Executive Podcast #316: How to Repeat the Remarkable

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 with Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining. As we dive in today, I want to encourage you to go to maxwellleadership.com/podcast. There. You’re going to want to download the learner’s guide from today, and you’ll understand a little bit more why as we dig into this. But there’s going to be not only content there, but there’s going to be a model that you’re going to want to print off based off of the topic for today. Well, today’s title is how to repeat the remarkable. And it’s really about this podcast, and it’s about how in the world with our team have we been able to do that.

Chris Goede:
No. All joking aside, and I’ve been looking forward to this, we have authors on here from time to time. And what many of you may or may not know is that Perry actually is an author himself. And, man, kudos to you, because writing a book is so, such a hard challenge for people to be able to do that. But for those of you that are on YouTube and joining us, and maybe if you’re just listening, I’m holding up a copy of Perry’s book, repeat the remarkable, how strong leaders overcome business challenges to take their performance to the next level. And I have read this book, and it’s been a couple of years because Perry was actually coaching me years ago, and one of the first assignments was to go buy his book.

Perry Holley:
Buy a case.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, I had to buy a case, and then I had to hand him out, and then he would coach me. But, man, this is such a great topic. And so guess what? Today, you’re on the hot seat. I get to do the role of Perry, and I’m gonna be asking you some questions.

Perry Holley:
Should I be scared?

Chris Goede:
You should absolutely be scared about this. So let’s dive in. I gave you the title and the subtitle. By the way, it is published by McGraw Hill, which is a big deal. But what was behind this book? What was inside you that you wanted to get out, pen to paper and get it out into the hands of leaders around the world?

Perry Holley:
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about it. That’s one of the great accomplishments. And I think John Maxwell, we were just with him a few weeks ago in Orlando, and he said he just published his 90th book. I’ve written one about killed me. I don’t know how he has done that.

Chris Goede:
You got another one in you, too?

Perry Holley:
I got several. I was working for IBM at the time, and I was on the main stages for them in a lot of places. And one of the senior leaders asked me would I do a January kickoff meeting for them. And in my preparation, I just ask, what is your, I’m thinking about a title and a topic. What could I do? And I said, what’s your biggest challenge? What are you, you’re facing a new year. What are you looking at? And she said, I’m very scared that they’ve had a great year this year and we’re going to go into the new year and they’re going to, I’m going to give them the new challenge. It’s going to be more than last year’s challenge, which was difficult, but they made it. And I’m afraid that they’re either going to go complacent and back off or they’re going to struggle with the new challenge.

Perry Holley:
And I went away with that and thought about it and I thought, you know, I’d have been looking at an idea anyway about why do so few sports teams repeat when they win a championship? They have a great year. They win the championship and then they fall off the next year. It’s, it’s quite astounding how few teams repeat champion. And so I kind of put those two ideas together and said, it really is true in business that it takes strong leadership to be able to continue to engage your team at the highest level. And we can all find remarkable in any given moment, we get the right environment, the right economics, the right situation, the right markets, whatever remarkable can happen. But if you’re going to repeat remarkable, repeat, win a championship, repeat, come back in January and repeat that great performance. You need to do some intentional things, and that’s where it came from.

Chris Goede:
Well, and I want to come back to this work that you were beginning to look at with repeating championships, because, man, very rarely do you see that. I mean, you see some dynasties that are able to do it. Very few. But when you were digging into that, what did you learn about that? Like, why was it so difficult? Why is it so difficult for teams to repeat championships?

Perry Holley:
Yeah, there’s going to be lots of reasons, obviously, across the board. But when I saw most of it was, and I’m seeing it right now, I just had a coaching call recently where they said, we’re really falling off. And we were doing so well. And, you know, we teach in our culture, teachings around complacency happening, but why does it happen? Is that these teams that, hey, we did it. We got this and we stopped doing the fundamentals that made us great. We’re so intense on winning and getting it right that we just, we figured out the basics. We did the basics. Vince Lombardi said, be brilliant on the basics.

Perry Holley:
You know, if you’ve ever seen stories about Lombardi coming to camp, they win a Super bowl. He came into the first day of camp and said, gentlemen, this is a football.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And he just didn’t, didn’t take for granted that somebody would ask him, how are you going to win another championship? We’re going to block better. We’re going to tackle better, we’re going to throw the ball better. And it was all basics, basics, fundamentals, fundamentals. And I think in my own life, just looking at, when I feel like I got it, I kind of don’t got it, I kind of drop it. You know, we coached some of these car dealers and I said they had the most amazing month they’ve ever had. And he said, now, now we’re in the tank. We can’t. What happened? Well, we were doing every appointment we were making every call we were making every, and we stopped because we think it’s coming.

