Maxwell Leadership Podcast: When the Leader Believes In the People

Mark Cole:

Hey, podcast family. Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole. I have the privilege of working alongside John and working alongside a world-class team. One of my biggest joys as the CEO is to take our biannual International Maxwell Leadership Conference and kind of digest it. Kind of let it settle within me. And so I’m so excited today because as you may have heard, this year, we’re opening up the first day of IMC to the public, to anyone, to everyone that wants to come, because we’re going to focus on personal growth. In fact, we’re calling it our Personal Growth Day and you have five days to join us in Orlando. So you may want to pause the podcast, you may want to go register. You may want to go get yourself in the room. But have no fear, if you can’t be in the room, we want you to join us virtually as well. And I’m going to share with you how to do that in just a moment.

Now I’ll be there, my cohost, your friend, Becky Bursell will be there. You’ll be there. Because this year, along with many speakers, you and I are going to learn to sharpen our skills, equip our attitude, and have a positive growing experience in our life. We would love to see you there. August the 29th, Orlando. Again, five days away. Virtual or in-person, we want you to be there and experience this Personal Growth Day.

In this talk today, John paints a leadership picture of the impact that can occur when a leader believes in people. This is a truly inspiring lesson today so don’t forget, grab a pen, get a piece of paper, download the free bonus resource. You can get that at maxwellpodcast.com/leadersbelieve. Now, I’ve already mentioned the Personal Growth Day. We’re so excited about it. If you would like to register for that now, come see us in Orlando, Becky and I will be there. See us on-screen virtually in the comfort of your office, in the comfort of your home. You can go to maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday.

Now, get ready because we’re going to grow today. We don’t have to wait until five days from now. We can do it right now. Here is, John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:

I love the expression that says it’s wonderful what the people believe of the leader. But it’s more wonderful when the leader believes in the people. And I wish you could see you as I see you because if you could see you as I see you, you would become so excited. Because you would see possibility, you would see transformation, you would see a fresh start. You would see things that would be greatly inspiring. So I want you to look at your neighbor that’s at your table and say to them, “If you can see me like John Maxwell sees me, you’d ask for my autograph.” Would you tell that to your neighbor right now? Go ahead, tell them that. Well some of you are going to be signing autographs tonight, aren’t you, huh? You really are. And what I want you …

You say, “Well, John, what do you see in me?” I’m going to share with you what I see in you. I first of all, see people that God created for greatness. Most people live way beneath their opportunities and their privileges. And so when I see you, I see you as you are but I see you as you can be. And what you can be is greater than what you are. In fact, a year from now, you’ll have to introduce yourself to yourself. You’ll look in the mirror a year from now and you’ll say, “Oh my, you look familiar. Haven’t I seen you somewhere?” And then you’ll have to talk about the fact that during this last year, you have grown and you’ve changed and you’ve learned. And pretty soon, you’re going to say, “I knew you but I’m not sure I know you.” And you’re going to have to reintroduce yourself to yourself.

And by the way, you’re going to have to also reintroduce yourself to people who do know you because a year from now, they won’t know you. They’ll think they know you and they’ll say, “Well, yes, I recognize that face.” But they won’t recognize the change that is within you because you won’t be the same person. Because you can’t be the same when you get into an environment that is conducive for growth.

At your table, you have people who want to see you succeed. Isn’t it rare to be in a room with people who want to see you succeed? This is a different feel, folks. You see, you come out from among people that are average. And average people want you to stay average. But when you get to the John Maxwell team, we don’t want you to stay average. We don’t even like average. We think average is average. And we’ve never known average to change a life. We’ve never known average to excite someone. We’ve never known average to provide hope in the future. We’ve never known average to be something that people wanted to be following and have as a model in their life. We’ve never known average to be anything but average. And we think, because average is average, we in the John Maxwell team can be and should be above average. So we don’t like average. And today is the last day you wear the cloak of average. Take it off. Take it off.

