The Optimistic Leader

Mark Cole:

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, and today, John Maxwell is going to be sharing a lesson on the optimistic leader. I can tell you, after 23 years of being on his team, there is none more equipped, none more ready to be able to teach a message that he lives than John Maxwell teaching on optimism.

You see, aligning yourself with an optimistic mindset can help you be a better leader and lead to greater levels of success in your organization. After John’s lesson, I will be joined by my co-host, Becky Bursell, another optimistic leader, as we reflect on how optimism has helped us become better in our leadership, better in our lives, better in our perspective. We’ll also share some practical ways that you can apply this lesson to your own life, to your own leadership.

If you haven’t done so yet, please check out this podcast on YouTube by visiting maxwellpodcast.com/youtube. Also, be sure to download the free fill in the blank PDF we’ve created for you to help you take notes and follow along. You can do that at maxwellpodcast.com/optimistic. That’s it. Here’s Mr. Optimism himself. Enjoy John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:

Find the benefit in every bad experience. What’s the benefit in every bad experience? The character trait in this one is optimism. The ability to see life from what I would call the sunny perspective. Now, I’ve tried this at conferences. In fact, I’ll try this here. I ask people all the time, “How many of you have ever had a bad experience?” In the room. Raise your hand. Have you had a bad experience? How many of you had a bad experience in the last week? Okay. We all relate. This morning? We’re getting personal here. All right. We won’t go any closer than that.

I didn’t say point to your bad experience. I just said, “How many of you had one?” But for some of us, it’s very easy. Now, when I ask them, “Has everybody had a bad experience,” I always get 100% response. Then, I ask them a second question. That is, “Do you always find the benefit of the bad experience?” You know what I find? I find that we go from 100% of everybody says, “Yeah. I’ve had a bad experience. Let me tell you my hard luck story, da da da.” We all have them.

But when I say, “Have you found the benefit of the bad experience?” The hands go down to about 20%. Now, what I’m saying to you is that we all have one thing in common, and we all have one thing that’s not in common. The one thing we all have in common is bad experiences. We all know what it’s like. It can be in the family. It can be in the business. It can be in health. We have a whole bunch of bad experiences. We all have had bad experiences. That’s not the issue.

The question is have we seen, have we found, have we searched for, have we pulled out the benefit of the bad experience? Let’s talk about it. Because the character trait is optimism. Let me give you some thoughts on optimism. Here’s one. Optimism is not an excuse to pursue unrealistic goals. Just because you’re optimistic, it’s not an excuse to pursue unrealistic goals. In other words, I see people that have what I call the spirit … I don’t call it the spirit of optimism. I call it the spirit of an unrealistic mind.

For example, every day I exercise now for health reasons. That’s the good news. You know what the bad news is? I am not Olympic material. I’m really not. I know a lot of people say, “Well, if you just think it, you can do it.” I always want to stand up and say, “No. I don’t think so.” No. I think there’s a lot of things that I have foolishly thought that I just didn’t have the skills or ability to pull off. When I talk about optimism, I’m not talking about the fact that there are some people that you just see their optimism and you say, “Somehow, they have substituted optimism for realism.” I’m not talking about that at all.

Secondly, optimism does not justify irresponsibility. It’s not responsible for you, just because you’re optimistic, to buy everything that the world wants you to buy. If you make $40,000 a year, you may be an optimist and say someday you’re going to make a million. That’s good. But it probably at $40,000 does not justify you to go down and buy a brand new Porsche. You just probably shouldn’t try to pull that one off. Sometimes I run into people who sometimes they substitute their optimism and become irresponsible in it. I’m not talking about that at all.

Number three. Optimism will not change natural circumstances, nor will it bend the laws of nature. In other words, it’s just very simple. I know people who think somehow, if they’re optimistic, I suppose they could jump out of a four-story building and somehow they wouldn’t get hurt. You know what I mean? Or that you could eat the wrong foods and not pay for it sometimes. There’s a whole process of people who are optimistic that don’t understand that the laws of nature are the laws of nature. And that’s exactly what they’re going to be.

Next, optimism is not a remedy for a lack of preparation. I run to people who say, “Well, I feel good about this. I feel good about this speech I’m going to give.” Or, “I feel real good about this project I’m going to start.” I always say, “Well, have you spent time in discipline and preparation to it?” Because if you haven’t, I don’t really feel good about listening to it. I can almost guarantee you’re not going to pull it off.

