5 Basic Principles Highly Effective Leaders Know
So I didn't play basketball for very long when I was a kid, but but one thing that I distinctly remember is, like, the first thing that they teach you to do really well is how to dribble, how to pass, and how to shoot. And although I didn't play for very long, I really didn't get the sense that there would ever be a day where it's like, I'm finally good enough that I don't have to focus on dribbling and passing and shooting well anymore. Right? Why? Because that's the fundamentals of basketball.
Alex Judd:It's the basics of basketball. And, it really connects to a quote that I think Socrates is attributed as saying first, which is learning is often remembering. That that so often we get this misconstrued idea in our head that, man, if I'm gonna grow as a person, as a business owner, as a leader, I gotta get revolutionary new original information compared to what I've gotten in the past. In reality, the times where I get way better as a leader are the times where I just come face to face with the realities that I've probably already heard but need to regularly be reminded of. I need to be reminded of the basics.
Alex Judd:And that's really the heartbeat behind the five basics that we're going to walk through here in this episode.
Ben Loy:Yeah. I I mean, I feel like it's just a good principle for life or any activity you do is stick to the basics.
Alex Judd:Stick stick to the basics and master the basics. Yeah. Like the people that we respect most subconsciously or consciously are the people that do like the little consistent everyday things well because it's like there's a lot of leaders out there that they can dunk and you're like, man, that guy can dunk. He's awesome, but he can't dribble. And it's like, dude, you dribble every day.
Alex Judd:Like like, these are the things that you do every day that if you can't do them well, people your your dunk isn't gonna actually make an impact in the marketplace. Mhmm. And that is the extent of my basketball analogies for the rest of the episode because if I go any further, I'm gonna sound like an idiot.
Ben Loy:So we have five. What what's the first one?
Alex Judd:Yeah. So the first one, and this is probably the one that hopefully everyone on here already agrees with, If someone depends on you, then you are a leader. We all know that it's so easy to get caught up into a leader being a person that has a title or has authority or has experience. And while those things can be true of leaders, they are not what makes someone a leader. The thing that makes someone a leader is people depend on you.
Alex Judd:So, therefore, the thing that I would tell everyone listening to this right now is the question is really not are you a leader? Because people depend on you. I know that for sure. Unless you live under a cave or in a cave under a rock somewhere, which you're probably not listening to this if that's the case, like you are a leader. Really, the question is not, are you a leader?
Alex Judd:The question is, are you leading? But when we reframe our perception of what leadership is as people depend on you, it carries way more weight in terms of the responsibility, but also the opportunity that's available to all of us.
Ben Loy:What would you say to someone who says, well, I don't feel like a leader. So
Alex Judd:I would say it's a good thing that your emotions don't really have anything to do with the definition. Right? Again, people depend on you. So so therefore, are a leader. Now we're gonna talk in the future basics about whether or not you're actually leading.
Alex Judd:And then in the third basic, we're gonna talk about are you actually leading well? But I think it's so critical to start here because I think the greatest limiting lid to people leading and certainly leading well is their inability to view themselves as a leader. I'm telling you this. This is not an exaggeration at all. I have had conversations with CEOs of $50,000,000 companies that look at me, and their primary struggle is that they do not look at themselves as a leader.
Alex Judd:And that is their lid because that is the thing that's capping them from owning the influence they most definitely have. Like, that is inarguable and irrefutable. But it is capping them because they can't own that influence and because they view themselves as being able to positively take people into a new direction. They don't do it because your behaviors follow your belief system. And if you don't believe you're the type of person that can do that or that is that, you're never going to act in accordance with an identity that you don't see yourself as fitting into.
Alex Judd:And so it's it's critically important that we are able to see that we do have leadership responsibility. You know, let's look at the flip side of that. I have known high school and college interns that their title is intern, and they are more of a leader or they're acting as more of a leader than that $50,000,000 CEO. And this is not to bash the $50,000,000 CEO. It's just like what is that intern doing?
