Synopsis

If you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur, you know how difficult it can be to find the path to business leadership that works for you. Leadership styles are a dime a dozen, and no one has time to try every idea.

Being a leader doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are four steps that aren’t often talked about.

* Focus on solutions, not problems. Read The Solutions Focus by Mark McKergow if you haven’t yet.

* Collaborate with your team. Collaboration is a force multiplier.

* Be a culture champion. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. It’s never too early to think about this.

* Care about the success of others. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Leadership is about accomplishing more than people thought possible. Share the important factors in your own success in the comments.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of Episode 475 –

Priscilla:

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you today?

Ivan:

Hi. This week, I am back in LA visiting the regional office for Los Angeles. As most people probably know, we moved BNI headquarters from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Caroline. The global headquarters is now in Charlotte, and I have a local home office in Austin, Texas. But I am back in Los Angeles this week.

A lot of people don’t know that I spent 50 – 50, I know, sounds crazy. 50 years of my life in the Los Angeles area. So I have been there a long time. It is good to go back and visit.

Priscilla:

Yeah. It’s nice to go home. Not home but previous home.

Ivan:

Previous home. A lot of people don’t know this. This is way off subject but then I moved from Pittsburgh when I was six years old, moved from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I was born to South Central Los Angeles. I lived in South Central which is not one of the better neighborhoods in Los Angeles. I lived there for for about a year and then moved to Azusa. I grew up in the Azusa area.

I am back home.

Priscilla:

Good. Well, I grew up in LA also, since we are on the subject.

Ivan:

Whereabouts?

Priscilla:

Beverly Hills.

Ivan:

You were on the good side of the tracks. I was on the south side of the tracks.

Priscilla:

Yeah. That’s true.

Ivan:

Well, nice. Alright. We should talk about that offline. I want to hear about that.

Priscilla:

Anytime.

Ivan:

Alright. So today we are going to be talking about the path to business leadership. Last week, I shared with everyone a story about John Maxwell. I was really honored to receive the John Maxwell Award. John shared a story about his early days in learning leadership as a pastor and how he went about doing that.

It got me thinking about some of the key factors of leadership. If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, you know how challenging it can be to find the path toward leadership that works for you. With all of the information that is available to us online, leadership styles are like a dime a dozen and no one has the time or resources to try every idea.

So it is about getting back to the basics and understanding what things can improve your business. Being a leader doesn’t have to be complicated. You have heard the acronym Keep It Simple Silly or Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.).