The 5 Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell | Maxwell Leadership

I wrote a book called the five levels of leadership okay it's a bestseller it's in the corporate world sold millions of copies but when I started doing the five levels of of leadership I I started clear back in the late 1980s and Leadership was not a a dynamic word back then in fact if you would go into a bookstore you wouldn't even find a leadership book there you would find Management books and you know Peter Dreer the management Guru in fact he mentored me uh it was it was management and so when I said I

want to teach the five levels of leadership nobody wanted to hear it and so all of a sudden I said I I want to teach the five levels of influence and the seminar became a huge success I traveled literally around the world teaching the five levels of influence how do you increase your Influence and how do you go step by step level by level until you really have um the influence that you want to have to be able to to sell to to Market to in influence the people around you and so what I'm going

to teach is is um is the laws of of of leadership and and before I before I give you the foundation of this and let me let me just say I need to say two things I wrote a book called the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership and one Of the laws in that book is the law of the lid L and the law of the LD just very simply says how well you lead determines how well you succeed that's so true how how well you influence determines how well you succeed and um we all have

a leadership lid and and my my leadership lid is is you know I don't know what it is but from a 1 to a 10 there's a certain level of of leadership competence I have and Let's say I'm an average leader from a 1 to 10 I'm let's say I'm a five out of a 1 to 10 that means that what my business is my my sales my influence it's it's all going to come here and it's it's going to be combined it's going to be held down by my leadership LD and so if I'm

a five leader average my My Success influence my business is going to be a four let me tell you what's never happened in the history of the world it's it's never happened where I was a Five leader and and and my my business my influence just Rose above that that lid and I just kept growing that that's never happened in the history of world so it's not going to happen with you it's not going to happen with me so it's very important for us to understand how to lift our lid because excuse me because I'm

asked by people all the time they'll say John our leaders born And you know I always laugh and say of course they are I've never met an unborn leader okay but what they're really asking is not our leader born they're really asking is it you know when you when you come into this world are there some people they're going to lead and so they get to go in the front of the line and some people they got to follow so they go in the back of the line and what I want you to know is

is that you can learn to be a leader you can learn to Lead better than you lead today and I know that because I have the largest leadership training company in the world we've trained six million leaders in every country of the world okay so we we got leadership development down we got it so if you're five as a leader then you're your influence Factor um your sales Factor your business it's going to it's going to be a four but if you can learn lead better you can go from a five To a six to

a seven you know maybe up to an eight now soon as I lift that ceiling guess what happens to my influence my business my my sales they they just they just they follow my leadership and and That's essential for me as I'm getting ready to teach you the five levels of leadership for for you to understand you can lift your lid you you can lead better tomorrow than you are today but you but you have to know how to do it that's I'm going to show you How to do that in a moment the the

second law in the 21 laws of leadership that I want to talk about just a moment is the law of process and the law of process just simply says leaders develop daily not in a day so this is not a quick fix this is not like a lecture and you hear it and an hour later you're just going to be an amazing person or amazing leader what what but but but there is a process that helps us to Really learn how to lead that makes it successful and it's the process I'm going to teach you

now because the five levels of leadership is a process how do you and I go from level one to level two to level three to level four to level five so what I'm going to do is while I teach you this every once in a while there will be a visual that will come on the screen that'll kind of help you see each level visually and then of course it'll come back to me and I'll teach it So let's start with level one it's the it's the first level and I call level one the position

level and and and there's a word that goes with this leadership position if you when you get a leadership position uh the word that I associate with that is rights I mean you get certain rights in other words very simply um what once you get a leadership position you have certain rights where people they follow you Because they have to and why do they have to follow you because you're the designated leader so they're in your department they're in your group and so you're the designated leader so pretty much every day I follow you I

I may not like you you may not even be a good leader but you have this title and and and and you you have a position now that this is the lowest level of leadership and here's what is is here's the problem it's the lowest Level leadership but most people think it's the highest level so therefore when they get a leadership position they get all excited say oh my gosh I I just became a leader no you didn't become a leader you just got a leadership position there's a difference between having a leadership position and

being able to lead well in fact I often say the position doesn't make the leader the leader makes the position and and so this is this is Absolutely huge because um we all start here by the way there's nothing wrong with level one you we we all start by we get a leadership position in the company you probably have done that a foret now here's what I want you to understand it's a place to start it's not a good place to stay and yet most people because they think leadership is position or title when they

get a position and title they just say well I'm a leader they may be they May not be I don't know but I know this if you just hold on to level number one and you don't advance and you don't grow and you don't develop then your leadership influence which is key in sales obviously is going to be very very limited it's a place to start it's not a place to stay now what's wonderful about having a leadership position is it gives you an opportunity to practice practice Leadership and this is huge because how do

you develop yourself as a leader how do I develop myself as a leader by practice people don't become leaders by what they know they don't become leaders by what they read they don't even become leaders by hearing a lecture like I'm giving you right now they only become leaders by practicing leadership and one of the beautiful things about level one is because you're a designated positional leader It gives you an opportunity to practice leadership it gives you an opportunity to find out if people do follow you to find out if you can help people and

lift them to find out if people do like your ideas and and want to go where you're going and they want to they want to do what what what I'm doing so when you look at level one the position level don't rest on it don't don't take level one and say okay now I've arrived and you you instead take the take the Position and the mindset I am now in a position to really develop my leadership I can practice my leadership this is I can try leading I could I can begin to grow I can

be I can begin to develop myself and and I it's it's so this is a great opportunity if you've just got a position of leadership in fortnet be grateful and say okay now that I have a leadership position I'm going to practice leadership it's in the practicing of leadership that you begin To develop yourself and you begin to De develop others okay so we start with position don't make the mistake of thinking that makes you a leader it just gives you leadership opportunity level number two is where things really begin to change level number one

is the position level the keyword is rights and people people follow you because they have to Now let me show you level number two level number two is the permission level and the key word in permission is relationships and on level number two people follow you because they want to now we have just made a big jump we've begun with a level one leader who has a position and because he or she has that position people have to follow them so they get in line you may be a Good leader you may be a terrible

