Maxwell Leadership Podcast: Ten Tools for Gaining a New Perspective
When facing a problem or an obstacle, great leaders try to understand the problem before making a decision. A leader’s ability to gain new perspectives around an issue is a characteristic that separates leaders who succeed from leaders who get stuck where they are. That’s because perspective is key to understanding problems.
This week, John Maxwell is going to teach you ten tools for gaining a new perspective. Then, for the application portion of the episode, Mark Cole is joined by Becky Bursell to discuss the ways they challenge themselves daily to stay sharp and maintain an objective perspective to serve their teams and the Maxwell Leadership organization.
Our BONUS resource for this episode is the “Ten Tool for Gaining a New Perspective Worksheet,” which includes fill-in-the-blank notes from John’s teaching. You can download the worksheet by clicking “Download the Bonus Resource” below.
References:
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Relevant Episode: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
Relevant Episode: The Power of One More with Ed Mylett
Read The Transcript
Mark Cole:
Hey, podcast family, podcast friends. Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole. I’m the CEO of Maxwell Leadership. If you’re a leader like me, when you face a problem or an obstacle in leadership, you probably want to understand the problem before you make a decision. See, a leader’s ability to gain new perspectives around an issue is a characteristic that separates leaders who succeed from the leaders who get stuck right where they are. That’s because perspective is a key to understanding problems.
This week, John is going to teach you 10 tools for gaining a new perspective. Be sure to download the bonus resource that accompanies this lesson. This is a PDF that will help you capture notes and key points, so you can come back to his teaching, using it for yourself and going through it with your team, just visit Maxwellpodcast.com/perspective and click the bonus resource button. After John’s lesson, I will be joined by my co-host Becky Bursell, and we will dive into how we’ve developed this skill and how we’re gaining new perspectives that is serving us throughout our own leadership and throughout our journey with our team. If you would like to watch the episode on YouTube, visit Maxwellpodcast.com/youtube, or just click the YouTube link in the show notes. Well, I think we’re ready. Here is John Maxwell.
John Maxwell:
Getting a new perspective means forcing ourselves to think in new ways. So, I’m going to walk with you on 10 tools for gaining fresh new perspective. The first one are very rote, they’re what I call the Peter Drucker questions, what is our mission? Who is our customer? What is our customer value? What is our plan? What are our results? What are we looking for at the end? Bottom line. Just great Peter Drucker question, that keeps us fresh in our perspective. Number two, examine and clarify what you offer. To keep your perspective correctly, you ask yourself, what am I offering? See, what doesn’t change in your company? What doesn’t change in your life?
For me, for example, what doesn’t change is I want to add value to people. That’s going to be with me until I die, because that’s my desire. What I want to do is add value to leaders who multiply value to others. That’s my mission statement. That’s who I am. So what’s not going to change in my life is adding value to people, but what does change? Very simple. How do I add value to people? See, what happens so many times is we don’t understand what should change and what shouldn’t change. Your values should not change, but how you communicate your values should continually change.
For example, in my life, how do I add the value to people? I used to add value to people individually, doing my own thing. Now I add value to people through partnerships. My whole life now is filled with partnerships. I have come to the conclusion, I don’t need to start anything, I don’t need to lead anything anymore. What I really need to do is find somebody that’s already doing a good job, probably a better job than me, come alongside and compliment them, complete them and become a partner.
There comes a time in your life when you don’t have to always have your own company or you don’t always have to have your own thing, or you don’t have to always do your own thing. And you say, “Look, I can do a lot more. If I partner with other people.” Now, how do I add value to people? I used to do it individually. Nobody wanted to partner with me. Are you with me? It’s, “Who are you? I don’t think I want to listen to you.” Okay? But as you grow and you get better, then adding value, that’s a value that never changes, but how you do it does change.
Another thing on perspective, offer who you are, not so much what you do. The greatest gift one human being can give another is to offer themselves. It comes from focusing on who you are, not on what you do. Giving myself to my wife is very different from working harder at being a better husband. It’s all about emphasizing the inner realities over the external realities. In the end, who we are spills over into what we do. Wow.
