The IMPACT Show
The IMPACT Show is where leadership meets legacy. Each episode unpacks the stories, strategies, and insights of visionaries who are shaping industries, communities, and futures. Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur, or changemaker, this podcast offers real conversations with real impact—designed to inspire, challenge, and equip you to leave a lasting mark. Tune in and start building your legacy today.
The IMPACT Show
Introducing 20 Leadership Mandates
In this episode of the IMPACT | Leadership & Legacy podcast, Jeremy Melton, alongside co-hosts Maddie Atkinson and Daniel Brown, takes a deep dive into the foundational attributes every leader must embrace to make a lasting impact.
The hosts revisit the core lessons from last week's episode on leadership's foundation—being humble, hungry, and honorable—and build upon them by introducing 20 essential leadership mandates. From ownership and clarity to resilience and integrity, this episode unpacks why these attributes are crucial and how they shape a leader's influence and legacy.
Through thought-provoking insights, personal reflections, and actionable strategies, Jeremy, Maddie, and Daniel challenge listeners to evaluate their leadership journey and focus on trust and presence as the cornerstones of influence.
Key questions:
- What kind of IMPACT are you making on the world?
- Which leadership mandate resonates with you most?
Whether you're leading a team, a family, or yourself, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical advice to help you lead with purpose and conviction.
Tune in now and discover how to elevate your leadership!
Welcome to Impact Podcast. My name is Jeremy Milton and I'm your host along with Daniel and Maddie for the next 30 minutes to an hour or however long you choose to tune in. On this show, we will uncover things about life that can help you on your journey to make an impact on the world that we live in. Our highlight question is, what kind of impact are you making on the world we live in? Remember, our goal on this show is to generate the desire to understand it sooner than later. This is episode number three, leadership mandates. Let's get started.
UNKNOWN:Let's get started.
SPEAKER_03:So last week we discussed leadership and what it is, and we talked about the foundation. Essentially, we covered a lot of stuff about leadership. I mean, we really unwrapped it and unpacked it. I think in summary, we had indicated that the foundation, that we thought the foundations were founded on three things, and that was being humble, hungry, and honorable. And so... Key takeaways last week. We didn't go over those before we stopped, but Daniel, let's go.
SPEAKER_02:Well, let me just say that the humble, hungry, and honorable has been on my mind nonstop. And I said it last week and I've been telling, I can't say how many people I've told this quick story to, and I've just been like, I want that so bad. I want people... And I'm not talking about, you know, my family, my friends. Like, I'm talking about, I just want people out in the world talking about me with one or all of those. Yeah. Like, that's who I want to be. And I, last week when we were talking about who we believe are, you know, those people to us, you know, and I told you guys, I'm going to call them. I'm going to call them. I got them on the phone.
UNKNOWN:And...
SPEAKER_02:It felt so good to me just to reach out to them. You know, and I think it made them feel good. You know, that's great. But it made me feel empowered just to open up and say, look, this is how I feel about you. Yeah. And I'm proud of you. And I'm proud to know you. And thank you. That's good. And, you know, two of them turned into 15-minute conversations. And it was great. It was incredible. So I'm just ready to build on it. Let's build. Good. I love it. Maddie?
SPEAKER_01:Kind of the same. I mean, the people that I talked about last week, one lives in my house. So that was easy to, I didn't really give too much detail because I think that, I think he'll listen, you know? And so it'll be more of a special thing for him to hear it. Oh, yeah. I spoke with my mom and she doesn't understand podcast. So she's like, so wait, what are you doing? I'm like, okay. Nevermind. I was having a conversation and
SPEAKER_03:good. So I'm really enjoyed our talks last week, um, as well. And, uh, there's always things to learn at each one of these. When you go back and reflect and you reach out to people and that, that leads to a good story. And so it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:That was really good last week to tell us to go and reach out to the people.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was. Thank you for the challenge.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So this week we're going to talk about, um, Leadership mandates. And so today, essentially, we're going to cover some necessary attributes of the leader, and then we're going to spend weeks unpacking this. This is really where our teaching is going to come from. A lot of the stuff that we're, what I call mandates, people call them traits or attributes or whatever, but I call them mandates because, in my opinion, they're necessary. And a mandate is, in fact, or command or authorization to act. So if you wanted to define a mandate, there's a bunch of different ways to define it, but when you Google it, like we always talk about for definitions, a contract by which one engages to perform services for another, okay? And so if you don't know already, leadership is about serving others, right, all the time. And so... when we think about what a mandate is, I thought that leadership, there's these things that you have to do in order to lead. And I have 20 written down. There's probably 30. I'm not smart enough to come up with all of them, but I'm sure there's more. Or somebody might read this list and say, oh, I don't think that's necessary. Well, maybe we do, right? So anyway, nonetheless... These are all very important to leadership. And so leadership is about the act of service to others. And so we're going to go through these attributes one by one. I'm going to read all 20 of them, and then we're going to talk about each one of them for this podcast. And then, again, the next podcast we do in between guests will be talking about each one of these in depth. Cool.
