There is a people group on this planet known for their superhuman abilities. They can climb at levels unimaginable, while carrying gear and supplies that would make the normal person wince. They are known as the Sherpa, and they are a perfect metaphor to describe a type of superhuman leader that exists on this planet as well.

You may know the Sherpa for their expertise on Mount Everest and throughout the Himalaya mountains. Even more than their physical DNA, the Sherpa tend to have a belief system that is different than the extreme climbers who pay thousands to climb a mountain, seeking mostly the thrill of personal achievement. In contrast, the Sherpa climb out of respect for the mountain and for the chance to take care of their families.

Two types of people climb the mountain for different reasons: one to check off an accomplishment, the other to help people fulfill their dreams. Throughout this book, we use the metaphor of a Sherpa because we feel they are the best example of what it means to truly lead people, modeling perfectly the ability to calibrate support and challenge. We will explain what we mean by a “100X leader” in depth and give you many practical tools and examples as we challenge you to live and lead at your full potential. Our ultimate goal is to help you become a person who people want to follow, not one people have to follow. There is a big difference.

“Have to” versus “Want to”

Have you ever worked for someone simply because you needed a job or a paycheck? This was a leader that you reluctantly worked for out of duty or necessity, but one you wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to work for otherwise.

Mentally, “want to” versus “have to” is a very different thing. When we want to work for someone, life is much brighter. When we work for someone worth following, we have a spring in our step, we want to work hard. But, when we are forced to work for a weak leader, even things we like to do become tedious.

In this book we will help you evaluate how others see your leadership and your life, and we will equip you with proven practical tools so that you can become someone people will choose to follow.

We Need Better Leaders

The twenty-first century is a steep mountain climb for today’s leaders; the landscape is treacherous and constantly shifting as the complexities of work, culture, and life are changing rapidly in the digital age. It’s unrecognizable from 30 years ago! In essence, the terrain has changed drastically, and people are either adapting or not.

Because of these changes we have come to believe that the world doesn’t need more leaders—it needs more of the right kind of leaders, especially amid the chaos that is constant within global affairs. We need more leaders who people want to believe in, not leaders who people are forced to follow.

The changes in geopolitical realities, global leadership, and technological advancements have also caused a complete shift in the way adults learn. People have changed the way they read and view information and even the way they read books. Social media affects news feeds and attitudes, not to mention the endless options of entertainment. The proliferation of information has forced different behaviors as people try to filter what they want to take in and how much content to digest, whether it’s audio, visual, or text. This dramatic shift in how we learn affects people’s abilities to become healthy and to train others effectively.

No one has climbed this mountain before. Having worked with leaders around the globe, we know the challenges of today’s landscape. The realities that leaders are asked to address require a new technique since the old maps are invalid. Since 2013 we have been working to create new maps for twenty-first-century leaders—a people system that actually scales and multiplies healthy leaders. And it has been working, which is why we have built this field guide for transformation and multiplication for you to use.

Transformation and Multiplication Methodology

This book is written for every person who leads others in many different circles of influence—from the CEO to the director to the front-line manager to the parent at home with kids or to the leader inside a community. Our goal is to establish a new standard of leadership, one that is centered on humility, self-awareness, and excellence but also accepts the challenge to multiply other leaders with the same DNA.

You will quickly understand our philosophy and our goal to help you become as healthy a leader as possible and learn how to multiply your skills to others. Ultimately, we will take the greatest delight when your spouse, kids, teammates or employees notice a tangible difference in you and comment on it. Such stories of transformational change are our true metric of success.

We believe you cannot remove leadership from real life. You might only be leading one person—yourself—and even then, you can learn to lead more effectively. Even if you simply grow personally to a higher level of self-awareness and begin to liberate yourself, then this book is worth it. We believe passionately in applied leadership learning—we don’t just want you to know more about leadership, we want you to become a leader who others are proud to follow.

Here is how one leader described the book while reading an early version:

This book puts it all together. It helps me on my own view of myself, affects my role in my family and gives me real tools to help me with my people. You guys put the words to my thoughts and gave me something that I can use as a field guide. I honestly think I will be able to keep this book open on my desk to help me with my real life at work and at home.

—Brandon Hutchins, CEO, Gaskins Surveying & Engineering, Marietta, Georgia

Where the Change Starts

But we believe that you must first change yourself before you can attempt to change others. This is the secret of the Sherpa, or 100X leader. As we help you change your view of the future, your priorities and your goals, this will create the possibility for a ripple effect that will change your families, teams, organizations, and communities.

We need leaders who lead for the benefit of others, not just for themselves.

To be a 100X leader you must be honest and challenge your core motivation:

• What do you really want?
• What do you desire to achieve by the time you are 40, 50, or 65-plus years of age?
• How are you planning to actually get there?
• What are you afraid of losing?
• Looking at your past leadership, what would others conclude was your motivation? Is it accurate? And, do you want to change that perception?

Change starts when a person “looks in a mirror” and first becomes aware that there is some blemish or tendency that needs to be addressed.

We can’t change you. We can only hold up a mirror to challenge and encourage you to start the process of becoming a leader worth following.

When you finish this book, hopefully you will have accomplished two things:

1. You will have experienced a profound personal insight, a pathway, and a vision of a better way to live and lead.
2. You will start to become adept at intentionally transferring what you have learned to help others.

The 100X process is a journey. We hope this field guide will give you a new language of leadership, and that you will let us be your Sherpas to help you lead at higher levels and then have the joy of helping others climb.

Welcome to base camp. Let’s get ready to become someone worth following.