Maxwell Leadership Podcast: The Foundation of a Leader

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole and today’s episode is all about a few foundational and key qualities of a leader. John wrote a book, the 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. And today’s lesson, John pulls out three of those qualities and goes on a deep dive. I’m very excited because I think after today’s podcast, you will be and aspire to be a better leader. After John shares his lesson, my co host, Traci Morrow and I will come together and talk about how to get the most out of this podcast and what John shared, what we’ve learned, and how you and I can apply it to our personal life and leadership. I also want to encourage you to download our free bonus resource and tune into this episode on YouTube by going to MaxwellPodcast.com/Foundation.

Mark Cole:
Okay, let’s go. Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:
Today I want to talk to you about the 21 from my book. I wrote a book several years ago called the 21 qualities of a Leader. In fact, this is gonna surprise you because people come to me all the time, they say, chuck, I wanna be a leader. I wanna learn how to lead. Well, where do I start? In fact, they’ll ask me. They’ll say, what book do I begin with? And whenever they ask me that question, my answer always surprises them because I tell people, if you really wanna be a terrific leader, the first book that I’ve written, I’ve written a lot of them on leadership that you should read is the 21 qualities of a Leader. Now that’s a very popular book. It sold millions of copies.

John Maxwell:
But it’s not by far one of my best known books. And so when people say, oh, I’m surprised that you would have the 21 qualities of a leader, and here’s why it’s so important. The qualities that I’m going to teach you here in a moment, and I won’t have time for 21, but I’ll teach a few. The qualities are foundational for your leadership life. If you’re just gonna build a one story house, you don’t really need much of a foundation. In fact, you can just kinda put a cement slab underneath of it and you can build that one story. You don’t need a great foundation because you’re not building a great building. You’re just one story.

John Maxwell:
But if you came to me and said, I really wanna build a skyscraper, in other words, I want my leadership just a Stretch to the heavens. I want to do big things in leadership. The first thing I would say to you is, you’ve got to get the foundation right. If the foundation is correct, you can build a skyscraper of leadership for your life. And the foundation are the qualities. Because the qualities, those are the things that express who you are on the inside. The qualities are in such a way that they make you better on the inside, so you become better on the outside. They make you bigger on the inside than you become bigger on the outside.

John Maxwell:
And one of those qualities, I have time maybe for three or four. But one of those qualities is character. And character is so essential to who you are, because it’s character that makes you trustworthy. You see, a person with good character has authenticity. What you see is who they really are. A person with character has terrific integrity. They tell the truth, they keep their promises, they do what they say they will do. They become very trustworthy.

John Maxwell:
And trustworthy is essential for great leadership. And when a person has good character, it is foundational for them. But it’s not only foundational for them to build their leadership, it’s foundational for you to build a relationship with them because you know that they have the character, the strength, the core, the anchor, the foundation that will really allow them to serve and do you very, very well. You see, when people are going to follow a leader, one of the questions they ask is, can I trust that person? Well, character is that quality that makes you. It’s that quality that makes me trustworthy. So it’s a beautiful thing. So I tell people, before you work on the outside of your leadership, work on the inside of your leadership. You know, another quality of a leader that I talk about in the 21 Qualities book is the quality of commitment.

John Maxwell:
And it’s so essential for leaders to be. Be men and women of commitment. And why I say that is because commitment separates the doers from the dreamers. To have a dream is a good thing. But one of the things you’re going to learn about the dream that you have is the dream doesn’t come true because you have the dream. There has to be a quality that makes that dream a reality. And that quality is commitment. And if you’re committed, it takes you from being a dreamer to a doer.

John Maxwell:
If you’re not committed, you’re just a dreamer. And there are a lot of people who think that the dream is enough. It’s not. You see, the dream is free, but the journey isn’t. That’s why people like to sit around the table and Talk about what they would like to become. And they have these great dreams. But honestly, when you get up from the table, you got to make it happen. See, dreams are free, but the journey’s not.

