Leveraging David Novak Leadership as Your Personal Mentor

By: Gregg Dedrick, Co-Founder & President of David Novak Leadership

Imagine you are the best leader you can be. Think about your leadership style. What do you do that makes your team successful? How do you lead others? How would your team describe you as a leader? Now hit the rewind button.

What steps did you take to become this amazing leader? Becoming the best leader you can be doesn’t just happen. In fact, it takes time, commitment, and dedication.

My journey to becoming an Executive at Yum! Brands required me to become an avid learner by being open to learning from everyone. I was fortunate to have leaders like David Novak and Mike Feiner who mentored me and saw potential in me that I didn’t see in myself. I also invited some trusted friends to become truth tellers in my life. Learning from others helped me become the best leader I could be.

You may not have access to the CEO or top leaders in your organization. Yet you can leverage David Novak Leadership as your personal mentor. David Novak Leadership is all about helping others learn how to heartwire and hardwire their leadership so they can be more effective leaders and make a bigger difference in their world. Through our resources, you have access to top leaders who vulnerably share their experiences and advice with you. However, if you just read a blog without downloading the learning guide and completing it, or if you just listen to the podcasts without implementing some of the tips the leaders provide, you are missing out on ways to transform your leadership.

According to Micky Pant, the role of the leader is to develop other leaders and produce great results. Do you know how to develop yourself and other leaders? Here’s tips on how to use our resources to develop yourself and others.

Grow Yourself with David Novak Leadership Resources

1. Adopt a Power-FULL Mindset.

• Power-FULL mindsets focus on the positive: I’m committed to doing this and I’m excited to see what happens. I believe I can change, even if it’s hard right now. This could work here.
• Power-LESS mindsets focus on the negative and are limiting: I can’t do this. I’ll never change. This won’t work here.
• You choose your mindset. Do you have a Power-LESS or Power-FULL mindset?

2. Develop intentionality and discipline about getting better.

• Schedule time on your calendar to engage with our leadership resources each week.
• Consider scheduling time one week to read a blog and complete the learning guide, and then listen to a podcast and complete the Podcast Action Journal the following week.

3. Apply what you learn.

• Make a list of what you learned.
• Challenge yourself to apply at least one learning each week.
• Share your plan with a trusted friend or colleague and ask them to hold you accountable.

4. Teach others.

• Review what you learned and think about someone you know who could use this to become a better leader.
• Schedule time to teach them about the concept.
• Share how it helped you and what’s in it for them.
• Hold each other accountable to implementing what you learned.

Grow Your Team with David Novak Leadership Resources

1. Review your team’s strengths and areas of opportunities and use this information to determine your plan of action.

• Answer these questions for each individual team member and for the whole team.
  • What are they doing well?
  • What can they do even better?
• Do you need to work with each team member individually first?
• Or would it be more beneficial to develop skills together as a team?

2. Choose a development topic for each individual or the team.

• Make a list of the development topics.
• Review the David Novak Leadership website for tools.
• Use the tools yourself first so you can explain why you chose the tools and how they helped you.
• Gather the tools from our resources.

3. Communicate your development goals with the team.

• Schedule a meeting to share your plans to grow the team.
• Discuss what your expectations are.
• Share what you’ve learned from David Novak Leadership.
• Explain what’s in it for the team.
• Define how you will work together.
• If working with individuals, schedule 1:1 meetings and partner with each individual to define their development plan.

4. Share this resource and schedule time to discuss. Once the development task is completed, discuss these questions:

• What did you learn?
• How are you applying what you learned?
• What do you want to focus on next?

5. Invite your team to check out our resources to choose their own development activities. Whether you’re developing yourself or your team, it must be integrated. Unless development becomes part of the way you operate as a leader, there will always be something more important to do. You have to decide to make developing yourself and others a habit. You have to hardwire it into your schedule, and by your example, your team will understand its importance and they will hardwire it into their schedules too. It all starts with you.

By taking the time to invest in yourself and your team, you are on your way to becoming the best leader you can be! As Simon Sinek says, “A leader’s job is not just to get the best out of their people – a leader’s job is to make more leaders.” Let David Novak Leadership help you make more leaders! Do you know other leaders who could use help developing themselves or their team? Then take action right now and pay it forward by sharing this blog with them. You never know how the simple act of sharing this blog post with others can encourage them to become the best leader they can be!