Executive Podcast #306: There Is No Success Without Sacrifice

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. Do you feel like as a leader, you have to make sacrifices? Well, I’m sure you’re all going the leader. I think just in life in general, right?

Perry Holley:
Life is sacrifice.

Chris Goede:
In anything that we do, there’s going to be a sacrifice. And so here’s what we’re going to talk about today. There are no success stories. There’s no success without sacrifice. And we’re going to unpack that a little bit. Perry’s got some incredible content for us to dive through before we do that. If you want to visit maxwellleadership.com/podcast, if you want to click on this podcast, you’ll be able to fill out a form there. You can download the blog, the content that goes along with this lesson or the learner’s guide, or you can leave a topic which would.

Chris Goede:
Perry would be very helpful. You guys know that we have celebrated post 300 episodes, and thank you to you for continuing to listen. More importantly, thank you for Perry continuing to show up for content. But, man, we want. The reason we make a joke about that is we want to serve you where you are and what you’re dealing with. And we have an idea because we deal with the same thing. We have teams and we’re leading people, and we do a lot of coaching and facilitating. But, man, if we can help you, don’t hesitate to let us know that can happen there at that website.

Chris Goede:
So John Maxwell says, there can be no success without sacrifice. The two, they go hand in hand. If you desire to accomplish little, sacrifice little. But if you want to accomplish great things, man, then be willing to sacrifice much. And so there’s something I think people maybe take for granted, especially early on. I think I did. I think, matter of fact, I probably still, I probably to this day, because of, I think we all lead at different levels and exposures, and I think that I probably take for granted some of the sacrifices of other leaders that are out there with more responsibility. And so I think, to your point, it absolutely happens.

Chris Goede:
And so we need to begin to understand that we don’t realize it, and then we need to make sure that, hey, we have to think about, this is going to happen. And the result of it is that we’re going to be able to positively influence others. You notice the sacrifice? We didn’t talk about a financial return. We didn’t talk about P and ls. I mean, you immediately led us to the fact of the, how it’s gonna influence, impact people at the sacrifice that we make.

Perry Holley:
It always bothered me. I thought, what do you mean sacrifice? I see. And I wanted to be a first line manager when back in the day I was selling and I thought, I wanna be a sales manager. And, well, I could see that fancy office and that new title and maybe bigger paycheck. I’m thinking I’m gonna be a leader. And didn’t think about the sacrifices. So I thought we’d talk about what are some of the sacrifices and why it’s important to do that. Um, why is it crucial to developing leadership to the sacrifice is a part of that.

Chris Goede:
Well, the phrase I think about is the die to self is where it’s going to my mind. Right. As, as an individual contributor, which both of you and I enneagram threes like to achieve. We’re driven. But you know what? As a leader, you are going to have to die to self. You’re going to have to sacrifice in order to really drive highly productive teams, in order to establish an incredible culture. And so with this in mind, we figured a few ways that leaders can exercise the sacrifice is not only help them gain influence, but they have a huge impact on their team. We’re going to go through this.

Chris Goede:
First one is, and I’m smiling at this, while you were just talking, I was kind of looking at my notes at times. Like, oh yeah, this is right up. It’s probably where this thing came from. Died itself. Number one is sacrifice your ego, right? Yeah, I think we just felt it leave the podcast right there as we leave him. So, man, you can’t focus on your title and your tenure accolades, you know, people don’t care, you know, how long you’ve been doing what you’re doing or where you’re at. I mean, they, they are definitely open and empowered by feedback and development and they’re willing to admit that they don’t have the answers for everything. And when that happens, they’re showing that they have sacrificed where they’ve come from, where they’re at, and by releasing and letting go of your ego, it’ll allow you to grow and be challenged.

Chris Goede:
But I think it’ll also, more importantly, because we talked about this a couple podcasts ago about as leaders, it’s like a mirror and it’s contagious it’s a word you use a lot. And so, without a shadow of a doubt, when that happens, you will inspire others in the organization to do the same.

Perry Holley:
That’s a big one. I think another one. That sacrifice that one didn’t see coming was sacrificing my time.

Chris Goede:
Holy cow.