SPEAKER_02:I love the list. I saw the list, and I'm like, ooh, that's a lot. Let's do this. It's really
SPEAKER_03:good. So you could take the idea. After about, I guess it'll be 20 weeks of our podcasting, someone that is new into leadership can go and start with number one and listen to them for however many weeks or whatever it takes, and they could very well say, hey, I've been to school. I can go lead.
SPEAKER_00:That's the hope.
SPEAKER_03:Right. That's the hope. And then, of course, the inspiration to do so. And then, of course, we know that leadership is going to create an impact. So there you go. All right. I'm going to read the list real quick, and then I'm going to hit you guys up. Okay. So let me say this, too. These traits ought to be studied and focused on in some way. for someone to lead well. Okay. Remember we talked about intentional. Maddie's word for 2025. That's right. Being intentional. If you're intentional about these 20 things, then you will find yourself leading every time. All right. Number one. Oh, and then you can say a person of ownership. Number two, clarity. Number three, servanthood. Number four, passion. 5. Discipline 6. Determination 7. Humility 8. Courage 9. Recognition of Others 10. Vision 11. Integrity 12. Character 13. Resolve 14. Prudent 15. Temperate 16. Meekness Number 17, honest. 18, delegation. 19, consistency. And number 20, resilience. Last but not least, resilience. So anybody got any comments about that list? First take.
SPEAKER_01:I kind of feel like a lot of them... When I first listed the list, a lot go hand in hand, but they... don't always end up hand in hand. So that was my first thought.
SPEAKER_03:I would agree. A lot of them do go hand in hand for sure.
SPEAKER_02:It really just makes me think of my entrepreneurship. It makes me think of entrepreneurship. And yeah, I mean, I guess it is the same as leadership. Entrepreneurship is leadership. And, you know, but when I look at this list, I'm just like, yeah, like those are things that I want to strive to focus on. And I don't like, you know, don't necessarily stop and think about any of this stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I tell myself I need to be more disciplined all the time. Yeah. But I can go through this list and I'm like, yeah, let's really unwrap each one of these. I'm excited to do it.
SPEAKER_03:It's very cool. So, I started with ownership, and I want to talk about that one a good bit. Have you guys ever read the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink? He wrote a book called Extreme Ownership, and he talks about how owning it, fully owning it, is a big part of leadership. And he wrote a whole book on it. It's very good. It's got war stories and stuff in it, so you relate to that kind of stuff. I read it twice, and it's really a good book. Probably one of my favorites. Lots of stuff in there that I'll say are convicting because if you're not, again, intentional all the time, you can get clouded. So ownership is the key that unlocks the door for many into leadership. And so in order to get anyone to follow you, in my opinion, it's necessary. You can't be a leader without ownership. Whatever it is that you do, ownership applies. And so you have to believe in whatever it is that you're trying to sell to others. You have to own it. You have to hold it close and care about what you're doing. If it is well, if it goes well, then it's yours to carry. If it goes sour, it's still yours to carry, right? And no matter what, you have to own it. And so I'm guilty, right? I don't know about y'all, but I'm guilty of, at times, if I'm not in the right place in my heart, I tend to say, man, what happened here, right? Even though I'm responsible. So you go to your subordinates, we'll call them, or your followers, or your people that work for, the people on your team, whatever you want to call them. And a problem has happened and you just, look, you start unloading because you need to get corrected. And If you're not careful, you'll do too much of that, right? And so you have to remind yourself to own it, even when it goes bad. And so when I, again, when I read that book, and there's some really cool stuff on YouTube from Jocko, where he does public speaking as well, right? So he's public speaking on a stage, and he's addressing this book, and he's talking about it. And when I was listening to... a YouTube video that he had made, it was convicting because there's been times when in my life where stuff went bad and I shifted the blame. And I thought, man, you idiot. You got it wrong. And so anyway, I don't know. Has there ever been a time where that happened to y'all, either of y'all, that she would be willing to share?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I want to say one thing first. The shifting blame is so human nature that I think that that is when you can take ownership. That's, I mean, it's just in my head right now. The fact that ownership is the number one that we're going to talk about and shifting blame is just the number one thing that people are just, it's just easier to do that, you know? So it's kind of, I don't know. It just shows you that ownership is a really great thing. mandated attribute for her being a leader.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, she's absolutely right. Like, it's just so easy to say, well, this would have worked out and the outcome would have been better or correct had you not done something right. When in actuality, I need to say, no, it's something that I could have done differently and taken responsibility and just caring about those outcomes. She's right. I mean, it's just so easy. It's just so easy to just Put it on somebody else.
