Last month I interviewed bestselling author, speaker and leadership coach Steve Farber for our exclusive SUCCESS Audio Series. The response has been so great that Steve and I decided to offer some free follow-up ideas and material here for everyone to benefit from.

During the interview we discussed the concept of Steve’s book: Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership which in short is about selecting someone you can mentor to help them become even greater than yourself (GTY).

We all know we should seek mentors for our life. This concept is about you being the mentor and helping people realize or advance their own greatness.

There are some truisms that tell the inherent values of this principle:

  • Satisfaction and fulfillment come not from what you get, but what you give.
  • Giving starts the receiving process.
  • The giver always receives more than the receiver.
  • It is the teacher who always learns more than the student in the act of teaching.

Steve sums up the concept here: “The greatest leaders that I’ve seen, the best extreme leaders that I’ve met over the years are the ones that never seek credit for their own greatness, but instead, invest themselves in such a way as to make other people around them greater than they are.  So instead of shining the light on themselves, they lift other people up and  build a track record of creating superstar after superstar.”

Here is a great interview between Steve, Patrick Lencioni and his GTY project (mentee) Matthew Kelley (also acclaimed writer and keynote speaker) describing the process and the value of their GTY relationship:

Steve has graciously offered to allow you to download the entire hour long interview here (120MB). Click here to download: http://darrenhardy.success.com/audio/lencioni_interview.zip

In this 20 min audio Steve offers some suggestions:

  • Who do you pick as your GTY project?
  • Should it be someone at work, in your family, someone in the community?
  • What qualities and characteristics should you look for?
  • How to get started.

The book is written in parable form. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed the concept. You learn more about the book or order it here: Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership

Hope you enjoyed the free resources!

-Darren