In fact, we’re not going to let you be average. If we see you begin to settle, we’re going to slap you silly. We’re going to bring you back to your regular senses of how God created you to be. He made you after His own image, He made you for greatness. And let’s just have a confession; Most of us are living beneath our opportunities. Isn’t that true? So look at the person you’re seated beside and say to them, “You’re living beneath your opportunities.” Okay, come on, come on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Some of you, the way you’re talking, they’re living way beneath their opportunities. Let’s get this back to where I am on the stage. There’s a better way to look at it, there’s a better way to handle it. There’s another level, are you with me?

So what I want you to know is this; We’re going to do our very best to create an environment for you to be successful in. We have our part and you have your part. Our part is to love on you, teach you well, connect with you, believe in you, and give you opportunities. I can say with great integrity to you this evening, you cannot join an organization that will have greater opportunities for you to make a difference than the John Maxwell team. I can promise you that. That’s not a hype statement. That’s not an exaggerated statement. What other organization can you join that has 22 countries where in the president of those countries has asked you to come in and raise the level of transformation within those countries and teach leadership values? What other organization can you join that has that kind of an opportunity? What kind of an organization can you join that next year will start putting high school curriculum in the hands of high schoolers? And next year, it will be two million in Latin America. It’ll be three million in Africa. And within five years, we’ll be up to 50 million high school kids that are getting great leadership values in the classroom. What other organization can offer that to you?

And this is where you come in. The opportunities that are before me are staggering. And sometimes I look at them and I just, as a person of faith, I say, “God, they’re bigger than me. They’re coming faster and they’re beyond me.” And God looked down and He saw me and He said, “You’re right, John. You’re over your head.” Now let me talk to you about being over your head. When you’re over your head, it doesn’t matter how deep the water is. You’re just over your head. So He said, “I’ve got good news for you, John. It’s too much for you.” And in His sovereignty, it wasn’t in my planning. I wasn’t smart enough. In His sovereignty, He said, “I’m going to bring to you like-minded people who are going to help you make a difference.” One is too small of a number to achieve greatness and in the laws of teamwork, the law of Mount Everest says, as the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. In other words, the bigger your challenge, the better your team.

So when somebody comes and says, “I have a big dream.” My first question to them is, “Well do you have a big team?” You’ve got to have a team to match your dream. Let me tell you what a nightmare is. A nightmare is having a number 10 dream and a number two team. That’s not a dream, that’s a nightmare. In fact, you will rise to the level of your dream based upon the level of your team. The dream isn’t going to deliver to you what you want. It’s the dream team that’s going to deliver to you what you want.

And that’s why I’m so stinking excited because I look out at you and God is saying, “Let me tell you how much I love you, Maxwell. Look who I sent you again.” A new army. A new team. A new fresh group of people who want to make a difference doing something that makes a difference at a time when it makes a difference. And I am so glad you are here. You got here just in time. Where have you been? Look at me. I love you. I believe in you. And I’m going to give you my best, the very best that I have this week, and so will every faculty member. And in a few days, we’re going to have you trained and equipped, inspired and resourced, ready to go back into your world and make a difference in the lives of many people.

Mark Cole:

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Hey, welcome back. Becky, as I’m listening to John, one thing that just really began to work with me in my heart and my mind is realization of what we get to do to value people. You hear John have that conversation and number one, I’m so glad to invite you in to IMC, all of our viewers and listeners. That’s John talking to literally over 3000 of our teammates from over 55 countries was in the room. And John just looked at them in their eyeballs. We’re talking 6000 eyes. He’s catching the attention of each one of them to say, “Hey, you matter to me. I believe in you.”

And I remember coming into John’s organization when I first came and I had no perceived value of myself, no value of my relationship skills, my people skills, my leadership skills. And coming in here and realizing that I did matter to somebody and it was this group, these people. And I know John’s made you feel like that. He seems to make everybody feel like that. This sense that I do believe in you, I do want to add value to you.