Perry Holley:
Your time is no longer your own. That it’s not just about you and what you have to do. It’s about others. Growth demands that we multiply ourselves, and so that means I need to be pouring into other people. This is taking time. I have my own responsibilities, but I also am trying to develop the next generation of leaders here, and there’s really no greater satisfaction than to multiply yourself by bringing other leaders in to the fold. John wrote a whole book on this called the leader’s greatest return.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And that investment that you need to make in effectively developing others is time. Time. So I remember being, you’re an individual contributor. You have your. Your goal for the day, and you’re done. That’s. But you become a leader now. You’re responsible to others, for others, and for a lot larger things.

Perry Holley:
So, yeah, time becomes one of the.

Chris Goede:
Biggest challenges, 100%, I think, about, from leading sales teams versus running my own sales territory. Right? Like, you’re like, hmm, I’m gonna play a little golf at 230. And, you know, commission’s looking good. And, you know, now your buddy say.

Perry Holley:
Hey, can you meet us?

Chris Goede:
No, no, no. Haven’t even started all my emails yet. Let me say this, too, though. When we talk about a sacrifice as a leader and we talk about sacrificing time, what we’re not saying is to sacrifice your personal time. And I only can say this because I know Perry and I both violate this, right? And we struggle with it. And so I just want to encourage you, man. One of the things that I think as a leader that I wish I would have done a better job of, and I’m still learning, but even when I was younger, is to. What are those boundaries that.

Chris Goede:
To protect your time, both in the office as a leader, but also in your home as a contributor and as a leader and as part of that family. And so I just. I felt led to just tell you that, because that’s a good end, you’re gonna sacrifice. But what we’re not saying is that, hey, you’re at home, you know, you get off at five, and then you’re at home and you get. You eat dinner, and then seven to midnight, you’re, you know, you’re sacrificing family time to keep piled away. We all could do that because we all have things to do. And so I just wanna make sure you guys are clear on that.

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Chris Goede:
Sacrifice control? What? Like, I can’t make that decision? Yeah, really, we want to be able to. And going back to what Perry was just talking about, developing people and empowering people, like, oftentimes people use the word delegate and you do want to delegate. But more importantly, what we’re trying to get to is you’re going to have to sacrifice control on certain things. Once you have developed and empowered people to be able to do it. And remember, the philosophy there behind what we live by is that if someone can make a decision or do something 80% as good as you can, man, let them run with it, because they’re going to eventually get their own style and their own way of doing it. They’re going to do it better than, than you. And so you got to make sure that, that you’re very, very comfortable stepping away from that, not micromanaging people and letting them run with it. This can have a huge impact on engagement.

Chris Goede:
Huge impact. I was on a call this morning and with a team, a couple of our team members, and they said, you know, hey, do we need to wait to hear back from you to make that decision? And I go, no. Like, before they even stop, give up control. And you could just see, okay, I got it right. Like, you could just see the body language. Like, man, I appreciate that. And so understand that this sacrifice of control is going to drive engagement for the team.

Perry Holley:
So that’s really good. And I think another one that goes hand in hand with that. You have, you sacrifice perfection and that you understand that perfection becomes a bit subjective when you’re leading others, that you definitely want to have a high standard for how things are done and you want things done right. I get that. But you’re going to have to avoid buying into the myth that things are going to be perfect when you’ve given up that control to other people. It’s going to be done differently. It might actually be done better. It could be done faster, but it may not be done to the way you would have done it.

Perry Holley:
And so. But by giving up that, and like you said, control and perfection, I think by that sacrifice is a huge improver of morale and engagement with the team. They. It’s. It’s really crucial to your organizational culture. If it’s all dependent on you, if you’re not sacrificing control and bringing others in, if you’re not sacrificing your way of doing it, people are going to. It’s micromanagement. They’re under your thumb, and it’s.

Perry Holley:
It’s going to kill the culture.

Chris Goede:
Not only it’s going to kill the culture, but it’s going to kill the. The productivity of you as a leader and your team, because you’re going to have to, to your point, feel like you need to control it, to feel like everything needs to be perfect versus just getting that ball rolling and then letting the team run with it, understanding that it may not be perfect. Next one. Sacrifice pretenses. So I love this. Right? We know this. We talk about the attributes of a leader. Authenticity is up there off the charts of what people are attracted to.

