What’s the Greatest Gift a Leader Can Give?

Perry Holley:
Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast, where it’s the most wonderful time of the year. How’s that for an opening for you? That’s amazing.

Chris Goede:
But don’t ask me to do it.

Perry Holley:
Because it would completely. I wanted to, like, wire you in, but. No, I thought. But it is the most wonderful time of the year. As we’re wrapping up another great year, I thought we’ll get. Just go a little different with the. Starting today.

Chris Goede:
Well, people, you are at the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast. I feel like I need to. To set that stage. But yes, Perry and his. His children gifted musically. My wife is. I am not. So that was directly from him.

Perry Holley:
Man’s got to know his limitations.

Chris Goede:
That’s right. That’s right. We are. We got to talk about that from leadership. Well, listen, today we are going to talk about. This is a great time of year. We love this. I think for me, this season of coming, you know, in the States, from Thanksgiving to this Christmas season, just a great time where, you know, we start to back off the corporate schedule just a little bit and enjoy some.

Chris Goede:
Some family time. But we’re going to talk today about the greatest gift a leader can give. And I’m super excited about this conversation. Originally I was like, oh, okay. Well, we’re going to come up with today. We have 10 for you, by the way. Five times two. But.

Chris Goede:
But Perry just had a coaching call. And we tell you that we are going to bring things to you from the field. And you. You think about this question. And I was like, this is kind of a simple. And then Perry just had a coaching call. I want you to share for just a minute about the impact that this had on a very high producing.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, this is a senior team. Yeah, senior team. And I, we, you know, did our openings for the call and everything. I just want to ask you a simple question everyone in the room must.

Chris Goede:
Answer just to get started, like an icebreaker.

Perry Holley:
Yep. I said the question is, what’s the greatest gift a leader’s ever given you? And think about the best leader you ever had or someone in your leadership past, but what is the greatest gift they’ve given you? And I’m going to guess it’s not a watch or vacation days off. This is something that was very meaningful to you personally. And I watched this senior group of leaders. They instantly started. I said, everybody’s got to speak. So they instantly started making notes in front of them. Each of them came up with two to three gifts.

Perry Holley:
I had my list that we’re going to go through here. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but they had some really good ones. Many of them were on this list of the meaningful things leaders gave to them. So I thought we could cover that today. It’s that time of year and absolutely love that. And this is for all year.

Chris Goede:
And. Yeah, that’s right. As a leader. Right. These attributes and these gifts, and we often ask, you know, people, hey, who’s the greatest leader that you’ve ever had the privilege to work with, surf or whatever? And what are those attributes? That’s what we’re talking about today. What are those. What are the attributes you can give and the gifts that you can give to people that are under your influence, under your leadership? Remember, leadership is influence. It’s.

Chris Goede:
It’s not your tenure, it’s not your title. It’s those that you do life with, in and out of work. And what I love about that, and he didn’t share with you, is that the leader of that team followed up with him right away and was like, that was amazing. Right. To the. The vulnerability and the transparency and understanding that they need to be giving that to each other, but also to the team. Well, before we get started, this. This leads me right to something that we want to share.

Chris Goede:
It’s a little bit different, but it is an app called the Maxwell Leadership App. We don’t talk about it on here a lot, but we do. We have had this app for a while, and on it we publish daily videos, daily thoughts, different leadership topics, whether it’s problem solving, team development, whether it’s engaging your team members, regulating your emotions. The. The leadership paintbrush of the competencies that we talk about there is. Is wide and broad. So I want to encourage you to go to that Maxwell Leadership app to be able to learn more about leadership. But our topic over the last week on that app has been the title of today’s episode.

Chris Goede:
And so Perry’s fingerprints are all over different places under, Under Max, give credit.

Perry Holley:
I got it from them. They. I saw their. I saw their title and I asked, can I do a podcast on this? Because I think this is great.

Chris Goede:
So if that doesn’t let you know that we need you listeners, viewers to send us topics and content you’re dealing with so that we can develop.

Perry Holley:
Thirsty in a row.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, so. So actually we, the team helped us out tremendously. But what we’ve been covering on the app is the greatest gift a leader can give. It’s what we’re going to talk a little bit about today, but it’s different content because you’re going to hear from Perry and I today and our experience and our thoughts on it. But on the app, you’re actually going to get the experience and hear voices from our, our CEO and owner, Mark Cole, Roddy Galbraith, who is a master communicator for us, Chris Robinson, Tracy Morrow. So it’s a great resource for you guys to be able, me and you to, to. We will be on there as well. But what we’re hoping is because you’re here with us today, you’ll get the message.

