John Maxwell Leadership Masterclass To Influence People - #maxwellleadership #leadershipskills

you see nothing is great until a life is changed you do understand that so you you can have a good conference you can't have a great conference great is only what they do with it after the conference you can have a good book but the the book becomes great when it changes the life and so many times we count our victories before we have victories we count our victories because we just look good when we walked across the stage and everybody clapped and everybody was happy and we thought oh my gosh what a good conference

there every everything escalates and gets better when the people get better and if the people don't get better it wasn't that good and if the people don't change if the people don't grow and if the people if the people just aren't reproducing it never becomes great see leaders understand greatness is begins with them and what they teach and Inspire their people to be and do but the result of greatness is in the proof of the people it's in the people so if you say well I'm I'm a I'm a great leader well how many great

leaders have you reproduced see you're not a great leader because you have followers you're a great leader because you've reproduced leaders and so this is going to be a huge day you're I I'm promising you're going to fill pages of notes not just a page or two that's I don't know who does that but you're going to fill pages of notes you're you're you're going to have to you're going to have to go straight from here to a massage therapist you going to say just work the hand work the hand we just just work the

hand been I've been taking a lot of notes because one of the things we do in the John Maxell company it's it's a reputation of mine to give you more than you can handle you with me do you ever go to hear somebody speak and you just kind of sit there for a while and kind of hope for a miracle you know what I mean just say I know it I it will sometime get better and you know and and if you ever kind sometimes kind of one just walk up and say you know what

you're not very good let me give you a couple thoughts here just say these it'll help you it'll take you to a new level huh now the reason I say that is is um we work very hard you're here by invitation I mean we do these things quite a bit we got to pack this thing out many many times but we just said no just we want the right people in the room and we want the right people in the room because then reproduces itself so I've worked hard uh I'm going to do the laws

of growth I I'm delighted today to talk to you about some of the laws of leadership and the first one I want to talk to you about is truly the first one I should talk to you about now there are 15 of them but you have to understand there's one that I think is foundational for the other 14 not more important but foundational and that's the law of intentionality and that's where we're going to begin today the law of intentionality just basically says growth is the only guarantee that tomorrow is going to get better if

you're going to grow and and if I'm going to grow we're going to grow intentionally now I'm talking to leaders today I love talking to to people that lead many people and to be honest with you if if if I could just literally come off the stage and and and and I could get real close to you and we can have kind of like a one-on-one conversation there there are two questions that I would ask you and the two questions I'm about to ask you will really determine how successful you're going to be in this

business without any question these are the two questions it's not like there's three or there's four or there's seven there's two okay just trust me on this I'm an old man I know this I've been around the block a few times and there are two questions that if you can answer in a positive way about yourself you're going to be very successful and and if you really can't answer that in a positive way to be honest with you you're not going to be near as successful as you would like to be the first question is

very simple what are you doing to develop yourself and if you'd say my gosh John I'll tell you right now I'm doing a lot to develop myself I I mean I I've got a personal growth plan and and I'm intentional in this and I'm I'm doing this on a daily deal if you could say that to me then I'd say hey we're we're in good shape here we're we're in good shape because that's the key you know what what are you doing to develop yourself and and by the way the reason that's first is not

because you want to be selfish it's kind of like almost a selfish question person says well why do I start with myself the reason you start with yourself is because you cannot give what you do not have so you better start with yourself because if you're leading others and have nothing to give them nothing to share with them nothing to teach them then I can promise you you'll never be what you want to be as a leader and I can promise you that after 40 Years of personal growth The Secret of any success if I've

had any success at all the secret of that success has been personal growth in my life and and growth has has literally placed me where I am so so what are you doing to develop yourself it's a huge question and the 15 laws of of the 15 laws of personal growth basically these laws are all about developing yourself and developing the second question what are you doing to develop others you see on the first question you're foundational for your future the second question is all about compounding multiplication that's where you build a huge business when

you know how to develop other people and what we have to understand about the law of intentionality is that you cannot develop yourself and you cannot develop your people unless you're intentional and I discovered that in my 20s when I sat down and had breakfast with a guy named Kirk CM at the holiday in Lancaster Ohio and he asked me the question John do you have do you have a plan for personal growth in your life didn't have a plan didn't know I was supposed to have a plan nobody ever told me I was supposed

to have a plan I graduated I was working hard doing my very best to reach my potential but nobody ever walked in my life until Kurt cm did and said John do do you have a plan for personal growth in your life and I didn't have one I was embarrassed I thought back then I had to have answers and so I acted as if I did and that didn't really work very long I was kind of like a plane circl in Airfield trying to come in for a landing found I just shut up and landed

that plane and he looked at me and I'll never forget he said you don't have a plan do you and I said no I don't have a plan then he said to me John growth is not automatic if you're going to have to grow you're going to have to grow on purpose that day my life was changed what what Kurt was saying is if you're going to grow you have to be intentional I mean now the problem is we have what I call growth gaps the reason that we're not intentional in our growing is there

