Become a World-Class Leader

Mark Cole:
Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast where we commit to adding value to you as a leader so you’ll multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole and today John Maxwell is sharing a lesson on how you too can become a world class leader. Now you’ll hear in this lesson that John Maxwell doesn’t even consider himself to be a world class leader. When he was voted as the number one leadership guru in the world, it was the people that saw the article that let him know, how can you though? How can you become best in class a world class leader? As John has learned many things throughout his leadership journey, he’s also learned how to become a world class leader within himself so that it’ll impact others around him. I can’t wait for you to listen in today and what we’ll get to learn together. After John’s lesson, my co host, Traci Morrow and I are going to give you some practical ways to where you too can become a world class leader in your life and in your leadership. If you would like to download the free bonus resource for this episode or watch the episode on YouTube, you can go to maxwellpodcast.com/worldclass now.

Mark Cole:
Speaking of world class, for years now, for over five years, six years, we’ve been doing this podcast and we’ve given you a bonus resource to go along with it. But our team said if that was good, how can we become world class? In fact, my co host today, Traci Morrow, gave a suggestion. How about us giving some application questions at the end of our bonus resource. So today, starting today, going forward, you’re gonna note how our team took class and made it world class. You’re gonna notice how our bonus resource is more than just a fill in reminder of what John has talked about. It’s gonna ask you some questions so that you can apply. And what better way to do that than today when we’re talking about you becoming better. So after the lesson, please take time, go into these application questions and let them refine you, improve you and expand you to becoming world class.

Mark Cole:
Okay, are you ready? Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:
I want to talk to you about how to become a world class leader. Several years ago I was traveling internationally speaking and I was in Thailand and I was answering questions to the news reporter when I landed in that country and they asked me what it was like to be the world’s number one leadership guru. And I looked at them and I said, well, I don’t know. And it’s there that they told me that it had just been Announced that I was the number one leadership guru in the world. In fact, they knew it before I knew it. I didn’t even know that this had happened. And so that day I realized that, wow, if I’m the nation’s or the world’s number one leadership guru, this has been a good journey for me. So I ask myself, well, how did I achieve that? If I really am, then how did I get to that position? How did I become the world’s number one leadership guru? Well, I’m going to talk to you about how to do this.

John Maxwell:
I’m going to talk to you right now about how you can become a world class leader. So these are my practical steps to you as I, your friend, John Maxwell, mentor you. Number one, start with yourself. Don’t start with the world. Don’t even start with your team. Start with yourself. It’s kind of like this. The number one leadership challenge I have is not leading others.

John Maxwell:
The number one leadership challenge I have is leading me. See, it’s easy for me to tell you what to do, but for me to do it myself, now that’s a whole different story. That’s a whole different level. And so I don’t want you to miss this because it’s so important for me that you start by leading yourself. In other words, you start by being the example for your team because your team is going to be like you. So if you develop good leadership qualities, if you develop good leadership practices in your life, guess what your team will follow. I’ve learned that it’s easier to tell other people what to do than to do it myself. I’ve learned that I’m my number one leadership challenge.

John Maxwell:
So when John Maxwell, who’s become the world’s number one leadership guru, where does he start? Not with the world, not with even my team. I start with myself. I make sure that I’m the example I want my team to see so I can truly say to them, follow me. The second step in becoming a world class leader is to start for the right reasons. Often I’ll talk to young leaders and they say, well, you know, I want to be a leader. And I always ask them the question, why do you want to be a leader? And I’m always interested in their answer. Sometimes people will say, well, I want to become a leader because I want to be in control and I want to be first and I want people to look up to me. And when they begin to talk about selfish reasons for wanting to be the leader, well, I’ll make more money or I’ll have a higher position or I’ll be the boss.

John Maxwell:
I know immediately that they’re in trouble because you don’t lead for what it benefits you. The only reason to lead is to benefit others. Leadership is all about other people. It’s not about you, it’s not about me. And so what I’ve realized is that the people who are successful in the long run leading is because they became a leader to add value to the people around them. Again, that’s the question. You see, the only reason to lead is to give the people the benefit. The only reason for you and me to lead is to add value.

