Fourth Quarter Review of the Lead with Empower Podcast

The fourth quarter is upon us! Our final Season One review of the Lead with Empower Podcast is here! The Lead with Empower Podcast has truly been a new and exciting adventure for me. The ability to connect with so many tremendous people to talk leadership, learn about their journeys, and to hear about how the Coronavirus was impacting them and those that they lead was inspiring and uplifting during a time when everyone could use a little boost! 

The “stay home, stay safe” quarantine order was a great challenge for me personally because the majority of my time with Empower Leadership since 2009 has been spent interacting with new groups of people each day. Since the traditional versions of those interactions (team building events, leadership workshops, and recreational adventures) were not viable options this past Spring, starting a podcast was a no-brainer!

The Lead with Empower Podcast was such an awesome adventure that we are now ramping up for Season Two! We have a wonderful slate of guests scheduled and cannot wait to get rolling. Mark your calendars – Season Two begins on Tuesday August 25th.

Our final review of Season One includes highlights from our episodes with:

• Angela McMahon, Head Coach of the Women’s Lacrosse Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her husband, Justin Serpone who is the Head Coach of the Men’s Soccer Program and Director of the LEADS Program at Amherst College
• Greg Jaskot, the Associate Director of Advancement and Offensive Coordinator of the Football Program at Xavier High School
• Laura Duncan, the Head Coach of Women’s Soccer at the University of New Haven
• Anthony Petruzzi, the Head Coach of Football at Raritan High School in Hazlet, NJ
• Joe DeRing and yours truly, the founders of Empower Leadership

I hope you enjoy our final review. Don’t forget to visit www.leadwithempower.com/pods-and-blogs/ for all full episodes from Season One and for new Season Two episodes starting on August 25th!

Coach McMahon and Coach Serpone – UMass Amherst Women’s Lacrosse and Amherst College Men’s Soccer

• Opportunities come to those who are good people and who work hard. Our ability to do right by those around us and outwork the competition are both “separators” from the rest of the crowd! Each day we have the chance to work hard and be a good person – the more we do it, the more we are blessed with opportunities. 
• Tremendous leaders keep the expectations high and always provide the coaching and support so those that they lead continually develop and progress towards meeting or exceeding those expectations.
• Great leaders are able to foster a culture in which those that they lead are organizational “stakeholders” not “renters”. This culture is developed by leading for those that you serve, not for personal gratification!

Coach Greg Jaskot – Xavier High School Football and FIRST Lead with Empower Podcast Guest

• Leading is not about self-gratification, it is about going above and beyond for those that you lead. The great leader recognizes the current level of those that she/he leads and does everything in her/his power to help each individual become a better individual!
• Work ethic and self-reflection/self-improvement are both extremely valuable qualities of leaders. A leader who does not work hard will not inspire those around her/him to do the same. A leader who does not work tirelessly to evaluate her/his performance while striving to improve cannot ask the same of those that she/he leads.
• Body language is often the forgotten element of communication; however, our body language sends powerful messages to those that we lead. There is a level of self-awareness and self-coaching required to exhibit body language that motivates and inspires!

Coach Laura Duncan – University of New Haven Women’s Soccer

• Success, both on and off the field, comes from love for what you are doing, an unwavering commitment to do it to the best of your ability regardless of the situation, and a positive mental approach that allows you to view obstacles and roadblocks as opportunities to show what you are capable of!
• Leadership is less about screaming and yelling, it is about evaluating what happened, finding out why it happened through inquiry, then providing the coaching and support to foster the development of those that you lead!
• The best leaders are not afraid to “get their hands dirty”. With the “blue collar, dirt, and grit” mentality, nothing will get in the way of a leader and her or his desired successes!

Coach Anthony Petruzzi – Raritan High School Football

• How do young aspiring leaders learn to lead? In the Raritan High School Football Program, Coach Petruzzi goes above and beyond to provide his athletes with the opportunity to contribute to their community by volunteering. This commitment to community instills, in his athletes, a mentality of leading to serve others. The modeling from the leader plus the instilled mentality of those that she/he leads is what leads to a culture of servant leadership.
• “Measure twice, cut once – if you don’t have time to do it right, when are you going to find time to do it again.” Great leaders do not do something just for the sake of doing it – they do it to their best regardless of the circumstances! 
• Living with Integrity and intensity – the tremendous leader is honest, accountable, and always brings her or his best to the classroom, workplace, athletic field, or stage.

Joe DeRing and Dan Jaskot – Founders of Empower Leadership and Empower Adventures

• Find your passion, push all of your chips into the center of the table, and take the leap! Too many life-changing opportunities are missed because of fear. Tremendous leaders do not look for excuses, they find a way to chase down their “reality dream”!
• Experiences are the most valuable learning tools for any leader. Back during the start of Empower in 2009, the best learning experiences involved spending 10 to 12 hours a day in a harness on the zip line course! While there were many long and hard days, we would not have it any other way. Our early efforts led to a deep understanding of our business – from operations to customer services!
• Life is full of traffic jams, roadblocks, obstacles, challenges, and more. The great leader embraces those adverse moments as opportunities for greatness – finding ways over, under, around, or through the obstacles with hard work, desire, teamwork, grit, and intensity!