How to Lead Without Charisma | 4 Minutes with Jim Collins

Good morning, Believe Nation!

Today's message is leadership is not personality. Over to you, Jim Collins.

I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.

One thing we have to be very clear on is that leadership is not personality. Some leaders do have charisma, but a lot of the very best leaders that we studied in the course of history had what I might call a charisma bypass. And they are not people who would jump across a table at you. Some of them can be almost strange in their behavior. Some of them can be magnetic in their behavior. Some of them can be harsh and abrasive in their behaviors. And when you look at all that, you say, well, wait a minute, leadership is not personality. And in fact, if you're highly charismatic, That's not necessarily a positive. Because the critical thing we found about how people engage with a leader is not about this external stuff. That's really pretty irrelevant. It has to do with the answer to a simple question. Why are you in it? Are you fundamentally doing something that's about you? Or are you trying to build something great, to accomplish something great, to build great products, or whether to be a— build a great company, or to change a bunch of kids' lives in a school or to accomplish a mission in Afghanistan. I mean, if it's fundamentally about you as a leader, why should anybody give themselves over to what you're trying to do? But if it's fundamentally that you're channeling your ego into a cause or a company or a set of work or something that you're trying to accomplish that is not about you, that's when people will sign up.

[Speaker:MALE SPEAKER] So what do you think?

I think there's a lot of truth in what he said in his message. You know, at first when I was watching the clip, I was like, "What? What's this guy talking about? Of course, you know, there are natural-born leaders. Of course, being a strong value-based leader is something that you're born with. It's personality-based." And I totally disagreed with him until like halfway through the clip, and then I was like, "Ah, I get what this guy is saying." And then by the end, I was like, "Yeah, it has nothing to do with personality." Because if you have a set of values, if you have a goal, if you If you live outwardly, if your mission is bigger than you, then of course you'll get people to follow. If you're someone who doesn't like to speak, if you're an introvert, if you, if you are an extrovert, if, if no matter what your personality is, if you're trying to do something bigger than you, people will follow. They'll get on board.

I think entrepreneurs, we tend to look at super successful entrepreneurs who are in the media and feel like I need to be like them to be successful. You may look at Steve Jobs and say, "Well, he's so charismatic," or look at Oprah and she's so charismatic and feel like, "Oh, I'm an introvert, I'm not charismatic, I can't be successful like them," or, "I need to be like them and I need to force myself to be someone I'm not to have success." Where if you look at the billionaires, right, if you take out all the people who've inherited wealth and the ones who've just become wealthy because of entrepreneurship, a lot of them you couldn't name. Like, a lot of them would not be recognizable names to you. Because there's a lot of different ways to build a business, and the ones that stand out are the ones who are using their voice because they're really good at it, right? You know Oprah because she's using her strength, her voice, to be a leader. But there's a lot of people you've never heard of who use their introverted leadership skills to be successful as well. And so for me, the key message is you want to be yourself, right? I mean, you're building a business to do something that you want to be proud of. You're building it for your community and not just for your own ego. But to go all in on your strengths. And if you are an outgoing, extroverted person, then be that. But if you're introverted and analytical and detail-oriented, then go all in on that and don't try to be someone who you're not, because if you try to do that, then you won't have success.

One thing I'd just quickly add is when we look at other people, we're seeing the veneer, we're seeing the outside, we're seeing what they put into the world. We don't see their heart, we don't see their mind, we don't see their fears or challenges. So when you're living you. When you're being yourself, you're putting yourself out there. It's best not to compare yourself against all those people who seem so good at things, but we're not in their mind. We don't really understand what they're working through day to day.

I love it.

So the question of the day today is, what's the one area of leadership that you want to work on?

Leave in the comments below. We'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and we'll see you again tomorrow morning for another Shot of InSpresso. I wake up every morning, InSpresso keep me going.