Alex Judd:They don't have the title, they don't have the authority, but they do have the influence. And they're leveraging that influence to serve and they're stewarding that influence to bring value to other people. And as a result, people are following them. And, you know, I'm putting my money on that person because they have lifted their lid. There is no lid to their growth at that stage because they have reckoned with the responsibility that they most definitely have, which is the responsibility of leadership.
Ben Loy:Mhmm. So we defined what a leader is, and I think play that out. And long story short, if someone depends on you, you're a leader. If you're listening to this podcast, you're you're probably a leader. Right?
Alex Judd:Right.
Ben Loy:Now let's move on. And the next one, I think, creates a clear definition of what leadership is. It's I don't remember who said this quote Mhmm. But, yeah, can you just walk us through?
Alex Judd:So there's a lot of definitions of what leadership is. And I I actually think there's a lot of good functional John Maxwell would say leadership is influence, no more and no less. Right? I've heard a definition that says, leadership is accomplishing shared objectives with and through other people. It's not a bad functional definition.
Alex Judd:Here's the one that I've heard that I resonated the most with pragmatically and that is embedded certainly in every part of what we coach business owners and leaders on at Path for Growth. Leadership is helping people go from here to there. There's three parts I want to break down about that definition, but I I'd love to hear from you just like what's the first thing that stands out to you whenever you hear that definition, and are there any follow-up questions you want to get into before we break it down?
Ben Loy:I think the word helping always sticks out to me. Mhmm. Because I think often people can view yeah, people have a lot of assumptions about what leadership looks like, what healthy leadership looks like. You know, people talk about leadership styles. And so I think often people can be willing to just embrace something as their leadership style when it might not necessarily be healthy or or or effective or helpful.
Ben Loy:So, yeah, I guess can you break down, like, what is what is helpful leadership look like? Why is the word helpful used in in that definition? And then what is the difference between being helpful and maybe dictating, directing, or some of the other assumptions we have about leadership?
Alex Judd:Yeah. Man, you are the quarterback that just led the pass or that just led the receiver so well because I I feel like the ball's right in front of you. So that first part of that definition is helping, but what are you helping? You're helping people. You really can't help anything else.
Alex Judd:Like, what what do we always help ever? We always help other people. We're either helping ourselves or helping other people, but there's always a human on the other side of our help. And so number one, leadership is service. And, you know, I first heard Patrick Lencioni talk about this, and I thought it was so good.
Alex Judd:He said, I honestly don't love the term servant leader because he's like, I think it's redundant. They're the same thing if you're doing it well. I think that's pretty good. Right? And so leadership is helping people.
Alex Judd:That's the first part. I have met a lot of people that have leadership authority, leadership responsibility, and they would say, man, I just love leading this organization. I love the casting of the vision and I love the strategy and all of that. I love the resources and managing those properly. It's just there's so many meetings with people and I just, I'm not a people person.
Alex Judd:It's like, woah, you don't actually love leading then because you cannot have leadership without relationship. The two go hand in hand. Now, don't get me wrong. There is certainly a way to do way too much meetings. Right?
Alex Judd:But but if leadership is relationships and results, we have to remember that it starts with that relationship. It starts with helping people and there always has to be people who are served on the other end of our leadership is what I would say.
Ben Loy:So honestly, I didn't even notice this when you gave me this framework originally, but we've we've defined leader, we've defined leadership. Yeah. Now this third one dives into like kind of the how, like how do you lead well under those those definitions. Can you walk me through that?
Alex Judd:Yeah. So if leadership, which we just defined, is helping people go from here to there, that's from current state to desired state. What's interesting about that statement, especially if we even change that statement a little bit, which I've said this before as leadership is taking people taking people from here to there. We could look at that statement, and we could say, was Martin Luther King Junior a leader? For sure.
Alex Judd:Was Abraham Lincoln a leader? For sure. Was Nelson Mandela a leader? For sure. Was, Jesus a leader?
Alex Judd:Absolutely. Was Hitler a leader? Taking people from here to there? Yes. Was Mussolini a leader?
Alex Judd:Yes. Right? We could list any number of people that we think of as atrocious. Did they lead people? Yes.