Becky Bursell:

Yeah. It is such an incredible gift and you can hear it just radiate from John. In his words, in his actions, in his voice, in his face. Do you remember probably … I mean growing up, other than your parents, who do you think the first person that really impacted you in that way? They almost saw you for your potential instead of just your situation? Can you remember that?

Mark Cole:

I can. It’s absolutely my late, God rest, Tim, my late brother-in-law at 17, looked at me. He had just came on staff at my dad’s church and I was just this kid. And he looked at me and he said, “Man, I’m going to tell you something. You need to read this book and it will help you do what you’re called to do.” I picked up the book, it was Developing the Leader Within You. Not 2.0 because I’m old. But it was Developing The Leader Within You. And he gave that to me because he saw in me leadership.

You’ve heard my story. I believed myself that I had leadership ability but I didn’t know how to articulate that. And Tim seeing that, giving me a book, telling me to read the book. And then once I read it, he said, “Hey, why don’t you help lead this particular area right over here?” And it was him seeing in me the potential to lead.

Becky Bursell:

Yeah. And in a way, the way that John just told a whole audience of coaches saying take off the cloak of average. Which is interesting in the aspect that I think a lot of times we have a hard time talking about ourselves being above average. It comes off as very arrogant. But as you can hear, and I fully believe this, I know that you do too. It doesn’t serve anyone to play small. I think, again, having the humility and that paradox of balance of being someone who has a great belief in themselves and the people around them but then being able to carry themselves with humility at the same time. And I think because, and I’ve seen you do this as well, being able to express and communicate what you see in other people allows you to carry that almost weight of confidence because you’ve seen what you’ve seen. So then how do you communicate that belief to other people? And I think it’s in being able to see people in their potential, not just their circumstances.

Mark Cole:

Do you know, I haven’t told this story obviously because I just got back just a little while ago. First of this month, I got back from Costa Rica. John and I were down there. John mentioned that we have over 22 presidents, prime ministers. Once of those presidents is the President of Costa Rica, has invited us and our team to come down and do transformation work.

So we’re sitting in this business event and a business leader from Ecuador, the Puma Family. Many of you, our friends from Latin America, will know the Puma Family as one of the most wealthiest, most influential families in all of Latin America in the business stream of influence. And he was in the room and what’s so interesting is John had met him 20 years before when he was a much younger guy and remembered where he sat in the room 20 years ago. John just remembered that. He told me before we ever met him, he said, “Mark, I remember exactly where he and his brother were sitting right back over there.” And he kind of pointed it out.

Well they bring us over and we go meet this incredible, incredible Mr. Puma that’s doing great things. And we went over and he said, “John, I haven’t seen you in a long time. I met you before.” John said, “Oh yeah, I know. We were in this event. We were doing this. You were sitting right there with your brother.” And just the shock on his face. And he leaned over to-

Becky Bursell:

And how many years ago?

Mark Cole:

Oh, 20 years ago.

Becky Bursell:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

He leaned over to his wife and he said, “I told you that John had a unique ability to make someone feel special.” We had a lovely conversation. John then left that table and there were probably about 40 tables of five to eight business leaders around the room. And so before John would speak, he wanted to go and greet everybody, take pictures with them, and all that. And he took the same amount of time that he did with the Puma Family, he did it with every table in the room.

After the event, Mr. Puma came back up and he said, “John, I told my wife before we came.” And he said, “Now you watch, he’s going to find a way to make you and I feel valued. He believes in us.” He said, “But let me tell you this, he’s going to find a way to do that for every person in the room.” And he said, “John, number one, thank you. You helped me to be able to look at my wife and say, see, I told you.” He said, “And us guys don’t get to say that very often.” But not only that. He said, “John, you have an incredible ability and when I can develop that to where I can make everybody in the room feel like I, the leader, believe in them, I will have accomplished great leadership.”

We all know where John is at this stage in his life. John doesn’t have to do that. He didn’t have to travel to Costa Rica. He doesn’t have to do all that. But there’s just this intrinsic desire and the guy we just heard speak with so much heart that he has to get out and tell people, “I believe in you.”

