623 | Why Boldness is Contagious: Leading With Confidence to Inspire Your Team

Introduction (00:00:00)

On today's episode, we will explore how leading with boldness inspires confidence, trust and breakthrough success in your business. That is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris Locurto show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are today. We are talking about you, we are talking about your courage, we're talking about your boldness.

And I want to use a story that a lot of you may know about it. It's surprising to me how many people don't know this. I think this is something that should just be taught.

It's a great story of Ernest Shackleton and the the endurance expedition of 19- 1914. I believe that is where they took a trip down to Antarctica, a very long trip.

And while Shackleton ship, which is named the Endurance, it became trapped, which is an interesting name that it's called the Endurance.

It became trapped in the Antarctic ice. All right? And so he and his crew are literally stuck, going to face death, except for one thing. You know, there's no hope of rescue.

Nobody's coming after them. Nobody's going to try and go, you know, solve this. I mean, if they can't make it, that's just it. Shackleton boldly led his men on and listen to this 800 mile open sea journey in a small lifeboat.

They did this through freezing temperatures, through violent seas. How did he do it? With unwavering confidence, with being calm, under pressure, with refusing to give into fear.

All of this inspired total loyalty from his team and every single man survived.

So are you going to face a situation like that? No, probably not. I don't know of anybody. And by the way, it's not as difficult to get to Antarctica now.

Still not easy. But are you going to face a challenge where 800 men or people are possibly going to face death if you don't solve something? Most likely not.

However, here's what you need to hear from this and here's what you need to take away. There's so many great things to take away.

But something that we're talking about today is that when you're in times of crisis, your boldness becomes your team's anchor.

People are going to rise, Listen to me, to the level of your courage or to the level of courage that they see modeled. If it's not you, maybe it's somebody else.

That's where they're going to rise to, right? Very few people. And I'm not saying that they can't and they won't. But few people are going to go past that.

Why? Because we tend to look to leadership for how are we going to solve this current problem?

Now, some people may step up and go beyond that, which is great and fantastic, but how are they going to do that? Right?

The thing that you have to recognize is that when things, you know, the proverbial poop hits the fan, how do you respond?

What are you going to do? Are you going to freak out? Are you going to pass out? Are you going to run? Or are you going to face the times of crisis with boldness, with courage, with calm?

And I can tell you, in my years of leadership, I have had multiple times that I didn't even realize that I was being watched in a. In a crisis situation until afterwards.

Somebody asked the questions, how are you so calm? Well, why wouldn't I be calm? Because this is a pretty cruddy situation.

Well, yeah, but not being calm is not going to solve the problem. We just need to solve the problem.

We just need to move forward. And while it seemed silly, the questions that I was being asked at the time, it makes so much sense in hindsight.

It makes so much sense as I look at myself as a younger person going, you know, looking to stronger, you know, models for me to, you know, gauge my.

My boldness from, my courage from. It makes total sense that somebody was looking at me going, why are you not freaked out?

Because I'm freaked out inside. And I'm just going, because it doesn't help now. Do I handle every situation that way? No, but a lot, a lot of stuff. I just try and solve the problem.

We have a problem. Solve the problem. Another reason why I do that is because I can't stand living in the panic and the fear and the anxiety. That just sucks. I'm gonna be honest.

I hate it. That is not a place where I want to be. So for me, I'm somebody who likes to get that solved as fast as possible so that I can just move on.

So that's what we're talking about today. We got five big key points and takeaways that I want you to focus on.

Boldness Creates Momentum and Energy (00:05:18)

The first one of those is understanding that boldness creates momentum and energy. Bold leaders literally set the tone for their team's mindset.

Think about it. If you've ever, and maybe you've never worked for a bold leader, but if you ever have, you know that those times that you look at that leader and you're like, man, they are not afraid of anything.

They're just ready to go forward. They're going to solve this thing. I can tell you, I've had some of those leaders in my life. I've had a lot that weren't like that when I was younger.

But the ones that were like, we got this, we can do this. I mean, that just inspired the daylights. And I think that's probably a big basis for me being able to overcome stuff in life is watching somebody else do it.