Alex Judd:So just because you are a leader does not mean you're a good leader. There is nothing qualitative in the idea of leadership is taking people from here to there. So remember, if you are a leader, which we've clear clarified that you are, the next thing that you have to reckon with is you are taking people somewhere. You are not neutral. You are an elevator.
Alex Judd:You're taking them up or you're taking them down, but you're going somewhere. This elevator is not sold. So then as a leader, if you wanna be a good leader, you gotta take ownership of where you're taking people. What does it look like to be a good leader? What is good leadership actually about?
Alex Judd:That brings us to our third basic. The quality of your leadership, how good or bad it actually is, is determined by three things. Why, where, and way. So why is the motive. It's the heartbeat.
Alex Judd:It's the purpose. Why are you actually leading people? There's good motives. I wanna provide for other people. I wanna support other people.
Alex Judd:I wanna unleash the best in others. I want other people to have a safe environment to be able to work. Good motives. Right? There's also bad and selfish motives.
Alex Judd:I want to strictly provide for myself on the backs of other people. Right? I want to, you know, I wanna make a name for myself. Right? That's what selfish ambition is, which the bible speaks vehemently against.
Alex Judd:Not ambition necessarily, but selfish ambition. Vain ambition speaks directly against. I want to accrue power so that I can just literally tell people what to do and that's my life. Right? That's how you become a tyrant is you do that really well over time.
Alex Judd:Those are bad motives. So the quality of your leadership is defined by your why, number one. Then your where. Well,
Ben Loy:let's yeah. Let's let's break that down a little bit more because I I feel like there are when I was, in rescue swimmer school, for instance, like, one of the really big things that people like to talk about is, know your why. Like know why you're doing this. Yeah. Because it gives you some resiliency and some fortitude.
Ben Loy:But there was this picture of like, you just have, you have to have this big, this one big reason that's your why. And I guess my inclination is to push back on that a little bit and the the kind of why I think I want to look into this a little bit more. Do you need, like, one why, or is, you know, having multiple reasons good enough?
Alex Judd:Oh, that's a really good question. I personally think there's value to having the simplicity of an umbrella purpose that hopefully is macro enough to to capture all of the micro reasons. Right? You could ask me why did I wake up and play in the toy kitchen with Lily this morning and we made burgers that we fed to her stuffed animal dogs? And why am I running my twenty ninth marathon in February, and why are we hiring new people for our business, and why would I go, for a date night with Aspen on Wednesday night?
Alex Judd:You could ask me why to all of those. And, of course, there's gonna be micro reasons for each of those things Sure. That look differently. But what has been so powerful and profound for me and Aspen both is to have an umbrella macro reason that we know, hey, all of our micro reasons fit under this macro motive. And so what what that represents for us is that's our, like, family mission statement.
Alex Judd:That is a simple statement, which is to faithfully, follow, grow, and love so that God is glorified and his blessings are multiplied. Right? And and Aswin and I have that statement memorized. Right? That that is like now you may look and you're like, well, of course you're doing that.
Alex Judd:Why do you need a sentence? It's super helpful to have a sentence to remind you because when things get tempting, when things get hard, when things get difficult, it's helpful to lean on something really simple that you're like, this is why I'm doing this. And so all of those things fit under that macro why. In some way, I would say the answer is both to your question. There's micro reasons that the more specific you are on those, probably the more effective you're gonna be, but they should all tie up into one macro reason.
Alex Judd:And and let's be very clear. The macro reason I believe for everyone that is most fruitful and life giving is glorify God and serve people. Like, you you don't have to be a mad scientist and come up with some massively original thing.
Ben Loy:And I think often, maybe the inclination for leaders would be to the people I'm serving have to be on board with all of my whys. And I feel like when you have a and you correct me if I'm wrong, but, like, I feel like if you have a a broader umbrella why, if they're aligned in that, like, that is the purpose, that is the goal, And then it leaves room for everyone can have their Everyone comes from different walks of life. They're in different seasons. They have different goals. And so the peripheral wise can be more, I think, specific to the individual.
Ben Loy:Diverse.