Becky Bursell:

Yeah. And I know we’ve told the story and John is the first one to admit it. He won the parent lottery. He grew up in an environment where he was able to cultivate that love for other people because he received it. It was something that was modeled for them. But here we are, Maxwell Leadership, even the podcast and yourself and all the leaders included. Trying to create and plan an environment for people around us who maybe were not as lucky in their environment growing up or even today and they’re looking for a way to be able to see that. I mean how do you wake up everyday and see the best in other people when it may not have been modeled for you?

Mark Cole:

I love this question and I have thought a little bit about this both while John was talking and then how I apply what I watch John do. And I think the first thing that we’ve got to do, every one of us have got to determine, we do not want to put on the cloak of average. John talked about the cloak of average.

I think we all got to determine that we want to be unforgettable is what John says. How do we, with other people, begin to make ourself unforgettable? The first way is to think we’re unforgettable. I mean John walks into the room, he goes, “How are they going to forget me? I’ve got to do something to make sure that I’m unforgettable.” And that starts with believing in our own intrinsic value and then setting the expectation that we’ve got to live up above the value that we see in ourselves.

So it starts, I believe, valuing others starts with valuing ourselves. We believe that we have something to give. We make sure that we cultivate something within us to give. And then we’re ready for step number two. So see the value in you.

I think the second thing is to establish a discipline of valuing others. I don’t think that comes natural. I think it does come natural, we want to matter. We want to be significant. But life deals us blows and if we can just get back to what’s in us, we realize our own value and that one comes a little more natural. Valuing others does not come natural for everybody.

Becky Bursell:

I agree.

Mark Cole:

Now John hit the parent lottery. Guess what other lottery he hit? The personality lottery.

Becky Bursell:

Yes.

Mark Cole:

He’s extremely, extremely gregarious and what you see on stage is what you get backstage. Am I right, or am I right?

Becky Bursell:

Yeah, absolutely.

Mark Cole:

John also hit the lottery but I don’t believe that all of us hit the personality lottery. But that’s okay, you can develop that. And I think you develop that by looking for ways to add value to people. See when you add value to people is when you began to believe in people. We’ve heard John say often, when you see people as broken, you fix them. When you see people as hurting, you try to heal them. But when you see people as valuable, you serve them. That third option is what we all want. We want to see people as value. Well how do you see people as valuable, of value? You believe in them.

I’ve heard John say this often where people of faith, Becky and I both, I don’t know how you can devalue another human being. They’re made in God’s image. Now, God didn’t give them the same physical features as I. He didn’t give them the same parents. He didn’t give them the same culture. He didn’t give them the same political persuasions, perhaps as I have. But He still created that person in His image. And having that fundamental belief that we all are in an image of something bigger and greater than us is where I believe you start with this understanding of believing in others.

So believe in yourself, see the value in yourself. Two, believe in the intrinsic value of others. And then I think the third thing is we have to begin to look for specific ways to tangibly show them that belief. I’ve watched John do it. I try to do this too, Becky. I just told you right before we went on live, I said, “Becky, I can’t believe I get to do this with you.”

Becky Bursell:

It’s true.

Mark Cole:

Now I don’t know what that spoke to you, but let me tell you what I wanted it to speak to you. And this is just real in front of everybody else, me and you having a conversation. I wanted it to speak into you belief. I believe I am the luckiest leader in the world to get to think through how to build personal growth solutions for people with somebody like you. You’ve done it. You’ve helped millions of people. And I get to call you a teammate.

Now that’s as authentic as I know how to be on camera and on mic to tell you I believe in you. But I can’t just tell you that right here while the mic’s not on. I have to go, “Hey, Becky, thank you for doing this. I can’t believe we get to do this together.” That is a discipline to make sure that I’m communicating with you and to others and to people that truly make me and my leadership so much more effective that I believe in them.