When I was 51, almost 52, I had a heart attack and I could remember having this heavy schedule and companies, and my friend Jack Hayford called me one day and said, “John, you got way too much on you and I’m going to be your friend.” And I said, “Well, you already are my friend, Jack.” And he said, “No.” He said, “Listen to me carefully. I’m going to help take a load off you.” He said, “I know there’s a lot of demands on you, especially as far as writing and speaking.” And he said, “A lot of people are wanting you and a lot of good offers. You’re tempted to do more than you should do, especially during this time of recuperating.”
So he said, “What I’m going to do is I’m going to have your assistant refer all these people who want a piece of you for the next three months to me, and I’m going to handle them for you. If it’s a speaking engagement that really needs to be done, I’ll make sure we get a good speaker in your place. But most of the time, I’m going to say no for you.” And I can remember sitting on that phone. I mean, there’s a man who’s highly gifted and skilled and a great leader himself, who’s offering a piece of himself for me. Now, what I’m saying, it’s wonderful to offer a gift, your gift or your ability to somebody. But I want to tell you something that’s even more wonderful. Offer yourself. The greatest gift is not your gift. The greatest gift is you.
Number four, re-certify yourself each year. Change is always necessary. We cannot assume that just because something works today, it will continue to work tomorrow. You must either evolve or stagnate. Mostly, there’s only recognize the need for change after decline is set in, they don’t take action until something is broken. It’s kind of like momentum. You know what I tell people about momentum? I tell people, I said, “When you have momentum…” What’s the tendency when you have momentum? You have momentum, you say, “You know what I’m going to do? Man, I’m going to take a week off. Sales are going good. Everybody’s running on their own. This is a great, great time for me to take a break while the momentum’s going.” I said, “No, no, no. When you got momentum, don’t ever leave it. Just keep going, keep pushing that ball. Trust me. It’ll slow down on its own after a while.”
You know when the time to go on vacation is, don’t you? When the ball’s not rolling, when you have no momentum, hey, you can leave. Nothing’s changing, baby. You come back, it’s still there. It hasn’t moved at all. And it’s the whole issue of learning how to re-certify yourself. I’ve done that. I’ve gone from the religious community to the secular community. I’ve gone to more to less, as far as what I’m doing, as far as priorities, I’ve gone from local to national, international. I’m constantly working on re-certifying myself, keeping a perspective that hopefully could be what it should be.
Number five, commit to a personal development plan, commit to developing yourself, commit to developing other people around you. Number six, focus on personal disciplines. Number seven, remember that learners beat the learned. Eric Hoffer talks about that. He says, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Boy, isn’t that true? All you got to do is go back to college and remember those professors with all those out-of-date lectures. Didn’t you have times when you just wanted to say, “You know what, prof, leave a year and get a job. Go to a real world.”
Number eight, be content to be a work in progress. I’m not where I was yesterday. I’m not where I’m going to be tomorrow. I’m in progress. This is a very healthy perspective. One of the things about writing books that is not fun, I love to write a book, but three or four years after I’ve written a book, because I have grown and I’ve changed, you know what happen? The book stays the same. In other words, nothing changes. You with me? So, I’ve grown and I’ve learned, and a lot of times I want to go back and I want to change part of the book. I want to say, “Oh dear God, I got to change that chapter.” I’m just curious. How many of you have the 21 Laws of Leadership? Would you raise your hand? Oh my goodness. My mother would be so happy. Those that raised their hands a moment ago are the true leaders in this room. Okay.
