Maxwell Leadership Podcast: The Grounded Leader

Mark Cole:

Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that is intended to add value to you. Do a leader so that you will multiply value to others, those that you influence. My name is Mark Cole, and today John Maxwell is going to teach us. He’s going to share three qualities of a grounded leader. After John’s lesson, I’m going to come back with a co host that I can authentically say is a grounded leader. Traci Morrow and I will discuss some practical ways that you can apply this lesson both to your life and to your leadership. Now, if you would like to download the bonus resource for this episode, or if you would like to watch the episode on YouTube, please visit MaxwellPodcast.com/Grounded.

Mark Cole:

Now grab a pen, grab some paper, grab your digital device. Because John Maxwell is going to teach us how to be grounded in our leadership.

John Maxwell:

The great leaders are grounded. They have a foundation that makes them solid. There is a solidness about leaders that last not shallow, solid. It dependable, strong. So I ask myself, what makes a grounded leader? What makes a leader really have both feet on the ground? Solid? An anchor. Steadfast. And as I have watched those leaders that are very grounded, it seems to me there are three qualities that they possess. And this lesson is all about those three qualities that will ground you as a leader.

John Maxwell:

I’ve always said, if you’re going to go high, it’s going to be dependent upon your foundation. We’re talking now about your foundation. Now, if you’re going to be successful, if you’re going to go high in life, it’s going to be because you are thoroughly grounded. You have a good foundation. What are those three qualities? Number one, humility. Humility is understanding your place, and it’s understanding your place in light of God and others and leaders who are graced with humility. Here’s what I want you to understand. If you have humility in your life, they are confident.

John Maxwell:

They are confident in themselves and comfortable with themselves, and they feel no need to draw attention to themselves or their status. Isn’t it interesting? When I speak and think of humility, the first thing I think of is somebody that’s confident in themselves. They’re comfortable with who they are. So many times we think humility is somehow downgrading ourselves and depreciating ourselves. I don’t think that’s what humility is. I think it’s being comfortable in your skin. I think it’s being able to see yourself in light of God, in light of others. I think it’s an everyday choice where you credit God for your blessings, where you look and credit others for your successes.

John Maxwell:

I think this describes a person that is really grounded. They know who they are. They are comfortable with who they are. I think that people that are humble have a capacity. They have a capacity for self awareness, and they have a capacity for criticism because they’re comfortable with who they are. They don’t mind people speaking into their life. They don’t mind at all having others come across and share with them ways that they could get better. My friend Rick Warren one time said, humility is not denying your strengths.

John Maxwell:

Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. I like that when you’re humble, you don’t go around and say, well, I don’t have any strengths. Everybody has strengths. But you also not only don’t deny your strengths, you’re very open about the fact and honest about the fact that you have weaknesses. And you’re comfortable with your strengths, but you’re also comfortable admitting your weaknesses. When I was writing the book on leadership Gold, I can remember, I was writing it at our condo in San Diego, and I was talking to Linda, my assistant, who’s been with me for 26 years. And on the phone, I was saying, Linda, I’m talking about a leader’s weaknesses. And what I wanted you to do for me, if you don’t mind, is over the next few days, as you think of one of my weaknesses, just put it down on a piece of paper.

John Maxwell:

In two or three days from now, we’ll get on the phone, and I want you to kind of give me a list of the weaknesses. So take some time and think about it and see if you can come know, like, six or eight of my weaknesses, because I want to put it in the book. And I remember Linda said, well, john, she said, I can do that for you now if you want me to. I said, what do you mean, now? Well, she said, I mean, if you want me to share your weaknesses. She said, here, do you have a piece of paper? Let me give them to you. Now. I don’t need three days to think about this. She says, I already know them.

John Maxwell:

In fact, she said, here comes David down the hall right now. You want me to get him to give you some, too. And I’m on the other line. I’m saying, now, you just like right now, give me my weaknesses now. You seem so ready. Oh, she says, yeah. She said, I can hardly wait. I can hardly wait.

John Maxwell:

Yeah. Here, just write them down now, said, Linda, even if you know them, can’t you say, I’ll really think about that? We just had a big laugh. You know why? We had a big laugh. She knows my mean, I love these leaders who somehow try to hide their weaknesses or say, well, you know what I mean? I just don’t let them see you flinch. Never be strong. Hello. Get a life. You realize they talk about you every day.

