The Difference is ACTION - Scott Baker, CEO, National Nail

Today at lunch a group of eight of us from viastore went to hear Scott Baker, CEO & President of National Nail talk about Servant Leadership.

This guy was right up our alley, preaching to the choir, walking the walk so if we've heard it all before what did he say that we can take and create ACTION with?

That's my question, here are my notes, we'll see if we can get to an answer along the way.

Servant Leadership is not just for churches and non-profits. When Mr. Baker was talking about National Nail he shared their purpose and vision: To Connect with Intention. To be Respected, to Earn that Respect and to Serve.

As a CEO, Mr. Baker asks himself: Are our employees better people because they work here? Are you a better person because of where you work?

Leading is not a position, it's a choice. That reminds me of the book our company recently went through as a group: You don't need a Title to be a Leader. Everyone is a leader and the impact we all have on those around us is astounding.

Mr. Baker lead us through an activity where we listed words that we thought made a strong leader: passion, courage, vision, driven, goal oriented, focused, conviction, respect, integrity, motivated, persistent. Then he divided the area under a strong leader and we gave words for two different types of strong leaders: those that are motivated for self: pride, arrogant, selfish, insecure, manipulative, ego and those that are motivated by others: giving, humble, compassionate, caring, vulnerable, transparent, available, teachable, self aware.

It's the difference between asking, "what I successful?" vs. "was I significant?" or "did my life positively impact others?"

Success to the outside world is never enough - you'll never have enough "stuff".

There is no division of personal life and business life, there is no acting one way here and another way there. There is only life. This resonates with me. With how transparent we are with social media and Internet, how accessible with are with phones there is no separation anymore, which is why it's more important than ever to love what you do and live what you do. It's not wrong or bad to always be working if working is making life better and life is making work better. What's the difference?

It is a constant battle to not always think of yourself first. It's human nature. You have to make a constant, conscious effort to think outside of yourself and think about how what you're doing impacts those around you. This has become most apparent to me recently as a result of getting married. It's not just me anymore. I have to think of Adam in every decision I make, every action I take, every activity and event I commit to, it's a paradigm shift and a good one.

Mr. Baker talked about their upside down org chart where he's at the bottom. He made a reference to the roots of a plant. It's his job to help everyone else in the organization get better, grow, flourish, everyday!

Are you FAT? He asked are you Faithful? Are you Available? Are you Teachable?

Steps to Leadership Maturity:
You must first commit in your mind that you are going to serve others.
You must surround yourself by people with the same goal.
READ
Go where leadership is taught
Apply - Practice.

It is not enough to go listen to speakers and to be reinforced in what you already know. The difference between you and the other 100 people at the same talk is that YOU need to create action. This is my first little piece of action...