Maxwell Leadership Podcast: Value Your Values

Mark Cole:

Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to you, a leader, so that you’ll multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole, and I’m the CEO of Maxwell Leadership. As you will learn in today’s lesson, values determine the foundation of your team. That’s true for my team. It’s true for your team. This means that wherever you go, whatever you hope for in your team, your organization, your family, or your community, it all starts with what you value.

In this lesson, John Maxwell will share the vital role values play in our organization. You’ll even hear the original values that John used to build his very first business. Then my co-host, Traci Morrow, and I will talk about these values, how they evolved into our values today, and how they serve the organization and the vision of Maxwell Leadership.

If you would like to download our bonus resource for this lesson, which is a free fill-in-the-blank worksheet that accompanies John’s lesson, you can find that at maxwellpodcast.com/values. Also, if you prefer to watch the video of this podcast, you can do that at maxwellpodcast.com/u2. Here we go, grab your pen, grab your paper. Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:

Values determine the foundation of the team. And I define personal value in your notes as something that influences and guides my behavior, and organization’s value is something that influence and guides the team’s behavior. In the laws of teamwork, one of the laws I teach is the law of identity. And the law of identity says shared values define the team. They define the team. They become the foundation of the team.

And values do several things for an organization. Things such as, number one, they’re like glue. They hold the organization together. It’s literally, the values that you have are the glue that hold you together. Or two, they’re a foundation. They provide stability for the company to grow on. Or three, they’re like a ruler. They set the standard for the team’s performance. There’s a way of measurement that way. Or a compass, number four, they give direction and guidance. Values are like a magnet. They attract like-minded people. And number six, they’re an identity. They define and identify who the team is.

In your notes, I have something for you to just pay special attention to. If your values are the same as your team’s values, you become more valuable. When I’m asked, and I am asked sometimes about hiring, when I do leadership consulting, when I’m asked about hiring, one of the things I encourage organizations to do is to, very upfront, not only understand its values, but in the hiring interview process to flesh out what the values of the person is that you’re looking at hiring. If a person already has the set of values basically that are your values, it’s a great match. I mean, you don’t have to bring them into a culture and kind of do a lot of changing the mindset. They’re going to fit right in. They’re going to move right in.

John Wooden, the great basketball coach at UCLA, said, “I’ve watched ball players before,” and he said, “what I have found is, just because the talent and the giftedness is there, doesn’t mean you’re going to be able as a coach to bring it out of them.” But he said, “If their values are there, the right ones, you can bring the best out of them every time.” Now, what was John Wooten teaching? He was just basically saying, values determine the foundation of a team. You’ve got to have something that you stand on.

When we moved… I founded my company, Injoy, out in San Diego several years ago. When we came to Atlanta, we brought our key people with us, but by far, most of the people that we had here in Atlanta were hired here in Atlanta, so they knew nothing of the journey. They knew nothing of really my past or anything else. And so we were just beginning to bring in good people. And as we began to hire very quickly, I realized that we needed to really establish and stamp our values on the new players on our team. So after being here for six, eight months, I wanted to help the new people understand who we are and what our values were because I understood that those were going to be an absolute foundation of what we were going to become.

In fact, in your notes, Peter Senge, the author of The V Vision, says that one of the most important tasks for leaders today is to provide conceptual leadership, helping people make sense of what’s going on around them. And so therefore, when I taught my lesson, the Soul of Injoy, for the new people on the team, I shared these things that I believe in because I wanted to know who we were and what we valued. And I said to them that day, number one, “I believe in personal growth. I believe every person ought to grow personally.” And I said to them that, “It’ll be a responsibility of every one of you on our team here that you grow personally.” Now, in our companies, we have mentoring programs for everybody. So everybody’s in a personal growth plan because I wouldn’t have anybody not in a personal growth plan because you can only grow your organization as much as you grow your people. And so therefore, it’s important for me to grow. It’s important for them to grow. So I believe in personal growth.

