Questions Leaders Ask to Go to the Next Level

Perry Holley:
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. Hi, I’m Perry Holley a Maxwell leadership facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:
And I’m Chris Goede, executive vice president with Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining. Today we’re going to talk about questions leaders ask to go to the next level. Now remember, here at Maxwell Leadership we talk about leadership or leaders as influential people and we’re going to give you a little bit of a story on how this all came to be. And not all of them are leading something right now. However, they’re all leaders and so we’re going to talk about that. So before we get started though, I want to encourage, encourage you to go to maxwellleadership.com/podcast there, click on this episode and you can download the learner guide or if you’re interested in 360 degree leader leadership training, if it five levels of leadership all we have tons of content around competencies that your organization may be struggling with virtually in person. We also coach to it.

Chris Goede:
Love for you to fill out that form. Let us know, we’ll follow back up with you. Well, as I mentioned, there’s kind of a story behind this title of questions that leaders ask go to the next level. And it’s really a conversation. You and I, we often joke around about the fact and we just did this on Friday night. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, but we had a 45 minute meeting scheduled. In 40 minutes we were talking about all kinds of stuff. I said, barry, the last five minutes, I need these things.

Chris Goede:
And you’re like, yeah, I need these things. And so we knocked all that out, which means we really got a five minute meeting.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, well, we really take the last five minutes to reschedule the next meeting. Then we can talk about the meaningful things we need to talk about.

Chris Goede:
That’s exactly right. So but when we do that, what we love about it is that, that we both have children, right? Actually, ironically, one of each. One boy, one girl, two kids. And we love sharing the story and the journey on where they’re going and how are they intentionally making decisions that probably don’t make sense to them? Probably a little bit of coaching and from mom and dad and different things. But you look at them, you go, they’re intentionally making decisions and actions and what they’re doing to take the next step to move forward. And we share both of Those with both kids now. I love this you put in here. It’s proud dad talk, right? Like, that’s what it is.

Chris Goede:
Like, it is, you know, hashtag, you know, not girl dad. It’s like hashtag proud dad. And I think all of us have been there before, but this is so relevant to. Even if we take what they’re. We’re hearing from them, what we’re watching them go through, sometimes tough, sometimes good, we want to celebrate in the good. We want to be there for them when it’s tough. But we actually can see the parallel in a lot of conversations that we’re having with leaders. Remember, influential people inside organization are leaders inside organizations that were having the privilege to coach.

Perry Holley:
Yes. I came up on a coaching call. The. A very senior leader was dismayed about his junior leaders. And he said, they seem to find we’re doing good, we’re doing good. We’re hitting the numbers. We need to just hold with what we’re doing. And he said, I.

Perry Holley:
I asked about, you know, what are you doing to get to the next level? And he said, they don’t really seem to think about next level. And I thought it’s been one of the critical learnings from myself is that you can get into a feeling of, I’m doing good, we’re doing well, we’re making the number. Why don’t we just hold in? That status quo gets very dangerous. And so I. I had some questions for him, so I thought I just made a little list of questions I would ask.

Chris Goede:
I love it.

Perry Holley:
If I’m going to the next level.

Chris Goede:
I love this. We have this at Maxwell leadership, we have this phrase we just call plus one. And it is something that we put in place to try to make sure we don’t get complacent. To your point, it can be a dangerous thing. And we want to lead change. We want to encourage change. We want to get the leaders, individuals, the teams to take that next step to be plus one. You know, for us here on the podcast, it would be, hey, how do we do something that gets it to one more person that we can impact and add value to? What does that look like? And I think we have that across the board.

Chris Goede:
So let’s dive into this, because I love this. It’s going to drive. What are we intentionally doing as leaders that gets us to plus one?

Perry Holley:
The first question I asked him was, are you setting clear goals and expectations? To me, if. If you think you’ve arrived? Yeah, I was a sales guy for a while. You as well, that If I hit my quota, did I stop, I made my number? Did I just hang it up for the year? No. There was always a stretch goal. There was always a, a next thing. And so what I’m finding, if you’re a leader that has not set clear goals and expectations and if they are making the number then, and then applying stretch goals and expectations, what’s possible? Not what, what did we do but what’s possible that we could do? Yeah. You know, here Andy Andrews, famous author, in my head he always, he said, people tell me I’m doing the best, we’re doing the best we can, but are you doing the best that can be done? The answer should always be no. So what’s the, what’s the next level? I love this question.

