When Leaders Accidentally Limit Their Effectiveness | An Interview with Dustin Peterson

Dustin Peterson is the founder and president of Proof Leadership Group, a leadership consultancy that works with organizations to train leaders and help develop their company culture. He is also the author of three books—Find Your Fit, Talented, and Reset—and coaches individuals to help them get unstuck in their careers. He currently serves as the stake president in the Friendswood Texas Stake and has served as a branch president, stake presidency counselor, and counselor in the Texas Houston South Mission. He lives in Houston with his wife and four children and loves bacon and Dallas sports teams.

Links

Article: Elevate your next sacrament meeting talk with a few easy tips
Self-assessment in Teaching in the Savior’s Way
Self-assessment in Preach My Gospel
DustinPeterson.org
ProofLeadership.com
Previous podcast interviews:
—Clarifying Purpose to Guide Your Calling, Work, & Family Life | An Interview with Dustin Peterson
—Leading‎‎‏‏‎ ‎with Your God-Given Talents | An Interview with Dustin Peterson
Dustin’s books:
—Find Your Fit: Three Steps to Choosing a Best-Fit College Major and Career
—Talented : Discovering and Using Your God-given Talents to Find More Joy in Life
—Reset: How to Get Paid and Love What You Do
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Scriptures referenced in this podcast: Doctrine & Covenants 84:106
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Highlights

02:00 Kurt introduces Dustin and this episode’s topic of the law of the lid.

04:00 Dustin talks about his journey in leadership the last few years. He shares what it was like to serve as a counselor to a mission president and his responsibilities.

07:30 Getting called as stake president, which is his current calling

9:50 Finding balance with work and being stake president

11:15 The law of the lid. The organization will rise no higher than the effectiveness of its leadership. If you aren’t getting leadership training then you will become the lid to that organization’s growth.

14:00 The hardest person that you will have to lead is yourself. Focus on how you can grow, not the other people in your organization. How can you be more effective?

16:00 The law of the lid trickles down to every individual. A family can rise no higher than the effectiveness of the parents. The individual will rise no higher than their own personal effectiveness. If we are not improving then we are flatlining.

17:00 How can we begin to apply the law of the lid? Dustin shares an experience he had as a branch president trying to solve everyone’s problems when they weren’t his to solve. Christ solves the problem. When leaders think that it’s up to them to solve people’s problems then they are the lid. The Savior is the only one that doesn’t have a lid.

20:40 As leaders we have to point people to the Savior. Oftentimes we point people to the mechanism or the vehicle that is going to help them heal. Things like: prayer, scriptures, and the temple. It’s not actually those things that bring healing. It’s Him that is going to heal not the vehicle. We do all those things to hear Him.

22:30 Talk to God about your problems; only He can solve them. It’s not the job of the leader to solve problems. Leaders are to point people to the Savior in order to receive His power and grace.

25:00 People oftentimes know the answer to their problems but they just need someone to talk to and someone to support and lift them. Leaders can ask questions like: What promptings have you received? How do you think you can solve this problem?

26:40 Besides pointing people to the Savior, it’s important to develop our personal effectiveness as leaders. Dustin shares some ways that we can do this.

31:00 Dustin shares some examples of how he, as a stake president with his high council, have tried to develop their personal effectiveness and raise the lid in their stake.

33:10 Dustin shares what a couple in his stake did in their Primary calling to raise the lid. They have a focus in their stake to help Primary teachers feel like it’s not just a 25-minute-a-week calling but a personal ministry.

38:00 Elder Nash shared D&C 84:106 in a stake meeting. It’s a scripture that has deeply impacted their presidency and how they lead.

43:30 What can leaders do today for their own development and personal effectiveness?

46:00 Dustin’s final thoughts on leadership and how it’s changed him and helped him grow.

The Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as part of nonprofit Leading Saints’ mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org.

Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Wendy Ulrich, Richard Ostler, and many more in over 600 episodes.

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