Number two, I believe in making a significant contribution. I believe that every person ought to do something that they truly believe is making a difference. Number three, I believe in living and working with passion. I just have passion and I want to be around people with passion. And when I have somebody that doesn’t have passion, I don’t want to be around them. I want everybody to love what they do. I don’t like to coax people, like somebody say, “Well, coax me to go to work. Beg me to show up.” No, I just beg you to go find another job. I have no desire to motivate you every day to get a passion about life. You talk about high energy and low energy. Well, they’re a low energy person. There’s no such thing as a low energy person. Every person that’s low energy, let me tell you the characteristic of a low energy person, they lack passion. Passion’s what supplies the energy. Passion’s what supplies the fuel. And so I want to live, I want to work with passion. I want to play with passion.

Number four, commitment to excellence. I just believe in setting the bar higher than anybody else is going to set it for you and constantly performing on a high level, no excuses. Number five, I believe in team leadership. I believe it’s the only way to build an organization is by developing a great team around you, including team leadership. And number six, in living a life of integrity. And what I did is I sat down with my new people and I said, “This is what I believe in. This is who I am. This is who we are. This is what is important to us because I realized that would be the foundation of our organization because that’s what values are.”

In your notes, Consultant Fillmore says, “It is in the expression of one’s deepest values that one finds one’s self capable of leadership. Because a value is something you care enough about, to be able to lead from it.” That’s a very true statement.

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Mark Cole:

Traci, I love what John finished right there with. He said that, “Anyone that finds values deep within them, they are capable of leadership. Because a value is something you care enough about, to be able to lead from that place.” From that place that you value. And I agree. I was sitting here as John was making that point there at the end, and I was going, “Boy, that drives everything that I do.” I’ve said often, I’ve said this to John, fortunately, he never took me up on it, I would do what I do for free. I really would. I would do what I do if it cost me to do it. I love what I do, and I think that somehow relates back to the values deep within me. I don’t think everybody gets to do in their work something that they’re so passionate about. So I want to be sensitive to, many people can’t say what I just said. At the same time, it is absolutely what drives me.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah. Me too. So many times on the podcast, we talk about what a leader does and the behaviors of a leader, but the topic today is what influences and guides our behaviors, the things that we do. And that is something that, our listeners, that we can change in ourselves, if we really deeply connect. Say, we’re in a position or doing a job or a work that we don’t necessarily love, but if we can maybe somehow get reconnected and reoriented to our values and find a way to connect that back to a work that we maybe don’t love, then I feel like maybe there’s a way to connect that back to loving what you do because it’s so connected to the values. Does that make sense?

Mark Cole:

It does. It does. And I thought about this, Traci, as you were, number one, saying that. And then I thought about… And I’m not even trying to create a sideways point here. At the same time, this so impacted me. Last night I got home, late night of work, and Stephanie, my wife, was telling me about a conversation she had with our oldest grandson, Ryder’s nine. And Ryder got in the car right after his football banquet. We celebrated football. So it’s kind of like, he’s been with his guys. There’s adrenaline. He’s right a rush. And as soon as he got in the car, he bust out into tears, burst out into tears. And so Stephanie was telling me this story. I can’t wait this weekend to be able to have this conversation with him cause he and I are going to get some time together. And so Stephanie said, “What? Why? What are you crying about?” And he said, “Mom, I don’t want my life to be over.” Okay? And she said… Okay, this is deep. This is a nine year old, right?

She said, “What do you mean?” She said, “One of my friends says that when we die, that life is over. And I don’t want my life to be over. I want to always be around.” Now, again, nine years old. Heavy topic for this right here. She began to work through with him and realized his values. We began to see our nine year old son. He’s just a football player just glad to be either playing Madden on video or playing football out in the front yard with his friends.

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

But there’s something deep within Ryder that is saying, I long to be more than just what this lifespan is about. Now, I’m going to get to capture that and unearth a value in a young person’s life that’s going to make spiritual decisions for him. It’s going to make life decisions for him. It’s going to make what he does with his life decisions. And at nine years old this weekend, I am getting the opportunity to unearth and begin to develop, in my nine year old grandson’s life, what he values. Because what you sing about, what you cry about, what you think about, what you dream about, John says, is the thing that really matters to you, the values, the deep within.

