What is an Accidental Leader?
They have a great idea for a business. They go out and do it, they grow, and think that they are leading.
They start hiring people, unaware that they’re dreadful leaders. They realize that their employees are dreadful… or maybe it’s the other way around.
It’s all in the numbers, right? If you run through three or four employees in a couple of months, there’s a common denominator, YOU!
Today on the podcast, we are interviewing one of our clients, Bo McDonald, who has been with us for years. Bo discovered something very important about his leadership… the “accidental” leader.
A few things we hit:
- What turnover looked like for the “accidental” leader and what the signs were.
- What the impacts were of being an “accidental” leader.
- What the next step in leadership looked like for him.
- How the Next-Level Mastermind group helped his leadership.
- The HUGE changes from his team from dedication to increased productivity.
If you’re not pouring into yourself and changing yourself and investing in yourself, it’s hard to invest in anyone else.
The more you as a leader dig in, the more information you get, the more you can change, and be the better leader you will become.
Click here to read the transcript from today’s podcast.
Resources:
[accordion clicktoclose=true tag=h2][accordion-item title=”Transcript” state=closed]Chris LoCurto: 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. We are sitting here in Franklin, Tennessee, where it has gone from very warm
to very cold and apparently, we’re going to have very warm weather again in a
couple days. It is the strangest thing on the planet, how fast we can go from 30
degrees to 70 degrees and back down to 30. I hope you guys are having a fantastic
day and I also hope that you are signed up for the free webinar that we’re doing
tomorrow. When I say tomorrow, what I mean is the 2nd of March. We’re doing
our free training for you, which is the Leadership Road Map. It is your leadership
road map. It is the pillars of the things that I teach so many of our clients, so many
of our mastermind clients, so many of our coaching clients. These are huge, huge
pieces that we work on to help them absolutely change their business and change
their lives as well.
If you would like to be a part of that webinar, it’s very easy for you to do. Text the
word Clowebinar, CLOWEBINAR one word to the number 33444 and we will send
you the registration and you can pick one of your two times. There’s two times that
we’re going to be doing it, so pick one of those times and we will get you in or you
can go just directly to ChrisLoCurto.com/webinar and get signed up right away. Do
not miss this webinar. You’re going to want to attend this thing. Also coming up,
you’ve heard us talking about our May event, our Next-Level Leadership Live Event
that is coming up in May. Three days of incredibleness. Yes that is what I’m going to
say it is. It is incredibleness. It is going to be amazing teaching, a lot of lot of
powerful, incredible stuff.
On top of that, we have got my mentor and buddy Rabbi Lapin that is going to be
there speaking as well. Do not miss out on the VIP experience. That is where we
have even more stuff. We have food. We have three incredible lessons on top of
everything that we’re going to be doing which is going to be with me, is going to be
with our mastermind experience, which is something you do not want to miss out
on it. It is something that our clients are living right now and it is a blast, it’s
amazing so we’re going to do something with that, and then we’re also going to
have an extra lesson by Rabbi Lapin, a Q & A for that as well. Don’t miss out on
that. Speaking of the May events, we’ve got somebody on the show with us today,
Bo McDonald who’s going to be there at that event. Bo, welcome to the show, so
glad to have you on.
Bo McDonald: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Chris LoCurto: You are here in Tennessee with us because we’re doing our quarterly retreat for
our mastermind groups, our accountability groups and so that is kicking off this
afternoon. You’re here and decided to join us on the show, so glad to have you on
before we’re doing this event so we can talk about something that was so powerful
in your life. Before we get into that, tell everybody what you do. Tell everybody about your marketing company.
Bo McDonald: Yeah, sure. We have a marketing firm based in South Carolina and we work
exclusively with credit unions. That’s it; progressive credit unions that want to
grow. We grew from five; we’ve got twenty-six clients growing now. A team of two
people just about five years ago to thirteen.
Chris LoCurto: It’s been so fun to watch the growth happen.
Bo McDonald: You’ve been there through the last couple of years of it.
Chris LoCurto: Been there through a lot of it. The reason why you came this direction is because
you discovered something and it’s what …
Bo McDonald: You have great food here.
Chris LoCurto: … That is exactly is. You know, coming here, you’re going to get good food, good
wine and some great events. You discovered something very important about your
leadership and it was a comment that you had made actually in passing that it was
like, that is how so many people end up where you are and don’t know what to do
with it and as you called yourself an accidental leader, explain what that means.
Bo McDonald: I think a lot of people end up that way. They have a great idea for a business. They
get there however, what happens through a lay off; just going out and doing it and
they grow and they realize after they start hiring people… They probably don’t
realize they’re a dreadful leader but they realized that their employees are
dreadful. But it might be the other way around. It’s all in the numbers. If you run
through three or four employees in a couple of months, there’s a common
denominator.
Chris LoCurto: I are it. Here you find yourself being this as you say accidental leader where so
many people that are listening got into leadership; some of them were seeking it,
some went after it. A lot of our demographic, a lot of people that listen to this show
want to be leaders, but a lot of them found themselves in the same spot you did.
Some are in leadership. Some are entrepreneurs where like you said, you decide
you’re going to make a widget and sell it and think, “Well, that would be a good
thing to do,” and not realize that it outgrows you in the process. Being an
accidental leader, what were the things, like you just talked about going through
about three or four employees in a few months; what was it like, what was it, what
did you experience and what were the huge signs to you that maybe it was you?
Bo McDonald: Really it all came together for me after I took the DISC profile. That’s when I
realized that my mindset was all wrong. The people I was hiring, to me at that
point, they were tools to get a job done. They weren’t people. We had clients, they
need to be served, stuff had to be done and I never took them as people. I never
treated them like people. As soon as you pointed that out to me, it took me a little
bit of pride to admit that I was wrong and that I was treating people like tbecause it’s hard to hear. If you’re a decent person, you don’t want to be told that
your mistreating people because that’s just not good. As soon as I got through it
and realized that is exactly what I was doing, I wasn’t giving people the opportunity
to fail. I was micromanaging and I was losing good talent because of it. People that
had a great skillset, I just would not allow them to use it.[/accordion-item][/accordion]
