H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle.

Books serve as the gateway of learning that allows people we have never met to impact us and the people we become. As Betty Southward said, "Books are wonderful mentors. They are available at any hour of the day or night." One recent book that has been impacting me deeply is Brad Lomenick's H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle. This books has been a gem to read and I am certain it will continue to work me over the years to come.

"Lead yourself. How can you attempt to lead others until you embrace this simple truth? Brad Lomenick is one of the good guys and he's generously sharing what he's learned in his own journey." - Seth Godin, author, The Icarus Deception

"Hungry. Humble. Hustle. Those three words are Brad Lomenick's mantra, and they characterize just about every quality, hard-charging, effective leader I know. When it comes to Brad's H3 Leadership, though, I'd add one more H: HOW. This book is your how-to when it comes to leading your organization. Don't miss it." - Dave Ramsey, New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio host

"A practical resource for leaders at all level." - Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take

How do we develop and grow into effective leaders? 

Brad Lomemick's most recent book provides us the answers and blueprints we seek. H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle. has rarely departed my side these past few weeks. 

• Want to get promoted and take your career to the next level?
• Want to increase your influence and impact in your current role? 
• Want a road map to put knowledge into practice? 

Want to up your game, no matter where you are? This book is your guide. 

The Audible version of this book can be found here. 

This post includes: 

• A brief overview of the book
• 10 of my favorite quotes
• Three interviews with Brad Lomenick discussing H3 Leadership and more

Perhaps your in a hurry and the length of this post looks daunting. Here is the synopsis of the book in one sentence: Becoming a better leader is all about the habits you develop, in H3 Leadership Brad Lomenick walks you through 20 critical habits that can transform your life and leadership. 

H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay Hungry, Always Hustle. distills a career's worth of lessons learned into what is sure to be the next great leadership resource. 

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A Brief Overview

One of my favorite aspects of Brad's book is that he approaches leadership from the standpoint of habit development saying, "The path to being a better leader is paved with the asphalt of the habits we develop." I don't know about you but I immediatly resonate with that sentiment. When I look at my life much of what I do is the result of my habits rather than concious decisions. If this is true, and I believe that it is, developing the right habits can transform your life, not to mention help you become the leader & human you want to be. Throughout H3 Ledership, Brad draws your attention to the qualities of great leaders and then teases out how you can develop the same habits in your life.

Todd Wagner is famous for saying that, "If you want to change the world, draw a circle around yourself and change everything inside the circle. Then invite other people into that circle." Brad picks up on this theme and opens by focusing on self work by encouraging readers to create, "intentional rhythms whereby one observes who he is, listens to his life, and strives to define himself apart from his professional assignments." This is huge because the temptation to find at least part of your identity in what you do is powerful. Here Brad provides a road map to developing rhythms to learn how you are wired. Among my favorite is his encouragement to keep a list of what you think makes you who you are, things that engergizes you, and give you a sense of purpose. As the work of self mastery continues openness, meekness, conviction, faith and assignment form the tapistry. The most important person a leader must lead is himself and the first six chapters of H3 Leadership set you up to do just that.     

If being humble is about knowing who you are, then staying hungry is certainly about knowing where you want to go. After years of languishing in agony and unhealthy imbalance Brad comes riding in to rescue our misconception of ambition. Brad helps us see that the posture of a properly ambitious person is "Never satisfied, but always content..." There is a proper context to our ambition and a road map for how we become the leader we want to be. A large component of that is staying hungry for knowledge. We all want to learn and grow when we first start out, but its those who remain curious who win in the end because they understand that, "If you're not learning, you're not leading to your full potential." Brad's chapter on curiosity was by far my favorite chapter and is included below as a quick sample. Here Brad discusses cultivating the habits of passion, innovation, inspiration and bravery as he helps you develop a taste for what life could be like if you mastered storytelling, facing down your fears and improve upon the status quo.  

In his closing section Brad shows you how to get to your destination by setting scary standards of excellence, serving others, sticking with things and nurturing healthy ryhtums. Where most pull back and skimp over the hard realities of leadership, Brad dives right in confronting our notions of excellence, discipline and team building. But he doesn't stop there, he gives you a road map back on course. After all, leaders have an incredible opportunity to impact lives. The good ones not only understand this, but lean into it. They've learned the secret that all great leaders know. "..their fruit most often grows on other people's trees." 