So, they said, “Would you like to revise it?” I said, “I’d love to revise it.” Because every book I’ve ever written, I’d like to revise after I’ve written it because you keep growing, but the book stands still.” And I said, “I’d love to revise it.” And I thought, “I imagine I’ll do about a 20% revision on the 21 Laws.” And I picked up the book and I started reading it. I took on a trip, I got real depressed. I thought, “Oh my goodness. It’s not very good. Only my mother would really like this book and I got to revise it. I’ve really got to update.” And when I got done, I’d revised 80% of the book. Now the laws are alive again and they’re fresh, but it’s a situation where they have breath again. Well, now, what happened is the other stuff. It’s not that it’s so still, so that I’ve moved on, I’ve grown on. And to keep a good perspective, we have to be a work in progress. Remember, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.
In fact, several years ago, when I wrote a book, Thomas Nelson wanted to call the book Your Destination Success. I said, “It can’t be that. success isn’t a destination. It’s got to be a journey. It’s a process.” Ask yourself three questions at the end of every day. Boy, this will give you perspective. I have the questions written in there. What did I learn today? In other words, what spoke to both your heart and your head. When it speaks to your heart, it gives you passion. It speaks to your head, it gives you direction. How did I grow today? What touched my heart, affected my actions? And finally, what will I do differently? And here’s the statement, unless you can tell me what you plan to do differently, you didn’t learn anything. There are no mistakes if you’ve learned something in the process.
Commercial:
Hey, podcast listeners, how would you like to be equipped with the tools to continue your personal growth and refine your strengths and weaknesses all while being surrounded by growth-minded leaders like yourself. You may have heard of our International Maxwell Conference or IMC. It’s our bi-annual event in which Maxwell Leadership certified team members come from all around the world to grow and learn together. IMC at this August is the first time we’re opening the event to the public by kicking the event off with our first ever Personal Growth Day.
This is a one and a half day event on August 29th and 30th in Orlando, Florida. It’s designed to dig deeper into who you are and how you tick so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you’re unable to attend Personal Growth Day in person, we also offer virtual access to the event. If you would like to participate in a one of a kind experience and stand shoulder to shoulder with growing leaders, who will sharpen your skills and equip to create powerful, positive impact in your life, go to Maxwellleadership.com/personalgrowthday to learn more or get your ticket. We’ll see you there.
Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back, everyone. I’m here in studio with Becky. Becky, I’m reminded of Sophia Amoruso’s quote as I listen to this. And I love this quote and I love what it means. Because she says, “Well, when your goal is to gain experience, perspective and knowledge, failure is no longer a possibility.” Here’s what I love about that quote, it’s kind of like John says, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn, failing forward.” Isn’t it true that when you can change your perspective, failure doesn’t become final, it actually becomes the step to the next thing?
So, I love this quote because if Becky and I and John can collaborate together, what we want to offer you as our podcast family is this, if you will change your thinking, you will change your life. Now, some of you go, “You know what, I’m doing quite well. Thank you very much.” Good, let’s get it better. Some of you are tired of the same old ragged routine that you’re in, and I’m going to tell you, today’s lesson will absolutely help you change that ragged routine if you will let it. Becky, I love what you said as we listened to John, just now together, you went, “I think this might be my favorite one.” It’s a good one.
Becky Bursell:
It is a good one. And I love even that quote, it changes our focus from the outcome to the process. Imagine if our goal was to fill the bucket of perspective, instead of the bucket of accomplishment, we’d be winning every single day. That’s really what this whole lesson is about is perspective. I think sometimes we have a hard time, even in this very polarizing time that we’re in right now, we’re almost finding ways to not agree with people and finding common ground. I think sometimes we feel like if we’re around people that don’t see the same things we do, somehow it’s contagious and we shouldn’t be around them. But then this kind of blows that out of the water like, “Hey, you should be changing your perspective all the time. You should be changing your opinion, your perspective, all those things should change all the time.”
Mark Cole:
Well, it’s so interesting. You hear it taught all the time, all the time, and you’re going to resonate with this, Becky, because this is your perspective. When talking about perspective, people all the time, I remember the first time I heard it, I was like 18 and just thought, “That is exactly right.” There’s people that look at half a glass of water and say, “Is the glass half-full or is it half-empty?” And depending on how you responded, that shows whether you have a good perspective or a bad perspective. I mean, that’s the indication, right? I saw something a while back, I’m sure all of you did. I don’t care if the glass is half-full or half-empty, I just know the glass has more space in it and I want more in it. The perspective there is don’t cobble on whether it’s half-empty or half-full, you have a lot of capacity in the glass, get some more stuff in it.
