Kayla: Welcome back to the Designer Practice Podcast, and I'm your host, Kayla Das.
One of my favorite of many topics to discuss is leadership. Because contrary to what most people believe, just being in a managerial role doesn't automatically make you a leader. Even though many of us have worked in organizations where managers or directors held job titles such as junior or senior leader. Being given the title of a leader isn't just assumed, it's earned.
You can run an organization and be in a managerial role, but not be a leader. You can also be a leader and not be in a managerial role.
How I view leadership and management is like this: a manager is someone who you have to follow. A leader is someone that you want to follow. And when someone wants to follow you, you're going to see much better results, work culture, and revenue potential. Then if someone is following you, begrudgingly.
In today's episode, I'm sitting down with Haydn Griffiths, Mindset Coach, to discuss the importance of leadership when running a practice, and what makes a great leader.
Hi, Haydn. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad to have you here today.
Haydn: Thank you, Kayla. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
Kayla: Hayden, before we dive into today's episode, please introduce yourself, where you're from, and tell us a little bit about you and your own business journey.
Haydn: Well, thank you very much. I'm originally from Australia, born and raised. I'm living in the UK now with my family. I married an English woman. And I know many people go, Australia, England, what are you thinking? The weather difference. Yeah, it is much colder and wetter here, but the buildings are beautiful and the work ethic culture here is exceptional.
I have two beautiful children, I'm a father, they're three and seven months old, and I plan on having many more, I'd like to have at least five children. A huge part of what drives me is being a father. I've always wanted to be a dad. Even when I was a little boy, I looked up to my dad and I wanted to be just like him big and strong and capable, stoic. He was very stoic. So that was my ideal as a young boy, what I aimed at.
And what I do for work is coach. And I particularly work with business owners moving them through all the challenges that being a business owner. The fear of sales, marketing, time management, self-management, dealing with clients, managing your finances. It's just such a huge leap going from either a student or an employee into this self-employed person or manager of a business. So I guide them through all the turmoil that that brings up.
Kayla: That's fabulous. You mentioned that you were in Australia and the UK, but for Canadian listeners, you've also been in Canada and have spent some time here as well.
Haydn: Yes, I have been in Canada and I love Canadians and I love Canada. It is a beautiful country. I was on the west side living in Kamloops in the mountains, that deserty mountain scene, those huge peaks around us and the beautiful glacier water to swim in every summer. We lived there for four and a half years and I still have clients in Canada doing very well. So yes, I'm a fan. I'm a fan Canadians. Love your country.
Kayla: Thank you. So obviously, in the introduction, I shared a little bit about what I view leadership as, but I'm curious, what does leadership mean for you? And what do you think makes a great leader?
Haydn: Hmm, that's a great question. Leadership to me, I'm sure there's a few parts to it. Number one is being selfless. So, it's giving up oneself for other selves. And when I speak of self, I mean that internal voice. It's like, I want this, I want that. It's judging people, it has opinions, and it's just there chatting away. And it's the ability to put that to the side, that internal chatter, and really be there with and for others. So, there's that part of it, is that selfless side, being there for others.
There's also the, I'm willing to walk the path first. I'm willing to go somewhere. I have a vision. I'm heading this way and I'll take you with me. When I walk the path first, I'm then able to guide others along the path. So as a leader, I can only take someone as far as I've been in the direction I've been. I used to be a business coach and it was inauthentic. I'd never grown a business.
Where I had developed myself was in the area of mindset. I had horrible thoughts when I was younger. I'm worthless. I'll never be loved. I have no place in the world. I don't belong. All this horrible thoughts that led to alcohol and drug abuse.
And I overcame all those thoughts. I eventually learned they're just thoughts. They're not reality. I can be someone. I have a place in the world. I can be loved. I'm lovable. I love myself. I can guide people down that path of self-development and overcoming that internal chatter that we listen to that often we believe is the truth when it isn't.
It's just thoughts. We can remove them. We don't have to listen to them and we can become somebody you. Who we love to be. So that's the path I've gone down. That's how I can guide someone. So, I think there's two main parts. One is being selfless and two is we're already walking a path and we can take people with us.
Kayla: I love that you said that leadership is about helping others because I know that our listeners get that, right? That's why they're therapists. That's why they're coaches, because they're there to help. And when we look at it from like a business perspective, we still want to help our employees. We still want to help our independent contractors.
When we don't think of leadership from how can we help our employees? How can we help our independent contractors? Toxic work cultures start to develop. Because going back to my introduction, you can be a manager, but if you are not embodying that leadership role within that managerial role, people are going to follow you, but not because they want to, because their paycheck requires them to.