John Maxwell:

And a person that has humility, they’re comfortable with their weaknesses. They’re comfortable to talk about it now. They want to fix them. They want to get better, don’t they? But they don’t deny them. A person has humility. Another thing I noticed about that is that they revel in the accomplishments and the potential of others. They get real excited about your future. You know what? They get real excited about what you’re accomplishing.

John Maxwell:

Another thing about people that have humility in their life is they allow, they enable, they empower others to shine. So grounded people are humble. Number two, they are authentic. They’re authentic. And authenticity means being comfortable in your own skin. In fact, Mark Batterson, he’s a good man to read after Mark Batterson’s quote in here is one of my favorite new quotes that I’ve gotten over the last few months. Authenticity is the new authority in leadership. That’s terrific.

John Maxwell:

If you’re authentic, it carries with it a moral authority that allows you to lead in an entirely new dimension. I made some decisions that I just quickly want to give you. I made a decision very young in my life that only teach what I believe, and that was a major decision for me. That decision gave me passion. So when I would speak, I would speak with passion because the only thing I was speaking on was things that I believed. I also said, I’m only going to teach what I experience. If I haven’t experienced it, don’t think I’ll teach it. That gave me confidence, and I’m only going to teach what I live.

John Maxwell:

That gave me authenticity. The other day, I briefly mentioned the success gap. The success gap is the gap between successful people and those who are not successful. And this is a gap that happens. It happens whether a successful person wants it to happen or not. And the success question is, do you want to have fans or do you want to have friends? If you want to have fans, you’ll encourage and try to widen that success gap. If you want to have friends, you’ll do everything in your power to narrow that success gap. So let’s look at the columns and just fill in the blanks quickly.

John Maxwell:

Fans. If you want fans, you encourage the gap. If you want friends, you discourage the gap. If you want fans, you’re going to be me focused. If you want friends, you’re going to be other focused. If you want fans, you want to stay above the crowd. If you want friends, you want to walk among the crowd. If you want fans, you’re going to be concerned about your image.

John Maxwell:

If you want friends, you’re going to be concerned about integrity. People that want fans, they take themselves seriously. People that want friends, they laugh at themselves. Or my saying is, you might as well laugh at yourself. Everyone else is. So let’s review. We’re talking about the leader that is grounded, solid. The three qualities of a grounded leader.

John Maxwell:

Number one is humility, understanding your place in the light of God and Others. Number two is authenticity, being comfortable in your own skin. Number three. Number three is calling. When you have a calling, you have a purpose that is bigger than you. Now, the word calling is a mystical word, and so I want to talk about it just for a moment. First of all, I’m not sure everyone is called, okay? I’m not sure that they are. I think everyone is gifted.

John Maxwell:

I’m not sure everyone is called. But when somebody presses me to kind of define calling, I define it this way. A calling is when your purpose, your why is greater than you. If you are greater than your purpose, you don’t have a calling, you have a career. Did you get that? If you’re bigger than your purpose, you don’t have a calling, you have a career. But if your purpose is bigger than you, you’ve got a calling, you don’t have a career. And people talk to me, a lot of times they’ll say, well, talk to me about the journey in your career. And I kind of look at myself.

John Maxwell:

I don’t think I’ve ever had one calling. There’s an organization or an event that I started, I don’t know, 1415 years ago. For young leaders called Catalyst, it’s become pretty big event. It goes over the country and tens of thousands of people attended it. It’s for young leaders. And they did the survey a few years ago at Catalyst with all these young leaders, and they found that only 1% of these young leaders, these kids, said that purpose was a defining leadership quality. When I read that survey, my heart sunk, because I think purpose is the defining leadership quality. I think that the great leaders all have a why that is bigger than themselves.

John Maxwell:

I think all great leaders have a passion and a commitment that is way above where they are or who they are. I can remember as a young kid, I felt very special. I felt special because I was brought up at a home of unconditional love, no doubt. But I felt that there was something special for me to do and that I was responsible to find it and to do it. And I felt called, and I felt confirmed and affirmed in that calling, and I do to this day. So what’s my calling? I want to add value to leaders who multiply value to others. And that’s why when people ask me, am I going to retire? I look at them and say, no, I’m not going to retire. I can’t.

John Maxwell:

I don’t have a career. I have a calling. My calling is to add value to leaders. My calling is to do what I’m doing today. There’s nowhere else I would rather be than today. There’s no place else. There’s not another part of the world that I would rather be in today than right here in Orlando teaching you. There isn’t anything I’d rather be doing this than playing golf.