Alex Judd:Yeah. I think so. So I think that's really well said. And that actually kind of points to the second w two, which is where, right, the quality of your leadership is often determined by the quality of the destination you're aiming at. We'll get more into this in the upcoming episode that we're gonna do on strategy, but you're taking people somewhere.
Alex Judd:And and there's a lot of people that have a leadership title or responsibility or authority, and they they have even owned that responsibility. Like, they're viewing themselves as a leader, but then you ask them, who are you leading? And they can even tell you these are the people that I'm responsible for serving. And then you ask them, where are you taking them? Like, what is the hopeful future that you're moving them towards?
Alex Judd:And they can't give you a clear answer. They're like, well, it's just so good for us to be together. And I agree. It is so good for us to be together. I was reading in, in Hebrews this morning where it says, do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.
Alex Judd:Right? But but also the verse right before that says, let us consider how we may spur one another on towards loving good deeds. Right? Leadership is about taking people to new and different places. So maybe it's your company, maybe it's your family, maybe it's the the men's or women's ministry that you're leading at church.
Alex Judd:Maybe it's the single team member that you've been entrusted to lead. Where are you taking them? Right? How are they getting better? How are they growing?
Alex Judd:How are the people that you've been entrusted with moving forward? And what's the hopeful future, the vision, the grander vision really that you're casting for them of what they could be, but also where we could be if we unify.
Ben Loy:How do you determine what someone's where should be?
Alex Judd:Yeah. I well, I think this episode will air before Lead Strong, which Lead Strong is a virtual one day sprint that we're doing. It's gonna be a pretty intense day just with the content lineup that we have. I'm sure y'all can get information from that on the show notes, but the the first workshop that I'm gonna teach in that session is the importance of catching, casting, coaching vision, which is really what we're talking about when we talk about the quality of your leadership being defined by the quality of your where. Right?
Alex Judd:I guess in reference to your question, like, the best way is not to tell people what their where should be. It's to collaborate with them on where are we going together and how does your individual where nest itself in the overarching where of the company, the organization, things like that. So what's so cool is great leaders, what do they do? They say, hey, here's where we are going. I wanna hear where you are going, and I wanna see how we can help you accomplish what you're trying to accomplish and how that can support us trying to accomplish what we are all holistically trying to accomplish.
Alex Judd:Because if you can get people aligned like that where our our goals and destinations are in lockstep, oh my gosh. It's so it's so gratifying to do that work. So and that really brings us to the way. Right? It's it's actually, I think the proper word is tragic that the gentleman that I first heard give the definition of leadership is helping people go from here to there.
Alex Judd:The guy that I first heard teach a lesson on that topic, this was over a decade ago now. Unbelievably effective in terms of results leader. And you would look at him and you would say his purpose was so good. He was growing this massive I mean, global leadership development entity that was hosting at that time the single largest leadership development in event in the world. Wow.
Alex Judd:It is what he was doing. And, so his why was so good. He wanted to see people thrive and flourish around the world. The where was obviously so good. They were looking to grow it every single year, and they were incredibly innovative about how they were doing that, and they were incredibly clear about where they're going and how other people could get involved.
Ben Loy:The
Alex Judd:way is what was incredibly corrosive and corrupt. So the why was good, the where was good, the way. He it came out that he made some, horrendous mistakes. And then not only did he make horrendous mistakes because that's part and parcel of being human, the biggest mistake was the cover up. Mhmm.
Alex Judd:And, you know, it is the the greatest delusion of pride that that thinks we are the smart ones that can figure out how to cover some anything up ever. Mhmm. Right? It just doesn't happen. And so if your why is good, if your where is good, but your way is rotten, it's ultimately gonna collapse.
Ben Loy:Mhmm.
Alex Judd:And so the final thing I would say on this, if if we wanna dive any further, we can, is you can hear that and be like, oh, leadership. A call to leadership is a call to perfection. That's not what we're talking about at all. The call to leadership is to recognize just how in need of grace you are right now and to not allow small things to become big things because you didn't address your need for help when they were small. Mhmm.
