America’s Leadership Expert : More Responsibility
Clay Staires: This is Clay Staires with Podcast number 37, The 15 Wells of Wealth: Session Number Two.
We’re breaking up our 15 wells into three different sessions. At Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership it’s this idea, I know that just from my own personal experience this idea of actually positioning myself for wealth is not something that I understood or something that I was able to tap into until in my late forties. Up until that point I was just trying to do life. I was just trying to stay ahead of the game and not doing a very good job of it. I didn’t understand the importance of certain characteristics in my life that needed to be growing to position me to gain wealth.
Since I have started out, since I have begun to look at these 15 different areas, I have found that my potential and my measure of wealth has grown significantly. My wife and I were just commenting to ourselves the other day as Clay Staires Tulsa Business Leadership what a blessing it has been in our fourth year of business with Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership, that we were actually at a place where we made more money in one month than four years ago how much we made in an entire year. It’s been quite a blessing.
What we’re talking about here are the 15 wells of wealth. The 15 activities, the 15 characteristics that you need to do well in your life to position you for wealth. We’re going to continue with well number six, this is learning how to take ownership well. Again, this is one thing that is not found out there in the workforce in the status quo. What we want to do is we want to blame, we want to point fingers. America’s Leadership Expert It wasn’t my fault. We don’t want to have that measure of responsibility because that measure of responsibility may mean more time and not necessarily more money or it’s going to be more responsibility and so I have more of a chance to mess up or screw up. And therefore people may look at me differently.
So often people will shy away from or stay away from increased amount of responsibility because they simply don’t have the time. They don’t have the resources, they don’t have the energy to step in. They just don’t want to do those things but for you to be able to learn how to take ownership, ownership of you job, it could just be your workplace is just ownership of your desk. And getting things in order, getting things structured, getting things not cluttered. It could be ownership of your home in your personal life. It could be ownership of the specific responsibilities that you have, but it’s important to note that ownership is a mindset. It’s not a position. It’s a mindset that you have to have.
As Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership when I travel across the country speaking with entrepreneurs and business owners I find so often that this idea of learning how to take ownership, taking responsibility is so key. So many entrepreneurs and business owners are struggling with making decisions. They’re struggling with certain things that they know need to be done in their business but what they are doing is they’re saying well I can’t make that decision because it might make this person upset or if I made that decision, this person may, they’ve been with me for so long I can’t get rid of them now. Or we’ve always done it a certain way, I can’t go changing it now. There’s always an excuse for not making the decisions that they need to make.
It’s so important for us to take ownership and not blame and point fingers and find excuses for not moving well. Number six, again the well number six is learning how to take ownership, learning how to own things. If you are a worker and you’re at that worker level and you’re wanting to move up the ladder and to stand out among the crowd, it’s going to be important for you to own your job. Own the responsibility that comes to you. Don’t look to point fingers but get her done. Own your responsibility.
Well number seven is, show initiative well. Again, this is kind of connected to taking ownership. People taking initiative, this is so important out there in the workforce. Again with Clay Staires Tulsa Business Leadership doing employee training and management training across the country, I find that this is one of the laments of leaders. Is that their people need constant prodding, they need constant instruction on what to do. And so often entrepreneurs, business owners and managers are looking for the few, the small percentage of people that are actually willing to take initiative. To be able to step out and take initiative, to be, to step up and not just show up at work. To over deliver, that’s one of the ways that we show initiative, is we simply over deliver.
Here’s the responsibility I have to get this job done, but what I’m going to do is get the job done early and I’m going to get the job done beyond the expectations of the person that gave it to me. To begin to show initiative, sometimes initiative can simply be asking questions. Sometimes initiative can be seeing a problem before it actually happens. For you to begin to think again, if you’re in the workforce and you’re looking, how can I break out? How can I set myself apart? How can I be different than everybody else? I promise you if you can begin to show initiative, show up early at work. Stay a little bit late at work. Do extra work at work to get the thing done. Look at what everyone else is doing and be willing to go a little bit further. Show initiative.
At Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership this is one of the mantras that we say over and over and over, is to show initiative. Go the extra mile. This is what sets you apart and it’s one of the key things that you need to learn how to do well so you can position yourself for wealth.
Well number eight is embrace responsibility well. Again this goes back to our ownership. It’s not rejecting responsibility, it’s not looking down when the boss is asking for somebody to volunteer to take on a position, it’s looking up. It’s making eye contact, it’s answering questions. It’s taking the responsibility, your boss is paying you to produce results. Your boss is paying you to do certain things on a daily basis. It’s you embracing the responsibility.
I had an opportunity to talk about this just this morning with a client of mine. If you can picture two concentric circles, one smaller circle and then a bigger circle around that. And I promise you people that are in a place of whining and complaining and finding excuses, what they are doing is they are embracing the smaller circle of capacity rather than being willing to embrace the larger circle of responsibility.
As they look through the lens, as they look at that bigger responsibility, through the lens of their capacity and their limitations, they will sit and gripe and complain, point fingers. I can’t believe they expect me to do this, America’s Leadership Expert I can’t believe they expect me to do that. That’s not fair. They’re not paying me enough. These are the types of things that come out of people’s mouths that are living in their capacity rather than embracing their responsibility well. As a worker for you to embrace your responsibility is a key step in helping you move forward and positioning yourself for wealth.
Number nine, our well number nine at Clay Staires Tulsa Business Leadership is to learn how to influence others well. Win friends and influence people. This is you being able to get people to follow you. It’s all about learning followership. Getting people to follow you and do the things that you are doing. We did this exercise this morning with a group that I was doing this training on and I asked them to draw a circle and put in this circle the number of people that you feel are in your sphere of influence. Meaning, people that if you were to call them or text them right now and you were to ask them to do something that might be a little inconvenient for them, how many of them would actually do it because of your influence.
Again, if you give them money they’re going to do it, but they’re doing it because of the money. If you make it something really easy they’re going to do it because it doesn’t put them in any imposition. If you ask them to do something that’s just a little bit difficult for them, how many people would actually do it? It’s time for us as workers, it’s time for us if we want to expand, if we want to position ourselves for wealth, we have to learn how to influence people well. As you move up the ladder at work, as you move up the ladder of leadership, you will have to be able to use this influence to get people to come along with you. If you don’t learn how to influence others well, it will be very difficult for you to expand and position yourself for wealth.
And then well number 10 at Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership is know how to sell product well. This was something that I did not know how to do. This was something that I had always struggles with. People said, “Clay you have a great personality for sales,” but I was terrified to close the deal. I always had this mindset that to close the deal, to push somebody to a sale was all about manipulation and deception and being pushy, not thinking about them but just thinking about the sale. I had a real negative mindset, but what I’ve come to learn is that there are three primary steps, three big steps in the way of thinking about sales.
Number one, you need to be sure to value the product or the service that you are selling. Number two, you need to be able to communicate that value in a clear way. Then finally step number three, you need to be able to help people make decisions. Three steps in being able, in gathering the mindset and building the mindset of a salesperson, number one, know the value and embrace the value. Number two, be able to communicate the value clearly, and number three, be able to help people make decisions. Those are three primary things that you are doing when you are selling.
For you to be able to expand indefinitely, expand your measure, expand your ability to gain wealth, it’s going to be important for you to learn how to sell. This is Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert with Tulsa Business Leadership with the 15, this is Podcast number 37 with The 15 Wells of Wealth, Session Number Two.