I don't know but here's what I know at level number one when you just have a leadership position there's very little energy at that level in fact at level one people are always asking themselves this question what's the least I have to do to stay on the team what hey they're always at they're not asking how much can I give how much can I do and here's the reason why level one has no energy to it you show me a positional Company and I'll show you a company that has no energy to go beyond what's

expected so therefore they never Excel that's level one but all of a sudden when you get to level two it begins to change you know the somebody asked me the other day and said John describe a level one company and the best way I can describe a level one positional company is that if quitting time is at 5:00 you know at 4:30 people are Clearing their desk they're in a countdown mode they they've been waiting all day for their you know they want to you say well why are they clearing their desk because at 5:00

they want to make a fast exit I mean you know so they're clearing their desk and you know 4:40 they're walking around saying goodbye to everybody body and 450 they're going to the restroom and you know 455 they're sitting in their they're putting their track shoes on man they're Getting down in a starting position they I mean they're in they think they're Cape canaval they're in a countdown mode five 4 3 two I mean and and and at 5 o'c they're all gone they're all gone fact you walk through the office at 50:3 and it's

a ghost town and you say what happened then you run to the window and you you look out you look out there the last car in the parking lot's peeling out now now now what happened it's very simple you see At level number one people are always going to give you their least because they're not following you because you're good they're following you because you have a position a title of leader level two here's where the Magic Begins just like level one lacks energy level two is full of energy now why is there energy at

level two because of Relationships at level two people follow you not because you have they have to they follow you because they want to and and why do they follow you they follow you because you like them and they like you and you're developing a connection and you're developing a relationship and when people begin to like each other now all of a sudden they give more energy to the project hey at 5:00 they're not clearing their desk they may still be around the Table discussing something that that's going to help build the business even better

what what what has happened the relationship has caused the connection which has created the energy so I tell leaders as soon as possible get off of level one now when I say get off of level one that doesn't mean you lost your title but but what what these levels what you want to understand is they build on each other so level number two Has a foundation under it it has a level one under it and the higher you go on the levels the bigger your foundation the more solid your foundation the deeper your foundation so

that that your leadership continually strengthens so at level number two people follow you because they want to and and so this is where leaders connect with their people you see here's the difference if I'm have a positional level it's your job job on the team to connect with Me if I'm a permission level and I call that level number two permission because the people give you permission to lead them because they like you they didn't get a choice on level one but on level two they do so if I'm on the permission level and you

like me and I like you the energy begins to increase now we're beginning to connect and there are three characteristics of a level two leader that I want to make sure that you get because this is essential for for you to Be successful this this is essential for you to lift that leadership PL I talked about a few minutes ago here are the three things that leaders do really well at level number two to connect and relate with the people number one is that they listen the best leaders are the best listeners in fact here's

what I've discovered about leadership um great leaders ask great questions in fact I I I I I I wrote a Book on that a few years ago and it's just a fact great leaders ask good questions now why are they asking questions because they're trying to find their people remember this as a leader you have to find your people before you can lead your people again level one you're the position leader you say you find me level two no no I'm going to find you and how do we find you we find You by asking

questions and when we ask questions what do these leaders do they Do three things they listen they learn and then they lead don't miss this they get all of their leadership cues by listening to you they walk slowly through the crowd they're listening to what you think they're asking you questions they're asking you how would you do this and and what do you think about this and they're asking Your opinion and they're inclusive and they're bringing you here sit at the leadership table with me let's talk a while so they listen they learn and then

they lead now their leadership is effective why because they found you and and once a person has been found once a person has been heard they now really enjoy being part of the team this is this is essential For con connecting with people and so on level number two your goal as a leader is to really find the people listen to them learn from them and and now you lead off of them you see let's talk about vision for a second how does vision expand how how do we take the vision from me to we

because the vision has to always go beyond you people need to have ownership of the vision until they talk about this is what we are trying to accomplish not This is what they want to accomplish not what he or she wants to accomplish say hey we want to accomplish this well how do we take the the vision from me to we it's done on level two relationally when you listen to people because when you listen to people you begin to lead according to where they are and all of a sudden you're connecting with them and

they're having a an ownership in the journey So a level two leader is a relational leader and they become relational by listening and by learning and then beli leading that that's one the second characteristic of a level two leader is that they uh they observe well they really watch they they they watch I had a wonderful Mentor uh John Wooden who was the declared by Sports Illustrated in the last Century as the greatest coach he was the coach of UCLA Bruins and and uh had 10 national championships and and for several years he and I

were close and he he he just mentored me and taught me so many things and uh you know coach wooden would look at his players and and he would say to them don't don't tell me what you're going to do show me what you're going to do and he would say John anybody can say anything he said in fact he would even he wouldn't name even the captain of his basketball team at the beginning of the Season he wanted his players to play a few games and then he picked the captain he because he said

John I gotta watch the players play I got to find out during the during the tight game when when the game's on the line there's just a few seconds left he said I want I got to find out who wants the ball who who wants to take responsibility to to win this game for us he said it you know don't tell me what you're going to do show me what you're going to do it's at Level number two this relationship level where you're you're you're you you're listening you're learning you're leading and and and and

you're you're watching you're watching your people because you know it's their actions not their words that determine the potential success of your department it just is always that way so level two leaders they do a really good job of just kind of connecting listening and and and and and relating and observing to where the People are the the third thing a level uh two leader does really well they not only observe well they not only listen well the third characteristic of a level two leader is that they serve really well um they like to serve

their people now that's totally opposite of a level one leader you see a level one leader wants to be served I mean I'm the I'm the leader and so what have you done for me Today a level number two totally reverses this and they say no what I really want to do is I want to serve you and and they do it by adding value to people they just they they everyday serve you know and you know I have in the John Maxell Enterprise we have seven companies and so I I may be in a

in a restaurant somebody walk up to me that I don't even know and they'll shake my hand they introduce himself and and They'll say you know I I just I just got hired by your company and and and and and they'd say you know you know Mr Maxwell I I work for you and you know I smile and have I said sit down here with me for a moment let's talk I mean let let me help you f first of all my name is John I'm your friend you don't need to call me Mr Maxwell

just I'm your friend I said secondly you don't work for me in fact I work for you in fact we work for each other I I don't you know I Don't have slaves we I don't have people working for me me I I have people working with me I'm working with people uh we're not enamored by titles we're not enamored by position we're I you know I don't look at you and say well I don't work with you I'm I'm above you good Lord you got go down and work with the people like no no

