Legacy Building – 5 Non-Negotiable Leadership Secrets

Just finished reading The Legacy Builder: Five Non-Negotiable Leadership Secrets, a great book for leaders, coaches, husbands, wives and parents.

Lance Marshall, a fairly successful businessman who find himself falling apart at work and home, is once again united with his high school coach and mentor. Through a series of interactions, he learns five principles that change his life forever.

Here are the 5 Non-Negotiable Leadership Secrets from this book:

1. Specify the Win

Maturity and balance go hand in hand. You need to specify the daily “win” at work and even more importantly at home. You must control your pace and not let it control you. A simple and practical way to begin this may be setting up small, daily “wins” such as reading the Bible on your phone each morning before checking email or social media. Another win may be getting home before 6:00 pm every night for a week. Another daily win may be answering all the text and phone calls from home or family. You need to focus on one thing at a time, one day at a time.

2. Simplicity

Simplicity means being faithful to your work organization and to your home and to fully trust those working with you in leadership. Simplicity means being available, making time for yourself, others and your community. Simplicity means being teachable, possessing a teachable and coach-able spirit, no matter where you are in the hierarchy. Here’s a simple goal – focus on attitude and effort daily. These two things control most everything else.

3. Be a Three Dimensional Leader

A three dimensional leadership model is important for all aspects of leadership, from teams, to organizations, to ministries, to family. The first level is fundamentals. You know the role, have a high competency level and understand the basics of what you are trying to accomplish. Second, you know and practice the secrets of motivating the 21st century team member – which requires insight into motivation. It’s all about relationships. Three decades ago, leaders were trusted because they were the leader. These days it doesn’t work that way, you must build trust and be connected to your people personally. The third level is becoming a master relationship builder focused on capturing people’s hearts while holding them accountable. Everyone needs to feel safe, secure and significant everyday. You play a role in helping this happen. You also help your people grow and mature – all while you are growing. It’s said that great leaders are easy to please and hard to satisfy.

4. The power of Speaking Greatness

I like this phrase – speaking greatness. Scripture teaches that our tongues have power for life or death. We must use our words for building up and encouraging. We need to THINK before we speak. Is what we are about to say true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, and kind? Speaking greatness is the kind of communication that allows a leader to motivate others through instructions in a way that doesn’t cause the person to obey through fear, but through a desire to reach new levels and not disappoint the leader / coach. Speak greatness into the lives of your workers, team and family to help them discover the greatness inside of them – a flame fanner!

5. Value People over Productivity

Emphasizing people always enhances performance. Keep an eye out for ways that you can demonstrate to your family or employees ways that who they are to you is more important than what they do for you. Consistently living a legacy is a process, which breeds trust and trust breeds loyalty. If you shoot for productivity all the time, you’ll lose your people and what you were trying to achieve. If you shoot for valuing your people, you’ll get both great relationships and significant work done.

Pick up a copy of this small book, The Legacy Builder: Five Non-Negotiable Leadership Secrets.