Self Leadership: The Key To Being a Limitless Leader™

The pandemic has since caused a significant shift in the workforce. Employees have resigned from their old jobs, seeking workplaces with better conditions and team dynamics. Amid this awakening, it’s vital for leaders to ensure that their team members are still satisfied in the organisation and are receiving the high-level or leadership they deserve.  

In this episode, David Frizzell joins us to talk about self leadership and its importance in our growth as Limitless Leaders™. He shares how having a healthy balance of a professional and working life improves the way we treat others. Ultimately, he discusses the value of forming and maintaining deep and meaningful connections in the workplace.  

If you want to know more about self leadership and how it can help you grow as a leader, this episode is for you!  

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode if you want to become a Limitless Leader™: 

  1. Understand the value and importance of self leadership.  
  1. Discover what it takes to become a Limitless Leader.  
  1. Learn how to maintain meaningful connections with others.  

Resources 

Episode Highlights 

[0:18] David’s Background  

  • David is the founder and host of Team Guru, a company that offers services, information, podcasts, and blogs about leadership.  
  • He worked as an educator for more than 10 years before starting in the private sector.  
  • Teaching in the classroom helped David develop many skills; one of the most important skills he has acquired from being a teacher is communication.  

[5:08] The Power of Communication 

  • Communication is an integral part of effective leadership.  
  • The shift to a virtual environment has emphasised the importance of communication skills.  
  • People who are good at communication in general are also good communicators online.  
  • Effective communication involves shaping your message to get the response you need.  

[09:56] Leadership Starts With The Self 

  • Before you can lead individuals and organisations, you must be able to lead yourself first.  
  • Renée shares the concept of Three Dimensional Leadership: Leading the Self, Leading and Influencing Decisions, and Leading Others. It must be applied in this order.  
  • People who want to improve as leaders tend to skip the first part, because it’s easier to to think about how you will lead others.  
  • Self leadership is challenging to most because you have to do all the work.  

[14:09] Living Life By Rules 

  • David sets his own personal rules and does his best not to break them.  
  • Setting and following his rules gives him a sense of discipline and fulfilment.  
  • You have to have clear goals. If you are not achieving your goals, you are not doing a good job of leading yourself.  
  • It’s crucial to build habits around your rules and protect the time to accomplish them.  

[18:53] Lead By Example 

  • You can instill the value of self leadership in others by setting a good example of it.  
  • How can you expect people to follow you if you’re not even leading yourself? 
  • Just like when building a house, with self leadership, you need to make sure that your foundation is solid.  

[22:30] When David Learned The Importance Of Presence 

  • David shares the story of an experience that helped him progress forward.  
  • As a deputy principal in a primary school, David had so much on his plate that connecting with other teachers was his least priority.  
  • A teacher in the school always visited and reached out to him, despite him dismissing her efforts to do so.  
  • David regretted how he treated that teacher, but it taught him an important lesson — make time to be present.  

[25:17] Deep and Meaningful Connections  

  • Nowadays, people have been forming superficial connections with others.  
  • Conversations have become more impulsive than intentional.  
  • In the virtual space, team members have become more and more disengaged during meetings because they don’t have deep connections with their colleagues.  
  • As leaders, it’s important to be open to your team members and be available when they need you — even virtually.  
  • Maintaining meaningful connections with other people allows you to give them the space to express themselves.  

[32:12] The Great Rejuvenation  

  • The pandemic situation has exposed companies’ unfair treatments to employees, leading to a number of resignations.  
  • David refers to this phenomenon as the spring after a long winter. Better opportunities have opened up to workers who yearn for better working conditions.  
  • Also because of COVID-19, people realised the importance of having a healthy balance between the professional and personal life. This balance is crucial in leadership.  
  • The changes in the past couple of years have caused an awakening in many workers about pursuing what you really desire.  

[38:04] David’s Leadership Inspiration 

  • David mentions that he admires political philosopher Michael Sandel as a leader.  
  • He is impressed by his deep level of thinking and understanding of things.  
  • Engaging with thinkers like Sandel helps you see things at a micro-level and put them into perspective.  
  • David admires thinkers who are cognitively brilliant and have the amazing ability to communicate their ideas.  

[41:16] Limitless Leadership 

  • A limitless leader has no final destination. They learn and unlearn; they think and rethink.  
  • Continuous development is essential in leadership. How can you help others grow if you, yourself is not growing? 
  • David mentions the four domains of life: physical, intellectual, spiritual, social — and how he ensures to allot time for the development of each domain.  
  • Limitless leadership involves maintaining a healthy balance and continuous growth among the four domains.  

[44:29] David’s Mantra 

  • Achieve your goals by being clear with what you want and relentlessly pursuing it.  
  • You will face obstacles along the way, but remember: the reward is bigger than the difficulty of the challenge.  

[47:11] Trivial Facts About David 

  • David’s favourite word is quintessential, because it sounds cool and has a great meaning.  
  • He loves the background sound of the murmur of a large crowd.  
  • If he would have one last meal, David would choose steak and apples.  
  • Another profession that he is interested in is being a radio presenter.  

 

5 Powerful Quotes 

[6:26] “In every environment that we’ve been in, communication was important. Before COVID, it’s important. Now, as we get used to the new normal it will be important forever. I think the virtual environment has simply emphasized the importance for that.”  

[17:59] “If you will remember, again, one thing from this, it is that leading yourself is important. A really good way to do that is to live your life by rules. Don’t ever break those rules; set them up so that they directly pointed towards the goals, the things you want to achieve in life, and be absolutely relentless.”  

[25:03] “I think connecting at a very deep level these days is rare. I think a lot of people are over connected, if that makes sense. Yes, making [connections] with a lot of people at a topical level, not at what I call an essence level, very superficial level.” 

[37:16] “So I look at that as last year, the year before — messy in the middle and beautiful at the end. If you look for the things that can serve you and help you to be in service to others, which to me is what leadership is all about.” 

[46:00] “I’m stuck between two choices. I take the hard option, because it is almost always the better outcome. There are times where that’s not quite right. But that most of the time, if I’m really stuck, I just say, ‘Well, what’s the hardest? What’s the harder one? What’s the one that’s going to take more from me, demand more of me?’ Because invariably, that has the better outcome.”  

About The Guest 

David Frizzell is the founder and host of Team Guru Podcast, a show that delivers quality content on the theories and principles of leadership.  He is also the Organisational Change and Comms Team of the Department of Housing and Public Works in Queensland, Australia.  

With Team Guru, he offers services and mentorships to those who want to improve themselves in the leadership arena. As a former educator, he is passionate in helping others discover their strengths to become limitless leaders.  

Enjoy This Podcast? 

Effective leadership starts with leading the self.  

If you enjoyed today’s episode of Limitless Leadership Podcast, then hit subscribe now! 

Post a review and share it! If you learned something by tuning into this podcast, do not hesitate to write a review and share it with your friends! The world needs more people with the drive and leadership qualities to make the world a better place. 

For more updates and episodes, visit and subscribe on the Limitless Leaders podcast page! 

Have any questions? You can contact me through these platforms: 

Company website 

Instagram 

Facebook 

LinkedIn 

To leading the future, 

Renée 

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download