are just some gaps that that keep us from from getting to where we need to go and I'm going to give you about a half a dozen of them really quickly the the first one is is the Assumption Gap and the assumption Gap just basically says or is I assume that I'll grow automatically you see most people they live by assumption 99% of people today are assuming just assuming that somehow they'll get better very sad folks very sad because let me tell you something about assumption assumption is a huge dis disappointment in life you show

me a person that assumes and I'll show you a person that almost daily is disappointed so the first Gap is a gap that leaves many people short and that's just a pure assumption Gap the second one is is the knowledge Gap and the knowledge Gap is is basically I don't know how to grow and we've all been there in other words okay I know that I need to be intentional in my growth but I really don't I really don't know how to grow I I've been there now I brought something with me today that's very

special it's a kit and and I I I'm just so pleased to have this because this kit is very important to me now now it it it cost me $799 and and I got this kit I got this kit back I got this kit back in 19 in the 1970s okay and and this was my first personal growth kit it's um um you know dynamics of personal goal setting um by Paul Meyer personal success planner and and this is my first growth experience and the ROI on this $799 K it's worth millions of dollars to

me yeah you heard me right millions of dollars and experiences and in a lifetime of growth and what's interesting is now here's what I want you to hear the value of this kit the content was good but that wasn't the value the content was good but but as I look back now I say what made this so special what made this so special is very simple this is the kit that got me started hear me out the value of what you do for people is not so much what you give to them as much as

it challenges them to get started getting started is absolutely the key to life and and by the time I finished going through this personal growth kit by the time that was all finished I I I had six months of day in day out personal growth and what it did is it developed a habit in my life and and by the time I I finished with that kit now I I'm used to I'm used to spending time every day in in personal growth it it it got me started I mean this is this is worth this

whole lesson if you can just get this the reason I'm so passionate about personal growth is personal growth keeps me prepared in other words if I'm continually growing I'm continually developing myself and I'm continually learning and I'm continually doing new things and and going to another step higher can I tell you what that is that that constant growth is the preparation for the opportunity so when the opportunity comes it's i i i i here's the way you don't go into an opportunity you grow into an opportunity and so I'm passionate about personal growth because for

that person who says wow I I I had an opportunity I wasn't ready if you're growing you're always ready because after I intentionally started growing I made a commitment to grow as a leader I started writing I became an author I developed growth resources for other people I founded my first company I began training conferences everything I can think of that has ever been good in my life was a result of the fact that I started personal growth in my life I know I know I'm known for leadership I understand that but my passion in

life more than anything else is personal growth because if if you grow personally you can be a great leader but if you don't grow personally you can't be a good leader everything in life life everything in life that you're ever going to want is based upon your ability to develop yourself so Kurt CM said John um you you you've you can't just accidentally grow you got to grow on purpose and so I started and I got to thinking yesterday when I was getting ready to kind of my last preparation for this lesson I I I

I I got started and guess what when I got started let me tell you what I didn't have I didn't have experience I didn't have knowledge I did not have a model I did not have a mentor I did not have a plan I did not have a fellow traveler I did not have resources I did not have money I did not have a growth environment but I got started you don't stop or not start because of what you don't have you don't start because you don't realize yet that the fruit of everything good in

life begins with a challenge there's nothing easy in life worthwhile in life everything is a pill that's worthwhile and and and there it's not going to come to you and it's not going to fall in your lap it's always going to be difficult so here's here's my intentional growth plan number one number one make a commitment to intentionally grow that that's that's where it starts you say say well John that that seems really simple make a commitment to intentionally grow guess what it's really simple but can I tell you something when Kurt CM looked across

that breakfast table and told me that if I was going to grow I going to have to grow on purpose and I looked at him and I said I'm I'm going to I'm going to start growing on purpose something happened within me something happened within me that just changed my life it it was just a a simple commitment nothing that I thought at that time was going to change my life but it was just a simple commitment I I I'm I'm going I'm going to grow I'm going to grow intentionally and I it starts there

I want every one of you I want every one of for yourself for the people that you lead make that commitment to intentionally grow number two make that commitment public a commitment that is not public is worthless because let me tell you something we all have a tendency to we all have a tendency to give up we all have a tendency to get off course come on but the moment that we start making it public I can remember I couldn't afford that kit that I showed you and I said can you give me 30 minutes

and I lived where we were having our our breakfast was close to the house I said I've got to show this I got to take this and show it to Margaret and I said I ran home and I I got to the kitchen table I said we can't afford this at $799 and we can't afford it and so I've got to take it right back but I just want to show you what we're going to save our money for and we got it all out and got those cassettes out and and we looked at the

material real quickly and I put it back at the box and and I I went back there but but then I told my friends I began telling my friends guess what I I I'm I'm I'm I've made a commitment to personally grow There's Something Beautiful about a shared commitment a shared commitment becomes a strong commitment number three identify the areas that you want to grow personally in identify them in other words sit down and say okay where am I going to grow specifically now let me I'm going to help you here when you start identifying

the areas that you're going to grow in it should be at least two and no more than five five is probably a little heavy but but it has to be at least two you say oh how about just focusing on one let let me tell you why you want to grow in an area of choice and you want to grow in an area of skill so that's two so when I'm talking about an area of choice I'm talking about maybe your attitude that's a choice isn't it so so I want to grow in an area

of choice maybe it's discipline and I want to grow in an area of skill so when for for me I started off with attitude and speaking because I was I was speaking I was a pastor I I want I want to be a better Communicator so I said okay speaking that's a skill I'm going to work on that I'm I'm I'm going to work on I'm going to work on my attitude so identify what what what are the two areas at least that you're going to grow in and then number four invest one hour a

day in those two areas every day including Sundays every day 7 Days 724 seven every day be okay and and when you when you when you spend that hour I'm going to even tell you how to spend the hour you spend the hour this way here's the way it works preparation practice reflection preparation practice reflection preparation practice reflection preparation practice reflection you do it every day whether it's your choice or whether it's your skill you prepare a little bit practice a little bit reflect a little bit every day you're going to find this is just

huge for your life now while I was doing all of that that preparation practice reflection while I was doing all that on my speaking I was starting to go observe communicators and and and and when I would listen to Somebody speak I wouldn't listen too much about what the subject was it really didn't matter I just asked myself one question the whole time I would listen to him speak and the question was are they connecting with their audience and I would write down if they were not connecting why they were not and if they were

connecting why they were in about 2 years I became a master in understanding how to connect with an audience because I studied it and I would listen and I would watch and I would observe and and I would come away and say they did three things that were just powerful okay I got to go practice that okay prepare practice reflect and and I would just work on that and I this is the cycle that I worked okay number five invest one hour a week on reflection and writing on what you're learning to take an hour

every week and say okay for the last 7 days this is what I've been practicing this is what I've been this is what I've been PR preparing for this is what I've been reflecting and and and and and start that now now let me tell you let me tell you the secret on this now because I'm kind of now talking about writing I'm talking about maybe journaling a little bit let me tell you something don't don't try to journal a lot start with jotting jot before you Journal see I jot every day I don't journal

every day but I jot every day four or five words oh my gosh they're just they're just mental kick for me okay and then at the end of the week you may have like 12 jots down you with me and you go get those jots and you say okay now I'm going to spend 35 minutes I'm going to start writing what what what what what did that mean to me just just jot and then journal and then number seven this is huge no I'm sorry and then number six share your growth with someone every week

find somebody that you can share your growth with and let let me tell you how this works you sit down oh I want to tell you what I'm learning I want to tell you how I'm growing now here here's how this works this is beautiful when you share your growth with someone if they're happy do it the next week you with me oh they well let me share can I share with you now on see so if they're happy keep sharing if they're not happy start moving don't ever spend time with people that aren't thrilled

with your progress the friends I dropped in my early years the friends I dropped in my early years were those people that weren't thrilled with my progress are you with me they weren't thrilled at all with my progress those are the ones I left behind I got some new friends that's what you got to do because let me tell you something if you become intentional in your growth you'll outgrow almost everybody you know everything I have today is because I have good people around me everything you want to talk about any area of My Success

in my life and what I'll do immediately is I'll give you the names of people the names of people who are gifted better than I am who complete me who compliment me who add value to me who who who make a difference for me and and and they do it with such consistency they do it with such care they do it with such kindness they do it with such love and they just do it and they do it all the time and and and it's humbling to me it's humbling to me I mean this is

a perfect example when I walked out to teach you today this is the first time I was here to teach you I mean I I I I did nothing I I didn't set up any cameras I I I I I didn't do anything I I mean I didn't do any email I didn't do anything I didn't do any I they just said John could you get ready to teach the 15 laws so I've been over there writing and teaching the 15 working on it upgrading doing everything else but but everything everything that you're enjoying today

outside of this teaching every has been done by others and I can tell you right now when I die they can put on my Tombstone a whole bunch of people made that man because they have and I'm grateful we overestimate what we can do tomorrow right and I think we overe exaggerate what we did yesterday and I think especially when you're old like me you sit there and you know the good old days I I don't think the good old days were always that good you know what I mean but I do think and I

in fact I know we underestimate today MH and it's the only moment I have all all I have is now the only time I have and and that's why I tell people consistently you have to live in the present uh be there be be present whatever whatever you're doing do it well right now so in in my disciplines to make the day count uh I have I have my um spiritual disciplines of of things that I do in my faith walk that I do on a on a daily basis I pray scripture uh I have

my um uh writing disciplines I I write always in the morning in fact one of my disciplines is that basically I don't meet with anybody uh until noon because I'm a morning person I get up around 4:30 in the morning and from 4:30 till about 10:30 11 I am cooking I mean that that's when I think best that's when I write best and and I learned a long time ago now you may be a night person so you might flip that but when whenever you're at your best mentally physically that's when you ought to be

doing your most important things and and and making that really count right then but you know who was a I think Joe Frasier the boxing champion said that uh when you get into the ring it shows up if you practiced or not and if and if you worked out and and and what what we do in secret will be revealed in public in and it's only a matter of time and and and and one other quick thought on this is I think that consistency is such a an incredible asset to people that is totally underappreciated