Brad brings his fastball with H3 Leadership. It's chalked full of helpful tips to establish new patterns and cultivate habits that not only help you win at work but in life as well.  

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10 Awesome Quotes  

• There's no avoiding it: the patterns we cultivate shape the person we each become. Unfortunately, most people aren't intentional about the habits they're developing.

• Ask serious questions during conversations with others. Relational depth often emerges from intentional dialogue.

• Authentic leaders must have the strength to admit when they've made a mistake and take the steps to fix it.

• ...an influencer's unguarded greatest strength is also his or her greatest weakness - and therefore turns into his or her greatest temptation. Your best can bring you down. 

• Failure is crucial for innovation to actually become second nature for your team. If you're not failing, you're not risking enough.

• Do something every day that you weren't asked or told to do.

• Your twenties establish your seventies.

• Leadership is a choice, not a position. Be the leader you wish you had.

• Margin creates moments; it makes life more meaningful. Margin creates space for magic to happen. 

• The generous leader gives people what they truly want: knowledge, power, information, credit, praise, responsibility, and authority. 

If you want to take your life and leadership to the next level, H3 Leadership just might be the book you need to get in your hand. Tangible and highly applicational H3 Leadership has the potential to impact your life in some profound ways. 

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Recent Interviews with Brad Lomenick

Hearing someone's voice can help us connect and understand them in a whole new way. Below I have included three great interviews featuring Brad. He shares extremely helpful value in each interview, so grab your headphones, pop them in and give these a listen. 

Brad discussing H3 Leadership on The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast

In this interview Brad shares three essential components it takes to lead in today's culture. This one is a little long but Brad shares some awesome insights here that will be well worth your time. 

Brad on 5 Leadership Questions 

Here Brad discusses his journey, leading himself as well as others. Much of this discussion allows Brad to place the principles found in H3 Leadership within a real world context. 

Brad on the EntreLeadership Podcast

Brad expounds on the habits you need to get more done in this conversation with Ken Coleman.  

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Hard Conversations

We live in a broken, fallen world full of strife, difficulty and disagreement. We don't always get along with or agree with those around us. Maybe someone has done something that has hurt you financially, emotionally, or otherwise. You might feel bitter and you might be wounded, but things don't have to stay that way. 

Often the conversations you most dread are the ones you most need to have. There is something deep down inside us that knows exactly what we need to do. That feeling of dread or fear may not mean what you have always thought. Those knots in your stomach might not be telling you to run, but just might be confirming what you need to do. Whatever conversation has you scared, run towards it. Sure things could blow up in your face and go badly, but being willing to lean in and engage in tough conversations just might lead to outcomes you've only dreamed of.   

Tough conversations don't have to be negative or destructive. It can actually serve as an opportunity to strengthen your relationships and help you grow as an individual. If for no other reason, lean in and engage those you most fear. It has the potential to completely change everything. If you think about it in these terms, those tough conversations all of a sudden get a whole lot easier. 

Ok, you know you need to have a tough conversation but you aren't sure how. Here are a few quick hits that can help you master the art of the difficult conversation. 

Prepare your heart. This is the most challenging part of any difficult interchange. Before going to the other person pause and take a look at yourself. Search your own attitudes, words and actions. Many times you'll find that you've contributed far more to the relational strife your experiencing than you previously realized. Taking a swim in your own stuff will better prepare you to talk to someone else about theirs.

Plan out what you will say. Scripting your conversation may be impractical however, it is extremely helpful to spend some time processing not only what you will say but how you will say it. While the content of your message is important, method and tone are even more so. A helpful way to address tone and method is by how you would like to be confronted. One golden rule that won't steer you wrong is to be humble. A humble attitude smooths over a lot more than you realize. 

Lead With Your Weaknesses

You're not perfect. Whether it's sarcasam, responding out of anger or not delivering on your commitments, you make dozens of mistakes each and every day. The temptation to hide and minimize your mistakes is overwhelming because the first thing you want to do is run as far from them as possible. 

While this is your natural tendency it might not always be the best strategy for responding to failure. Our failures provide us with an opportunity to take giant steps forward and helps us connect with others. Today, I want to encourage you not to run from or hide your failures but to embrace and share them openly. 