no no no but there's a a spirit of of adding value and by the way you add value to people that you value so it begins with the Fact that we value everybody and because we value everybody we add value to people and so I I told him I said you know you don't work for me I you know I hope sometime I can serve you I hope I can do something that will make your work even better and if there is you know let me know and here's my here's my cell number just just

call me if if if I can help you now this is absolutely huge because now on level number two we Are we are connected we are we are relationally strong um and it it gets into the fact that as a leader level two I genuinely care for my people I was asked to speak a few years ago to the opening session of the United Nations and when I went to New York City they asked me to speak to all the ambassadors of the world on leadership and they said we're going to give you two hours

to do that Well that was a real challenge it was a great opportunity but I I asked myself how am I going to do this I mean we're having ambassadors from every country of the world that are going to be in this room and uh and they come from all kinds of cultures different and and all kinds of government I mean we got we got democracies we we have kingdoms we have Kings we we I mean we got we got democracy we have Kings we got we got socialistic countries I you know oh if I'm

want to talk about leadership I got to get us all on the same page somehow and I began to ask myself how do I do that how do how do I do that so after giving a lot of thought I did a teaching that was very just really went well at the United Nations and the teaching was uh you know three questions followers ask of their leaders and and I said this is regardless of country culture what kind of government you have I said if people Are following you they're really asking three questions about you

and and you need to be able to answer these questions and and the three questions are are very simple do you care for me I mean think about it do you really want to follow somebody that doesn't like you question number two is can you help me I mean the reason that you're on the team the reason you're Following the Leader is for that leader to help you I mean you You need somebody to to get you to the next level so can you know can you help me and then L level or question number

three is is is is can I trust you can I trust you now isn't it interesting those three questions um you know do you care for me that that's a level two question that's all about relationships the the third question can you know can I trust you that's that's a level two question the middle question Can you help me is is going to be uh a level three question and I'll come to that in a few moments here here's the point and I don't want to miss it the point is very simple if you're going

to be a great leader you have to relationally connect with your people you got to love them you got to care for them you got to want to add value to them you've got to serve them and the moment that you begin to do all these things your leadership just Begins to be empowered and it begins to grow and it goes to it goes to a whole new level but why did it go to a whole new level it went to a whole new level because now you have engendered trust um trust is the foundation

of great leadership uh it's what people stand on it's what people lean on they they want to be able to say my leader is going to look out for the best for me that my Leader is going to do the right thing for me that's why I tell leaders all the time when you stop liking people stop leading people because now what are you going to do you're going to manipulate people you see there's a difference a fine line between manipulating people and motivating people let let me let me explain to you what I mean

by that you see leaders what they all have in common is that they see more than others see and They see before others see that's just a fact when when I say leaders see more than others see it means they they just have a bigger picture that's a leader sees more more but a leader also sees before others see wow and other words I not only see a bigger picture I see the picture quicker sooner than others now the fact that I can see before others see put me puts me at an incredible Advantage because

if you can see something first you can go after it While everybody else they they don't even know what they want and so you know it's it's you it's huge when you get a head start leadership gives you a head start over others so the question is not are you going to have a head start the question is are you going to use it for your advantage or are you going to use it for the advantage of others you don't want to miss this I remember um several years ago I was having a dinner with

G divers And G ders is the most female uh decorated female track athlete in Olympic history in in the United States and she had literally won Olympic medals she's a runner she speed and she had won I mean this is it's just unbelievable she had won medals in three different Olympics in fact the night I was having dinner with her and her husband she was training for her fourth Olympic I mean she was running races Against girls that were young enough to be her daughter I mean this is just an amazing later and and so

we're having a great conversation on leadership because she hadd read some of my books and she had some questions she wanted to ask and so I thought I would have fun toward the end and I said Gail I said I think if you and I ran a race like a 100 yards I said I think I could win and she just looked at me said You're kidding I said no I said I I no I'm not kidding I think I could win in fact she looked at her husband said did you hear him you he

thinks he can beat me in a race and and and and then she looks back and she looks at my body and she's just she can't she can't put all this together she's it's Way Beyond her and she's about ready to take off her high heels and take me out front of this restaurant and you know let me eat Dust and I looked at her I said now now Gail listen to me very carefully because I've thought this through carefully if you and I raced 100 yards and you gave me an 80 yard Head Start

I could win win well of course you can win if you have an 80 yard Head Start now honestly I wanted to say 70 I really did I thought man but I wasn't sure if I had a 70 yard Head Start I could really beat her I but for 80 yards this fat boy could roll Across the line just trust me I could win now now here's the whole point of this little story the fastest person doesn't win the race is the person who starts first if you let a person get enough Head Start they

can win any race against any person leadership gives you a head start it lets you see things before others see them so now we've got this Head Start Advantage the question is are we going to win the race for ourselves Or are we going to win the race for our people and level two leaders they care for their people people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care they care for their people in such a way that at level number two they really want their people to succeed and so because

of that their people began to prosper the people began to learn the people begin loving being on the team why why is all this Happening because relationships are working and relationships are the foundation of leadership so now we're developing ourselves as a leader and we're about to go to level number three remember you don't leave the previous Lev level you stand on it so the higher you go the bigger the better the deeper your foundation of leadership level one position level people follow you because they have to That's where we start no problem you just

don't want to stay there level two is the permission level the key word there is relationships people follow you because they want to this is where energy happens energy happens at level two if you're level to leader but you still haven't gone as high as you can you you haven't yet become the leader as as as as fortnite says that that you were meant to be so let's go to level number Three level number three is is all about production it's the production level and the key word at level number three is results at this

level people follow you people follow you because of what you've done for the organization in other words you are a producer you know when people talk about you they talk about you in the fact that that it's much better since you're on the team uh your bottom line is better Your sales have increased you're a producer and and this is a an essential important level to be on and let me explain to you why level three is where you get the credibility to lead now at level number two because you like people and people like