because because you know consistency compounds I'm 73 and I can tell you right now the consistency of my life now is bringing fruit to my life that I I'm surprised and I think how is this happening but it's because of of this continual day in day out day in day out teaching leadership to so many people and after a while all of a sudden this return comes back that I would have never anticipated so today which we say is just today doesn't seem so great several today's consistently done with the right reasons and the right

priorities one day shows up and hey today somay becomes what a day you know it comes oh my gosh what a day we've got here well that day out there that we you know we graduate from college or we we get the promotion that you know when somebody graduates from college everybody's congratulating them well they didn't become successful when they got their diploma they became successful when they enrolled in college and they when they studied for the test when they went to class I mean they're they're they're already successful and I think sometimes we um

confuse success which is required of us on a daily basis with recognition of success right which that doesn't happen till someplace back there we weren't that good when we got recognized and we weren't that bad when we did the routine stuff that we needed to do to get recognized but I think so many times we see the success of somebody and we kind of gravitate like oh I want to do that not realizing there's a whole process of daily disciplines that got them there and without those they would have never had that day Y what

we have to understand about developing ourselves and getting better is that it doesn't take Brilliance and it doesn't take a lot of time and it doesn't even take a lot of effort but it must be intentional that's the word I want to implant in your mind for a moment the fact that you don't get better automatically you only get better because you intentionally make a decision to get better and here's my word for you today I me with Maxwell here's how this works you have to go from being a person of good intentions to a

person of good actions that's the great separator to de yourself you've got to get out of the intending world and get into the doing World in fact your good intentions are good intentions but they're worthless totally worthless the most overrated phrase in the world is good intentions I know all kind of people they have good intentions but they never do good because they didn't act upon what they knew so if you want to develop yourself and you want to get better just act on what you've already expressed that you want to do the moment you

quit talking about it and start doing it now you've got something I had a friend named Randy one time it came to me and said John your talk talks and your walk talks but your walk talks a lot louder than your talk talks that's true become a person of action today I had a friend named Randy one time who came to me and said John your talk talks and your walk talks but your walk talks a lot louder than your talk talks that's true become a person of action today I I developed a strategy I'm

going to give you right now called plan ahead and this is how to navigate successful change the letter P predetermine the change that's needed the first thing you want to do is you want to sit down and you want to predetermine what is the change that's needed in my life because if you're going to turn something around change has to happen you don't want action without understanding what you're wanting so your whole goal isn't to go in and change something your goal is to change something that matters that works so only you as a leader

can predetermine what that change needs to look like and the way you do it is basically say this is what is I mean hey Lou Holt said I have a losing team I want to have a winning team what's it mean to take a losing team and make him a winning team I asked him that process and Luke told me he said John I asked the players that were on the team that were coming back why do you think you lost so many games last year he said what I did is I did two things

I listen I listened to everybody that was in that losing environment I asked a lot of questions until I figured out what the issues were and then he said that great statement how does a leader that doesn't ask questions ever figure out what to do I love that if you're not asking questions of your people you don't have a clue where they are you don't have a clue what they think and he said I just asked question Arthur Blank when he bought the Atlanta Falcons told me the very same thing he said John I just

went out on the street and I just asked the fans tell me why don't you go to the Falcons games they because they stink they're not any good prices are too high food costs too much said I just got all those list of and he said what see here's what here's what here's what these leaders know the answers to the questions you ask will be the strategy that you implement to make the change the the strategy is within the people but nobody's extracted it out of them so you got to predetermine you got to predetermined

the change that is needed and I think you do that by finding out where the people are asking the question after a while you got it it it begins the picture begins to be clear the letter a lay out your steps now I've got to lay out my steps to bring people through successful change if I walk close to the people through this change I'll be their leader if I walk far ahead of the people in this change I'll become a martyr you don't want to be a martyr the good news is if you die

a martyr's death you're always special in the hearts of people bad news is you're dead that's just not a good thing you with me so so you got to do what I call the leadership dance this is the leadership de you can call me the Arthur Murray of leadership okay here here's the leadership dance this is the way this works you got to walk ahead of them so they can see where they got to go but you got to be close to them to don't be walking far ahead of them you with me yes close

enough so they can see you got to walk beside them so they can participate with you in the journey so that you can listen and and you can interact and you you can take this journey together they're in the seat beside you and you got to walk behind them so that you watch the people that you Empower and the leadership dance is doing all three of those things at the same time you walk ahead as an example you walk beside as a friend you walk behind as a leader that empowers and once you can do

those three things and mix it up with the people you're laying out your steps very well the letter a is adjust your priorities very simple whatever you're going through change there's no such thing as a pregame plan that you actualize out completely let me tell you the difference between a manager and a leader a manager is a person who took plan a and won't get off of it because he doesn't want it to change on him he's got the plan out he's got the strategy out don't mess with it this is the strategy stay right

here a leader starts plan a because he knows you have to have a plan but he at any moment is ready to change to plan B because he's found out a better way if you think you get the answers on the front end you've not LED very much your answers come in the leadership itself not in the front end that's why plan a never ends up plan a it's plan b or plan C why because you adjust and you hear and you listen and you hey by the way you seize that opportunity remember the great

coaches are great because they make halftime adjustments that pregame plan at halime has to be Revisited and you have to say Okay what works what doesn't work and the changes you make have to be critical changes not cosmetic changes remember this cosmetic changes are easy to accept and Implement so people like cosmetic changes they change the color they change the number a little bit and they just love that kind of stuff it always kind of bugs me a little bit because I sit there and say and you know where you going with it where you

going outside they like gray better than black okay what what else are we going to do okay and so you want to make you want to make critical you don't want to make cosmetic changes and and understand understand this as you make these changes there's always an answer don't ever get into that scarcity mindset as a leader that if I go this path there's no answer down to this path there's always an answer and there's usually more than one answer that's why leadership is such a great art leadership is such a great great heart because

you begin to understand that as you lead them as you Journey you give them the best leadership and that's why trust is essential in in in the people with you that's why trust is essential so that you can make these changes as you go to get them there okay and the next one is notify your key personnel sit down when you're going through changes and there are two kinds of key people you need to notify you need to notify your influencers these are the people that they better say yes because you're not going to get

it done without their yes their approval is essential are you with me so you got to you got to notify up front the influencers and you got to notify up front the implementers they're the ones hey they're the ones that going to make the dream come true so so you got to get the permission of the influencers for the plan to fly but then you got to get your implementers because they're going to work the plan so you notify key PE Personnel then you a you allow time for for acceptance now you you sit down

with your key people and you allow them to have time to accept where you're going now this is where leadership art is at its highest form because your only gift your only intuitive at intuition and timing are a result of a leadership gift or they're a result of giftedness whatever you're gifted in you understand timing and intuition if you're not gifted in it you don't have timing or intuition going for you at all so you're intuitive in your giftedness your ability to do timing is in your giftedness so this this allowing time for acceptance this

is where you this is where you begin to allow people to have the time that they need to move forward with you and to do that to do that you have to first of all slow down and and I when I say slow down this is something I've always had a problem with I'm deal with one of my weaknesses now I don't slow down well uh when I see it I'm gone and then I realize oh I got to take people with me so I come back to get you but but when I come back

to get you it's like are you ready and if I come back to get you and you're not ready I got you and and and and I I I'll I'll sometimes go again and and I have to I have to really work hard on this on this slowing down process okay because naturally I want to speed up I I don't like anything slow there's no I just I just you know I like to drive fast yeah I just you know it's just I have a Need for Speed okay I have a Need for Speed okay

and as a leader what happens is you get too far out in front of your people people right that me and so you got to slow down second thing to do in this allowing time is is is is you got to make sure you're clear in your communication because when they don't understand people cannot follow what they do not understand and so all communicators understand the value of clarity on the front end head into action the a just head into action get going just just start going you never know the level of commit commitment from

your people until you ask for Action you know you just never know how committed they are the letter e expect problems expect them why because motion causes friction you start moving and it's a tremendous leadership mistake to think that you have such a plan that is Problem free okay and that everybody will buy in so what leaders need to do here this is this is so beautiful it's so negative but it's so good when I say expect problems this whole process here here's what you got to do as a leader you got to think the

worst first you got to think the worst before anyone else you got to speak the worst first and you got to answer the worst first you got to do all three of those things in other words you got to think what problems are going to be there and then when you figure out what problems are going to be there you say now as we do this there are a whole bunch of problems we're going to encounter when you speak it up to the people that are say oh my gosh he's already figured out that we

got hey and let me tell you when those problems occur let me tell you what we're going to do when you can do that well understand you're really helping them with positive change and the next one is always point to your successes somebody said why I said because you always have people point to your failures I mean some people that's their spiritual gift you understand they can't find criticism they're just not very comfortable and then Daily Review your progress Daily Review your progress why because things get off on a daily basis things get off course

on a daily basis things problems occur on a daily basis and I and I close this section of creating positive change which is the acetest of leader I close this because in the 21 utable laws of leadership I have what I call the law of buyin and the law of buyin I think answers this whole process of of creating POS of change within organization the law of Buy in just simply says people buy into the leader before they buy into the vision and so what I want you to understand is when when people say can

I create positive change within the organization can I do a U-turn can I turn this around the question is very simple how much have the people bought into you if they bought into you you can turn it around just think as I close of the story I gave you of Lou Holtz the turned six University programs around losing programs within two years had him in in college bows think of what happened about the fifth College he went to with a reputation of a turnaround U-turn leader can you imagine just the excitement and the momentum of

