Hello and good evening, morning or day! What ever time it may be when you're reading this. Yeep I bet you thought this moment when i actually get this post done would never happen :D But low and behold, here it is! In this blog post I'm going to tell you about my experience at Nordic Business Forum livestream that took place in Laurea Tikkurila. I'll also put down my notes about the speeches I went to listen to. I know I mentioned about going to listen to Sinek and Kasparov, but few things changed and I instead went to see John Maxwell along with Simon Sinek. So let's get straight to it!
So the first speaker of the whole event was John Maxwell. He's like a leadership guru and for example the author of 5 levels of influence and 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.
He has such a powerful voice that you want to keep listening to what hes saying.
First thing that Maxwell tackled on was something called the Law of the Lid. And what this basically means, is that a leader acts as if lid for a tin or a can. And this can holds in the potential business growth of a company. The growth can only go up until the lid however, so if the company has a bad leader, they have bad potential for growing.
Here's my quick illustration to makeit a bit more clear. Maxwell put it in this way: "You can only build a company to the size you are capable to lead."
Secondly he talked about the Law of Process, and how leaders develop daily, not in a day. I think this is something really important to keep in mind, not just in regards of leadership but other things as well. Changes don't happen daily but after a long process of work. This ties in with what Maxwell was saying in the beginning of how leaders aren't born as leaders but rather you become one, just like you would become an expert in another field.
Now then Maxwell got to his main topic, which was 5 levels of influence:
As you can see, at the lowest level there is Position: People follow you because they have to. The company has put you in a leader position but you're not yet a leader. Maxwell noted for this stage as well that " If you have to tell people that you're a leader - you're not."
On the second lowest level there is Permission: The followers give the leader a permission to lead them. Maxwell mentioned that these types of leaders have three capabilities they do extremely well: 1. Listen 2. Learn and 3. Lead. In other words these are the types of leaders who listen to their people, learn about them and how to lead them and finally they can lead so that the people willingly follow.
In the middle there is Production: Comes down to results, Gain credibility to lead. To achieve this level you must first be successful at doing things yourself and then people are going to want to follow your example. Maxwell said another 3 things that stage 3 type of people do very well: 1. Lead by example 2. Create Momentum and 3. Attract better people
Just before the top we have level 4, which is People Development. This stage meant that people follow because of what you have done for them. The three things these stage 4 people are specialists in are: 1. Recruiting gurus 2. Positioning their people well and 3. Equip people well. So in short these people build success in the companies they work in, in their mannerisms and what they are able to offer to people who they lead.
At the very top we have the Pinnacle, people follow you because of who you are and what you represent. The people you lead respect and value you and hence want to work for you and do the best that they can.
Simon Sinek
Okay, next speaker we have is Simon Sinek. I really look up to him, I think he's an excellent speaker and an extremely insightful person. His speeches really make you think. The topic of his speech was "Leaders eat last." He began this by talking about trust and co-operation. Now how does this relate to leaders? Sinek referred to it as Circle of Safety. Circle of safety meant that people take care of themselves AND their company. If a leader has followers who trust them and vise versa, theyre more likely to care of eachother instead of just protecting themselves. Sinek gave an example of this that leads us back to the primitive stage of humans and where it all began. He mentioned that when people were still hunting and living outdoors they needed to trust eachother to survive. So that one person would protect them when they went to sleep.
From this primitive stage he also raised another example of leaders and leadership. And this was about hierarchy, meaning the alfas and betas of the society. Often alfas in this primitive stage were, for example being allowed to go eat before the rest of the group. Sinek mentioned: "You're the leader, not because you're at the top, but because you chose to go first." Now this status didn't come empty handed after all. With this respect, the group would also expect you, as the leader, to protect them and in the face of danger you would also be the one who sacrifices themselves first to protect the rest of the group. Sinek said it in the way of: "Leadership is not a rank but a responsibility." I thought this was really amazing, it puts leadership in a whole new perspective that I actually never really thought of. It's not necessarily a priviledge to lead but a job.
Another way Sinek explained leadership was through somethings that are found from all of our bodies. These were:
1. Endorphins - Mask Pain,
- Humans experience for example after doing sports
2. Dopamine - Accomplish something, "Like crossing something out of your to do-list"
- HIghly addictive
-Come in hits
"If you don't write down your goal, it's very hard to get motivated - Vision gives purpose"
(This is why it's also useful to give yourself tangible goals, so that you keep feeling that you are making progress)
3. Serotonin - The leadership chemical - Pride and Status
- The reason for awards and for example graduation
- Someone can have seratonin, the sence of pride, for you
4. Oxytocin - Love, friendship
- Being around people you know makes you feel safe
In the end I'm just going to add some really good quotes by Sinek, that I found might be useful in the future:
"The difference between a goal and a finish, is the finishline."
This is referring again to the tangible goals. You get that hit of dopamine from a feeling of accomplishment, and to accomplish something you need something that you're aiming for. Sounds a bit dumb when I say it, but I swear it is actually useful :D
This one I also liked. "We cannot lead from behind the desk"
Now you mightve at some point ran into a leader or heard about one that just puts themselves on a pedestal and doesn't interact with their followers or workers. This is an example of what Sinek was talking about earlier in the Circle of Safety, and how people trust people who they know. To create this trust and to make your employees feel secure, you have to interact with them, and take interest in them. This way they don't only worry about getting fired from that company and protecting themselves but rather you and the whole company. Because they care about the success or failure of something so close to them.
This kind of ties in with the last one: "Trust doesn't happen in the meeting, it happens between the meeting." Now why I say that it ties in with the previous one is because I think they both have a similar key aspect to them, and that is the humanity and proximity to other people. To be a leader you have to simply, talk. Communicate and create bonds. Humans trust people they have communicated with, who they know something about. If you're a leader and yet have managed to be there at the same level as your employees, you have done something right. Don't set yourself up sky high and give orders to people you don't properly even know. There's a distrust from both parties and to be able to work together you need to be able to rely on eachother.
There was so much to be learned from Sinek. I found the same speech but in a different occasion from Youtube and I really encourage you to go watch the whole speech. I'll link the video below: