At the Crux of Leadership is Love. A Conversation with TG3 Leadership Consultant Ryan Dougherty

Real Life With Pamela Lau

Welcome Ryan Dougherty to the show! Helping people and teams grow is Ryan’s passion. He believes if you love what you do and who you do it with you can achieve amazing results.

Ryan is a co-owner and principal partner at TG Three (www.tgthree.com), a strategy company that equips leaders and Christian institutions to get from where they are to where they want to be.

Prior to his consulting and coaching work, he served for 20 years in enrollment and marketing at George Fox University outside Portland, Oregon, leading to unprecedented growth. By developing people, creating a pipeline of accountable leaders, and implementing innovative strategy, the university experienced explosive enrollment gains beginning in 2013 resulting in an additional $65 million in revenue. Before departing to launch TG Three, he served as Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing.

Ryan earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Master of Business Administration. He has two great kids–a 16-year-old son and a 13-old-daughter–with his amazing wife, Meredith.

In this episode, we talk about key moments in saying yes to helping people and what that looks like as a leader. Ryan and I talk about how helping people happens when we see the needs around us and step in to offer our skills and giftings. We answer the question of how leaders keep saying the right "yes"? Ryan offers his wisdom by saying, "Do great work in the position you're in and step up when there's opportunity."

Ryan shares about a time when he and his wife faced a trauma in their lives and how each of their lives shifted greatly and what that meant for their leadership lives.

Some questions we unpack during our conversation are as follows:

What is our motivation as we follow the call to being a leader?

How do we lean in to growth and challenge?

What is the definition of "Responsiblity?"

Is being "Over responsible" in a role ever a good thing?

Does a Leader always need to be "Out front?"

What are we leading for and to what end?

Some advice Ryan offers is as follows:

Set time for work is set time for work.

Priorities are a weighting of our responsibilities.

Might we be stealing from another person's leadership and development when we show up for everything?

At the crux of leadership is the concept of love. If we don't love the people we are leading, we will lead with the wrong motivation.

If you have a calling for leadership, determine and discern your motivation.

Just get out of yourself and contribute to others' lives--that's Christian leadership.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others.

Family is a bedrock for teaching others about leadership.

Leadership isn't about my style; it's about the people who I am leading.

We conclude our discussion with the important topic of support. Trust, compassion, and hope are support. When leaders face transition, they often lose their peer support. Ryan points to Gallup's research that say that you have to have a friend at work for your best work to happen. He also suggests that a boss who cares about their employees shows support. They show it by developing their employees, creating space for trust, and genuine relationship. If leadership is about development and relationship, it doesn't matter how different a person's style or age may be. What matters is that leaders develop others where others are and where they are going. Enjoy the Show!

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