Lessons of leadership

The Husky Sales Club kicked off their winter quarter speaker series with Northwestern Mutual, a full-service, comprehensive financial planning firm. Speaking on their behalf was one of our favorite speakers, Eric Aslakson, managing partner with Northwestern Mutual-Puget Sound. He drew from his experiences throughout his career in sales and spoke about his “20 Lessons of Leadership.”

Here are a few takeaways from his presentation:

Live day to day and aim to be the best version of yourself that you can be.
There are no secrets, only systems. If you ever find yourself in a moment of uncertainty, there’s probably someone out there who has gone through a similar situation. Emulate their methods of success and remember that developing a system to solve a problem will provide you the very leverage you need.
Mastery is not always exponential. Similar to working on your golf game, sometimes one gets worse before they get better. That said, if you are process focused with humility and hunger for success rather than results focused with a big ego, the better the results you will obtain.
Challenge those around you and have the courage to tell others the truth, but always with kindness.
Say it out loud. Studies show that what you hear yourself say strongly correlates with what you eventually believe. Daily positive affirmation can be more powerful than you think. Don’t be afraid to wake up in the morning and say “today is going to be a great day” out loud—even if you feel crazy doing so.

See the full list of lessons on the Husky Sales Club blog. The Husky Sales Club is the student organization associated with the UW Foster School’s Professional Sales Program.

Guest post by Alley Calkins, UW student and director of social media, web design, and photography for the Husky Sales Club