Becky Bursell:

Which you do, by the way. You do an incredible job of being able to communicate that. But I think there are a lot of people that have a hard time with that. We had a beautiful moment in our lead team meeting Monday with one of our executives who actually expressed he doesn’t have a problem loving people, he has a problem expressing that he loves people. And I think there’s a lot of people that can relate to that. So what would you suggest as far as disciplines of being able to not give yourself an out in that category? I think a lot of people would say, “Well it’s not how I grew up seeing love or modeling love.” Or, “It’s not in my nature to be expressive.” But I think just like our friends, they have a desire to express it and they want to be able to do because of the impact that it not only has on their own heart but for everyone around them. So how do you grow a discipline to be able to express that value the way that John does so freely, the way that you can so freely?

Mark Cole:

The first part of my answer is going to resonate with the people just like me. You just forget how awkward it makes other people feel. You get over how silly it might sound and you just look people deeply in the eye that you love and appreciate and you go, “I love you. I appreciate you.”

Now for some of you, I just set you free because it’s all in you and you’re just waiting for somebody to give you permission to communicate that you believe in people because you naturally do that. I’m a words of affirmation guy. So you’re asking a words of affirmation guy how to give words of affirmation. Here’s step number one, open your mouth. Let something fly because it’s natural for me, right? But that’s not really helpful for many of you. That’s just people like me.

Becky Bursell:

It’s true.

Mark Cole:

So I do believe that for some that are less expressive, because there are some, I think you’ve got to practice doing that in environments that feel safe. It’s like training wheels. It’s like riding a bicycle. Do it with your parent’s hand on the backseat for a little while, when my daughter learned how to ride a bicycle. Do your words of affirmation, your expressions of belief in others, in environments that are safe.

Now what is a safe environment? That can be family. That can be friends. But practice. I found too many people that feel awkward doing it and they don’t do it anywhere and expect that it gets better. Commit that you’re going to do it and then find a space that it feels safer.

There’s one other thing I want to say to this, Becky, and that is too often people say, “Well I didn’t get it from my parents. Well I didn’t grow up like that. Well I did that once and they took advantage of me. Well it feels insincere.” I mean there’s a hundred reasons why people that don’t naturally just throw words of affirmation out or words of belief out, why they don’t do it.

Number one, it’s true in this space as it is in everything else. Excuses are no excuse. I don’t care what you didn’t get from your parents. I don’t care what didn’t happen to you. I don’t care what your nature is. Should you be expressing belief in people, yes or no?

Becky Bursell:

And you develop what you practice.

Mark Cole:

And you develop what you practice. The answer is yes, then now you have to practice. Kill the excuses so you’re not like that, so your parents never gave that to you, so you did that once and the person left you. I get it, I get it, I get it. But all of that is just excuses because everyone wants to be believed in and leader, they want to be believed in you and they want to hear it from you.

Becky Bursell:

I believe that too. I think you and I are obviously naturally expressive. We don’t have a problem putting words in the universe. But I will find that there are moments that I may have missed and you and I travel enough that I think we’ve both created habits of what we do when we’re on airplanes. And for me, it has become a moment that I write love letters to the people I care most about.

Mark Cole:

Wow, I like that.

Becky Bursell:

So on my phone, I have categorized notes to all of my children, to even my son-in-law, to my husband. And those are the moments where I can actually be very open and expressive and I can reflect on what’s going on in their lives and my life. And then I’ve decided at the end of every year, I’m just going to publish those and give them to them as a way to just remind them at moments when maybe they need to have … And maybe I’m not there and present all the time. Maybe I am in a different country as you can relate to. Maybe I am not right with them. But maybe that’s a moment they can look back and remember those moments that I’ve always believed in them.

And I think as a parent, especially … Sometimes it’s hard because we have this guilt of not being with them all the time or what did we leave unsaid? Or did we empower them? But I think, and I know this with you because I’ve seen Macy as well, I think the one thing that we’ve done right that we can give ourselves a little credit is those kids know their potential because hopefully at some point, they’ve been able to see themselves through our eyes.