“Well, I feel real good about this test I’m going to take.” Have you studied? “Well, I’ve looked at my notes a little bit, but I just feel real good about it.” Why don’t you feel bad about it? At least, bad enough about it to go back and study a little while longer. Here’s realistic optimism. Realistic optimism comes after you’ve had preparation. After you have done your part. Preparation is the foundation for realistic optimism. I want you to look at the sunny side of life. I want you to see things in a positive way.

So many times, I watch people who are optimistic, who have no foundation or reason for their optimism, except the fact that they just want to look on the bright side of life. I love that type of a person who looks on the bright side of life, but it’s a lot more enjoyable to take the journey with somebody who also has done some preparation to look on the bright side of life. One more thought. Optimism is not a manipulation tactic to get your own way. Don’t use it to get everybody else to ride along with you, if it is unfounded.

I’m going to take a moment here to share with you. I have an optimistic spirit. People that look at me say, “You sound very optimistic.” I think there are some people that are naturally optimistic. And I think there are some people that are naturally pessimistic. I want to be very careful to say to you that I think there’s a natural bent. Falling one way or another. I think it’s easy for somebody that has the natural bent to be optimistic, to look at everybody that isn’t and say, “Why don’t they get their act together?”

I don’t think it’s that easy. Nor do I want to slough this off. But I want to tell you what an optimistic spirit has done for me. It’s served me very well. The optimistic spirit allows you to do things that you just wouldn’t normally do. And the optimistic spirit has allowed me to look at failures in my life and learn from them. It’s allowed me to say, “Oh my goodness. I did that wrong. Back up. Start all over again.” All I’m saying is, in life, every one of us fail.

The issue is not our failure. The issue is, do we have a spirit within us that’ll allow us to come back from a failure? Nothing greater than an optimistic spirit will allow that to happen within our lives. In my Failing Forward book, I listened seven benefits from adversity. Giving you seven benefits. I just want you to look at it for a moment and ask yourself, “When I have a difficult situation, how well do I respond?” For example, your adversity created resilience within you.

Now, this is a huge tester. When you have adversity, does it create resilience within you? Or does it drain you and make you want to check out? Or your adversity developed maturity within you. Can you look after a very adverse situation and experience and say, “Oh my goodness. I am so much more mature now.” Or your adversity pushed your envelope of accepted performance. In other words, it pushed you out on the edge a little bit more. Or your adversity provided a greater opportunity or prompted innovation.

In other words, you got real creative in your adversity and said, “Man, this is not working. Let’s see if I can come up with a new thought.” Or your adversity recapped unexpected benefits. Or it motivated you. These are just things that you need to look at yourself and say, “How do I handle the bad experiences of my life?” Let me give you a couple of thoughts here on optimism. Number one. Optimism is not limited to a few people as a personality trait. Optimism is a choice.

I spoke to you earlier. I think there are some people have a bent towards optimism. I think some people have a bent to pessimism. I believe that with all my heart, but I want you to know it is a choice. After we get done figuring out our bent, whichever way it is, it still is a choice. The second thing about optimism I want you to know is this. Optimism doesn’t guarantee immediate positive results. Now, this is huge. Because I run into people who think that somehow, if they just get optimistic, everything will turn immediately for them.

They get optimistic. They say, “Things are going to get better.” And then, they go outside and they say, “Well, you know what? Five minutes ago, I said things are going to get better and they’re not better.” What you have to understand is that optimism doesn’t guarantee that things out there will change immediately. But I’ll tell you what it does guarantee. It guarantees that you can have an immediate personal change in your life. The change I’m going for isn’t your situation or your circumstances. The change I’m going for is inside of you.

In The Law of Process, I teach, “We overestimate the event and we underestimate the process.” We always do. What happens is we overestimate, “I’m going to think things are going to get better, so things should be getting better.” No. No. No. Just because you think things should get better doesn’t mean that’s going to happen. In fact, here’s what I wrote in here. It’s in your notes. “The choice to have an optimistic spirit when the circumstances are difficult allows you to start successfully. The challenge to have an optimistic spirit when circumstances continue to be difficult allows you to finish successfully.”

