Executive Podcast #232: Can Leaders Manufacture Momentum?

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell introduces the Law of Big Mo, which says, Momentum is a leaders best friend. He calls momentum the great exaggerator––with it everything is easier; without it everything is more difficult.

We hear it all the time in sports, where one team has all the momentum. In fact, when that happens the other coach almost always calls a time out to see if they can disrupt the surge of momentum. 

Momentum is an energy that moves a team forward. It can make a team feel that they are unstoppable.

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Perry Holley:

Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast, where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ability to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. Hi, I’m Perry Holley, a Maxwell leadership facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:

And I’m Chris Goede, Executive Vice President Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining. As we always start, we want to just make sure you have a place where you can leave a comment, a question, maybe even a topic that you’d like for us to talk about. That is maxwellleadership.com/podcast. And there, there’s a form that you can fill out even if you want to learn more about the 5 Levels of Leadership and how we use that as a foundation for training and for coaching as we work on enhancing the culture of organizations. You want more information, you can do that there. I love the title that we’re going after today. This is something that we’re talking a lot about-

Perry Holley:

We do.

Chris Goede:

… around here. And as times shift, I think leaders ought to talk about this a lot and it’s really around momentum. And so, Perry’s developed some content for us today and the title of our session is Can Leaders Manufacture Momentum? I love that. Reminds me of the 21 Laws where John talks about the law of the Big Mo and how momentum as a leader is your best friend.

Perry Holley:

Right.

Chris Goede:

I think I’ve heard John also say that, “If you have momentum, it’ll actually solve 80% of your problems without you even knowing.” And I’m like, that’s what I want.

Perry Holley:

I need some of that.

Chris Goede:

I need some of that. And we are problem solvers by nature as leaders. And so, if you can have momentum and it would help do that, then man, how awesome would that be? We’ve also heard it say it’s the great exaggerator. I’ve heard John say, “Hey, when things are going well, it’s not all because of your leadership, it’s momentum.” But hey, also sometimes we have momentum on the other side, negative side, and when things are going bad, that’s not all your fault either, but that can be momentum.

And you and I talk a lot about sports on here. You can really feel it and I even can lean over to my wife or whoever, and say, “Man, they have the momentum right here.” And then you see the opposing coach call a time-out.

Perry Holley:

“Time-out. Time-out.”

Chris Goede:

“Time-out. You better get a time-out coach. Something’s going wrong.” So, there’s lots of energy created around this. Talk a little bit about your desire behind creating this content for our listeners.

Perry Holley:

Well, I think if you’ve been a leader for any amount of time, you know what this feels like, you know when things are clicking and people are moving with intention. And even if you may not be closing every sale, but it feels like you are, it just has got a great feeling.

And you’ve also felt the other side of that, where things maybe not feel like they’re working. It’s sluggish. People, they don’t know what they’re doing or they’re slow to react. They’re not moving the way we should. And so, I’ve heard Mark Cole, our CEO, talk about manufacturing momentum. As you said, we’ve been talking about it a good bit here.

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Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Perry Holley:

But I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about it on the podcast. And I’ve actually personally never thought about, “Can I do things as a leader, practical things that would help me increase the chances of that momentum?” And I’ve heard, John will use the example when he speaks about it, about a train on a track going 60 miles an hour, you can put a steel reinforced wall in the track and that train, because of the momentum of movement on that, it will go right through it. But getting a train moving, you could put a very small item on the track and it can’t go.

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Perry Holley:

Because it doesn’t take much to keep it from going, but once you get it going, it’s hard to stop it. So, I thought I would present five or six ideas that we can look at.

Chris Goede:

Love it.

Perry Holley:

And maybe you could respond to those and help me share those. The first one that I had on there was that leaders must set clear goals and expectations. And if you think about it, it really makes sense if I’m not going to have a lot of success at building momentum towards something if I don’t know what I’m going towards.

So, if you expect to manufacture momentum, you really need to have a clear sense of direction of what we’re heading for. And more than that, the people on your team need to know what to expect on that. So, when you have a specific measurable goal expectations on the team, they won’t hesitate, generally, to get involved with that. What are your thoughts on that?

