Made to Lead : S2 E1

This podcast began because helping humans live their best life and become the best version of themselves is what Desireé’s life is all about. Join Desireé in Season 2, as she uses her trips around the sun to throw encouragement around like confetti!

To kick off Season 2, Desireé dials in on the skill of preparation and how it fits into leadership. This episode explores the attributes of leading and more than just leading- leading well.

Topics include:

• For the ones who don't think they are leaders (3:35)
• A distinction on leadership (4:55)
• Attribute #1 of Leadership: Preparation (6:44)
• Attribute #2 of Leadership: Strength + Courage (8:41)
• Attribute #3 of Leadership: Truth + Integrity (11:51)
• Attribute #4 of Leadership: Pay It Forward (15:00)

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Transcript

Desire Melfi Bozzo: 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life out loud. I am your host Desire Melfi Bozzo. we are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakable unwavering unmessable-with joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement, a little bit like confetti and giving you support to live your very best life. Ciao friends, and welcome to Season Two of the life out loud podcast. I am the creator of this podcast and your host, Desire Melfi Bozzo. Hey, season two. Heyyy, I see you over there. (Laughs) Friends, Can I be honest in this really super safe space and tell you I'm trying super hard and completely failing miserably to tone down my excitement over the season. But I can't. I am really amped about what I've put together for you. In the offseason, I spent a lot of time really thinking about what I wanted to deliver to my audience like, what you needed, what what you needed that would be fruitful for your life. And I spent a lot of time in prayer. I spent a lot of time just getting really quiet and letting myself be led to the right places. And I think I hope what I've put together for you is really, really fruitful in your life. So before we dive in, I have a quick question. Have you listened to season one yet? Like in its entirety? If you have high five over the airwaves? I see you out there. Okay, well, okay, I don't like see you. But I imagine you and your glorious seriously. If you haven't checked out season one. Do it. I think you're gonna like it. quick rundown, I guess a recap would be helpful. I talked through some secrets to happy life. The perfect morning that went absolutely bananas. I unpacked living life in action, and how unchecked injuries can lead to fractures, and even pain. That episode we got deep in a hurry. So be forewarned. We dove into my obsession with gratitude fueled happiness and what it is that you might be focused on. I ended the season talking about preparation and offering hopefully lots of tips and tools along the way to help you be successful and fruitful and live your very best life. In season two, I want to kick off building on where we left off in season one. If you remember, we ended talking about preparation and at the time, it felt really right to give you those tangible tools to get you amped about the art of preparing. But now I want to dial it in. I want to talk about how preparation fits in with leadership. Hang out with me, it's gonna get good. I want to talk about preparing to lead and more than just lead. But lead Well, now obviously this applies to those leading organizations, it applies to those leading homes. It applies to teachers in the classrooms and physicians and their practices. It applies to our students in school. Leading well applies to all of us because, well, we are all leading someone in our lives. And if you're listening to this like yeah, Dez. I'm definitely not over here leading anyone. I need you to do me a favor. Yes. You. I invite you to take out your phone. If you're driving or operating heavy machinery. Please don't take out your phone. The rest of you who think you're not leading anyone who can safely take out your phone. Be-bop your way to the camera. I'll wait. Now with a camera open, turn it on selfie mode. Now, here's what I need you to do. On my count of three. I need you to smile, maybe even give an excited little wave. Okay, are you ready? Don't think about it. Just do it. 123 Shutter click and cheering See that beautiful face looking back at you. You, my friend are leading the most important person in your life. You! Now I know what you're thinking mylanta does that was cheesy. Well, you're probably right. That was super cheesy tastic but also, am I wrong? We are all leading someone. And we need to ensure that we're leading well. Now that we've established who we're leading, I want to make a distinction here. Probably really more for me than you. But if you're anything like me, you hear the word leader. And you automatically think of a person in a position of power, maybe the boss or the head of the organization or whatever. But that might be true and some of the time, okay, fine. But what I really want to get at when I talk about leadership are the skills and abilities that a person embodies, like who they are in the gut of their soul, you don't have to be in a position of power to be a leader. And as a matter of fact, I have seen some of the most compelling and best leaders not be in power. Okay, so I believe leadership is a state of mind. And I also believe it's a skill available to all of us. While I was earning my masters, which happened to be many, many moons ago, I studied a lot about leadership, it was part of my curriculum. And in that time, I was drawn to case studies about really good and effective leaders. I was fascinated by the work and the skill set that came that came, you know, came along with it. I studied leaders who were very successful, I studied ones who failed miserably. In all of them. There were usually four attributes or strengths that stood out for ways of being. And I want to talk you through them, because I believe if you can begin to learn these and to apply them in your life, and to get better and better and better, you're going to be a more successful leader in your life. Are you ready? All right, let's go. The first attribute that I want to go over is preparation. Now, in all of my studies, there is one influential and amazingly successful leader that stuck out over and over and over. His name is Joshua, his story can be found in, you guessed it, the book of Joshua, the sixth book of the Bible. Now, I want to add a quick disclaimer that anybody who's hung around this space has probably heard before the Bible is my truth. I don't expect it to be your truth. And so as you listen, my ask is that you listen with an open mind and an open heart. And that's it. Okay? Can you do that? I can do that. If you can do that. Let's go. So in Joshua, chapter three, verse five, we find Joshua getting God's people prepared to cross the Jordan. Now Joshua had spent years studying under Moses, and now Moses, he had died, he was gone, and Joshua was appointed in his place to lead these people. He was ready to lead because Joshua had spent years in preparation under Moses. Before Joshua is going to lead the Israelites across the Jordan, he says to the people, consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. Joshua was telling them to prepare, and he could only tell them this because he himself had done the work. Friends, it's here that I can't help but ask all of us, myself included. How are we preparing? The Israelites were asked to prepare their minds and their bodies and their hearts for the Lord's purpose. That's