Chris Goede:
You’re going to get the. You’re gonna. You’re gonna get that message. Yeah, but what are we thinking about as leaders during that season? And I just recorded a few thoughts before. Now Perry’s gonna. After gonna record a few thoughts for you. So we want to encourage you to do that during this season. And we’re gonna give you a free trial to watch the whole series of the greatest gift a leader can give at Growth.MaxwellLeadership.com. Okay.

Chris Goede:
Growth.MaxwellLeadership.com using this code. Now, if you have us on 2x speed, I need you to change it to 1x so that you can make sure you get this all capital letters for you. This is the code I need you to put in podcast. So PODCASTGG7. Okay, well, listen, let’s dive in then. Let’s talk about these 10 gifts from, from Perry and I, what we’re thinking about the first one as a leader, that a gift that you can give is the gift of clarity. People can’t thrive in confusion. We say around our team quite a bit that if there’s lack of clarity, there’s lack of confusion, and that leads to failure.

Chris Goede:
No matter the size of the project, the situation, whatever it is, if there’s not clarity, even if it’s just in you and another team member and their responsibilities, you have to have that clarity. Clear is kind. And when we set clear expectations, clear vision, and then we’re able to give good feedback on that, man, that creates a lot of confidence between two people and between the team. And that’s what you want. You want a team that is. Understands where they’re going. They know what their expectations are. They’re okay with getting some feedback if you communicate that clearly.

Chris Goede:
If you don’t, then they kind of feel handcuffed. They got a little bit of anxiety on what do I do? And I wonder what Chris thinks here and are we going to do this? And that just. It Just freezes them. That’s not why they’re there. So you got to have clarity.

Perry Holley:
Another gift that’s probably should have been number one, now that I look at it, was the gift of trust. And you know, great leaders extend trust before they, before it’s fully earned. That trust really becomes something that you nurture in others. But you have to, I don’t know, for me, as somebody asked me, well, I’m not going to trust you until who goes first. Yeah, leaders go first. Extend trust to others and let them lose it if they have to. But you make sure that I’m giving a trusting effort to everyone. And I think so much about some of the work that Covey has done in this area about that.

Perry Holley:
Trust is really the linchpin of all leadership. It really is. Everything about speed, it makes things happen faster. I don’t have to check behind people. We know that we have those clear expectations. We’re doing the things we say we’re going to do. A lot of the character qualities fall underneath trust. So if you’re working with a team, a great gift you can give others is that you, you trust them and build that trusting relationship with them.

Chris Goede:
You. Yeah. And remember, authenticity with your team is a trust accelerator. So continue to be authentic as, as their leader. The third one that we want to talk about here is the gift of belief.

Perry Holley:
This is so big now.

Chris Goede:
Perry and I and our incredible team travel around the world and get to, to work with leaders and teams and, and those that are just contributing, even on the front lines. And I think we would agree that just there’s a, a weird feeling and sense of people not believing in each other is a belief deficit, is what we like to say more than ever. And so as leaders, how can we get to a place to where we’re sharing our belief in other people with those people, if that makes sense. Right. Because we all have been to a place where somebody has believed in us more than we believed in ourself. And when’s the last time that somebody that you are leading you have influence with where you said, man, I believe in you. I see that in you. Your genius.

Chris Goede:
Make sure we’re being authentic about it. And I like to give specific examples because I think it means a lot more. And John Maxwell says it’s one thing to communicate someone’s potential, it’s another thing to believe in it so much that they start to believe in it too. Isn’t that what leadership’s about? Right. If we can give that gift of belief to people, man, you’re going to be able to multiply the confidence that they have in themselves.

Perry Holley:
Love that I think you’re saying. It really resonated with me that we’ve all had, I hope everybody, I know that you and I shared examples of it, but somebody that believed in me more than I believed and they saw more in me than I saw in me, and they let me know it, and it kind of called me to a higher level. And I’m really grateful for those that gift that I was given. Another gift you can give is the gift of growth. And we talk about this a lot, you know, as you are investing in people, but giving people opportunities to stretch and to learn and to sometimes even fail and that you can help them through those challenges to grow and be better what they are to go to the next level. When leaders invest in growth, and this could be coaching, it could be mentoring, it could be given feedback, it could be classes, it could be trainings, it could be listening to this podcast, right?

Chris Goede:
That’s right.