John Maxwell:

I’d rather be doing. This is what I love. And I love this definition of work. Work isn’t work unless you’d rather be doing something else. Is that stinking good? Work isn’t work unless you’d rather be doing something else. And can I tell you something I wouldn’t rather do? You do anything else? And so that I’m not working, I have a calling. And leaders that are grounded. Leaders are grounded.

John Maxwell:

That’s how they feel about what they do. I never find a grounded leader who’s looking and talking about, well, I’m not sure if I want to keep on doing this. And I’m thinking about quitting, and I’m just kind of tired and what do you think? Do you think I ought to continue? And whenever they ask me this stuff, I always look up and say, oh, no, you shouldn’t continue. Quit. And they’ll look at and say, what do you mean, quit? I mean quit. Stop. Don’t do it anymore. It takes them back.

John Maxwell:

And they say, wow, you were kind of quick on that, weren’t you? Well, yeah. It’s obvious to me you don’t like your job. You’re bored. Boring people are not good. So the great leaders. The great leaders are grounded. You got to be bigger on the inside than you are on the outside. You got to be solid.

John Maxwell:

You can only go high if you have the foundation.

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Mark Cole:

Hey, welcome back, everybody. If you’re viewing us on YouTube, we’re so glad that you’re here. If you’re not, come see us sometime. Leave us a comment wherever you view this or listen to it because we really do want to add value to you. I love Traci. I said this in the intro. I love watching you lead. I love watching you.

Mark Cole:

You’re incredible on the stage. You’re incredible behind the scenes as a thinker. You’re incredible as a mom. You’re incredible as a woman that knows how to lead. You’ve got all these different forces that most people have allowed to opt them out of good leadership. And I would come and say, and I know we want to talk about leadership at an application level, but how do you stay grounded?

Traci Morrow:

Oh, that is so nice. Thank you so much. I think it really comes down to the comment that he made at the very beginning and that was understanding your place. And I hope that we can settle on that a little bit and talk about that a little bit. And I would love to hear your thoughts. But when he talked about understanding your place and understanding how that aligned with who God is in my life and then how that is and how I interact with other people, that really truly is my anchor and my grounding. So that understanding who I am in light of God and how I move throughout the world in any place, I show up. And again, that sounds a little mystical.

Traci Morrow:

Hopefully we’re going to get into it a little bit more. But thank you for saying that. I think that truly is my grounding root.

Mark Cole:

This podcast. I say it every single week. This is about adding value to you, podcast listener, podcast viewer, so that you can multiply value to others. But here I go, violating that statement by saying, I just want everybody to tone out for a minute because Traci just spoke to me. Because I’m going to tell you, gang, what she just said and how she highlighted what John said, which is being grounded as a leader is all about being settled in your calling and your purpose to lead and in full disclosure now my whole mind, this whole podcast is going to be on what Traci just said. Because for 13 years I was grounded as John Maxwell’s second man. I was grounded in that unshakable confidence and unshakable settledness. It would still the most challenged times.

Mark Cole:

I now have a new dimension called ownership of leading. And I’m just listening this going, Mark Cole, you need to go back and listen. I’m in the middle of a podcast. I need to already go back and listen to it. Traci, to go, dude, I really think I just got something that has been elusive to me for three years that I’ve got to go figure out. So thank you, podcast family, for listening. See you later. See you next.

Mark Cole:

I’m just kidding, Traci, that really is powerful what you just said. Being grounded as a leader starts with being settled in your leadership, and I’m going to go work on that.

Traci Morrow:

Well, I think what he said was so powerful, if you’re going to go high in life, it’s going to be because you are thoroughly grounded. And I think that doesn’t matter whether you’re in your 50s like us or you could be a teenager listening to this. No matter where you are in your leadership journey just starting out or decades in, we can hear that with a fresh insight and analyze ourselves up to that statement to say, have I been whipped around by life’s storms that have been hitting me? And maybe it’s because my roots have been shallow and maybe I need to grow some really deep roots to identify who I really am. Because John says we see other people not as they are, but as we are. So in our leadership journey, it might be just because of how we’re viewing ourselves and really anchoring ourselves. So with that, we’re off and running.

Mark Cole:

We’re off and running.

