Ryan Leak

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is more important now than ever before. And here’s why: Only 50% of the U.S. population under the age of 18 is caucasian. The data tells us by 2045, that will be the case for all ages. The future of your organization is a lot more diverse whether you prefer it that way or not. In light of your future customer base and your human resources, diversity, equity, and inclusion are conversations you desperately need have a great understanding of. It can’t be something that’s simply on paper. It’s one thing to give a historically marginalized person a job. It’s another thing to give them a voice of influence at a decision making table.

Every motivational speaker you’ve ever heard has said these words at least once to large group of people: never. Give. up. I’ve done it hundreds of times. But the older I get, the more I realize… that might be the most dangerous piece of advice you could give to a large group of people. Here’s why: the people who have succeeded the most in life have actually figured out when and what they indeed should give up on so they can devote their energy to what will give them their best return on investment.

Leadership rises and falls on communication. But the most important part of communication isn’t how well you talk, but how well you are listening. And there’s levels to it. Once we learn them, we can nurture incredible work relationships.

Level 1: Ignoring completely.

Level 2: Pretending to listen.

Level 3: Selective listening.

Level 4: Listening to respond.

Level 5: Listening to understand.

Level 6: Listening to learn.

Level 7: Listening to build trust.

What’s crucial for your organization is that every voice be heard, and for that to happen, our listening skills have to be sharpened.

So many resources are poured into building leaders, but not enough resources are poured into building good followers. The art of followership is important for everyone not the CEO. And there are some key habits that make followers effective.

We despise working with someone who is prideful, selfish, lazy, careless, and deceitful. In fact, most of our chief complaints about others would include one of those. We all love working with team members who are:

1. Humble.

2. Helpful.

3. Hungry.

4. Hospitable.

5. Honest.

I’ve coached and watched way too many leaders and executives attain professional growth at the expense of personal growth. I know way too many leaders who’ve mastered taking care of others and neglected taking care of themselves. I believe the Art of Self-Care has never been more important in 4 Key Health areas:

1. Physically

2. Mentally

3. Emotionally

4. Spiritually.

We all love to experience great customer service with organizations who have a culture of hospitality. We think those organizations have a secret sauce about their culture, but the good news is that culture can be created by you wherever you are right now. Everyday we show up to work, we have a choice about how we’re going to show up. We can simply fall into whatever culture preexists in our organizations or we can create culture. We can complain about culture or carry a new one.

The problem with what we believe we want now is our history of what we wanted is flawed. The car we wanted 10 years ago isn’t one we’d want now. The clothes we wanted so bad 20 years ago, we’d burn today. Most people don’t discover what they really want until their 60s. And what they find out is that what they really want is a legacy. The one way we can all get what we really want is simple: generosity. If you make your life about giving, you’ll always have a story to tell and someone will always have a story to tell about you.

Most people believe conflict is a sign of unhealthy relationships, but, in fact, conflict is who we all grow. Instead of running away from or avoid conflict, I want to encourage you to embrace it.

Offense is an event. Staying offended is a choice. When we don’t deal with it in the work place, it impacts our productivity and our ability to connect with our colleagues.