Well, our grandson this week is crying about a value of wanting a life that lasts beyond the dash. And I cannot wait for this opportunity. Here’s why I chose to bring that up as you were talking, because in every one of us, whether you’re a nine year old grandson, which you’re probably not listening to the podcast, but we love you anyway, or whether you’re an 80 year old or a 75 year young founder, like we have in John Maxwell, your values will last beyond you if they’re really your values. They will be part of the legacy you leave beyond your life. And if I can help my little nine year old football player could care less about anything other than Madden and football until he jumps in [inaudible 00:13:03]’s car. And all of a sudden he’s ready to talk values, and I cannot wait for this opportunity, just like I’m excited about this opportunity to talk about values in this podcast.

Traci Morrow:

I love that. And values naturally are something that we impart into our children and into our grandchildren, into our families. That’s something we talk about at home. But it does get a little bit interesting perhaps when you are talking about values when you bring it into the marketplace, into your place of work. And I think some people hesitate. I’ve known leaders who have hesitated from talking about values in the workplace because they think, oh, well maybe that’s a religious thing, or maybe that’s something, if they’re not a religious person or they’re not a person of faith, and they don’t know that line. So, can you maybe talk a little bit about how that… Because our values… Everyone has values. Whether you’re a person of faith or whether you’re not a person of faith, everyone values something and values character traits. So can you maybe talk about how you bring values into the workplace, into your place of business, into your team, and how you do that not just to your team, but in hiring and onboarding.

Mark Cole:

Yeah.

Traci Morrow:

Kind of a big question.

Mark Cole:

I love this question though. And I’m telling you again, we did not prepare this before we started recording. But something you said really struck me and brought a conversation I had nine months ago to my memory. This year, I had this conversation. So I’m going to break that out for you in this question of… I believe values are human. I believe values are universal. I believe there are certain values, that when lived out with authenticity, not with manipulation, not to get something back… There are certain values than when we as humans live those values out, it’s higher than your religious persuasion or beliefs. It’s higher than your political beliefs. It’s higher than your business beliefs. There are values. Now, I think every business needs to have the things that are core, cornerstone, foundational beliefs of its organization.

Traci Morrow:

Yes.

Mark Cole:

Those are values too. But let’s talk about these people that are scared of values because they sound too religious or too concerned with saying their personal values in a corporate context when others may value something different.

One is… This is the conversation that reminded me of when you said this. I’ll never forget this. This was probably the most humorous, impacting, sad conversations I’ve had this year. I was in a community. I won’t tell you the community because the person may listen to the podcast, because people in the community may listen to the podcast. We were in a community doing transformational work. That’s what our nonprofit does, is we bring about solutions that will change the world around the people that we serve. We change the world. I’ll talk about that as it applies to you as a podcast listener later. But I was talking about how we build transformation by setting values for the community, for everyone to come around with shared values, to do something significant in the community. And a guy raised his hand. He was a pastor. He says, “I don’t want you coming to my community talking about values.” He said, “because the church, faith community owns what real values are.”

Now, I’m a person of faith, Traci. You are too. We love our faith. And this podcast is not about our faith, but I love my faith. And I just went, “Sir, you think that a church owns the concept of values?” That’s as humorous to me as people that says, “I want to stay away from values because they make me think of faith.”

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

No.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

There are values that we can have. Don’t be as crazy as my friend that thought we shouldn’t be talking values because the church market owned the values. Don’t be just as crazy on the other side that says, “I don’t want values because that makes me think too much of faith.” There are values that we all have that are universal and will help us honor one another and show people around us that they’re significance. That’s why one of our key values in our company is people. It’s the first value we all state. We value one another. Because when you value something, you will add value to others with that something. When there’s something of value in someone… So, we value people so we can add value to them.

Traci Morrow:

That’s right.