Lou Holtz coming to our College you know we've been we we just stink and he's going to come here and he's going to he's going to turn us into winners okay now now let me tell you something it's a phenomenal thing thing when you have your reputation that you're a problem solver and it's a phenomenal thing when you have your reputation that you turn things going the wrong way around and you make them positive once you get that this is a leadership Edge that you have it's a leadership it gives you it gives you a

sense of momentum it gives you a sense of moral Authority that allows you to come back into a situation and where now here's what I learned a long time ago when people believe the best in you as a leader they give their best to you as a lead leader so you want to become good at this session because this is the area that that once you can do it and you can do it well you kind of get a a a reputation as a a turnaround artist a U-turn leader that creates positive change and then

all kind of very good and exciting things happen truly born leader will always emerge but to stay on top natural leadership characteristics must be developed so the question is this how do we develop our leadership qualities and characteristics and our leadership skills so let's look at it there are three what I call the three ease of leadership development the first is environment I have found that leaders leaders that are developed are leader they're developed because they are in some kind of a leadership environment this is incarnational this this transfers leadership is almost in an incarnational

or a way that this is how leadership ship is fleshed out leaders do what leaders experience and when I talk about environment I'm talking about putting an environment in a person's life that they begin to experience leadership they they see it around them they feel it and they understand it they understand it not because they sat down and took a lesson on leadership they understand it because they were around leaders they understand it because leadership principles and leadership values were talked about lived out fleshed out embraced okay so let let's talk about let me Define

incarnation since that's a phrase I use it's a really it's a theology phrase from my background but when Incarnation is really connecting abstract ideas to human characteristics in other words it's taking something that is subjective or an abstract idea and fleshing it out until you can see it visualized in the life of a person or the character istics of a person's behavior and what I'm saying here is that leadership is more caught than taught that's what the leadership environment is all about creating an environment where they catch leadership now I grew up in a leadership

environment so I can talk a long time on what it means to have a leadership environment and I can just say this I can never think of a time when I did not realize the importance of leadership I I didn't have to have anybody sit down and say you know John it's really important for you to learn how to lead it's very important for you to learn leadership characteristics I I I saw them in my I saw them in my family I watch them fleshed out around me you need to develop a leadership environment until

leadership is not something that is extraordinary and exceptional but leadership is something that everybody does because really leadership properly understood everybody can influence everybody can lead within an organization the right environment allows people who are good to get better just like a wrong environment allows people who are good to become worse look at environment as the a a as that which helps to create something for you that enhances already what you can do and what you already do know now the second e is equipping and that's probably the one we know the very best as

far as developing leaders because equipping is intentional and basically leaders do what leaders learn see in the environment leaders do what leaders experience now we're going to talk about leaders really do what leaders learn and the function of leadership is very simple is to produce more leaders not more followers now I'm going to read something to you I just picked this up recently and I thought this is the this is the approach this is the wrong approach wrong example of how how most people get in trouble in the Ser of equipping Henry Ford was a

genius when it came to Automobiles and the methods of mass production but I believe his understanding of the worker was too limited when he asked here's what Henry Ford asked why is it that I always get the whole person when what I really want is a pair of hands what was he talking about the assembly line he was just basically saying I don't want anybody can think I just want somebody that can put the part there just just all I want you know I I want your mind I don't want your spirit I don't want

your soul I don't want your will I don't want your commitment I don't even want your loyalty just I want your two hands I know most people when they look at the people that they have in their company their organization this is a downfall of a lot of people they don't understand the development of the whole person they don't understand the big picture they just basically see the job and they see the job and they said this is what's required for the job so what do I have to do to teach you what's required of

the job and do you have the two hands and can't you put those put that in the assembly like and and and keep it going equipping begins with expectations let's start there to really develop a leadership equipping organization it begins with expectations and the first and there are three I'm going to give you I'll give them to you kind of quickly one leadership determines growth one of the first expectations you place upon people when you equip them to lead is the fact that the reason you're equipping them the lead is if they learn how to

lead it will bring growth to the organization the second expect expectation I I gave them in equipping them is that leadership can be learned leadership can be learned the third expectation is that each leader equips leaders and I was always very careful to say this to them work your way out of your job if you got a good job that's great now let me tell you what I want you to do I want you to work your way out of your job go find somebody else train somebody El develop somebody else equip somebody else and

you know in the in the hospital emergency room there's a saying and it's just a simple saying because they got to do training and equipping quick in an emergency room okay I mean it's not like you you get a lifetime for this and and and they what do they they say watch one do one teach one you have to be very intentional in in how you're training them and equipping them then the third e is exposure how do I expose them which now this is this is the inspirational side of developing leaders leaders do what

leaders see okay in fact I love this statement a little exposure upsets a lot of theory I think kids should not be allowed to go to college four years in a row I think they should go for one year to meet their friends party then I think they had to go get him a jump because do you remember in class when you were teachers would ask you prophets would ask you do you have a question on what I'm teaching of course we didn't have a good question we didn't have any experience we didn't even know

what good question to ask we were just stupid kids with a textbook filling in blanks making props happy the only way you're ever going to have real questions is to go out there and try it be exposed to it now can I tell you something I had no questions when I was working on my bachelor of theology degree I mean I had very little and I went through it and got pretty decent grades and graduated the whole deal but can I tell you 6 months after I had my first church I had a boatload of

question now what happened exposure now all of a sudden I'm into a real world and all of a sudden all the stuff that I need to know that will help me to be successful in life I don't know so when I write talk about exposure expose means to make accessible to some action or influence expose your leaders I want to tell you what expose your leaders first of all to great leaders in my world what that's meant for oh my goodness 20 years is that I've intentionally every month had what I call a learning lunch

