Real People Real Talk
Real People Real Talk
Unlocking Everyday Leadership: Transformative Insights with Lee Scott
Unlock your leadership potential with insights from Lee Scott, a seasoned leadership coach and podcaster. Learn how leadership isn't just for a select few but a capacity we all possess. Discover how envisioning a future that hasn't yet occurred and guiding others towards that vision can turn simple everyday actions into powerful leadership moments. Lee challenges the old notion that leadership is a rare trait, using practical examples to show how even the smallest acts can make a big impact.
Get ready to transform your daily routines into acts of leadership. In this episode, we explore how taking initiative and forming positive habits can significantly influence those around you. Drawing from John Maxwell's teachings, we highlight the importance of knowing, going, and showing the way. Lee shares stories and examples, like asking proactive questions in meetings, to illustrate how you can cultivate leadership in your daily life. Surround yourself with positive influences and see how your personal growth translates into effective leadership.
Dive into the heart of personal development as the foundation of great leadership. We discuss how the heart is the center of our mind, will, and emotions, and why it’s crucial to feed it with positive influences. Lee and I share personal anecdotes about the value of curiosity, humility, and learning from others. From powerful stories of forgiveness and redemption to practical steps for growth, this episode aims to inspire you to embrace your leadership potential and make a meaningful impact in both your life and the lives of others. Join us and take your leadership journey to the next level.
Connect with Lee. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leading-with-lee/id1498254203
Welcome and thanks for tuning in to Real People, real Talk, relevant conversations that take you from surviving to thriving. This is the podcast that goes there. My name is Paul Calco and I'm your host. Now let's talk. Hello, thriver, and welcome to Real People, real Talk, the podcast ministry that equips you to thrive spiritually, relationally and mentally. And today we are delving into the space of personal development and tackling the topic of leadership, as I'm calling this one, leadership 101. My guest today is a passionate speaker, leadership thinker and creative whose life mission is to inspire, equip and empower individuals to live up to their fullest potentials. He has over five years of leadership experience, a bachelor's and a master's in leadership. He is the owner and principal coach at Lee Scott Consulting LLC, where he focuses on leadership coaching, staff development, interviewing and media content creation. Lee is the host of a biweekly podcast slash vlog called Leading with Lee, where he shares about leadership, life and legacy. What a resume and welcome to the show. A fellow Mississippian, a fellow podcaster, lee Scott.
Speaker 2:What's up, brother?
Speaker 1:Well, bro, let's get right into it. Tell me, how would you define the word leadership?
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a great question. So over the last few years I've been, this has been my working definition of leadership. I believe that leadership is seeing something that has not happened yet and taking people, personal processes and organizations in that direction. The reason why that's been my leadership definition has been because I think I think every person has a capacity and level of leadership. You hear me say it in my intro on leading with lead, and it's very basic to mankind.
Speaker 2:I like to give the example that you start operating in leadership at some of the earliest parts of your life, when you and I were both babies.
Speaker 2:And we have this experience where you put a baby in the stroller, put a baby in a car seat or put a baby in on a chair or something like that. When they want something, they start crying. Right. Them crying warrants a response. That response is actually them causing you to follow them in leadership. Response is actually them causing you to follow them in leadership. In other words, they're giving you instructions when they cry. That warrants us to actually do something as a result of them crying. And so I think that that is how simple leadership is. All of us have the ability to direct somebody in a way, or direct some organization in a way, or direct ourselves in a way that causes us to go into another direction. John Maxwell says that leadership is influence, and so it is so basic to mankind that I think that we have to get people to understand that, hey, if you see the next step, you can operate in leadership. That's where I came with the definition.
Speaker 1:I like that. You already alluded to it, but I was actually listening to your podcast the other day when I was on my walk and I heard you say the exact thing Every person is a leader and has a capacity and level of leadership, and I think that's such a key concept and would love for you to expound upon that just a little bit further.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the things that I think about a lot is we have, in our culture, fell in love with the idea that leadership is actually a personality trait. It's not. That's why I said every person has a capacity and level of leadership. Meaning, paul, you and I are having a conversation right now. You're a pastor. You lead young people. You engage in conversations with young adults. You have all these young people involved in your ministry. You do this thing every single week where you talk to them about their faith. That is a capacity. You have a level of currency with those young people. We have a level of credibility with them because of your level. You are a pastor, so you have this pastoral role, so therefore that gives you credibility.