John Maxwell:
And since the journey, which is what brings you to the reality of that dream, it costs something. Commitment is the core. Commitment is essential quality for you to have as a leader to make your dreams come true. Another quality that I express in the 21 qualities of a leader book is generosity. The willingness and the ability to give on the front end. You know, a lot of times people say, well, I may give to that, but I’m going to see what I’m going to receive first. And a lot of people are saying, well, if I receive something, then I’ll give. And they don’t understand that sowing comes before reaping.

John Maxwell:
No farmer ever went out to the fields that he hadn’t worked, that he hadn’t sown any seed in, and come fall, look and say, well, I wonder what kind of crop I’m going to receive this time. It’s impossible. You see, fall harvest is only a reality. If there’s been a spring sowing, it always begins with not what am I going to receive, but what am I going to give? I have an expression sometimes I use that I love, and that is you’re. A candle loses nothing when it lights another. If I have a lit candle and I am generous towards you, and I extend it to you, and you can light your candle off of it, my candle doesn’t go out. I just turned on two lights instead of one. And I think there’s a scarcity mindset that many people say, well, if I give, I’m afraid I’m going to lose something.

John Maxwell:
And they don’t forget so, so many times that what they lose if they don’t give is opportunity. You know, generosity opens the door to incredible opportunity. It opens up the door for us to have life change and to help change lives. And one of the ways that you build a successful business is to be extremely generous. If you’re always giving more than others, there’s an incredible relationship that is built. I determine the success of my day every day, not by what, what did I receive, but what did I give. And I would encourage you to become intentionally generous. Now, I only had time today to give you three of those qualities.

John Maxwell:
Character, which is the foundation. Commitment, which literally compounds over time, and generosity. But if you’ll just build your leadership life on those three things, I promise you, you’ll become on the inside the leader. You Want to become on the outside.

Ryan Leak:
Hey, everybody, Ryan Leak here and I’ve got some exciting news for you. Data Grow is just a few weeks away and it’s happening on March 19th in Orlando, Florida. And I cannot wait to see you there. I’ll be talking about my new book, how to Work with Complicated People. And let me tell you, this message has the power to change the way you lead and live. And it’s not just me. John C. Maxwell is going to be in the building.

Ryan Leak:
Tim Tebow, Stephanie Chong, Jesse Itzler, and an amazing lineup of speakers will all be there pouring into you. But here’s the thing. Seats are filling up fast, so if you haven’t registered yet, now is the time, don’t wait. Make the decision today to invest in your personal growth. I’ll see you, my friend, in Orlando, Florida on March 19th. Let’s grow together.

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back, everybody. I hope already you’re sensing within you a hunger to become a better leader. I had a great privilege just a few weeks ago. John Maxwell and Brian Tracy were on stage again. That hasn’t happened in some time. And recently out in California, maybe some of our podcast listeners were there. Brian Tracy was there. But Brian has a quote that really is relevant to today’s lesson.

Mark Cole:
And here’s what Brian says. Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily even if you had no title or position. That’s really what we’re talking about today, is not relying on position or effectiveness or even production to have followers. We’re talking about be the person, be the individual, be the leader. That there’s almost this magnet. People want to follow you because of who you are, not what you do and not what your title says. And so, Traci, I’m excited to go deep with you on this and get a little bit more into what we feel like is application on character, commitment and generosity.

Traci Morrow:
Yes, this reminds this lesson. The foundation of a leader to me just is something that no matter, you could be 12 years old and be listening to this and start developing this within you. And when I first started learning from John, I was 21 and I thought I was going to be learning business particulars. And really these are the kind of lessons that John was the very first cassette tape that I listened to dating myself there cassette tape, look it up. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look up an Google image. But this is exactly what we’re talking about. And I would I, I wrote few questions down today because I think they are. So this is either Going to be the shortest podcast of all time.