Winners initiate, I said this earlier, and finish better than others. And they do both of them well. The truly successful person can do both of the Bookends of Success. Thought number three is adversity is often life’s way of deepening and strengthening your character. In fact, Lou Holtz said, “Adversity is a way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn’t make me stronger.”

Now, I want to tell you something. Lou Holtz can say that, because Lou Holtz responds in the right way to failure and crisis. Can I tell you something? That is not a true statement. I run into people who say, “Adversity will make you stronger.” I want to stand up and say, “No. No.” I’ve seen people have adversity that made them bitter. I’ve seen people have adversity that made them weak.

Don’t ever say, “Adversity makes you stronger.” It’s your choice of what you do with that adversity. It’s that optimistic spirit. That’ll make you stronger. But adversity itself … The only thing I can say about adversity is it’ll never leave you the same. It’ll make you better or it’ll make you bitter.

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Mark Cole:

Hey. Welcome back. I said this before we broke to John, but Becky, I think John truly epitomizes optimism in an incredible way. It was fun to listen to him teach and put that into a reflection of what I’ve observed in his leadership for so long. We were talking right before we were recording. We both kind of cut our teeth professionally, so to speak, in sales.

Still to this moment, I can remember telesales with John’s organization 23 years ago. I needed to make 70 dials to get 20 to 25 spoke withs. To get those spoke withs, this was back in the day, where you were just smiling and dialing.

Becky Bursell:

Just playing with numbers.

Mark Cole:

20 to 25 spoke withs. 20 to 25 spoke withs would give me 15 that would give me hope for them buying my product. Now, 10 of those would say, “Let me think about it.” Five would say, “Give me more information.” Two of them would actually seal the deal that day. It’s funny. I can still remember to the day the numbers game. But it wasn’t the 25 spoke withs, it was the 55 I couldn’t get on the phone that required me to use optimism.

Becky Bursell:

Right.

Mark Cole:

It wasn’t the two that said, “Yes,” it was the 10 that couldn’t make a decision. It wasn’t the 10 that couldn’t make a decision, it was the 15 that couldn’t see the value of what I was going to do that challenged me to most use optimism. For all of our friends, Becky, all of our friends listening to the podcast that are involved in sales, have done sales, or are getting ready to do sales. You need to listen to this lesson again and again.

Becky Bursell:

You’re going to love this.

Mark Cole:

That’s exactly right. You know what I love? And Jake reminded me of this, when you guys were talking about this content and you hosting today. You don’t even necessarily consider yourself an optimist. Talk to me a little bit about that.

Becky Bursell:

No. I think there’s different levels. I think I’m optimistic about how things will turn out, but I’m very real on what the obstacles look like. And I think it’s important to see that. Setting somebody’s expectations that something is going to be easy is probably not the best way to set them up.

Mark Cole:

I think the way you said it is more of a realist.

Becky Bursell:

It is.

Mark Cole:

I would agree. I would call you an optimistic person. I said that when I said you were going to co-host with me today. Here’s what I think. This is not a positive or a negative. I think it’s just that it is what it is. I think a lot of times an optimistic person communicates more with what they hope will come to pass.

Whereas, when you said, “I feel like I’m more of a realistic …” You absolutely have a hopeful outlook on the future, but you’re not afraid to talk about what is.

Becky Bursell:

Right.

Mark Cole:

I can remember multiple conversations where you looked at me and said, “Hey, man. Don’t give me the optimistic report. Just let’s talk about what is.” I agree with that.

Becky Bursell:

Give me the hard stuff. Actually, we’ve had this conversation too. I actually take it as a sign of respect when somebody comes to me with something difficult. Because it means they realize, one of which, I care for them, but two, I’m hopefully respectful and mature enough to handle whatever it is they’re about to say. It doesn’t mean that sometimes it doesn’t sting, but if you go to the intention, not necessarily the content, it makes a huge difference in how you receive that.

Now, that’s 20 years of sales resistance talking right there. Because I wouldn’t say I was that way when I first started in sales, but looking at the numbers of how many times you are turned down, rejected, door-slammed, somebody hangs up on you, all the things. They come back at you and you start to realize, “Look. Just because I like emeralds and they diamonds, it doesn’t make emeralds less valuable to me.”

