Become an Invaluable Leader: Live with Don Yaeger

Mark Cole:

Hey. Welcome, back, to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders. Yes, that’s you who multiply value to others. And today I am, as I say, often, but I really mean it today because today I am so excited because I bring you live into a room in Chicago with some incredible, incredible leaders. And in this room yeah, go right ahead. Podcast listeners and viewers. I have a feeling now that I’ve met this group and been with this group for a few minutes before we started recording. That’s not the last time you’re going to hear from them. They are in the room to learn and grow, but to let the world know they’re excited about growing. And that’s you, too. Our podcast listeners, week in and week out, 31 million times now, has tuned in and made this podcast exactly that, a podcast that’ll add value to leaders who multiply value to others. Now, today I’m joined by no stranger to our podcast family. In fact, Don, I don’t know if you know this, but you have appeared on the podcast outside of John Maxwell and me. You’ve appeared more than anyone else.

Don Yaeger:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

Don’s first appearance was with John, and I talking about the course Journey to Greatness. By the way, we’re going to put all of these in the show notes because I promise you, you’re going to want to go back and listen to it. So journey to greatness. Then you came on with Kyle Carpenter. Remember that? That was brilliant podcast, what a incredible American that you wrote a story about. And then you came on again for you and John to talk about. John Wooden, you have been mentored just like John Maxwell on John Wooden. And by the way, if you’ve listened to this podcast more than two episodes, john Maxwell quotes John Wooden more than any other human being in his life. And of course, you had that same experience. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Don, I’m going to talk about this in a little bit, but Don is the host of the corporate competitor podcast, your eleven time New York Times bestselling author. Can somebody give it up for eleven times, your leadership expert, executive coach, a Maxwell Leadership Thought leader, yeah, an associate editor for many years for Sports Illustrated, not to mention, as John Maxwell says, and I agree, one of the best storytellers you will ever meet. You will get to see that today on the podcast. So since we’re in Chicago today, Don, I thought and you did this, by the way, I got to give a shout out to Will, your son, who is in the room with us. You and Will came up from Florida to Chicago, not because this is the best audience in the world, although it is, but you came because you did an incredible story with a great leadership example, David Ross, who is the manager of the Chicago Cubs. And so Don, we’re going to talk a little bit more about this, but it is so good to have you again on the podcast, Mark.

Don Yaeger:

So great. I love the opportunity anytime to invest deeper into the Maxwell leadership family. And that is exactly what it family. Right. Awesome.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. Yeah. So if you are a regular podcast listener, you want to tune in today and come into the room with us here in Chicago, go to Maxwell podcast on YouTube. You can go to MaxwellPodcast.com/YouTube. You’ll be able to take it in visually as well as audibly. And by the way, if you like the fill in the blank notes, you want to take some notes, you can go to MaxwellPodcast.com/teammate. Don, I’m ready to go.

Don Yaeger:

Let’s do it.

Mark Cole:

Let’s do do. Let’s talk a little bit about just give me some content from this book. Teammate. This is the book again, it’ll be in your show notes, but this is the book you did with David Ross. And tell me, what does every leader need?

Don Yaeger:

Well, I will tell you, the fascinating thing about this book was that David Ross, ironically, I live in Tallahassee, Florida, as you noted, and David Ross also lives in Tallahassee, Florida. Right. And randomly, one day, he and I are on an airplane together. And, you know, you’ve written a book with Walter Payton, which I did. I lived with Walter for the last few weeks of his life and wrote his autobiography. He says, You’ve written a book with Michael Jordan, which I did during said, you know, you need the next great Chicago athlete. And I said, David, here’s the problem. You’re a backup catcher for the Chicago Cubs, the worst team in the history of baseball. Why would I do a book with the backup catcher from the Cubs? And he says, you don’t know my story. He said, Let me tell you and what I grew to understand and the reason we did the book, which we started the year before the Cubs won the World Series, talk about random, right. No one believed the Cubs could win a World Series. But the story was that David had lost his career halfway through. He was eight years in, and he got cut from a team in Cincinnati because he was a bad teammate, because he wasn’t someone who made other people. And in that experience, one of the things that he learned was that if he could learn how to make other people better, if he could be a great teammate, he might have a greater future in the game of baseball. He actually committed himself to that. He went to Atlanta, to the Braves, opened up the Whiteboard, started pulling everybody in who came through the locker room and asked the tell me about the greatest teammate you ever had. Give me three words to describe that teammate. And he built himself a list of what it meant to become a great teammate. And every day before he took the field, he checked the boxes to say, I’m going to be a teammate that will make others better whether I play or not. And what he learned was that you can be invaluable without ever being most valuable. You can become invaluable in your organization without ever being the best in your team. And it’s funny, I was talking to John one day at breakfast up in Washington, DC. And he asked me what I was working on, and I was working on this book, and I used that phrase, invaluable without ever being most valuable. And John Maxwell. You love. I mean, that guy’s a master learner. He stopped me, he pulls out his iPad and he’s like and I said, what are you doing? He goes, that’s a line I’m using in the future. He goes, I don’t care if you use it in your book or not, but I’m using that line because John’s such a veteran learner. But the idea is that David would teach us that we can become special in any organization that we choose to join if we elect to make other people better. He built a list, made that his checklist every day. And over the course of the next several years, he didn’t just become a great teammate, he became one of the most valuable players in baseball. Other teams wanted him because he wasn’t a great player. But he made the locker room better. He made the environment better. And as a result, he ended up getting the chance to win two World Series, one in Boston and one here. And when the 7th game of the World Series was played here in Cleveland, and the Cubs won that series, the game ended. And the player that the other players carried off the field on their shoulder was a backup catcher named David Ross, because he made other people better.

Mark Cole:

Mic Drop but we’re not ending the podcast, so don’t go there. But don in this room. And podcast family, I wish you could be in the room with us in Chicago. But the number of most valuable players, people that are the most valuable to the team that’s even in this room, this is why we’re doing this city tour. And our podcast family, you’ve had to listen to us talk about these city tours and feel like you’re missing out. But I got to meet just a few moments ago before we started recording some of the people that have truly given me energy to do what I do on difficult travel seasons and difficult seasons, because and I want to come down there and carry you off the field on my shoulders.

Don Yaeger:

And when he does let’s film it. Yeah, let’s film it. Let’s get some video.

Mark Cole:

I might not take you far, but at least it’d be good. Hey, let’s talk a little bit more about David Ross. So in your opinion, what was the quality, the leadership quality that David possessed so well throughout his journey that you highlighted in the book.

Don Yaeger:

I think the thing that he was just a, you know, he was willing to admit, think about it, you get fired because you’re a bad teammate, which he did. And instead of saying, well, it’s the coaches, it’s the manager’s fault, it’s someone else’s fault, he actually owned it. He said, you know what, if I’m going to repair myself from this moment, it’s going to be on me. And so he took leadership of where he was and what he was doing wrong to make a better future for himself. And as a result, as I said, got to win two World Series, right? We actually had him at Exchange several years ago. And it’s funny because he shows up and John wanted to see a World Series ring, and David just had a couple of them in his know, just travel with a couple of World Series rings. But he knew that he couldn’t blame others for his failings. He needed to own them and he needed to repair himself. And he set out to do it by learning from other people and the ability to ask great questions, to take the answers and improve yourself. I mean, that’s what this room is all about. That’s what the Maxwell Leadership family is all about. It is doing exactly that well.

Mark Cole:

And I’m going to come back and ask you a fault question on it. But I get asked a lot traveling the world saying, okay, what do you look for in a leader? What is it that you admire the most? Or what quality do you try to unearth in the interview process? And it’s exactly what you’re saying, how coachable are they? How much are they willing to learn? I ask this question all the time. Podcast Family, when is the last time you learned something for the first time, and what was it? And I’ll sit in an interview and I’ll say, when was the last time you learned something for the first time and what was it? Now, I used to say, when was the last time you learned something for the first time? They’d catch on. They go, yesterday. But when I said, and what was it? There’s this pause because it’s so hard for a leader at the top of her or his game to take time to learn something else. Why do you think it’s so hard for leaders to how come leaders struggle so much to have this posture of learning?