where I sit down with somebody that's smarter than I am faster than I am better than I am and I buy their lunch and what that means is they get to eat and I don't and I ask questions and I just learn from them and I just glean from them okay what kind of exposure am I getting to to great leaders you how do you learn leadership how do you develop leaders by exposing them to leaders and and let me one more thing one closing thought on exposing people expose your leaders to the works of

great leaders here's what I tell people you may never have the privilege of being around all the great leaders you want to be but I mean can tell you right now you can almost always get through the works of great leaders the three e environment that's incarnational this is what people experience people do what what people experience equipping this is intentional this is where we teach them this is how they learn and then exposure this is something that they see that they experience in their own life the three ease of developing view the first question

is very simple what are you doing to develop yourself and if you'd say my gosh John I I'll tell you right now I'm doing a lot to develop myself I I mean I I've got a personal growth plan and and I'm intentional in this and I'm I'm doing this on a daily deal if you could say that to me then I'd say hey we're we're in good shape here we're we're in good shape because that's the key you know what what are you doing to develop yourself and and by the way the reason that's first

is not because you want to be selfish it's kind of like almost a selfish question person says well why do I start with myself the reason you start with yourself is because you cannot give what you do not have so you better start with yourself because if you're leading others and have nothing to give them nothing to share with them nothing to teach them then I can promise you you'll never be what you want to be as a leader and I can promise you that after 40 Years of personal growth The Secret of any success

if I've had any success at all the secret of that success has been personal growth in my life and and growth has has literally placed me where I am so so what are you doing to develop yourself it's a huge question question and the 15 laws of of the 15 laws of personal growth basically these laws are all about developing yourself and developing the second question what are you doing to develop others you you see on the first question you're foundational for your future the second question is all about compounding multiplication that's where you build

a huge business when you know how to develop other people people and what we have to understand about the law of intentionality is that you cannot develop yourself and you cannot develop your people unless you're intentional I think there are three three Essentials always in developing leaders first of all is is your own example um people do what people see so if I'm going to develop leaders I have to be a good leader maybe the greatest leadership words ever said was follow me just just follow me watch me because people what s says that 89%

of what we know we know visually that's and so I I think first of all in development leaders you have to model it the second thing I think in developing leaders is you have to be intentional I think that um uh you have to uh commit yourself to uh finding them which I talk about in the book letting them come to the leadership table uh Discerning what kind of capacity they have and then I think you have to intentionally have a a program of development for them I think you have to have a process I

think of all the money we spend in companies and in marketing and in advertising and and and you know I was I was speaking one time this is several years ago for AT&T and uh when I got was introduced to their maybe top 300 leaders I was going to spend an afternoon with them uh the guy said something very interesting he said to them he said you're our most appreciable asset and of course that's a wonderful statement everybody loves that and and I came up behind him and I said it's true and it's not true

I said you're really only an appreciable asset if somebody intentionally develops you and you intentionally develop yourself we we don't automatically get better and and this is a big Miss I think that we think well if I just automatically go to work or if I automatically do my job that I'll just grow and and you know I had a mentor when I was in my 20s just say you know John growth is not automatic you know getting older is automatic yeah but but getting better isn't and and there's a world of difference so I think

that you have to be an example and I think you have to be incredibly intentional in saying okay I'm going to have a leadership culture I'm going to I'm going to I I I'm going to develop leaders and the third thing I think that is just overlooked consistently in development leaders is that you you you've got to empower them you you have got to um let them run the bow because the only way you learn leadership is by practicing leadership so I think what a good leader does is he sets the or she sets the

stage for a successful run you want to get some winds under their belts for them and uh I just think that it's an empowering environment where you release people and and I the problem is leaders will stop say well but they don't do it as well as I do it and and said that's not the point the only way they can ever do it as well as that you you do it is for them to do it m then for you to coach them and come alongside of them and and and say okay here's how

you can do that better and you know we have a kind of like a five-step equipping process I do it I do it you're with me you do it I'm with you you do it and then you do it and someone else is with you and it's a multiplication process there so I think those three things of the example the intentionality and the empowerment that's I think what develops a leadership culture that really establishes the fact that if you want to learn how to lead this is a place where you know where you where you

can do that that when I would bring people on the team I would share with them that I wanted them to work themselves out of a job yeah and and and and pretty much I would just say okay you've got the job I want you to do it well let me see you do it well but while you're doing it well you find somebody to replace replace you and and and that's how you boy that's really how you develop you talk about a a a farm team of leaders and and if if if you can

work yourself out of your job I I'll give you another job you know uh Mark Cole who he and I are are owners of the company now and he's the CEO and president but he started off in in the stock room 20 years ago wow 20 years ago and I was just asking him recently in a conversation I said how many jobs did you work your way out of to get where you are he said nine nine nine times and I tell people first of all I can't promote you unless you got somebody to replace

you so the first part of promotion isn't just getting better till I want to bring you up first part of promotion is to show me some person that we're not going to have a big loss if I do bring you up and you know nine times he worked himself out out of a job found somebody else and say okay come on up come on up come on up until one day he's he's where he is I'll bet that you want to be successful in fact I will also wager that you have spent a lot of