Traci Morrow:
Or we are. Yeah, right. They’re like, we know you better than that, Tracy. We know your podcasts are long or I think these are just potent things to really land on and flesh out. And so the first thing that I thought in character to land on, I think authenticity, integrity are such big, big topics to embody. And I think we work on these our entire lives. I just heard somebody say, as a leader with authenticity, the importance of leading from your scars, not your wounds. You know, as leaders, we want to lead authentically, but not from all of our wounds.

Traci Morrow:
And we have to learn that. We learn from the lessons that we’ve, that we’ve learned. But let’s kick this off, Mark, talking about trust. Trust is so crucial to building a team. And so I trust that stays trust. That is from the very beginning, them learning to trust you. So can you talk about some of the ways that you build, have built, are building and continue to build upon the foundation of trust with your team?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, I think it goes back to who am I as a individual on the inside. Because I think the thing that deteriorates trust so often or never lets trust even begin to be cultivated is a lack of predictability in one’s character. If I see you today and you’re different tomorrow, or if you say one thing and you actually do another, that incongruency at the character level is probably the greatest impeding characteristic of trust. And so I love that John picked that up here inside of this is because I think where trust begins is when an individual becomes congruent from inside to outside. When a person is congruent in what they say and what they do. When a person is congruent in how they commit and how they follow through, that is the things that endear people to us. And all those are characters issues. All those are issues, to be honest with you, you can control.

Mark Cole:
You may have had a bad home environment, you may have had bad models, you may have some DNA that you wish was a little bit different. You can have all those wishes that you want to. But I can tell you this, you can improve and maintain a character that is respected and then garners trust, that encourages others around you to trust. So I just had an interesting, very interesting conversation with three generations of the same DNA. Happens to be my 95 year young mother, myself in my mid-50s, and then my daughter who’s 18. So my mom had me at 40. You can do the math. I had Macy, late 30s.

Mark Cole:
And so there’s 80 years of difference between Macy, my daughter, and her grandmother, my mom, 80 years. And Macy is studying this leadership course at the University of Florida where she’s going. She’s doing a minor in leadership and she’s reading this book about the importance of humility to leadership and therefore the importance of humility to being able to trust your leader. And I will tell you, 80 years of difference, a lot of life between my mom and my daughter. And yet to hear the two of them talk about the importance of humility in one’s character, cultivating trust. It was so intriguing to me to hear 80 years of difference. Different times of life, different stages that they are in life, but yet a different time that they each grew up and learned leadership. But they both were saying the same thing.

Mark Cole:
What your character is drives the level of trust. How much trust you have drives the level of productivity in leadership and especially in team oriented leadership. So, Traci, I guess what I’m saying with all of that is our ability to mind our character is directly proportionate to our sustainability as a leader and to the trust we’ll have from our team.

Traci Morrow:
I love hearing when whenever there’s a chance for the younger generation to be speaking to somebody who has made it to their 90s and they get to pour into them because I think John speaks about it in his 70s, but I, my own mom, who’s 85, will speak about, you know, the older I get, there are a lot of things I don’t understand. But the few things that I believe in that I hold so solidly, there’s a few things and those are those I hold very firmly to, and those are those issues of charact and the very things that John is talking about today, character and commitment and generosity, those are the things that really outlast and become very, very important to that older generation. So when they can pour that into the younger people. But I just think like, even in your team, when you’re talking about transparency and that they know that you’re going to show up for them and that you are a trusted leader, I think that is such an important thing for your team to see that they can trust their leader. That character is something that is missing today in a lot of organizations, but it also keeps people staying. I think that’s why the turnover. There isn’t a lot of turnover in companies where the character is strong in the leader. Would you agree with that?

Mark Cole:
I would absolutely agree with that. Because people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their leader.

Traci Morrow:
That’s right.