Alex Judd:That I think, is humility of leadership, and that's how we make sure our way is aligned with God's purposes and God's design.
Ben Loy:Yeah. I feel like right now, the conversation I consistently find myself in when it pertains to Way is around the topic of AI. Like Interesting. Like, yeah, like AI, it's this thing that exists. It's growing.
Ben Loy:Right? Where people are using it progressively more and more and, we scarily don't know the ends of of how far this will go. But, but I feel like consistently, internally, we have conversations of like, yeah, how how do we wanna use this if we want to use it? And like, if we are going to use it, what are what are the guardrails we want to put in place on how we approach this? Because it will greatly impact the way that we approach how we're leading, how we're running the business, how we're approaching marketing, customer facing things.
Ben Loy:Like there's so many places that it could affect. So that, I don't know, could be a four hour conversation, but just putting that I think as something that's relevant to today that is something to consider.
Alex Judd:I think it's so well said. And and it fits well in the conversation about basics too because a lot of times I think we think, oh, this new technology demands new guardrails. And in reality, it probably actually just demands us making sure we don't lose the guardrails
Ben Loy:we already have. There's nothing new under the sun.
Alex Judd:Yeah. I mean, that's actually a really helpful truth to remember whenever it almost looks like it's something brand new and and, yeah, brand new is being invented. The so, like, a good example, which I'm really excited because this is also gonna be a session that's led by Jay Owen on LeadStrong is talking about how to leverage AI in a healthy way. But one of the guardrails that I have for myself that I know you do as well because otherwise I wouldn't have hired you is like, do not deceive people. Right?
Alex Judd:I don't. I that's I do not intentionally lie, and if I do lie, that's something that I need to apologize for. Why? Because that is wrong. Okay.
Alex Judd:How does that guardrail that is like objectively true and I want to serve as a boundary for my life apply in the age of AI? Well, I'm not going to put something out into the world that AI wrote and then tell everyone I wrote this book because that is deception. Now, will I I would put out a book. I don't know that I will because I I don't quite frankly know if anyone would read it. I would put out a book that says like, hey, I'm releasing this book.
Alex Judd:AI wrote this Because that's not deceptive at all if I just tell people upfront. But but quite frankly, the reason why I wouldn't want to do that is because I think people don't want to read that. I think they want to read something that's you. And and if you're not willing to do that, then you shouldn't say I'm willing to to do it if I cover it up is what I would say. So that's a good example of how, like, especially when it comes to new technology, you got to remember your old guardrails to make sure that you don't get way off track because ultimately, the results of deception, even if what it looks like is different, the results of it are always the same.
Alex Judd:It's fruitless, and and it's awful, and you won't like where it takes you. And so, yeah, thanks for bringing up that topic because I think that's a very relevant application of
Ben Loy:what we're talking about here. Yeah. Let's move on to the next one.
Alex Judd:Okay. So the fourth leadership basic that is so easy to forget, especially if you're type a personality, is about the measure of your effectiveness as a leader. Here's what we often get screwed up in thinking. I I just wrote a Worth It Wednesday email about this. We get we get screwed up in thinking that how is my effectiveness as a leader measured?
Alex Judd:My effectiveness as a leader is measured by my results, by my ability to hit the goals that we're aiming at, and by my growth. Right? That's my effectiveness as a leader. And what's crazy is there are some leadership coaches out there that would say, bam, stamp of approval. That's correct.
Alex Judd:False. Your effectiveness as a leader is measured by your ability to make other people effective. So a conversation with you about are you hitting your goals and are you growing and are you, achieving the marks that you want to achieve is nice but irrelevant if we're having a conversation about leadership. What we should be asking you is who are the people you're responsible for serving? Maybe that's your direct reports.
Alex Judd:Maybe that's your family. Maybe that's your spouse. Right? Maybe that's your community group at church. Who are the people you're responsible for serving?
Alex Judd:And let's talk about their effectiveness. Are they hitting their results? Are they getting the are they getting the goals that they wanna go after? Are they growing? Right?
Alex Judd:Because your effectiveness as a leader, that is leadership. It's helping other people go from here to there. And so that's got to be our benchmark for success is how successful are the people that I'm responsible for leading.
