In this very special Father’s Day episode of the Inventory Nation Podcast, Rick (Nicole’s Dad) and Nicole discuss what it means to be a leader. Rick gives some fundamental guidelines for how to lead and reveals the five essential elements for leading a successful mission or project.

• Rick has always loved a challenge.

• Rick learned early on that leadership is a journey.

• The first level of leadership is positional. People must follow. They do what they must do.

• Leadership is the ability to influence people or convince people to follow you.

• Leadership is all about relationships.

• The more that you learn, the more that you realize how little you know and how much there is to learn.

• Having a mentor can have incredible value.

• People want to know 3 things; Do you care for me? Can I trust you? Can you help me?

• Respecting those that you are trying to lead is a key component of leadership.

• Serve others first and yourself last to show that you care and that their needs are more important to them than your own needs.

• Five essential elements of a successful mission: Clear objectives, empowerment, timely feedback and critique, resources, and training.

Rick Clausen is a civil engineer with a paralegal degree, is like Chef Ramsey on Kitchen Nightmares but for the construction industry. He’s a turnaround guy and gets called to join the biggest, most behind schedule and overbudget projects to get them turned around. He’s led teams of over 200 people, designed the concrete mix for the I-90 floating bridge, and has worked on some of the most challenging construction projects across the United States and Asia.

• vetlogic.co/podcast