Don Yaeger:

Because I think there’s a sense that if I’m in a learning posture, it’s because I have a weakness, right? I have a hole that I need to fill. And most of us don’t want to acknowledge the hole, right? Most of us want to believe we are whole. And the truth is that all of us there’s a reason they’re called blind spots. All of us have them, and each of us need to seek someone and sometimes it takes a traumatic moment, like losing your job, as David did, to realize the hole and the need and to go fill.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. Yeah, I so agree with that. All right, so you’ve interviewed countless other successful leaders. You talked a little bit before we started recording about some of the athletes that you have been able to interview and highlight in your career. Maybe you won’t even tell a couple of those stories, but what are the common traits or the common practices that you’ve observed in some of these incredible high performing individuals?

Don Yaeger:

Probably the number one trait that really would surprise people is that the better they are, the more humble they are. The better they are, the more they realize, the more self aware they are, and the ability to want to try to continue to grow. We were talking about it before we got started here, that we’re sitting here at Willow Creek and just literally less than 5 miles away. Maybe one of the big moments in my career occurred when a gentleman by the name of Walter Payton. Walter was the greatest running back and the greatest football player in the history. Sorry for the Green Bay Packer fans that are in here, but greatest football player in the history of the game. Walter was 46 years old, had developed a cancer that was inoperable. He knew it. The world did not. And he called and asked me if I would live with him for the last few weeks of his life, to tell his story in a book that we wrote together.

Mark Cole:

You see how nonchalant he says. He called me and asked me to live with him for a few weeks. Favor is not fair.

Don Yaeger:

I didn’t deserve it. Favor isn’t always deserved either. Right? But Walter gave me this opportunity, and it was game changing for me, because from that moment on, many other people who were very successful in the world believed that if Walter Payton would trust you, I can trust you, too. And so sometimes in life, someone gives you a break. Someone gives you a chance. And my chance happened not very far from here. Which is why when Mark said, which one of these cities do you want to go to? No offense to all the other cities, but I wanted to come home to Chicago. This is it. You called it early.

Mark Cole:

I’m sorry.

Don Yaeger:

Called it early.

Mark Cole:

Houston and Florida. We love you. We love you. Hey, so let’s go into this just a little bit more on these high performers. I want to extrapolate out from your experience. I watched something the other day. I need to send this to you. I watched something about a week and a half ago, I was in Romania, and somebody sent me a video of an interview with Kobe Bryant. You may have seen it, and it was nine and a half minutes of brilliance. Nine and a half minutes of brilliance. But one of the questions was what did it feel like when you lost without blinking an eye? He said, it excited me. He said, because much of my life, I was one of the top performers. And when I found a game, a person or an environment that I couldn’t beat, it meant that I had more ahead of me that I could win and that I could accomplish. He said losing was exciting. Isn’t that brilliant?

Don Yaeger:

It is brilliant, and it’s impossible. Most of us will not most of us mere humans, right. Struggle when we think of how to handle those moments. Right now, we’re actually doing a book club with the Maxwell Team, right? Some of you are on it awesome. And it’s based on a book that I did in which, over the course of a career, I’ve asked 2500 times some of the greatest champions of our lifetime if you could name for me the habit that you believe you developed into your daily routine that most changed and made a difference between you and others. What would the habit be?

Mark Cole:

Wow.

Don Yaeger:

And the number one answer was that the truly great learn to hate losing more than they love winning. That winning is, as Kobe was saying there, right? Winning is almost what really successful people kind of expect from themselves. Losing should hurt. And too many people make excuses when they lose. Too many people have someone to blame when they lose. It’s the surface. It’s the referee, it’s whatever it is, it’s not me. The great ones say, Guess what? I got to go get better. And then when the best are committed to going and getting better, then it’s amazing the distance you can put between yourself and others.