Mark Cole:
And so, yeah, if you can’t be trusted, then you’re gonna stay because you need the paycheck. You’re gonna stay because you hope things, but you’re not going to stay because you’re endeared to the leader. And again, people quit leaders.

Traci Morrow:
That’s right. That’s right. So, okay, so we move on to commitment. And he goes into. So you’re working on your character, and now you’re like, how committed am I? And he talks about dreams are free. And I think if everybody were to say what you know, if you were to ask everybody in our audience if they have a dream and what their dreams are, and you can get as wild and big and extravagant with your dreams, and then. And then he brings a little anchoring of bringing the balloon down and anchors that to the journey is not. So let’s talk about the cost, and let’s help people who have a big dream and they want to go after their dream, and they want to be a leader that people can trust and have the firm foundation of a solid leader.

Traci Morrow:
What kind of cost are we talking about here? They might be asking, what has this looked like for you in terms of cost? When you’re looking back over your leadership journey, if you were to speak into the life of a new leader or a leader who is just understanding that the dream comes with a cost, maybe they’re discouraged and they’re thinking it’s them, not the reality of that. This is actually a part of every leader’s journey. What does that look like for you and those that you’ve led so that people can know what to expect? Because expectations are important on the front end so that they aren’t blindsided.

Mark Cole:
Yeah. So it’s a really good question, and I wish I could give you a light and fun and motivating answer. It’s just not there. It’s really not. Because in the area of commitment to something great, here’s what I can tell you. What’s the cost? More than you thought? How long does it take? Longer than you thought? The cost is always. Are you going to have to pay for it again and again and again? And when you have arrived, are you done? I mean, commitment on the front end is hard. A commitment on the back end is even harder.

Mark Cole:
And I’ll tell you what I mean by that. I think that when we really commit to something, we understand that the commitment absolutely means that when the desire to stop comes, and it will, that you won’t stop. So when everything in you is screaming, stop, you’ve done it. It’s Enough, it’s enough. That’s what commitment means. No, I’m going to push through to the most difficult of times. Yet when you look back on it and you try to reflect, the reason I think that it’s harder is because you go, how did I stick through that, through those difficult times? So when John looks at me and says, mark, you’re going to be okay as a business owner. You’re going to be okay as a business leader.

Mark Cole:
He’s looking back and going, I know it was hard for me, but why can’t it be easier for you? I’m here mentoring you, I’m here helping you. And yet commitment is only cement when you go through it. It’s not a commitment until it is tested. It’s not a commitment until you give up everything to make it. And it’s not a commitment until you give up everything again and again to make it. I was recently working through a real big business decision. I was trying to work through it and I was going, okay, is this an issue of the signs are telling me that something needs to be changed, or is this me wanting to give up on my commitment? And as a leader, when we are committed to something. We talked a few episodes ago, we talked about failure, how to get a return on failure.

Mark Cole:
And I’m just going to tell you that the idea that a failure or a difficulty is reason to give up on commitment, no, that’s the reason you made a commitment was for those moments when the challenge comes is when it is obvious to everyone, including yourself, that there’s time to move to the next assignment. And you don’t want to give up because you’re still committed to something that was only seasonal. It wasn’t a lifespan. It was for the moment. It wasn’t for the entire time. And that’s where I think we run into a great challenge. Because as John says, the dream is free, the journey is the cost, but the commitment is the all in. There’s not a cost that you can ask me in my calling, because it’s all out there on the page, out there on the table anyway.

Mark Cole:
And so, as we look at commitment today as a foundation of a leader, I want you to really look at the things that you feel you are committed to. And are you committed to them working? Are you committed even when they don’t work? Test the level of your commitment. But can I challenge you on something else? Test on the real thing you’re committed to. If it’s temporal, if it’s something that is seasonal, make sure you know that commitment was seasonal. And live out that commitment, but be able to release that and move to the next thing.