Perry Holley:
You’re not just trying to get them to give results. You’re trying to get them to become more. It’s going to help with results, but I’m trying to help you to grow and be more. And I think John Wooden mindset, he said success is becoming the best version of yourself, not just winning the game. And I think about the leaders in my life that really called me to that higher level. They. They kind of gave me the path about how to grow and how to learn. I actually, 100% of my success today is because of the growth mindset that I was kind of forced into from the beginning, but then realized how valuable it was.

Perry Holley:
And now it’s become a mantra of my life. Just continue to pour into you so that you can pour into others.

Chris Goede:
Love that lifelong learner. There he is, number five. This one for me is super important. We don’t want people that are in our life thinking that they’re coming to a job. And we want them to feel ownership. And so how do we give them the gift of autonomy in what we’re doing now? You have to not just delegate it to them. You got to equip them and you got to set them up. But, man, give them autonomy to run the project in a way that, that they feel like they have ownership.

Chris Goede:
Like you’re saying to them, hey, I believe you’re. You’re capable. And where if you do that, the level of engagement with your people and the innovation of the idea and the project they’re working on is going to Go to a completely different level than if you were micromanaging that situation. And we all agree the last thing we want to do is get to work and have somebody just manage us. Right. That’s not what you’re looking for. And I was listening to another great leadership podcast on the way in this morning, Craig Rochelle, and he was talking about. He actually mentioned John, and he says, now John says, when another team member can do something 80% as good as you.

Chris Goede:
And he said, I think John’s probably right. There he goes. But I would say 70%, let them have ownership and run and. And have autonomy to take it to the next level because they’ll do something far greater than you were going to be able to do. And it’s such a gift to them.

Perry Holley:
I get the 50%. I’m pushing all my stuff off.

Chris Goede:
All of it. Yeah, I love that. I love that idea.

Perry Holley:
Another great gift that you can give. I love this one. It was the gift of encouragement. Boy, this one. You know, the word encouragement actually means to give courage to someone and every person I’ve known, including me. And we battle with some level of personal insecurity in the work that we do. Are we enough? Do we. Are we smart enough? Do we.

Perry Holley:
Can we get it done? Do we have what it takes? And I just know that a leader coming by you and telling you that they believe in you, that they encourage you, they see you, they see you, they look to help you, they want to see you succeed is amazing. You know, when we do 360 assessments for leaders, one of the 64 things they’re evaluated against was, my leader knows when I’m discouraged, and I’m always discouraged when I see how low that is on most of the evaluations that we do. I thought, you know, it is free. It doesn’t cost you anything except attention to someone. To let them know that you see them, that you, that you appreciate them, and that you. Everybody’s in some sort of battle in their life, either personal or professional. Something’s going on in their life. Just knowing that you see me and you feel me and you, you know, me and you encourage me along the way.

Perry Holley:
Says, everyone needs encouragement. So taking them, taking a moment to just go out of your way to encourage people is a great gift.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, everyone has a story, but are we willing to slow down enough to know what it is to be able to encourage them through that? If you want to lead people well, man, you have to hear them well. And so this leads to our seventh gift, which is listening. And I Think Perry was told by Sarah, my wife, to. To give this one to me because, yeah, I don’t know what happened. This was not seven when we started, but now it’s seven. But, man, you can’t connect with people if you’re not engaged. Listening to them, not talking. Right.

Chris Goede:
But if you’re listening, you’re curious. That’s a word we talk about a lot in here. You will be able to discover a ton about that individual that you will be able to help exploit. And when I say that, I say that in a positive way. Right. Because there’s greatness in every single person. And by having that gift of listening to where they’re at, you can then find little things to take to the next level for them, not for you. And I think the greatest compliment that you could ever be given is, man, when I’m talking to Perry, no matter what’s going on, I feel like this conversation is the only thing happening in Perry’s world.

Chris Goede:
That is a gift that people will not forget. So the gift of listening is number seven.

Perry Holley:
Love that. Number eight was, I love this one, too. You can give the gift of purpose and really adding meaning to the work that people do. You know, Simon Siddex, famous for saying that, you know, people don’t pay attention. They don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And I love that effect of someone knowing that what they’re doing is bigger than the job itself. I shared probably on this podcast before, about asking someone in a coaching call what exactly their role was, and they said, I just do such and such. And it flew all over me that I don’t ever want to hear anyone on my team say, they just. We have. We have people that ship materials to events for us. I show up, the materials are there. If I heard them say, I just. I’m just in shipping materials, it would bother me because what they do is so important to what we do, and they’re.

