Maxwell Leadership Podcast: Get Intentional With Your Growth

Mark Cole:

Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders, that’s you, who multiply value to others. That’s the people you and I serve. My name is Mark Cole and I’m the CEO of Maxwell Leadership. Did you know that growth is the only guarantee that tomorrow will be better? John Maxwell has said that many, many years. You probably have heard him say that before. If you’re like me, you’ve heard John say it 1,000 times, but I will tell you, it’s really true.

How can we be better tomorrow if we can’t grow today? Well, today we’re going to talk just about that. How do you and I grow, and how do we get better? In today’s episode, John Maxwell shares the law of intentionality and challenges us to close the growth gaps in our life. He also provides you with an intentional growth plan that you can begin implementing immediately after you listen to this episode. After John’s lesson, I will be joined by Chris Goede to talk about being an intentional leader.

How we can apply these principles from John’s lesson to our own leadership here at Maxwell Leadership. But before we get started, if you would like to download this episode’s bonus resource, it’s a fill-in-the-blank PDF that accompanies John’s lesson. Just go to maxwellpodcast.com/intentional and click the bonus resource button. You can also join us on YouTube and enjoy this lesson by visual representation of the same content, just go to maxwellpodcast.com/youtube. All right, we’re ready. Grab a pen, grab a paper, get ready to grow. Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:

I’m delighted today to talk to you about some of the laws of leadership. The first one I want to talk to you about is truly the first one I should talk to you about. Now, there are 15 of them, but you have to understand there’s one that I think is foundational for the other 14. Not more important, but foundational, and that’s the law of intentionality. That’s where we’re going to begin today. The law of intentionality just basically says growth is the only guarantee that tomorrow is going to get better. Isn’t that good?

If you’re going to grow and if I’m going to grow, we’re going to grow intentionally. Now, I’m talking to leaders today. I love talking to people that lead many people. To be honest with you, if I could just literally come off the stage and I could get real close to you, and we’d have like a one-on-one conversation, there are two questions that I would ask you. The two questions I’m about to ask you, will really determine how successful you’re going to be in this business. Without any question, these are the two questions.

It’s not like there’s three or there’s four, or there’s seven. There’s two, okay? Just trust me on this. I’m an old man, I know this. I’ve been around the block a few times. There are two questions that if you’re going to answer in a positive way about yourself, you’re going to be very successful. If you really cannot answer that in a positive way, to be honest with you, you’re not going to be near as successful as you would like to be. The first question is very simple. What are you doing to develop yourself?

If you’d say, “By gosh, John. I’ll tell you right now, I’m doing a lot to develop myself. I’ve got a personal growth plan and I’m intentional in this, and I’m doing this on a daily deal.” If you could say that to me, then I’d say, “Hey, we’re in good shape here, we’re in good shape because that’s the key.” What are you doing to develop yourself? By the way, the reason that’s first is not because you want to be selfish. It’s like almost a selfish question. Person says, “Well, why do I start with myself?”

The reason you start with yourself is because you cannot give what you do not have, so you better start with yourself. Because if you’re leading others and have nothing to give them, nothing to share with them, nothing to teach them, then I can promise you, you’ll never be what you want to be as a leader. I can promise you that after 40 years of personal growth, the secret of any success, if I’ve had any success at all, the secret of that success has been personal growth in my life.

Growth has literally placed me where I am. What are you doing to develop yourself? It’s a huge question. The 15 laws of personal growth, basically these laws are all about developing yourself and developing the second question, what are you doing to develop others? You see, on the first question, you’re foundational for your future. The second question is all about compounding multiplication. That’s where you build a huge business, when you know how to develop other people.

What we have to understand about the law of intentionality is that you cannot develop yourself and you cannot develop your people unless you’re intentional. I discovered that in my 20s when I sat down and had breakfast with a guy named Curt Kampmeier at the Holiday Inn in Lancaster, Ohio, when he asked me the question, “John, do you have a plan for personal growth in your life?” Didn’t have a plan. Didn’t know I was supposed to have a plan. Nobody ever told me I was supposed to have a plan.