Maybe in the world it does as far as how somebody else values them. But if it’s what I like or it’s what I lean into, it’s valuable to me. Defining that really early on of what that value is, you’re able to kind of receive the hard stuff along with the optimism. I kind of rank it in levels. You’ve got the optimists. And then, John and Rob Hoskins say it really well. It’s the possibilist. Then, you’ve got the pessimist.

I would definitely say, the older I get, the more I live in the possibilist realm. Life will humble you in that aspect, being an optimist. Because when I was young, my mom would say I’m the bowl of cherries kid. “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” That’s because it’s what I wanted to pay attention to. When you’re young and you’re carefree, that’s where you want to live. But as you get older, you realize, “That’s not helping me long-term, to not recognize the problems, and then figure out how to adjust the sales.”

Mark Cole:

Well, and the book … I try to bring a book, a resource to extend the impact of any podcast that we do. Because we’re not transactional. We don’t believe that impact happens in a moment. Impact happens with several moments linked together. And so, I always try to bring a book.

I typically wait till the end and give you what I think the book is, but you and I were sharing right before we started recording how this book … For those of you not watching by YouTube, what’s wrong with you?

Becky Bursell:

Yes. Get with it.

Mark Cole:

Yes. Exactly. But those of you listening, I’m holding up a book that John wrote some 25 years ago now, 23 years ago, I guess, called Failing Forward.

Becky Bursell:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

In fact, Becky, this was the first book that I read as a Maxwell Leadership team member. I was on the team. This book had just been released. And I read the book Failing Forward. Now, I was just coming off of … Most of you that have heard my story, I was just coming off of one of the most challenging failure, misinterpreted, misunderstood times in my life.

And so, the book really was the timing issue for me of how good it is. But then, as you and I were talking about in sales or even in leadership, the idea of understanding that failure is not final, but failure given the right perspective, optimism, can be some of your best learning moments. I know, for me, some of the best things that I still rely on as leadership lessons in my life came on the back of what most people thought was failure that I’ve now discovered was some of my greatest lessons.

Becky Bursell:

It was sharpening.

Mark Cole:

It was.

Becky Bursell:

It absolutely was. Failing Forward, for anybody who hasn’t read it, it’s mandatory in life. Not just sales. Maybe somebody can resonate with this. If you’ve ever felt like life is just coming at you, it’s hard to step back and realize life is just happening.

It’s not happening to you. It’s just happening. How you bounce back from it, how you recover, how you get up, those are the things that define you, and where you’re going to apply those things. This is the kind of book that allows you a different perspective.

Mark Cole:

For sure.

Becky Bursell:

If you need a good change in perspective …

Mark Cole:

This is the book.

Becky Bursell:

And you’re not willing to wait years to figure it out like you and I have. Time allows us that perspective. It’s a gift to look back and be like, “That was supposed to happen and it was supposed to happen in a painful way. I was supposed to go through those things.”

But when you’re in it, it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like life is coming at you. That mindset of being right there in the thick of it and realize all you’re doing is Failing Forward. It’s beautiful.

Mark Cole:

It is. And it takes us to … John spent a good bit of time in this lesson talking about optimism. Talking about it’s not an excuse to pursue unrealistic goals. I think that might be the minimizing side of an optimistic person. You just kind of throw something out there. By the way, if you don’t hit it? That’s okay. I’m optimistic that it must not have been in the stars.

Becky Bursell:

Right. It wasn’t meant for me.

Mark Cole:

That’s right. You go from optimism to optimism. Let me overcome the fact that I just didn’t accomplish something with another spirit of optimism.

Becky Bursell:

Yes. Yes.

Mark Cole:

I do think that John is onto something when he says people over-employ or overuse optimism. Have you seen that happen?

Becky Bursell:

I have. And I understand the weaponizing thing. For someone who’s married to a very logical thinker, he can be deemed very easily a pessimist by people around him. Because he doesn’t just buy into what everybody else buys into very quickly. For me, if it sounds good and it makes me feel good, I’m like, “Okay. Let’s go.”

Mark Cole:

Let’s do it.

Becky Bursell:

I’m like, “Ride or die. No matter what we’re doing or going.” He’s like, “No. No. I have a series of questions and I want to know.” Because we love to label things, that can come off as pessimistic. It’s not. He actually wants to have a deep understanding, and he wants to be very thoughtful of his decisions. It’s just a different process. I think sometimes we use that as a weapon.