Ben Loy:How do you identify and amplify other people's gifts in a way that they they are succeeding and they are flourishing under your leadership?
Alex Judd:I would say there's two parts to that. There's the pragmatic part, which is make sure they know what winning looks like. So that could be for them personally, but also them in the organization. You know, it's really good to ask them, like, what's the win here? And make sure you and I are aligned on what's the win here?
Alex Judd:And then making sure that they have a rhythm of accountability pragmatically so that it's not just like we've defined the win. I'll see you in a year, and we'll see if you got there or not. But rather, accountability is not gotcha accountability. Rather it's, hey, how do I help you achieve what we have both defined as the win? So that's some of the pragmatic things.
Alex Judd:The other thing that I would hit home on as it relates to your question is an acronym AIR, appreciation, inspiration, recognition. How do you get other people enveloped and engaged? How do you give them a soft heart towards what we are trying to do? Number one, appreciate. When the dollar appreciates, something it hasn't done in quite a while, but when the dollar appreciates, it gains in value.
Alex Judd:Right? And so when we appreciate someone, we we grow them in value. We say, hey, I see what you did there, and I want you to know that's valuable. Right? So we help grow their value.
Alex Judd:Inspiration, making sure that the spirit inside of them is enthusiastic, and and we could do a whole podcast on that episode. And then recognition. When they do good work, you say, I see you. I see that. And you do that privately and you do it publicly.
Alex Judd:I would say if you do those things regularly and sincerely, then, man, that goes a long way towards people being engaged in the work.
Ben Loy:Mhmm. Let's move on to the last one.
Alex Judd:Okay. The last basic, and this is, again, a basic that's so easy to forget, is what do leaders do? They accelerate the inevitable. John Maxwell says that leaders see more than they see before. And you can hear that quote and say, man, that quote right there is about the gift of vision that leaders have.
Alex Judd:They see more broadly than they see before. They can actually proactively see what's coming to pass, and they can get in on it. And that is about vision. It's about the gift of vision that leaders have and should be stewarding. I think it's also about the burden of vision.
Alex Judd:Because what do leaders also see? They see the hope. They see the opportunities. They see the promises in the future. But they also see, like, if this continues the way that it's going right now, it's gonna end really poorly.
Alex Judd:They see, like, man, if that person keeps making those decisions and living that way, like, they're not even gonna be happy with their results. You know? They see that, like, man, if this department or team doesn't get its act together as it relates to being unified, then we're gonna have to make drastic changes that result in some, if not all of them getting fired. They see those things, but then they don't just see those things, they do something about it. And it's so easy when faced with that lease leadership responsibility to become a coward.
Alex Judd:To be like, I see the writing on the wall, but I don't wanna have the hard conversation. I don't wanna say what's true. I'd rather live and just invite the elephant in the room and not talk about it at all. What do leaders do? When they see that something is inevitable, they speak up and they say something.
Alex Judd:Because every large problem in an organization was once a small problem that a leader failed to address. I think I heard Craig Groeschel first say that. And so leaders are the ones that say, I'm going to crush this thing while it's small. I'm gonna say something while it's small so that maybe we can preempt it ever becoming big. They accelerate the inevitable.
Ben Loy:So when you say leaders accelerate the inevitable, are you assuming then that, like, leader healthy leaders accelerate the inevitable? Or
Alex Judd:That's a that's a great question. I, I think I'm not assuming anything. I'm just saying that's what leaders often do. And, like, I I have worked for a leader before, that it's like, there was something that had been scheduled with a very important guest. And it was like a, you know, you don't get too many shots at this, the particular scenario that I'm thinking about.
Alex Judd:And the team that was responsible for supporting the project or the event botched it a little bit. Right? There is some tech issues that were really reflective of lack of preparation, and this guy went off the handle. My Oh Extremely upset. And I've always looked at that and thought, those people never made that mistake again.