Mark Cole:

Staying on this Kobe Bryant video yeah, you can give him a hand on that. That was brilliant. Brilliant. Staying with this Kobe Bryant video, he said that when he started realizing that he wanted to be one of the greats in the world, he said he looked at his ranking, he was 14 years old. He looked at his ranking, he said, I wasn’t even really on the chart. He said I was number 64. And I went, Well, I never was in the top 100, so I don’t know what you mean, not on the chart. He said, I was number 64, he said, but what I decided to do is I listed the top 63 and I made an art of studying them to find out why they were ahead of me, he said. And then all year long, I began to check them off. Check them off. I’m better than him on that. I’m better than him on that. I’m better than him on that. And he said, I worked myself all the way down to the top five by checking people off because of what they were good at, that I wasn’t good at yet. Now, staying with that, there’s this John Maxwell talks about getting out of the people pile. And if you haven’t watched John talk about that lately, his dancing is one thing. Him getting out of the people pile is a whole nother level.

Don Yaeger:

We’ll have to get him to do.

Mark Cole:

That on the podcast sometime on video, by the way, that’ll bring a lot of YouTube viewers. So getting out of this people pile a lot of times is this remarkable competitive spirit. So you’ve studied some of the most greatest, most accomplished competitors in the world. What do you see and what have you learned regarding competition in these great.

Don Yaeger:

Leaders that they run toward? Know, we hear that a lot about first responders, and the great ones are the ones that run toward right? And Kyle Carpenter, the people who are willing to dive on the know to save the person next to them. The people that run toward the great competitors want to run into the competition, right? They’re not looking to sit on the bench. They’re not looking for that moment when they’re not hoping that you don’t ask them to take the shot. The great ones want to be in the mix. And I think that was really educational for me, because there are times in life when you just don’t feel it, right? And the great ones don’t have a day when not feeling it is their reason to not want to be in the fray. So I love that, right? I love that. That’s what Kobe kobe was running toward it, right? He was running toward the 63 ahead of him. Michael Jordan. We’ll throw a little Michael in here. Michael loves michael is the most competitive human I’ve ever met in my life. If it’s Tiddly Winks, that guy is trying to he’s trying to figure out how to beat you at it. But the great ones are always looking for a way to run toward an opportunity to measure themselves, and they often find themselves in measuring for Michael. One of the challenges for Michael and Kobe and so is that after a while, it gets to a place where you almost don’t feel there’s anybody you can measure yourself against. And so then you have to measure yourself against you. And that’s what they’re it’s the daily improvement, right? It’s that daily improvement.

Mark Cole:

So you’ve told me a story, and I’m putting you on the spot in Chicago on a podcast. I can fix this post edit. So we got it. Can you tell that story of Michael Jordan and you and competitor?

Don Yaeger:

I mean, really? Do I have to?

Mark Cole:

Come on.

Don Yaeger:

