“People-First Leadership” with Brian Dixon | Ep. 049
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About this Episode:
In this episode of The Transformative Leader Podcast, I’m happy to be talking with author, speaker, and business coach, Brian Dixon. Brian believes that people matter, really gets the value of putting others first, and knows that a life of profitable purpose starts by focusing on the people in your life. Listening to them, showing up for them, and serving them are the keys to building the skills it takes to grow and succeed in life, and at work. Brian's new book, Start with Your People, shares how he turned his failing business into a success by changing his leadership style to serving co-workers, family members, and even strangers, and shows others leaders how they can do the same. Ruth Soukup (a previous guest) wrote the book’s foreword, and it has received endorsements from business leaders such as Jeff Goins, Jevonnah "Lady J" Ellison, Dan Miller and more.
The way Brian came to where he is today is that, after leaving behind a series of burned bridges and failed projects, he decided to undertake an honest self-examination to determine where he went wrong. He asked 53 individuals to write anonymous, unfiltered personal feedback on their past interactions with him. The responses were sobering, and Brian discovered his "me-first" approach to his professional and personal life needed to become "people-first." The importance of this approach cannot be overstated, because true leadership is, by definition, others focused. A person is only enabled to become a leader because see value in their guidance and elect to follow them; being a leader is primarily a function of how much benefit your actions and word provide to others. To be truly effective, leadership can’t about self-importance or the ego of the leader, but rather about embracing humility and serving one’s people to the best of one’s ability.
Even though my focus has always been on servant leadership, talking to Brian helped to shift my mindset even more, and by the end of our discussion I was already planning ways to put his advice into practice. Needless to say, I really enjoyed our conversation and everyone should be sure not to miss it.
Some topics discussed in this episode include:
How Brian came to be where he is today, going from 7th grade English teacher to educational technology expert to business leadership consultant.
The importance of “seeing others“ and getting their perspective as a way of coaching us to see the world through a different lens.
How Brian designed and went about conducting the anonymous “360 Assessment“ of how he impacted others in his life and at work, and how the results triggered a transformation in him.
Why leaders must understand that people, purpose and profit are not mutually exclusive propositions. Serving people leads to discovering purpose which leads to creating profit, but if you put profit and purpose before people, you will never reach your full potential to transform the world.
Brian Dixon is passionate about helping aspiring messengers create a sustainable business through growing their platform and creating compelling online courses. Brian is the co-founder of hope*writers, a membership site of over 2,000 working writers. Brian has a doctoral degree from the University of San Diego. He and his wife, Julie, live in Charlotte, NC with their three young children.
Guest Links:
To learn more about Brian and his work, you can visit his great website. There you can also take his quiz to gain clarity on your next step. His book, which I definitely recommend, is available for purchase on Amazon. You can connect with Brian on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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