I'm a big noticer. You know, when I watch somebody go, this isn't a problem. This isn't a big deal. Just solve the problem. Then all of a sudden I go, this isn't a problem.

It's not a big deal. Just solve the problem, right? Make it happen. Do the thing that needs to be done. Stay calm, do the best you can. I think that has been something that has been huge for me in my life.

And you've got to understand that when you act with confidence, other people feel empowered to do the same. And I think another great thing is to put yourself in situations or allow yourself to be in situations that do cause you to feel out of control.

A lot of folks are spending so much of their life fighting, feeling out of control, when really what they should be doing is allowing themselves to be in situations that they are out of control.

Because that's when you really start to learn, how do I handle this situation, no matter what it is.

I remember when I first got asked to pray for people back in the mid-90s as I was getting into ministry, and the first time I was asked to pray for a couple of kids, I was scared to death.

I didn't speak in public. I didn't, you know, I wasn't a public speaker at that time. I had never prayed in public before. I didn't know what the heck I was doing.

And I just remember the. The adrenaline coursing through my veins as I tried to pray over these two boys there. I. The great thing is, is that, you know, I came to love those guys and vice versa later on in life.

And we became friends and. But I remember that time of just feeling the pressure of, I'm supposed to pray for these guys and I'm scared to death to pray out loud.

And there was, you know, they were at an altar as they, you know, as many of you churchgoers understand, so they were kneeling at the, you know, the stairs. That was called the altar. And, you know, band is playing and all this kind of stuff.

Back in those days, that's how we did it. And a lot of people still do it that way.

But as I walked up there, I prayed loud enough that they could hear me say something, but not loud enough that they could hear what I was saying, because I didn't know what to say.

And I just. I felt these two boys needed somebody who knew what the heck they were doing.

And I. Even to the point where one of the boys. I could see them tilt their head up to try and hear what it was that I was praying. I was so ashamed. I was so ashamed.

And as I should have been at that time, that's a. That's a time for me to feel now. I shouldn't have felt as ashamed as I did.

But on my way back to my pew, which was the last one in the- in the building, I told myself, don't you ever allow yourself to be in that type of situation again.

You figure out now what to do and how to pray over people and how to speak and put, you know, not speak in public, like, be on stage. I didn't even think I was going to do, do that.

I didn't have a clue that was coming. But I think that was the impetus, if you will, of me putting myself in a place of going.

Never allow that to happen again. Getting over that fear, tackling it with boldness and courage, that caused me to then be able to step up and become a public speaker, you know, a preacher at that time, back in those days, and. And public speaker.

So, you know, speaking professionally for 30 years now, I think that was a huge piece of me, stepping me up. Hopefully that story is something that inspires you.

Hopefully. Looking at that and recognizing that you can overcome and you can't. It's okay to be frustrated with yourself for five minutes. That's what I always say. You got five minutes.

Be frustrated and then get over it. Solve the problem, fix the problem. Right. It's okay that I felt shame during that time. I should have. Right? That was a situation where I could have said no. I could have, you know, been a wuss.

I could have done all kinds of things, right? But instead, I feel like God allowed that situation for me to realize this is vitally important. This is important to these two boys.

If you're going to be in ministry, if you're going to, you know, do what God's calling you to do, step up, step up, or step out and praise God. I chose to step up.

So, you know, you may like Elon Musk, you may love him, you may hate him. I don't care. This isn't any type of political discussion or whatever.

If you take a look at the bold vision homeboy has for Tesla, for SpaceX, which I think right now the bold vision for Tesla is just putting out fires, which is disgusting.

I cannot believe. I can't believe. I'm not even going to. I'm not even going to get into it. If you take a look at the level of confidence this dude has in what seemed impossible, I'm sure for many folks, I mean, just think about him sharing this.

Hey, guys, we're going to. We're going to go out into outer space. We're going to technically kind of fly out there, right?

We're going to launch, but then we're going to finish it by flying out into outer space. We're going to take people out there. He still wants to go to Mars. Whatever.

