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In this episode of Equipped for Purpose, Vincent Ream introduces the concept of "Discovering Distinctiveness," focusing on leadership development. This foundational discussion explores leader identity, mindset, communication, and conflict resolution. Vincent shares insights on embracing imperfections, leveraging your strengths, and equipping yourself for impactful leadership.

Key Takeaways:

• The importance of understanding your distinctiveness as a leader.
• Why “failing forward” is essential for growth and progress.
• Three critical factors to explore in leader identity.
• The impact of mindset on your ability to overcome obstacles and lead effectively.
• Clear and effective communication as a cornerstone of leadership.
• Essential mandate of resolving conflict as a leader.

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Welcome to Equipped for Purpose. I'm your host, Vincent Rean, and this is the podcast

where discipleship meets impactful leadership. Whether you're new to faith or a seasoned

follower of Christ, this podcast is designed to help you deepen your relationship with

Jesus, grow as a leader, and make a difference in every area of your life. Together we'll

explore practical tools, biblical insights, and real-life strategies to equip you for

the purpose God has called you to. Let's dive in.

Welcome to another episode of Equipped for Purpose. Today we are focused on leader

development and more specifically on understanding and laying the foundation

of where we are going with developing leaders. Robert H. Mounts says, quote,

One of the first lessons of effective leadership is the importance of setting priorities.

Not only must things be done right management, but the right things must be done,

which is leadership. People reveal by their priorities what is genuinely important in their

lives, end quote. I took this to heart because it is something I've talked about before here

and something that I will continue to talk about, priorities. I want in my life to be

doing things right, but more significantly, I want to be doing the right things.

I want this for you as well. This podcast is about developing you to establish strong

foundations. It's that simple. It's why I coach leaders. What you will observe

is that each week I'm rotating between the pillars of discipleship and leadership.

That means that every other week we will be going over the 21 different areas I've outlined in

this specific leadership development program. I'm not going to go through all of those topics

today because I don't want to overwhelm you with too much information from the start.

In my passion to see disciples and leaders be equipped, developed, and empowered, I created

a program to help with that. I want to walk through that program and begin to look at some

of the significant areas of leadership character that could use development in all of us. Each of

these episodes is a facet of a leader that I believe shapes our actions, but will also leave

a legacy of creating the next generation of disciples and leaders. Part one of this,

the first half of this series, focuses on you the leader improving yourself, then improving the

individuals you lead, and then forming those people into a team. The aim of part one is to

see you develop and be confident in your leadership, be equipped with an ability to

create future leaders and a cohesive team, as well as feel empowered in knowing that

your leadership abilities are establishing strong foundations for success. Now part two,

the second half of the 21 topics, will focus on the larger vantage point of leadership.

Where part one was more of a boots on the ground or tactical level of leadership,

part two will be about stepping back to be able to lead in the capacity of understanding

what it means to make strategic decisions, or those choices that look at vision and how you

lead a team to seeing that vision become reality. From a big picture perspective,

that's where we are going, and what you can expect to get out of this podcast for about

half of 2025, specifically as it pertains to leadership. Well, with that, let's discuss the

first section titled Discovering Distinctiveness. There are four specific points of emphasis that

we'll cover under the heading of Discovering Distinctiveness. We'll discuss those points in

a minute, but there are the points of emphasis that we'll discuss specifically related to

leadership in coming episodes. That's what those are. We'll break those down further.

This is a setup episode, so you can see the trajectory of what's coming. I know this episode

is a bit longer in setup than I would prefer, but this is necessary to understand where we are

headed. My preference is to keep these episodes relatively short, first to honor your time,

but also so you'll be able to take immediate action. If you're bombarded with too much at

one time, it's difficult to see actionable steps to take. I know this is going to be a bit longer,

but I believe it will be worth it. What is Discovering Distinctiveness?

We all have natural abilities, those things we are gifted with, but really understanding

how our giftedness is an asset can be difficult to see and sometimes more difficult to put into

practice. Criticality of self is the hurdle that must be cleared if we are going to see

the desired results of you discovering your distinctiveness as a leader. We have to remember

that we aren't always going to make great and timely decisions and we won't always

say the right thing or take the perfect action. You shouldn't wait for perfection. Winston

Churchill is credited with saying, perfection is the enemy of progress. Voltaire is quoted as saying,

the perfect is the enemy of the good. In discovering your distinctiveness as a leader,

you must embrace the concept of failing forward. We must take action and waiting for perfection

just isn't an option. We must understand who we are as leaders so we can make timely decisions

and take action regardless of how imperfect it may feel. What's it all about? Getting to a point

where you take imperfect action and learn from the results regardless of what the result is.

