The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

Introducing The Learning To Lead Show

• Mark Cundiff

Share episode

Introduction to the Learning to Lead Show

In this inaugural episode of the Learning to Lead Show, host Mark Cundiff introduces his new podcast, sharing his journey from a salesman to a plant manager who found a passion for leadership. Mark discusses the lack of training during his transition and how John Maxwell's '21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership' ignited his lifelong commitment to learning about leadership. The podcast aims to teach curated content from the plethora of books Mark reads and to feature interviews with frontline leaders. The goal is to equip, inspire, and help listeners grow from being good leaders to great ones. Mark also offers a free Leadership Guide in the show notes and previews the next episode's guest, Sean Eisenhower.

00:00 Welcome to the Learning to Lead Show
00:17 My Journey from Salesman to Plant Manager
01:15 Discovering the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
02:17 The Purpose of This Podcast
02:53 Insights from Frontline Leaders
03:36 The Importance of Leadership in All Areas of Life
04:15 Always Make Your Future Bigger Than Your Past
05:37 Conclusion and Next Steps

Resources Mentioned on Today's Episode

Hello, welcome to the Learning to Lead Show. I'm your host, mark Cundiff. Today I want to take a moment and introduce you to our new podcast. Thank you for joining today, back in 1999. I had been promoted to a plant manager role in a little town called Corinth, Mississippi, where I would be leading 30 people. The previous 12 years I had spent as a salesman. I worked for eight years with the company that I was being promoted with, and four years with a another company working in sales during that time, during the eight years with this company, I had doubled the sales for my territory. I had won the salesman of the year, but all of those things had not really prepared me for stepping into a leadership role where I would be directing the activities of a group of men and women to drive profitability, to meet customer demands, to handle safety, to make sure we were working safely in all aspects of what we were doing. What happens many times when you're in these situations, you get promoted, but no training, no real direction about how to move from being a salesman to being a plant manager. So I took it upon myself to pick up John Maxwell's book, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, and that book helped me begin my lifelong journey and passion for learning about leadership. That book spurred in me a hunger, a thirst, and a desire to have a growth mindset around leadership. He talks in that book about the law of the lid The law of the lid is that you can only take an organization to your level of leadership, if you don't continue to grow as a leader, then the organization will not grow and develop and become more effective and prosperous in whatever it is that you're doing. So that spread in me to take the opportunity to read as much as I could to go to courses and classes that taught leadership to seek out mentors. And over the last 30 years, I have spent time studying leadership trying to understand how to better influence an organization for positive results. So this podcast is going to be a combination of a couple things. One, it's gonna be where I. Teach curated content that I have gathered for the books I've read. I normally read about a book a week. I've done that for the last several decades, I wanna just share with you some of the key insights that I've got from those. Many of you are busy leaders that are on the run, have a lot of things going on and don't have time to maybe sit down, read through these books. So I want to try to take some of the key points. Share those in concise ways and practical ways so that you can put them into practice and lead your organization more effectively. The next thing I'm going to do is spend some time with leaders that are on the front line. I have interviewed six leaders that are currently out there making it happen already. Those podcasts will be coming out in the coming weeks, and you'll get some great insights from how they lead. Both in a nonprofit and a profit organization, and there's great lessons and great leadership goal to be taken from each one of those. So this journey is going to be where we learn. Together, we grow together. I hope you are encouraged. Inspired. I hope you're entertained at times. I hope that you walk away with something that helps you be more effective in whatever role it is that you have. The most important leadership role that we have is being a father, being a parent, being someone that's leading the next generation to where they're gonna go and what they're gonna do. So some of these may apply to what you're trying to do at home. Maybe you're leader of a nonprofit, maybe your leader of a church, and this will help you be more effective in accomplishing the mission you have for those organizations. And for those of you out there in the business world, the profit world. Who are trying to find new keys, new triggers, new things to help you drive improvement throughout your organization. I think you've come to the right place. One of the great books that I have read recently is The Laws of Lifetime Growth. Make Your Future Bigger Than Your Past by Dan Sullivan. One of the things that I really like about that is that subtitle Make your Future Greater than your Past. This book comes with 10 laws, and that is the first law. Always make your future bigger than your past. That inspired me to think about how to do this podcast, to do it in a way that we equip you, that we show you ways to take your leadership to the next level. No matter if you've been really successful, maybe you've grown a great organization, set safety records, set profit records, and done a really great job throughout your career. One of the things that'll do is it'll help you to keep going forward and keep building on the success that you've already had. Or maybe you're in a lull. Maybe you're in a tough spot. Maybe you're in a part of your life that has been a setback and you need to re. Inspire yourself to take things to the next level. If you'll use that statement, always make your future bigger than your past. It'll help you have a perspective that everything that you come in contact is a learning opportunity, an opportunity to learn and grow, and develop yourself for what's next. So that's what the Learning to Lead show is all about, equipping you, encouraging you, inspiring you, and helping you move. From being a good leader to a great leader. If you like this content or are excited about this contact, please subscribe in your local podcast player that you like and your favorite podcast player. If you would share this with others. Let others know about what we're doing here as you see the interviews coming up. Our first interview is with Sean Eisenhower, a leader of a training company who's on the front lines of equipping leaders, Thank you for listening to the Learning to Lead Show today. In appreciation for listening. I have a free gift for you in the show notes, the Learning to Lead Readership Guide, 12 books that will really help you take your leadership to the next level. Also check out the Learning to Lead Newsletter and subscribe to that as well. Please let your friends know about us and we'll see you when we interview Sean in the next episode. Have a great day.