you they let you lead but at level three you now gain what I call leadership credibility and what do I mean by that it's very simple once you produce once you are a Personal success yourself now people want to fight follow you and why because you win you succeed you bring home results I mean fortnet loves you because they look at you and you you do good in sales and you just keep in increasing the bottom line and and you increase the bottom line not by cutting the the price of the of the product you

incre you increase the bottom line because you're proven to to To add value to people and and once people know that you add value to them you don't need to reduce the price of your project at all I mean you're you're worthy of the price if you can produce and and so level three is where credibility really allows you to have the privilege of leading people begin to raise their hand they say I would like to be on your team let me explain this way let's say LeBron James and I were going to have a

we're going to have a Basketball game and so we're with you you to right now and and we want you know we want a half a dozen of you to to be on our side and so LeBron's going to pick first now he's one of the greatest basketball players that's ever played so when LeBron looks out at the audience you got your hand in the air and you're saying choose me choose me oh LeBron oh my gosh pick me now why do you want to be on LeBron James team well it's very simple You know

if he picks you you're going to win because he's a great basketball player now when it comes my turn to choose you don't have your hands in the air in fact you're ducked behind chairs you're you know you're hiding from me you you don't want me to pick you you don't want a 75y old overweight man to pick you to be on the basketball team you're hiding from me you see you want to be on the team that's going to win well when you become a level three Leader and you produce results that's exactly what

the team becomes they become winners and everybody wants to be on your team now at level three there are three characteristics again there are three qualities that level three leaders exhibit all the time and people see them let me give them to you number one is you lead by Example you understand that the best leadership is not what you say the best leadership is what you do now at level three you do those things that bring results so now it's sh and tell time it's just not telling people what you're going to do it's showing

people exactly what you have done and and now people are they're convinced of following you because the proof is in the the stats the proof is in you you now are leading By example why here here the greatest the greatest motivational princip in the world is this one people do what people see that's a fact so when people say uh you know the people on my team they're they're really not producing you know why they're not producing they don't see you producing the moment that you began to produce the moment that you began to bring

home the results now you are a Visual example of how they can do it now this is huge you don't want to miss this and so level three you gr you gain The credibility to lead not because of what you say you gain The credibility to lead but by what you are are are doing you know there's a difference between a travel agent and a tour guide a travel you know if you want to go somewhere you can call a travel agent they can buy you tickets for your transportation they can get your hotel They

can they can set up a a tour but but when you think of a travel agent you know that when when you finally come to the office they'll give you tickets and you know have a great trip and and then they'll say hey take pictures I you know I've never been there before you see most leaders are like travel agents they send people where they've never been themselves you don't want to be a travel agent Leader you want to be a tour guide leader now there's a difference you see the tour guide leader they they

meet you at the bus and say let's get on the bus together you know I'm going to I'm going to take you to museums and the city that I've been to hundreds of times that where I I've lived here my life you know just follow me just stay with me and I'll make sure that you see things you've never seen and you experience things you never experienced you you Want to be a tour guide leader level three leaders they're tour guides they basically say get on the bus I'm highly successful myself I increase the bottom

line for my company I I make a lot of money you know watch me follow me just you know the greatest words a leader can share with his or her people are the words follow me the moment I can say that I am a terrific leader because I have now The credibility of a leader okay now three characteristics of Leaders at this level I've given you one they they lead by example the second characteristic of of a leader on on this level is that they create momentum uh level three leaders are momentum makers okay now

in your company you've got momentum makers they're level three leaders you you also probably have some momentum takers they suck the momentum out of your company and you maybe even Have a few momentum Breakers but but level three is all about creating momentum and so how does that happen because let me just say something about momentum for a moment the greatest friend a leader has is momentum because momentum is a great exaggerator it momentum has the ability to take something good and exaggerate it until people think it's amazing and so leaders know that the Greatest

Problem Solver that they're ever going to have in their life is momentum I I you see manager try to solve problems leaders create momentum because what the leaders know is if they create momentum honestly the problems will be solved in the company I mean to illustrate that let me just say that you know uh let's let's take a train on a track um if that train is going 50 miles an hour down a track okay and in front Of it is a is a barrier okay oh my gosh I'm I'm talking about a real obstacle

here um a 5 foot thick concrete wall steel reinforced okay that's a barrier it's on the track if that train is going 50 miles an hour it can hit that that concrete steel reinforced barrier it can hit it Smash It and knock it off the tracks and keep on going now why was it able to have this problem this obstacle on the tracks Smash It and keep on going it's because it had momentum momentum solved the problem momentum allowed that train to get through something that was almost like insurmountable it it was a pretty huge

mega barrier momentum allowed that train to keep going That's The Power of momentum now that same train let's say it's stopped dead on the tracks it's not going anywhere it's it's not moving it's dead still Okay if you put a 1 inch block just one Ines in front of the driving wheels of that train it can't get started now isn't that interesting without momentum a 1 in Block will keep the train from moving now get this don't miss this without M momentum a one inch obstacle is a real problem with momentum same train same track

a 5 foot thick concrete steel reinforced wall can't stop it you see That's why I tell people all the time your problem is not your problem but yet so many people that get focused on problems the problem that isn't a problem becomes a problem not because it was a problem the problem was they didn't know the problem wasn't a problem and so they made a problem that wasn't a problem a problem okay okay don't don't try to take notes on that let me talk to you for a moment the problem isn't the size of the

Problem problems get fixed and taken care of 80% of all problems in any company are solved with momentum and at level number three that's what you have you You' got great momentum you've got great thrust you've G got great power to overcome the obstacles of your company now so far we've talked about three levels of leadership level one is where we start it's good place to start bad place to stay it's the position level people only follow you because They have to level two is the permission level this is where relationships kick in you like

the people they like you now people follow you because they want to energy happens at level two energy now level three that's the production level and and and the key word there is results and people now follow you because of what you've produced what you've done for the company and at level number three you Get momentum and with momentum you most of the problems are solved in the company let's let's put this way with momentum leading is a lot easier that's why in a in a sports contest if if one team really gets momentum on

their side what does the opposing coach do calls a timeout now why does he call or why does she call a timeout it's very simple they're trying to break the momentum of the other team they're trying to get them out of that Rhythm so level number three is where momentum happens level number three the the third thing that happens at level three just just one more quick thing is is you attract better people to you because you produce let let me explain this way remember when I did in the beginning the law of the lid