In failure, leaders continue to move forward, but they learn valuable lessons that are significant

to future success. I know that may have felt like a bit of a tangent, but it's necessary to

look at it because we will often shy away from those things that make us stand out as a leader.

That isn't something we should do. We should be leveraging every gift given to us. In that

shying away, we aren't bringing our full selves to the table. When we hold back, everyone around

us misses out. That is unfortunate to see. I've personally held back when I should have been

leading out of my fullness. I hold those moments as lessons learned. I don't hold them as regret

or shame, which is why I emphasize failing forward. Yes, in a specific moment you may

feel some embarrassment, but in reality, you're learning a valuable lesson. These are lessons

that you should hold tightly to because they come at a price. I hope you're tracking with me to

see that discovering your distinctiveness as a leader is vital for you to show up in the fullness

of who you are and what you bring to the table. In looking at each of these areas, under the heading

of discovering distinctiveness, I am aiming to sharpen who you already are because the specific

areas are all ones required of a leader, but could use some development.

The first of the focal points under discovering distinctiveness is leader identity.

This is about who you are as a leader. Your identity as a leader will impact every decision

you make and every interaction that you have. This is who you are at your core as a person

and a leader. Looking at this, we'll dive into three distinct factors and really get into them.

Number one, who defines you or defining your source? Number two, what is the definition

that's really discovering your distinctiveness? And three, what does that look like in practice

displaying your leadership? It's fascinating that leaders don't take the time to understand themselves

and know what it is that they bring to the table. Knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are

in a true and honest sense is a blessing that allows you to be equipped, developed,

and empowered in greater ways. In addition, it allows you to then equip, develop, and empower

others to bring their full potential to bear. Understanding and applying your identity as a

leader has a far-reaching impact beyond what is immediately seen. We'll get more into this in

episode 85, but know that when you know who you are and you show up in fullness, there's a

significant effect on those you lead and the future of those people as leaders. Following that,

we will focus on mindset. Here, we will look at mindsets that leaders often struggle with

and the ramifications it has on those around the leader. We'll discuss making changes to mindsets

and how sharing these shifts will influence those you are leading. Your mindset, the way

you think about any situation or problem can be a powerful tool. You can set yourself up for

early success by viewing each challenge or obstacle as an opportunity to grow. However,

if you choose to take a negative view, whine, and complain, you may break through obstacles,

but you will likely be in for a struggle. You need to remember that as a leader,

people are looking to you for direction and response. It's up to you to show them

the way to overcoming obstacles and challenges. Therefore, the mindset you take will be

consequential. Then we will discuss communication, how you communicate, how you best receive

communication, actions to take to improve both giving and receiving communications,

clear and effective communication is a must have skill for leaders. So why are there leaders that

are poor communicators and not willing to grow? It could be that no one has taken the time to

challenge them to improve their communication. Has anyone ever challenged you to improve both

your written and oral communication skills? I want you to grow and be an effective and clear

communicator so you never have to deal with the frustration of miscommunications that could have

been prevented. We will close out the section on discovering distinctiveness by discussing

conflict resolution. We'll discuss goals and motivations in resolving conflict, outcomes and

experiences, and then a framework for knowing when conflict resolution is needed and how to

go about it. It's essential and absolutely your place as a leader to resolve conflicts.

Unfortunately, it seems inevitable that there will be friction and conflict between people.

You as the leader should be compelled to bring a swift and healthy conclusion to conflicts,

whether they are between you and someone else or between people you're leading.

After we conclude our discussion on discovering distinctiveness, we'll shift focus toward

developing the people you are leading. And we will break that out just like we did here when

we get there and then get into those. And like I said, there will be some other topics that

I'll pull in and probably put in between these as I see fit when they come up. So that's the first

component of leader development, discovering distinctiveness that we're going to focus on.

Having said that, I do have a couple of questions to get you started.

Here are some questions that you can answer that will help you discover your distinctiveness.

Number one, what is distinctive about you as a leader? Even if you have seen this quality in

others or you believe others may possess the same quality listed anyways, your application of that

distinctiveness may differ. And number two, do you believe you have been showing up in fullness

for those you lead? This may be difficult to answer because if the answer is no, it just may

be hard to look at. Don't feel shame if the answer is no. There is always room for improvement as we

grow and take on new challenges. You'll come to find that answering these questions is not a one

time event. You will go back to them again and again as you mature and grow. If you are

feeling bold, you can send me an email or a DM on social media and let me know what your answers

are. I look forward to engaging with you. Thank you for tuning into equipped for purpose. I hope

today's episode gave you tools and inspiration to deepen your discipleship and strengthen your

leadership. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value

in today's content, share it with someone who could benefit. Let's connect on social media

and through my website. And remember, you are being equipped for a purpose. Go make an impact.