Chris Goede:
And probably, if you ask me, probably one of the most important parts, attributes of leaders, to be authentic. And so these leaders, when you have that, you understand the importance of building trust and focusing on positioning other people in the organization to succeed and be comfortable with that, not just yourselves. And so leading is not about showing everybody how smart you are. Although Perry and I are very smart. Anybody wants to make comments back in the website, I’ll give you that URL again, or Perry will at the end, just say how smart we are.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, right.

Chris Goede:
I. But it’s really about what are you doing even when no one’s watching and how are you setting up and developing other people to succeed. The older I get, the more I’m understanding how awesome that is and the return on that sacrifice of watching other people begin to flourish.

Perry Holley:
It really is about sacrifice. And the last one that I had come across was, are you sacrificing the power play? Are you sacrificing the power dynamic? Essentially, you do have a power dynamic. You are considered the boss. You are in the people’s eyes that you’re the leader. And you’re up there. But if you sacrifice that and you focus on influence and focus on collaboration and empathy and respect and bringing other people in, that you don’t have to play on the power aspect of that. So your sacrifice, you never have to use your title to strong arm somebody or strong arm the team to get what you want. You’re giving that up for the aspect of what true leadership is.

Perry Holley:
I’m going to lead through influence, not through command and control. I have to give that up. And so I sacrifice. I thought when I first became a leader, that was part of the aspect of it. I’m finally going to be the boss around here.

Chris Goede:
Tell people what to do.

Perry Holley:
I can tell people what to do. And then you realize in a quick hurry, nobody wants to be bossed and they’re not bought in, and the engagement’s low and results are waning. I got to give that up. Yeah.

Chris Goede:
And as you work through this as a leader, you just made me think about this. You know, we. We talk about the methodology of the five levels of leadership, and when you understand the model as a leader and it becomes the common language inside your organization, I don’t know that what we just laid out doesn’t feel like sacrifices more than a partnership. Right? A partnership of control. A partnership of, let’s get this thing right in perfection. A partnership of, hey, let’s throw the pretenses out. It’s just Perry and I trying to figure out how to add value to people and to solve this problem. So the power of that methodology allows you to have a different perspective of what success looks like without using the word sacrifice, because we.

Chris Goede:
Listen. Sacrifice is part of it. Let’s just. Let’s just put it out there. I think it’s worth it. You would say it’s worth it. You have impacted many, many people along the way. You’ve impacted thousands of people listening, millions of downloads.

Chris Goede:
You’ve impacted me even just what you do here, which oftentimes is a sacrificial part of your time. Just make sure Bonnie’s not listening to this episode. But it’s worth it. But what I want to leave you with is if you have a methodology, if you have a structure and you set up proper boundaries. Going back to the time thing, what Perry and I are saying is, man, that’s one of the most important things. You can’t give up. And sacrifice is your personal time. And so what are the boundaries? So, man, think about this holistically and be able to set up a methodology.

Chris Goede:
The five levels of leadership would be our recommendation and what we’ve seen do with leaders and cultures and teams. Set some boundaries up to make sure that the sacrifices you do have to make, because you’re going to have to make some as a leader and as you grow, do not impact in a negative way your family. And then I promise you, if you do that, it’ll be worth it. I didn’t understand the worth it part. And I think you mentioned either in this podcast or maybe a previous one about John’s leader’s greatest return. This is what I think you talk about. Yeah. People go, oh, man, is that a financial roi? Let me see what that we’re gonna develop a plan.

Chris Goede:
We’re gonna develop people. How’s it gonna affect their bottom line? No, no, no. It’s the inward reward that you feel of paying the sacrifice and watching them succeed. Yeah. If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about. I’m thinking right now, Paul, like your son, and we talk about him a lot. We also, both of us have other kids and our sons, but we talk about the fact of that, right? And you paid a sacrifice, and he paid a sacrifice. It was worth it.

Chris Goede:
And there were some boundaries set up. Maybe we could have set up some different boundaries. But it’s going to be part of the journey, and so it’s going to happen in order for you to achieve success. I think you have a structure, methodology and boundaries. It’ll help you. So there I’m don’t fiso box super stuff.

Perry Holley:
Just a reminder, if you’d like to get the Learner guide for this episode or learn about our other offerings or podcast offerings, you can do [email protected]. podcast. You can also leave us a comment or a question there. We love hearing from you. Very grateful you’d spend this time with us today. That’s all from the Maxwell Leadership executive podcast.

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