I graduated. I was working hard, doing my very best to reach my potential, but nobody ever walked in my life until Curt Kampmeier did and said, “John, do you have a plan for personal growth in your life?” I didn’t have one. I was embarrassed. I thought back then I had to have answers. I acted as if I did, and that didn’t really work very long. I was like a plane circling an airfield trying to come in for a landing. Finally, I just shut up and landed that plane. He looked at me and I’ll never forget, he said, “You don’t have a plan, do you?”

I said, “No, I don’t have a plan.” Then he said to me, “John, growth is not automatic. If you’re going to have to grow, you’re going to have to grow on purpose.” That day, my life was changed. What Curt was saying is if you’re going to grow, you have to be intentional. It starts with me. The problem is we have what I call growth gaps. The reason that we’re not intentional in our growing, is there are just some gaps that keep us from getting to where we need to go. I’m going to give you about a half a dozen of them really quickly.

The first one is the assumption gap. The assumption gap just basically says, “I assume that I’ll grow automatically.” You see, most people that live by assumption. 99% of people today are assuming, just assuming, that somehow they’ll get better. Very sad, folks, very sad because let me tell you something about assumption. Assumption is a huge disappointment in life. You show me a person that assumes, and I’ll show you a person that almost daily is disappointed.

The first gap is a gap that leaves many people short, and that’s just a pure assumption gap. The second one is the knowledge gap. The knowledge gap is basically, I don’t know how to grow and we’ve all been there. In other words, “Okay. I know that I need to be intentional in my growth, but I really don’t know how to grow.” I’ve been there. This is worth this whole lesson if you can just get this. The reason I’m so passionate about personal growth, is personal growth keeps me prepared.

In other words, if I’m continually growing, I’m continually developing myself, and I’m continually learning and I’m continually doing new things, and going to another step higher. Can I tell you what that is? That constant growth is the preparation for the opportunity. When the opportunity comes, here’s the way. You don’t go into an opportunity. You grow into an opportunity. I’m passionate about personal growth because for that person who says, “Wow, I had an opportunity, I wasn’t ready.”

If you’re growing, you’re always ready. Because after I intentionally started growing, I made a commitment to grow as a leader. I started writing, I became an author, I developed growth resources for other people. I founded my first company, I began training conferences. Everything I can think of that has ever been good in my life, was a result of the fact that I started personal growth in my life. I know I’m known for leadership, I understand that. But my passion in life more than anything else is personal growth.

Because if you grow personally, you can be a great leader. But if you don’t grow personally, you can’t be a good leader. Everything in life that you’re ever going to want is based upon your ability to develop yourself. Curt Kampmeier said, “John, you’ve can’t just accidentally grow. You got to grow on purpose,” and so I started. I got to thinking yesterday when I was getting ready my last preparation for this lesson, I got started. Guess what? When I got started let me tell you what I didn’t have.

I didn’t have experience. I didn’t have knowledge. I did not have a motto. I did not have a mentor. I did not have a plan. I did not have a fellow traveler. I did not have resources. I did not have money. I did not have a growth environment, but I got started. You don’t stop or not start because of what you don’t have. You don’t start because you don’t realize yet that the fruit of everything good in life begins with the challenge. There’s nothing easy in life, worthwhile in life.

Everything is uphill that’s worthwhile. It’s not going to come to you and it’s not going to fall in your lap. It’s not going to be something that, “Oh my gosh, it just was so simple.” It’s always going to be difficult. How do we go from growth doesn’t just happen to making growth happen? Now, here’s the practic and you just don’t want to miss this because I’m going to give you some stuff right now. This is pure gold, okay? This is so good, I hardly want to give it to you.

The reason I hardly want to give it to you is because it’s so good, I don’t want you to misuse it. I’m going to give you an intentional growth plan right now. It’s just so simple. Let’s go. Okay, here’s my intentional growth plan. Number one, number one, make a commitment to intentionally grow. That’s where it starts. You say, “Well, John, that seems really simple. Make a commitment to intentionally grow.” Guess what? It’s really simple. Make that commitment to intentionally grow.