Speaker 2:The amount of young people that listen to you or engage with what you have to say is a byproduct of your capacity. If it's a thousand young people, you have the capacity to talk to a thousand young people. Now, does it mean that if I talk to a hundred young people, I have less? I I'm less important to you? No, it doesn't Right, but I have to understand that you have a capacity and I have one, and just because our capacities are different doesn't mean that we can't be leaders. I like to give this example, and I think people don't. I think about this a lot. When you go to a concert, whatever artists you love, you know people have different favorite artists. There are thousands of people there that are responding to what this artist says or does on the stage, but when the president is making a decision, there are thousands of people in the room. There might be 20 people at the most in the room, and that depends on what room the president is in.
Speaker 2:Just because we're looking at the size of something doesn't necessarily mean it's having the same type of impact, and I think one of the things that we have to get in our minds and be clear about is that we cannot get fooled into believing that the size of something means that I'm being impacted. It doesn't mean anything. I must stick. I must stay in my lane and recognize that Paul has a capacity and level of leadership. Paul is going to impact certain people. Lee has capacity and level of leadership. Lee is going to impact some people that Paul can't impact and vice versa, and even the people that are listening to this right now, they're going to impact people in a different way. Why? Because their capacity and level is just different, but it doesn't mean they can't operate in leadership. Everybody should be operating in some type of level of leadership, and I think that's important for people to understand. And I think it also demystifies the idea of who can be a leader and who should be a leader.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really agree with so much that you said, because, especially when you say it demystifies who can be a leader. And I just want to say to my dear listener, who I affectionately call Thriver there is a leader within you and I would encourage you not to underestimate your influence or to underestimate your impact just because you don't feel like you're leading or influencing a lot of people. If you only influence the people in your home and they make it to heaven, you are a good leader Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And like, when I hear the word leadership and I'm pretty sure others do too when I hear the word leadership, they often think about leading teams and leading organizations and having certain responsibilities and titles. But could you speak to the concept of leading yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's a great question, paul, because, you know, I don't think you can actually lead people if you're not being a functional person, if you can't acknowledge, hey, you know, I'm not hitting all my marks, I'm not as effective as I thought I was, I'm not as a mission as I was. I mean, people are only showing up to the world as a result of what they see from you. It's just like with parents. Right, I'm not a parent yet I mean and you and I both, you know have parents that have been married for a very long time.
Speaker 2:There's something about what they did in front of us that influences how we perceive relationships, how we perceive money, how we perceive engaging in connectivity. But it started with them. It simply started with how they went about doing the work of. Maybe, for them, the priorities was praying in the morning. Maybe the priority was going to the gym. Maybe the priority was sleeping eight hours. Maybe the priority was engaging in healthy, productive conversations with their spouse. Maybe their priority was going to the gym. Maybe their priority was going to therapy.
Speaker 2:They had a philosophy of life that actually showed us that there's a way, and I think people are influenced by what you do and not what you say yes, come on, okay.
Speaker 2:They're influenced more by what you do, because that's the thing that matters. Lip service is fun, but when we really get down to brass tacks, it is what you do in front of me that makes a huge difference. And so when I think about leading yourself, I think a lot about hey, you have to be self-aware, you have to be cognizant of how you're showing up and what you're doing and what you're saying to people. You got you got to know that, that you have a sphere of influence. There are people that are being affected by your decision. There are some situations that's happening in my life right now that I'm being influenced by, or I'm influencing based on my posture, my heart, my thoughts, how I feel, all those things. It's very apparent that that's the case. So self self-leadership is super important, because it makes a huge difference in how people actually go about living their lives in a healthy and productive way.
Speaker 1:Most definitely, and I love the metaphor that you brought up about our parents. Man, I remember growing up and just walking in the park with my parents, so exercise was important to us and I still do that to this day, and I remember them taking time to pray separately, and also to pray as a couple, then to pray as a family and just leading by example and now I do that with my wife make sure that we grab hands and pray, and so all that to say, I love how you say leading by example, leading with your actions, because I remember more so what my parents did versus what they said, and they said some things, but in actuality, action speaks louder than words.
Speaker 2:I've learned so much from them.
