011 | 3 Surprising Traits That Make a Successful Leader with Joe Blackburn What makes a great leader? Joe Blackburn boils it down to 3 key traits that he’s seen lead people to success time and time again. Joe is a Certified Financial Planner and Founder of Lion’s Eye Coaching, with a track record of helping clients significantly increase their revenues. He's a former director at Merrill Lynch, where he managed a team of over 140 financial advisors and oversaw billions in assets.  Joe's expertise extends to various industries, including luxury retail and real estate, and he's worked with top executives at major corporations. With 25 years of experience, he's a sought-after national speaker on sales, wealth development, and leadership. Influencing Others The best way to lead is by example. If you have a team working under you, let them see you do the work. Keeping your standards high empowers people to be their best. If you’re not happy with the quality of work being done, take responsibility and ask yourself how you allowed this to happen. When addressing board members, Joe’s advice is to single out the most influential stakeholders–and remember that the loudest voice in the room isn’t necessarily the most important. If you’re making a request, be transparent about who it’s for, why you want it, and what the benefit is.  The 3 Facets of Success There are 3 key components Joe works on with his coaching clients to help them maximize their potential. The first is your “self-ideal” or vision: how do you see yourself now and where do you want to be in the future? What’s the gap between your current self-image and your ideal one? Successful leaders have clarity on this vision.  The second component is goal-setting. You need to hit goals consistently and on time. Joe continuously challenges his clients to expand and aim bigger–to “adjust the floor, not the ceiling.” The easiest way to do this is to compress the timeline. If your original goal was to hit $100,000 in the next six months, aim for $150,000 in three months. You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish with the pressure of a deadline. The last facet that all successful leaders have is self-responsibility. It’s your job to own everything that happens to you, good or bad. Even when certain elements are outside your control, they’re still within your responsibility.  Enjoy this episode with Joe Blackburn… Soundbytes 9:45-10:03 “If you are reasoning or rationalizing yourself into doing what you’re already doing, it’s really against you. So I’ll start asking them and taking them through a series of questions on why it is they’re doing that and the reason is fear. Complacency and fear.”  10:28-10:51 “There’s no risk in doing something different versus doing what you’re doing. Bad things can happen in either place. I just think people get in their shells and they start saying ‘This is the only thing I’m good at, this is the only thing I can do, this is the only way I can do it’. I’ll use you as an example: it’s not that you were afraid but I don’t think that you could see how big this could become and how fast it could grow.” Quotes “I came to the realization that I didn’t have to run someone else’s play anymore. I didn’t have to do what was expected of me.” “It’s all risk, so why not do what you really want?” “Complacency is a worse killer than one of these diseases because it erodes you over time.” “80% of your success relies on clarity.” “Be unreasonable.” “You’re capable of so much more than what you’re doing.” “Whatever you allow is going to happen.” “Business isn’t linear for long.”   Links mentioned in this episode: Visit Joe’s website: https://realjoeblackburn.com/  Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-blackburn-4904227/