rapport featured in salt lake enterprise
Joseph P. Leverich, CPA, is managing partner and President of The Leverich Group, a Salt Lake City-based CPA and management consulting firm specializing in solutions and services to businesses and individuals. He also contributes to the business journal, The Salt Lake Enterprise. After attending Leadership Breakthrough One, Joe submitted the following article for publication.
Developing Leaders
by Joseph P. Leverich
Some regard the process of developing leaders as simple. Read a few books; take some courses, and bang, you are a leader. However, effective leaders do not just happen by accident – they are developed through purposeful design.
Business guru Peter Drucker said, “Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I’ve worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses.”
So, what makes a great leader? What skills must an effective leader possess? Among the list should be the ability to influence, communication and listening skills, decision-making, passion, commitment, accountability, ability to face challenges and consistently doing it right.
It can be difficult to find an exact formula for leadership development. In most companies, leaders are shaped from years of work experience, including on-the-job training and promotions. The challenge for business owners is how to take employees and put them in the right environment where they can learn and practice leadership skills.
While searching for a tried and true method of teaching leadership, I explored all kinds of books, courses and schools. I wanted something that was practical, cost effective and delivered results.
I heard about a course taught out of Las Vegas, “Rapport Leadership International.” I did not know anyone first hand who had actually gone through the course but had heard of companies who had embraced the program.
I contacted the school and was told that I had to be sponsored which led me to one company that had sent most of its employees to this training. My sponsor from this company was open, honest, and excited about my interest in the training. It sounded simple – two and one half days at a private retreat. My personal justification for signing up was not for me but for my clients and business associates. I signed up with the attitude that I knew a lot about leadership but would go as the first guinea pig to prove I was willing to do it.
The Rapport office is situated in Las Vegas. From the headquarters, you are bused to a remote location ideal for learning. It is clean and neat but you immediately notice there are no swimming pools, tennis courts, TVs, computers or cell phones. You understand quickly that you are there to learn. You may have attended a “rah-rah” course where you laughed, learned stories, and were thoroughly entertained. However, the practical application of applying this entertainment to your business was minimal. The Rapport learning format is taught with a fast-paced, intense style aimed at immediate change, breaking through roadblocks and comfort zones.
By the end of the first day, I was surprised with all I had learned and been exposed. We had covered one of six units. The course material is tried and true but is unique from other programs because of the feedback, coaching, and approach giving you anchors to help you recall the process for future use. This hands-on course is challenging, creating leadership growth. Every participant builds their strengths and eliminates barriers. I saw my classmates build leadership skills. I started this course thinking I knew it all and I could breeze through it. I did successfully graduate, but it took considerable desire and push.
Throughout my work experience, I have taken many seminars and training courses. If I were to rank them, my top three would be SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training; nine weeks of executive education at Harvard Business School; and the Rapport leadership training. In Rapport’s “Leadership Breakthrough One” course, I improved my leadership, communication, decision-making, confidence, listening skills and ability to be more accountable. This training has given me definitive ways to develop my skills, and ways to influence others.
This course is aimed at being life changing, stirring you to break barriers. My business associates can see much of the change in me, and so can my wife and family.
Jack Welch said, “Being a leader changes everything. Before you are a leader success is all about you. It’s about your performance, your contributions. It’s about getting called upon and having the right answers. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. Your success as a leader comes not from what you do but from the reflected glory of the people you lead.”
Leadership development remains a mystery to many. I have found a system that works for me and takes some of the mystery out of leadership development.
Take the action to build and develop leaders in your business. Start by stepping out and breaking your barriers!
Please share your story by emailing us at closingcircle@rapportleadership.com