John Maxwell:
Value to others. That is essential. You don’t want to miss it. So how do you become a world class leader? Start with yourself. Number two. Start for the right reason to add value to people. Number three. Just start small.

John Maxwell:
I love this. You know, mass movements don’t begin with a mass. They begin with a few people. A few people who just are passionate and committed to make a difference in the people’s lives and those around them. And so when you start for the right reason, you’re starting to benefit again and help others and make a difference in their life. When you start small, you’re realizing that if you can’t lead a few, you’ll never be able to lead many. So sometimes people say, well, I want to lead a big team. I say, well, honestly, can you lead a small team? Can you lead 2 or 3? If you can lead 2 or 3, maybe you can lead 20 or 30.

John Maxwell:
Maybe at time you can lead 200 or 300. Maybe someday 2000 or 3000. But you start small. You don’t start big. You know, Mother Teresa was asked one time, how do you feed the world? I love her answer. She said, start with one. How true, how simple, but how helpful. Mother Teresa said, start with one.

John Maxwell:
If you can feed one well, guess what, you can go with two and then with three. And as I say that, when people look at me as a world class leader, literally 50 years ago, I started with three people, just three. And one of them was me. Me and two others. I started small. But it’s okay. If you can lead small well, you can lead medium well. Someday you’ll be able to lead big well, but start small.

John Maxwell:
The fourth thing I want to talk to you about, and this is so essential to becoming a world class leader, is that you need to be consistent. You don’t become a world class leader by being inconsistent. You don’t become a world class leader by quitting. It’s every Day doing the right thing. The main thing, it’s doing those everyday essentials that will make you very successful in your life. Consistency compounds. If you will keep doing the right thing every day, someday you’re going to reap a huge return. It’s kind of like maybe to illustrate it, if there was this big boulder, big rock, and I wanted to break it and I had like a sledgehammer, a big hammer to pound that rock when I started, I would know that the first time I hit that sledgehammer on that rock that there was not going to be anything that would be shown as making progress with that rock.

John Maxwell:
It wouldn’t crack. It would just be there. So I keep pounding the rock. I keep pounding the rock, and for many times, I’m not seeing any progress. I’m not seeing any kind of positive results of all that pounding. But if I just keep pounding the rock, you know what happens? Eventually, all of a sudden, the rock cracks and then it breaks. Now, the day I hit that sledgehammer on that rock and it broke, would everybody say, oh my gosh, that was the magic hit. That one right there.

John Maxwell:
That was the one that broke the rock? No, no, no, no, no. Every hit was magic. Maybe hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of hits. I don’t know. But every hit was magic because it was going towards the specific goal of breaking that rock. What I want you to do is this. Consistency compounds. Recently they told me that I’ve written more leadership material than any person that has ever lived in the history of the world.

John Maxwell:
Now, if that’s true, people would ask, john, how have you written more leadership material than any person that’s ever lived in the history of the world? It’s very simple. I write every day. Every day I’m writing that compounds. After tens of thousands of days in my life, I’m now the number one leadership author as far as written material that the world has ever known. But how did I get there? Consistency. I write my books one word at a time. You live your life one day at a time. But be consistent.

John Maxwell:
If you’ll do those four things, you’ll be a world class leader. And that’s the truth.

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Mark Cole:
Welcome back. John says a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. So as we, Traci began to talk about this concept of how to become a world class leader, I’ve got to tell you, and John says this and we’re going to start with it, but it does start on the inside. It starts with ourself. And so I’m super excited again, Traci, to be partnered up with you to break down this lesson for our podcast family.

