Becoming a 100X Leader

A 100X LEADER is a 100% healthy leader who multiplies that mindset to those they lead. A leader that climbs their own Mount Everest every day and acts as a Sherpa to others at the same time. A 100X leader has become a leader worth following and builds leaders worth following.

Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram wrote The 100X Leader to help you become a 100X Leader in all spheres of influence in your life—leading yourself, a company, a team, or a family—and to become a Sherpa for others.

Your climb to becoming a 100X leader begins with self-awareness and courage. The courage “to invest in yourself and what is most important in your life, the courage to do difficult things that are contrary to your natural tendencies, the courage to hold up a mirror and take a hard look at what others see and wish you would do something about, the courage to make the subtle changes you view as insignificant but are likely the most important to others, the courage to stay at it when the positive results see slow to come.”

You don’t become a 100X leader by accident. It’s hard and requires a deliberate process. Kubieck and Cockram guide you through that process. Leading yourself or others is a balance between the right amount of support and challenge. “Support means to provide the appropriate help others need to do their jobs well.” To equip them. Challenge “means to motivate people by holding them accountable to what they could do if they had the resources.”

It is important to remember that we must begin with support before we challenge. Support builds trust. “The art of leadership is the appropriate calibration of support and challenge at a specific moment, in a specific context for a specific reason.”

The authors present the Support-Challenge Matrix shown below. You want to operate in the top right quadrant—liberate—as much as you can. Each quadrant represents a different leadership style and the culture it creates.

Dominator
We tend to dominate others under stress by requiring much but with little support. “Dominating leads to compliance, whereas liberating leads to engagement.”

Protector
These leaders create caution by giving a great deal of support but very little in the way of challenge or reasonable expectations. Wanting everything to run smoothly and without conflict, these leaders tend to hint at what they want rather than coming out and saying it.

Abdicator
These leaders have simply given up. Perhaps they are overwhelmed, tired, burned-out, or bored. They create a lifeless culture with low expectations.

Liberator
These leaders have learned how to liberate in every circle of influence—self, family, team, organization, and community. “To liberate means to fight for the highest possible good of those you lead” by using the intentional calibration of support and challenge. Ask these questions: “What specific support and challenge do they need from me? What is the tendency or pattern most undermining their influence? And How do I help them get to the next level?” The process requires a long-term commitment.

Being a Liberator means knowing how other people experience you and then helping others to do the same. It’s being intentional about what you are doing. Having the humility to “commit to a process of uncovering our weaknesses. Our natural tendencies don’t really change, but with intentionality, humility, and effort we can begin to have a choice between the default patterns of how we normally respond to a situation and what we actively choose to do or say instead.” We liberate ourselves from leading on autopilot. Once we liberate ourselves, we can then help others see the mountain ahead of them and equip them to get to the next level.

Kubieck and Cockram provide a comprehensive look at how to become a 100X Leader by showing us the mountain and then illuminating the way and providing the tools and equipment necessary to complete the climb. Climbing Mount Everest is dangerous and demanding, but without a Sherpa, it is virtually impossible. The 100X Leader is our Sherpa and teaches us how to become a Sherpa for others. And as with the Sherpa, success is measured by not how many times they reach the top of Everest but by how many they have helped reach the summit.

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:38 AM
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