Mark Cole:

And I would just challenge all of us to really take a moment and discover what do you value? I’m certainly going to be doing that with my nine year old this weekend.

Traci Morrow:

Sure.

Mark Cole:

What do you value and how do you begin to put value to that? And then how do you use what you value to add value to others? So, I love this topic, and I believe every organization should have stated values that would join the team and show the purpose of the organization. And every individual should know their values as well.

Traci Morrow:

I agree. And I’m curious, when you kind of took the reins and this and John’s organization and teams became your organization and teams, did you feel any pressure or was it different the way that you kind of led and stated and highlighted the values of the team when you took the reins? Or did you kind of… That’s kind of a weird line, I would think, as the founder, when we went from founder to foundation. But really, it was the leader to the next gen leader, from John to you. Was it awkward? Was it… How does that go in succession when you become the next leader of John’s mantle, carrying John’s mantle, but also bringing values? Did it change much, or was it different or the same?

Mark Cole:

Yeah. And let me see if I can add value to leaders that are in the middle of succession, because some of our podcast listeners are right in the middle of succession. I believe great succession comes when there is a common agenda that both leaders can say there was purpose to the agenda of the leader that is being succeeded, and there is purpose to the agenda of the successor. And when you can find those common components, that should be your agenda and your platform for many years. Not just to make the transition smooth, but you should find common things that link the past to the beginning.

So, I can truly say there’s not one value that John listed in this lesson and the values that we live out today that are in competition with each other. I stayed perhaps a little bit different, maybe a little more relevant with today’s time. Maybe a little more succinct with one word rather than four. But really, if you go to the root and the lived out expression of the values that we have today and the values that John had for 40 years as owner of this organization, there’s not any difference.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

Couple ways to say it. Maybe a few ways to demonstrate it a little differently, a little more current age, but at the foundation level. Let me give you an example.

Traci Morrow:

Great.

Mark Cole:

John and I, the business, the organizational structure, the stuff that nobody cares about that are very important, the organizational structure of the organization changed on January the sixth of 2020. I, in essence, bought it. If something was problematic, if there was a legal issue, there was a financial issue, it was all mine. That all happened in one fell pin swoop on January the sixth, 2020.

Traci Morrow:

Let’s just pause to talk about the timing of that.

Mark Cole:

Yes.

Traci Morrow:

January of 2020.

Mark Cole:

Six weeks later.

Traci Morrow:

My goodness.

Mark Cole:

Six weeks later, I’m forced with a decision to cancel a four and a half million dollar event that I was on the line contractually to have to pay-

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

… with an organization with a hotel in Orlando, Florida.

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

But to keep that event going, which I could’ve. I had people under contract. I had their money. They had to come or lose their money. The hotel was going to make me pay, even though everything was shutting down around it. And I made a decision that was going to cost us four and a half million dollars because of why? Because to get people to travel from 56 countries in that time in January, again, the world had not shut down yet, would not have been valuing people. It would’ve been valuing the contract I had with those people, and the families would’ve been worried, and come to find out, many of them would’ve been stuck in the United States-

Traci Morrow:

Yes.

Mark Cole:

… with no travel home.

Traci Morrow:

Oh, what a nightmare.

Mark Cole:

And when that started coming down, I didn’t have contractual backing. I didn’t have legal ramifications. In fact, all I had was, if I’m going to be held to a contract, then I’m going to hold the people that’s supposed to pay me for this event to a contract, and let’s just let the world figure itself out. But our value said we value people more than profit. We value our teammates, our clients, our partners more than we value whether we’re going to have an event or not. And I had to make, in the first four weeks of ownership to where the buck stopped with me, I had to make a decision. Is our value of valuing people really bigger than four and a half million dollars? And thankfully, because John Maxwell has mentored me and he was mentoring me then at the same time, we were able to make the right decision. Our people are more important than contracts.

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

Our people are more important than the potential ramification of four and a half million dollars. And by the way, all of that four and a half million dollars did not go away. Some of my contractual obligations still had to be paid without that. And we’ve been very fortunate, very blessed to be able to get through that. But the value is valuing people. Do we value people? And fortunately, in that case, we did.