So Michael Jordan does an old man basketball camp. He invites a hundred old guys. It’s an amazing collection. The only thing the hundred of us have in common is that we love to play basketball. I love basketball so much. I live in Florida. I have a full basketball court at my house. Right. I love the game. Guys play there several nights a week. It’s an awesome way. If you’re old like me to get your energy out. And Jordan fights 100 guys, divides us into teams of ten, brings in great coaches, and then over the course of several days, you’ll play against each other for a championship. Well, Jordan, on the third day, he picks 20 guys and says, today you’re going to get the opportunity to go one on one with the greatest player of all time. How awesome is that, right, Jordan? To be able to call yourself greatest of all time? And he walks through, picks 20 guys out. I happen to be one of the 20, he says. By the way, he says, the rules are very simple. In fact, so simple, let me let my assistant explain them. His assistant steps up, and she says, yes, the rules are simple. Today, you’re going to play a game to one. First guy to score wins, right? Game to one. First guy to score wins. But Michael Jordan is going to start with the ball. Your job is to guard Michael, she says. She even does the air quotes, right? And if Jordan doesn’t score, you get the ball. Michael Jordan guards you first. Got to score wins. So Jordan steps up and says, while you’re thinking about this, I want you to know I’ve done this little competition for nine years, and in nine years, five guys have scored on me. And today, there’s not going to be a 6th. If he needs the help, he’s in your head, right? Well, two guys in front of me. The guy walks up, he goes to guard Michael Jordan, right? He goes to throw his elbow in Jordan’s chest, but he only didn’t get to his hip because he’s not that tall. And Jordan then takes the ball. He ball swipes the guy. The guy falls backwards. Jordan, one dribble, two steps, thunder dunt. Pulls the ball out of the net. And as he walks by, our fallen colleague, Jordan chucks the ball on him, and he says, now you know what it’s like to be spanked like a bad child. Greatest trash talker in the history. I’m telling you, history of the game. Michael Jordan greatest trash talker. Two guys later comes me, and I decide when I go out there, I’m going to step back and dare Michael Jordan to take a shot from the outside. And there’s a picture that we show sometimes when I tell him the story. Michael Jordan’s got the ball in his left hand. With his right hand, he’s calling me out. And he looks at me and he goes, are you really going to give me this shot? And I looked back at Michael and I said, I don’t think you have it in you. 100 old guys start laughing, right? Jordan then shakes his head, goes up, takes his shot and misses. Ball goes wide left. I got the rebound. Took it back outside the three point line. And Jordan steps out to guard me. And as he’s stepping out, I look back and I said, michael, aren’t you going to return the favor? And I said, I know you don’t have that shot in you, right? And as Jordan stepped up, I stepped back and from 26ft became the 6th player to ever score Michael Jordan. And I’m sorry, I was forced to tell that story one more time today. But when I see Jordan these days at different events, he always says, you still telling that story every day, Michael? I tell it every day. Someone gives me an open door, I tell that story.

Mark Cole:

My fault.

Don Yaeger:

Sorry.

Mark Cole:

Let’s switch gears a moment. We have in this room as well as a lot of our podcast listeners that are coaching people. They’re performance coaches, life coaches, leadership coaches, business coaches. What have you seen? You and John got to spend time with Coach John Wooden, greatest basketball coach ever. We talked about that on the previous episode in our podcast. But what have you learned great coaches do to inspire their teams or to inspire their businesses, their clients?

Don Yaeger:

What I think when I think of Coach Wooden and I think of others who I would qualify, I would put in that great coaching category. It’s their ability. Great coaches can see around corners, right? They don’t just see what’s in front of them. They happen to see what might be that next thing that we are going to have to imagine or endure. And so that’s what I love about those who can coach well in this room and in other places. Their inspiration is to help you not just see what and maybe pull out from you what you should know about yourself, but they’re going to inspire you to start thinking about around the corner, right? What is it that I’m not seeing right now? What have we experienced that could impact the way that we will lead, move and draw others to us in the future? The best are constantly seeing things that most of us just naturally miss. And the way they teach others to do that is by inspiring imagination around challenge, right around what it is that we don’t quite again, we’re back to blind spots, right? What is it that we’re missing? And great coaches can pour into you an ability to see those things and encourage you to improve into those spaces.

Mark Cole:

Boy, that is so good. It’s so good because as leaders, you see people struggle often and you try to relate with them, but you never had the struggle or you can’t really empathize with them, but you need to empathize to get themselves out of it. And if you can find a way to inspire hope in your teammates, in your clients and those of you that run teams, run companies, there is a true statement that John says often that we as leaders are hope dealers. And that’s that inspiration piece that you’re talking about, we as a coach have got to learn how to inspire most every competitive team that has won something great. It goes back to a statement in the locker room that sticks. Isn’t that right? It’s a statement that sticks, yes.