Speaker 1:And it made me think of this Like, if I can't lead myself, who am I to lead others? Because, in order to be a great leader, I must first be a great follower, a follower of Jesus. And so, therefore, I need to grow as a leader so I can be all that God has called me to be, and so I appreciate you for just speaking to that concept.
Speaker 2:Oh, can I say something real quick, Paul?
Speaker 1:Please do.
Speaker 2:Like here's something that popped in my mind as you were saying what you're saying, paul. I started thinking specifically about how we see fitness folks. You see the results of what they've done for themselves, so you believe that their methodology is correct because they have physical results. When you look at them, you're like, oh, their body, their physique is like top tier. So you believe them because they have proof that if it worked Like it's like top tier. So you believe them Because they have proof that if it worked for them, it possibly could work for you.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times that is one of the major things we talk about the subject of leadership. It got to start with you. You wouldn't listen to somebody in the fitness world if they weren't in shape Wow, that's true. You just wouldn't because they have no proof of concept. But you listen to people that have proof of concept because if they have proof of concept, that means that they were able to get the results for themselves. And that's the thing about leadership development and leadership growth. You have to be able to get the results for yourself first in order for you to get people to literally believe that you're legit.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and continuing with that theme that we have going on. You also speak a lot about everyday leadership. What does that look like? Let's break it down for the listener.
Speaker 2:It's just like anything in your life, it's just a habit. Leadership has to become a habit for you. You have to actually believe that you can make a difference every day. And the way that we operate in everyday leadership is we got to make a habit of operating in leadership. We got to make it a habit of looking for things that hasn't happened and say, hey, y'all, let's go this direction.
Speaker 2:And it could be very small, it literally could be hey, I'm going to take it up on myself that when my staff in our staff meeting to ask a question that we typically don't ask, hey'm gonna take it upon myself in this board meeting this week I know everybody's probably not going to bring their food I'm gonna take it myself to ask at the outset hey guys, where do you all want to go?
Speaker 2:And I got three options that we can, we can do, and you give them three options that everybody chooses an option and you know the most votes win generally, right, like that's. That's leadership. Yeah, that that is a part of of self-leadership is knowing, hey, I'm going to do everything I got to do to get ahead of the game. I'm going to take the step, even though people are not asking me to, even though people are not telling me I have to do this. I'm doing this because I believe that at some point there will be a result that is that is impactful beyond me, like it is practical stuff. That's leadership. That's just. That's just what it is. It's you getting out of yourself and doing something that anticipates what other people might do, because they might put them in an easier position to succeed, and that's, I think it's super important.
Speaker 1:Man, you said so many good things and what I'm hearing is one of the things that I'm hearing is that healthy habits really is a form of self-leadership, like the things that you listed out. Like that's a form of self-leadership. Then, even the super practical thing that I love that you brought up is maybe texting a friend and, to take that a little bit further, you can lead by just encouraging people, send them a text or give them a call and say I'm proud of you, I believe in you, let me pray for you. Everyday leadership could also look like maybe the Lord has called you to start a business that's leading. Start a Bible study study that's leading. Start a podcast or a YouTube channel that's leading, or maybe weekly social media posts. It could be about scripture or it could be a video devotional. You can lead in those areas. You can lead at home. You can lead in ministries. At the end of the day, everyday leadership boils down to influence. I'm so glad that you unpacked how you did that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah and just want to quote, before I move on, from the leadership guru himself, john maxwell. He says a leader is the one who knows the way and goes the way and shows the way. And wow. With that question in mind, lee, I want to hear from your perspective what are some ways that people can grow as a leader, because I just want to think about the person that listening. Now they, they may say, ok, I have a capacity of leadership. God has called me to do some things. What are some things that I can do to grow as a leader? Talk to us.
Speaker 2:That's a great question, paul, because you know, I think we don't even realize that we're being influenced every day. Come on that, that that what we look at on our Instagram or or TikTok feed, or we look at our Facebook, our social media feeds, or when we're watching the news or watching television shows, or whatever we we are being, our, our leadership or our, or our influence or our mindsets or perspectives are being shaped by what we see, and so if we would actually take the time to be intentional about the way we are being influenced, we would actually see the results in our lives. But let it just like anything in life when you continue to see something or continue to be exposed to something, eventually you will start to believe it and then also start to live it out. That's good one of the things I truly believe if, if, if, if you keep being around people that are financially successful and hear how they talk, and hear how they speak about situations and hear about how they perceive themselves and how they eventually succeed, you will start to operate like successful people. But the reverse is also true If you are constantly feeding your soul things that are not reflective of what you're trying to do in the world and how you're trying to move forward in the world, then that's what you're going to do. If you keep feeding yourself negativity, what do you think is going to happen? That that's just the mindset you're gonna have, exactly. So it's important for us to to you know, since the faith-based podcast, I can say this you know, the bible talks about guarding your heart. Yeah, right, right, the, the.
