Connie James is the CFO at Scientific Games and has a lot of lessons learned from navigating COVID in 2020.

Highlights from this episode:

"To be able to pivot well during change, communication is critical." 

"If you are frustrated with your team right now, take some time actually to get to know your colleagues." 

"Talk about nonwork-related things.- Connie James  "I'm a big believer that you have to focus on things you can control."

"A lot of people become focused on what is that next step. My counsel to them is to have a little patience but be absolutely excellent at what you do."-                            

"Even in the darkest of moments, there is often opportunities to turn those into a positive."

Check out ryanleak.com/followership for more episode show notes.

Brandon Barkley is the Player Relations Manager for the Dallas Mavericks. He has some unique insights as to what it takes to be a great follower.

Highlights from this episode:

"When having to pivot or adjust plans on the fly, it is best to go into the situation having had already visualized all possible solutions or scenarios, so you are prepared."

"When speaking with your boss or manager, you have to exude confidence."  

"When you exude the confidence that you are taking control of your job and everything you handle is taken care of, there is  less micromanagement and lack of confidence from management."  

"Carrying your organization or company's culture well is the most crucial thing a follower can do."

Nick Nilson is the Associate Pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston, TX. He's had a unique and interesting journey following one of the most influential voices of our time, Joel Osteen. 

Highlights from this episode:

"Ask great questions, be prepared, and be concise."  

"Earning your leader's trust allows you to gain authentic favor with them." 

 "If you do your job really well and you do your job really well for a good period of time. I think it gains the attention of not just your manager, boss, the president of the organization, but also your peers. It just earns you great respect in your organization."  

" Big leaders want to be around fun people who lift the room."   

"People admire perfection, but they can't relate to it."

Take-Aways:

Knowing what questions to ask helps you understand your leader.   

Consistency and faithfulness are characteristics in followers that stand out to leaders.   

To be successful, it is essential to kill pride, be vulnerable, listen more, and slow down.  

Be a follower who comes with solutions, not problems.  

You can be doing things for God, and God does not want you to be doing them. 

We must discern the difference between a good opportunity for the kingdom and a God-ordained opportunity.

Show notes can be found at ryanleak.com/followership.

Brad Lomenick is a leadership consultant, speaker, founder of BLINC, a strategic advising company, and author of The Catalyst Leader and H3 Leadership. He writes about leadership, the next generation, creativity, innovation, social media, teamwork, and personal growth.

Highlights from Episode 6:

"The healthier cultures/ leaders honor each other and have the ability to have nicknames. There is a true sense of friendship, allowing leaders to have freedom to do their best."  

"When you have a culture of honor, authenticity, self-awareness, and congruency, it makes working for that person fun."  

"High-level followers  are curious. They have a true sense deep down within them that they are great question-askers."

"Great leaders are good thinkers, which pushes them towards asking great questions."  

"When you become a great leader, you ask more questions than you give answers. Your posture is more of curiosity."  

"Some leaders value being intimidating. At some point, they had an intimidating  leader they are trying to outdo, model, or emulate." 

 "We always lead like we've been led. Unless someone breaks the cycle."  

"99% of leaders who are intimidating would like you to treat them like you would anyone else who is a peer."

"Rather if it was an intern or rather it was someone who had been on the team for a long time. If they had appropriately approached me with feedback that was helpful, I was incredibly open to it."  

"You may not have any of the authority, no title, or position that allows you to sit at the table but, you have to have a mindset of an owner at every level."  

"If your feedback is more about helping you, people see through it."  

"Leaders want their teams to see what they see."  

"Focus on being faithful and a good steward of your current assignment."  

"Figure out how to make a bad leader a partner in your journey and how to make them better."

"Don't look at your leader as someone who is against you."  

"Figure out how to add value to a bad  leader."

Rachel Frank is the Premium Account Executive at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks. She is dedicated to creating lasting memories and providing exclusive luxury experiences for premium clientele and their guests.

Highlights from this episode:

"I found that communication is the key to wearing many hats well."  

"You have to be okay asking questions and knowing that you're not going to have the answer to everything."  

"Be willing to listen and learn from your peers and those who have more experience than you."  

"When someone asks you to do something you might not want to do, or you don't think it's your responsibility. Think about the fact that they trust you enough to put that  thing in your hands." 

 "It's the relationships you foster offline that are invaluable."

Shownotes can be found at ryanleak.com/followership.

Danny Kim is Director of People + Culture at Raindrop which is a marketing, branding, and advertising agency in SoCal. He’s a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach. He’s also a Communication coach. And he also has a PHD in Industrial and organizational psychology.

Highlights from Danny Kim:

The biggest psychological hurdle followers have is fear. Fear can manifest in so many different ways; Fear of Self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and of what people think.

“Fear is a hurdle followers need to overcome. They need to be their authentic selves and know they are enough.”