Don Yaeger:

And it’s just as true in our businesses. It’s just as true in our family lives, right? What’s the statement? The why statement or that moment that actually allows us to rally around something?

Mark Cole:

So, again, staying on executive coaches, coaches that are helping other leaders perform, other teammates perform. What’s some of the greatest struggles you’re seeing out there right now? And then how are coaches, executive coaches, helping these leaders overcome that think?

Don Yaeger:

You know, one of my favorite books that John wrote and that I think, as a coach has been great for me is that the great ones ask great questions. Right? It’s the ability to ask questions that might even be a little uncomfortable, questions that might be a little more penetrating and might make you dig deeper than you want to dig. The great ones ask great questions. Right. And I think that’s a real gift that I’m seeing in people who are best in class, especially in that executive coaching. Yeah.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. So we’re seeing and you talk to a lot of companies, you go in and work on team dynamics, team performance. By the way, if you’d ever want to have Don come speak to you and your team, we’ll have it in the show notes how you can get Don as a Maxwell thought leader to come and help your team. But as we go out and we see this rapidly changing leadership landscape, there’s just this big appetite that leaders have to try to help serve people where they are. And yet we as leaders need to culture innovation, adaptability into the organization. How do we deal with the fact that people are somehow stepping back, and yet we need to get their creativity to step and lean in?

Don Yaeger:

Well, I think you’ve just hit on it. The word is adaptability. Right? As a leader, we have gosh. I was just talking to Daniel Pink the other day. Daniel Pink’s a great thought leader and amazing professor who studied a lot of these concepts. And one of the things that he said was that we too often want it to be as it was. And unfortunately, the world isn’t as it was even as recently as two, three years ago. Right. We have to see the world for what it will be, not what it was. And us and our ability as leaders and as coaches to other leaders, it is inspiring them to see that you can’t hold on to the way it was. You have to hope and be a dealer in hope of what it is and can be. And I think that that’s one of the things that’s really stood out to me.

Mark Cole:

Yeah, I would agree. I think all of us as leaders, whether you’re leading yourself in an entrepreneur. Environment or whether you’re leading a team of people that look to you and directly report to you. I think our ability to create an environment that will allow people to feel like they’re contributing. I think the greatest challenge we have right now, Don, is we have teams, we have business teams, we have competitive teams, and we put so much highlight on the MVP, like you were talking about earlier, the Most Valuable Player, and not enough highlight on how everyone contributing is making a difference toward the end goal. And I think our responsibility as leaders today, in today’s world is to help people understand that their contribution is making a difference. And by helping them make that difference, now, we’re going to unlock the creativity.

Don Yaeger:

That’S in because everyone wants to be led. Well, that’s exactly right. One of the ways they want to be led is to be valued. Right. And our ability to express value and the value of others, it strengthens our leadership. You’re not giving anything away when you go to express how someone else is valuable to you. You’re not making yourself less by making them more. And the truly great leaders know exactly how to walk into that fire and actually draw other people with them.

Mark Cole:

All right, so let’s come back to Chicago. Let’s come back to David Ross. You’ve had him on the Corporate Competitor podcast. Now, hold up before you go there, because if you have not listened to the Corporate Competitor podcast, you’re missing out. And I know some people in the room has listened to it because they told me beforehand, we’ll talk about that in a minute. But it’s an incredible tool and resource to where you pull out the competitor that’s in corporations. So the first thing I’d love for you to do is just kind of give us 30 seconds of the origin of the Corporate Competitor podcast, and then I’ll come back and come back to David Ross for a minute.