Traci Morrow:
Oh, that is really good. Some things are seasonal. And I. And I think one of the things that you just said there about being all in one thing I think people don’t understand is the value of speaking that I’m committed to the leader and hearing that back from the leader. And so one of the things that has meant so much to me is when you have said personally, when we’ve been working on a project or when we’ve done something, when you’ve said, like, Tracy, I’m all in. And the value that that means to me is for part of my commitment. Because sometimes you in the team, I’m speaking to our audience. Sometimes you in the team feel like, is this I’m in, but is my leader in? And so reminding you to say that to your team because they need to hear your all in.

Traci Morrow:
But also, likewise, if you’re a team member, your leader needs to hear they’re all in. That you’re all in. And so a lot of times I make it make sure that I’ll say to you, mark, I’m all. I am all in. It’s important that the leader needs to hear that their team, you’re all in together. And that’s important for people working on a team, that you make that commitment verbally to one another. It’s the security of being a part of a team where you know that everybody is. That commitment is there.

Traci Morrow:
That’s powerful. Okay, moving on to generosity. I think people might be surprised about generosity, don’t you? I feel like generosity is a word that when people think about a foundation of a leader, they might be like, generosity. What. What is that? Is that like, you know, is that just a churchy word? And it’s not a churchy word. That is a word that is. It is a leadership word. A generous leader is a leader that stands out.

Traci Morrow:
And when he. When John said that generosity opens the door. Before I ask the question, I want to. I want to give an observation, something that I’ve noticed about both you and John. When I am in any room with you, it is very obvious. Sometimes I like to just observe you, you both, when you’re in a room, because I learn not from what you say, but what you are actively doing. So sometimes I’ll just watch and observe. When you enter into the room, it’s obvious that you are not entering the room saying, here I am.

Traci Morrow:
Look at me, everybody. Here I am. It’s coming in and it’s the generous. I think we think of generosity as like, are you handing out money? It’s. It’s a generous attitude of here you are. It’s generosity in spirit of. Of what you are giving to people and showing up not to be the best person in the room, but to be the most authentically generous person in the room, being a servant. So when you show up to be the most authentically generous.

Traci Morrow:
And keyword is authentic. The. The most authentically generous person to show up with a servant’s mindset of how can I serve you in that room? How can. Are you doing okay? You walking through the room shaking, not waiting for people to come up and shake your hand, but to go into a room and be generous with your time. Your, your eye contact. You’re grabbing someone on the shoulder as you shake their hand or give them a hug and ask them how they’re doing and make eye contact and hold eye contact and really care about their answer. That is the kind of generosity that already every person listening can practice that in a world where people are scrolling on their phones, waiting for people, hoping people won’t notice them in a room or waiting for them to come up and notice them or give them special attention or try to be the star in the room, but to actually go walk into a room, that is a generous spirit as you come into the room, not here I am, but here you are. And so that’s not a question.

Traci Morrow:
That’s just something that I’ve learned from proximity, of traveling with you and John. That is such a lesson that I have learned. That’s something how I want to make other people feel of how you’ve made me feel and other people in a room.

Mark Cole:
Well, let me say this, Traci, about generosity. So many times, you’re right. People attribute the concept of generosity to giving money. Or there’s one person that can. That can be generous. But I think another misperception of generosity is you have to have something that you currently don’t have to become generous. So I’ve heard a lot of people say, when I get to be a millionaire, I’m going to give $100 away or whatever the number is. Which just cracks me up that we put a number equate on that.

Mark Cole:
No, you really won’t. If you’re not giving away something now, there’s not some accomplishment or some moment in your life to where you’re going to become ungenerous to generous just because you’ve reached a certain threshold of success financially or positionally or from influence. I found that the true generous people. Now, I think generosity can be learned. I think a lot of people can build systems to become generous. I absolutely do, even if you don’t have like a generous nature. But I don’t believe generosity is about success or destination. I believe generosity is about what you have now.

