Todd’s Take #4 – Leadership

“Leadership in business is the capacity of a company's management to set and achieve challenging goals, take fast and decisive action when needed, outperform the competition, and inspire others to perform at the highest level they can.”

EPIC has been blessed to have a very strong leadership team. It starts with the "C-suite" and continues deep into the 100 plus employees.

I get asked several times a year to speak on leadership, how to build it, how to incorporate it, and to grow it. All difficult aspects of leadership, for sure.

It starts with the interview process, which, because of legalities, becomes more and more difficult to dig into personalities and the who’s, why’s, how’s, etc. You do the best you can, to be up front, discussing roles, whether it is a CEO or a part-time position. You HAVE TO COMMUNICATE.

Once you have hired that person, what is their road map, how do you get them on the road, how do they stay on the road, and how do they manage their road, highways, or lanes. All part of successful leadership.

Assuming you have that part figured out, which is far from 100%, now the hard part. Trust. Loyalty. Instinctive Leadership. Does this person have these qualities? This you will find out.

If you hire good people and they have what is above, you let them grow, you let them win, you let them fail, and you work hard to keep them on their path then you help them teach others how to be on their path. Nothing comes easy, that is for sure, but if you work at it and if the team works at it then it becomes a true team, and leadership becomes an intrinsic pattern, that becomes very enjoyable.

The do’s of leadership – communication, hard work, honesty, hard work, help each other, hard work, reading, hard work, family, hard work, singles & doubles, hard work, organizational skills, hard work, inspire, hard work, be decisive, and of course, hard work.

The don’ts of leadership – lack of communication, lazy, arrogance, unorganized, and looking for the home run.

One other item that, while it seems logical, it doesn’t always happen, commit to hiring people smarter than you, and always creating a team in your lane that works yourself out of a job. That is how you GROW! Those two core values are essential in leadership and growth.

We are far from perfect with leadership at EPIC, but we wake up every day, knowing it will be a good day, we have no negative vampires, and we come to work to lead and have fun!

I have attached below, pictures of EPIC’s core leadership team, better known as the "C-suite". I do think, because I want you to see something else in this team -the mix – age, gender, etc. It is a mixture of conservatives, liberals, and folks that come from all walks of life, but all are educated, committed, and CARE.

I guess part of this “Todd’s Take” is to thank this team for being who they are………….LEADERS!

THANK YOU TEAM!

TB