And then you watch John on a different level, from a stage, with complete strangers sometimes, be able to empower people. I know he did that for me. The first time I ever saw John was in an event center with 15,000 people. And it was almost like he spoke right to me. Nobody else was there. We were best friends, he didn’t know it yet. But it was so impactful because it was all the words I needed to say to myself and here was this man who’d had all the experience, didn’t know me personally, but the words just resonated. And I think all of us have the power to do that. It’s just finding those moments.

Mark Cole:

You know as leaders, and you mentioned a couple times there about our travel. Couple times we’ve mentioned throughout this podcast about the load that a leader carries. And I think the greatest challenge to us expressing that we believe in people is that we get so busy with task that we don’t notice that the people around us are belief deficient. Write that word down, they’re belief deficient.

And I’m just going to tell you, I think the greatest of leaders are not the ones that get the most done, are not the ones that have the greatest amount of affirmation around them. The greatest of leaders are the ones that have an awareness of the people they’re leading and when their belief quotient is low.

I’ll give you an example today that makes me sound a lot better than I am. Trust me, I can give you a lot of stories on the flip side of not being so good. But the last three days, a lot of stuff. I’m back in Atlanta, a lot of stuff on our social calendar. A lot of people have been waiting. This is August, obviously, and we had a dinner with friends last night that it was their Christmas present to us from last year. It’s August. We just had Christmas in August. And it was a wonderful time.

My point is, is my daughter, this is her first full week of being a junior in high school. And every time I call her because I try to stay very in touch with her, I’m in Atlanta so I’m waking up, talking to her. She doesn’t need me to drive her to school anymore. Oh Lord, Jesus help me. But every time she says, “Dad, this is hard. This year, I don’t know if I’ve got it.” Now this is a straight-A student, 4.125 whatever, top 18 in her school. She’s got it all okay but this is a new year fresh and she’s going, “I don’t know. Dad, chemistry accelerated. Chemistry is difficult and acceleration. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

She’s now said that three days this week. So this morning, I woke her up, 5:30 … Well, she’s already awake. I went up before I left to come here. I said, “Hey, Macy. I got an idea. I want us to do a daddy-daughter date this weekend when I get back. And I just want to talk about how you have impacted me in the last 10 years of your education.”

Becky Bursell:

Wow, that’s awesome.

Mark Cole:

Now, here’s the reason. I’m not always this good. I promise you, ask Becky because we work alongside each other. I probably needed to express belief to her. But I’ve noticed my daughter’s language has changed from when she was on top of the world as a tenth grader. It’s changed, she’s uncertain. What she really needs, she needs a dad that understands my belief quotient is down. Can you carve everything out and have a daddy-daughter date with me so that you can express belief?

And I’m already developing my talking points for this Sunday’s date day. I’m already developing where we’re going to go, some of her favorite shopping places, where when I get her something, I’m going to go, this is because you had straight-A’s in tenth. And by the way, I’m already planning what I’m going to get you at the end of eleventh grade because you’re going to be straight-A’s again. I’m already planning how I’m going to lift my daughter’s belief quotient because it’s down a little bit. She’s in the middle of new. It’s not clicking for her yet. And her whole world is being affected because her belief quotient is down.

My challenge to each one of us, Becky. Today, here’s my challenge; Who around you needs a belief kick? They need a Red Bull of belief. They need a kick of belief. Who is it? One, if you don’t know, you’re not paying attention because there are people around you that are low in their belief right now.

Becky Bursell:

Yeah, the question is who doesn’t need that?

Mark Cole:

Who doesn’t need that?

Becky Bursell:

Right.

Mark Cole:

And so once you identify somebody under your leadership, perhaps it’s a family member like mine is right now. Maybe it’s something else. Once you identify it, then make a statement to them that lets them know that you identify it. And then make a plan with them on how you’re going to instill belief in them. And I can promise you, they will benefit, your leadership will benefit. And like John, you’ll begin to live that fulfilled life that you heard in this podcast because we all, as leaders, want to be dealers of belief and hope.