Traci Morrow:

But what I love about when he said understanding your place, I feel like that could be for some, a triggering comment. But for me it was a grounding statement because I believe that so many people get off track with understanding their place in this world and in their leadership. And John will often quote Don Shula, Coach Don Shula, football player, by saying, it’s the start that stops most people, and I think a lot of people when they envision themselves as a leader. And I’m going to talk to you young leaders here for just a little bit, maybe when you’re starting out. I just had a conversation with my son Bradley. He’s 18. He is a senior in high school. I know that your Macy is a senior in high school, and he had a word spoken over him.

Traci Morrow:

He went away for a church retreat, and he came back and had a word spoken over him that he’s a leader. And he came back and he said to me, mom, I’m not like a typical leader because he’s introverted. And he said, I’m quiet. I’m not loud. My leadership is more introverted. It’s more quiet. And I just said to him, I think what you’re thinking of as a leader is off track. I think you’re thinking of a leader as loud and boisterous.

Traci Morrow:

And that’s not what leadership is. Remember what John says. Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. And influence can be quiet and steady. And so when you know if you’re going to go high, you need to be thoroughly grounded. I think young leaders and maybe older leaders want a higher place. They want to be higher than where they are.

Traci Morrow:

They want to be higher than others, maybe bigger than others, louder than others. Talk about, mark the conversations, maybe behind the curtain conversations you’ve had with John and maybe with yourself to those young leaders or maybe older leaders in their thirty s, forty s, fifty s, like us, who had a wrong vision about leadership. If they want to go high, they thought they had to be higher than others rather than grounding themselves in some humility that John talked about. What are some things that John has talked to you about? Humility or things that you say to yourself to really ground yourself in humility, not to go higher than others, but to come alongside of them and walk slowly through the crowd with them?

Mark Cole:

I think the way I say it, and it won’t be new to our podcast regular listeners, is you have to be bigger on the inside than the outside. There has to be this grounding. It’s why you quoted John, but he finished his teaching today with this statement. You can only go high if you have a good foundation that’s bigger on the inside than the outside. That’s this concept that you can have a perspective of leadership. And what I’ve found is leadership. Like you told your son, leadership is not about your personality, about your disposition. It’s not.

Mark Cole:

Those things accelerate your effectiveness as leaders. No doubt. We see a lot of leaders that have the woo. They have the charisma. We absolutely see that. But some of the best leaders are leaders that their voice has very rarely been heard. And I think it comes then about something much bigger than that. And that is how settled we started the whole conversation talking about that.

Mark Cole:

How strong are you on the inside? So that you can lead effectively for the longest period of time on the outside. I tell the story about when I was five years old. I loved to tell people what to do. I loved it. I really did. I loved, as the baby of five, I loved telling people what to do, and I loved it even more when they would listen. Well, that’s a five year old demonstration of wanting to use his voice to move people, to influence people. I didn’t know that.

Mark Cole:

I didn’t know that as a five year old. I didn’t know it as a ten year old, 15 year old. It was 18 years old. I read the book developing the leader within you, and I went, oh, I like leadership. I want to be a leadeR. And then I went through life circumstances, as we’ve all talked about many times on the podcast. And then I come into John’s organization saying, I want nothing to do with leadership. Thank you very much.

Mark Cole:

Made two vows, Traci. I don’t want to lead ever again. I don’t want to lead people. I lost my one chance to do that, and I don’t want a significant relationship again. I don’t qualify for those anymore. And I swore those two things off. And this environment actually just uncovered the gift that was in me that still needed to be let out, and that is to lead. But leadership can take different manifestations, different expressions, and then we get off track with our leader again.

Mark Cole:

And so to your son, to me, to everyone listening, you do have to be settled in what your leadership should look like and make sure that comes from a source within and not affirmation without. You must be a bigger leader on the inside. In other words, how do you want people to respect you? You need to respect yourself more in that area, and you need to do whatever it takes to become respectable to yourself in that area. Is it in decision making? Is it in communication? Is it in running multimillion dollar companies? Whatever it is, you got to be bigger on the inside in that belief than the outside. Because if you source your certainty externally, there’s way too many factors that will cause you to be shaky somewhere down the road. Source your certainty on the inside, on the type of leader and the function or the expression of that leadership. And when you do that, you will have this calmness that we so adore in John Maxwell.