Number two, make that commitment public. A commitment that is not public is worthless because let me tell you something, we all have a tendency to stray. We all have a tendency to give up. We all have a tendency to get off course. Come on, there’s something beautiful about a shared commitment. A shared commitment becomes a strong commitment. Number three, identify the areas that you want to grow personally in. Identify them. In other words, sit down and say, “Okay, where am I going to grow specifically?”

Now, I’m going to help you here. When you start identifying the areas that you’re going to grow in, it should be at least two, and no more than five. Five’s probably a little heavy, but it has to be at least two. You say, “Whoa, how about just focusing on one?” Let me tell you why. You want to grow in an area of choice and you want to grow in an area of skill, so that’s two. When I’m talking about an area of choice, I’m talking about maybe your attitude. That’s a choice, isn’t it? I want to grow in an area of choice, maybe it’s discipline.

I want to grow in an area of skill. For me, I started off with attitude and speaking because I was speaking, I was a pastor. I want to be a better communicator. I said, “Okay, speaking. That’s a skill. I’m going to work on that. I’m going to work on my attitude.” Identify what are the two areas at least that you’re going to grow in? Then number four, invest one hour a day in those two areas every day, including Sundays, every day, seven days, 7/24, every day. Okay. When you spend that hour, I won’t even tell you how to spend the hour.

You spend the hour this way. Here’s the way it works. Preparation, practice, reflection. Preparation, practice, reflection. Preparation, practice, reflection. Preparation, practice, reflection. You do it every day, whether it’s your choice or whether it’s your skill, you prepare a little bit, practice a little bit, reflect a little bit every day. You’re going to find this is just huge for your life. Number five, invest one hour a week on reflection and writing on what you’re learning.

To take an hour every week and say, “Okay. For the last seven days, this is what I’ve been practicing. This is what I’ve been preparing for, this is what I’ve been reflecting,” and start that. Now, let me tell you the secret on this because I’m now talking about writing, I’m talking about maybe journaling a little bit. Let me tell you something, don’t try to journal a lot. Start with jotting. Jot before you journal. See, I jot every day. I don’t journal every day, but I jot every day, four or five words.

Oh my gosh, they’re just mental kicks for me, okay? Then at the end of the week, you may have 12 jots down, you with me? You go get those jots and you say, “Okay, now I’m going to spend 35 minutes, I’m going to start writing. What did that mean to me?” Just jot and then journal. Then number six, share your growth with someone. Every week, find somebody that you can share your growth with, and let me tell you how this works. You sit down with, “I want to tell you what I’m learning. I want to tell you how I’m growing.” Here’s how this works.

This is beautiful. When you share your growth with someone, if they’re happy, do it the next week. You with me? “Okay, can I share with you now?” If they’re happy, keep sharing. If they’re not happy, start moving. Don’t ever spend time with people that aren’t thrilled with your progress. The friends I dropped in my early years, the friends I dropped in my early years were those people that weren’t thrilled with my progress. Are you with me? They weren’t thrilled at all with my progress.

Those are the ones I left behind. I got some new friends. That’s what you got to do because let me tell you something, if you become intentional in your growth, you’ll outgrow almost everybody you know.

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Mark Cole:

Chris, what has it been? 20 plus years that you and I have been in this environment. We’ve talked about growth, I guess, every way that we can. Yet today, it’s just as relevant in your 20 plus years of tenure, executive on our team, running the nation, running around the nation speaking, and yet you’re still growing. I know that about you and I’m the same way. I’ve just been challenged. Even most recently, I’ve been challenged to grow significantly. Hey, I never get tired of this subject, and I never get tired of this subject talking to it with John, 75 years young.

Chris Goede:

Still doing it.

Mark Cole:

Still doing it. Never get tired of working alongside of people like you that’s still doing it. Man, I’m excited.