Mark Cole:
So many people make generosity about money. It’s not time, it’s about a spirit, it’s about a mindset. If I have something that will help you, I want to find a way to get it to you so that it will be an impact to you. I believe the greatest method or the greatest demonstration of generosity is giving when there is no chance of getting anything back in return. I think that’s the greatest moments of generosity. I think John’s most generous moments is not when he strokes a check, or my generous moments or when I stroke a check that really doesn’t cause me to sweat that much. I think the best generosity is not the number, the dollar amount of the gift. I think the greatest generosity is when I watched John walk past a street performer or someone that was in such a desperate place on the side of a street that they were begging.

Mark Cole:
And I watched John slip his hand in his pocket, pull out what I know was going to be $100 bill, slip it in the bucket, or the thing that they were receiving in, and keep walking and never look back. That person’s never going to. Person didn’t even know what he gave to even thank him. He wasn’t even going to get the expression of appreciation. It was a moment to where I watched him give something. There was not a chance in the world he was going to ever get anything back. Not a lesson. He don’t talk about that from stage.

Mark Cole:
So he’s not doing it so he can give a good point to illustrate and sell another book just because it’s that moment. I think true generosity comes when you do something time, energy, certainly financial, without a string attached. And when you can give that way, then you have accomplished some things in the area of the foundational characteristic of generosity in a leader.

Traci Morrow:
It’s not like, hey, could somebody take a picture of this happening so I could put it on my Instagram feed? I’ve been there before where kids came up where we landed in a country and they were shoeshine kids and that’s how they earn money for their family. And people went to take pictures of John getting his shoe shined and he’s like, stop taking my picture and come get and let them shine your shoes. Get your Money out. So it was like, don’t take my picture doing this, do it too. And I, and, and like with a big smile on his face. Not like as snarky as my voice is sounding for those of you who don’t see my smile on my face. But it was like, I’m leading by example, do this too.

Mark Cole:
But anyway, yeah, his exact statement was, and I, you’re being very kind. I think it was snarky. He was like, quit reaching for your phones and start reaching for your wallet and stay over here by me. This is not a photo op, this is a generosity op.

Traci Morrow:
That’s right. This is a moment. I’m providing you an opportunity to do these for the skids. Exactly. So I guess my question is how are, what are some ways just so you can bring this into a business moment, but what are some ways that you are generous with your team to establish a firm foundation as a leader? So I’m going to give a couple examples that you can either like take one and bounce off of it or you can just make up your, you know, go off of one of your own if one springs to mind. But I’m talking about things that are non financial generosity because that one is too easy to me. I’m talking about like creating wins for your team or creating opportunities for expansive growth for the individual or for a specific team. Creating memories for the team, creating spaces for them to fail and learn.

Traci Morrow:
Extending forgiveness, perhaps if they’ve made a bungled something, creating opportunities for them to be generous. Those are just a few examples for you to just kind of take it and teach off of.

Mark Cole:
Yeah, I think obviously as an owner, doing your best to share the profits and the results and unexpected blessings. I’ve got a friend of mine that runs a very large, large company and they have this employee generosity program to where employees that want to be a part can give a portion of their salary each and every week to this fund that is designed to help people in difficult times. And so when they do that, they highlight what the fund has done, not what the individual. And it’s just an incredible environment of generosity in a very large company of taking care of each other. And I’ve seen that work. I think a practical way we as leaders can be generous is with our time. We’ve talked a lot about that. That’s probably pretty obvious to many of you.

Mark Cole:
But I love the premise that John, my dad was also very strong in this statement that John has highlighted that Melvin Maxwell, his dad, makes. And the statement is to the person whom much is given, much is required. And if you think about my 25 year journey here with John in this organization, man, I have been in proximity, I have had access to some of the world’s most recognized and greatest leaders. And so one of the areas that I try really hard to be generous with is by giving what I have from a level of mentoring and influence to people that I work alongside of another area that I get really passionate about. Every year I do this every year. I get asked hundreds and hundreds of times to mentor people. I crack myself up when I say that because there was a time that there was no one that wanted to be mentored by me. I was having to ask people to let me mentor them so that I could have somebody on my sheet that I was mentoring.