Perry Holley:
They’re actually changing lives out in the field of people who are going to receive those materials. And so the gift I can give and any leader can give is letting people know how what they do is. Goes toward the bigger meaning and purpose of our business. What is your role, and how are you connected to the bigger things that we’re doing? And I think that that is such a gift to give people to say, why do I get out of bed in the morning to come here just to ship books? No, I come here because I’m adding value to the lives of leaders who multiply value to others. And that’s. I don’t ship those books. Those leaders don’t get value added and they don’t multiply value to us. I mean, really is a great long term gift to give people.

Chris Goede:
Perry’s mentioning right here something leaders that I want to encourage you to do that with every single person on your team to give them that gift and it’ll make a huge difference. Number nine is the gift of grace. Make room for mistakes. I know I’ve had some leaders that have given me a lot of grace and I’ve learned a lot through that process. But man, you’d much rather be in an environment where I don’t feel that I’m. I’m being watched all the time and if everything’s not right, like I’m going to get disciplined. You know, going back and forth to where how do I have the freedom to, to grow and to be challenged, knowing that I may make a state make a mistake is they give me grace now. It does not mean they don’t hold me accountable.

Chris Goede:
Like there’s a consequence, there’s consequences. Right. But there’s grace there. And I’ve seen John do that with our CEO, with our team for so many years. And I know it’s a huge gift for me as a leader inside the organization. And so we should be doing that for our team as well.

Perry Holley:
On the call that I had before we came into the studio, the when I had the one on one with the leader afterwards, he said this one, that number nine really hit me hard because I don’t. It is a gift I don’t give easily. Giving grace to others. I kind of expect people to hold up their end and when they drop it or make a mistake or fumble, I.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And he goes, I really need to give that gift of grace more. And a little forgiveness goes a long way. And he said that people are really working really hard, they’re trying hard. They’re not. They don’t want to make a mistake. And so he goes, I thought it was very humbling of him to say that one hit me hard.

Chris Goede:
Well, you know, if you go back to number one, clarity and you set the expectations properly and if you hold them accountable the right way, you have clerics, but you can give them grace, you know, but you still gotta hold him accountable. So I love that he was aware of that just from that conversation you guys had.

Perry Holley:
Finally, number 10 kind of ties it all together. Give the gift of an example to follow is that people don’t do what you say they do what you do and people do what people see. And so I think this idea about you modeling all the character qualities, all the values that you want to see in others. There’s a line John put in the five levels. One of the challenges was be the leader. Be the, be the person you want on your team. Is that if you say the perfect person you would want to hire, are you that person? And when you model integrity and humility and resilience, they become living lessons for the team. And so your daily example is really going to be the.

Perry Holley:
The really what people are going to take away mostly from you. So give the gift of a good example. Don’t ask people to do things that you don’t do.

Chris Goede:
I love that.

Perry Holley:
Be the model. Be the model.

Chris Goede:
And remember, you attract who you are, not who you want as a leader on your team. So if you’re that example, you got a good shot at what your team’s going to look like. Well, here as we wrap up, two things for you. One, I want to challenge you this week. Just pick one of these 10 and, and go live them out. Go live. Go live it out intentionally. Maybe it’s a handwritten note.

Chris Goede:
Maybe it’s creating some clarity where you don’t feel like there is clarity. Maybe you’re taking some time to, to really listen. Maybe you have an accountable conversation around accountability, but you’re giving them grace and what that looks like. Just pick one and, and live that out. Or I want to challenge the teams that are listening to this are leaders, as Perry did on his call with that team before. Ask that question. Open your meeting and see what kind of dialogue and conversation happens out of that. The final thing is just a quick reminder to go to Growth.MaxwellLeadership.com using the code PODCASTGG7.

Chris Goede:
And there you’ll be able to see the whole series, a free trial of the greatest gift a leader can give. And you’ll hear from Perry and myself and Mark and other leaders in our team talking about one of those gifts.

Perry Holley:
Great stuff. Well, thank you. And as a reminder, if you want this all listed out, you can go to get the learner guide from this episode. You can also learn more about the five levels of leadership or others of our podcast family. Do all that at MaxwellLeadership.com/ExecutivePodcast. You can also leave a comment or a question for us there. We love hearing from you. So grateful you’d spend this time with us.

Perry Holley:
That’s all today from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.

Transcript created by Castmagic.