164. 10 Ways to Create Meaning From Leadership

Foreign Kenny Chapman here, your host of leadership in a nutshell. Super, super pumped to be with you again this week. I'm just so honored, so blessed, so full of gratitude that you take a little bit of your hard earned time, attention and effort to spend it with me here. This week I'm going to be talking about 10 ways to create meaning from leadership. So we're all in these leadership roles and I just don't want Groundhog Day, baby. And, well, I'd say that check this. When I want Groundhog Day is when I'm just in a state of joy, bliss, happiness. Like, just regardless of what comes into my life, I set aside my personal preferences. I just lean into the enjoyment of life. Like, I'll take that as a Groundhog Day. What I don't want is a Groundhog Day of frustration, of pain, of struggle, of suffering, of trying to figure out, ah, I suck as a leader, what am I doing here? Da da, da, da. Right? So let's just take a step back. I'm going to do things a little different this week. You know, I like to change it up. We spend a little bit of time together every week. This week I'm going to break down 10 things. I've got 10 things I'm going to run through with you here today about how to create this meaning. Okay, so normally I don't do big lists. Sometimes, Yeah, I do four, five or six. But I've got 10 today. And here we go. So just take what you like, take what resonates with you at this moment in time, and maybe if you come back in a year from now and re listen, some others might resonate with you. But I just want to give you 10 that make sense to me. Not like overly deep, just kind of okay. When I'm thinking about creating meaning from leadership, these are the things that come to mind. Number one, establish clear purpose and values. I just beat this drum. And within the blue collar success group, obviously we've got tools around primary purpose and primary personal purpose, primary company purpose. I believe in primary divine purpose as well. Where we kind of create all these and tap into the divine and super consciousness and where we're, you know, what's really guiding us, what's leading us as leaders. When I can establish this, you know, this purpose and clear values and what this is all about, you know, that's freeing. Let's use that word. It's very freeing because now I know why I get up in the morning. I know what the kind of guidelines are. I'm a guy that used to say I didn't want any rules in my life. And then a mentor of mine pointed out that it would be an absolute mess if we didn't have stop signs and stop lights and speed limits. For some people, you know, you know who you are. I don't need a speed limit because I drive fast, I'm professionally trained and I, I'm a good driver. I'm not saying you're not a good driver. I'm just saying that, you know, if I have a high performance sports car, maybe I should be able to go a little faster than others. But, but I'm, I'm playing. But what I, what I do know is that when I have kind of these guiding values which act as like a little bit of, you know, I'm not a rule follower, but I am a value follower. I am a purpose follower. I am a divine intervention follower. And so I get meaning from that. When those are all in alignment in my leadership work, really, really great things happen. Number two, develop and empower others. Now you've got to work on yourself first. I'm going to get there before we hang up, so don't worry about that. But the real hang up. Do you hang up from a podcast or do you just hit stop or do I talking and you go on to the next thing on your autoplay? Anyway, I digress. I'm not standing holding the, the, the wall unit. I almost said cell phone telephone. Right? So the, I'll get to the, to the, the self part shortly. But when you're developing and empowering those around you, it just feels good, man. You don't, you know what I'm talking about? Doesn't it like you have a coaching session with a frontline team member and you just leave on fire. They leave on fire. You leave on fire. There's energy that, that transfers and it's just an incredible thing. So get meaning by doing that. Three, build strong relationships. It's tied to that, right? And, and everybody has their different kind of ways and times and, and I believe that that, that evolves and shifts throughout your career. Right. I, I, you know, I, I think about my buddy Gito Wickman that wrote the, the forward to my last book, this, the Blue Collar Success Laws. And he, he created eos and he wrote Traction and Rocket Fuel and all that. And you know, and Gino evolved as a leader and built this huge business and then he sold it and now he still speaks on it. But he's an incredible man. And now he's gone back to he Created a concept called the On. He wrote a book called the Entrepreneur Leap and he does some coaching and consulting about young brand new entrepreneurs. So he kind of took this path and he led all these executives and high level performers and all this. And he still does some of that. But now he went back to the root of like, what if I could shortcut some of that for brand new entrepreneurs? Right? And I see some of the same things in my own career. I did a lot of frontline work early on and then I've done some different, you know, different middle level leadership and then high level. Like I only currently work with high level executives. Either one. Well, I'm only very little one on one work