85: From Solo to CEO - 7 Leadership Skills that Matter

Now, along with being able to cast the vision, I think hand in hand goes with the ability to be transparent. You know, not trying to cover anything up or pretend things are better than they are if they're not. You know, really keeping your team in the loop about any changes that are coming and whether they're good or bad. Just being transparent about what's happening behind the scenes as much as you can be, just so that there's a lot of trust there. I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people, people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast. It's Tuesday, which means this is a shorty episode. I don't know if you've noticed that Tuesdays are typically my shorter episodes. Thursdays are more of our full episodes. And today I actually just want to talk to you about a question that got asked to me in my math mastermind, and it was such a great question. It made me really pull back and think about my answer. And I made some notes while I did it. And so I just want to kind of open up and share with you about it. So someone in my mastermind basically just asked if I could speak to my own growth and shift as a leader to my team, say since the very beginning when it was just me or just me and one other person, the person who asked this has a vision for what they want to be like as a leader, but feels like, you know, they're really trying to step into that role. And so she asks, did it feel bumpy along the way to get people aligned? And my goodness, can I resonate with this question? And so today I want to share with you seven things that I think make a great leader. Things that I'm currently working on expressing in my own leadership style. But also before we get to those seven things, just say, absolutely. I feel This I actually never really saw myself as someone who would lead a team. I saw myself as an entrepreneur and very much leading my community, leading my students, leading my members, leading, you know, these bigger kind of audience live calls and things like that. But I think true leadership is when you are intimately leading a small team of people. You have people who are underneath you, reporting to you, working for you, and looking to you when things get hard or sticky. And so this, for me, was one of those big kind of growth spurts. Like, I was leading a team before I actually realized that I was leading a team. I woke up one day and I'm like, I'm leading a team. I better figure out how to be a leader. And for me, this didn't really come natural. Meaning I make so many mistakes. I've made so many mistakes, and I continue to make mistakes, and I will make many mistakes in the future. But so it's not that I figured all of this out, but it is something that has been my top priority for the last two or three years, and I suspect that it will continue to be a top priority for really ever. I just got a new book today on leadership that I can't wait to dive into. And so it's always at the forefront of my mind. How can I lead a team well? How can I lead my community well, and my audience well, my members well, my students well? You know, how I feel about leadership reminds me of how I feel about gardening. You know, I looked up to these other people who gardened beautifully and easily, like my grandmothers. Both of them were incredible gardeners. And to me, it just didn't come naturally. It was very difficult. Lots of things died. Lots of things got eaten up by bugs. Lots of things I planted at the wrong time, or they died when I tried to transplant them, or I wasn't sure when to start them. And just very slowly, year over year, I learn a little bit more. And it's not a lot. It's just a little. I learn a little bit more. I have failures and I have successes. And I take that as I move forward into the next year and try to. To do better. And that's how I feel about leadership. It doesn't necessarily come natural, but it is something that I'm passionate about and it's okay to kind of grow slowly into this. So without further ado, I'm going to share seven things that I've been working on that I think make a great leader. And then at the end, I'm going to share some books with you. That I've read over the last couple of years that have been really a tremendous help in my journey. So, number one is decision making. I think a sign of a great leader is one who's able to make decisions quickly and confidently when they really need to. And sometimes as leaders, it can be easy to get overwhelmed, get decision fatigue, and oftentimes find ourselves just kind of circling the drain. And if we're not careful, we can bring the people, people that are around us into that overwhelm, you know, alongside us, and then we're all just circling the drain together. And I do this sometimes, but I also recognize how important it is. Like, at the end of the day, you're the one who makes the call. You're the one who has to be able to make the decision. And so being able to make a decision and stand confidently in it is really important. Now, on the flip side to that, I think it's also really important to be decisive, but also flexible, meaning, as important as quick decisions are, I think it's really important to be able to pivot when maybe you have some new information that's been presented to you. So not being so stuck in a decision and not having any ego involved in that decision, you made a decision, maybe now you're getting new information, and so you pivot and you're flexible with that decision if you need to be. Now, number two is casting a vision. I think maybe the most important part of being a leader is our ability to clearly cast a vision for