Three Tips to Achieving Greatness In Business and Leadership with Will Guidara [10 min]

0:0010 years ago, I made the decision to build my personal brand that was elevated, yet approachable, and reflected who I was, not just what I did. I created my website with ShowIt because it's true drag and drop freedom so you can easily build and update your site. Plus, their real human support team, game changer. Want to try it for yourself? Head to jasminestar.com forward slash show it for a 14-day free trial and first month free when you subscribe. What would it look like for you to become number one in your industry? What would you need to double down on? What would you need to let go of? What would you need to embrace that you have been hesitant about so far?

0:36Hey there, I'm Whitney, content director for Jasmine Starr and social curator. And in this short and sweet episode with Amy Porterfield and Will Godara, you'll learn Will's three biggest tips for achieving greatness. Let's listen in. I decided that I wanted to be number one and our impact was going to come through not being unreasonable in pursuit of product, but in pursuit of people and being relentless in pursuit of the one thing that will never change, which is just the human desire to feel seen to feel cared for to feel a sense of belonging or honestly our collective want to feel loved and that's where unreasonable hospitality came about now in the beginning i had no idea what those two words meant but i think that's kind of fun and and okay i think far too many people we put this pressure on ourselves to fully understand or define an idea before we ever start pursuing it.

1:32And because we do that, we never start pursuing anything. I think we need to trust the fact that if you feel a connection to a thought, just start pursuing it and it will reveal itself to you along the way. And that's what set out the journey that ultimately unpacked what this idea was, how it could be applied, and became the thing that brought us to the top. So if someone's listening right now and they're thinking, okay, So you were 50 and you wanted to be number one. That night you decided we're going to figure that out, but you didn't know how you would do that. So someone listening, can you give, let's say, three tips to how to figure out how to move toward greatness, especially if they've never seen it done in their industry?

2:15We're talking to a lot of online marketers and coaches and course creators. So it's different for us than it was for you. For sure. So what are some tips you have? Well, okay, I think the first thing that I'd say can only be described once you identify what it means to be a great leader today. So, okay, once upon a time, great leadership, I'm like talking Braveheart days. Like, it was the guy, and I say guy with intention, that was a long time ago, with the confidence and conviction to say to a group of people, this is where we're going, and people crave leadership, so they'd follow them. And then at a certain point, probably Simon Sinek's book, Start With Why, like really kind of put an exclamation point on this.

2:56That was no longer enough. People wanted to be told where they were going and also inspired why they should want to go there. That is also not enough anymore. I believe a great leader says the what. This is where we're going. They say the why. This is why we're going to do it. How are we going to get there? Why there's importance in it. But they then invite everyone on the team to join them in helping identify the how. I believe that no one is capable of investing all of themselves into something if they don't feel they have some small bit of ownership in contributing to how you get there. Absolutely.

3:33And so the first step was to go home and connect with the entire team and say, hey, we are going to be number one. We're going to do it through unreasonable hospitality. All of us together, we're going to figure out what that means and how we apply it. So as the leader, you didn't go back to the team and say, this is what we're going to do. No. And is it scary? I'm going to speak for myself. It's scary for me to let go of that control and give it to my team. And I love my team. But how do you get past that obstacle of trying to control it all? Well, I mean, I'd say two things. I believe in collaborative work environments.

4:09I also believe in everything having a point of view. And so it actually isn't scary because at the end of the day, it still comes back through you. True. Right? But what you're doing is saying to your team, hey, I recognize that the collective brainpower and creativity of all of us will always be so much greater than that of just me. and you're showing trust and you're showing respect and by the way the more trust you give people the more trustworthy they become the more responsibility you give people the more responsible they become i also think that you are and i want to hear your other two tips but you one thing that's special about you that i know is you let go of the ego and i think a great leader has to So reading your book and learning more about you, you never really lead with ego.

5:00You're the charge. You're the big cheese. Is that something that's always been with you or have you seen it done another way and didn't want to do it that way? I mean, I came up with, like, from the industry, right? I've waited tables, I've bussed tables, I've washed dishes, I did everything all the way up. And I get embarrassed, honestly. Like, when I was at the restaurant and people would want to write articles about me, I'd feel like, like, imagine if you're with a group of friends and everyone wants to just write an article about one person in the group. Wow, you really see yourself as part of that team.

5:32It makes me uncomfortable. Wow. And I just like, and by the way, there's plenty of leaders that love that. And I can't relate to it because I feel like the more on a pedestal you allow the world to put you, the less your team has the ability to feel connected to you. And so I've always actively worked to not keep myself down, but create opportunities for all of us to rise together. I love that. Okay, so the first step. Yes. express the what, the why, but invite the entire team to be a part of the how. I think consistency in communication is also everything if you're trying to really grow. I believe that if everyone in any business that interacts with any people ever implemented some version of a daily huddle, it would transform customer service and hospitality as we know it.

6:25because I just believe that leaders need to be as disciplined and systemized in how they inspire their people as they already are and how they train their people. And consistency in communication through a daily huddle, I think is one of the best levers at our disposal if we are aligned in trying to do that. And then number three, it's creating a culture where feedback is normalized. And when I say feedback, obviously, I mean praise. If you're reaching for the stars and trying to do something incredible, you're raising expectations of the people around you constantly, right? And when someone on your team lives up or surpasses those expectations, you better be there to catch them doing something right.

7:13Yes. To celebrate them, to give them that feeling of satisfaction that you've set an impossibly high bar and they've reached it and they deserve celebration. But when I talk about creating a culture where feedback is normalized, I'm not just talking about praise, I'm also talking about criticism. Because if praise is affirmation, criticism is investment. I fear that we're in this day and age where everyone's talking about creating cultures of positivity and silver linings and all that stuff. And in doing so, by the way, which is awesome, I fear that we've let go of criticism a little bit too much.

7:50I don't believe there is anything more powerful that a leader can do than to step outside of their comfort zone and invest in someone else's growth. And that comes through criticism because if you are hiring people that want to grow and be the best, they're never going to grow and become the best if someone isn't telling them when they've fallen off and nudging them back in or where they're falling short and could do better. Yes. But I can't talk about criticism without outlining a few rules that are required. I was going to say, I knew you were going to have some rules. Okay. To deliver it thoughtfully.

8:25Yes. First, okay, you can praise in public. You can never criticize in public. It always needs to be in private. Because, well, criticism is a form of communication. You criticize someone in public, The wall of shame goes up. They're not going to hear it. You criticize the person's behavior, not them as a person. Oh, that's big. Because when you criticize an individual, it becomes emotional. If you bring emotion into it, they're going to bring emotion into it. And you're ruining the entire point of the exchange, which is just to say, hey, you're great. Stop doing that and start doing this. Yes.

9:01Criticize consistently. You can't pick and choose when to address a behavior. because when you do, it's not clear to the people around you what right looks like. And if you're not careful, people think you only criticize when you're in a bad mood, which then colors the entire exchange in a way that you do not want it to be colored. And then finally, you need to bring to it the charitable assumption, which is something I learned from my mentor and longtime boss, Danny Meyer. The charitable assumption means give people the benefit of the doubt. another way to say that ask the question before you say the thing believe the best in people and if someone's coming in late is everything okay before you say why are you late you can't be late i need you to be here on time yes but if you want to be the best at anything it is i don't believe it's possible unless you have a culture where feedback is normalized and when i say that I mean, not only that it's well-received by everyone in the organization, but also that it's sought out.

10:06Welcome back. I hope you realize how great you are right now in this moment. And I also hope you're able to see just how truly great you can become. Thanks for tuning in to The Jasmine Star Show. We'll see you next time.