"People need to have certain rituals and rhythms to ground themselves in gratitude."

"You are your greatest product."

"If you come into work knowing I am going to produce and be the best version of myself, that's a huge hurdle to overcome."

"You have to have mentors, friends, colleagues, confidants, and partners who are going to be in your corner."

"You don't overcome fear by running. You overcome fear by facing it."

"If you're afraid of saying something and then getting fired, you probably shouldn't work there anyway cause it's not a psychologically safe place to work."

“If followers step into hard places and have hard conversations they become leaders.”

"You need to say when is it appropriate to speak my truth and how do I not let the fear of my leader impact my integrity."

"Process where are my fears, What can I control, and what can I not control?"

"Rather, you are a follower or leader. I hope that we can use our power and privilege to lift and support those that are usually in the  nondominant culture."

“If you start leaning into the ways you are naturally wired, it does two things for you. Number one it gives you permission to be who you are. Knowing that your perspective is unique and what you bring to the world is unique. The second thing is it gives you permission  to not be who you are not.”

"Part of addressing your fear is naming and claiming this is who I am. This is what I bring to the world and do I believe in myself?"

Having served as the Chief People Officer at NorthRock Partners, Lacey has profound insight on something she's done most of her career to help her be successful as a follower and now as a leader. Show notes can found at ryanleak.com/followership.

Lessons from Lacey:

As a follower, you have to appreciate the challenge your leader is carrying. Give them grace.

Leaders have a way of making it look easier than it really is, but it’s not easy at all. Often times, leaders are building the plane while flying.

Followers can’t be obsessed with what’s next and forget to celebrate what’s current.

You’re in control of your emotions and how you show up to work. You get a choice as to what Monday through Friday looks like.

For years, Lacey has sent a Friday email every week to almost every manager she’s ever had. In that email, she laid out what she had done that week, 5 questions that will help her have an even better week the following week. Some of those questions are:

Can you provide clarity on various projects?

If this is where I’ve failed, can you provide feedback on how I can get better?

You can’t bank on your leader thinking about you every Monday morning, but if you’re in their inbox every Friday, you’ve positioned yourself to be a better follower. For more notes go to ryanleak.com/followership.

Joel Manby is a dad, a 25 year CEO, an author and a speaker.

As a former CEO of major organizations such as Sea World, Saab, and Herschend Enterprises, Joel endured my fair share of each of these situations.

He's learned a number of leadership and life lessons and have found solutions to each of these concerns. As a result, he's built strong teams and created corporate cultures that have thrived amidst major adversity.

Highlights from today's episode:

Undercover Boss URL: https://www.cbs.com/shows/undercover_boss/video/owrUga37IMHm4Sjw9haRh1xo0snCmzHJ/undercover-boss-herschend-family-entertainment/

Lessons from Joel:

Leaders lose faith in followers that would tell me what they want to hear.

Leaders wish followers would bring them recommendations over problems.

Followers should always try do the right the thing and do the best thing for the company over any personal agendas.

Sometimes you're stuck with a mediocre leader, but Ryan Skoog teaches us that a bad leader can actually be a gift. 

Ryan Skoog spends half of his time running a couple of for profit travel companies and the other half of his time running a non-profit organization called Venture. Venture is an organization that serves in areas of the world that are the least reached and least resourced by partnering with local leaders in those communities to end some of the worlds greatest injustices. Through their organization, you can raise money for injustices by doing tough things like running long distances, hiking mountains, or biking. You can learn more about Venture at venture.org.

Show notes for this episode are available at ryanleak.com/followership.

Welcome to Followership with Ryan Leak, a podcast designed to help followers follow their leaders, and to help leaders understand their followers. While leadership is often a more popular discussion and billions are spent every year consuming leadership resources, most of us will spend most of our careers doing more following than leading and we need help to do it.

Take some of the the largest employers in the world like Walmart, who employs roughly 2.3 million people around the world. How many of those people would we say are leaders?

Kroger reportedly has 453,000 employees with 2700 stores spread across 35 states. How many leaders does it take to run each Kroger grocery store? Let’s say 15. That’s generous, but let’s go with it. That’s 40,500 leaders which is less than 10% leaving the majority of their workforce… following.

Amazon has 840,000 plus employees. Let's say 80,000 of them are leaders. That still leaves 79,999 people following Jeff Bezos and his leadership. 

And how many people do you know that can say they work for a GREAT leader? In fact, working for a GREAT Leader is pretty rare. But just because you may not work for a great leader doesn’t mean you can’t be a great follower.

Everyone has grandiose ideas of what a leader should and shouldn’t be and should and shouldn’t do and should and shouldn’t say. But most of us live with a lot of opinions about leadership with virtually zero control over how they actually lead. This is a podcast to help you do your part well.