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

We got some other cases we need to grow and be better on, but let’s talk about the good ones for a moment.

Traci Morrow:

Well, talk about it all coming down to the line. I mean, your first testing of a leader, owning that is being… When John says it influences and guides my personal behavior that you personally, before you even ledge your organization as now… The ink has barely dried on your contract, and you have be had to make a personal, you in your most private moment, have to make that personal decision that no one else really knew you were making those decisions. And you had to know you make the decision, will my values influence and guide my behavior in this? That really set the tone for your whole leadership.

Mark Cole:

That’s right.

Traci Morrow:

You could have gone a different way and it would’ve gone down a totally different path. And that’s really putting your money truly where your values are.

Mark Cole:

That’s right.

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

Yeah.

Traci Morrow:

Okay, wow. So, kind of in the same vein, he went on to talk about the values of the organization are like, and then he listed a bunch of cutsey little things, like John always does the glue, the foundation, the ruler, the compass, the magnet, the identity. Okay, so before we go to the next group, on those little cutesy things, he gave examples of a ruler sets the standard for the team’s performance, a compass gives direction and guidance, a magnet attracts like-minded people, an identity defines and identifies who the team is. So, it sets the standard and the foundation for who they are. So when you hire an onboard people and you’re saying this is who we are, but I have to imagine that if you have a team and somebody doesn’t do the job, and to… This might be a little bit of a personal question for you actually, but if somebody doesn’t do the job and you need to release them and you have to have hard conversations, because that’s what leadership is, that’s one thing.

But have you ever been in a position where when you’ve set the foundation and the standard for the team’s performance and given direction and guidance and have attracted who you thought were like-minded people, but then have you had to release people, have the hard conversations, not based on work performance necessarily, but because they did not identify with the values of your team. Because that’s where it gets a little more tricky, because it’s not about performance based necessarily, but their values. But it’s really where you protect the culture and the values that you truly stand for and guard in your team.

Mark Cole:

Oh, often. Often. And any leader that has not transitioned a teammate or unempowered a leader because of values, I would tell you that leader that is not addressing, that has cancerous behavior all throughout his or her organization, because values is the driving factor of why one person should be hired, and it is also the driving PA factor of why a person should be transitioned. And not because everyone needs to have the same values, but when the values of an organization are the values of a vision are the values of a program or a product launch. When those values cannot be demonstrated in the behavior of leadership, you’re not a product of the product. You’re not living out what you’re supposed to be, and that is only sustainable for a short time. I’ve also lived and worked and tolerated and been around leaders that did not share my values for a specific time.

And it wasn’t that the values weren’t imported. It wasn’t that I was turning my head that the values were not being lived out. There was an ongoing leadership conversation about those differences of values and how temporary that assignment was going to be if the values were not infectious enough to be embraced by the leaders around you. But in every situation, if you have a leader or a group of people on your team that are not living out your corporate values, there is a reckoning day coming. When it comes, because the art of leadership is about timing, when it comes, be willing to have the candid conversation. That this is not a performance separation, this is a value separation.

We are just not at a place to where our values being different can be effective any longer. And I’ve been, again, in situations in relationships and work environments to where the lack of congruency at the value level is known but tolerated for a certain period of time, for a certain particular reason. But there will always come a time when there’s a lack of value connection to where that will be a reason for a separation.

Traci Morrow:

And John will talk about where if you don’t acknowledge… This is the fine line too, because John will talk about if you don’t acknowledge it to your team that you see it and it, especially if you’re in that tolerating season, your team can lose confidence in their leader because they think the leader doesn’t see it.

Mark Cole:

Right.

Traci Morrow:

Especially if they’ve complained about it or reported it or discussed about something. And so how do you protect the values of the team in the tolerance stage without gossiping and without feeding the gossip mill?