and if you were a five leader with leadership competence your company would be a four okay you got that in the law of attraction in my book the 21 Refutable laws of leadership this law of of magnetism says you attract who you are not who you want very true law so what here's what happens if if I'm a level five leader I attract fours threes twos and ones what I don't attract to my team is a nine or a 10 nines and tens don't follow fives never have never will but if I grow as a

leader and I get up to a six and seven every time I grow as a leader guess what I attract a better person so when you can produce when you Have the credibility of a person that gives results to your company you're going to attract better people to you because it's like the LeBron James illustration people want to be on your team okay so let's go to level four now level now level number four um is really this is the level I really try to get people to go to I mean I know there's five

levels of leadership but I am very happy if I can get you to level number four because level number Four is the people development level okay this is where you develop other people and the key word at level number four is reproduction okay now people follow you not only because of what have you done for the organization they not only follow you because they like you they follow you because of what you have done for them personally because now they're a better person because you are a people developer in other words they're saying I can

tell you right now when I came to the company man I wasn't very effective at all but they took me under their wings and they trained me and they equipped me and now look what I can do and and by the way great loyalty happens at level four because people now look at you and say personally you've bettered my life at level three you you better the organization but level four I'm a better person because of you so this is a a terrific level to be on and Um it's really how the company thrives because

uh you know if if I if I were to ask you if I could two questions about the success that you have and the success you want your company to have the two questions I ask would ask you is what are you doing to develop yourself and that's why I love the theme that you have for it that of of helping people become a better leader I would ask you what are you doing to develop yourself and the second question I would ask you Is what are you doing to develop the people on your team

now when you develop yourself and grow you add when you develop others you multiply and that's the difference between levels three in leadership and level four at level three you're getting better you're producing but you're adding at level number four you're now compounding you're multiplying because it's just not me Producing but it's my I've got six people people on my team and and we all are having a good year and and I'm developing leaders and and I'm teaching them how to develop other people so we're going to keep multiplying ourselves because only leaders can attract

leaders and only Tre leaders can develop leaders and you know you teach what you know but you reproduce who you are and so now at level number four we're really doing well because we're I'm not only producing but you're producing and now we're we're training you to lead and and you know than just get better so what is it at level four this fourth level of production what is it at level four that makes it so magical well there are three keys to reproducing people there's three keys in in developing people around you and and

developing leaders around you and let me give them to you there there are three Things that qualities that a level four leader does very well number one is is is recruiting level four leaders recruit well I I was having lunch one day with my friend Lou Holtz and we were talking and and he's such a funny guy he was a great coach you know he was a football coach in college he coached six different teams every team that he went to as a coach had a losing record the year before he Arrived and every team

within two years that he did coach went to a bowl game and you know NE Dame became a national champion under him so Lou Holtz and I were having lunch one day and he said John he said uh I've coached good players and I've coached bad players he said I I'm just a better Coach with good players and I just laughed and said boy isn't that true with all of us we we're all a we're all a better coach we're all a better leader W with good people around us and so level four leaders they

really produce themselves and they develop people well and and there's a reason why they recruit so well they have a clear picture of the person they want on their team and this is essential to the success of your business the better person I recruit the higher my odds that I can really develop that person to great success and this is essential for my Development so you you know when when people you know sometimes they'll pick me up at the airport they don't know who I am they've never seen me before and so there's two ways

they pick me up one is they sometimes they just send somebody to pick me up but I go to the baggage area and there's some person there with hand in the air with my name on it and basically that person says I don't know what you look like but if you'll just look and see your name up here you come Up identify yourself you find me and then I'll take you to where you ever go and that's the way a lot of people recruit leaders they they just say you know we need leaders we need

leaders they got the you know the sign in the air but there's another kind of person that you know when I walk into the baggage area they come right up to me and they shake my hand and they say hey John we're we came to pick you up now now how did they know well they went Online they saw my picture they madebe me have a book that has my picture I I but but they had a picture of me before they got to the airport and so when they saw me they IM knew immediately

knew to connect well highly successful leaders that's what they do really well they have a picture of of of who they want to recruit and and the qualities they're wanting to to see in that person and so when they they see it in fact I tell people all the Time I wrote a book called the uh the 21 qualities of a leader and I tell them all the time it's it's nothing but a picture book of what a leader looks like I said you know get those 21 qualities of a and then when you do

your interview look for those different qualities and when you find one check it off and after while you know whether you've got a potential leader or not but at level four these leaders they do a really good really good job with recruiting secondly They do a real good job with positioning people in other words when they you know it's the Jim cin stuff okay you got to get got to get people on the right bus well you not only need to get them on the right bus but but you need to get them in the

right seat okay and and and they really understand the value of of of positioning people and the fact that find out what their strength is and then put them there and I tell leaders all this is a different holy totally Different Le uh uh lecture but I say when you're looking at your people and you're trying to position them you have to ask three questions that start with an R you know uh what are they required to do uh what gives us the greatest turn when they do it the results and thirdly what what what's

rewarding to them and every leader needs to find outle of every player what you know what do you have to Do what's required of you what are you really good at what gives you the great return and and and what what do you love what what's rewarding to you and when you find those three things you position them according to the three Rs and all of a sudden they begin to really produce well and and and begin to succeed well there there's one more quality of a level four leader um and that is they just

equip really good they're good Equippers okay um they Just know how to help a people help people become successful in the business now I have the largest equipping organization in the world we've trained over six million leaders in every country of the world we're the only company that has done it that much and um we really know how to equip people and I'm going to just take maybe two minutes and and I'm about to wrap up the talk but there are there are five steps To equipping people really well and they're simple steps and every

one of you can do them but if you will do them I will promise you you'll begin to reproduce other people and reproduce other leaders under you so so let me give you those five steps first of all you know Step One is is I do it and just simply put before you train anybody to do anything you have to do it yourself again what did I say people do what people see so the first step of Equipping somebody really is is you do it yourself now once that you have done it successfully yourself which

is really a level three leader now you bring somebody alongside of you and you go to step number two I step one is I do it step two I do it and you're with me and now we're going to spend some time and you're going to watch me do what I do really well and the reason you're going to watch me is because leadership is visual uh Stanford Research says 89% of what you and I learn and know we solve visually first 10% audio 1% through the other senses and and so I do it and

