Are You The Leader You Would Follow?

Foreword By Dan Clark

In my 35+ years as a professional speaker I know that the way to create an extraordinary meeting is to make sure the reason is relevant, the message is provocative and the speaker has lived the message, so your people leave with tools and benefits that will impact both their professional and personal relationships long after the meeting adjourns.

This ‘gold standard’ also applies to writing an extraordinary book – especially in vetting the message against the messenger, asking: ‘Does the author live the message?’

In my Public Speaking Boot Camps I teach my students that everybody in every audience craves the answers to three fundamental questions: (1) Why should I listen to you? Have you done it? Are you currently doing it? This is the ‘Credibility’ piece. (2) Can I do it too? With my weaknesses and limitations and strengths? This is the ‘Possibility’ piece. (3) How do I do it? What do I do next? What is the system? This is the ‘Usability’ piece.  

In this magnificent book, not only will you get the answers to all three of these questions, but you will get the amalgamated knowledge, wisdom and life lessons learned from an amazing human being (who happens to be an incredible woman – not a female leader, but an extraordinary leader who happens to be a woman), wife, mother, sister, teacher, mentor, influencer, colleague and trusted friend who epitomizes Leadership From The Inside Out. 

Clearly Kris understands the Law of Attraction in its most provocative application, knowing ‘we don’t attract who we want – we attract who we are – people do what they see, not what we say’ – we attract what we believe we deserve’ – in personal and professional relationships, in meaningful work, and in health and wellness. Although profound in her insights, the subliminal message in every chapter is the subtle reminder that: ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’

I’ve known Kris for many years and have watched her exemplify ‘Inside Out Leadership’ – living life as the same person off stage as she is on stage – always beautiful inside and out. By her actions Kris proves leadership is an action verb, not a noun, with her delightful sense of humor pointing out: ‘Standing in the front of a room and calling yourself a leader, no more makes you a leader than standing in the middle of a garage makes you a truck.’ Leadership implies action! Just as trust, respect and admiration are earned through consistent, predictable, ethical, moral, trustworthy conduct, becoming a ‘Leader People Want to Follow’ is earned through consistently living the poetic words of Edgar A. Guest:

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day

I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way

The eye is a better pupil, more willing than the ear

Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear

And the best of all the preachers are those who live their creeds,

For to see good put in action is what everybody needs

The way you become a leader everyone loves, trusts, respects, admires and follows, is to first become the person whom YOU love, trust, respect, admire and would follow! 

I never realized the depth of this reality until the first time I went ‘down range’ to Iraq and Afghanistan, when a Navy Seal taught me that: ‘An armored up warrior never has to get ready – he stays ready!’ In other words, you don’t just click on character and then click it off. You don’t just click on loyalty, excellence, positive attitude, duty, enthusiasm, respect, service before self, honor, integrity and personal courage. These core values and governing principles are part of your DNA that you think and breathe and live by every day. Life is not a dress rehearsal – you never really practice, you only play! In sports, you don’t win championships with the best players – you win with the right people. Leadership from the outside in must be exactly the same as leadership from the inside out, or it’s not leadership at all.

As you read and re-read this carefully crafted book you will realize that the culture of any organization is shaped by a combination of the worst attitude, worst behavior and weakest belief the leader is willing to tolerate – AND by the most positive attitude, positive behavior and strongest belief the leader is willing to live by! In between the bottom line of tolerance and the top line of example lies the fact that it is the attitude and behavior of the leader that creates the standard of performance expectation for everybody in the group or team – as a parent at home, a teacher at school, a manager/boss at work, and a friend at play. 

For this reason, this is a ‘must read’ for corporate executives, seasoned administrators, emerging leaders, educators, parents, coaches and everyone who wants to be a better leader – with and without a title. When we live by the Seven Traits of Service, Gratitude, Confidence, Excellence, Love, Communication and Integrity, leadership becomes automatic as a philosophical way of living life to the max, proving true that inspired people don’t have to be motivated!

If you want to become the ‘Leader People Want To Follow,’ my recommendation is that you first read this masterfully written book from cover to cover and ponder the practical application of each of the Seven Traits, illuminated by their accompanying three explanatory chapters. Then, with the mindset that you don’t learn to know – you learn to do, you obligate yourself to live the Seven Traits beginning on a Monday with Trait #1. Followed on Tuesday by only focusing on living Trait #2. On Wednesday you live Trait #3, and so on until the week is over and you have experienced the profound effect of knowing it is not enough to just practice what you preach. You must preach only what you practice! Then repeat. 

Thank God that Kris took the time to show her genuine love for each of us by compiling her years of education and personal experience into this powerful book that reminds us that the only way we can attract high quality, extraordinary human beings into our lives and recruit them to work in our organizations, is if we are high quality, extraordinary human beings! By the time you click off your reading light you will know that the only real and authentic, lasting way that any of us can influence people to become the best version of them self is through Leadership from the Inside Out! 

Dan Clark

Hall of Fame Speaker 

New York Times Best Selling Author of 

‘The Art of Significance – Achieving the Level Beyond Success’

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