Michael (Mike) Shannon Sims Passion for Leadership

For over 20 years, Michael (Mike) Shannon Sims has been a highly successful entrepreneur domestically and internationally. His ability to teach and inspire others is world-renowned. His expertise and experience in all aspects of business from financial forecasting, resource allocation, fund management, leadership development, crisis management, and accounting, has allowed him to build and lead companies through start-up, survival, turnaround, and growth modes.

Mike has founded and led multiple startup businesses and continues to utilize his knowledge by dedicating his time to inspire and lend professional expertise to like-minded individuals who believe that mediocrity in any area of life is unacceptable.

INTERVIEWER:

Today, we get the chance to sit down with Mike Sims, CEO and founder of Mike Sims Worldwide, to pick his brain and do a rapid-fire session on all things leadership. Mike Sims is very well-read and well-versed, both personally and professionally, so we get to take a few minutes to soak in what he has to offer. Are you ready?

Mike Sims:

Yes. Let’s go.

INTERVIEWER: Okay, I’m just going to throw out a couple of topics, or subtopics under leadership, and I just want to get your thoughts. Okay, are you ready?

Mike Sims:

I hope so!

Interviewer:

Okay, let’s go. So, under leadership, let’s first talk about dealing with people. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about “dealing with people”? 

Mike Sims:

A quote comes to my mind. And that quote is, “Lead yourself with your head, lead others with your heart.” In business, you have to make sure that you’re always doing what’s right by people and doing what’s right for people. No matter what, it’s business. It’s so easy to become selfish. And so a great leader has to be selfless. You still want to work in your best self-interest, that’s different, but you don’t want to be selfish about it. You don’t want to manipulate people. Manipulation is maneuvering people for your own self-interests. Motivating people is what you want to do. Inspiring people is what you want to do. And that’s moving people in a certain direction for your mutual interests. So that quote comes to my mind and another quote comes to my mind as well. When you say, dealing with people, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you really care”. So you have to be genuinely interested in people’s success and the success of the organization. And if you do that, it’ll definitely help you become a great leader.

Interviewer:

So, you’re saying that when dealing with people, you have to care about people. So, have you ever dealt with people who want to be leaders or are leaders and they don’t really have that? That genuine care for people? How does that normally work out? 

Mike Sims:

You can tell. You can tell because of the decisions they make or don’t make, and the things they do or things they don’t do. And so, the key thing is making sure that you’re not doing just what works best for you, but you’re doing what’s best for the organization. Because if you want to grow a large business, you have to grow the people. People build businesses. So if you do right by people, if you’re concentrating on growing them and developing them, then the business will in turn grow and develop as well. So that’s so, so important. And it goes back to, I guess, the oldest personal development book in the world and that’s the Bible. “Do unto others as they you would have them do unto you.”

Interviewer:

Absolutely. So you’re saying that’s key in business, awesome. Great Mr. Sims. Here’s another one. Are you ready? Vision.

Mike Sims:

Ok, so another quote comes to my mind. “The leader creates division, and then he finds the people. The people find the leader and then they buy into whatever his or her vision is.” Very powerful. And so as a leader, you must have a great vision. That vision must be overarching, and vision must be long-term. Not only should you be a visionary thinker, but you also should be a visionary talker; talking about things as if we’re moving in a certain direction, not talking about where we are right now. But let’s talk about where we will be. It’s so, so important when it comes down to leadership, and it goes back again to the Bible, “The person without vision will perish.” Right? Exactly. So, in life in general, if you don’t have vision, period. Every person around you must be a visionary, you must be moving forward. And one of the qualities of a great leader is being able to articulate that vision to the group. Make it clear so everyone understands their role in the overarching mission. That is so important as well.

Interviewer:

Ok, amazing. Good job. Here’s the third leadership topic. How about setting an example? 