Chris Goede:
And as you’re thinking about it for yourself and we want you as we go through this today, there’s a couple different perspectives you can have on the conversations. Principles are going to relate either way. Whether it’s you’re looking at this and you’re saying, hey, I’m on this journey individually or maybe you’re looking at it as a team and why this will be important. A couple things respond to what you said. I think it’s so important, especially for myself personally is that I have to do this outside of even my teamwork stuff because it provides focus for me. It, if not, I will be all over the place like let me do this, let me help some, let me. And I’ve got to go, okay, wait. That doesn’t necessarily align with the goals and the expectation I have for myself to take the next step or for my team to do that.

Chris Goede:
So what’s the direction I’m going to go and how do I focus? The other thing is this provides and this is the hardest because man, we are the number one sales professional to ourselves. I can, I can talk myself in and out of anything. And I know you’re thinking about three things right now that you probably talked yourself out of or into. Right. But this really drives my self accountability. Now if you can share that with somebody else, great. If you’re a team and you can share with another team inside the organization, great. That’s going to help that accountability even more.

Chris Goede:
The other thing is I think that it inspires me to action. If I know that’s what the goal and expectation is, then I’m going to take the next steps to be able to do that, the next steps and whatever that might look like. And then finally I wrote down it’s just going to build confidence like small wins over time. Create that next step, the next innovation, the next move we’re going to try to do. This may not make financially sense right now to do this, but I’m going to do that because I think it’s going to plus one my skill and I’m going to become a better. Whatever it is. Right. Some of the examples we were sharing, and so I think those things are so important that as you begin thinking about where is it that you want to go as a leader, as an influence, I want to say influencer.

Chris Goede:
That may be taken differently than what we’re talking about here, but you’ve got to have clear goals and expectations.

Perry Holley:
Question 2 that I, like, I asked him was, do you have a collaborative climate where teamwork is encouraged? And the reason I asked this was he. I said, what are some of the reasons you’re hearing why they. They stop, they hold back, they don’t push forward to the next, to the next level, to the next area they can go? And he said, well, they, they seem to be overwhelmed, personally. They don’t. They seem like they’ve done enough. It’s just hard or I’m at a good place. And I thought they sound very siloed in their work. And I just wondered, do you.

Perry Holley:
I find for me, I. If I’m working on a team, if I’m part of a team and we’re working towards something, I generally give more. I generally lean in and think more as possible. Hearing John in my head say, one is too small a number to do anything. Did you have that yet?

Chris Goede:
No, no, no, no. You got that? Say that because that’s good. Yeah. One is too small a number. Right. Like we, we want to achieve greatness. We want to, to make an impact, and you can’t do that alone.

Perry Holley:
Right.

Chris Goede:
And. And so not only are you going to need each other, you’re going to need the support. By the way, as you begin thinking about different steps and being intentional, you’re going to need people to pick you up. You’re going to need people to, you know, slap you on the back. They need to encourage them, but you’re going to need them around you. And then what’s going to end up happening to your point is you’re going to be able to accomplish a whole lot more. When you have people doing this together. If you’re in a silo, you’re not going to have diverse perspectives.

Chris Goede:
Your growth mindset, I think, is going to shrink or it’ll be limited. Right. Think about some of the conversations we have even just hanging out, we’re like challenging the way that we think. And so it just raises the level of our growth mindset. The other thing too is I want to encourage you. Maybe you say, well, I don’t have a direct team that I got to find. Go find a team. Put yourself around.

Chris Goede:
Because the more you can expand your network, I think that’s going to help you just really become intentional about growing your skill set or whatever it may be that you’re trying to improve your leadership on. To be able to do that, it’s just expand your network of people.

Perry Holley:
I had a friend, he was a solo entrepreneur. He didn’t have a team, but he was finding himself unmotivated. He said, I was just doing enough and I didn’t realize what was even possible. And all of a sudden he just went into a high gear, started really achieving. Like, what did you do? He goes, you’ll think this is dumb, but I went on LinkedIn and joined a couple of groups and I could just started seeing coming across the conversation about what other people were doing and how what could be done and some other ideas was got me thinking how I could do so if you don’t have somebody nearby, there are. There’s technology that can bring you.

Chris Goede:
It reminds me of the question John asks after every one of his learning lunches. Who do you know that I should know?

Perry Holley:
You know that I should know that.

Chris Goede:
That right there, when you talk about going to the next level, that question right there will intentionally take you up the ladder, I promise you.