If somebody asks questions, they’re being negative. That’s not necessarily true. If somebody wants to point out a blind spot, they’re considered negative. And so, you have to be careful. There’s a timing thing where you don’t want to bring somebody down or change an energy about it. But at the same time, we don’t necessarily want to weaponize it to label people as if that’s a good or a bad thing.

Mark Cole:

And that’s what we try to do so many times. I’m glad you said that, because I would consider myself more on the optimistic side externally. I would consider myself pretty pessimistic internally.

Becky Bursell:

Hard on yourself.

Mark Cole:

I’m hard on myself and very easier on others than I am on myself. We talked about that recently, sitting down with Valerie Burton. How it’s so easy when you’re coaching yourself to be really critical, and then to be very effusive, very encouraging. As an optimistic person, I look at somebody that is a realist, and I go, “Well, man. They’re kind of pessimistic.” Well, a pessimistic person looks at somebody that’s realistic and considers them way too optimistic.

Becky Bursell:

It drives them nuts.

Mark Cole:

It drives them nuts. I think we as a team, we need realistic people on the team. We need very hopeful people, but we need people that are what I call contrarians. I’ve always looked, Becky, because of my optimism, which can create many blind spots … Not just a few, but many. It can almost create this sense of naivety that really makes you not as effective as you should be.

I’ve always tried to counter my external optimism by surrounding myself with what I call contrarians. People that will give it to me hard. People that will give it to me with the glass half-empty kind of mindset, that will allow me to see another side of what I call optimism. They probably call it euphoria. I don’t know what they call it, but I think we really have to work through that as leaders.

Becky Bursell:

I think it’s why you and I married who we did. It’s because they challenge us.

Mark Cole:

That’s right.

Becky Bursell:

We love that, because we love the process. Not just the outcome. The idea of being around someone that agreed with me all the time, it would be boring to me. But that, again, is how I’m wired. Because I love the challenge and I want people to call me out.

But that also requires me purposefully … I put a lot of people in my circle that are very forgiving, because that’s how they love me is because they’re very forgiving. Because I do ask questions. Or I do push back a little bit. I want to know why they think the way they do. Sometimes that can feel a little like, “You’re trying to change me.”

Mark Cole:

For sure.

Becky Bursell:

And it’s really me trying to understand them. Even going back to our 16 Laws of Communication, I think it’s interesting how as a leader and as somebody who wants to connect with someone … If we focus on what the win is, “I’m trying to communicate something and I need to focus on the win,” you can change your style to connect with that person.

That willingness to do it allows you that capability. But again, with the possibilist, I always think everything is figure out-able. There’s always an answer somehow. It might not come on my timeline, it may not come in the way I wanted it delivered, but I always feel like there’s always an answer.

Mark Cole:

Always an answer. And as John says, there’s always more than one. There’s usually more than one answer. Hey. I want to go … One of the things that John talked about when he was very authentically talking about optimism. He said, “Optimism is not a remedy for a lack of preparation.”

I kind of starred that in my notes. Because I have found often, not always … All you optimistic people out there, don’t get offended with me. I love you. I relate to you. You’re my people. But I have found that they use woo or charisma or that optimism to overcome the lack of preparation. I love that John cautioned all of us people that bend toward optimism to not allow that. To say, “It’s going to work out. I don’t need to prepare.”

Becky Bursell:

Sometimes influence can be abused. Because you’re charismatic or you have a title or you have those things. Again, it goes to the heart of what your intention is. Am I doing this to move people to my outcome? Or am I doing this to help people get their outcomes? What is going to be best for them? It’s interesting how our ego always plays a part in all of these aspects.

Mark Cole:

It does.

Becky Bursell:

Gosh. Darn it. I don’t want it to, but it always does. It always comes back to that. And I think I’m figuring out, in my old age, how to partner with my own ego. It’s almost like this idea. The last 10 years, you’d fight it, where you’re like, “I don’t want an ego. I don’t want it there.” But at the same time, your ego protects you from a lot of things as well too.

You’re fighting against what’s naturally supposed to be there. Finding a way to just partner with it where it’s beneficial to you is kind of that sweet spot. Maybe that is that possibilist. Maybe it’s where you can see both sides, but you can stand in the middle and you can then connect with people that are optimistic and pessimistic. Without trying to change them.