you're with me well you're with me you're watching me and and after I you know finish the cell uh we're having you're asking me questions how did you do that and why did you say that and what what made you go over there and and and and so it's it's I do it stage one or step one step step two is I I do it you're with me Step three is you do it and I'm with you anyway there comes a time when I just hand the Baton off to you and say here it's yours

now you you run with it it's it's it's all yours and and now I'm coaching you I now you're playing the game and I and I'm tweaking you I'm making you better we after you do that sales call we sit down I say now okay let me give you a couple of observations and I I just I make you better I make you Better and then step number four in that equipping process is you do it I mean there comes a time when I say hey it's yours you got it now here's where the here's

where the equipping failure begins most equipping and most companies stops at step four I do it I do it you're with me you do it I'm with you you do it well once you do it I say okay I've equipped them but there's another step and this is where the magic is in Level four leadership step number five is they do it and someone is with them simply stated here's how this works we never equip anybody who doesn't make an commitment to equip somebody else so our equipping never stops with the person we equipped it

continues and reproduces itself on a multiplication level level four leaders they recruit well they position well and they equip people extremely extremely well now I'm going to wrap it up by Level number five I I really don't need to teach level five because level five is automatic you see on level one the company gives you that levels two and three and four you earn level five is what I call the pinnical level the key word at this level is respect and at this level people follow you because of who you are and because of what

you've done you truly now are bigger than life and they Look at you and they just say you know you're an amazing person this is where you begin to live a life of of of significance in your life and the life of others Chris uh what has it been 20 plus years that you and I have been in this environment and we've talked about growth I guess every way that we can and yet day it's just as relevant in your 20 plus years of tenure executive on our team running the nation uh running around the

nation speaking and yet You're still growing I know that about you and I I'm the same way I've just been challenged even most recently I've been challenged to grow significantly and so hey I never get tired of this subject and I never get tired of the subject talking to it with John 75 years young still doing it still doing it never get tired of working alongside of people like you that's still doing it so man I'm excited yeah when I found out that this was a topic we were going to Talk about I was like

this is so appropriate because I don't know where I would be today if I didn't work in an environment I know you would say the same thing and then to be it to be modeled by John it's not you you're on the road with John you guys are at different conferences speakers and meetings and without a doubt I always see him taking notes then you get in the car and you're like man here's what I learned what did you learn you better be Ready to answer that question because we he just models that and he's

kind of given that to us so much so that I I brought this for those that are watching on YouTube Love okay this is little showand tell love it I did it yesterday too in our leadership team meeting I'm in a showand tell mode we're going back to Elementary School uh but that's right so much so that as you helped us cast vision and come up with our our mission and what's important our organization And we do believe that everybody deserves to be led well obviously you wanted people first we we get that that's 100%

us the second one we have on our card and every single one of our team members have this is it is about growth and on there it talks about we invest in growth every day doesn't matter whether you're 18 19 20 when you and I began to think about what that looked like or even now and I won't mention our age as we get into this um But but we also believe that it happens daily not in a day and what I love about that is that um John says if we want things to get

better then we've got to go after on a daily basis now I'm going to take you down a little bit if you don't mind I want to take you down a little bit of a different path than maybe normal I want to go away from the notes for a minute and we're going to come back and we've heard John talk about um everything worthwhile is uphill Yep and man growth growth can be an uphill battle it doesn't often happen when we're going downhill and things are good and I want to talk a little bit I

want to kind of lift the curtain on some things that you've been growing personally and I think it's so appropriate because you so intentional behind this and it started let me I think growth happens in a lot of ways yeah you can you can observe it and learn you can teach and learn you can Get feedback and learn matter of fact um I was on a call today with one of the organizations that we work with and uh it was Matt mlan with wealth advisers let me just read this real quick to you it says

man feedback is a gift it's where you grow when given by the right person in the right Manner and re and received in the right way and I thought oh that's so good tell me that again I'm going to be with Mark later and I want to share this with him received in the Right way here's where I'm going you started a journey intentionally the fourth quarter of last year yep we called it the family rooms and Mark set the stage and you said hey family rooms sometimes get uncomfortable I want feedback and that began

a growth Journey that I haven't seen in you in a long time and we're going to unpack that just a minute but what I want you to do is I want you to take us back and what was the intentionality behind saying man I Want feedback I want these family room conversations I want to grow I want us as an organization and a culture to grow talk to us a little bit about that to set the stage of now uh what you're doing and we'll talk about that in just a minute well I I started

getting a little bit of feedback from teammates and I started getting feedback from Key relationships like our thought leaders that perhaps our culture was missing a a a beat or was missing a little bit of Something come to find out it was we were we were saying more than what we were doing we we were not completely matched up in our actions um so it started there and then that caused me to go I've got a problem in the organization what is our problem what what is that this is not a at all a negative

thing this is very P powerful and positive as we unpack this I'm sure but um I went to John and I did something that I do all the time with John I State the problem I see if we have agreement on our problem and then I'm always prepared with three suggestions to remedy the problem and then a recommendation here's three suggestions John but here's my recommendation and John and I just have this formula for how we have led him the Visionary the owner and me the CEO the implementer of his vision well that has changed

a little bit but John's John's mentoring in my life has not changed we Still have that same formula so I went to John I said here's my problem and what was interesting and I won't dig into this because that's not the subject today John didn't agree with me now we beat it up for about 10 hours of plain time we just John this is why I think this the problem yeah I think it is the problem no it's not the problem Mark no it's not and finally after he had listened to me long enough which

was about 10 hours he identified the real Problem and the real problem was that I needed to get roll up the sleeves and get engaged in the lifeblood in the culture in in the day-to-day rigor of our organization and so that started it and so the best way I knew to do that as a conclusion to John and I saying I've got to roll up the sleeves and get involved what's going on in the organization were these family rooms Chris you were a part of them and uh in fact you were a part Of the

very first one I remember this I had man they were about 12 or 13 of deicated a lot of time to it and and in those in those family rooms Chris a a real reoccurring opportunity challenge opportunity to really address things in the organization began to Bubble Up and uh it was that then we've had a lot of leadership meetings with that I've validated that verified that with the leadership team but it all started with A realization hey I think I have a problem then it went to the next step John and I agreeing on