Traci Morrow:
I’m excited to be partnered with you and I love, I love how, you know, you listen to such a big title like a world class leader and I love the practicality of just starting with me and you know, number one, diving right in, starting with yourself. This is really mark a growth issue. I, it just jumps right out at me and to me I’m, you know, I’m currently in my own personal professional life. I’m in the process of developing a team of leaders that are on and I’m sure everyone in the audience can, can relate to this of varying degrees, all of us are and varying degrees in our leadership journey. And so a lot of times we have, we gauge our own personal leadership level kind of blindly and we don’t know what we don’t know. John says that often. And so based, you know, maybe it’s based on our income or sales or maybe even on the might based on the size of our, of our organization or on our company. But the thing that, that’s not really what measures John is saying a world class leader, all those things that are markers.

Traci Morrow:
And so let’s talk about A, how do you get a true assessment like you might think I might think, oh, I’m doing pretty good in this area. I’m really cooking with gas. And so how do I get a true assessment A, of where I am, like a litmus test of sorts, and B, once I find out once cold water splashed in my face and I get the true measure of how I’m doing in this, in this area for myself, where do I go once I understand where I’m at And it might be in different places with different people in the organization, but once I Have a true understanding of where I’m at with different people in the organization. Where do I go from there to develop that?

Mark Cole:
You know, so great question. And two things that we have as resources, maybe the team can put them in the show notes for you. But one of the things that we have as it relates to assess, where am I in this area of effectiveness or in today’s context, a world class leader. We have a tool called the Maxwell Leadership Assessment. And it’s a 360 degree assessment that gives you great positive and constructive feedback on how you can improve your leadership, improve your influence. So when you ask that question, where can we go? That’s an option. I’ll tell you. A less formal approach.

Mark Cole:
Is your inner circle. People that know you and believe in you, how are they seeing you? Do they see you as world class? Why do they see you as world class? What’s holding you back from being first world class? Always having these questions and multiple layers of questions. Is where I go in this true assessment of how well and how effective I’m leading? You know, John has written a book. Many of you know this, but John has written a book called the High Road Leader. And this concept on high road leadership allows you to take these 10 characteristics that John believes differentiates a middle road leader or even a low road leader from a high road leader. I think getting a model of what world class looks like in your mind and getting that clear and then begin measuring yourself to that clarity is the best approach that I have. I was looking at this, Traci, this start with yourself. And I was impacted that John didn’t know you all heard the story.

Mark Cole:
John didn’t even know. I did know I was with him in Asia. Had not had a chance. It was on my list to share with John, hey, you just been voted as the number one leadership guru of the world. It was in my little book that I go over with John. We had not had a chance to talk about it yet. We land and our host congratulates him and he goes, okay, thank you. And they said, no, no, I’m serious.

Mark Cole:
I saw the article where you’re the number one leadership guru in the world. And he went, what article? By who? And do they really know who they’re talking about? That was really authentically his response. But then when we started talking about it and we went behind the scenes on why they determined that John was number one and they built all the credibility of the assessment, the global assessment that showed him on that list over and over and over, year over year as the number one leadership guru. We looked at it and John went, I do that. That’s right. They assessed that correctly. I watched John agree with an article about him that he didn’t even know it was a classification after he got done. Here’s my point.

Mark Cole:
It wasn’t up until last year that I stopped allowing the challenges. I’m going through the successes, the peaks of the business, the valleys of the business. It was only a year and a half ago when I let those, when I stopped allowing those things to determine how good of a leader I am. Oftentimes, Traci Way I took this little point that John’s teaching on how to become a world class leader. You have to start by seeing yourself as a world class leader. Now I’m not telling you to go rogue and become egotistical and narcissistic and all those crazy words on me. Overconfident, Please, those of you that know John’s brand, you know he’s none of those things. But John knows that he’s a world class leader.

Mark Cole:
I believe the understanding and the vision of world class starts on the inside and works itself out. In fact, John says it like this. In the beginning, I was not as bad as people thought I was. But in the end, I’m not as good as people think I am. But John knew early on you can’t see the world class in me, but one day you will and you will overinflate it. It was a year and a half ago I could tell the story I want today to when I started realizing I’m a really good leader. Now I still don’t feel comfortable saying on this podcast I’m a world class leader because I’m certainly in comparison to John and worked alongside of John. I have so far to go.