Chris Goede:

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. Then it to be modeled by John, you’re on the road with John. You guys are at different conferences, speakers and meetings.

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 he just models that. He’s given that to us, so much so, that I brought this. For those that are watching on YouTube.

Mark Cole:

I love it.

Chris Goede:

Okay, this is a little show and tell.

Mark Cole:

I love it.

Chris Goede:

I did it yesterday too in our leadership team meeting. I’m in a show and tell mode, we’re going back to elementary school, but that’s all right. So much so, that as you helped us cast vision and come up with our mission, and what’s important in our organization, and we do believe that everybody deserves to be led well. Obviously, you wanted people first. 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.

On there, 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. I won’t mention our age as we get into this, but we also believe that it happens daily, not in a day. What I love about that is that John says, “If we want things to get better, then we’ve got to go after it 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. We’ve heard John talk about everything worthwhile is uphill.

Mark Cole:

Yep.

Chris Goede:

Man, growth can be an uphill battle. It doesn’t often happen when we’re going downhill and things are good. I want to talk a little bit, I want to lift the curtain on some things that you’ve been growing personally.

I think it’s so appropriate because you were so intentional behind this and it started. I think growth happens in a lot of ways.

Mark Cole:

Yeah.

Chris Goede:

You can observe it and learn, you can teach and learn, you can get feedback and learn. Matter of fact, I was on a call today with one of organizations that we work with, and it was Matt McClain with Wealth Advisors. Let me just read this real quick to. It says, “Man, feedback is a gift. It’s where you grow when given by the right person in the right manner, and received in the right way.”

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.

Mark Cole:

Yep.

Chris Goede:

We called it the family rooms. Mark set the stage and you said, “Hey, family rooms sometimes get uncomfortable. I want feedback.” That began a growth journey that I haven’t seen in you in a long time. We’re going to unpack that in just a minute. But what I want you to do is I want you to take us back.

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 what you’re doing, and we’ll talk about that in just a minute.

Mark Cole:

Well, 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 beat or was missing a little bit of something. Come to find out it was we were saying more than what we were doing. We were not completely matched up in our actions. It started there, and then that caused me to go, “I’ve got a problem in the organization. What is our problem? What is that?” This is not at all a negative thing.

This is very powerful and positive as we unpacked this, I’m sure. But 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.” 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 mentoring in my life has not changed. We still have that same formula. I went to John, I said, “Here’s my problem.” 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 plane time. John, this is why I think this is the problem. Yeah, I think it is the problem. No, it’s not the problem, Mark. No, it’s not. Finally, after he had listened to me long enough, which was about 10 hours, he identified the real problem.

The real problem was that I needed to roll up the sleeves and get engaged in the lifeblood, in the culture, in the day-to-day rigor of our organization, and so that started it. 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 in what’s going on in the organization, were these family rooms, Chris. You were a part of them. Yeah. In fact, you were a part of the very first one. I remember this. Man, they were about 12 or 13 of them.

Chris Goede:

There’s a lot. You dedicated a lot of time to it.

Mark Cole:

In those family rooms, Chris, a real reoccurring opportunity, challenge, opportunity to really address things in the organization began to bubble up. 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 beginning to be intentional about fixing it.

Chris Goede:

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 the hearts were pure. You received it the right way. John says, “The only way it’s going to get better is well, is if we grow.”

Mark Cole:

Yeah.

Chris Goede:

You got to do that. I’m going to go out of order a little bit here. John gave us 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.” 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 year-long process of that in probably just about three days. Talk about then what you heard, what you learned as you’re growing through this, 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.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. Before the growth plan, it started with 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. Then they need to spend the best part of their day in that. For me, the best part of the day is the morning. Immediately coming out of family rooms, Chris, you’ll remember this.

I carved out and canceled 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. I came out of that family room, I had already carved out every morning was going to be focused on my one thing. 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 focusing on in the organization.