Chris Goede:

Yeah, I think if your team doesn’t know where you’re going or what you’re going after and they’re not clear about that, there’s no doubt that’ll be a momentum killer. It makes me think about an example of currently right now, we’re in a season at Maxwell Leadership where we’re getting ready for what we call IMC, the International Maxwell Conference. And we built a scorecard around that and we were very clear upfront, saying, “This is where we’re going, this is what we’re doing, and we want to make this impact. We want to do this.”

And so, we created things that were very clear about what we wanted to accomplish. Now, did we accomplish all of those goals that we clearly communicated? We didn’t, however we’ve seen momentum and seen a shift in the culture of everybody getting behind this movement, which has created momentum that we may not feel in this particular event. It may show up a couple months later, but it’s been fascinating because we’ve never been as clear before about this one team, one enterprise, everybody on board, “This is what we’re doing. This is what we’re going after.” And it’s been fascinating to just sit back and watch it. Even though, again, hear me leaders, we may not hit every single one of our KPIs, however we’ve been very clear and we’re measuring it, which you talked about, and that has created some momentum-

Perry Holley:

And great example too, because what I noticed being in the mix of that, you’re actually in the front of that, but everybody’s talking about it.

Chris Goede:

Yes.

Perry Holley:

Everybody’s communicating about it.

Chris Goede:

Yes.

Perry Holley:

And even though we may not hit 100% of those goals, everybody knows what they are. Everybody is doing their part and there’s no confusion in that. I’m also thinking about come down a level, our team, we’ve now gone to a scorecard system on our team meetings.

Chris Goede:

Yes.

Perry Holley:

Everybody’s sharing what their goals are, where they are. “Red, yellow, green, where are you? What do you need help to do?” So, that vision is out there. We all have a goal, what we’re trying to accomplish, and then we say, “How are we doing?” And so for me, we are never going to have momentum if we don’t come clean on, “Where are we going and where are we?”

Chris Goede:

That’s good.

Perry Holley:

And, “How are we going?” Same thing with the IMC. So, it used to be known in years past, see you in Orlando.

Chris Goede:

You will show up in … That’s exactly right. No, that’s exactly right.

Perry Holley:

This has been-

Chris Goede:

And it’s funny because I hadn’t thought about this, but we teach at the foundation of the 5 Levels of Leadership as we shift cultures with organizations, we say, “Hey, common language leads to beliefs that leads to behaviors.” I hadn’t thought about until you just said it a minute ago. Everybody’s talking about it.

Perry Holley:

Right.

Chris Goede:

So, then the beliefs of the people are beginning to follow that and then the behavior. And as leaders, that’s really what we’re going after when it comes to momentum, when it comes to culture, is that behavioral change. So, it’s a good … Love that.

Perry Holley:

It’s funny, some people are complaining about it, because they’re like, “You want me to do what?” But that even is good because it says, everything’s moving and you got to get on this train.

Chris Goede:

They do. Yeah.

Perry Holley:

And then that gave us an opportunity to say, “Well, maybe you’re not clear on why we’re doing this.” And then the naysayers faded and everybody, the voices became for it. So, yeah, it is a building-

Chris Goede:

Yeah. We may go completely off topic here. Sorry for those that are listening and watching. You just said, even some of them, some of the things we were doing to create momentum, people are like, “Well, that’s not my day job. I don’t want to do that. I’m not comfortable doing that.” And what was interesting was … And that’s true and that’s fair, but it is a momentum shift that we’re making as an organization. What was fascinating to watch for those that say, “Hey, that’s really not in my sweet spot. I don’t want to do that in regards to what we’re going after.” Whatever. I saw the team rally around that person and said, “Hey, let me take that off of you.”

Perry Holley:

Right.

Chris Goede:

“You do a couple, whatever that is. Let me…” So, then I saw the team create momentum as a unit, not necessarily the individuals.

Perry Holley:

Okay. That’s good.

Chris Goede:

And so, just another little topic there.

Perry Holley:

That’s the podcast for today, folks.

Chris Goede:

There you go. There’s our 20 minutes that we try to keep this one under. And we’re completely off of Perry’s content that he created for us, but we’re going to dive back in here. So, the second one, as we talk about, “Can leaders manufacture momentum.” Is you must celebrate successes and milestone.