Mark Cole:
At the same time, I will tell you there was a peaceful confidence and I say peaceful because it wasn’t emotional. A very settled confidence in me about a year and a half ago that the external circumstances of my current leadership challenges does not determine the classification of my leadership. I’m a good leader and my prayer for you listening to this podcast today is so many of you don’t have self belief and you call in that humility. And I like humility and I hate egotism and overconfidence. But some of you just need to see that you are a powerful leader. Traci, I love the beginning of our conversation before we started recording. I said, how’s it going? You said, mark, I am on fire right now. I’m leading.

Mark Cole:
Well, I’m learning so much. I am becoming better. If you’d have asked me three weeks ago, four weeks ago, six months ago, how well I’m a leader, it wouldn’t even compare to how good I’m leading now. I think you were still that good leader six months ago, three months ago. But this current learning curve has brought that out of you. I already knew all that. What I like about our conversation earlier, Traci, is you now are seeing what I already saw in you. World class leadership.

Mark Cole:
For those of you listening to the podcast, I want you to get out of this first point. Becoming a world class leader starts with you believing it, seeing it, and knowing that there’s world class in you. And when you begin to see that, you will believe it. When you begin believing it, you will begin acting like it. When you begin acting like it, you will begin to conduct yourself in a way that the world class leader within you will begin to be recognized by others.

Traci Morrow:
And I think that is a great segue into number two because you’ve got us up here on a high. You’ve got us jacked up and excited and ready to conquer the world because it’s like, who wouldn’t want to be a leader after hearing that rally cry? But starting for the right reasons, when you hear all of that, it’s like, I want to be a leader. I want to have that inspiring feeling. I want, I want something like that to be said about me. But the reality is the difference between the person that you talked about, who was talking to you before this call, me telling you, like, Mark, I feel on fire. I’m so excited. And the person who talked to you six months ago, only you, Mark, and maybe a few of our listeners in the audience, because they know me and have walked this journey with me, don’t know all of the excruciating things that I’ve gone through in those six months. Lots of hard conversations, lots of like on my face in prayer, asking my inner circle, trying to navigate difficult things.

Traci Morrow:
And so he said, starting for the right reasons. I, I believe when he talks about like, you don’t lead for what benefits you. I think what you just described sounds very glamorous. And I think you see somebody out in front or you hear about leadership and what you just described almost sounds glamorous. And I would love to hear you talk about the difference between a person who simply wants to be a leader because of that high you’re just describing versus a person who feels the call to leadership, understanding fully the weight of what it is to be a leader and the price that you’re going to have to pay to wear that title because there are very hard days that come with that title. One, I think we tend to think of leadership with the perks of leadership and there are some nice perks, but they are few, few, few, few, few and far between, right alongside of the responsibility that you carry and the weight that you carry as a leader. So can you talk a little bit about what it means to temper and do a heart check to check what your motives are as you start with for the right reasons?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, I’m glad you slowed me down on that after the first point because I do operate in a bubble and it’s the servant leadership Maxwell style of leadership, which is all about serving and making sure that others can achieve their objectives and their goals. That’s our brand. So there’s a couple of standout statements that stood out to me in our podcast today, but it stands out to me in every single podcast we do because it’s who John is. Number one. You start on the journey of becoming a world class leader because you want to be an example of your team because your team is going to be just like you. It’s all about modeling. You do it so that others will replicate solid value added servant leadership perspective. The second standout statement that really came from the podcast for me is leadership is all about other people.

Mark Cole:
I don’t lead for my own advancement. I lead for the advancement of others. I don’t lead for my own objectives. I lead so that the other people around me’s objectives can be fulfilled. And by that, my leadership will be fulfilling. So leadership is all about other people. The third thing that I would use as a third standout session, which we’ll get us to it in just a moment in our point point is you don’t become a world class leader by being inconsistent. And so let’s take those three standout statements and take it back to the right reasons.