Don Yaeger:

Awesome. Years ago, there was a story several years ago, there was a story that I read in ESPN that said that they actually went out to study, they studied women executives. They wanted to look at women who were in the C suite of Fortune 500 companies. They were trying to find what were the commonalities, what were the things they could identify that these women had in common. And the number one answer was that at some stage in their life, they had played competitive sports. The number was 94% of the women at the C suite of Fortune 500 companies had played sports, 52% of them in college. And so this opportunity, this active engagement in competitiveness, had made them better leaders. So I was fascinated, cut that article out, pinned it on the board, and thought, one day I’m going to do something with it. Well, I decided during the pandemic that the world needed one more podcast. And so I decided I wanted to start interviewing women and others and men as well who played sports and how being an athlete or being athletic or involved in sports had made them a better leader. And the lessons have been incredible. The stories have been for many of them. These are some of the greatest leaders in America today. They haven’t talked about what they learn from sports in forever because they’re busy doing reports for Wall Street every week. And this is unlocking a really interesting part of their DNA that we get a chance to dig into. It’s really awesome.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. He had me on, and he asked what sport I played in.

Don Yaeger:

This is the best.

Mark Cole:

I’m glad you can remember this. And of course, I went to Little Small College in Jackson, Mississippi. You wouldn’t understand. In fact, it’s closed down now. That’s how institutionalized that college was. But he said, did you play sports? I said, absolutely. I played. He said, well, what sport did you play? I said intramural ping pong.

Don Yaeger:

Intramural ping pong. It was his jam.

Mark Cole:

And we literally had about 35 seconds of lively conversation about my competitive nature.

Don Yaeger:

But what did I send him for Christmas? Ask him.

Mark Cole:

You sent me a Ping pong set. That was like a Ping pong ball.

Don Yaeger:

Tiffany blue, baby. I ordered it from Tiffany. I figured if you played Ping Pong, tiffany blew us.

Mark Cole:

We digress so bad right here. Let’s go back to competitive corporate competitor. You’ve interviewed some of the best corporate leaders. Give us some of the insights that you’ve received.

Don Yaeger:

I have to tell you, we had Condoleeza Rice on, right? The Secretary of State. One of the most amazing humans I’ve ever had a chance to know. She talked openly, and most people don’t know. She was the first woman. She grew up as the only child of a high school football coach. Her father taught her how to read defenses before most people could read books. And so she’s a huge she wants to be the Commissioner of the NFL one day. But Condoleeza Rice talked about how to be a better listener and what sports taught her about how to listen to other people. And she talked about finding common ground with other people and how that allowed her to become Secretary of State. Right. And so sports played a big role for her. Horse Schultze, the founder and CEO of Ritz Carlton, talked about customer service and what he learned about how to serve others while being a young soccer player in Germany. Ed Bastion, the CEO of Delta Right, one of the great leader in America, talked about leading through dark times and how being a captain and a player coach made him better. And Avnet CEO, a guy by the name of Phil Gallagher, talked about how to manage mergers and the many mergers that his company has handled, how you bring new teammates in and how being an athlete and a team member had made him better. So we’re on episode 150 something now. And we have another couple of hundred in the pipeline. And it’s pretty amazing how many of these executives are enjoying the conversation about what they learned playing Ping Pong in college. Awesome.

Mark Cole:

Hey, so we’re going to wrap up. I want you to just share something just before we close on teamwork leadership coaching. And so I’ll give you a minute to do that. But at the end of every podcast you guys know this well that’s listened week in and week out. We highlight one of our podcast listeners. And so today in the audience, it was one of the funniest things in our meet and greet. We’re traveling to Chicago. We’re seeing our are you’re in the room? With people that I get to spend a couple of times a year with. Some of them will be in Panama shortly for us doing transformation work. And most importantly, we’re in Chicago.

Don Yaeger:

We’re back to that, baby. Bring it on.

Mark Cole:

So anyway, I’m back doing a meet and greet, and somebody came up to me and said, hey, I’m a John Maxwell team coach, and I love this, and I love you, and you’re very important. He said, but I’ve got to tell you, you’re number four on the reason that I came here today.

Don Yaeger:

You’re number four. You’re number four back to my.

