March 17, 2021

251: Warren Rustand — Tried and True Leadership Principles

51 minutes

Today’s guest is a legendary person in his own right and he’s out with a special new book about leadership. He lays down an actionable blueprint in this week’s episode on how to become the person you always wanted to be.

Warren Rustand is a visionary that has led many successful private, public, and not-for-profit entities. He has a passion for family, entrepreneurship, and community. Warren is the author of The Leader Within Us. He is also the Global Chair of WPO and the CoFounder and CEO of several companies.

Throughout Warren’s career, he has seen common principles and themes that great leaders exhibit. He has taken examples from his own life, like his father, all the way up to the present time on what some of these leaders have showcased.

The first principle in the book is clarity of vision. Leaders need to know how to communicate a clear vision to the team they’re leading if they hope to be followed. It’s a difficult thing to do, but Warren’s father would often paint a vivid picture of what the work would look like once it’s done.

Another lesson Warren learned from his father early on was the ability to start conversations with anyone. There are thousands of great stories out there and we need to be good listeners of these stories. There is a lot to learn from others, and as leaders, we need to be involved in things that expand our minds.

There are a lot of talkers out there, but leaders are people of action. Their philosophy is “do.” It comes naturally to them, but with that, there comes a lot of failure. And, that’s okay, because it’s part of the “doing” process. You went out there and tried when most people didn’t even get that far.

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