what we're doing and most importantly, why we're doing it. This is one of the biggest ways to really get the people who are around you aligned with your mission. And so oftentimes we may feel like, well, don't they see where we're going? Don't they know my vision? And really, they don't. And honestly, it's probably because you haven't told them. But also, I think we get caught into assuming that other people see things the same way that we do, and that's not necessarily accurate, because you are the entrepreneur. You're the entrepreneur because you have the vision, and it's wrong to assume that other people automatically have that as well. So being able to articulate clearly the why and the what of a vision, where you're going and why you're going there, and it really brings everyone up to speed and inspired in order to do it alongside you. Now, along with being able to cast the vision, I think hand in hand goes with the ability to be transparent, you know, not trying to Cover anything up or pretend things are better than they are if they're not. You know, really keeping your team in the loop about any changes that are coming and whether they're good or bad. Just being transparent about what's happening behind the scenes as much as you can be. Just so that there's a lot of trust there. Number three is around shared goals. And so one of the things that we do on the team is that we meet with everyone individually each quarter and we talk about our goals for the upcoming quarter. This is actually tied to some performance bonuses that we give as well. But we really pause each quarter to come together with everyone and talk about the goals that they have for their work for the next quarter. And they get feedback from me around those goals. And honestly, it's a. It's a great. Just pause to make sure that not only are we all thinking about the goals, you know, we're slowing down to really think about where we want to go, but collectively that we're all kind of rowing the boat in the same direction. I think without these quarterly check ins, it would be pretty easy for us to just kind of go into our own ways and potentially pop our heads up at the end of the year and feel like, oh, we, we didn't really, we weren't really all going in the same direction. So this is one way that really helps that. Similarly, number four is a culture of feedback. Now, this is something fairly new for us, and I, I learned it from Dan Martell in a book called Buy Back youk Time. And so what we want to do is very much create a culture of feedback where feedback is encouraged, it's listened to, and it's acted upon. We've always been working on communication and being really clear with our ability to communicate with each other. But something that we implemented the last time that we had our quarterly goal meetings was feedback. So I would give some feedback to the person I was meeting with on something that they could do better and also something that I was really loving that they were doing really well. And then they got the chance to do that with me. They gave me feedback on something that I could do better and also something that they saw and appreciated that I was doing. And it was a little nerve wracking going into it. And then it ended up being our favorite part of the whole process. Honestly, there were no surprises. Even the, you know, difficult feedback that we were giving each other often came with a chuckle from the person receiving it because they said, you know, yeah, I could have, I could have told you that you didn't even need to tell me that I already knew that I could improve in this area. And so it's just really powerful to be able to say that back and forth and let people know that you are thinking about feedback, you're open to it, and you're also willing to make changes. Number five is recognition. I think it's so incredibly important to just slow down long enough to really recognize the work of the people who are on your team who are helping you. Some ways that we do this are we have a teammate of the week, so we kind of have a moment to think about someone on the team who's really just delighted and excelled, and we praise them and give them, you know, virtual hugs and high fives on our weekly momentum meeting. But something that we did just today in our momentum meeting was something a little bit different. And it's something that I picked up from a mastermind that I was in last week, and it was this. Each person had just a few moments to take a turn and say one thing that they wanted to be recognized for and one person that they wanted to recognize as well. So, in other words, one thing that they had done that they were really proud of that they wanted recognition for, and then one person on the team that they wanted to celebrate that they wanted to recognize in return. And it also ended up being one of my favorite things, because sometimes you. You might not even know what people are doing that they're really proud of. And, you know, it is a little funny to have people brag on themselves, but permission to brag, what are you doing that you're really proud of? And I thought I knew the answers to all of them, but a couple of people surprised me and really talked about something that they're doing that they're so proud of. And I had so much fun listening to it all. And then, of course, it always feels good to just praise someone else, something that they have done as well. Number six is ownership. So I'm going to talk about this in two different ways. Number one, taking ownership over things like mistakes, things that you've done that maybe you didn't do correctly, or, you know, anytime you just need to take ownership