If you're a leader, you're the product

20 Feb 2023 · 1 min

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In this talk, Richard Milligan recounts a pivotal moment when a newly hired top salesperson began promoting the organization by directly quoting Milligan’s own values, vision, and why. Witnessing the salesperson act as a living embodiment of Milligan’s message made him realize that, as a leader, he himself is the product—not the company’s brand or offerings. This epiphany shifted his focus from polished corporate presentations to the need for crystal‑clear personal communication of who he is as a leader. Milligan argues that leaders must intentionally frame themselves as the product they sell, and he introduces the "Attractive Leader Framework" as a method for articulating and broadcasting a leader’s authentic identity, values, and vision to attract partners, employees, and customers.

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I hired a top salesperson in my market. He had been on board for about 3 days. He's on the phone. He's calling all of his partners and saying, this is why I joined the organization. And he was articulating my values, my why, my vision. It was literally, I mean, it was like he was quoting the things that I had said to him in the meetings to these people that were his referring partners. And that was a big moment for me to go, oh my gosh, I'm the product. It's not the company. And for over a decade, I had this beautifully crafted presentation about how awesome our company is. And then in a moment I go, that's it. And I went all in there to say, I got to figure out how I more clearly communicate who I am as a leader. People always move towards clarity of communication. So you need to clearly communicate who you are as a leader in this, but you are absolutely the product as a leader. So you've got to frame yourself as such. And then we call that the Attractive Leader Framework.