That's, That's. If that's what the guy wants to do, that's up to him. I don't see any reason to, but whatever.

But think about sharing the vision of that and how fearful that must have been and how people must have been like, you're an idiot. There's no way that's going to work.

There's no way we're going to be able to do that. But think about all of the champions who said, heck yeah, I am all about this. Let me help you try to figure this out.

How many things seem impossible that Elon Musk has crushed and he's made possible. So I don't care.

Again, whatever your political beliefs are, this has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with looking at the confidence, the boldness, the courage of somebody who says, we can do this and then pulling it off, right?

So recognize that your team watches you. They watch how you handle challenges. They watch how you, you know, do you respond with fear? Do you respond with panic?

Do you respond with courage? They are literally watching what you do every step of the way, and they will base a lot on that. So make sure that you're approaching your team with decisiveness.

Make sure that you're approaching your team with enthusiasm. If you do that, you will create enthusiasm.

If you do that, you will create a team and a culture, a culture of forward motion, really, where people just continue to do more, move forward more, do it with less fear, do it with more strength.

Confidence in Uncertainty Builds Trust (00:12:49)

Next thing, number two, confidence. In uncertain times, uncertainty situations, it builds trust. Your team literally does not expect you to have all of the answers.

Now, they do expect you to have a lot of the answers, but they understand that you're human, but they do expect you to lead with confidence.

So if you think about like a Winston Churchill. Right. Again, I don't care what your views are on him.

That's not the point. The point is how strongly did he lead his country? How confident did he lead his country now? Was he freaking out on the inside? Probably. He probably was.

Did he question a lot of things? He probably did. I don't know. I wasn't there. I wasn't in the guy's brain.

But here's what I do appreciate so greatly, how well he spoke to his nation and told them, we are doing this, we are going to survive, we are going to move troops here, we're going to do this over there, we're going to stop this, we are going to make this.

And that gave a lot of confidence. Were there still people freaked out? 100%, abso-stinking-lutely nobody knew for sure.

But I can tell you, if I was sitting there listening to him during that time and I was, you know, one of his constituents, then yeah, I think I would have a heck of a lot more confidence in his confidence. Right.

So make sure that you're okay admitting when you don't have all the answers, but commit to finding solutions, commit to solving problems.

You don't have to have all the answers. But if you're somebody who's like, man, I can figure that out. We can get to that. We can ask some questions. I am a perspective gathering person.

People are not shocked when I go, let me ask somebody about that. They're not shocked because I'm going to get to the answer. If it's important enough, I'm going to get to the answer.

I'm going to figure this thing out. If I don't have the answer, I will get to the answer.

Your confidence, the fact that you don't, you know, respond in a way that says, oh, I have to have an answer, so I'm going to give an answer.

People are probably going to think it's not correct, but if I can give an answer, then they think I'm right. And hopefully nobody challenges me on that.

Oh, for the love, get over it. That's. That is so immature. Instead, don't know the answer is what I'm teaching our daughter. Every time she responds to something. I have come to understand my high I & D daughter.

I have come to understand she will respond to things and not know what the word means. It's kind of like, you know, the part in Princess Bride, I do not believe that means what you think it means. Right.

I've, I've learned to ask the question, baby, do you know what that word means? And usually, almost always, what follows is no. Okay, well, then don't respond to it if you don't know what it means.

Just say, daddy, I don't know what that word means. And it's taken a few times for her to go, I don't know what you're saying. I don't know what that means. Right.

You don't have to have the answers. But if you respond confidently that you don't have the answer and you're going to figure it out, you're going to find out.

You build confidence in your team. Right.

The whole organization feels that, that reassurance that we're going to get right back on track or, you know, we're going to fix whatever's going on or we're going to solve whatever the, the problem of the day is or put out the fires of the day.

Bold Leadership Fosters a Culture of Innovation (00:16:27)

Number three, bold leadership fosters a culture of innovation. Now, some of you might be thinking, oh, my gosh, I don't need any more innovation.

I, I've got a handful of what's going on. I got to solve everything that I've got. Listen to me. Teams that operate in fear rarely, very rarely, or almost never take risks, and they very rarely innovate.