the problem in the organization and then we're beginning to be intentional about fixing it and I love the fact that John says the only guarantee that it's going to get better from what you heard you accepted that feedback and um and the hearts were pure you received it the right way and John says the only way it's going to get better is well is if We grow and you got to do that so I'm going to go out of order a little bit here John gave us a an incredible growth plan here and I'm going

to go a little bit out of order because I know the process that you went through to do this the first thing that you did was you said I'm going to go and I'm going to reflect on what I heard and you you do this every year the timing of this happened to be pivotal this year for you but you spent John mentioned at least One hour a week I think you accomplished a a year-long process of that in probably just about 3 days talk about then what you heard heard what you learned as you're

growing through this uh and the reflection and how powerful that was and allowed you to come out of that with a tremendous growth plan that we'll talk about after that yeah so the the before the growth plan it started with um I I read a book I think I have recommended on the podcast Chris it's by Gary Keller which is one of the founders of Keller Williams Gary Keller wrote a book called The one thing and he talks about how that leaders need to synthesize down to that one thing they need to be focused on

and then they need to spend the best part of their day in that for me the best part of the day is the morning so immediately coming out of family rooms Chris you will remember this I carved out and cancelled everything that I did every morning of The week because I had identified five things that needed my undivided attention five things in our organization and I came out of those that family room I had already carved out every morning was going to be focused on my one thing and I started focusing for four solid weeks

four hours a day on one thing in the morning for four hours on what I could do from a creativity and from a problem solving perspective that I could begin focus on Focusing on in the organization so it really started there way before the growth plan that we'll get to I started really assessing with a clear mind with an undistracted with with an undistracted attention and then with as much creativity that I could must in a in a oneone one to myself environment I began working through how do I creatively go after these five areas

so you go through that and then you make up your mind I am going to intentionally Grow now talk a little bit about the next steps for you so John says hey we're going to make a commitment so you did the reflection you're making a commitment now for you that growth looked like many different things mentors books you're just absorbing content and you are committed talk about where your mind went when you said I know I need to grow and I'm going to absorb as much content as I possibly can what led you down the

path of saying What resources how do I tap into this what does that look like let let our listeners hear from that because I think each one of us have challenges like that in our life and sometimes we don't know how to go about the process but you've lived out and modeled this and John's given us his plan and it's in direct alignment with that yeah well one is if you can synthesize down what the real problem is and you can synthesize it down to as much Simplicity as possible You're going to then be able

to build the best comprehensive focused plan available we distilled it down to we had a momentum challenge we we you're you're part of the organization last year congratulations on podcast land what was it 47 46% growth last year this guy right here that you're seeing if you're watching Youtube this guy grew 47% but now let me say That what was interesting is is I still could come back and say our common problem was momentum correct that was with some parts of our organization having best years ever some teammates having be personal best years ever we

still had a momentum problem to what to the vision that unified us all together so if you can come up with a common root to the problem because that'll establish common language when you begin to build this intentionality So the problem and then figure out a way to un everybody to the same problem that was that was a dance that was a challenge because I got some people sitting across from me that killed it last year and I had some people on his team that had personal best and then I had other teammates that we

just were not out of the starting blocks yet so how do I unify everybody on we have a momentum problem so synthesize it to as much Simplicity as possible that's why We have a word for the year you have a word for the year I heard what it was I've got one my whole growth plan is around that well the plan to get the organization on the track that it needed needed that kind of Simplicity too what's the word and how does that word apply to everybody because if you can get that word to a

simplest form and then you can get everybody seeing their way to embrace the word from how it will help them now we're on a track to begin To build that plan yeah became our rallying cries is Essence is what you were doing no matter where each vertical um or team was doing it didn't matter as a as a as a whole as a team that became our rallying cry together so you and and I and I've heard you say simplify a ton of times in the last 90 days so you simplified the problem and you

go okay now I got to grow in that area yep talk to us a little bit about what you and remember we're trying to keep this Podcast under three hours yes exactly but I know how intentional you were about that and the amount of resources you can talk about that process I'm privileged to have a weekly call with a bunch of leader minded people so I the I I I ask about four people that I really believe could help me in the area of momentum I said what do you recommend that I read what do

you recommend that I consume got some great feedback then I went to my Call to hundreds of people and I said hey if you got a book or recommendation on momentum let me have it and I just took all of that as assimilated there was a lot of redundancy people recommended the same thing then that became at the top of my list and uh so I have been in fact yesterday in a leadership meeting that you and I were in somebody brought me another book on momentum and I'm just consuming that and digesting it so

going back to my four Hours in the day I would spend two hours reading a book on the subject matter that I had before I even started my 4-Hour day and it and again all that comes back to get people to give you input from their perspective with the clarity and the Simplicity that you're going to lead the team do the clarity and simplicity on what you're going to grow into and like you said I cannot remember but one other time maybe that I have been this diligent in being a Sponge on content on one

piece of subject matter I have read and consumed you see it every time I come into a leadership meeting I give you a new tidbit that I have read to give us common language on what we're going to do yeah and what I've also seen and and I haven't mentioned this to you but um I I watched you walk the the fourth quarter and then through that end of the year and the reflection and there's some discouragement there certain things Right all of us have discouragement areas of our life that we wish we grew in

right but what's been fascinating for me to see and again this will be the first time you kind of hearing this out of my mouth which is when I saw you prioritize that and I mentioned to you yesterday this can to be so good for the company but it's been so good for you as a leader because when you prioritize that and this growth and the intentional out growth that John's talking about Here you become I mean happier might be a little bit of a software but you become stronger you become more confident you almost

become more resilient to that uphill battle that we're taking and what I love about it is you absolutely John's second point in the plan is you make that commitment public yeah and you do that you talk about it we're talking about in the podcast but more importantly you share that with specifically our leadership Team every time you come in there and John says early on in the lesson what are you doing to develop yourself and others and I know that we are growing I've read more books not not than you have but that I did

