This is Leadership | Joe Reichert | TEDxCherryCreek

[Music] [Applause] when i was in the third grade i suffered from a rare condition that i almost never recovered from the official name of it is long and complicated so most people now just simply refer to it as middle part [Music] for over two years i willingly did that to my own head and now i don't show you this to scare you or to permanently haunt your dreams but instead to prove to you that if that person can one day become a leader then my word literally anyone can do it but i have to say

we are not making it easy in fact i think most would agree that the thought of becoming a leader is confusing and just downright intimidating like an ikea dresser why even bother because on one hand we have this amazing new idea of a leader one that's vulnerable and compassionate yet we're still teaching people that the functional duties of a manager things like strategic visions or delegating have anything to do with being a good leader which is why right now if i'm someone new to leadership and i have that tiny leadership flame that i'm secretly guarding

there is a giant void between where i am and the leader i want to become you see at work i manage a team of engineers and if we're being honest i would tell every one of them watching this do not join a leadership development program you are wasting your time and we're wasting our money trying to teach you because we don't know what we're doing and i can prove it go ask a recent graduate of that program this simple question what is leadership i did last year to an incredibly bright engineer who had just emerged

after three years certificate in hand no answer go ask someone teaching that program i bet you you'll get no answer i even asked other managers from different companies on the spot i got no answer and if you're feeling up to it ask yourself right now probably no answer now this really is the definition of insanity teaching the same thing over and over again in hopes of a different result i mean can you imagine if you hired a carpenter and when they showed up at your door they couldn't answer what is carpentry you would fire them

and rightfully so we can't have chairs that look like this and then if that same carpenter was teaching a class on it and you showed up and saw this you'd go yeah looks about right and then those people teach more people and eventually there's just nowhere to sit and it's funny because this nightmare universe would be completely unacceptable and yet when it comes to leadership we kind of let it slide because one of them's bound to figure it out eventually right well that is just not good enough anymore so i'm here today because i'm frustrated

i'm upset at how complicated we've made leadership so my goal is simple at the end of this talk you're going to think to yourself i could do that and you'll be right because you can because anyone can and here's how i'm going to share with you the best kept secret i know about leadership what it actually is i'm not gonna compare it to something else i'm not gonna list the traits of great leaders and i'm not gonna make up yet another leadership law for us all to remember nope i'm going to show you at its

core what it really is and then with this as your foundation you can actually go out and become that amazing modern leader you read and hear so much about because i'm sorry i can't stand by and watch us turn our next abraham lincoln or maya angelo into a manager not a leader but i have to say even with how poorly we teach it we all know there are some incredible leaders out there so i'd like you to picture one in your head right now someone that really sticks out to you someone you absolutely consider to

be a leader now i'm curious what was their official title manager english teacher head coach you know what i'm certain their title wasn't leader one word just leader try your hardest right now you cannot go online and apply to be simply a leader it doesn't exist you could find leader of blank blank blank lead but just lead or that word you thought of it's not going to happen and yet you know this person was one so clearly being a leader is something separate something completely independent from your occupation or the functional duties that define your

job well then it's got to be something you can acquire something you can earn but then how would you describe to someone else how to become one well call me old-fashioned but i think a great place to start would be with the basics and i think we'd all agree what do leaders have followers and follow is an interesting word because it really is the only one like it see if i go to my car right now and you go where i go because you want to be where i am for whatever reason that's called creepy

and following you're choosing to go where i am you're following me i'm certainly not forcing you to do that you're not obeying someone's command no this was something you voluntarily did but then why would someone choose to follow someone else to follow a leader well why do people choose to do anything ever i know for me when i'm hungry i eat back in the day though i'm hungry i hunt back in the day i'm really hungry and i realize caveman todd is a very good hunter so i start paying special attention to what todd does

i start sharpening my spears like todd i download the same true crime podcast as todd but most importantly i start listening to what todd says and i start going where todd goes because i have a basic need that must be met and i know he can help me with it and we all share these level one needs things like food water shelter these are the physical must-haves we need in order to stay alive but it goes beyond that things like a sense of belonging feeling appreciated being accepted these two live in level one for us

because we have to have these and as so many of us have sadly witnessed these two are life and death for us so we'll do whatever it takes to make sure these are met and whether we realize it or not we all search out ways and people that we think can help and once those are met and only after they're met do we fully allow ourselves into level two now level two these are our wants our desires we can live without these but we want these things like success or fame or just a general enjoyment