It really started their way before the growth plan that we’ll get to. I started really assessing with a clear mind, with an undistracted attention. Then with as much creativity that I could muster in a one-on-one, one to myself environment, I began working through how do I creatively go after these five areas?

Chris Goede:

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. John says, “Hey, we’re going to make a commitment.” 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 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. John’s given us his plan and it’s in direct alignment with that.

Mark Cole:

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.

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 I still could come back and say, “Our common problem was momentum.”

Chris Goede:

Correct.

Mark Cole:

That was with some parts of our organization having best years ever, some teammates having personal best years ever. We still had a momentum problem to what? To the vision that unified us all together.

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 around a plan. The problem and then figure out a way to unify everybody to the same problem. That was a dance. That was a challenge.

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

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. Then I had other teammates that we just were not out of the starting block yet. How do I unify everybody on We have a momentum problem? 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 simplicity too. What’s the word? How does that word apply to everybody?

Chris Goede:

That’s good.

Mark Cole:

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.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. It became our rallying cries is in essence is what you were doing. No matter where each vertical or team was doing, didn’t matter. As a whole, as a team, that became our rallying cry together.

I’ve heard you say simplify a ton of times in the last 90 days. You simplified the problem and you go, “Okay, now I got to grow in that area.”

Mark Cole:

Yep.

Chris Goede:

Talk to us a little bit about what you did.

Mark Cole:

Yeah, sure.

Chris Goede:

Remember, we’re trying to keep this podcast under three hours.

Mark Cole:

Yes, exactly.

Chris Goede:

But I know how intentional you were about that and the amount of resources you consumed. Talk about that process.

Mark Cole:

I’m privileged to have a weekly call with a bunch of leader minded people. 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.” I just took all of that, assimilated. There was a lot of redundancy. People recommended the same thing. Then that became at the top of my list.

Chris Goede:

Top of the list. Yeah.

Mark Cole:

I have been, in fact, yesterday in a leadership meeting that you and I were in, somebody brought me another book on momentum. I’m just consuming that and digesting it. 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 four-hour day. 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. 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.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. What I’ve also seen, and I haven’t mentioned this to you, but I watched you walk the fourth quarter, and then through that end of the year and the reflection. There’s some discouragement there, certain things, right?

Mark Cole:

Yeah.

Chris Goede:

All of us have discouragement areas of our life that we wish we grew in. But what’s been fascinating for me to see, and again, this will be the first time you hearing this out of my mouth, which is when I saw you prioritize that. I mentioned to you yesterday, this can 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 intentionality of growth that John’s talking about here.

You become happier might be a little bit of a soft word, but you become stronger, you become more confident, you almost become more resilient to that uphill battle that we’re taking. What I love about it is you absolutely, John’s second point in the plan is you make that commitment public, and you do that. You talk about it, we’re talking about it on the podcast.

Mark Cole:

Yep. Yep.

Chris Goede:

But more importantly, you share that with specifically our leadership team every time you come in there. John says early on in the lesson, “What are you doing to develop yourself and others?” I know that we are growing.

I’ve read more books, 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?

Mark Cole:

Three reasons, Chris, that comes to mind immediately. Like Chris said, this was not scripted or prepared, but three reasons. One is accountability. I always grow better on a personal level, at a team level because like you said, I wrote that down too. John, how are you growing personally?

How are you growing your team? 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.

Chris Goede:

You share it with us, yeah.

Mark Cole:

That’s accountability. The second reason is common language. I want people to know what is driving the intentionality around my leadership right now. What’s happening is you’re picking up some of those books, others are picking up that book. 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.

Again, this is just really just family talk, which I love this podcast, by the way. Yesterday, the way we complimented one another was staggering to me. I don’t think we’ve ever complimented one another as much as we did yesterday in that meeting. I could tell you’re reading the books. Then you were talking about some of the practices and principles that we’re using in the first person. “Hey, we’ve got to.” I went, “You go, Chris.”

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

I don’t even have to say it because of being repeated, 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 expectation of why we’re doing this, the desired outcome.

