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Award-Winning Leadership Speaker, Executive Coach & New York Times Best-Selling Author

Jake Farrant

Mammoth President says: Show courage and aggressively eliminate dysfunction from your team.

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One day, Mammoth Sports Construction Founder Jake Farrant sat down with his bankers to look over their financial statements. They pointed to a significant increase in the report and asked, “What happened here?”

Jake smiled at those gathered around the table and said simply, “We had the courage to make some tough choices. We eliminated the dysfunction.”

The tough choices involved laying off some of the company’s top salespeople, not for poor performance but for a poor attitude that did not fit their company culture. The decision forced Jake to do some serious soul searching.

“This was not what we were supposed to be. This is not how we were supposed to treat people and how we’re supposed to make a difference,” reflected Jake about the layoffs. “It was hard to go backward and let people go who weren’t aligned with our values of faith, family, and embracing the small-town team mentality. Some of those people were really good at what they were doing.”

But culture triumphed over caution, and within a few months, the company was making more money than ever and exploded into one of the fastest-growing companies delivering sports construction projects, with clients that included the NFL, SEC, Big 12, and hundreds of high schools around the country.

In this episode, Jake shares the core leadership principles he developed as a college football player and business leader who insists on a team-first culture of servant leadership. Jake’s advice to leaders is straightforward: Above all, if you aspire to leadership, don’t just perform well yourself, “bring out the best in other people.”


You will learn:

  •  7:30   How to be optimistic and opportunistic.
  • 15:30  How to surround yourself with talented people.
  • 19:00  What it means to truly “embrace loss.”
  • 23:00  How the New Orleans Saints’ field made its way Jake’s High School in Kansas.
  • 27:00  How Mammoth uses “small-town” values to generate big-time results.

You will learn:

  •  6:00   How easy it is to cut corners in practice and why you’ll suffer as a result.
  •  8:00   How to emphasize the power or “we” on your team.
  • 11:00  How living and working in Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster taught Lane that caring was the universal language of respected leaders.
  • 15:00  The level of employee interaction required to achieve success.
  • 18:30  The difference between being accountable and responsible.
  • 27:00  How to identify a meaningful friend or mentor.

Resources:


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Beth Brooke

Global Vice Chair of Public Policy for Ernst & Young

“The ability for athletes to get hired is carried on through you because you are putting out the message that lessons learned from sports are important in life. It is embedded in this podcast, what you’re doing is significant.”

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Rick Hendrick

NASCAR Hall of Famer, Owner of Hendrick Motorsports & Chairman of the Hendrick Automotive Group

“We speak the same language. I am inspired by the stories you tell, the people you have met, and the things you’ve done. Those of us that are competitors like to follow others that have been down that journey, so it is always fun talking to you!”

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Bill George

Longtime Medtronic CEO, Harvard Professor

“Many of the leaders I have worked with were excellent athletes, and I think there is a direct correlation. You’re one of the few people that really has pursued this study, Don. Keep up the great work. What you are doing really makes a difference.”

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Jon Rousseau

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Special thanks to Dave Moore, Lauren Hafner, Samantha Clark, and the Florida State University Internship Program for consistently supporting our research team.

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