now, very strategic and project based. And then I do some teamwork with leadership teams and my authentics group that I run and you know, so it's super high level where you're thinking about different things. Now as I say that I'll probably evolve back to some frontline work. I want to help entrepreneurs that get out of the military that have an entrepreneur mindset or leadership mindset. Different things. Let it evolve. But building strong relationships really matter. And every course in every way, when guess what? It takes two to build a strong relationship. So other people aren't always down for it. You just bring your very best every time. 4. Create a positive impact. And that you might go, well, duh, Kenny, obviously I'm going to create a positive impact. Are you though? Are you? Because when I look back at my career, there's been countless days, weeks, months and years that I wasn't so much creating a positive impact, ladies and gentlemen. I was out there doing the best I could. I was grinding, I was in victim. Mental world owes me something. Look how hard I work and I bust my ass and da da da da. Stop it. Get over yourself. Create a positive impact, Kenny Chapman. And that's what I focused on doing. And that's why we spend a little bit of time together here every week. Just, just create a positive impact. If I'm going to do something, I want it to make a difference in other people's lives in a positive way. Guess what? I've always made a difference in people's lives. It just hasn't always been in a positive way. 5. Embrace challenges and learn from failure. And so again, put failure in air quotes because there's no such thing. There's only results. And sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you get what you need and sometimes they intersect and you get what you want and need and you feel amazing. And you feel smart, you feel all powerful, and you feel like you're amazing and invincible. And then you get handed something that you need but you didn't want. And you get an opportunity to release and relax and work through that and realize, man, I'm just, just doing the best that I can and all those fun things that you get to do. But, you know, when you have challenges, when you have what the world calls failures, and I just call them experience, you know, you're either winning or you're learning. And so you're always winning. So just embracing those things because when you look back at your leadership career, every time that it's, quote, sucked, every time you've, quote, failed, every time it's been, quote, miserable, you're learning what you need to learn to go to the next level. And if you're feeling that now, if you're a little bit down, if you're a little bit depressed, depressed, if you have some anxiety, you're just being taught some lessons that you're ready to learn. And what I believe, my friend, is we're going to keep on being served the lesson. God's going to have his or her way and just keep on serving us that lesson we need to learn until we learn it. And then like a, like a video game as a child, I don't know the new video games, but I'd stand there and drop my quarter in and play. And when you learned what you needed to learn to win at a level, then you go to the next level. And that, my friend, is how leadership in life works. Number six, foster a culture of recognition and gratitude. Many of us as leaders are like, oh, I don't need the. I don't need the help. I don't need the gratitude. I don't need the acknowledgment. Nah. Liar, liar, pants on fire, right? Where did that come from? Anyway? I'll have to Google that after, after this show. But, you know, it's like, yeah, you know, everybody wants a little bit of recognition and gratitude. And you too, and you're doing it through, you know, how your team performs, what your KPIs look like. If you're, if you're at the high level, leadership level, perhaps income statement, responsibility and seeing how these things show up. You know, the lovely Christy and I are building a house right now at the time of recording. And, and we had a meeting with our builder recently. We mainly work with our designer and kind of project manager, but the actual builder himself, the GC came, came by this meeting and he Just popped in. He's like, oh, you guys are going to meet. I want to, I want to stop and see you guys. And, and we're like, what's this about? Why, why is he coming by? And he just came by the coffee shop where we were meeting and popped in and said, man, have you guys seen the back patio yet? And we're like, yeah, dude, it's. It's amazing. It's so like the back patio of our house, like the entire thing is a huge covered back patio. We have a built in outdoor fireplace in it. And he's like, he's like, oh my God. I walk out there and I'm just like, man, I want this in my life. And, and what was interesting is Christy and I know how to communicate with him and he, he needs that validation. He needs. And we're like, dude, it's amaz. Amazing. He builds tons of amazing homes in, in, in Scottsdale, in Chicago, and around the Venice, Florida area. And so it's like he doesn't need our validation, but he needed our validation. He wants a recognition. He wants feel good. And once we loved on him a little bit. He's like, okay, you guys got this. I'm out. And he bounced. He wasn't there 15 minutes and he just, he. People need this, my friends. And you lead up and you lead down, and you lead sideways and forward