Chris Goede:

That’s good.

Mark Cole:

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.

Chris Goede:

Meeting phase.

Mark Cole:

Meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. Matter of fact, I got home last night and my wife’s like, “Well, how many steps you had today?” I was like, “I refused to report.”

She’s like, “We’re going on a walk,” because I’ve been with Mark in meetings all day trying to figure this out, but you got to do that. You got to [inaudible 00:35:07].

Mark Cole:

That’s going to drive that common set of outcomes that you’re wanting, so it’s all based on intentionality.

Chris Goede:

Yeah, I love that. 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 you’re doing. I want you to close on this thought of growth. You and I could talk about this because we are the product, right?

Mark Cole:

Yeah.

Chris Goede:

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, it’s really important in here. He’s like, “Hey, start off by saying what’s one area of growth of choice? Then what’s one area of skill?” 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 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. Then you also have a skill set. Talk a little bit about the power of having both of those, how you come to them in your growth journey, and then what that looks like.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. For me, the word for the year is the focus. It’s 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 compliment the word, the concept.

Chris Goede:

Got it.

Mark Cole:

I think 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. That’s what I have found. The people that are the most effective today, people that are listening and viewing this podcast, you’re writing it down.

I’m proud of you. Congratulations. I’d give you a standing ovation 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. I’m sure we have, because John has.

Chris Goede:

John’s helped us.

Mark Cole:

We’re good. But what I hope just as much, not more than, but just as much is you put a skill, a challenge, an application to it, that will make you effective.

I do a year end 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.

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

The idea, the concept, the discipline without the skill application, would render it useless I would contend. Maybe a little bit of useful, but I’m going to tell you, learning without application is not growth.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. Remind us again, how many years you’ve been with John?

Mark Cole:

23.

Chris Goede:

23 years. You would admit and you did, and I would absolutely back you up on this, the last 90 days, the greatest growth you’ve had. 23 years with the greatest leadership organization and leader that you and I know, yet you’re still growing at a pace. That’s what we should strive to do. That’s what makes things better. Again, as we wrap, one little question on this. 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 man, I want them to develop a growth plan because we know what’s on the other side of that. It 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. This is the best way. John talked about this is where he started.

This is where you need to start. You can be intentional about it and you can develop that. Then maybe never look at it again. How often do you, that rigor that you developed, and you try to follow as you wrap up? How often do you check that and hold yourself accountable to it and adjust it, or maybe just check the box?

Mark Cole:

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.

Chris Goede:

Got it.

Mark Cole:

I’ll 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. 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 probably to once a week. 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 end review this year, 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. That plan that I got in one setting is a living, breathing organism that makes sense.

Chris Goede:

That makes sense.

Mark Cole:

I’ll tell you a couple of things that I want to do to wrap today that I feel really strong about. There’s two things that I want to challenge you to do personally because I’m so passionate about personal growth, and it’s only the, what is this, the 18th of the month? It’s really, if you’re listening to it live, some of you’ll listen to it. We’re only 18 days into this year, and I want to challenge you to get really intentional. One of the things that I want to challenge you to do is I want you to pick up this book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell.

This is one of my favorite. I had to say, my very favorite is Developing the Leader Within You. My second favorite is The 15 Laws of Growth. I want to challenge you. We’ll give you a discount of 15% off, if you’ll go into the show notes, click the link, use the promo code podcast. We’ll give you that discount. The other thing I wanted to offer to you is on March the 13th, Chris and I will be in Orlando for our Maxwell Personal Growth Day that we have established. We’ve got people, we’ve got about seven or eight presenters.

I’ll give you three of them just in this session. John Maxwell, Valerie Burton, Pat Lencioni will all be sharing about how you can grow yourself, grow your team, grow your vision. We’ll have different aspects of growing at this one day. I really want to challenge you to come. You’re going to hear about this in upcoming podcasts. We’re going to really put this out there for our podcast family, because you’re going to be able to grow yourself.