Traci Morrow:

So good that was for you, Bradley, because I’m certainly going to have him listen. Thank you for speaking to my son, but also to those of you who are parents of budding leaders who, you know, your child is a leader, whether they are in high school or college or just coming out into their career or into their calling, or you’re that person yourself. I hope you are listening to this and sharing this episode with someone who needs to hear this, because I know that they need to hear this. Okay. So number two was authenticity, and that was a great one. I want to get to number three because our time is short, but I do want to just highlight the fact that list. I hope you print out our bonus resource because John gives a list of fans and friends. In today’s language, that might be followers and friends with social media.

Traci Morrow:

But, gosh, if you just look. Print it out sometimes. For those of you who are visual, if you see the difference between the list of fans and friends or followers and friends, social media sets us up and encourages the gap, encourages the gap for us to have fans or followers rather than friends. And take it from our mentor, John Maxwell, to go for the list of friends rather than fans and followers. So I just wanted to highlight that for those of you who are listening. So, number three, he talks about something so powerful that I think was maybe for some of our listeners, is going to be a little bit of a mind blow. If you’re bigger than your purpose, that’s a career. If your purpose is bigger than you, that is a calling.

Traci Morrow:

So I’m curious, Mark, what would you tell us is your calling? Because John shares us what his calling is, to add value to leaders who multiply value to others. What is Mark Cole’s calling? And then the second follow up question to that, once you share that with us, is, were you ever pursuing a career that turned into a calling, or were you somebody? Because I can’t help but think our listeners might be listening and thinking, oh, shoot, I’m in a career. What if I’m not in a calling? Did you pursue a career that turned into a calling, or you stumbled upon it, or were you always pursuing a calling?

Mark Cole:

Yeah. So first, let me say this about calling because you guys know this confusing, maybe. Yeah. John said this on the podcast that often people mystify the idea of a calling. And let me just kind of, again, debunk that for just a moment. John and I have a strong persuasion to our leadership lens that’s Founded in our faith. And so many of you know that many of you feel the same way as we do, but yet you wasn’t pastor’s kids like John and I, who heard this stuff all the time. So I grew up calling, calling, what’s your calling, calling.

Mark Cole:

I never heard somebody say, what’s your purpose? What’s your purpose? What were you here for? Because we framed it in calling. And so first, let me demystify the fact that when John says calling have a purpose bigger than you, he really says this. Every one of us was designed to be bigger for the world than what the world is for us. In other words, leave more in the world when you leave than you take. While you’re here, there’s something in each one of us. We believe this for our faith, people. We believe it’s placed in us by God. For those of you that have a different kind of persuasion, it’s your sense of purpose on the earth.

Mark Cole:

Why do you want to leave the Earth better than when you take it? Every one of us have a desire, a purpose, a calling to be about something bigger than ourselves. It’s in us. So now that I’ve kind of framed that, let me come back, and I’m going to keep using the word calling because that’s what John used in the lesson, but just kind of demystify it for me, all of you podcast listeners, it’s kind of your purpose. It’s your sense of contributing more than you take. And for me, Traci, coming back, I knew my life purpose at 33. I was designed to motivate and inspire people to reach their full potential. I was designed, I was placed here on Earth to help people reach their full potential, to motivate them, inspire them to reach that potential. That was a gift to me.

Mark Cole:

But that purpose statement, Traci, went back and made sense of everything that had happened in my life. It gave a proper perspective to the places where I had misstepped and got away from my center. It gave me clarity for the things that I had done well and went, ah, that’s why that felt so fulfilling. And it gave meaning to the lessons that I learned. When at 33, I found my purpose statement. So it was always in me. But see, at 30, I was given the opportunity to have a crystallized calling that was in proximity to John. But it wasn’t until literally, let’s see, this would have been 13 years ago.

Mark Cole:

So at 40, at 40, I was able to tell you that I was placed here on Earth to be available and approximate to John so that the influence of this brand will forever continue growing and impacting others. So when it was time to start a podcast, I went, absolutely. It’s going to let me use my experience and my influence to impact literally now, 40 million people, 40 million downloads. It was an easy decision. I didn’t do it because there was going to be 40 million downloads. I would have done it if there would have been two downloads, because it was an ability to have an expression of what I’ve been given John Maxwell’s influence in my life to motivate and inspire others. See, when we mystify calling and we wait for some buzword, rather than chasing the things that fulfill us, that actually benefits others, not chasing the things that fulfill us, that benefits ourselves, that’s a drive, that’s a sense of accomplishment. A sense of significance is when we do things that fulfill us, that benefit others.