Speaker 2:Let's be clear about what the heart is. The heart is not just the physical pumping of blood, that thing that's in our body, but the heart, a lot of times, if you think about it, is the mind. It's the mind, the will, the emotions. It is the central nervous system of how you see yourself and how you see others. The thing that just came to my mind Paul was thinking about a pond, like putting poison in a pond. If you put poison in a pond, eventually all the poison is going to permeate the whole pond, right? It's going to make everything else in the pond dirty, and I think it's super important to understand the reverse is true. You got to put good stuff inside. It's just like it made me think about how the scripture talks about guarding your heart. Right, that? That, that the heart in scripture is not talking about just the literal pumping of blood, like the physical thing that's in your body. I think it's talking about the mind, the will and emotions. I think it's referring to you got to guard your, your soul. You have to be cognizant of the impact of that and cognizant of what happens when you allow things to come in and out of you.
Speaker 2:The question was about resources and things like that. I want to say this number one I need to listen to podcasts, watch documentaries. I love documentaries. Man, like I listen. I watch a lot of history documentaries, a lot of music documentaries, a lot of things that I'm interested in. Those things seem to shape my belief or what I think about the world. I love science documentaries, especially things like Planet Earth and all those like nature documentaries. I love those things and it's maybe some of it too might be me. I'm being drawn to the cinematography Like it's incredible, but those things are feeding me.
Speaker 2:Reading Like people think you have to read a book, like we have options now we're reading. Like there's things like audible and other ways to literally you can listen to books now, exactly right. Like you don't have to physically read a book, you can read. People should at least read articles, like most articles are. Don't take more than five minutes to read, right. Like you should be feeding your soul something, read the word. Like you should be feeding your soul something, so that you're able to grow in your, your ability to process information, or just Like growing your capacity to understand who you are as a leader. And I'll say this last thing about this because, because I think it's such a great question, um, the last thing I would say about this is one way you can grow is listening to people, bro, I let me tell you something that's good. I have learned so much by watching interviews, by asking questions, by engaging in dialogue with people. I I do it in my work all the time, but, but, but for me, I take the. I'm very, I'm very curious about people. I have some level of curiosity about why people believe or think the way they think or operate the way they operate.
Speaker 2:I'll give you this quick story, and I know we got to move on, but, um, I literally did this to the CEO of the company that I worked for. I had in my mind earlier that week. I said, you know, I wonder, how did he? I just had the question or the thought how did he become a CEO? So I just decided to go. I knocked on his door and I walked in his office. I said, hey, do you have a few minutes? And I asked him. I said you know, how did you become a CEO? Like, how did you get to this place of becoming a CEO of a company? And he told me how he got there. He shared with me how he had been. He started out at the organization he used to work for before he came to our organization. He talked about how he was the executive assistant and then he went from being the executive assistant to being a program leader and then he became chief of staff at some point and then he became a vice president over all the programs and then he was asked to be on a search committee to find a CEO for another organization. In turn, he got asked to be the CEO of our company. So in other words, he laid out the blueprint of how he got to the place.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that information, but what it tells me is is that, hey, if I want to be a CEO, this man, this man, is a resource to me on telling me what should I do or what things or what routes could I take to becoming a CEO? We learn by literally seeking out information. Yeah, the scripture says seek and you shall find Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. We think that it's only spiritual, but that you can apply it to every aspect of your life. Yeah, if you want to know about marriage, you got to seek it out. If you want to know about a healthy and productive relationships, you got to seek it out. If you want to know about a health and productive mental health, you got to seek it out. If you want to know about money, you got to seek it out. You actually have to do the work of going beyond yourself in order for you to get the answers that you want to want to know, and I think that that's important for people to do.