Haydn: Yeah. And I wouldn't call it following. I'd say they do what they're told, wouldn’t call it following. There's a difference.
Kayla: Yes, exactly. So why is it important for listeners to become a leader in their practices? And what are some of the issues that could arise for listeners if they don't actively take a leadership role in their practices?
Haydn: It's important. Coming back to, I can only take someone as far as I've been. So, if we truly want to develop others, we must be developing ourself. It goes in this order. It's self-awareness, self-mastery, group awareness, Group mastery. So, before we can have a serious impact on another person, we have to have a serious impact on ourselves. When we can listen to ourselves, understand ourselves, develop ourselves, deal with our own past that have caused us to be who we are and recreate it. So, we can become our full potential, become that leader in our future. And we can have a serious impact.
So, becoming the leader is starts with leading ourselves being responsible for us our lives our results, Then, we can impact others. Without that leadership development without walking our own path becoming our best selves, we're just we're unable to. We won't hear what's going on for others because we haven't dealt with what's here first.
It's important to become a leader because your practice, your business will grow as big as you do, as big as your vision, as big as your ability. Your ability to lead, to expand yourself and then expand others, determines the impact of your practice in the world.
And you can see this, if you look at Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, now I'm not saying you have to like these people, but they have massive businesses, okay? And they have huge vision, they want to impact the world, and they're willing to do the work. They speak directly. They don't hold back their thoughts, their opinions. They're willing to be disliked to pursue their vision. They're willing to turn up every day and organize the people that need to be organized to get the work done. They're willing to continue to study and talk to the right people so they expand their own perspective and mindset.
They're willing to look at themselves and question themselves and see what they're missing in themselves so they grow and they expand. As they're developing themselves and they're moving on to new levels of leadership, they're creating this space behind them to be filled by others. So as they create new roles in their business, they fill that role and then they look for the next level. What's next? How else can we grow? And they step up into a new role. Then there's a gap behind them that can be filled.
So, it's crucial that you're developing your leadership ability so your business grows, it will grow as big as you do. And the dangerous side. I love this philosophy that if you're not growing, you're dying. So there's no such thing as stationary in reality. Everything is always moving. If you're not expanding, your competitor is. So, continuing to develop yourself as a leader is the key.
Kayla: I couldn't agree more. And I love that you brought in some of the, Fortune 500 people. Yes, as therapists and coaches, our aspirations are not necessarily to be these people. But I think it goes back to that, how do I grow my practice is I continue to expand. And do some of the hard things that we don't want to do. People want to follow you because they know you get it, because they know that you've been through it, or that you will be there and take the fall if they need it.
Haydn: Yeah, I agree. Trust is the backbone of big business.
Kayla: Yeah, I agree 100%. So, what can listeners do to improve their leadership skills in their practices?
Haydn: When developing any skills in life, there's three main facets. Number one, study. You must be studying whatever you're up to. We go to university, we go to school, before we even begin our practice as an employee or self-employed person. Study is number one.
Number two, practice. We must then implement the study and gain an understanding of it that's not just conceptual, that's real-life feedback from the world. It's like, I can read how to ride a bike. Understanding balance is a totally different thing. We must become the practitioner, not simply understand the practice. So, study first, implementing that study.
And third thing is guidance. Someone who's done it before, who can correct us along the way. It can give us little tips on things we're not seeing, maybe things we're not doing, things we're not doing to the best of our ability.
When we have those three things and we apply them consistently and ongoingly, we continue to develop ourselves. So, with leadership, the areas to study, you want to study, communication, listening, speaking, language, how to communicate, how to listen, what to say, when to say it. We want to study body language. We want to be able to not just hear tonality and emotions and what people are committed to when they're speaking. We want to see what's going on visually with them as well.
Kayla: I'd like to add even one more to your three is accountability. We need to, as leaders, take accountability for ourselves. And not just expected from the people that follow us.
Have you ever read the book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey?
Haydn: Have I ever! It changed my life.
Kayla: Oh, mine too. So, for any listener who has not read this book, I strongly encourage you to do so. So, he talks about the concept of the emotional bank account.
And for any listener who hasn't read the book, I'm going to really simplify it. Although, he goes into way more detail than I'm going to share on this podcast is that as people, we are kind of like bank accounts, right? For every relationship we have, we add to that relationship, we deposit into that relationship, or we withdraw from that relationship. Depending on what we do, what we say and so forth.
And I look from a leadership perspective, if we're running organizations, if you're creating your own practice from scratch, typically you're starting off like at a zero, right? So, when you hire someone, there's no kind of preconceived notions, you start either depositing or withdrawing from that relationship. Are people liking you as a leader? Are they not liking you, right?