of life all live in level two but we can only stay in level two if our level one needs are being met if you're in the kitchen and you cut yourself opening a hot pocket questionable chores you wouldn't ignore it and go bleed out while you watch netflix no you would address the cut in your hand and then go on with your day the opposite order would be insane but it's not always that extreme sometimes we do switch the order put wants before needs success before our own well-being but we can only sustain that for

so long eventually the thankless 14-hour work days catch up to you you miss enough birthdays you lose enough hair and you feel so unappreciated that you just can't be successful anymore so you leave you find someone else somewhere else where you can be the best version of you so everything we do and every decision we make can be boiled down into satisfying either levels one or two and eventually they always happen in that order so i know what you might be saying to yourself okay joe that's great we're all these beautifully complicated organisms just trying

to survive and succeed in life but what's that mean for me i'm a program manager and i got deadlines or i'm a ceo and i've got a bottom line i need to worry about and to you i would say yes absolutely i agree we're on the same exact page same same the single goal of a leader is their team success period no matter how that team organization connected group of individuals is constructed and no matter how large it is two two thousand three hundred and thirty million all we as leaders want is for our teams

to succeed that's it so now this is where we're going to take a big step together i want you to think back to that leader of yours from earlier i can actually guarantee one more thing about them whether they realized it or not they understood and practiced the theory of leader relativity this is the basic logic flow that governs every leader there's ever been you name me a great leader they lived by it except most just have no idea they're even doing it see leaders want their teams to succeed teams are made of people when

people succeed teams succeed ah start from the other end i'm a person and i want to succeed but before i can get to level two i have to have my level one needs met because i am not capable of succeeding until that happens so if i don't think you're helping me do that then i'll never choose to follow you i'll never consider you a leader in other words i'm going to need you to care not only about my success but i need you to care about me period like as a person and i don't care

what words come after your name on linkedin i don't care how many stock options you got last year and i don't even care how much power you have on our team you cannot make me choose to follow you that's a decision i have to make you have to earn the leader role from me but once you do once you get me to realize that you care about my levels one and two my needs and my wants because you understand that our success depends on my success as a human then this is what we're left with

this is the best kept secret i know this is leadership someone following someone else this dynamic that arrow but i have to warn you that's all it is it's just one person following another person so just because laura considers me a leader because i've earned that with laura doesn't mean emily will doesn't mean ryan will or josh or megan these arrows non-transferable you have to build them with every person on your team and there's a lot of ways you can do that by the way there's no set of rules or anything mystical about it all

you have to do to build that arrow is get someone to have this thought i know you care about me because once you do that we want to follow you we know you'll help us so all those things that great leaders do inspiring empowering motivating those are just ways of expressing hey i care and this is me doing something about it hey i know you've had a rough week if you need anything at all just let me know boom arrow i love your goals but you can aim higher don't sell yourself short boom arrow there's

nothing embarrassing about taking a mental health day we'll see you back on wednesday boom arrow and here's the best part of all you can do this without even knowing someone without ever having a conversation we don't know each other but you can feel how much i love this subject and if that sparks something inside of you arrow but if you aren't doing that though every day helping someone with their levels one and two then this arrow disappears like myspace gone you see functional titles are static things like manager director vice president and like late night

tattoos they ain't coming off for better or worse on your team these are yours but the roles on a team those are something different these are how people see you they're things you become you can earn these but they're only lent to you because if the people on your team no longer see you in that way then you no longer occupy that role so to all my wishful thinkers out there i love you i do but you're not leaders you actually have to go out and actively build that era with everyone around you all the

time because what you did for me three weeks ago is great and i appreciate it i do but i'm hungry today i'm hungry right now and i will only follow someone that i think can help so if you can go out and bridge that gap between team success and individual success by truly caring about the people around you and going out of your way to help them every day well then you are on your way to becoming an incredible leader and just like that you're ready you now have the foundational secret to leadership and with

it this exciting new ability to actually go out and become that amazing modern leader you read and hear so much about but with great power comes great responsibility you see i poured my soul out for you today and now i'm asking you to go do the same with someone else someone that's new to leadership someone that's secretly guarding their own tiny leadership flame and is terrified at how complicated it all seems because if you take anything away from my talk today i hope it's this don't be scared of leadership it's just someone following someone else

functional duties or the power a person has have no impact on the type of leader they are or more importantly the type of leader you can become and so as you go out and grow into the amazing leader you were meant to be always remember people will walk through fire to follow you if they know you truly care about them that's what leadership is that's who we need you to be thank you [Music] [Music] you