Episode 5 – Colin James – Followership, great leadership, and the power of learning

Have you ever thought of the idea of “followership?” Colin James has. A lot.

Today David speaks with Colin James, a passionate man who’s eager to impact people and make a difference in their lives. Colin hails from South Africa but lives in Sydney, Australia at the time of this recording. He enjoys the special feel of the city of Sydney and loves living there. The harbor has its own “magic” that inspires him. His office that overlooks the opera house and harbor.

David has lived in 11 different countries and has lived much of that time in a very impactful way, owning nothing, living a very minimalistic lifestyle. He literally lived out of a suitcase for much of that time. And growing up in South Africa he was confronted with the truth that his own actions had an impact on the justice and equality of the world around him. He considered becoming a priest and even studied the Jesuit perspectives for a time. In the end he came to believe that learning is where freedom comes from and began his exploration of followership, leadership, and how the two work together to increase knowledge and freedom in the world.

David and Colin discuss a wide-ranging field of topics but center it around leadership and what goes into making leaders good, bad, effective, or ineffective. Some of the most powerful insights come from their interaction about whether leadership can be learned or if it’s an innate trait, and why good leadership requires a brutal sense of self-honesty.

They wrap up the conversation discussing Colin’s intrigue with how learning impacts things like compliance, manipulation, and cultural progress and wrap up with a final mention of the Amplified Leaders conference on the Gold Coast of Australia where Colin will be one of the speakers alongside David and many others.

OUTLINE OF THIS GREAT EPISODE

* Getting to know Colin James

* The magic of Sydney Australia

* How anything that has “audacity” or boldness to it has an impact but is also opposed

* The power of perseverance in getting things that matter, done

* Colin’s journey: how he learned to live without while making a tremendous impact at the same time

* The importance of learning by experience

* Colin’s work in the area of “followership” and how it impacts leaders

* The definition of leadership in Colin James’ view

* Is leadership something that can be learned, or is it something a person is born with?

* Why leadership requires a sense of brutal self-honesty

* Self-sabotage and the temptation we have toward it

* Learning occurs in a place of disequalibrium

* The Amplified Leader’s Conference – http://amplifiedleaders.info

* Colin’s latest areas of study – followership, counter-cultural behavior, compliance, manipulation, and liberation

LINKS MENTIONED IN THE SHOW

http://amplifiedleaders.info

Book: “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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