Are You the Leader in the Arena? | Episode 232

Scott McCarthy [00:00:01]:

On episode 232 of the peak performance of leadership podcast, I go solo again, and I got a question for you. Are you the leader in the arena? That’s right, folks. Are you ready for this? Let’s Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the 3 domains of leadership? Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military Your experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests bring you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at moving forward leadership.com. And with that, let’s get To the show. Yes.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:07]:

Welcome, 1. Welcome, all. It is your chief leadership officer Scott McCarthy? And thanks for tuning in whether this is your 500th time or however episodes I have out now Or you’re 1st? You know what? I respect and admire all of you. Why? Because you are here looking to level up your leadership skills? And today, that’s kinda what we’re gonna be talking about. You’ll see. I am throwing a question out to you, though, and it’s something for you to reflect upon As we go through this episode. And that is the question is, are you the leader in the arena? And when I get to that specific part about answering the question or not even answering it, rather discussing it? I’ll explain more. Absolutely.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:06]:

But today, I wanna focus really on 3 different types of leaders out there? And I know that had nothing to do with the intro, had nothing to do with the title, but Just work with me here. Alright? Work with me. I’m here by myself today. And by the way, if you’re following me real time, I am back from Newport. I am back home with my family. Thank you to the hospitality, to the US Navy. You guys are all rock stars. Those who are tuning in now to the podcast, you guys, thank you.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:43]:

Thank you so much for taking a Canadian army officer In and show me such a great time for 2 weeks. But nonetheless, let’s get to the 3 different types of leaders out there. And the first one I wanna talk about Is our arch nemesis here at the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast? My arch nemesis in my journey, and that is The boss? And you all know what I mean when I say the boss. Right? That is that controlling, While the emotional takes credit, gives no credit, and just cares only about results, Doesn’t care about people and will backstab people, run them through the ground, and simply walk over everyone and Anything in their way to get their way because why? They’re the boss. These people drive me nuts. Yet, I will tell you and I will tell you again, this podcast Is inspired by a boss. One of the reasons why I started this show is because I needed something more. This example of leadership could not continue in me Because I worked for one of the worst out there.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:17]:

So Are you the boss? Are you out there controlling everything, micromanaging everything, demanding your people put in 50,000,000 extra hours while you go home and play golf, show up late, Give little to no direction or way too much direction and simply everything happens because of you, You might wanna rethink the way you operate. The boss cares about no one but themselves. Most likely, if you’re tuning in to this podcast, you’re not one of these because you care enough to listen. You see, the boss is not someone who would tune into this because they believe they already know it All. And podcasts are all about growth, learning, and developing. Boss would not waste time listening to the show. They will not not waste time at listening to you. So my recommendation to you is always, Do what you can as much as you can to stay away from becoming The boss? Because people leave bosses.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:45]:

They don’t leave jobs. And that, ladies and gentlemen, Is truth right there. So that is leadership type 1. Let’s move into number 2, The imposter? Dum dum dum. And, no, I don’t mean someone who’s simply in the job and shouldn’t be in the job and kinda, you know, sneak their way in there, but rather someone who is going through severe imposter syndrome right now? It is a common thing, And let me tell you I’ve had it more than once. For as long a long time, I haven’t had record on this Asked. I was like, wow. Who wants to listen to me? Why would they even listen to me? Yet, I kept showing up.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:43]:

See, the imposter is someone who’s unsure. They’re likely new to what they’re doing. And because of this, They’re going to be looking for an example to follow, which means it could be highly subjective to the bosses’ tendencies? And this is where new bosses brew because they believe That these actions, this ideology, this attitude and mindset and everything horrible associated with them It’s the right thing to do. It’s the example they have. That person’s successful. This is how they are. Therefore, I should do that. Now not every imposter goes down that route.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:33]:

Because once they go down that route, they turn to becoming bosses. So some other impostors go seeking ideas. To go looking for knowledge elsewhere? And you may be in this. You may be this type. You’re listening to a podcast. Maybe you’re reading books on leadership or journal articles, online articles, whatever. Yeah. Here’s the difference Between the imposter and the next type, the leader, the imposter Spends their time wishing, wanting, hoping, yet to do nothing? They spend their time seeking that next little bit of knowledge that they can Apply.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:24]:

That next thing that will make their leadership journey that much better. But guess what? It never comes. Why? Because they do absolutely Nothing about it. They stick and get stuck in this imposter loophole To the point where they get so frustrated that they’re not getting any results, not moving forward, they look at, for example, And then the slippery slope begins. So if you feel that way, I highly recommend to you to look at the next leader type. And this is where the title of today’s show Comes from because that is the leader. Plain and simple. The leader.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:22]:

And if you follow me for any part of of time now, you know I am not a fan of quotes. But I got one for you today. And in fact, I got a paragraph. And this quote It’s not actually a quote because I’ve edited it to make it fit better with you, the listener, Because I wanted it to be better representative of the leaders out there who are listening to this podcast and not just the men out there? So this quote comes from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech On 23 April 1910, the speech itself was named citizen in a republic, But it has now become more commonly known or this section of it anyway as the man in the arena, And hence why I edited it a bit because I want it to be inclusive to you female listeners out there. Here it goes. It’s not the critic who counts, not the person who points out the strong how the strong stumble, or where the doer of deeds Could have done them better. The credit belongs to the leader who is actually in the arena, whose face Is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows great enthusiasms? The great devotions who spends themselves in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, And who at worse, if they fail, at least fail while daring greatly? So their place shall never be with those cold in timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat? So you as the leader, what does that say to you? I’ll tell you what it says to me.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:39]:

It says to me that we need to be in there, toes to toes, Nose to nose, shoulder to shoulder with our teams, with the other leaders in our organizations, with our supervisor, our leaders? We don’t seek the credit because the credit is going to be given to us for being there, but rather, would go after the things that need to get done, Those right things that need to get done. And we do it without fear of failure. Why? Because if you’ve learned from those failures, you didn’t fail at all. As Thomas Edison said, Never learned I didn’t fail 10,000 times. I just knew 10,000 ways how to not make A light bulb. So you as the leader, you have 2 options. You can sit on the sidelines, Highly likely slip and slide into that boss mentality where you get in the arena, Push yourself. Develop yourself.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:55]:

Push your team. Develop your team. Strive for greatness. Fail. Learn. Strive again. That, there, Are the attributes of true leadership? Shoulder to shoulder with your people, showing them that you have this much skin in the game as they do? You are there worried about them just as much As they need to be worried about themselves. Do this.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:30]:

Take this on, and you will succeed. And you’re, Scott, I don’t know where to start. You’re so right. And come see us in the Leader Growth Mastermind because this is exactly what we’re doing, ladies and gentlemen, day in, day out. We are striving for greatness. We are failing, we are learning, and we are striving again. We are becoming better leaders day in, day out. Why? Because we have each other that are in there.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:04]:

And that is something that interests you, Check us out at lead dump boss.comforward/mastermind. So I’ll leave you with the final thought. My final question, are you the leader in the arena? Or you sitting on the sidelines? Where do you want to be? With that, ladies and gentlemen, remember as always, Lead. Don’t boss.