Mike Sims:

“Leader, one leader or many? If you can’t lead one, you can’t lead any.” A lot of people perceive themselves as leaders, but all they want to do is instruct or tell people what they need to do, but they’re not setting the proper example themselves. And so, if you want to lead others, the first person you must lead is the person that is in the mirror. You have to look at yourself, do a self-assessment, and say, “What I’m asking anyone else to do? Am I first doing it myself?” Because people watch what you do. That all goes back to another quote. “What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say.” So, people watch what you do. And if you’re telling people, instructing people on how to do something, or what to do, and you’re not doing it, then it looks hypocritical. There’s no other way to sugarcoat it. A great leader is someone who not only talks the talk but walks the walk as well. I’ll give you another quote that is popping in my head, “At the end of the day, after everything is said and done. Always make sure there’s more done than said.” You have to make sure that you’re setting the proper example. For everybody else on your team. Or your business. Whatever it is, you as a leader have to set the proper example.

Interviewer:

One came to my mind that I heard you say recently as well. And it has something to do with…you can just finish the quote. “If the people in your organization do what you do…”

Mike Sims

Oh, yes. So, if you take a look at your business, and there are so many other types of businesses out there, but most businesses, you are building an organization of some type. One of the quotes that one of my mentors shared with me a long time ago, it kind of scared me. He said, “At the end of your day, take a look at what you’ve done for the day. If everyone else in your business did what you did today, would your business have moved forward or would your business have gone backward, or would it have not grown at all?” Because people will do what they see you do. So, before you go to bed, I would ask that question. If everybody in my organization did what I did today, would we be farther along? There were times in my business, in my business career that that statement woke me up. It got me out of bed. In my bed late at night. I can’t go to bed because I haven’t done enough yet. So, if everybody did what I did today, we’re in major, major trouble. In organization and in business, whatever you do, and whatever you don’t do is going to duplicate. So, you always as a leader, always want to make sure that you’re setting the proper example.

Interviewer:

Okay, let’s see how you do with this one. What about taking responsibility and how that relates to leadership?

 Mike Sims:

Everything rises and falls on leadership. John Maxwell said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” If things are not going well, what a lot of times I used to do is I would start looking for other people to blame, or to start looking for what other people were not doing. Instead of looking at, again, the person in the mirror because everything rises and falls on leadership. If there’s something not going well in the business, maybe there’s someone that’s out of position. Maybe there’s someone who should be doing something else, and we have them in the wrong position. Maybe there’s someone assuming a role right now that they’re not yet ready for. As a leader, you have to identify those things and put people in their best position to win. And so, everything rises and falls on leadership and once I understood that, it was tough to understand that the majority of times if things are not going right, it’s my fault. It’s my fault, especially in your organization, especially in your businesses. If things are not going right, it is your fault, because you may be expecting someone to do something that they’re not yet capable of doing. So, they don’t need to be there. They need to be here. And so, as a leader, you have to be able to identify those things, and put people in the best position to win. Then realize the truth is that everything rises and falls on my ability or inability to lead.

Interviewer:

Okay, well, I was trying to knock you out today, but you did an awesome job. I just want to get your final thoughts of everything that you’ve said today. What are your final thoughts or if I didn’t address something, what would you like to say, to wrap up the topic of leadership?

Mike Sims:

Every organization, every business, every family, everything rises and falls leadership. In a family structure, the household turns out or follows the example of the head of the household. They’re the leader in the house. The same thing in a religious organization and same thing in a business, no matter what it is. Everything rises and falls on leadership. If you can find a great leader, attach yourself to that leader, attach yourself to him or her and learn from them. Soak up all the information you can. Allow yourself to be lead.

For someone to be a great leader, they must first be a great follower. And so everything rises and falls on leadership. I’ve said that a number of times now and I believe that within the center of my being that leadership is everything. It is absolutely everything. And if you want to build a large organization, if you want to build a large business, you must first become a leader. So, you can then attract people because people are looking for leaders. They’re looking for leaders that they can attach to, that they can be mentored by, and they can grow themselves, and then they become leaders as well. And then of course a leader’s dream is to replace themselves. To replace themselves, they grow and develop people who are as good or better than themselves. A leader can’t be afraid to surround themselves with people who are as good or better than them or develop people who become as good in certain areas or even better. They can’t be afraid. But again, it goes back to that statement. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

Contact: 

Name: Michael (Mike) Shannon Sims

Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/mikesimsworldwide  

Website: https://michaelshannonsims.com/ 

(United States)