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4 Foundational Principles of Leadership with Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask
There’s no perfect way to lead, but there’s a good way, and these four foundational principles lay the groundwork for long-term success as a leader.
The Ready to Lead Podcast is the show that gives you—the leader—the tools, tips, and insights you need to grow your team, your company, and yourself. In this second episode, hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask dive into their philosophy of leadership.
“As we start on this journey together,” Richard says, “we can’t move forward until we break down what leadership means to us. What is the lens through which we’ll view every conversation we have?”
Leaders have different leadership styles; Jeff and Richard are classic examples of that. There’s no one right way to lead. But no matter your personality, there are foundational principles that should undergird your leadership if you want to lead well and sustain results.
Four Foundational Principles of Leadership
These are the foundational principles every leader needs to be aware of and cultivate—and in this particular order.
- Mindset
- Culture
- Communication
- Trust
Mindset is how we think, how we process the world, how we look in the mirror, how we talk to ourselves, our motives. Culture is there whether you like it or not, whether it’s toxic culture or accidental culture or an intentional culture. Communication that’s consistent and clear is how we help our team see the vision of the company the way we see it. And trust is the foundation that holds everything together. If there’s no trust between a leader and the team members, everything falls apart.
On top of that foundation, we build leadership pillars: creating clarity, growing people, managing constraints, and driving results. These things don’t get done if we don’t lay that foundational framework from the beginning.
Why Mindset Has to Go First
It all starts with mindset. Peter Drucker, one of the greatest leadership and business minds of all time, has a book called Managing Oneself. You have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and have the EQ to acknowledge those, make peace with those, and build teams around those.
You may be thinking, if it starts with mindset, how do I know if my mindset is strong? Jeff likes to focus on the motive. When it comes to leadership, what’s your motive for leading? He has a lot of people coming to him saying they want to lead. He asks them, “Are you sure? Why? Before you answer, I want you to think about it, process it for a couple days. Get really clear. Why do you want to lead?”
Very often people want to lead because they want more power, more money. They want to move up, climb the ladder, feel the progress and achievement. Those can be fine, but if your deepest motive isn’t developing, growing, and serving people, leadership will be very draining and difficult for you.
When our motives are more about others and less about ourselves, then our mindset can be way more powerful and sustain us through the growth that inevitably comes when we lead. Be clear on your motive for leading, and your mindset will be in a solid place.
From Mindset to Culture to Communication to Trust
Mindset—and your awareness of it—creates culture, then enables communication and trust. If we miss mindset, we’re in trouble, because it controls everything else. We can’t skip over it. Oftentimes we create toxic cultures because of our...
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By Scalable Media Network
4.9
4040 ratings
There’s no perfect way to lead, but there’s a good way, and these four foundational principles lay the groundwork for long-term success as a leader.
The Ready to Lead Podcast is the show that gives you—the leader—the tools, tips, and insights you need to grow your team, your company, and yourself. In this second episode, hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask dive into their philosophy of leadership.
“As we start on this journey together,” Richard says, “we can’t move forward until we break down what leadership means to us. What is the lens through which we’ll view every conversation we have?”
Leaders have different leadership styles; Jeff and Richard are classic examples of that. There’s no one right way to lead. But no matter your personality, there are foundational principles that should undergird your leadership if you want to lead well and sustain results.
Four Foundational Principles of Leadership
These are the foundational principles every leader needs to be aware of and cultivate—and in this particular order.
- Mindset
- Culture
- Communication
- Trust
Mindset is how we think, how we process the world, how we look in the mirror, how we talk to ourselves, our motives. Culture is there whether you like it or not, whether it’s toxic culture or accidental culture or an intentional culture. Communication that’s consistent and clear is how we help our team see the vision of the company the way we see it. And trust is the foundation that holds everything together. If there’s no trust between a leader and the team members, everything falls apart.
On top of that foundation, we build leadership pillars: creating clarity, growing people, managing constraints, and driving results. These things don’t get done if we don’t lay that foundational framework from the beginning.
Why Mindset Has to Go First
It all starts with mindset. Peter Drucker, one of the greatest leadership and business minds of all time, has a book called Managing Oneself. You have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are and have the EQ to acknowledge those, make peace with those, and build teams around those.
You may be thinking, if it starts with mindset, how do I know if my mindset is strong? Jeff likes to focus on the motive. When it comes to leadership, what’s your motive for leading? He has a lot of people coming to him saying they want to lead. He asks them, “Are you sure? Why? Before you answer, I want you to think about it, process it for a couple days. Get really clear. Why do you want to lead?”
Very often people want to lead because they want more power, more money. They want to move up, climb the ladder, feel the progress and achievement. Those can be fine, but if your deepest motive isn’t developing, growing, and serving people, leadership will be very draining and difficult for you.
When our motives are more about others and less about ourselves, then our mindset can be way more powerful and sustain us through the growth that inevitably comes when we lead. Be clear on your motive for leading, and your mindset will be in a solid place.
From Mindset to Culture to Communication to Trust
Mindset—and your awareness of it—creates culture, then enables communication and trust. If we miss mindset, we’re in trouble, because it controls everything else. We can’t skip over it. Oftentimes we create toxic cultures because of our...