SPEAKER_03:Ownership is very high in importance in a leader. But it's one of those things. Again, it's not easy. Like you said, Matty, it's in your nature to back that out. I don't want it. It went bad. I don't want anything to do with it. And so it is our nature. And so the leader, the great leader, steps in, takes responsibility. Jaco says a leader who takes full responsibility yet does not take credit but bestows that honor upon his people. So no credit, right? Like you talked about last week or the week before where you talked about Maddie. She never takes credit. We talked about receiving that, but you don't look for the credit, right? And it'll come, but don't look for it. And so it's a completely different mindset. Number two, ownership's good, right? All right, number two, clarity. Now, this is one of my favorite ones, and the reason this is one of my favorite ones is because it's also super important. Clarity is super important for the leader. He must be clear about everything. Some people would argue it's the most important. Well, that's hard to do. When you've got all these different attributes, it's hard to put which one's the most important. We may talk about that at the end. But there's no room, I said not much room, there's no room for gray in leadership. Black and white, cut dry, is the only way to be. This also builds trust. All right? So, you must always set expectations, manage to those. This applies to raising children, managing people at every level. So, I went to a class one time, I believe it was Emory University class on management years ago. And we learned how to be really clear. And so they say you can say you have to give someone instruction. I tell you what, let's say, Maddie, have you ever had to give somebody instruction to do something?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Who?
SPEAKER_01:In all walks of life. Being a mom. Your kids, you gotta tell. Your husband, you gotta tell. Work. Training people at work. I
SPEAKER_03:assume you've told someone to do something and they didn't do it right. Right. At some time. It's probably because you didn't communicate it clearly. Right? Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:I
SPEAKER_03:mean... Most of the time.
SPEAKER_02:It's... clarity is definitely on this list. Something that I look at and it's like, yeah, we could definitely work on that. And, you know, working in creative, I kind of have the mindset like, Hey, I trust you. Like, just go, just do it. But I know that there's times that not, you know, Maddie or someone else would like some more direction and that would benefit both sides. And just kind of, even if it's just, you know, brainstorming, but you know, like I said, it's something that I could definitely, uh, focus on working on and being more clear and direct on the expectations that we're looking for in a project.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's hard, too, because when you're in the day-to-day, your day-to-day life, whether it's a profession, like you're at your work, you're being a mom or a dad, you're being a friend, the, how you're thinking or trying to communicate things to the people around you, it makes sense to you in your head, but sometimes there's always like a follow-up or does that make sense to me or to you like it is what I'm saying confusing at all or it asking if they if you can provide more clarity you know like you might think in your head oh I'm doing this is I know exactly what I'm saying if they don't get it I've given it in one two three four um steps and they still might not get it so it's kind of taking that step back and hey you are you good you got everything you need Getting
SPEAKER_02:that reassurance.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's interesting because clarity is founded in communication, right? And so when you talk about the leader's communication, which is very important, the leader must communicate, over-communicate, right? But I can think back to a time where, you know, you're showing someone a task at work, right? And, you know, you need to... to do it this way. Say you have a new person that's never been there, never been exposed to it, and so you're teaching them how to do the job. And so the class that I went to at Emory said you tell them, number one, tell them. Number two, have them tell you back. Because sometimes people don't hear what you say the way you said it. And you may think, I said it the right way, but they didn't hear it the right way, so have them repeat it to you. Okay, so you tell them, you have them tell you, And then you show them and you have them show you, right? And this method ensures that whatever the expectation is, it's clear, okay? And so after someone has told, has received it and told it and then watched it and then done it, they can think that it's clear, right? And then if at that point, if they've screwed up, then probably a deficiency, right? So we got to work on that. You know, and hey, look, it takes people