Becky Bursell:
Yeah. Let’s get to work.
Mark Cole:
That’s exactly right. So, I am, I’m looking forward to digging into the lesson with you today.
Becky Bursell:
I love the lesson, because it really is a great self-assessment program. I’ve spent the last 20 years building sales teams and training sales teams, and John’s perspective and coming at it from a business or even a sales background, I love when people would say, “Well, I’m not in sales.” And I’m thinking, “Well, whether you think you’re in sales or not, you’re in sales, because whether you’re a doctor building a practice or you are a social influencer or you’re a pastor or you’re dating, for crying out loud, look, I mean, you’re a parent, you’re selling something to your kids every single day.” So, we’re all in sales because we deal with people and there’s just no way around that. So, recognizing how we’re approaching things and then that whole form of Peter Drucker’s question, Mark, is brilliant. I mean from mission to customer, to value, to plan, to results, I feel like we’re in the middle of a lot of that right now with that mission.
Mark Cole:
I believe that, of course, perspective is an attitude issue. John’s spoken a lot, he’s written a lot on attitude. It’s one of the key pillars in our CLEAR Growth plan is you’ve got to have a perspective. My question is not, do you have to have a powerful, positive perspective to create powerful, positive change? That’s not the question. We all know that. That would be wasted time. The question is how do we get that?
Becky Bursell:
Yeah.
Mark Cole:
I thought, Becky, you and I were in a meeting recently with our CLEAR guide, Chris Robinson, incredible perspective, incredible attitude that he has. He’s always trying to give people something that will create a memory that they couldn’t have on their own. He was recently, and I’ll tell the story and not do it anywhere near as well as him. But I’ll tell it, because it’s really apropos to right now on these questions. What are you doing to make sure that you are having the right perspective? He had some friends, some colleagues in an airport recently, they were both in the airport going different directions and he saw them in the airport and he had a chance to do what some of us do when we see somebody in the airport, we kind of hide behind the planter until they move and then we come back out, right? Becky, you’re smiling, for those of you watching [inaudible 00:17:06]-
Becky Bursell:
So, I’m not the only one is what you’re saying?
Mark Cole:
Those of you watching on YouTube, you just saw me catch Becky and what she does when she sees you at the airport, by the way. But that’s another conversation. But Chris, on the other hand, Chris Robinson is walking through the airport, he sees some colleagues and he goes over to him and says, “Hey, have y’all ever been in the Delta Sky Club?” And they were like, “No, we never had.” Chris travels a lot. So, he has access to the Sky Club. He said, “Hey, come on in. I want to be a part of your first time ever experience in the Sky Club.” And here goes Chris, lot of work on his laptop, a lot of things to get done. He puts all of that aside, so he can add value by creating a memory to somebody that he truly did not even have to say hey to, much less invite them to spend the next hour with. Why did he do that?
Because he has an attitude that, “Every single day I’m going to try to uplevel someone’s experience to make a memory.” It’s a perspective issue. Now, Chris Robinson is not an accidental guide to John Maxwell’s CLEAR way of growing in the area of attitude. That’s not accidental. It’s intentional every single day. So, my question to you and I, Becky, and of course to all of our podcast viewers and listeners is what are you doing daily to intentionally change your attitude? Yes, you’re going to have good days to where you don’t have to do anything intentionally. It’s just a good day. Maybe it’s a Red Bull morning, [inaudible 00:18:39] fired up. Then there’s other days that it’s like two pots of coffee is still not enough. Just things are not going well. See, attitude doesn’t just happen, it’s a choice.