Display your authentic self. Openly discussing your short comings and failures knocks down the dividing wall and allows others to connect with you. Whether you are aware of it or not there is a dividing wall between you and those you impact and lead. Often times that wall of division is the gap between who you truly are and others perception of you. The quickest way to shrink this gap is to authentically share your struggles and failures. The fear in doing so is that it will change how people see you. The funny thing is that this fear is 100% true. They will see you differently, just not in the way you fear they will. 

Part of the reason people lean in and see you more positively when you share your struggles is that they can relate. People aren't perfect and they know it. They already know you aren't perfect either and that you make mistakes because you're human. Opening up and leading with your weakness displays confidence not the lack there of. People will follow a leader who doesn't run from his short comings. 

Be known for owning your stuff. The next time you drop the ball or just blow it, seize it for the opportunity that it is and own it. Do far more than acknowledge that you messed up, ask those impacted by your failure to forgive you. Trust me, this is a trait you want to be known for. It displays a humble heart, empowers others and will transform your relationships.     

Tone

Over the last few weeks I have been having trouble sleeping. When up way past my bed time, I like to pull out my headphones and relisten to sermons and talks as I try to drift off to sleep. Such was the case last night (this morning) as I dialed up Ted Lowe's talk from Watermark's Uncommon Marriage Conference. Ted dropped some solid gold on the topic of tone that has implications far beyone just marriage.

What is tone? In short, tone can be defined as our overall posture and attitude towards others.   

It's rarely discussed, but vitally important. Today I want to help you be mindful of your tone by discussing a few insights from Ted Lowe. 
   
1. It's not really the big things that get us into trouble, it's often the small things. We know this to be true because we tend to fight over some pretty silly things. In those moments the topic isn't the problem, tone is. We bow up. We raise our voice. We shoot back snippy and snide remarks. Knowing tone is more important than the content of our words is a huge advantage. If you want to stand out at work or just in life in general, keep watch over your tone.   

2. Tone is a choice. No matter how upset or hurt we are we still have the ability to control how you respond, you just might often choose to respond unkindly. Recognize that you have the ability to make choices about your behavoir, beginning with your tone. Instead of passively allowing words and emotion to drip from your lips, actively choose your responses. It's not easy and will be a life long battle, but it's one worth fighting.  

3. Asking others helps us become aware of our tone. Sometimes you aren't aware of your tone. You're  too caught up in the emotion of the moment. A sign of maturity is to ask other people to help you evaluate your tone. It's a scary thing and you probably won't like what you hear, but it will help you grow. Ask your supervisor or others close to you, "What's my tone when things go wrong?" Ask and thank them for the information. Don't under estimate the value of other people who can help you see things in yourself and change. 

This is part of being a leader. Leaders consider their tone and adjust it when necessary. 

Developing a Reading Habit

I love to read. There are few things I enjoy more than kicking back with cold glass of sweet tea in one hand and a book in the other. Reading shapes who we become by opening our minds to new thoughts, to new ideas and to a whole new world.

Last week I mentioned how important reading is to our personal growth. While personal growth encompasses many things the foundation is often a good book. With so much riding on our commitment to read here are three steps to help you in developing a reading habit.   

1. Determine what you will read

Reading for personal growth requires a degree of intentionality. Wondering aimlessly down the aisle of your local book store or public library most likely won't get you where you want to go. No, you must make decisions about what you will read with a direction and purpose in mind. One great way to go about this is by establishing some categories in which you want to read and then selecting books within each category. 

For example, you may choose to read leadership, marketing, spiritual growth and fiction. While there may be some overlap in categories and you may add books to your list throughout the year, try to determine what you will read at the beginning of the year. The beginning of your new reading year can be right now if you let it. Simply pick a few categories in which you want to learn and grow, establish a list of books in each category you think would be helpful and get after it. 

2.  Determine when you will read

Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day yet some achieve amazing results many can only dream of. Maybe they read two books a week or a hundred in a year. Whatever the remarkable accomplishment they achieve, you have the same number of hours each day as they do. These hours will be swallowed up by anything and everything other than reading if you let it. Often that time thief is our TV. So turn it off, pick up your next book and read 10 pages per day.

3. Involve others

Involving other people can be extremely helpful. When you have other people you know are going to hold us accountable, you tend to show up and do the things you commit to doing. Start a book club or simply share your reading plan with a friend and ask them to check in on you.