Mark Cole:

So tell me why. He said, Well, I wanted to see Chris Robinson. And so I said, well, good. He’s going to speak in a little bit. You’ll love that. And he said, number two, I love the John Maxwell team. You guys are in my community. And he said, but really, the third reason that I say is really the first reason that I really came. He said, I am a listener of the corporate competitor podcast. And so Dr. Rich, come on up. Dr. Rich, grab that microphone right there. And I asked Dr. Rich, come right here, Doc. I asked Dr. Rich, we need that microphone. I asked him to give me a takeaway. Come right up here. We’re going to put you on screen. Come right up here and tell us what you’ve learned from the corporate competitor podcast.

Dr. Rich:

Well, first of all, I am from North Central Ohio, so it’s good to be in one of my favorite cities of Chicago. Don, I will tell you that I listened to episode 154 on the way out. You said 150 something. But I want to tell you that I learned something way back. Don will go back a couple of weeks to episode 23. There was a man that was on named Sven Nader, and it was one of the greatest. I’m a huge basketball fan myself, and 20 years ago, I spent some time doing high school basketball, what we used to call chapels. I called it Lifetime Before Game Time, taking things about basketball and teaching life skills to players. And so that’s why I connected. I mean, I listen to your podcast faithfully. I listen to the executive podcast faithfully. I will listen to the Maxwell Leadership Entrepreneur if we ever get podcast. If you haven’t listened to the Houston version, go ahead and do that when Chris decides to agree. But I connected with Don because of my love of sports and because of the leaders that I know in my life. And suddenly the Sven Nader, he was recruited by John Wooden. You’ve heard a lot about John Wooden today. And John’s recruitment statement was, hey, Sven, I want you to come to UCLA and you’ll probably never play. But Sven knew he had a role, and his role was to make other people better on that team. And he realized that the difference he made would make a greater difference across than if he went to some other school that he could play all the time. And Don, it reminded me that you talk about Michael Jordan, you talk about Kobe Bryant. There’s a lot more Sven Naders throughout the world that need to be able to fulfill their role in making others better because there’s only a few that will ever be the superstar, but we can all be the one that uplifts the team.

Don Yaeger:

And by the way, Dr. Rich drove six and a half hours to be here with us. Awesome. Thank you.

Mark Cole:

Prius Hitter drove an hour for you and 15 minutes for me. So there you go. Hey, leave us with something that you’ve just picked up over the course of the years.

Don Yaeger:

I would tell you that I think the thing and we discussed it last week in the Maxwell Leadership Book Club, it was the idea that the best understand that they’re only as good as the people around them. Right. Coach Wooden actually taught this to me. Right. This was his lesson to me was you’re never going to outperform your inner circle. And if you want to be better, always be improving your inner circle. Part of that is pouring into other people, but part of that is just making intentional decisions around who you’re going to include in that circle. It is why the Maxwell Leadership family is so important to so many, including myself, because this is my circle. And I think that idea that we are better when we’re in a better circle is the greatest lesson I think I can leader you with today.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. Thank you, Don. And to all of you podcast listeners, podcast viewers, thank you for joining in today. Thanks for making this just one of the best, most impacting podcasts out there. But when you get a chance and I’m giving you two call to Actions today, number one, would you go pick up the book teammate? It’s a book that the master storyteller. John Maxwell calls him that. That Don Jager wrote. Teammates is a book about David Ross. And it’s a book that will help you become a better teammate so that you can work with your team better so that you can perform better. And so go pick that up. In fact, we’ll put that in the show notes. You can use the keyword podcast. We’ll give you a 15% discount there. And then secondly, I want to get you to go to the corporate competitor podcast that you’re doing. I love this podcast. Don. I listen to it. It’s incredible. You need to listen to it. The team told me you had a money Becky guarantee on this thing.

Don Yaeger:

I do. As a matter of fact, I’m putting it on my Maxwell credit card. But, yes, I have a money back guarantee. If you listen and don’t like it, you send me a bill and you’ll expense it. I’ll expense it.

Mark Cole:

We’re going to have to edit that out of this podcast right here. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. Thank you for being in Chicago with us. Go bring powerful, positive change to the world around you, because everyone deserves to be led well.