So, when we talk about perspective, John’s given us 10 tools here. In CLEAR, we’ve given you tools every single week that will help you have a better attitude as you grow and influence those around you. That’s why we created a CLEAR. In fact, you can go to Maxwellleadership.com, now, /clearapp. And you can see what Becky and I are talking about with CLEAR. But, Becky, there is a great intentionality that all of us much have that is… John’s given us 10 tools, but the first tool is you got to choose to use one of the tools.
Becky Bursell:
You absolutely do.
Mark Cole:
It’s a choice.
Becky Bursell:
Number two, I mean, that goes towards John’s… Why his why never changes and his why is always adding value to people. And you and I have witnessed this. There’s not a day or a second that goes by that John’s not looking for a way to add value and to value people. But I feel like in everything that you’ve done as well, and I think we’re on the same page here, but if somebody were to say, “Okay, what’s Mark’s why?” I know what it is. I’ll let you tell the audience what it is. I think they already know as well.
Mark Cole:
Yeah. I love to tell the story, because I spent 33 years of my young life, I’ve got a few years on me now since 33, but I spent 33 years of my life, didn’t know my why. Now, what I found out was I was already kind of doing it without even being able to articulate it, which I think most of us do when it’s your why, you’re doing it before you can even discover and articulate. But I was 33 and I love telling the story because it lets all of us know it’s not too late and it’s not too early for you to know your why. Figure it out. Well, for me, my why is to motivate and inspire people to reach their full potential.
I wake up in the morning thinking of, “How do I inspire and motivate people to reach their potential?” I go to bed at night saying, “Did I inspire anyone? Did I motivate anyone to reach their full potential?” It’s my why. So, whether I’m CEO, as I am today, whether I was an entry level telesales representative, like I was 22 years ago today, no matter which end of the spectrum I am in my current career, I can still do that with effectiveness. And I’ve not allowed new assignments or new directives to change the perspective of my purpose, the examining and clarifying. That’s why I love what you just said. The how changes all the time. If you’re still trying to live out your purpose the same way you did 20 years ago, guess what? You’re outdated and ineffective. I don’t know you, personally, but I know you collectively. You’re outdated. Your how has to change, but your why should stay true and stay consistent as an organization and even as we as individuals.
Becky Bursell:
Yeah. Which is where John goes on to say, “You should re-certify yourself every year.” Which makes me think of a book. And this will give you a great lesson, everybody listening, on perspective. When you think of change is always necessary, what’s the first book of John’s you think of, Mark?
Mark Cole:
Yeah. Well, change is always necessary? Well, so there’s like five.
Becky Bursell:
I know.
Mark Cole:
So, Intentional Living. Yeah. Then, Change Your World. Change Your World is another one. So, tell me which one. Because I’m like [inaudible 00:22:15].
Becky Bursell:
[inaudible 00:22:15] Leadershift. So, it’s funny, again, that’s perspective, that shows you where you’re at and as far as how you apply it to yourself. But for me, personally, change was always a part of my life. I mean, I went to nine different schools before I graduated from high school. It was part of an expectation. And I think if we all maybe not have to go to that extreme. But if we all lived in a world where change was just part of our daily life and it was part probably the one thing you could expect and count on, we might receive it a little better.
Mark Cole:
Well, what John taught right there, Becky, I love what you just pulled out, because what John said, and I love this, I wrote it down, “If nothing’s happening around you, go on vacation. Now is the time to take some time off if things are not happening.” But when things are happening and a lot of times that’s when we bear down, oh, we go harder. What John’s point here is you need to re-certify yourself. You need to replenish yourself. You need to challenge yourself every day, every year. You need to make sure that you’re enhancing your effectiveness. That’s why we continue to create the products to partner with you that will continue to re-certify yourself and make yourself better, because you’re going to lose a sharp, relevant perspective if yesterday’s success is all you have to talk about.