This goes back to, we’ll stay on the example right here for a minute, is that no matter how small, you’ve got to celebrate it. It’s a powerful motivator. It’s something that can help you not only maintain, but then maybe increase the momentum a little bit. And you need to reward progress, but do it specifically. I say this a lot around values, about recognizing certain things, make sure that you are rewarding or complimenting that’s in alignment with where we’re going as a goal, what we clearly stated as you mentioned in level one. But make sure that you just give those small wins and that creates more momentum. And if you do that, then I think that’ll be key to helping you manufacture that.

Perry Holley:

Totally agree. And if you want a momentum killer, here’s one for you. Don’t recognize.

Chris Goede:

Don’t say anything. Yeah.

Perry Holley:

Don’t say anything. Actually, the way I’ve heard it, because I come out of a sales background was, “That’s really great, Perry, what have you done for me lately?”

Chris Goede:

Yeah.

Perry Holley:

And that will just kill it right there. People don’t feel like their work is being recognized. One thing I’ve noticed is that everyone that I know is working hard right now. I don’t know anybody that’s kicking back and taking it easy. There’s a lot of change. There’s a lot of dynamics happening.

And what I’ve learned is people do not mind working hard if you acknowledge that you see they’re working hard. And it’s just like, “I just need somebody to know I’m putting in a lot here.” And when you do that, when you celebrate, when you recognize, when you affirm and appreciate, it just gives people that second wind to, “I can keep going because not only are you in it with me, you know I’m in it.” And that is a momentum builder to me. So, I think I made it number two about recognizing-

Chris Goede:

Love it.

Perry Holley:

… it’s such an important one that often gets overlooked.

Chris Goede:

So, you’re talking about, real quick, in sales, so what you’re saying is that if it was the last day of the month and the next day when we come in, it’s the beginning of the month, I usually say, “Hey, well, that was last month. What are you doing…” You’re saying I shouldn’t say that? I should probably at least acknowledge a little bit-

Perry Holley:

I didn’t know if you’d be able to pick that up.

Chris Goede:

One of my teammates, sure that they said, “Hey, Perry, will you talk to Chris about this?”

Perry Holley:

That’s right. No, you’re actually very good about this. You wait like two days and you-

Chris Goede:

Yeah. I wait till the second day of the month.

Perry Holley:

That’s it, we celebrate on Monday, now get back to it on Tuesday.

Chris Goede:

Get back to work.

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Perry Holley:

All right. Number three, leaders must provide support and resources to do this. I think if you want to maintain this type of momentum, you need things that, what do the people need? What is the team needing? You should, “Do they have the tools? Do they have the training? Do they have the development?” It really is about keeping your ear and your eyes focused on, “Where are they? How are they doing? And what is needed?” And that you may be able to bring resources to bear. It may just be a helping hand. It could be a tool, it could be a piece of software, it could just be something simple, but they need to know that you’re in there. It encourages people to keep going, that you’re looking for active ways to help me out.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. Let me use an internal example again here. This is just so relevant to what we’re working with right now. Every Wednesday we hold a leadership team meeting and we have a business plan review. So, for those of you that are familiar with Alan Mulally, who turned around Ford and led Boeing, a tremendous book, American Icon, that he wrote. In there, he talks about the process that he used to turn around Ford. And part of that is this meeting structure.

And one of the things that we’ve started doing is now our entire leadership team gets in a room and we’re all engaged in what each other business looks like. What are their metrics? What are their numbers? To your point a little bit earlier, we have a color system, which some are familiar with. And so, what it allows us to do is when someone … You even mentioned it in our meeting the other day, you said, “So, just so that we’re clear,” so back to point number one that you have for us today, “when we show a yellow or a red, that means, ‘Hey, I need the team, I need our leaders to help support, to help the resource to help solve it.'” And I was like, absolutely, that’s the point of it. And so when you do that, again, you work through that as a team and as a unit, but you’re also providing support and resources for that.

Perry Holley:

Well, if you’re looking for the momentum killer, there it is. “Oh, there’s a yellow, there’s a red.” And then boom, you come down on people. The way we are doing it, and I love, it’s what Mulally did so well, was when somebody finally boldly showed a yellow or a red, the team came around them and said, “That’s a momentum builder, because now we have a lot of smart people thinking about the challenges that one department or one person has and bringing those resources.”