and backwards and everything in between. Remember that number seven. Reflect on your leadership journey. When you're creating meaning for yourself, look at where you came from. You'll often hear me reflect back on, you know, what type of leader I was. You know, I became an entrepreneur at 23. I had no idea. I got out of the United States military when I was 21. Right before my. No, right before my 22nd birthday. I'm sorry. Right before my 22nd birthday, I got out of the military. And by the time I was 20 or while I was 23, I went into business for myself and never looked back. I've never had a job since. And it's like I didn't know what I was doing. Don't tell anybody, but maybe I still don't. Maybe I'm just learning with what I've got now. And that's, that's what I believe. When you have that beginner's mind, which it is called by many people, including myself, like, I have a beginner's mind. I get up every day and I have a chance to learn. It's like I'm fresh out of the military today because I just got to learn something. You know, we just, just had our best event ever at blue Collar recently and we got to learn a lot from that and now we get to apply that and continue to learn and grow. That's what it's all about. Reflect on where you came from. Number eight, creating meaning, seek feedback and mentorship. You want to get. Here's the thing, whether you seek it or not, you're going to get feedback. Whether you pay attention to it or not is up to you. The world is going to give you feedback. Many people are going to experience more and more financial challenge over the next 18 to 24 months because they did not take the feedback that the economy, that the world, that whatever it was gave them when they leaned into the past, quote, recession, whatever that looked like. Right. And so now we have the, you know, whatever you, it doesn't matter if you want to label it, whatever you want to call it, things are changing externally from you and now whatever feedback you got. So if you have team and you're not asking for their feedback, they're giving it to you. They just might not be giving it to you directly. You're getting it through physiology, you're getting it through how they communicate with you. How about when you ask for it and you look for it and then you look for mentorship, you look for coaching, you look for help both up the ladder and down the ladder that creates meaning. Number nine, stay curious to open new experiences. That's what I was just talking about with the beginner's mind when you're staying open, like, man, this is new, this is different. Rather than, oh crap, this is new, this is different. See how we talk to ourselves? Like that's just the, the language that you use for yourself and those around you really, really matters. And so be mindful of that and go, man, this is new, this is different. I, I might not even have chosen this, but here's what I've got, here's where I'm at. So I'm going to lean in and I'm going to learn what I can. 10 and last and certainly not least, as I've seated it earlier, practice self care and maintain harmony. Easier said than done, perhaps. Here's the deal. Nothing happens without you. And you might think, and I know because I've been there, I'm going to run on the treadmill, I'm going to drink a lot, I'm going to just load myself with coffee for half of the day and alcohol the second half of the day and smoke weed to go to sleep. Or whatever. Like I'm just sharing some of my previous mos and this and that. And wherever you're at, there's no judgment. You're just doing whatever you're doing. But I'm telling you, when you focus on practicing self care, making yourself a priority, when you slow your mind down, when you take a few minutes, I don't care if you're not big on meditation. It's not just about meditation. I do meditation for mental freedom and spiritual freedom. But as I've realized throughout the day, when I take a few mindful moments and calm my mind, then I sleep better. And when you're in harmony, I use the word harmony instead of balance because balance can be a little bit challenging. There's times when the, the market is going to request for you to be out of balance. There's going to be time when your team is going to have, you know, you're going to have turnover, you're going to have things that happen where it's like, ah, all hands on deck to go, go, go, we got to do this. But then as soon as you get back to a state of homeostasis within the business now you've got to pull back and that's the harmony. So sometimes you're in it a little more, sometimes you're not, sometimes you're driving a little harder, sometimes you're not. But you're always in harmony back to that purpose and those core values and everything is flowing together and that is amazing, my friend. So there you go. 10 ways to create more meaning from your leadership. I want you to lean into this, I want practice this. We'll put it in show notes. Come back and listen if you want to Grab a couple of thoughts and I'd love to hear your feedback. Give us a like a rating, a review. Share this with somebody. I would be super honored as we continue to grow our community here. Just a few minutes a week, that's what we're doing. Leadership in a nutshell, this has been episode 164. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. So honored, so grateful, so blessed. You go make it a better than fantastic week and I'll see you next time. Thanks for being.