The Trait All Courageous Leaders Have in Common

Welcome to The Courage of a Leader podcast. This is where you hear real life stories of top leaders achieving extraordinary results. And you get practical advice and techniques, you can immediately apply for your own success. This is where you will get inspired, and take bold, courageous action. I am so glad you can join us. I'm your host, Amy Riley. Now, are you ready to step into the full power of your leadership and achieve the results you care about most? Let's ignite the courage of a leader.

Amy Riley here, your host for the courage of a leader podcast. This is where you are going to hear from my extraordinary guests. I will be inviting courageous, successful, amazing authentic leaders to come be on the podcast episode with me and share their real stories. Their insights, give practical advice about how to be powerful leaders that get extraordinary results. I have always had a passion for leadership. Even as a child I remember sitting in my elementary school classrooms and watching what the teacher did. Right? How did they engage the students? And I would think, Oh, that what they just did? I would do that. Because look, she got students from all across the classroom engaged in that. Right. So I've always been watching leaders, and how do they inspire people? How do they get people engaged? And how do they get the results that they want and they need. So no one was surprised when I got my master's of training and development with an organization with an emphasis in organization development. And then I went to work as a corporate trainer in a greeting card company. From there I went on to lead the global learning and development function in a manufacturing company. And I was working to develop my own leadership. As I was responsible for developing all the leaders in the organization. And leaders from inside and outside the organization will come to Me for guidance on how to lead and how to get the results they needed.

And I have validated this through my decades of work with the with leaders. And also with the interviews that I did with successful executives, while I was writing the courage of leader book, all successful leaders have a common trait. They have a bigger picture purpose to their leadership, they are committed to something bigger than themselves. I call this defined purpose, a leadership legacy. A leadership legacy is an aspiration about how you want to be known, or what you want to create in the world, it's something that you can start living into right away. It could be an initiative, a set of processes, a new business model, it could be a leadership trait, for which you want to be known and that you want to foster in the organizations that you're a part of. Examples of leadership legacies include a fully optimized enterprise wide software system, an innovative culture, teams that know how to operate with trust and transparency. With any of these three examples I just shared, there's work that can be done right away. For example, defining what fully optimized means, start rewarding innovative behaviors, create a shared dashboard that immediately gives transparency to the work. There is also a work thought processes that is continually created and left behind. Right for others to profit from and enjoy. So this could be the fully optimized enterprise wide software systems in play, right. And people have that real time data. It could be processes that predictably foster innovation, and team members who know how to operate with trust and transparency and can teach others to do the same. There's a wide range of possibilities, and you are the one to decide. And you can decide today, you can start living into your leadership legacy right away today. It does not matter if you're an emerging leader or a solopreneur, a CEO, right, you have a sphere of influence. And you can begin to leverage that right away. Define your leadership legacy. And then don't wait. Make an immediate impact. By leveraging your strengths. And using the influence that you have. It will expand from there.

Too many leaders at all levels are unknowingly playing the waiting game. Waiting to have that next credential waiting to have that next promotion, waiting until we get all of our colleagues on board are waiting until we have all of these currently pressing projects done. Right until we can proactively do that. You already have everything that you need. You can be the leader actively committed to your leadership legacy right now. And I am here to help. The courage of a leader podcast is here to help. My leadership legacy is to empower every leader to declare and live into their leadership legacies. Let's not get caught in that waiting game. If you want any support in clarifying or fully living into your leadership legacy, please reach out If you'd like to share the concept of a leadership legacy and being committed to something bigger than yourself with your team, reach out to me, and we can share with them the three secret superpowers that you get when you declare a leadership legacy. You can reach out to me through the courage of a leader website at www.courageofaleader.com. Reach out don't hesitate. Take that first courageous action. And please keep listening. Let's ignite the courage of a leader in us all.