Chris Goede:

Yeah, love that.

Perry Holley:

Great example.

Chris Goede:

Well, number four, leaders must promote collaboration and teamwork. This builds off of three, if you’re doing it as a leader to an individual or as a team where we’re sharing the purpose and we’re trying to build momentum behind what we’re doing, there’s a common goal. We begin to trust each other. Right? We’re solving problems. Let’s say there’s a yellow or there’s a red, or we’re struggling a little bit, lacking momentum, and someone’s like, “Hey, let me help you with that.” The team gets around, collaborates, within an hour you may have helped move that needle forward a little bit and you’re building trust with each other and it makes sure that you’re not out there working on an island.

And what I love about this and being collaborative and teamwork to create momentum is there’s a lot of people on our team and on your team, if you’re listening or you’re watching us, that can bring a lot to the table. At times, we just stifle it. We don’t ask. And there are things that they can share with us. Their voices want to be heard in order for us to help create momentum. So, I’m a big teamwork guy. It’s one of my top five values, and I believe that you can accomplish more together with a team and create more momentum.

Perry Holley:

And John says, “One is too small a number to do anything great.”

Chris Goede:

Oh yeah, that’s good.

Perry Holley:

And I also think, I’m hearing Don Yaeger in my ear talking, he’s so keen on teamwork as he teaches us that, that’s the beauty of being on a team, we’re not just a bunch of … What does he say? Private contractors, that are trying to do the same job. No, we are on a team and there’s some characteristics that really add advantage to building momentum.

Number five, keep the focus on the big picture. And the idea here is if you want to maintain momentum, what are the long-term, the big picture, where are we going and what are we trying to accomplish? That if you continuously communicating the vision and the mission, team members need to know, and here’s the real catch for me on momentum, “Do I know what my role, what my team, why does it matter what I do? How do I fit into what the bigger picture is?” So, as you’re thinking about momentum, keeping the big picture and then everybody on the team knows what they do, how it matters to where we’re going. “I’m not irrelevant. I’m relevant to where we’re going.”

Chris Goede:

Yeah. I love, you made a note here on my side of the notes that says, “Working a plan that is not working will kill momentum.” In essence, it really will. And so, the big picture, the focus on what that KPI is for that team or for the organization, it won’t change, but how we go about that is going to change. And you need to make changes along the way.

You and I fly a ton and we know that from being on planes, whether we’re sitting in holding patterns 30,000 feet, letting storms go by, or we’re moving storms along the way, that pilot is continuing. He knows where we’re going. For us, it’s Atlanta and we’re grateful for that because Perry and I very rarely have to get connections, because we live here in Atlanta, but we know we’re going to Atlanta. How they’re going to go about getting there will change.

Perry Holley:

The course directions. Yeah.

Chris Goede:

The course direction will change, but the big picture is get Chris and Perry back to Atlanta. Usually Perry’s in the front of the plane, Chris is in the back of the plane.

Perry Holley:

I love that.

Chris Goede:

Or, as we talk a lot about with upgrades list, we always screenshot each other. We always usually end up first loser is what we call it, where all the upgrades have been given and then we’re the number one on the list that’s next.

Perry Holley:

With no seats remaining.

Chris Goede:

With no seats remaining.

Perry Holley:

Number one with no seats remaining.

Chris Goede:

That’s right.

Perry Holley:

You’re now first loser.

Chris Goede:

Just think about us, [inaudible 00:17:01]. Man, that podcast, Perry and Chris, it was so good, just reminds me that I am first loser, which by the way does not create momentum for Perry and I when it comes to our-

Perry Holley:

Momentum killer.

Chris Goede:

… excitement around flying. We definitely don’t want to do that.

Perry Holley:

Delta, if you’re listening-

Chris Goede:

Yeah, that’s right.

Perry Holley:

… we don’t like doing that.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. Hey, number six is be a role model of positive energy. Perry, you talk a lot about our team is watching us-

Perry Holley:

All the time.

Chris Goede:

All the time.

Perry Holley:

All the time.