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Perry Holley:
Question number three, I asked him, was, are you developing your individual team members? Is there professional and personal growth going on? To me, empowered people go forward. They they’re looking for the next thing. And so one thing we teach around empowering people is that, you know, you probably Modeled what you want from them. But the, the next really critical steps are equipping and developing. And the one reason I see people stop or slow down or think they’ve made it is they can’t give what they don’ they’re out of gas. And so if you’re continuing to grow and develop, I mean, it’s really how we keep going is that, I mean, how do we do a podcast that. Well, we just, I’m learning stuff, you’re learning stuff, we share stuff. And so that going to the next level really is around a lot about how much you mentioned the word growth mindset.

Perry Holley:
How, how much are they growing and do they see that there’s something more?

Chris Goede:
Yeah, I think you have to always challenge that. That’s why John says where he talks about, hey, man, for me, it’s not about really a goal. Right? It’s not about a, It’s a fixed mindset. It’s about a growth opportunity. Right. Like you said, I can’t do a goal setting, you know, conference to save my life. For me, it’s all about growth. And then, because how do you know that you’re not going to surpass that? And I love that you put this in here, because I think as a team, putting yourself around other people, I think the powerful compounding effect that happens when there’s a growth mindset of a group of people, I’ll say sometimes life change happens in circles, not rows, right? Like, man, we’re sharing and what’s happening is we’re just raising and we’re compounding what we, what we’ve learned and our growth journey, and we’re sharing it now.

Chris Goede:
The second part is a really, really important part. When you’re factoring in, let’s say it is a current team that you have, or let’s say you’re building this team, this network, you’re going to find yourself the power and, and the foster a culture of this is to make sure you add the sharing component. One of my favorite things to do when you’re facilitating a class of business leaders, men and women, is when you go, hey, what was your number one takeaway from that session right there? Tell me what it is. And I, I promise you, I’ve been in hundreds of sessions. I pull out my pad of paper and I start writing them down. Because the way that people are hearing it and learning, when they share it back, it sounds differently than how I’ve heard you teach it over the years. And all of a sudden I’ve taken my mindset, my Perspective. And now to a room of 50 businessmen and women.

Chris Goede:
And it’s just raised it up. Well, it’s the same thing. Your team, the people you get around. What are you learning? How did you take that out? You could say it could be as something as simple as a book club. Okay, hey, what was your number one takeaway from chapter one? It’s going to be different than mine. And I probably wouldn’t have thought about like that, but once you put context behind why I was so important to you, I’m going to go, oh, yeah, that makes total sense. So I just want to encourage you in this process, whether you’re part of a team that is organizationally or outside of the team of a network, make sure not only are you learning together and growing, but share. And when you do that, it’ll be compounded what you’re.

Chris Goede:
What you’re learning as a team, as people love that.

Perry Holley:
Another question I asked him was, are you providing regular feedback, constructive feedback, and even recognition to the team that you recognize what they’re doing, but also giving them feedback for. I find sometimes people. Well, let me be real honest. Sometimes I. I back off when I think I’m doing pretty darn good. I think I’ve mastered it. And the truth is, you really haven’t mastered it. You just gotten to a certain level.

Perry Holley:
There’s always a next level. And so this ability for a leader to give feedback to his leadership team or to anyone on your team to let them know, yes, while you’re doing well, you have not. You’re not there. And none of us are there. But we can. We tend to tell ourselves. Like I said, I sell myself on the fact I’m there. I’ got this.

Chris Goede:
I am it.

Perry Holley:
Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Goede:
Here I am. You’re welcome.

Perry Holley:
Do that. So I think asking this, are you doing the feedback and recognizing their efforts, but giving them feedback on what’s left to do?

Chris Goede:
Listen, we are unaware, okay, of things that we do on a continual basis. We just don’t. We just don’t know. We have muscle memory, certain situations, we behave in certain ways, and we’re just unaware of this. And why I love this is that we all have blind spots. And we define blind spot is it’s on the backside of one of your strengths. It’s probably an overused strength. And so you don’t naturally even know.

Perry Holley:
Right.

Chris Goede:
That it is a blind spot.

Perry Holley:
Blind spot.

Chris Goede:
Yeah. It’s like that’s how I’m gifted. Right.

Perry Holley:
Well, that’s why they call it a blind.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, like you’re unaware that you’re using it way too much or using it too strong or whatever. And with that being the case, you gotta have that feedback. And so let’s say you’re on this journey by yourself and you’re trying to intentionally move your. Your career along and increase your influence and your leadership to the next level. You’ve got to get people around you that will give you that feedback. I’ll give you a personal example. So Perry has communicated on stages for years. A lot of big stages, lots of people around the world.