for it, admit to it, you know, tell us how you're going to make it better and not do it again sort of thing. And. But another way is being able as a leader to give ownership to your teammates. And we talk about levels of delegation. So we have five levels of delegation. We learn this from Michael Hyatt. It goes from level one which is do exactly what I say, how I say it, and let me know when you've done it. All the way up incrementally to level 5, which is complete ownership. You own this. You don't need to report back to me. I trust you. You. Right. And so that level five is something that's really kept for the people who you trust the most on your team who have proved proved themselves over and over again. And it's, you know, speaking of recognition, like, it's something that I'm actually quite proud of. Like, I got to a place where I can give people complete ownership over things that I used to really want complete control of myself. And so, for instance, I just brought a few members of the team together about a month ago. I cast the vision for this incredible new project that we're working on. Tease, tease. I can't wait to share it with you. And I also transferred complete ownership. You know, I made sure everyone was on board, they understood, they were excited about it. And then I said, it's yours. Take it and run with it. You know, you're. You're in charge of everything, down to the timeline and the deadlines. And that has been really amazing, not only as a leader, but it also really empowers the people on the team to have ownership over things that they're doing. It makes them feel like an entrepreneur within your business, and it really makes the work way more fulfilling for them. And then finally, number seven, I would say, is all about taking care of your team. You know, I did an episode on our team handbook recently. If you want to take a look at the perks and benefits that I give people on Team Bonnie, you can go back and listen to episode number 71. But this point from a leadership perspective is just really about taking care of your people, seeing them as the whole people that they are, knowing that they need flexibility, knowing that they need to prioritize their health and their family and have some time off and, you know, really disconnect from your business. Meaning, like, when you're off, you're off. We don't. You checking in and. And feeling like you have to check in on the weekends or anything like that. And then also prioritizing things like continued education and a learning budget and just really taking care of your people. Because truly, I couldn't do what I do today without them, you know, my business five, eight years ago, okay, I could continue to run that, but we've grown significantly in a way that helps me impact many, many more people. And I do that without my team. And so I want to do everything I can to really take care of them and make sure they know that I. I see that and I appreciate it so much. You know, together we are able to make such a much bigger impact. So a couple of books that I've read that have helped along the way. The first one is called Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Now, Jocko was a Navy seal. He's known for his writing and extreme ownership. Him applying the lessons that he learned at war and applying them to business. And in a nutshell, it's about how to. How to take extreme ownership over everything you do and every outcome. But it really is an amazing book on leadership. Now, this one, I know everyone has their different preferences. I go back and forth between reading like a paper book and listening. And I will say that I loved listening to Extreme Ownership because Jocko used. Uses quite a lot of, like, Navy SEAL language. Like, you'll. You'll be reading, like, names of artillery equipment and stuff. And I found that it tripped me up. Like, it was a little bit difficult for me to read. It's not, you know, difficult to understand. It was just a slower read. And so I actually preferred to listen to it. He reads it himself and he's an amazing author to listen to. So I recommend that one on Audible. The next one was Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. I cannot begin to tell you how much we took from this book and implemented it on our team. So many golden nuggets. If you read one book, I would suggest this one, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. I also love a book called Lead Like It Matters. That one's by Craig Groeschel and it really talks about, you know, having that thing that leaders really want on their team. You know, that. That it. Thing. Like, they've got it. What is it, how do you get it, and how do you make sure you hold on to it? And so that's a great one. Again, that's by Craig Groeschel. And my journey is not over. Like I said, I just got a new book today on leadership that I'm going to dive into, and I'll. I'll. I'll let you know what it is if I end up recommending it. Buy Back youk Time by Dan Martell was also a great. Tons of great takeaways about leading a team in that one. So even if it's just you or only maybe one more person that's helping, I think it is beneficial to think about how you would become a leader if your business got to the size that you needed more and more help if you needed a team. I wish that it was something that I would have given more thought to before I found myself, like, needing to get on the fast track to leadership. And like I said, it's a long journey. I'm far from from perfect, but I'm enjoying every step. And I'll see you next time right here on the Professional Creative, my friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you. Bye for now.