Find Yourself: Development Guru Kendall Ficklin Defines Leadership
Many are called, but few are chosen.
Do you have what it takes to lead your team? How about this? More importantly, can you lead yourself?
Specifically, are the values you preach, the same values you practice?
For episode #299 of the Social Proof Podcast, our host David Shands sat down with Kendall Ficklin, a personal and professional personal and leadership development coach for entrepreneurs and businesses.
When working with clients, Kendall teaches and encourages the power of showing up as your authentic self and providing the best value possible.
In order to teach others those principles, he first had to teach himself.
This self-analysis led him to provide actionable steps for his clients to perform in their lives.
Making money is easy, but becoming the best version of yourself to sustain and grow that money is a different play.
So, before you start leading, keep reading and consider this—who are you, entrepreneur?
Throughout this interactive blog, there will be journal prompts allowing you to reflect on who you are as you read about Kendall's leadership mindset.
Table of Knowledge
The Ability to Influence Others = Your Ability to Lead
Kendall starts the episode by recalling when he first came up with the idea to begin his community, GMen Worldwide.
In the 1990s, Kendall marched alongside Louis Farrakhan, the truth-telling leader of the Nation of Islam. While he attended an event, he wrote in a notebook he an idea of creating a group for black men.
Although he really wanted to create the group, something felt off.
That feeling left the idea in the notebook for a while, because he knew in his heart and mind that he wasn't ready to lead anyone.
A student of the streets, Kendall knew his street activities had him "dirty" and he'd have to clean up in order to help others.
Specifically, he realized he didn't have the power he needed to affect change.
"When you preach what you practice, that is when you [have] the power to push things through."
- Kendall Ficklin
By doing the inner work, he changed that! Specifically, he went inward and worked on the dirty things and made them clean. He became whole.
Once he did that, he became qualified to help others and eventually lead.
That is when his organization, GMen Worldwide, empowering men to win in life & business, came to fruition.
The inner work he did taught him the framework, which he now shares with his members.
Power Prompt: What do you need you to clean up within yourself to become powerful?
The next steps are steps to become an effective leader. These are only a portion of the essential principles Kendall reviewed, but are vital.
The first step is to work your process. Don't trust it, work it!
A buzz statement is "trust your process." But what does that mean, really? For some people, it puts them in a zone of "going with the flow" and doing nothing, which keeps them stuck. People want the progress but don't want to do the work. Kendall makes it clear it isn't possible to have one without the other. Do the work!
Second step, slow down and stop moving so fast. Being scattered will prevent you from impacting anything. Once you slow down, you can find the leaks in your bucket, also known as the organizational flow of your business. Making quick moves and poor decisions makes money move without intention, so it flows out and away from you. Stop this by taking things slower.
Another major impediment to a conducive flow is allowing emotions to weigh too heavily on the way you move. Kendall cautions that if you aren't careful, your emotions will put you in lanes, you don't have the capacity to be in. Wow. Read that one again.
Recognize energy shifts and shifts in the season and how they affect you and your business.
When Kendall started GMen, he hit the road to get members. Once he got enough members, he moved the community online, and they began doing calls every morning. Then something shifted within Kendall and he realized it was no longer serving him to lead 5 AM calls every morning. He knew he had to find someone to pick up the torch and carry it for him. He could have easily just quit the entire group because he wasn't feeling it, instead he put someone else in his place to keep the momentum flowing.
This point is an excellent segue into Kendall's next point.
Putting the right people and systems in place will sustain growth and enable you to scale and lead simultaneously.
Every successful entrepreneur espouses the benefits of having the proper people in the proper roles and systems. In case you're still wondering how important these two components are, Kendall adds his thoughts to the list. His perspective offers a unique spin as it pertains to leadership.
He purports that there are two different types of revenues streams that dictate an entrepreneur's leadership role.
Passive revenue where you get the project started, and it runs itself. Think of buying a residential property, find a renter and passing off the maintenance to a third party.
Then there's active, passive revenue. This is when you develop a company, form a team and you, as the creator, only show up as needed.
Finding a rhythm instead of the balance.
Kendall admits that finding balance in life is not something that he seeks or strives for. Instead, a leader seeks to find their unique rhythm of life and business. This not only supports their success but also ensures that they will not miss the opportunity to prioritize anything.
Allow yourself to feel your emotions.
Kendall shares with David different times in which he was emotional about something and released the pain by having a good cry. He feels this is the best way to connect with yourself, which promotes emotional growth and development. By allowing yourself to feel what you feel in the moment, you release the pain, and it provides moments for growth.
Second to that, Kendall encourages living in the moment. Don't focus on where you're going, but on how far you've come and realize that your growth will take you where you need to be.
Seek your ultimate client by assessing your skills.
Business sustainability starts with knowing who your client is. Kendall knows who his avatar client is and stays in the lane in pursuing them. Kendall works with established entrepreneurs and companies that know how to make money.
His role is to teach them his money model. He shows his clients the different ways of making, managing, multiplying, and moving their money. If clients don't properly manage their money, then there is nothing to multiply. Money follows movement. He coaches them to give their money a chance to multiply unto itself.
Ultimately, he teaches his clients how to be the best version of themself to become better in business.
In the B2B capacity, he works with teams to sharpen their skill and help them become high performance. One of his favorite quotes is from Nick Saban, "Every championship team is made up of championship players." Every performing team is built and doesn't just "happen." It takes active steps to build the ultimate team. One critical step is knowing when to add or subtract a team member.
When to let a team member go...
Instead of dreading letting someone go, Kendall states that letting go is a benefit for both parties involved, because doing so allows both parties to grow and develop.
Kendall states that a high-level leader must possess effective decision-making skills. A true leader realizes nobody is bigger than the business and makes effective decisions to support this.
Your principles determine what kind of leader you'll be.
"Business is just a word—it's founded on principles." - Kendall Ficklin
Kendall coaches his clients that the same principles that they live their lives by should also be the way they govern their business. This is not possible to do if they don't have clearly defined principles.
Power Prompt: What are your principles? How do these principles affect your life & business?
Kendall identified the four different categories and factors that are considered when becoming the best version of yourself.
Physically = Eating + Exercise
Soulfully = Connectedness + Commitment
Relationally = Family + Friends
Professionally = Craft + Cash
Power Prompt: Take an inventory of where you are right now in each category listed above. When you identify areas that need improvement, create an action plan on how to strengthen yourself in that area.
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Leadership is a skill.
Kendall gave a whole master class on leadership, and this blog is only a portion of it. Make sure you watch the full social proof episode to feel the full impact of all the knowledge that he has dropped. Enhance yourself to become the leader that your business and brand needs.
We'll see you in the next upload!