practice to do things. But anyhow, so that one's super, super important. Number three, servanthood. Now, you could say serve, you could say serving. I always called it servanthood. But the leader ought to serve at some level. Now, some people have a different leadership styles and they'll say, you know, that's not my style. But The stronger leaders tend to serve, right? So always seek to serve, not to be served. Should you ever decide that you want to be served, you will begin to lose your influence with humans. And, you know, you may maintain your position, but you'll lose your influence. So sometimes a leader can be in a position where maybe he is being served. And Again, if he loses touch with the desire to serve them, his people, then he'll just lead from a position and not from actual influence, which is what is necessary to lead well. So you ought to consistently evaluate how you are serving. I'll tell a quick story. So when I was– I used to run a shop years ago. And I had a crew of about 20, I don't know, anywhere from, depended on, I ran it for several years, but from 10 to 30 people, maybe 25 people, whatever, depending on what we were doing, really busy or not. But I would force myself to serve in front of those people because it was, you'd call it forced humility, but I would go get the broom and go sweep the floor. And not for any other reason other than humility has to be– sometimes you have to force yourself to be humble. And people that don't say, no, you don't have to do that, well, maybe not you, but I did. I had to force myself to be humble. You just don't ever want to forget where you came from, right? And so consistently evaluate how you're serving, and if your serving hand is fading, set your mind– uh, to, to bring it back up and serve others around you. Can you think of a time where you've served people intentionally?
SPEAKER_02:Well, it makes me jump back to when I was in my twenties and an owner that I worked for, I'm working at Mellow Mushroom and this guy, you know, he, he was the owner and he had his moments. It's like any else. But he, he, also was so good at connecting with us and making us want to work hard he had a way to influence and lead us and it was it was he wouldn't ask me to do anything that he wouldn't do himself and that's what i think of and i think of him like hey he's doing the dishes he's sweeping the floor he's mopping like he'll he'll do whatever needs to get done especially when we're overworked. And if we're overworked and we, you know, he's like, Hey, I got, I'll finish this up. You go do such and such to me. Like, that's just what it all took, took it back to, took me back to. It's good.
SPEAKER_01:What I think about, which, um, that's kind of bad because I can think of more stories and more situations that I've been in and encountered, um, where people aren't, you know, like leaders of wherever I am are not serving. So it's like, I worked for a company and, you know, just employee appreciation type stuff. I was not top tier, but not top tier manager, but right below it. And I always would try and, hey, let's, can we do something for the employees this week? You know, it's National Cookie Day. Let's do just little things. And the top tier, not ownership, it was just managers were like, we don't, they don't ever do anything for us, you know, and just kind of, it's like, what? No, that's not the point. So I think that, um, in my professional career, um, I've had more contact with leaders who are supposed to have these qualities. And now that we're talking about them, like what you just said, um, you know, he'd sweep the floor, he'd clean the bathroom. Like one of my guys would never touch a toilet. Like, like the toilet, The toilet in our employee hall needed to be plunged and he refused to do it. So it's like, okay,
SPEAKER_03:that's kind of. Well, those people, and listen, they'll still leave from a position and they'll stay there. They're not going to grow anymore. You know, the leader that exhibits these things is just going to get in a jet. Right. And I mean, you'll have leaders of all walks of life that don't exhibit some of these well. But they may exhibit some others okay or well. And so, again, we're talking about leadership greatness. And so you're going to find that in everyday life that you're going to bump into people that are leading from a position and that are not students of it and don't really care. They were really smart and they did something great and they got in that position and they'll hold it as long as their influence is what it is.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think, too, More on the business side and professional side of things. Those types of leaders that have maybe some of the qualities and not greatness. Underneath them, they don't stay long. You're not going to stay in a position where you're not learning from the person above you. I thrive on being able to pick the brain of my boss and managers. Yeah. And watching them lead now. Good.