Mark Cole:

Well, one is, I think every leader… An assignment of leadership is a willingness to be misunderstood. If it’s true what John says that leaders see more before, that’s true at the personnel level. That’s true at the personal level. That’s true at the professional level. That’s true at the vision level.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

Leadership is about seeing more in before. John talks that. I believe it. You know it. You’ve done that. So, then therefore a byproduct of seeing more in before is also being misunderstood more. And before. So one is, I think you have a tolerance. You have to have a tolerance as a leader to feel, be, and actually realized as a misunderstood leader. Because you see a reason. You see a purpose. I think the second thing is you’ve got to create an environment to where when something is bothering someone, so much to the point that is affecting performance or affecting their ability to buy in, you’ve got to create an environment that they can initiate that conversation. Because sometimes, I think leaders initiate a difference of values conversation in a way and in a time that is destructive rather than constructive. They either bring it up to protect themself because they’re scared about being misunderstood.

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

Or they address it with the individual, and you haven’t given that individual time enough to see if there is a values alignment that can be had. And so, again, it comes back to why I said that this is an art of leadership issue, because it’s timing. It’s not a practical or a practice or one of the 21 laws of leadership issue. It is an art of leadership issue. And knowing the timing, knowing how to deal with it, and knowing how to communicate that to your team

Traci Morrow:

Yeah. And just making sure that one of your clear values is that gossip is a cancer-

Mark Cole:

It is.

Traci Morrow:

… in the organization. And making sure that there is that open ear policy, that open door policy, that they can approach you as the leader. And you can have that private conversation with the people who are concerned, but letting them know to come to you rather than gossip and turn that [inaudible 00:31:22]

Mark Cole:

It’s no better than a values match, because I don’t value gossiping, just like I don’t value.

Traci Morrow:

Right, it’s another value.

Mark Cole:

A value misalign. Yeah.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah. That’s right. Okay, so the next thing, he goes through and talks about the things that he believes in, and he gives a list of things, values that John believes in. And so how have these values would you say changed or evolved? They haven’t changed, but have they evolved over time? Just those first ones… We talked a little bit before we started recording, but talking about personal growth, if you want to expand on that. And even making a significant contribution, that really has, I feel like, has become almost such a big part of what Maxwell Leadership is all about, both of those two things.

Mark Cole:

Well, it’s interesting. And I do want to take those two. I could take all six of them.

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

I could give you our seven values. That’s not totally the point of the lesson today. The importance of the lesson is the importance of values and the sustainability of the values and the sustainability of the organization if you put importance and sustainability on the responsibility of your values, right? Yes. Your organization will last the longer you allow values to be valuable in the organization. So personal growth is one that… I mean, we’ve watched John Maxwell not launch a book writing career to sell books, but to launch a book writing career to show others what he’s learning. He, he’s an infinite learner. He grows with a plan to always be growing forever. He does not grow with a destination perspective. He grows with a journey perspective. And I think that’s really important.

And so some pieces of personal growth has not changed, will not change, shall never, ever, ever, ever be changed. Because personal growth, we believe, is the foundation of good leadership.

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

Leadership starts on the inside and goes to the outside. So, personal growth is huge. Now, what we have done, and I talked about this in a recent podcast, we have created an environment of personal growth. Cause a lot of people don’t know how to grow.

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

So, we created the personal growth app. The Maxwell Leadership personal growth app was to help people get a tangible, quantifiable, qualitative approach to growth. We’re using John’s clear method on how to help people grow. You’re a part of that as a guide, Traci. So that’s on personal growth. We’re passionate about it. We’re just continuing to re-engineer the fact that as long as you and I are leading, as long as you and I are breathing, we will always be needing to grow ourselves personally.

And I love that John Maxwell models at a personal level, as well as a professional level.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

The second thing, and I’ll close with this. It’s been a great podcast, but is he said, number two, making a significant contribution. John’s famous. In fact, he wrote in this book… I brought the book with me today. He wrote in the book, Change the World. His statement, his mantra for transformation, for making a significant difference, I want to make a difference Doing something that makes a difference at a time that makes a difference with people, that makes a difference. That’s how John worded. Number two, I want to make a significant contr contribution. We now call that transformation. So it’s the same concept.