Mark Cole:
I don’t want to assume that everybody has a pure motive to leadership because I’ve worked for enough people that didn’t seem like that they had it. That that would be a bad assumption. But can I tell you something? I assume everybody wants to be a leader for the right reason. I really do. We was talking about that in passive podcast and I know we’ll get into that a little bit in a future podcast, but people lead. I see a 10 on everybody’s leadership desire or leadership ability or leadership passion to become effective for others. Is that true in every case? No. But I want to be disproved in that rather than to be skeptical about that? I do.

Mark Cole:
That’s just the state of mind that I have been in. And again, there’s an upcoming podcast. Chris Goede and I will get very much into that. But here’s what I want to tell you, if you will check yourself and your motives. Simon Sinek helps you with his book began with why the idea of why do you want to lead? Why do you want a personal perspective? And if your perspective of leadership is not that you want to make other people better with your influence, you need to recheck it. And by the way, somewhere in there, that really is why you wanted to lead. You just kind of got caught up with fame and money and fortune and talent and all of these things. Go back to the basics.

Mark Cole:
Leadership is about serving others and expanding other people’s potential within them.

Traci Morrow:
Yeah. And if you are just starting out as a leader, or maybe you are, you might even be like, well, how do I do that if I’m in a big organization already? That could be something that you could develop in yourself by volunteering somewhere or starting point number three was start small. Mass movements don’t start with the, you know, masses. They start with this with a few going to a place where you can, you know, start small, do a heart check and start pouring into someone and having an effect in just a small area where you can, you can practice all of the things that John talks about. But I would really love to move on into number four, which is be consistent. And consistency is such a marker for people who are successful. That is the one thing that in all of the, the people who I have met in my adult life, in my professional career, who the difference maker for people who are really exponentially successful has been that they are consistent. And so how do you talk to your team about this, Mark? I find this to be for a lot of new people, you know, that old joke like squirrel.

Traci Morrow:
And people have, they’ve lost their attention. It’s the shiny objects. It’s the least sexy part of any new project that you are doing or anything that you’re trying to get traction and momentum on. How does. So how does a leader determine what are the things that they need to be doing consistently and. And communicate that to their team? And then how often do you assess that they. Those things maybe need to change or be tweaked? I mean, I’m sure you could take that in any different direction. But I’m just curious for a leader who’s like, how do I Develop consistency in my team to give them some handles.

Mark Cole:
You know, as John was teaching today, and we always, Traci and I always listen live right before we go live to record. And as I was listening, I went, okay, in this idea of becoming a world class leader, what have been the five things? What’s my rule of five of becoming a world class leader? And that’s because for those of you that don’t know, that’s new to us, that’s new to the podcast. John has a book and several teachings on his rule of five. The things that he has been consistent with. To write over 90 distinct books, to sell over 36 million copies of those books, and to become that number one leadership guru in the world. John has done that with consistency. I travel the world with John Maxwell and he does that every day. And I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been in his office doing my own work while he’s doing his rule of five.

Mark Cole:
He’s writing, he’s thinking, he’s asking questions, he’s following, he’s reading. I’m in there and I’m going to be honest with you. There’s no angelic sounds from heaven. There’s no glow about John while he’s doing that. There’s no music from another stratosphere. It is just as boring and consistent as you would imagine. He’s over there writing and he’s not saying, oh my gosh, listen to this mark. No, he’s pounding out a bunch of things so he can get to a oh my goodness, listen, listen to this mark.

Mark Cole:
So what I’m trying to say to you, there is not an appeal to consistency. There’s not a immediate gratification to consistency. That’s where people miss it most of the time. They go, oh, I want to be a world class leader. I want to be shining like the stars. What do I got to be consistent in? It doesn’t compute yet. The magic of becoming world class is in the magic of what you’re consistent in. So what are you consistent in, podcast family? What are you consistent in, friends? That’s going to make you world class? I’ll give you my five that I am still doing to this day, that I did 25 years ago when I was an entry level telesales representative.