SPEAKER_03:So I want to say this really quick. We've got to roll on. But servant leaders, I'll tell you, the first week we talked about leaders and somebody mentioned Elon Musk. So Elon Musk, I read this. I don't know if it's actually true, but that when they were building the the rocket to Mars and all that stuff. And they, you know, they had, I think Tesla was in trouble. Anyway, long story short, Elon Musk is a servant leader. And the reason I know that is because he sat, he stayed at work at the factory. And so they said that he slept underneath his desk. And I said, well, why in the world would that dude sleep under his desk? And he said it. Because he wanted the workers in the factory to know that he was committed, right? He was there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And so he consecutively, he stayed there and he slept under his desk so that as the people walked by, they seen him sleeping. And, you know, his followers talk about how committed that guy was and how that inspired them to do more. So a servant leader that does that that serves no matter what, inspires other people to do the same. Right. And so anyway, I thought that was a really cool story. You should look it up if you haven't read that. Number four is passion. We talked about this a little bit last week, but it is absolutely imperative that the leader exhibit passion for whatever it is that they are leading. If they do not exhibit passion for what they are leading, then their leadership will suffer you can't lead people like a dud right so we talk about the importance of positivity and looking under the wet side looking under the leaf you know a glass half what full instead of half empty so your passion is required to move the needle in your leadership and excitement and passion is contagious in your influence Um, can y'all think about, well, I think we went over that last time. Somebody that's really,
SPEAKER_02:this, this is my shit right here. Like enthusiasm. Yeah. And just getting people up for, yeah. To me, I think about like, I can find joy in the smallest of things. Changing a diaper. I'm happy cooking dinner. I'm happy. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. I'm doing a happy, I'm doing enthusiastically and it is contagious. It's 100% contagious.
SPEAKER_03:I tell you the other day when I called you, I mean, dude, I called Danny and I was like, he's like, hey man, what are you, let's go. And I'm like, dude, you're always so fired up. It, it helped me that day. Yeah. Like I hung up with you and I was like, man, I need that. And it, let me give some goosebumps. Cause look, if I'm honest, there's days when I'm like dreading it. I'm like, I'm, I'm about to go stare at the sheet rock. Okay. Because I'm blistered and my cup is empty. And calling Danny that day, the, The excitement, the passion that he, and just the way he led the conversation, it was good. Thank you. Call me. Look at that. Yeah. So, yeah, but that's good, Maddie.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No, I mean, I think passion for anything, whether it be lifting up a friend when you give them a phone call or, you know, being a boss at work. If, like, you're... Your emotions and your enthusiasm, your passion will rub off on everyone. And I mean, I think that that is a one. I mean, that's a number top five for me, I think.
SPEAKER_03:And it's a choice. It is. Yeah, absolutely. It is. It is. Just do it. Intentional. That's right. About being passionate. Yeah, I love it. Number five is discipline. This one's important. Man, they're all important.
SPEAKER_00:I know. I'm like, wait.
SPEAKER_03:Discipline, dude, is so important because discipline gives you leadership capital with disciplined people. Another person recognizes discipline in another person's life. And discipline in yourself makes you, I mean, it makes you who you are. If you're disciplined, then people can follow you. And It's acceptable. People that are not disciplined will only lead others that are not disciplined. Think about that.
SPEAKER_01:That's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So if you're not disciplined, then you're going to lead other people that are not disciplined. You will not lead people that are disciplined. Ever. Because they know it. They see it. They feel it. So, like, it sounds crazy, but Being the first one to work and the last one to go home. Now, you know, is that always necessary? No. But those are the kinds of things that people notice. They notice that you do what you do and how you do it. And discipline is noticed every time. And a really disciplined person, leader, will not be drawn to an undisciplined person.
SPEAKER_01:And they won't stay long.
SPEAKER_03:No. No.
SPEAKER_01:If they, you know. I think it goes back to clarity too. Like clarity and discipline are kind of one of the ones that I was thinking about hand in hand because, you know, if you're clear on your path and your communication skills and you're disciplined on what they're supposed to do and what you're supposed to do and I don't know, I just think that it hit the nail on the head when you said that They don't, like non-disciplined leaders will lead non-disciplined people. Every time. And if you get a disciplined person that you're leading and you're non-disciplined, then they won't be there long.
SPEAKER_03:That's right. Yep.
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