Becky Bursell:
Yeah. And life will not be as fun. I mean, it might be slower, but definitely not as fun. I love John’s story, going to number five, talking about committing to a personal development plan and his story of Curt Kampmeier, when he sat a customer and asked John, “What is your plan for growth every day?” And his response was, “I didn’t know I needed one.” And I love that because it’s so relatable for so many of us to recognize, “Okay, well, what am I doing?” I might be reading a book when I can, or I might listen to podcast when I can, or I might be doing those things. But back to that intentional living and always be growing, where were you when you decided, “I’m going to grow every single day.”
Mark Cole:
Well, it was very similar to John, different location, different environment, but it was almost the exact same, I didn’t know what to say. And it was when I started John’s company 22 years ago and I loved to read, at 14, 15 years of age, I was reading until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and then I’d get up two hours later and pick up the same book to finish it. It wasn’t always nonfiction at that time. I loved Western books and that kind of thing. But I love to read. I love sitting and listening to people smarter, faster, better than me and learning from them. So, I’ve always had this propensity, this appetite, if you will, to grow. But it wasn’t until David Hoyt asked me in my first week of employment in May of 2000, when David said, “Hey, what’s your personal growth plan? Because we expect everybody around here to have a personal growth plan. “I don’t know.”
I did all that till the point he sent me a template and really, Becky, and maybe those of you on the podcast that are not new have heard me talk about it. My first personal growth plan was not sophisticated at all. It was books that I was going to read, which had no rhyme or reason. It was people that I was going to meet and call them mentor and there had no consistency in their life accomplishment or their professional expectation. Then it was the events that I was going to go to. Once again, I put no thread of consciousness, no intentionality to those things. I just knew I needed to read content, I needed to intake content, I needed to connect with people smarter, bigger, better, faster than me and I needed to surround myself and put myself in experiences that would sharpen me and make me better.
It was years later that I would begin to create a level of sophistication and a level of intentionality. But that’s the question for each of us. Do you have a development plan? And are you living that? Even bigger than that, in today’s lesson, do you have a perspective of growth? That’s the big kicker.
Becky Bursell:
Yeah. That’s actually what we’ve been working on this last year is growing a personal development program that anyone can be a part of called CLEAR. I know Mark has mentioned it several times, but it really is for all of us at any level who recognize, “Maybe I don’t have intentional plan every single day to grow.” And everything else you can almost call accidental or you can actually say, “I was forced into growth.” I think that’s actually how most of us grow. It’s a pain point and then we have to, out of necessity, grow. So, having something that you’re doing every single day, imagine that level of preparedness that you would feel in your life being able to grow every single day.
Mark Cole:
By the way, if you were following along with John with the fill-in-the-blank PDF, you may not have heard John say nine and 10, but he put it out there. Number nine was, remember, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Then he said, “Ask yourself three questions at the end of every day,” which was number 10. What’s interesting about number nine, remember, it’s not a destination, it’s the journey. And number eight, be content to be a work in progress. Becky, something you just said really struck me, success is not a destination, it’s a journey. That’s what John said in the lesson today.
My question for all of us, who’s wanting to have peace and wanting to have a settled, a really enjoying of the journey process is how do we put this intensity that serves us well as leaders and mix that with the peace and the sense of humility and appreciation at the progress that we’ve made? I haven’t figured that one out yet, because I’m pretty intense. But here’s what I would tell you. Yesterday’s success never satisfies a leader that is optimistic and excited about the future. That’s why Simon Sinek wrote the book that impacted John, because John said this, he said, “Success is not a destination, it’s an infinite game.” That’s where this book from Simon comes in. That you have to have a perspective, going back to the title, you have to have a perspective that growth will always happen in your life as a leader. Don’t ever retire from growth. Retire from some things, perhaps, but don’t retire from growing.
Becky Bursell:
Yeah. It goes to that quote, that is here with Eric Hoffer, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” I mean, you and I might be the perfect example of the learned considering we both were the dropouts of college. But I think we picked some other great professors around us. I mean, our university might not have been on a campus, but there’s definitely been a process in growing. I think, honestly, one of the greatest gifts that someone can can give you is to put you on a path to understanding people in this process. Because it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, in dealing with people, that is an education that is beyond a price tag.