Mark Cole:
But really I’d ask them, will you mentor me? But I put it down on my sheet that I was mentoring somebody. I can remember desperately looking for people to mentor because I wanted to be a river, not a reservoir. But I get asked quite a bit. And every year to this point, and now I get people to want to pay me what I think is considerable dollars to mentor them, to coach them. But every year I take five people out of how many ever has asked me. And I just give of my time to mentor them because of all that I’ve received in mentoring from John and many other people. And so it’s one of those moments that there is a fee that is associated with that type of relationship that I completely say, no, no, no, no. This is my chance to pay forward what I’ve been given.

Mark Cole:
I’ve been given access to a lot of leaders, very successful leaders. Let me now give access to others as a part of my give back, as a part of my generosity in my life plan on how I want to stay generous. I’ll tell you what I want to do. Traci, thanks so much for today. I’ll tell you what I want to do. I want to make the book the 21 indispensable qualities of a leader available to you. We’ll put it in the show notes. I want you to have access to that podcast family.

Mark Cole:
We’ll put in there again. We’ve talked about this earlier, but I want to put in there the High Road leadership online course. I believe the greatest work that John has done on generosity and on really how to be a leader of great character, of great commitment, of great generosity. The three principles that we’ve talked about today, I think it’s high road leadership. John has said often over the last year, I think my greatest culture book on how to do leadership effectively, how to be a great leader, is the book High Road Leadership. And so we’ll put in there with some kind of a discount the 21 indispensable qualities of a leader as a book. But I’ll also put in there and we’ll do a 50% off or something close to that for the High Road Leadership online course. Because I think as you continue the journey you started this year on being a leader worth following, I think that your continued work on high road leadership behaviors and on the characteristics of what John says is a quality of a leader will help you on that journey.

Mark Cole:
Traci and I certainly hope that we’ve added value to you today. I’ve enjoyed this because it’s made me reflective not only on what I’ve observed from John and leaders like Traci and some of the rest of you podcast listeners that really have high qualities of a leader. It’s also put a hunger in me to go back not only in these three areas, but in other areas to become more successful. So thanks for everybody for joining us. Hey, don’t forget we talk about the bonus resource at the beginning of our show every single week. I want to remind you today what we’ve been teaching is in our bonus resource. There is an opportunity for you to follow along, make notes, put application in. And then this year we have enhanced our bonus resource with application questions.

Mark Cole:
A chance for you to take what you’ve learned and get a snapshot of what you’ve learned. And all of that is in the bonus resource. Go check that out. You can obviously again go straight to MaxwellPodcast.com/Foundation. You can get that. Hey, if you’ve not viewed us on YouTube, go make that tool available as well because that will help you. I want to finish with a listener comment. One of our listeners, his name is Scott.

Mark Cole:
He listened to the podcast what All Leaders have in Common. I remember that podcast, a great podcast. We’ll link that in the show notes as well. Here’s what Scott said. He said, this is great stuff. Thank you for sharing your insights. Thank you for sharing your experiential knowledge and wisdom alongside John Maxwell’s. Learning how to see more than others and see before others is a perfect step in that leadership journey that I’m on.

Mark Cole:
Thanks Mark. Thanks team for leading by example. Scott, thank you for leading by example by being a podcast listener. But not only a podcast listener, a podcast applier. That’s what you are. Scott, you’re taking it. You’re making your leadership better. We’re proud to be on the journey with you.

Mark Cole:
Hey, go make a difference this week because everybody around you wants a powerful positive change and everyone deserves to be led well.

Maxwell Leadership Certified Team:
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