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

It’s significance. It’s making a contribution. But transformation means to us, after an interaction with us in one of our products or one of our podcasts, an expectation is that transformation, a change, an improvement, a transformed quality begins to be demonstrated because of an interaction with us.

That all comes from making a significant contribution. We call it significance sometimes. We go from success to significance. Once you’ve tasted significance, success will never satisfy. Some of our buzzwords that we have today is just a restatement of what John said many, many years ago.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

“I want to make a significant contribution.” In fact, I believe one of the shared traits of all of our podcast family, I know it’s one of mine in your shared traits, Traci, is we want to be a part of doing significant things, making a difference. One of the things I challenged my team to do today is off this book Change a World that John wrote. I hope many of you have the book. If you don’t, we’ll put it in the show notes where you can get it. But really what I want to share with you today is we created a course on how to change your world, how to make a significant contribution.

And we put in our show notes a way for you to link over to that program, that content that will help you make a significant difference. It’s an online course. We’re going to give you 15% off on that if you go and use the code podcast. When you click on that link in the show notes, It will help you realize and make a significant difference in your life. Again, pick up the book, do the online course. Because we are about making a significant contribution. I want to just really make this final standout statement. Then I want to read a listener question and attempt to answer it, Traci. But we did a video recently in our foundation. Our foundation is all about bringing transformation to communities and areas around the world that had the least amount of access to transformative qualities need transformation the most and can’t seem to get access to it.

And so our foundation, the Maxwell Leadership Foundation, exists for those kind of communities, those kind of countries and schools around the world. We were just showing a video, Traci, I don’t know if you saw it. We showed it at a recent foundation fundraiser that we had of this little girl in Costa Rica, grew up in a terrible situation. And she made a quote that impacted me forever. She said, when I started reading the I Lead curriculum, that’s a values transformation quality curriculum. She said. “I realized that the most valuable thing I have in life, we did this in our home where there was not running water…” It was a desperate, difficult situation. She said, “I realize that the most valuable thing I have is my values.”

Traci Morrow:

Wow. Wow.

Mark Cole:

Tear jerker. Blew us away.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

And really, it’s this statement that value your values. For many of us, the most valuable thing that we have, even whether we’re like Angela, the little girl that has nothing in Costa Rica, or perhaps you’re like me, you have more blessings than you imagine. I still would challenge you that the most valuable thing you have is your values. We had a question from one of our listener today that I want to read. It’s from Larry. Larry was inspired by The Leader Who motivates podcast episode. He said, “Mark, the thing about influence is that no one ever tells you that have influence.” I agree, Larry. He said, “So, it requires us to be ready to see it and hear it as much as we watch others. My question is, can you provide some thoughts and insight on this topic and your experiences? How can we know when we have influenced someone?” It’s such a good question. I’m a words of affirmation guy. So first, I’d say, Larry, is when people are giving you affirmation. “Hey, this podcast matters. This podcast makes a difference.”

Those matter to me. And I take those comments as I’m making a difference, I’m influencing others. I think the other thing that I like to do with leadership around me is I like to identify desired outcomes. After a year of my leadership in their life, after a mentorship session that I give people, I’ll go, “Hey, I’ll mentor you, but what’s your desired outcome for this mentorship? In other words, we state the expectations upfront, and then we work toward those expectations all along the relationship. And then the final thing I would tell you, Larry, is when you are done, do what John Maxwell does every time he walks off the stage, he goes, “Did I add value to you? Did this help you?” And whether it’s a relationship that you’re mentoring, whether it’s a relationship in an organization where you’re the leader, when you’re finished helping someone, ask them the question, did I help you, and how? Did I help you, and how? And that’s how you’ll know that you’re influencing someone.

Larry. Hey, to all of you that have listened in, thanks for letting Traci and I be a part of this today. Thank you so much for Traci. Just breaking this down to the importance of values. We look forward to seeing you next week. Bring about powerful, positive change because everyone deserves to be led well, let’s lead well.