Chris Goede:
And so I am much newer in that phase on behalf of Maxwell leadership. And so I’m like, oh, well, I’m a good communicator. I sat next to Perry for 350 podcast episodes and talking to a microphone. And so I’m getting opportunities periodically to go and. And to do keynotes. And so one of the things that I love doing when I can get a video of is, is I send it to this guy right here. If you’re not watching on YouTube, I encourage you. I’m pointing to him because he has done it at a higher level than I and has done it for many, many years.

Chris Goede:
And I’m unaware of body habits. Hands, Hands. And I’m like, I just killed that thing here, Perry, look at this. And so he so kindly would give me feedback, but it’s only because he can out of body, look at it. And as a communicator, because he’s done it for so long. So. Well, go, hey, just being nitpicky here. Here is 27 things I saw in those five minutes.

Chris Goede:
No, I’m just kidding. Right? But, like, you got to get to that point if you want to go to the next level. And for me, it’s. I want to go to the next level being a communicator. And so find people around you that you can ask for feedback in this situation that’ll make you a better leader, that’ll lead you to where you want to go, whatever that might look like in your. In your career path.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, I think flipping that around, I said, are. Are you providing feedback to your team? But you just gave a really great example. If you’re not, go ask for it.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And the fact that you came and asked for that feedback says even volumes that I want to grow.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
I want to go to the next level. Even though you’re a very accomplished speaker, you do a great job, everybody loves you on stage. You said, well, that is a level I’ve. I’ve done well at that level. What’s the next level look like? And by asking that question, you put yourself into the top 1% to say, I want to be the best I can be at that. Who can I ask? And we’re both doing this all the time, getting feedback.

Chris Goede:
Hey, can we clarify that? Just because I asked as me, Now I’m a top 1% speaker. Does it. You mean. Oh, I get it. Because the top 1% of people that even ask for feedback. Okay, sorry, I got a little excited there. I just want to make sure we clarified for our listeners.

Perry Holley:
You’re the top 1% in this room right now.

Chris Goede:
That’s not even true.

Perry Holley:
Okay, last question I asked the guy I was coaching was, I said, are you encouraging innovation and creativity? And this was a nice way of asking, are you asking your team to think like change agents, to embrace critical thinking, to question their assumptions, to explore new ideas? Are there other ways of getting things done? Are there other ways we could be doing this that that would open more doors of opportunity? We do this all the time. We’re all the time saying, how are we speaking to people who do I need to talk to?

Chris Goede:
How.

Perry Holley:
Where can I go next? We met our quota for leads this month. We don’t. We don’t ever say that. We’re always looking for who we can touch to do that. So are you encouraging them to think outside the box?

Chris Goede:
Yeah, we don’t want to become, as I wrap up for us today, we don’t want to become irrelevant. And the quickest way to do that is become complacent and not get to a point where we’re not encouraging our team to be innovative and to do things differently. And you and I, just recently we were on the road and I said, hey, on the car ride to the airport, like, let’s talk about what do we need to do different? We love our team. We’re doing a great job. The team’s doing a great job. We’re impacting a lot of people. But we need to do it differently. What do we do?

Perry Holley:
Accelerator.

Chris Goede:
How do we press the accelerator? What’s going on? And I think that goes back to as a leader or as an individual being open to continuous improvement, which, funny, it just ties that into growth. So do you view change in this question number five here in the innovation and creativity, do you view it as a disruption which a lot of people say, I’m going to go in and disrupt, like, that’s change, or do you view it as a growth opportunity? And I think those are two different mindsets that will help you separate the fact that, no, no, I’ve got to have a growth mindset. And so I’m okay. I’m okay, too. Innovating on this or doing whatever. We’ve even talked about the podcast, right? We love the podcast. We love all the listeners, all the comments, all the downloads. But we’re like, what do we need to do differently? Right? What do we need to change?

Perry Holley:
What’s next?

Chris Goede:
What does that look like? Right? So I just want to encourage you, whether you’re part of an organization or just it’s Perry and I in a room talking about our podcast, be asking those questions and try to innovate and clarity when you do that, you’re going to go to the next level.

Perry Holley:
Fantastic. Well, great input. Thank you. So reminder, you can go to maxwellleadership.com podcast. You can learn a lot about our offerings there, our other podcast offerings that we have, as well as leave us a comment or a question. We love hearing from you. So grateful you’d spend this time with us. That’s all today from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.

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