When they are operating in fear, their biggest concern is how do we get out of the fear? Who's going to solve the fear thing? Or they might be thinking, there's no way out of this.

This is just the way it is. The ship is sinking. Everything is done with. Right? When they operate in fear, the last thing they want to think about is taking a risk, because that risk may bring more pain.

They're already in pain, and that risk may bring more pain.

So a bold leader who encourages experimentation and learning from mistakes will actually help the team to confidently face problems, to confidently face situations.

So think of the, the kind of, you know, CEO or business owner that literally teaches his or her team to fail fast, but to solve problems faster, to learn from it faster, to create a culture where people understand they can fail as long as it's not a fatal failure, and as long as they don't keep failing at the same thing over and over again.

You know, you've heard me say that a bajillion times. In our culture, people understand I expect you to fail at some point. Why?

Because if you don't fail, you're not doing anything. But if you fail, make sure it's not a fatal failure. Don't take risks that could be fatal. And then once you failed, figure it out, solve the problem.

What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen? How do we fix it? How do we make sure it never happens again?

So as a bold leader, work your butt off to create an environment where it's safe to take calculated risks. Celebrate the lessons that are learned from those risks, from those failures. Right?

Help people to recognize, okay, we tried that. Great job. What did we learn from it? What are we going to do about it?

Boldness Overcomes Fear and Resistance to Change (00:18:55)

Number four, boldness overcomes fear and resistance to change. Which you probably have some people on your team that are resistant to change.

Here's the deal. Change is inevitable. If you listen to those thought leaders who say that failure isn't an option, let me tell you, failure is inevitable.

You're going to fail unless you do nothing. It's the same thing with change. Change is inevitable. We're going to have to change.

At some point, something's going to happen. We may desire to get out of the situation we're in. We may find a better opportunity.

Whatever it is, change is inevitable. But many times teams or individuals resist it. A bold leader frames change as an opportunity, not a threat. Understand you have certain personality styles on your team that absolutely hate change.

High Ss, high Cs. They just hate change. It's conflict. They hate it. So instead of posing this, this change as a potential threat, help them to see there is no threat.

Help them to see that there's an opportunity. The more that you do that, the more your team will be okay with change. Are you ever going to get super high Cs or high Ss to love change? No, probably not.

But you could get them to where they work through it fast, where they recognize that it's necessary, that it's needed and that they get it done right. Doesn't mean that you're not going to still have to lead some of that.

But what you won't have to lead is the battle against the resistance. Wow. Sounds like some sort of TV show or movie. So think about like, let's say Blockbuster versus Netflix, right?

I think if you're old enough, you remember that there was a time Blockbuster had the opportunity to move into the digital realm, right? To take their movies.

And instead of staying a box store, a brick and mortar and you know, having DVDs and VHS or whatever, you know, to rent, instead converting it to digital and renting it that way.

But they were dead set that that was not going to last. It wasn't going to work. And they stayed the way that they did until, I believe, bankruptcy.

I'm pretty sure they went through bankruptcy on this. As opposed to Netflix, who saw an opportunity.

You know, Blockbuster hesitated, they failed. Netflix boldly embraced that big shift to digital. And look at where they are now. I mean, they're a behemoth.

So you have to realize that if you have a team who's resistant and you don't lead them through it, then your company is going to be resistant to change.

Your company is probably going to miss out on opportunities when it's time to change comes along and your team doesn't want to do it.

You're probably going to be somebody who eventually, after a thousand times of experiencing this, throws your hands up in the air, right?

So if you will lead by example and help them them to get there instead of allowing the tail to wag the dog, right? If you will lead by example, then they can get there and understand that change is necessary.

Speak into their personality styles, lean in their direction. All the things that you know, you've heard me say before.

Bold Leaders Inspire Others to Step Up (00:22:31)

Number five. Bold leaders inspire others to step up. Folks, leadership isn't just about making decisions or telling people what to do or having a title.

