5 Steps to Better Leadership at Home and at Work


For years, I was guilty of a being a poor leader.

Fortunately, my friend, Matt Smith—both my business partner at ETR and the CEO of RoyaltyExchange.com—taught me how to be a better leader.

Matt showed me how to lead “cool and calm conversations” with team members that showed I care, coached them to better performance, made their success smoother, and grew the team to greater performance each and every week. 

This process is used in one very important meeting—the GS&R.

(Last year Matt put together a series of meeting videos for our ETR University members that cover some of the best approaches to GS&R. These leadership videos aren’t just good for your business; they are also great for your family, as I’ll explain below.)

GS&R stands for “Goal, Set, & Review.” While it’s designed to help coach your team members to peak performance at work, you can also use it in any number of environments—school, home, extra-curricular activities, non-profit organizations, community activities, and so on.

Here’s how it works: The coach or manager guides each team member through the identification of his or her top three action items for the week, how to achieve them, how to overcome obstacles in the way, and how (or who) to ask for help so that they can say, “mission accomplished!”

Team members are not the only ones doing the work, however. As a leader—both at home and in your business—you need to bring your BEST self to every meeting, too.

That means implementing the 5 Pillars of Success in your management duties:

Pillar #1 – Better Planning and Preparation Than Ever Before

Whether you are making coaching calls, leading team member meetings, or planning sessions with your children, you must review last week’s meeting notes so you are fully prepared. Do the work. Come prepared. Identify the obstacles in advance and plan solutions for each. Be clear on the measurable outcomes of the meeting, and the measurable outcomes of each member’s weekly performance.

Pillar #2 – Professional Accountability 

Be the boss. Leading a meeting is about more than just sitting at the head of the table—it’s about clearly setting the agenda, stating the parameters for each project, starting and finishing on time, and being decisive.

Of course, you want to be open to feedback and suggestions, but it’s up to you to set the tone.

Above all, show up with confidence. As you grow the people on your team, allow them to take more on their plates. Identify what they do BETTER than you, and let them flourish! 

When it comes to leadership, always keep these keywords in mind: communication, decisiveness, mastery of self, and leading from the front.

Pillar #3 – Positive Social Support

Following each meeting, check in daily with your team members to make sure they are on track. Help them understand that you are in this together. Your mutual relationship is supportive, not adversarial. You’re both on the same team, after all, and you’re working together to help the company flourish.

Pillar #4 – Meaningful Incentive

Team members don’t work for you just for the money. We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. (That’s why we join movements and become irrationally attached to sports teams.)

You must dig deep and lean into conversations to find out what drives your team members. Identify their true motivations and show them how a job well-done will reap benefits that truly matter to them.

Pillar #5 – The BIG Deadline

As you finish your GS&R meetings, clearly articulate the jobs to be done over the week ahead. Be sure you define clear deadlines—alongside consequences for projects that are not completed on time.

These hard-and-fast deadlines are important for three reasons: they get your team members going at the start; they keep them going when the going gets tough; and they make them move faster as the deadline approaches.

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With these 5 Pillars in place, you can grow your team, your family, and your coaching clients. You can help them achieve what seems impossible, one week at a time, spurred by one good conversation after another. 

Craig Ballantyne

If you want to double your income, work less, and become the ambitious millionaire you've always wanted to be... Craig Ballantyne is the coach who will help you do it. With more than 20-years of experience as an entrepreneur and five 7-figure businesses under his belt, he specializes in helping "struckling" entrepreneurs get out of the mud and build the business of their dreams. To see if you qualify for Craig's "Millionaire Coaching Program" send an email to support@earlytorise.com with the subject line "Millionaire".