Chris Goede:

And you are going to set the tone and your attitude, it’s going to be contagious and it’s going to have a powerful impact on the team. And so, we need to make sure that we roll up our sleeves, that we get in it, that whatever the job responsibilities of your team, your leadership, your organization, man, roll up the sleeves, have a positive energy and get in there with it. When you do that, they’re going to be willing to take risks. They’ll be willing to work a little bit harder. As you talk about rowing the boat, they’re going to be engaged with us. They’re going to be giving us discretionary effort.

And one of the things I want to mention here is when you’re doing that, make sure you’re doing it authentically. Don’t come in being a cheerleader if that’s not your authentic style of bringing positive energy to the room. You bring energy in your own natural way. Do that. Just do it in a positive way.

And the other thing I would say around this is that you’re going to go through failures, you’re going to make mistakes, the team is. That may shift the course of the direction. It may change the momentum a little bit, but with a positive approach and a positive mindset, you’ll be able to redirect that. I just want to throw this in here, a lot of people talk about, “Man, when we hit that speed bump, it really derailed us and we never regained momentum.” What I would challenge you to do is learn from that, but also as you feel momentum as a leader and as you’re manufacturing it, man, take some time to back up and reflect and say, “Why is that working?” Really evaluate the success behind the manufacturing of that momentum, because that is also something that you can replicate.

Perry Holley:

Yeah. Momentum starts with the leader, and I often say AIAO, attitude in, attitude out. What you put in, energy in, energy out as well. People are watching, they’re feeling it, and you’re going to have a difficult time starting and maintaining momentum if you don’t have that optimistic can-do, forward, great attitude, looking outward. Like you said, things are going to hit you. Right now we’re in challenging times.

Chris Goede:

Right.

Perry Holley:

What a great time to really let your momentum pick up and carry you through challenges, even by just staying positive about it.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. Let me say this around momentum, just a thought that popped in and I’ll wrap us up here in just a minute. At the end of the day, there are opportunities in challenging times where you do have small wins that will help you create momentum, and as you acknowledge them and you stay focused, that’s going to happen. If you’re intentional about your plan and you’re consistent about your focus, there are going to be things that create momentum that maybe are not tied to your bottom line.

We were in a meeting yesterday and our CFO was talking about, “Hey, so we may have missed this mark, but let me tell you when it comes to cost of this particular thing, we were able to shave off six figures off of this because we were very intentional. So, don’t lose the fact that we made progress there.” Now, what did that do? That created momentum for the operational side of the house, it’s like, “Yes, man, we contributed to that.” And so, just know there’s all kinds of ways to create momentum around that. Even during difficult times when you’re not hitting goals.

Perry Holley:

That’s a big picture thing. In that one area, but in the big picture of things, so that’s why I love … A leader needs to see, “We’re doing well here. We’re having struggle…” The momentum, if you look at the big picture where we’re going, momentum still stays in place, even though we might have lacked on one, we picked up on another.

Chris Goede:

Yeah. That’s good. Well, I’m just going to wrap up real quick. So, here are the six things. If you’re watching us or listening to us, I want you to write these down.

Perry Holley:

We’re on YouTube.

Chris Goede:

We are on YouTube. Yes. They even let us on YouTube.

Perry Holley:

Yeah, we got an award as-

Chris Goede:

Yeah, I think our team got an award. I don’t know if we got an award.

Perry Holley:

Okay. I shouldn’t have tweeted that out. I’m sorry.

Chris Goede:

Yeah, that’s right. But just take a minute and write these down. Again, if you’re listening or watching us, these are key things that Perry’s just given us, very applicable things that you can create momentum and manufacture momentum.

Number one, make sure you set clear goals. Number two, celebrate small wins along the way. Number three, provide support and resources. Number four, foster collaboration and teamwork. Number five, keep focus on the big picture. And then finally, make sure that you’re modeling, because leadership is contagious, it’s also a visual sport, modeling positive energy.

Perry Holley:

Terrific. Thank you, Chris. Great stuff. Just a reminder, and Chris told you at the top, if you’d like to learn more about our offerings, if you’d like to leave a comment or a question for us, if you’d like to download the Learner Guide, you can do all of that at maxwellleadership.com/podcast. We love hearing from you and we really are grateful that you would spend this time with us. That’s all today from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.