But something that I find really interesting with this concept is, also, when we go in established organizations, sometimes we're not starting at zero. So, if you bought a private practice from someone, or maybe you worked in an organization that's been around for 30 years, and it has really poor work culture. And maybe you're a new CEO or new executive director coming in, and it has really poor work culture. It doesn't mean because you're a brand-new person, you're starting at zero. There might be so much deficit into that emotional relationship already because of the history of the organization prior to you coming in.
So, you're going to need to deposit much more into that emotional bank account and it's going to take a lot more time to build trust. So again, leadership and trust, the key theme here today, in order to fulfill or to even get in that positive bank account.
So, I love that analogy and I always think of Stephen Covey and I love that I read his book and I love that he shared that concept because it doesn't just apply to any relationship. But I think when we think of leadership, it really hits home when we're thinking of positive work cultures, negative work cultures. You know, are you being a leader? Are you being a manager? If you continue to add into that emotional bank account with your employees and independent contractors, they will follow you and they'll trust you. What do you think about that? And then what do you take away from the emotional bank account from Stephen Covey?
Haydn: I totally agree. I think we need to invest in people. And build an account, build a balance with them. There's another book Thou Shalt Prosper, by Rabbi Daniel Lapin and he speaks about trust is a currency. You can walk into a bank and they will trust you and give you money. Whereas if you have a poor reputation and you walk into a bank, they won't give you anything. So, when you're investing in others, building this reputation and building this emotional bank account, you have a lot to draw from. People are willing to give back and trade and I totally agree with that philosophy and it is a wonderful one. Yeah. And anyone who hasn't read that book, Seven Habits, it is life changing. I promise you, you won't be the same person. Pick it up.
Kayla: I actually think it was my first leadership book I ever read. And it was the best book I have ever read. It's actually my top one book. So, I totally agree with you. Any listener, doesn't matter if you're in a private practice, if you're working as an employee, it is the best book I have ever read. So, I encourage you to get it from your local library, get it on Amazon, wherever it is so great.
And you mentioned, like, trust is a currency. I totally agree with that. Because even when we think of, I talk about marketing a lot on this podcast. And people need to trust you. It is currency. We can't just do something once and assume that people are going to trust us. Us as consumers, we wouldn't do that. Let's think of it through their lens.
Haydn: Yeah. We often forget it. We often get caught up in the day to day. It happens. Trust is a currency. And the way to build trust is so simple. It's you keep your word; you turn up on time. You do what you say you're going to do, no matter what. And you keep your word to yourself.
And this is probably the most challenging part. When you become someone who keeps your word to yourself, everything's possible. You become unstoppable. Keeping your word is what builds that currency of trust. And when you have that trust, people will follow you to the end of the earth.
Kayla: I love that. Yeah. And you need to trust in yourself because other people are going to see it. If you don't trust in yourself, how can other people trust in you? So, it starts from within.
Haydn: Absolutely. Yeah.
Kayla: Do you have any additional advice, insights, or tips for listeners on how to become a great leader?
Haydn: The number one thing is ongoing self-development. That's it. Keep turning up for your future, for who you can be, for who you can become. Stop listening to who you've been in the past. Stop judging yourself. And continue to that future. Keep turning up for your future. You will get there. There is a great leader lying within you. Just waiting to be expressed and left free on the world. Keep turning up for yourself. Keep believing in yourself. Stop listening to all the nasty thoughts. Let them go. You've got this.
Kayla: There's a positive correlation from action to success.
Haydn: Definitely, yeah. Yeah, life is as simple as you do the work, you get the results. What gets in the way is all this inner chatter like, Oh, I don't know if I can. Oh, I'm scared. I don't know if it'll be too much for me. That inner chatter is what makes it complicated. When you can quiet all that noise, And, keep turning up. You will get there. You will become that leader.
Kayla: Agree. So, Hayden, if listeners want to connect with you, how can they?
Haydn: The best way to connect with me is through email, you can connect with me, [email protected]. That's H A Y D N, no E in Haydn, M for Michael. G for Griffiths at gmail.com. Or you can find me on LinkedIn, Mindset and Performance Coaching, Haydn Griffiths, H A Y D N G R I F F I T H S.
And TikTok, you can find me on TikTok as well.
Kayla: Great. So, if you want to check out Haydn's social media accounts, you can scroll down to the show notes and click on the links.
Haydn, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast to discuss how to become a great leader in our private practices.
Haydn: Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you very much. This was a fun conversation.
Kayla: Thank you everyone for tuning in to today's episode and I hope you join me again soon on the Designer Practice Podcast.
Until next time, bye for now.