Mark Cole:
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Because you just dealt with it a little bit more. I want to put that link to Simon’s book into our show notes. So, if you haven’t read The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek, we’re going to put that link in there and challenge you to… I want to challenge you to pick that up. For me, it was a life-changing book. I want to leave, Becky, with a challenge for people that’s listening to this book. I really do. I tell my teenagers. Now, I’m telling my grandkids that are in their single digits, can’t wait to become 10. Choice is an attitude. We’ve all been told. Or attitude is a choice. Choice is an attitude. We’ve always been told attitude is a choice. How do you teach that as a 52 year young man to an eight year old grandson? How do you do that? The relevancy of how we do that is really important.
But the fact that we teach that to one another as leaders and to our kids and grandkids is really a critical point, not only in today’s lesson, but in embracing life. Here’s what I want you to do. John’s given us 10 tools to gain a new perspective. I want you to take the notes out. I want you to review those 10 tools. Then I want you to rank yourself on how well you’re using that tool in your leadership. So, let’s put it on a scale of one to five, five, I’m killing it. This is one of my very best. One, I’m struggling. I never deal. I never use this particular tool.
I want to challenge all of us. All of you listening to the podcast, all of you watching. I want you to challenge, take yourself a perspective assessment, go in, begin to listen to yourself, begin to observe how you respond in certain situations and begin to rank yourself. Then, after you ranked yourself, I want you to start working on perfecting the ones that are holding you back from being the leader that you are. Becky, I’ll tell you what we get to do on a daily basis is pretty staggering. You said, “Mark, I love this lesson. This is one of my best.” I want to give you a chance to just make another comment or two and then I want to close out with a listener comment.
Becky Bursell:
Yeah, I think just that point of being content to be a work in progress is so important, especially for anybody that’s listening, that has a little bit of perfectionism in there and they think their happiness has to be attached to things working out perfectly. I mean, the greatest advice I can give anybody is to get over it, because that’s just not how it’s going to be. Whoever set you up for that is setting you up for failure. Where John closes and says, “Unless you can tell me what you plan to do differently, you didn’t learn anything today.” So, there are no mistakes if you’ve learned something in the process. So, stay in the process, be excited about the process. Every mistake and failing forward, you’re you’re that much closer to your goal as far as where you’re trying to be and where you’re trying to grow.
Mark Cole:
Yeah. I was thinking here, there was a podcast we did some time ago called Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life. If we can, as we said at the very beginning in one of the quotes, if we can change the perspective, we can change our life. I’m going to put that lesson, that podcast into our show notes. There’s another podcast I want to put in our show notes and it’s a recent one. It’s the most recent one we did with Ed Mylett about his book, The Power of One More. And I want to put that in, because that’s where our listener comment comes from today. Some of you have not either listened to that or you are needing to listen to it again. It’s only been a few weeks ago.
But this is what Nancy said after listening to that podcast with John and Ed Mylett, she said, “Wow,” with a lot of extra zeros, which means a lot. She said, “Wow, that was exactly packed with pearls. I learned a lot, John and Ed, if this is not just your words, but this is actually the people that you are, your authenticity, your sincerity, and your deep insight touches my heart and inspires me to be better and grow further. You challenge me to stretch my capacity, to dive deeper into all that God has for me and called me to be.” And Nancy, that is why we do what we do.
Here’s why, Nancy, and to all of you listening and viewing today, I want to challenge you to go do powerful, positive things with your influence. I want you to take podcasts like this on the power of perspective, on gaining new perspective. I want you to take comments like Nancy, and I want it to inspire you to go listen to the Ed Mylett podcast in the show notes. I want take people like Becky, that are building something called CLEAR Growth, and I want to inspire you to create powerful and positive change and here’s why, everyone deserves to be led well.
Be the first to comment on "Maxwell Leadership Podcast: Ten Tools for Gaining a New Perspective"