You’ll be able to grow your influence, grow your impact, grow your team, grow your communication. All these are levels of growth that we’re going to talk about, so that’s there. If you will, go to maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday, maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday, you’ll get all the information there. We’ve got some VIP packages, we’ve got several things. But here’s where I was going today, and this is shaped by the conversation we had right before.

Of all the things that I have been honored by with Chris and Sarah Goede, including getting invited to his wife’s special birthday. We’re not going to give the time because she listens to the podcast or we’re not going to give the year because she listens to the podcast. But that was a real honor to me, Chris, that you would invite Stephanie and I to this. But the most incredible honor you gave me was when his son, Ryland, was turning 13.

He invited me to be one of six people to speak to Ryland about growing himself, about what growth would be. Ryland, just number one, he just played football and won a second national championship that only eight other teams has done, the Georgia Bulldogs. Go, Dogs, forgive me, is still only a few days away, so I’m still basking in it. Ryland Goede, number 88, he played in a national championship and got a second ring. Very few people have ever done that.

But he’s decided to make some significant changes in his life for a growth perspective, for more opportunity. He’s going to leave the comfort of a situation and challenge himself to go. I just right before we went, I read the note that he posted on his Twitter page. If you want to read it, know more about it, go follow him, Ryland Goede, number 88, University of Georgia. Go check that out but here’s the point of that.

The reason that letter was so written was because years ago they made a decision, he and Sarah, that they were going to challenge their kids to make personal growth decisions. He stands at a place in life to where he could choose comfort, or get out of his comfort zone to make the best next step for himself. He was able to make that because the only guarantee of tomorrow is going to be better is because of growth today.

Chris Goede:

That’s good.

Mark Cole:

Now, why did I say all that today? Not to embarrass you or your family, and I hope I didn’t embarrass Ryland. We’ll edit it out two years from now.

We’re not going to edit it out first, but here’s why. Because a parent made a decision to include their family to events like March the 13th.

Chris Goede:

Oh, that’s so good.

Mark Cole:

I’m just going to tell you, I need you to come to Orlando. By the way, there’s two different ways that you can come. Go to maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday, and there’s a virtual option, which I hope you’ll come if you can’t get to Orlando. But I really want to meet you. I really want to challenge you to get a family member to come with you, a young person, maybe a significant other.

Maybe it’s a teammate because you can’t see the forest for the trees for your family at this point. But I’m going to tell you, it’s because you and Sarah, who we just celebrated a big birthday with, and it’s because of what y’all put in them starting at 13, to get them in growth environments, that produced he wrote that whole Twitter post by himself.

Chris Goede:

He did.

Mark Cole:

Didn’t need mine, your help or anybody else’s. He did it because there was a decision you made a long time ago that we’re going to focus on growth as much as athletics.

Chris Goede:

That’s right.

Mark Cole:

Are you, my dear podcast listener, are you focused on growth? Number two, are you challenging those closest to you to focus on growth? If you are, I’ll see you in Orlando on March 13th.

If you’re not, pick up the book at least and start investing in yourself with intentionality because it is a difference maker. I want to close today as I always like to do. I really wanted to do this one, Chris, because you get a shout-out here.

Chris Goede:

All right.

Mark Cole:

George, George was listening to part one of Great Leaders or Great Teachers, it’s a podcast that you and I did.

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

You’ll remember that one, we’ll put it in the show notes for you. Here’s what George said. He said, “Thank you, John Maxwell, Mark, and Chris Goede. Listening to part one of this series was a great eye-opener for me, and it has helped my leadership. It’s not about you, it’s about them.”

Remember making that statement. “That’s my responsibility as a leader to go and meet the people I’m leading, to know where they are and how I can help them get to where they want to go.” Man, George, you got it.

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

That is my responsibility as a leader of leaders, said George, get to their heart first and then ask for their hand. George, you got it. You picked it up. Thanks for this incredible comment.

Those of the rest of you that would like to leave us a comment, please do so. Until then, the world needs powerful, positive change and everyone deserves to be led well.