in the first couple weeks of last year because of the challenge that you're putting out with us what's the intentionality behind sharing not only what you're learning but sharing what you're consuming and how you're doing it with your team three Reasons Chris that comes to mind immediately and like Chris said um this was not scripted or prepared but three reasons one is accountability I always grow better on a personal level or at a team level because you like you said I wrote that down too John how are you growing personally how you growing your team

um I want to put it out there that I want my team our team to know that I'm growing and I'm putting it out there These are the books I'm reading and then I come and show you what I'm reading with things that we're doing that's accountability the second reason is common language I want people to know what is driving the the intentionality around my leadership right now what's happening is is you're picking up some of those books others are picking up that book so the common language is now not only get rallying us to

the vision and the direction I want to take the Organization it's rallying all of us in how we all are growing you're growing yesterday's leadership meeting and again this is just really just Family Talk which I love this podcast by the way yesterday your the way we complimented one another was staggered to me I don't think we've ever complimented one another as much as we did yesterday in that meeting and I could tell you're reading the books Ben you were talking about some of the Practices and principles that we're using in the first person hey

we've got to and I went you go Chris I don't even have to say it because of being repated but that brings me to the third thing when you start saying what the common language is and you start holding yourself accountable now you start giving expect of why we're doing this the desired outcome and so we're in the middle of a process right now that's driving a Little Bit Me Maybe you too a Little bit crazy because I'm ready to act and we're still in the information gathering meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting yeah matter of

fact um I got home last night my wife's like well how many steps you had today I was like I refused to report she's like because it was a we're going on a walk right CU because I've been with Mark in meetings all day trying to figure this out right but you got to do that you got to that's going to drive that common set of Outcomes that you're wanting so it's all based on intentionality yeah I love that so you again John's second point was you're making it public we're talking about it to our

team we're talking about to the Enterprise we're talking about it to you here today John's last point is you're going to share what you're learning which what you're doing I want you to close as on this thought of growth you and I could talk about this because um we we we are the product Right we just without we've been doing it for a long time it's what we believe in and we've seen the growth John mentioned something I think is really important in here he's like hey start off by saying what's one area of growth

of choice and then what's one area of skill and you every year come out of your time and your reflection with yes a word of the year but you also being a person of Faith have a a choice that you make of what you're going to study this Year from a growth standpoint tie it to leadership tie it to your growth whatever and then you also have a skill set talk a little bit about the power of having both of those how you come to them and growth journey and then what that looks like yeah

so for me the the word for the year is kind of the focus it's kind of the the the aspiration the idea the skill set comes in in what I set with rigor I have in my growth plan I have daily weekly and monthly rigors Rhythms things that I've got to deliver every day every week every month to complement the word the concept got it and so I I think what what I feel like John's talking about here is if you don't have skill sets to go along with the strengths if you don't have rigors

and disciplines to go along with the word then it's going to sound nice but you're not going to see that tangible momentum yeah and that's what uh I have found the people that are the most Effective today people that are listening and viewing this podcast you you're writing it down I'm proud of you congrat congratulations I'd give you a standing ovation um if I could but it's the people that get an action item something that is a skill something that is a discipline that's going to bring the greatest amount of results after a conversation like

this I hope that between John Chris or myself we've given you a note to capture and I'm sure we have because John has so we're good but what I hope just as much not more than but just as much is you put a a skill a challenge a an application to it that will make you effective I do a year- in review every year I'm reading a lot of books on momentum but I'm telling you it's these meetings that we're having that is making that more powerful yeah the the idea the concept the the discipline

without the skill application would Render it usess I would contend maybe a little bit of useful but I'm going to tell you learning without application is not grow remind us again how many years have you been with John 23 23 years and you would admit and you did and I would absolutely back you up on this the last 90 days for the greatest growth you've had 23 years with the greatest leadership organization and leader that you and I know and yet you're still Growing at a pace like that's what we should strive to do that's

what makes things better um as again as we read yeah one little question on this you you spend all this intentionality you build this growth plan how often do you review it how often do you go and check it how often do you hold yourself accountable to it because what I want our listeners to do is I man I want them to develop a growth plan because we want them we we know what's on the other side of that it Does doesn't always get easier sometimes it gets even harder but man we want that for

you because everybody deserves to be led well and we want to add value to you and this is the best way and John talked about this is where he started this where you need to start you can be intentional about it and you can develop that and then maybe never look at it again and kind of how often do you that rigor that you developed and you try to follow as you wrap up how how Often do you check that and hold yourself accountable to it and adjust it or maybe just check the box so

in the first 60 days of a year I'm reviewing it every day I reviewed it this morning I'll review it tomorrow morning I'll review it Saturday I'll review it Sunday I review it every day it's got to get in me for it to Drive behaviors to cultivate skill sets like we talked about to develop habits so it's a it's an everyday rigor that I will do every Year for the first 60 days I'm reading it every day I'm familiarizing myself then it pairs back uh probably to once a week and then by the third and

fourth quarter it is probably twice a month that I'm pulling it out and reviewing and reflecting one of the disciplines that I have is in a year in review this year some years some years it's monthly some years it's bimonthly some years it's quarterly I will go and assess and tweak the plan based on the Effectiveness the plan has had then so that that plan that I got in one setting is a living breathing organism that makes sense I I I'll tell you a couple of things that I want to do to to wrap today

um that I I feel really strong about there there's two things that I want to challenge you to do personally because I'm so pass about personal growth and it's it's only the um what is this the 18th of the month it's it's um it it's really if you're listen to it Live some of you will listen to it it's it's we're only 18 days into this year and I want to challenge you to get really intentional leadership is developed not discovered the 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 about a month and a half ago I was thinking about this because I was in a Q&A and while I was in teaching leadership somebody raised that question they said John you talk a lot about developing leaders can you give me a handle can you just give me some things that I can really remember that will help me to do so and off the just off the cuff I shared with them the basically the outline

that I'm going to give with you today with some content in Between 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 transverse leadership is almost in an incarnational or a way that this is how leadership 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 characteristics 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 watched 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 and 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 EnV ironment 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 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 uction 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 don't 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 line 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 to 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 else 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 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 ought 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 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 questions 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 right 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 Le 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 EAS of develop [Music] R welcome to the Maxwell leadership executive podcast where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader increase your ability to influence others and increase your Ability to fully

engage your team to deliver remarkable results