It's literally about inspiring people to do things on their own that they wouldn't normally get to right, or as a team that they wouldn't normally get to right.

You have to lead them, show them where they are to stand on things, on issues, on situations, on solving problems, on dealing with clients, on how they do their job, how they do their tasks, how they treat each other, the expectations that you have, you need to lead them and inspire them to step up.

If you will model that, if you will empower that inside of your team, inside of your business, inside of your leaders.

Helping your leaders to make quality decisions and step up. Helping your leaders to be more engaged, helping them to motivate the team.

Then you will be amazed at how much your team members will step up. So equip your team with confidence. Do it by modeling bold decision making.

Do it by encouraging them to take ownership and take initiative. The more that you do this, the more that you do this, the more your team will feel free to step up.

What is all of this require? It requires them believing in you. It requires them trusting you. If they do not trust you.

And how do you build trust? You be vulnerable. You show them vulnerability. You show them that they can be vulnerable.

You care more about them than you care about yourself. You do the things that helps them to feel safe.

If you will do this, and I'm not saying you kowtow to every single little silly thing that a person has. You're gonna. If you did that, you would have no business, right?

But if you help your team members to feel safe, then what you will discover is you will create this type of environment.

Action Steps (00:24:40)

So I've got some additional resources, but before we get to that, I want to talk about action steps that you can take right now.

If you're a leader, here's what you can do. Assess your leadership style. Are you leading boldly or are you hesitating due to fear, due to uncertainty due to whatever, Right?

Check and see how you are leading. If you're leading from fear, obviously you're creating fear in your environment.

Number two, communicate with confidence. Don't just communicate and please don't, don't let people see that you're freaked out. Right?

If you are freaked out, if you're struggling on the inside, okay, solve you. But if you communicate fear, then you're just going to compound that fear in your team.

No matter how tough the times are, your confidence is going to be the thing that will inspire your team.

Number three, definitely encourage calculated circle star, Highlight the word calculated.

Risk taking. I am a big risk taker, but I spend a lot of my time calculating the risk. Right?

So give your team permission to innovate to make mistakes and learn from their mistakes, but inspire them to learn from their mistakes. Right?

If we have done a good job calculating the risk and we screwed up, then most likely the thing that's going to screw up is going to be the unknown, the thing that we didn't see, or something's going to get torpedoed from an external source or something like that.

Okay, what do we learn? What do we do about that? How do we fix that?

Number four, model bold decision making. Listen, you've got to show your team how to take action even when the outcome is not guaranteed. Do something.

When people just sit on their hands, when people just sit in fear, that negative self talk does not go away. It bombards them. It hounds them. You know, it's the thing that's keeping them from moving.

So you need to do something which is to model how to make bold decisions. What does that look like? Right. Number five, invest in leadership development.

Please make sure that you're creating an environment where future leaders can emerge, that they can thrive, that they can learn, that they can be mentored, that they can be, you know, taught, trained. Train them up to be phenomenal. Help them to become great leaders.

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Additional Resources (00:28:35)

Also, some additional resources. Two episodes that are just must listen to:

621 Bold Leadership versus Resistance, Breaking Cycles and Leading Effectively, which is part one of the Boldness series which was published on April 8th.

Also 622 Boldness versus Burnout. Reclaiming Your Energy to Lead with Confidence. That was part two of the the series. Go back. Listen to those. It'll rock your world.

Conclusion (00:29:04)

So as a leader, you have to understand that your actions shape the mindset and the energy of your team.

Boldness isn't about recklessness. It's, it's, it's about having courage. It's about having courage to take action no matter what's going on, despite uncertainty.

So when you lead with confidence, you give your team permission to do the the very same thing. So what's one bold leadership move you can make this week?

Think about that process on that, write that down and then do it. And then stay confident, stay courageous and keep leading.

Well, folks, that's all the time that we have for today. Hopefully. This is just powerful for you, for your family. You know, don't just take this into your business, but lead your family well in this.

Teach your family these same exact things, right? Teach your kids, teach your spouse. Teach those around you. As always, take this information. Change your leadership. Change your business. Change your life. And join us on the next episode.