Alex Judd:I know for a fact they never made those same mistakes again. So did that leader accelerate the inevitable? Like, hey, we are not doing this anymore and if you ever do this again, like, you're we're gonna be having a different conversation, lost it emotionally, all of that. Yeah. For sure, he accelerated the inevitable.
Alex Judd:Right? Saw the writing on the wall, saw something has to change. Otherwise, we're not gonna get to where we're gonna go. Are there better, healthier, more constructive ways to potentially get the same result? I would say yes.
Alex Judd:But that's the where resourcefulness and creativity comes into play is like, if you've got some guardrails of like, I'm not allowed to go off the handle. I'm not allowed to use cuss words. I'm not allowed to raise my voice, but I want them to understand how serious this is in their best interest. Well, now leadership becomes like this puzzle of like, how do I light a fire under this person without compromising my integrity and emotional state? And that I think that could actually be very fun.
Ben Loy:Mhmm.
Alex Judd:Like, when you decide as a leader, I'm not gonna use cuss words. You're putting a constraint on yourself that demands so much creativity. It's actually a really cool it's a really cool exercise. One other thing that I would say on leaders accelerating the inevitable is just in thinking about this right now, you did this, which is, you know, I don't know if you realize this, but you did this on our team. And think it's helpful to recognize because, like, I'm the business owner.
Alex Judd:Right? You're a team member on our team. You're a leader on our team. And, you know, you you saw the writing on the wall that you were like, Alex, like, right now, marketing and sales is all under one role, and we're doing it as one role. But and I'm telling you, like, I've been able to do that for the past, like, eight weeks, and I can't even do it for a while moving forward.
Alex Judd:There will be a day where this becomes unsustainable, and what I don't want to get to is where I'm dead empty and it's unsustainable, and then we have to go through a hiring process. And you open my eyes to where it's like, man, I I really you know, we kinda just brought you on not that long ago, and I I really wasn't even thinking about hiring another person quite yet, and I wasn't really focused on that. And you open my eyes to where it's like, we don't have time to wait for this to be convenient because if we continue on the path that we're on right now where things are growing and your responsibilities are expanding in all of this and, like, we just wait till it becomes convenient, it might be convenient, but you're dead. Right? It's like, that doesn't work.
Alex Judd:And so you didn't raise your voice. You didn't use cuss words. Praise God. But you actually very effectively influenced me and and other members on our team that it's like, it's actually in our best interests to make this call earlier rather than later, accelerating the inevitable. So, well done.
Ben Loy:Appreciate it.
Alex Judd:Yeah. Anything else you want to get into on these five leadership basics before we close out?
Ben Loy:Not particularly, no. Okay.
Alex Judd:The the challenge that I would give people is choose one of the basics and just, you know, maybe memorize the statement associated with it. And then just, like, allow it to be a reminder for you to say, like, I'm not gonna be the person that abandons the fundamentals, that gets away from dribbling, passing, and shooting really well. Rather, I'm gonna be that leader that people can use as their role model example of someone that does the basics well.
Ben Loy:Awesome. Thanks, Alex. Thanks, Ben.
Alex Judd:Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode. If you want any of the information or resources that we mentioned, that's all in the show notes. Hey. Before you go, could I ask you for one quick favor?
Alex Judd:Could you subscribe, rate, and review this podcast episode? Your feedback is what helps our team engage in a sequence of never ending improvement. We wanna amplify what's valuable to you and obviously reduce or even remove the things that aren't. Also, you leaving a positive review is what helps us connect with, build trust with, and serve other leaders around the country. So thanks in advance for helping us out on that front.
Alex Judd:Are you a leader that wants to grow your business in a healthy way, serve people exceptionally well, and glorify God in the process? Go to pathforgrowth.com to get more information about our community of impact driven leaders and schedule a call with our team. Hey. Thank you so much to the Path for Growth team, Kyle Cummings and the crew at Pod Circle, and the remarkable leaders that are actively engaged in the Path for Growth community. Y'all are the people that make this podcast possible.
Alex Judd:Y'all know this. We're rooting for you. We're praying for you. We wanna see win. Remember, my strength is not for me.
Alex Judd:Your strength is not for you. Our strength is for service. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