Becky Bursell:

Absolutely. And growth is uncomfortable. That’s part of the process. I’m sure people have asked John, who seems like the most self-confident person in the world, you would never doubt yourself. But in those moments of growth, whether it’s Macy or us or John or anybody listening, I heard someone talk about, and he’s an Olympic athlete. He talked about how growth is a quotient of thirds. One-third of the time, you should feel good. One-third of the time you should feel just okay. And one-third of the time, you should feel like the world is crushing in around you. And that’s why I love when John says, when your head is underwater, why does it matter how deep you are? You’re just under water.

And I think that level of being able to resonate with the fact that growth is uncomfortable, it’s just a gauge to remind you that you’re actually in the right place. It shouldn’t be comfortable. You shouldn’t be 100 percent confident all the time. I mean if there aren’t days that you want to quit and retreat and bury your head in the sand, you’re probably not trying hard enough. And so that’s okay. And just give yourself the grace to realize I’m in a growth period. I’m going to let it go today. I’m going to fire myself tonight and hire myself tomorrow morning. And I’m just going to let it go. And I love that Macy’s experiencing that and you get to be the gauge in her life.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. You know it’s funny, as you were talking about that growth quotient, some days you’re not okay, some days you’re okay, and some days you’re killing it. I feel like I’ve got two quadrants. I’m either killing it or it’s killing me.

Becky Bursell:

There’s no okay day.

Mark Cole:

There’s no okay days.

Becky Bursell:

Well that’s hyper-growth.

Mark Cole:

I need that one right there. Hey, we have a standout statement that Jake, our producer, put in front of me today. He said, ‘First comes belief.” This is what we’re trying to finish up today and we want to close with. But, “First comes belief, second comes empowerment.”

And I’m so convicted by that as we’ve now listened to John, you and I have got to talk about how we’re applying what John said. I have spent too much of my leadership empowering people before I believed in them. I’ve spent too much time empowering people before they believed in themselves. I’ve spent too much time empowering people when there was so much uncertainty that the empowerment rendered ineffective. Not because I didn’t empower well but because I didn’t put that on a foundation of belief.

And we, as leaders, we’ve got to start with belief. Many of the challenges that we face is because we didn’t start either believing the person that we’re giving the task to could do it or the person believing that they couldn’t do it. And John puts a 10 on everybody’s head and the reason we do that at Maxwell Leadership is because we want to start with belief by both the leader and the person tasked with the responsibility. And then comes the right time to empower.

I love going into our listener’s mailbox and just hearing what viewers and listeners have to say. And today, we’re going to Ante. Ante listened to the podcast, The Greatest Gap In Life. In fact, we’ll put that in the show notes at Maxwellpodcast.com/leadersbelieve is where you can get both our show notes. But we’ll put in the show notes as well that podcast, The Greatest Gap In Life.

But here’s what Ante said. She said, “Thank you so much for the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is life-changing content and I listen to it over and over again.” Now Ante, if you listen to it over and over again because you hope it would get better the second recording, I’m so sorry but we’re glad you listened to it over and over again. And Ante says, “It is my booster every morning on my way to work. It helps me in my personal and professional relationships. My name is Ante and I am a Maxwell Leadership Podcast addict.”

Becky Bursell:

Awe, I love that.

Mark Cole:

I love that, too. She said, “God bless you, I dream of the day to be able to come to one of our live events.” Ante, I wish you could be in Orlando with me in four days because like I said at the beginning, we’re going to be doing the Day of Personal Growth. You can find out more about that at maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday. I hope somebody in the Orlando area or somebody that can jump on a plane will listen to this podcast and join us. We still have space for you. But if not, join us virtually and you can find out more information about even the virtual offering at maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday.

Hey, this is why we do what we do; Because the world wants powerful, positive leadership. They want powerful, positive change. They want positive, powerful belief because everyone deserves to be lead well.