Perry Holley:
It’s not. And so to me, the first intentional thing you do is you say, I’m going to realize what the fundamentals of my craft are and I’m going to do them exceptionally well and I’m going to love the process and the results.

Chris Goede:
Will come on that not, I love that. Right. Nothing living in the results, because that’s where that phrase comes from, where bad habits are developed in good times. And then all of a sudden the year starts over a new month, whatever it is, if you have those bad habits, to your point, those principles, those daily actions of the process that you’re going to live in is really what allows you to repeat that. Remarkable. Well, I mentioned to you there’s a model that Perry’s laid out in the book, and one of the things I want to really encourage do is to go and download that learner’s guide because we put the model in there and I’m holding it up for those that are watching YouTube. And it is, it’s in the shape of a house. And what I want us to do is kind of go through this and hear your perspective on why you built the model and why these different titles are at different places.

Chris Goede:
So let’s start at the foundation here. And at the bottom, you have, on the left hand side of the foundation, the what?

Perry Holley:
Right.

Chris Goede:
The outcomes. And on the right side of the foundation, you have the why or the values. Tell us a little bit more about that. As the foundation to repeating the remarkable.

Perry Holley:
Yeah.

Chris Goede:
The.

Perry Holley:
The models on the shape of a house or a structure. And so it’s really going to have three components. The foundation, the framework that’s built on that foundation, and then the functionality that’s going to be the roof and sides that protect it and the foundation. So, incredibly important is that what are you built on? Is, do you know the. What the outcomes that you’re. That you’re striving for? Are you clear on what you are trying to accomplish and then the why, which is really centered around your. Your values and your. Your purpose? And what I’m finding is most organizations, whether it be sports or business, that really are repeating remarkable performances.

Perry Holley:
And there are a number in the business world that have just, year after year, continue to excel. It is, they are very clear on what they do, and they’re very clear on why they do it, and they’re very clear on their values, which drive their culture, which drive how we do things. And you think fundamentals and basics cannot slip away because that’s not how we do things. We do things the right way. We do it consistently. That’s good.

Maxwell Leadership Certified Team:
Hey, podcast listeners, many of you listening right now would probably love the autonomy that comes with owning your own business or becoming a coach that helps other businesses succeed. Well, we have a phenomenal strategy where you are 100% in control of your own business, earning income on your own terms, and have access to the people, tools, and resources you need to build a thriving leadership development business. When you become a Maxwell leadership certified team member, you join a global community of entrepreneurs led by our expert team of mentors and faculty, including John C. Maxwell. You’ll also get one of the top leadership certifications in the world next to your name, giving you the boost you need to get started. Visit us online at maxwellleadership.com/jointheteam to find out more.

Chris Goede:
Okay, so then in the body of the house, you have the framework, right? You have really four parts of the middle of this house, kind of the framework that everything is built on, on top of the foundation. It’s be exceptional, be disciplined, be prepared, and then be persistent. Give us a little bit of the importance of that framework in this model.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, and I try to use in the book a lot of stories and things that are. That really affected me with some simple things like watching on hdtv, seeing Mike Holmes. There’s a contractor who builds houses. But what I loved about Mike Holmes, about being exceptional was he kind of has a motto about make it right. And I love Truett. Cathy, founder of Chick fil A, would always said, why not your best and just being exceptional at what you do, does that mean we’re going to be exceptional 100% of the time? Absolutely not. We all struggle and there’s ups and downs of that. But overall, as a general rule, I’m going to strive for exceptional performance, exceptional service, exceptional delivery.

Perry Holley:
And I always think of Mike Holmes and make it right when it comes to being disciplined, is really how I kind of developed a person. It’s a really personal me. A self motto for me was small things done daily, consistently over time, remarkable results. And I just realized that to be disciplined is a word people try to stay away from. It sounds way hard, but it really is. Stop trying to do the big, hairy, audacious goals you’ll never start. Figure out what are the small things I need to do every day. Do it consistently over time, it will compound into remarkableness.

Perry Holley:
The idea of being prepared is something we live by here at Maxwell leadership. It is having a growth plan, managing yourself, managing your time, your productivity, how do you lead you? And that ability to always be prepared, having done the work, don’t just show up and throw up. You got to show up prepared for what you do. And you’re not going to do exceptional or discipline if you don’t have preparedness. And then that last one on persistence. I tell a story about Ed Stafford, a guy that decided to walk the entire length of the Amazon river. And I was fascinated by this so much that I called him to see if he’d come speak at a meeting for us. He’s from London and was fascinated by his story.

