounter people all the time. My entire career, I've encountered people— we still do— that, oh, I've read this book and I've got these 12 steps to good leadership, I just have to follow them. Well, unless you're the author of those 12 steps, it's very difficult because you're not that person. That's why my book is— they're simple tenets. People— there's other ways to describe Lead Like King Arthur, but I, I use that phrase. It resonates with people and it's if nothing else, it's a good reminder. But you don't have to be Dan to do that. You could do that in a manner that is comfortable for you. You don't have to be me to lead. I can't be you to lead. So whoever you are, you are right for being that person.

Amen, brother. Amen. What would you leave our listeners and viewers with as far as what they could be doing today to really start moving toward leading like a buffalo?

Do not become inundated with the task in front of you, because good leaders will be the first to admit that it's a never-ending task. You can have literally nothing, nothing written down on your to-do list. It could be blank. Guess what? There's still leadership to be done. So don't get inundated with that. If you're in a leadership position, you literally always have something to to do. So take baby steps. Read my book, see the 9 tenets. Some are going to resonate with you. Some you will think immediately, oh, I could do this. Whatever it is, whether it's something from my book, this interview, or something else you encounter that's going to make you a better leader, do it. So we talked about taking care of your people. That is an easy one to do today if you're at the office still, or tomorrow when you get back to the office.

Absolutely.

Do it tomorrow. I guarantee you, you've recognized greatness in a coworker within the last week. Let that coworker know. There's a baby step in the right direction. Long term, you're talking about what policies and procedures do we have in place that need to be looked at that aren't necessarily employee friendly. Don't— you know, it's not about coddling and placating. It's about treating them well. So when you do have an opening and you want diversity, people like I'm begging to work with you. Please interview me. That's the idea you want to leave with people. Like, you'd be lucky to work with here, not because of the paycheck, because you will be— you will know when you get here, you'll be lucky. And that's what you want people— you want outsiders to say, I covet working with that organization.

Yeah, because I feel valued and important and included and acknowledged.

Yes.

Yeah, love it. I love it, love it, love it. Thank you so much. Like I said, Dan, we could talk for hours. I'm telling you, just that one tenet of taking care of your people. But thank you so much for being part of the program. I want to remind everyone, go to leadingbuffalo.com to learn more about Dan and the work that he's doing. But also make sure, get his book, get his book, The Power of Me Leadership. 9 Leadership Tenets for Every Leader. You can go to Amazon, of course, and you can go to tiny.cc/thepowerofmeleadership and pick up a copy. Um, Dan, thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun.

It's been great. Appreciate you immensely. Thank you very much for having me on.

You're very welcome. What a buffalo of a conversation, a powerhouse. Conversation with Dan Kopp of Leading Like a Buffalo. We covered so much around the tenets that make up a powerhouse leader, or leading like a buffalo. So he addressed kind of where did the buffalo come from, and then, and it's really all about addressing things that are in front of you. And as leaders, we can't ignore, avoid, delay, or or just kind of deflect. Uh, he went on to then, you know, really talk about the fact that as a buffalo, and to lead like a buffalo, we need to keep our emotions in check, have the information that is needed in order to really understand the situation at hand, and then lastly, to address it. Um, he went into the breakdown of his 9 tenets, but really we focused on three of those tenets: be a buffalo, King Arthur, as well as taking care of your people. And of course, uh, you know, we could spend hours talking about that last one, taking care of your people, and we spent a good amount of time doing just that. But I love how he really just emphasized how simple and easy, really easy yet powerful, that what it takes in order for you to just take care of your people. A smile, a thank you, a simple acknowledgment of what they did that week. He even gave an example that you could have every one of your leadership meetings kicking off and starting off with the wins of the day or the week or the month, whatever the case might be. You know, getting people more into thinking the positives and thinking the optimistic and the motivational and the inspirational than all the heaviness sometimes that comes with our, you know, day-in, day-out business activities. Um, he also— oh, we talked about how he himself— and you should check them out— he himself uses Spread the Love posts, which, um, he mentioned goes out on his LinkedIn profile every Friday afternoon. But, you know, a leader could do that, write a handwritten note was what his point, uh, but some way to be conscious and intentional about really taking care of your people. And of course, the King Arthur and the Be a Buffalo tenet he drilled into. But he has 6 other tenets that you can always pick up, um, in his book, uh, The Power of Me Leadership: The 9 Tenets of Being a Great Leader, uh, which you can find— I mentioned you can find on Amazon or you can even go to tiny.cc/thepowerofmeleadership. We talked about so much, but it was a great conversation. And he really just kind of concluded, you know, ended it with a conclusion that was all around that it's simple, that these things are general leadership tenets, that if you were to follow them, it would make all the difference, not only in your own own leadership, but those of the, of the people around you. It was a great conversation. So I would love to hear your comments or even your questions for myself or Dan. You can always go to LinkedIn @BernadetteBoas and let me know what your thoughts are. And maybe if you have a tenant or two that you would add to the list. But I appreciate so much you being here this week, and I look forward to having you right back here. Next week for another episode. Take care.