really what the heart of consecration is. And all these generations later, I believe that we're still being asked to do the same thing. We can only lead Well, when we have truly prepared for it. The second attribute is strength and courage. Yes, there's two, but to be the most effective, they have to be us together. We see this phrase in the Bible many, many times. A lot of times when things are repeated, this is an indication that it's very, very important. And I think God knew our way would be really hard and make us weary. And I wonder sometimes, if that's why be strong and courageous was there over and over and over because he knew we would need strength and courage. I want to continue looking at Joshua to talk about the attributes of strength and courage now, the first time a little history. The first time God parted the sea for the people, the Israelites, they were fleeing Egypt, they were they were on the run, right a place where they weren't they have been enslaved in Egypt. They didn't need to do anything besides listen to the Lord and go like that was their only job. They reached the banks of the sea and God used Moses to part the waters, the Israelites crossed and they were saved. Fast forward 40 years of desert wandering, which is a fascinating topic for a podcast and another day. God's people are now literally standing on the bank of the Jordan before the land they've been promised for I mean generations I have to sit here and believe that they looked across the Jordan in awe. Like, I close my eyes. And I just wonder like, oh my god, what were they thinking like what they must have thought like today is the day they're going to be standing in the Promised Land this land, literally for generations they'd heard about, and it was talked about. By this time in the story, a little bit more history, the Israelites had built an ark of the covenant for the Lord. And this was so he could dwell among them. And as the Israelites crossed the Jordan, the priests had to carry the ark across, and they were, they were leading the charge, I can't help but have great compassion for the priests because unlike the first crossing, this time, the water isn't just going apart. Like, nobody's just going to raise their hand like Moses did, and the waters are going apart. The priests needed to enter the water and not just enter, but go in carrying a cumbersome wooden chest encased in gold. They lead the people with the arc, the priests were carrying the weight, while embarking on unchartered ground, they literally had to embody the attributes of strength and courage to even think about leading the people. I don't know, wondering who out there can relate to this last part, carrying a weight so heavy, so precious, that it literally might crush you? While navigating a territory that is rocky and unstable at best. I know I'm over here raising my hand because Hi, that's super tangible to me. In these moments, we can lean into the words offered to God's people so long ago, Be strong and courageous, like he did for the Israelites back then. The Lord still goes before us today. The third attribute is to live by truth and integrity. It's another two for one attribute, you are so very welcome. First, I encourage you to identify your truth. For my life it's my values, which are based on biblical teaching. Not everybodys are that. The first thing we need to do is identify what truth guides us. Living by truth, this piece of of this third attribute, it reminds me of an airport possibly add, I'm aware, as you're going through security, follow me here. As you're going through security in the airport, they agents, they take your license, they run under a light, they make sure the security marks light up. And to me this is the best illustration that I can think about, of what living by truth is, it's taking desires and situations and decisions and running them under the light of truth consulting the Word of God as we do life. It's not always easy and full disclosure More times than not, I've had to rethink my ways of living. Because it does not line up with the word of God. It's been hard. And it's been frustrating. And I can promise you there have been more tears and more pain and more heartache than I can even begin to unravel. But my life has always been better for it. When we live by truth, we can't help but walk in integrity. And so now we have this picture of living by truth I want to give you another visual of, of living in integrity. So Warren Buffett, he is fascinating to me, is a transformational leader to say the very least about him. He once said, and I quote that he looked for three qualities in a new hire, integrity, intelligence and energy and then he added hire someone without the first and the other two will kill you. how true this is right. Integrity hems us in. Living in integrity reminds me of the bumpers in bowling. Do you remember like, close your eyes? I mean, not if you're driving or something. But do you remember when you were a kid, and you could throw the ball as crooked as all get out. I mean, like you could with it as hard as you want to down that lane. And once it hit the bumpers, it pushed it back to the center. That's what integrity does. Like every time I think of living in integrity. I think of that ball, getting pushed back to center getting pushed back to center getting pushed back to center no matter how crooked no matter how off no matter how hard no matter how soft, no matter how we throw it. Integrity, always bumps it back to the center. When we start to get off course because we all have and we all will integrity gently or not. Bumps us back to our center. It keeps our forward progress going. While keeping us on the right track. The little Last and final attribute is pay it forward. I read a book in grad school and it still sits on the shelf in my office and it's called leading with soul. In it it says and I quote leading is giving. It is an ethic, a gift of oneself to a common cause without giving there can be no real leadership. Giving doesn't always mean material and tangible things but giving of oneself things like care and compassion and kindness and love. Friends, when we give of ourselves when we invest in others, they can in turn, use it and pay it forward in their lives. And so, we prepare, we move forward in strength and courage. We live by truth and integrity, and then we pay it forward, over and over and over. Leading well is a state of mind and it is a skill set that can be learned and mastered. It is something that I believe if we put a lot of thought and a lot of action and a lot of intentionality behind, we truly can live the best most successful lives ever. Prepare, Be strong and courageous. Live by truth and integrity and pay it forward. Friends I hope that you enjoyed episode one of season two, I have so much more to come this season. So stay tuned. Send me a message you know, I always love hearing your thoughts. Come back next time we'll throw more encouragement around like confetti, but be careful if you get too close each just might get some on you. And remember, there is always always always something to be thankful for. Ciao. Thank you for joining me Desire Melfi Bozzo for this episode of Life out loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment. Tell me what topics you want to talk about and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link share it on social media. Or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, be-bop over to my webpage life out loud.me and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time sweet listeners!