Mark Cole:
Every day I’m growing. Every day I hold myself accountable to what did I find out today that I didn’t know yesterday? I’m growing every single day. And growth to me is not just information. Growing to me is applied information. What did I find out and how am I applying it? The second thing is availability. I started out before I was available and in proximity to John Maxwell. I became available to my current leader. Hey, what do you need that I can do for you? Who’s the power brokers in your life and how available are you to them? Most people that are world class when they become world class want everybody to be available to them.

Mark Cole:
I found out for me to be world class I’ve got to stay available to others. Availability is a non negotiable for me. Number three is positive people’s not going to stick around with somebody that can’t find something positive to say every once in a while if you are a negative Ned or a negative Nan, you will not have people around you all of your life. I don’t care how negative the situation is. If you don’t find a silver lining my friend, you are going to be cycling through people. Because I can only handle and others can only handle so much pessimistic, negative, challenging people. So positivity was one for me. The fourth one is diligence.

Mark Cole:
Whatever my hand finds to do, I’m going to do it with all of my might. Whether it’s carry John’s bag or carry John’s bank account. Whatever I am doing I’m going to do with diligence. And then number five is accountable. Every day I’m going to be accountable. What are the numbers that I need to be reviewing and I’m going to review those numbers. It’s just making sure that I am giving account of what I’m supposed to do. Now I don’t know that I’m world class.

Mark Cole:
I told you that while ago. But I believe I am. I don’t know that others think I’m world class but I don’t need their belief in that I’m world class because in those five areas the consistency that I have had is something John Maxwell has never had around him in all of his life. And maybe I’m world class by proximity which is how I want to kind of end this point. Because I have found world class players are not necessarily always the MVPs. It’s the people that make up a team that is doing dynamic things that can be world class. So I would ask you the question who are you hanging out with? For me for 25 years I’ve been hanging out with John Maxwell and perhaps the reason I see myself as world class is not anything I’ve done. Perhaps it’s the reflection of his impact through me that makes Me feel world class, but proximity to the right people and being on a team with leaders like Traci, somebody I’m looking to, hopefully leaders like me will put world class thinking inside of you so that by being around that world class thinking and by getting that thinking inside of you, you will begin conducting yourself with things that consistently over time will give you world class results.

Mark Cole:
And so the greatest challenge perhaps of today’s podcast is change the team you’re playing on. Because if they’re not acting world class and you are the smartest person on that team and you’re the MVP every single year, you might want to get on a different team and let somebody else be an MVP so you can stretch your horizons of world class activity. So, Traci, that’s kind of where I am. And I kind of went on a tangent right there and I know we’re out of time, but that team is what I believe John is challenging us to do. I go back to the quote that I said at the very beginning. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way in this idea of being a world class leader. John, right now we always talk about John’s books. You can’t buy this book.

Mark Cole:
You can’t pre order it. It’s not ready. John right now is working on a book called how to become a 2 percenter. How to Become a World Class Leader. I can’t wait for him to finish it. It’s going to be incredible. We’ll tell it about on the podcast family first. But that’s because John knows the way goes the way and he is showing a way to a better you, a better me, and a better people around us.

Mark Cole:
I want to close with a podcast man. This podcast, how to be a real success part 2, got a lot of feedback from our podcast family and so we’ll put that in there. If you have not, we’ll put it in our show notes. If you’ve not listened to it, you certainly want to go to. But Dave from that podcast said Mark, I really want to thank you and the team for the work you do on the podcast. You guys are very humble and are very accessible and that makes it put things on the lowest shelf for all people. I am inspired by clear communication, leadership, equipping, attitude and relationship. And I really can’t say enough of how much I’m learning through this podcast.

Mark Cole:
Dave, thank you. Because that’s why we do what we do. In fact, today I want to challenge you before I sign off that if you want to become a high Road leader. That’s just an aspiration of yours to become world class. We have a digital online course that we’re making available at a steeply discounted rate today. Half off that. We’ll put the information in the show notes on how you too can become a high road Leader. Go make a difference.

Mark Cole:
Bring powerful positive change around you because everyone deserves to be led well.

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