Perry Holley:
But who walks the Amazon river? People had done it in boats and on surfboards and in kayaks, but nobody had ever walked it from where it starts in Peru to where it dumps into the Atlantic Ocean on the other side. And when reading his story, the word persistence was there were so many setbacks, there were so many challenges, there were so many ups and downs. And you can imagine walking in the Amazon night after night, day after day, is unbelievable.

Chris Goede:
You can’t imagine.

Perry Holley:
No. But the persistence that really said that you just don’t stop. You always, even if you get knocked back, you move forward. And that ability to stick to it, to me, became that’s what really remarkable teams do is what remarkable people do. They are exceptional in their work. They are disciplined in their actions. They are prepared constantly, and they are persistent, then they will never stop. And that’s the framework of the house built on the foundation of what you do and why you do it, you’re off to a pretty good start.

Chris Goede:
Yeah. And doing those things on a daily basis. And Perry talks about that from a consistent standpoint. All right, so finally, kind of the, the wrap, the exterior of the house, you have the roof and the two sides, really. You talk about this being the functionality of the model, where they will determine kind of how well you’ll function in the world around you. You have two. Two words here, two traits. You have the character and excellence.

Chris Goede:
Why those two words here?

Perry Holley:
Yeah. You notice the roof is designated as character. Is that if you have a hole in your roof, it doesn’t matter how strong your framework, it doesn’t matter how great your foundation. You have a leak and it’s in your character, you’re going to have a problem. So living at a level of character that says who you are, what you stand for, what your core values are, are you what you say you are? Do you walk your talk, these are all wrapped up in character. And then the sighting and what people see when they. You think you drive up to a house, you see the outside, you see that it’s brick or is it wood? And it is attractive. It’s how excellent you operate.

Perry Holley:
And it’s a level of excellence that you hold yourself to that says, I’m going to do it right. I’m going to do it consistently right. And we’re going to achieve the highest levels. We’re not cutting corners. And that, again, falls under character. But character is the roof over everything, that this whole house falls apart if you don’t have character. But the, the ability to do things in an excellent way that keep that framework strong.

Chris Goede:
Well, listen, I’m going to, I’m going to wrap up for us. This is something that we should have brought to you a long time ago.

Perry Holley:
Amen.

Chris Goede:
That’s right. Yeah. That’s right. But I think all of us, as leaders of teams of organizations, when you, when you get to a place where you, you feel like we’ll say momentum and you feel like the team is jailing, you’re gelling, we often always ask ourselves, well, how do we continue to repeat that? I think we all deal with that, whether it’s on a weekly or a monthly basis. And so, to your point, with the sales organization, right? The first of the month. Hey, it’s time for a new month. How do we repeat the excellent month that we just had? What does that look like? And it’s in the details is what you’re talking about. So I want to encourage them to hold up again one more time for the YouTube or those listening.

Chris Goede:
Man, you need to go get this book because this will give you very simple, practical things for you to live out as a individual contributor and as a leader of a team. In order to repeat the remarkable, how do you find out about the book? Well, I want you to go to Amazon and just search repeat the remarkable. That’s what Perry told me to tell you. So I’m going to do that. And there I want you to go and buy a copy or buy an entire case for the team like I had to do before Perry would start coaching. Please, man, Perry, listen, so many people have a desire to write a book and not only have you written it, but it was published by McGraw Hill Company and then it’s impacted a lot of lives. So thanks for sharing that story on here and continuing to share the content that we do every single week and hear that comes from what you bring to us. So appreciate you.

Chris Goede:
Thank you so much.

Perry Holley:
Thank you very much. I’m honored and humbled. Thank you for the opportunity to share that. As a reminder, you can get more information about our offerings. You can learn more about our podcast family. You can also leave us a quick or [email protected]. podcast we love hearing from you and we’re very grateful you’d spend this time with us today. That’s all from the Maxwell Leadership Executive podcast.

High Road Leadership Book:
Are you ready to elevate your leadership to new heights? Join the movement towards high road leadership with John C. Maxwell’s latest book. In high road leadership, John explores the power of valuing all people, doing the right things for the right reasons, and placing others above personal agendas. Learn how to inspire positive change and bring people together in a world that divides. Order now and receive exclusive bonuses, including a keynote on high road leadership by John Maxwell himself and a sneak peek into three impactful chapters. Take the first step towards becoming a high road leader. Visit HighRoadLeadershipBook.com to order your copy today.