3 leadership lessons to take you to the top

With these leadership lessons, you can start moving toward working less and transforming your career from what it is now to what you always wanted it to be.

1) Start with a vibrant vision of your desired future.
That vision will turn into systems, and those systems can lead you to Top of the Table production. We’re going to start with writing down your goals in all areas of your life.

My vibrant vision has goals in the areas of:

• Spiritual growth
• Physical (health and exercise)
• Family
• Business achievement
• Educational
• Financial
• Lifestyle and aesthetics

When I first wrote down the goal to become a Top of the Table member, I had no idea how I would achieve that goal. People frequently will avoid writing down a goal simply because they don’t know how to achieve it. But if you already know how to accomplish your goals, then those goals are too small. Write down the really big goals. Just the act of writing something down — even if it seems too big or seemingly crazy — makes an imprint on our brain and causes our subconscious mind to look for ways to eventually achieve those big goals.

2. Always be looking for your next mentor.
I often say, “I’m looking for a person of integrity who makes a million dollars more than I do, so I can learn from them.” And I’ve met most of those people at MDRT.

At my second MDRT meeting, I heard John F. Savage, CLU, a former MDRT member from Toledo, Ohio, teaching in the hallway. I bought his videos on his selling system, and I watched and rehearsed them again and again and again. Like an actor, I practiced my lines. My business tripled in the next two years, enabling me to reach Court of the Table.

Then at my fourth MDRT meeting, I saw longtime Top of the Table member Lee Johnson, CLU, CFP, a former MDRT member from Ft. Worth, Texas. Although at first I was afraid to speak to him, I sheepishly walked up to him and said, “I see you’re a Top of the Table producer; if I buy you lunch, will you tell how you came to reach Top of the Table?” And he said, “Sure.”

Lee became my mentor for many years after that, and even though we worked with different insurance companies, I visited his office, and eventually, my staff knew his staff. That mentor-friendship showed me how to reach Top of the Table status within two years. Years later, when Lee was in a business life change, he flew to my office to get some ideas from me.

3. “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
Having a vibrant vision and goals alone does not get us to the end we desire. Instead, the systems we put in place determine our successes. The system I have in place allows me to be free from work for five months each year.

Furthermore, when I discover a new selling or software system, my team and I will fly together on several trips per year to learn the systems, implement the systems, practice the systems and work to rehearse and perfect the systems to obtain outstanding results.

Everything that you want to accomplish you can accomplish by being deliberate about your systems.

Paul S. McCready, CFP, RFC, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is a Top of the Table qualifier and has been an MDRT member since 1985. He works with a team of 10 employees, and he specializes in systems and delegation to give him a lot of free time to pursue his passion for helping people.

You’ll find more leadership lessons in his 2019 Global Conference presentation “8 leadership lessons to grow to Top of the Table.” [MDRT members only]. See more from the 2019 Global Conference in Sydney, Australia. MDRT members have access to exclusive content from the conference. 

For more on leadership

• Read “10 tips to lift your leadership”
• Watch “Let go and lead”