The worst thing that could happen is somebody listens to this podcast and will be like, “I’m going to go change someone that’s pessimistic.” Or, “It’s my job to deliver a slice of reality to this optimist.” It’s not. Because they’re going to have to go through what they’re going to have to go through to get to that place. Or realize, “I’m only willing to see what I’m willing to see at this point in my life.” Sometimes that just takes a nice friend to hold their hand while they see what they have to see.

Mark Cole:

Learn it.

Becky Bursell:

Life will deliver it no matter what.

Mark Cole:

As we kind of close out today, I want to go into this last point that John made as an observation about optimism. What he said was, “Adversity is often life’s way of deepening and strengthening our character.” Here’s one of the ways I know that I’m an optimist. I really don’t like adversity.

Yet, I know adversity is necessary to perfect us. Iron sharpens iron. The adversity reveals us. It gives us a glimpse into ourself. It shows whether we’re a pretender or a player, as John talks about. As I thought about this whole concept of really not liking adversity, I have people around me that hate adversity.

Becky Bursell:

Yes. Avoid it at any cost.

Mark Cole:

Avoid it at whatever the cost. I loved his statement when he said, “Adversity may not make you better. It could make you bitter.” But he said, “Here’s what you will know. Adversity will always change you.”

Becky Bursell:

Always.

Mark Cole:

Always. I thought, “Wow. Is that not true?” I’ve sat through adversity. I’ve walked through adversity. I’ve been challenged with adversity, and it always brings out something in me that was not there before.

Becky Bursell:

Here’s a hard thought. Because a lot of times, you think of adversity, you think of a situation out of your control. Or you think it’s someone else doing something to you. I was sitting in our church a few weeks back, and I heard a pastor asking a question … Basing it on forgiveness was really the lesson.

And if you think about it, I think that’s the truest form of forgiveness, is when you can look back at something and be grateful that it happened to you. But he asked a question that really sat with me. He said, “What if the worst thing you’ve ever done is still ahead of you?”

Mark Cole:

Wow.

Becky Bursell:

And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought, as a possibilist or an optimist, you don’t even go there. That moment. For someone who’s a pessimist or has a tendency to look for things, that’s a heavy weight. Just that question hit me heavy. Imagine if that is your mindset all the time? How heavy that is. I think it is important to have optimists and pessimists and possibilists.

That’s what makes our world so beautiful is that we can all kind of help each other through this crazy thing called life. But that forgiveness of … Because I know you too. You have such a beautiful heart. You’re so easy to get over things with other people.

But the idea that you have to prepare yourself to even forgive yourself of what could be the worst thing still in front of you. All of this adversity. You better decide firsthand, “Am I going to be bitter? Or am I going to be better right now?” And know that those things can still happen. Because life is still real.

Mark Cole:

I love this quote from Melinda Gates. She said, “Optimism isn’t a belief that things will automatically get better. It’s a conviction that we can make things better.” I think that’s one of the final things I would leave with our podcast listeners and viewers today, that optimism is not this passive thing. It’s a very active thing. The active is not in mindset as much as it is in setting your actions to improve the conditions around you.

I think that’s what Melinda was saying. I know that’s what John has been saying today. Hey. I want to leave something with you today from Beatrice. She listened to Ordinary To Extraordinary, a podcast. We’ll put that episode in the show notes. But this is what Beatrice says. She said, “I’ve been catching up on the episodes on Spotify from the very first one,” by the way, Beatrice, you are our favorite person. Thank you for that.

She said, “The 10 Phases of Being Realistic has been one of the key highlights in my journey. This episode is basically on replay for a while,” I’ve got some episodes like that as well, “Setting me back, but I think it’s worth soaking in.” Thank you for the resources and you’re welcome. We do what we do. One of the things that I mentioned earlier in the show was John’s book Failing Forward.

We want to make that available to you. It’s in the show notes. Click the link there. Use the key word PODCAST. You’ll get 15% off. That book will, as Becky said, change your life. That’s what we want. We want to bring powerful, positive change. Because here at Maxwell Leadership, we understand this. The world deserves to be led well. People that work for you, people around you, deserve to be led well. We intend on bringing powerful, positive change so that, you and I, we can lead well.