times asking yourself the question how can I be successful what is success um how can I achieve the dreams that I have Within Myself and I just want to begin this talk by congratulating you because if those are questions you've asked if those are thoughts that you have gone through your mind I want you to know that you have probably within you a restlessness and a potential that says to me that you have not yet achieved your maximum success you have not yet probably arrived to your greatest potential and that's why we're spending time together

because I have a passion a great passion in my life to help people be successful uh There's No Greater Joy that I have than to walk along beside somebody just like you and find out where you are and then say Okay um this is where you are but this is where you could be and you look at me and say John that's exactly what I want I want to go there I want to be there I want to I want to arrive that to that destination and together we kind of we kind of work it

out and and we make it so let's talk about success you see the first mistake that people make about success is that they somehow think that it's a destination so they'll come up to me and they'll say John um how do I become a success uh how do I arrive to my dream and and I can tell that they look at success as something out there they're here and success is out there and so somehow they think that over time I suppose that if they do the right things they can get there and I the

first thing I want you to know that success is is not a destination it's a journey think of success as a process let me let me illustrate it and explain it this way uh if if you go to college uh you work hard and in four or five years depending on what kind of degree you're working on and in today's society sometimes six or seven years but but eventually uh you you comes the day of graduation and you're all excited and your family is there and your friends are there and and you're there with your

classmates you got your cap and your gown and and you know that there's going to be a time in that ceremony where you're going to walk across stage and the president Provost somebody's going to shake your hand hand you a diploma congratulate you and and you're going to get off the side they're going to have presents waiting for you and they'll be taking pictures and everybody will be shaking your hands say congratulations today you become a success you're you're a college graduate now now my friend you did not become a success the day that you

got your diploma now what you did have happen to you in that ceremony is you got recognized for Success the diploma is recognition of what you have done the previous four or five years you see you were a success in your freshman year when you decided to not drop out of school like some of your other classmates and decided to stick to it and you were success every time you studied for a test and you were success every time you did a project or or did a writing assignment you see you're a success all through

all through school uh you're a success every day success is a daily thing not a destination thing the day you got the diploma you just got recognized for the success that you already were now that's very essential because so many times people have a have a tendency to devalue the moment today what they do is they greatly value the destination and so they kind of talk about well when I get there or if I arrive there or when I do that or when I accomplish this and they don't understand that success is a daily thing

and I'm here to share with you that the secret of success is determined by your daily agenda in fact I wrote a book a few years ago called today matters I'm passionate about that book because what it does is it helps you it helps me to understand that we make decisions and then we manage decisions and and too often we think I will make a decision for example you're saying I'm going to make a decision to be a coach or I'm going to make a decision you know what I'm going to make a decision to

to be a public speaker I want to be a communicator well congratulate congratulations you've made a wonderful decision coach speaking good decisions but that won't make you a successful coach that won't make you a successful Communicator it's not the decision that makes you you've got to make the decision by managing it and you manage the decision on a daily basis in other words what you want to be tomorrow you've got to do today you visualize tomorrow that gives you hope and that's your motivation and that's your dream you nothing wrong with that you visualize tomorrow

but you value today what's that mean that means that what I do every day is either getting me closer to that Vision that dream that goal or it's really driving me farther away from it you see every day we are either repairing or we're preparing you see if I messed up yesterday guess what I get to do today fix yesterday in other words if I didn't do the right thing yesterday what I got to do today is I've got to repair I've got to go back make amends backtrack put the car in Reverse put my

life in reverse I've got to go back there I've got to repair now every day I spend repairing I'm not spending preparing well you see we repare when we fail to manage the decisions that we've made we prepare when we on a daily bases manage the decisions that we've made so your Footprints to success are really Footprints of success because every step that is made and taken based upon the goals that you have for your life and you're managing those goals correctly every step is the progressive realization of success in your life and by the

way oh you you'll get the diploma you'll get the certificate but but when you get that you didn't arrive it just is another step in preparing you to reach your potential each one of us should live our life as if we'll never learn everything we never need to learn we'll never be able to accomplish everything we wanted to accomplish we won't be able to experience everything we wanted to experience we should live our life every day hungry understanding that we are to live until we die you see I think success can't be summarized in a

flippant degree or program or diploma or arrival I think today if you are learning to coach if you are learning to speak if you're doing the things that are essential to the decisions and you're managing those decisions well can I say something to you congratulations you are already a success now guess what over time it shows up you've heard the expression you maybe have even a said it yourself you've heard the expression I'm sure I've worked all my life to become an overnight success that's the way it works all of a sudden somebody recognizes you

all of a sudden somebody congratulates you you didn't get good at that moment you've been good for a long time it just showed up someday so as I walk alongside of you the reason we have tools and resources and helps and principles that we teach is because every day we want you to learn every day we want you to grow every day we want you to absorb every day we want you to do the things that will help you to someday be the person that you want to become the journey is a delightful experience the

only thing better than taking the journey by yourself is to take the journey with someone else to learn together to grow together to develop together to be great together that's what I want for you yeah