Mark Cole:

And I can honestly say I’m very clear on my calling. My calling is a guide, to me, that makes sense of the past, gives clarity to the future, and gives hope for the. I’m sorry. Gives clarity to the present and gives hope to the future. That’s because living in my calling will allow me to finish my life, leaving it all on the field and making a difference for others.

Traci Morrow:

What did you say about something to the past? I’m writing that down in case they.

Mark Cole:

My calling, my life purpose, it actually makes sense of the past. It gives clarity on the things that I made a mistake on, a blunder on. It gives clarity to the present and it gives hope to the future.

Traci Morrow:

So make sense of the past, clarity to the present, and hope to the future. That is so good. Okay, so we are at our time limit, but I just wanted to wrap up. So if somebody is listening to us and they are discovering that they’re maybe in their career and they might be a little bit disappointed. One time, I just wanted to share with you all, I spoke with John and know what? If somebody is feeling like they don’t maybe have something that Mark just described or that John described, where they don’t feel like they’ve found a calling yet or something where they feel like they’re designed for something that feels bigger than them yet. And I just wanted to share one time what John shared with me, and that was he said, and maybe you can expand on this, Mark. He just said, well, then continue to do know creating your career, continue to pursue your career, and maybe find someone else who has found their calling and come alongside of them and be a part of that, maybe alongside of your career. So someone who you get excited about what they’re doing, and that’s maybe what we’re doing here through Maxwell leadership, being a part of the podcast, and maybe coming alongside through our coaching, through the Maxwell Leadership Certified coaching, and what we’re doing through transformation in other countries, coming alongside of what John and now Mark is championing through transformation, through these values, and through helping other leaders kind of multiply value to others, coming alongside of that calling and being a part of that.

Traci Morrow:

It doesn’t have to start with you, right, Mark? Like, it doesn’t have to originate in your own mind. It can be something that’s already happening, and you can join in as a part of it and be a part of a legacy of a calling of somebody else, of John Maxwell, of Mark Cole’s calling and being a part of that.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. For years, I told you that I was 30 before I would have given you a purpose statement why I was placed on this earth. It was 40 before I could give you a significant statement. My calling. My calling was availability and proximity to John. Because what happened is, when I connected with John, it became a multiplier of my purpose, which was to motivate and inspire pEople. I can motivate and inspire people on my own, and I did for 30 years. But when I joined with somebody bigger, better, faster, dreaming more than me, the exponential rate of fulfillment to my purpose statement became a reality.

Mark Cole:

And too many times, Us leaders put pressure on, I’ve got to have my own vision statement. I got to have my own purpose statement. I got to have my own calling. And yet most of us, most of us, not some of us, not half of us, most of us was designed to be a team player to somebody else’s vision. And that doesn’t mean I don’t have vision. I have a lot of it. But my vision is fulfilled exponentially by joining somebody with a bigger span and a bigger ability to impact the world around them and leaders, that doesn’t sell me short. That actually sells me long.

Mark Cole:

I have greater influence because somewhere along the way, I picked up. I don’t have to be the man or the visionary or the leader to be able to have a calling that is bigger than. So, Traci, I mean, good grief, I want to talk about this so much. Know, when we look at this podcast, and we now are into millions and millions and hundreds of thousands that download each and every week, and I never lose that one because I’m designed to motivate and inspire people to reach their full potential. And that doesn’t mean en masse, it happens in Mass. But I never forget that person. I’m really impacted by Charles from Northern Uganda today. He listens to Us Weekly from Uganda, and here we are.

Mark Cole:

You’re in your place in Colorado. I’m in my place here in Atlanta. And yet, Charles, you’re in Uganda, and somehow we have come together under the vision of John Maxwell to impact one another, and that is significance. This is what Charles said, and we love these listener comments, he said. I’m really blessed by this podcast. When you discussed the difference between the first six months of leadership and after six months of leadership, it blew my mind, he said. I can confirm while leading a team of 28 people in my organization for more than three years, I have seen these truths come true. The team really truly treasures my leadership.

Mark Cole:

I have been following the podcast and sharing from 2018 to current. Your challenge is certainly my challenge now. Thank you Charles. We love having you on the team. We do this to bring powerful, positive change to the world because everyone, even in Northern Uganda, deserves to be led well.