Speaker 1:Man, you have really dropped some gems of wisdom, gems of gold, because what I'm hearing is that and I never thought about like this until you was talking but it takes humility for me to grow as a person and to grow as a person and to grow as a leader yes, Because a private person is not going to ask questions. A private person don't want to learn from others, so it takes humility. So not only did you break that down, but you also mentioned something about. It also starts with our environment. Who are the people that we're spending time with? Yep? Who are the people that we're following on social media? Because they call those people influencers and they are influencing you with their content. So you got to be careful of the people that you follow.
Speaker 1:What are the books that you're reading, the podcast you're listening to? All those things can influence you and it should help you to grow as a leader and as a person, man, and so I'm so glad that you broke it down in that way. And, before we land this plane, of course I want to turn it spiritual. What are some scriptures or a biblical example? Whichever route you want to take, what comes to mind in scripture when you think about leadership?
Speaker 2:I mean Paul. That was such a great question because, oh, I mean, there's so many examples in scriptures about, like the Bible is a leadership book, like it, literally every concept, every pattern of thought processes that I kind of have comes from scripture. There's one person, uh is my favorite example to use, because he's one of my favorite people in all scripture, because of his, his ability to understand something. My favorite person all scripture is, uh, joseph. People who know the bible knows the story of Joseph.
Speaker 2:Joseph in a lot of ways had such a management anointing. He had a gift for visions, but he had a management anointing, he had a leadership anointing to understand hey, this is what this dream means and we need to come up with a strategy so that we could weather a storm. I don't think people actually understand the economic significance of what he did, exactly Just the philosophy of, hey, let's save a portion. Exactly, that's the whole point. Let's save a portion of what we are doing, just so that we have enough to sustain for the next seven years, because we know, once year eight begins, everything's going to dry up. Not only did they live in their means, but they were able to sustain during famine, which meant that the rest of the world had to come to them in order for them to be able to get what they needed. Wow, so, so, so so. Here's what I'm saying. Here's what I'm saying. Here's what I'm saying. This is what I want people to catch is that leadership should be so evident and powerful in your life that not only should it feed you, but it should feed other people who come in contact with it.
Speaker 2:And the thing about what Joseph did was he actually created a strategy that caused people to have to come to them. I don't know if anybody's ever done this, and this is just me, but I wonder what was the GDP of Egypt during this time? Because people have to remember they were not only feeding the Egyptians every nation around them were coming to them to get food. That's the reason why Joseph was able to reconnect with his brothers, because the rest of the world was forced to come to Egypt in order for them to get sustenance, which they were charging people for. It wasn't free, paul Right. They had to pay for it, which meant that the coffers of Egypt probably was pretty strong, yep, right, so so. So all them pyramids, all those palaces you might see in Egypt, might have been a result of Joseph.
Speaker 2:Wow, and that's why he's my favorite person on scripture. His leadership was so significant, his leadership was so powerful that not only that he people ate off his leadership inside, but everybody outside ate off his leadership. Yep, that's real leadership, exactly. Real leadership is having the ability to understand that not only will I benefit, but everybody else will benefit as a result of me operating in my capacity to the fullest. That's what made that story so powerful for me and it's my favorite example in all of scripture, and I love the story of Joseph.
Speaker 1:Yeah, such a beautiful story of leadership, forgiveness, redemption and just so much. And with this topic, just because of your educational background, your career background and even the podcast that you have with this topic, I mean me asking questions to Lee he could go on and on just because of his expertise. And so we just wanted this episode to whet your appetite and we wanted to just to encourage you to grow as a leader and to grow as a person. And we wanted to just to encourage you to grow as a leader and to grow as a person and just some of the action points listening to podcasts, reading books surrounding yourself, putting yourself in the right environment and I'm going to be sure to leave the link to Lee's website as well as his podcast, so you can connect with him. And with that being said, Lee, I just want to tell you thank you so much just for taking out the time to just to encourage my dear listener as it relates to all things leadership. I appreciate you, bro.
Speaker 2:Man, thank you for having me on, Paul. You know you didn't have to ask me, but I appreciate you giving me this opportunity to share, bro, yes, sir, and, of course, thank you so much for tuning in today.
Speaker 1:My prayer for you is this is that you will grow as a leader and be all that God has called you to be making a positive impact and being a positive influence in our world today. God bless you.