The Growability Podcast

In Growability® Podcast Season 3, Episode 070, Bernie Anderson and Joshua MacLeod introduce the Growability Business Collaborative—an 18-month program designed to empower business and nonprofit leaders with essential tools for growth and stability. They discuss the “Business Pasta” approach (Perspective, Assessment, Strategy, Tools, and Action Steps), guiding leaders to improve their vision, systems, and team empowerment. Joshua highlights why consistent learning, peer feedback, and expert counsel are vital to effective leadership. Whether you’re a coach, high-capacity leader, or an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode shares why investing in growth and community can make work more enjoyable, balanced, and sustainable. Tune in to discover practical insights, explore the 5 critical ingredients for thriving organizations, and find out how Growability can enhance your leadership journey! The post What is the Growability Collaborative? first appeared on Growability.

In this episode of the Growability® Podcast (Season 3, Episode 003), we introduce executive coach Jonathan Sims as he shares valuable lessons from his leadership journey, starting from a pivotal experience in Zambia. Inspired by a doctor who empowered communities through leadership training, Jonathan’s path led him to focus on equipping leaders. He discusses his work in Tanzania, helping church leaders create sustainable businesses, and how coaching can support organizational growth. The episode highlights the importance of tools, training, and motivation in coaching. Jonathan emphasizes that coaching goes beyond providing information—it equips leaders to bring lasting impact through systems and practical wisdom. The post Growability Coach Interview with Jonathan Sims first appeared on Growability.

In this episode of the Growability® Podcast (Season 3, Episode 002), we introduce the Growability Field of Business tool to help business coaches and nonprofit leaders assess their market viability. Designed for business coaches working with high-capacity leaders, this episode provides clarity on how to ask the right questions to ensure business success. Join Bernie Anderson and Growability founder Joshua MacLeod as they reveal three critical questions every leader should ask about their organization: What problem do you overcome or opportunity do you provide? Where does 80% of your profit or financial support come from? What is your obvious advantage? Discover practical insights and wisdom principles to guide leaders in refining their business strategy. Perfect for anyone looking to scale, lead with purpose, and improve organizational maturity. Be sure to like, subscribe, and grab your copy of the Growability Toolkit, a 164-page resource for business owners, available for $250. The post The Top 3 Questions Every Coach Should Ask A Business Or Nonprofit Leader! The Growability Field of Business Toolkit first appeared on Growability.

Welcome to Season 3 of the Growability® Podcast! In Episode 1, we’re tackling a key question for aspiring business coaches and consultants: How do you know if you’re qualified? Join hosts Bernie Anderson and Joshua MacLeod as they discuss the three fundamentals for successful coaching: 1. Your time must be worth money. 2. Focus on transformation, not transactions. 3. You must be able to start your own fire. Joshua shares personal insights from over two decades of coaching, including why coaching is more of a calling than a career, and how to manage the mental lift required to help high-capacity leaders. Whether you’re a coach, thinking of becoming one, or have hired a coach, this episode offers valuable wisdom and practical advice. Don’t miss out on this powerful discussion! Key Scriptures: Proverbs 20:5, Proverbs 15:22, Proverbs 21:5 Be sure to like, subscribe, and share with those looking to grow as coaches and leaders!     #Growability #BusinessCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #CoachingQualificationsThe post Are you qualified to be a business coach or consultant? first appeared on Growability.

This podcast shares the fundamental tools to equip managers to build great culture and effectiveness with their teams. This Podcast helps answer the following questions: How do I build an organizational chart? How do I create reviews for my team members? How do I create a Job Description? How do I create standard operating procedures? How do I create a team member self-reviews? The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow scalable, effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post Growability Step 6 – How to Equip Managers first appeared on Growability.

This podcast shares the fundamental ingredients for creating an effective strategic plan for your business or nonprofit. This Podcast helps answer the following questions: How do I set goals for my business? When should I prune my business? How do I choose good vendors for my business? How much effort should it take to create a strategic plan? How do I create effective habits in my business? How do I know where to focus in my business?   The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow scalable, effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post Growability Step 5 – How to Implement Strategy first appeared on Growability.

Automating Sales is the 4th Step in the Growability Six Step Business Operating System. Does your business have a great sales strategy? This Podcast helps answer the following questions: What is the best way to pitch a product or service? What are the keys to good networking? How should I prepare to sell each week? What should I measure via sales? The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow scalable, effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post Growability Step 4 – How to Automate Sales first appeared on Growability.

Empowering Teamwork is the 3rd Step in the Growability Six-Step Business Operating System. How many of these seven steps do you apply at your organization? This Podcast helps answer the following questions: How do I build an effective team? What are the minimal ingredients for time and project management that every team member should adhere to? How does your team limit or empower your growth as an organization? Where should you draw the line between being a nice person and being an effective coach? What do people typically misunderstand about teamwork? The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow scalable, effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post Growablity Step 3 – How to Empower Teamwork first appeared on Growability.

Growability Podcast Episode 62 – How to Develop Better Team Relationships at Work With The DISC Personality Profile What do I do when my team is driving me crazy at work? This episode not only gives an overview of the DISC Personality Profile but also shares important insights about the primary question and core values for each personality type. D – Dominant Key Question – What does winning look like? Core Value – Respect I – Influencing Key Question – What does fun look like? Core Value – Freedom S – Steady Key Question – What does balance look like? Core Value – Consideration C – Conscientious Key Question – What does reliability look like? Core Value – Safety The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod. The post How to Develop Better Team Relationships at Work With The DISC Personality Profile first appeared on Growability.

Growability Podcast Episode 61 – What every business or nonprofit leader should know about marketing! Ever wondered what marketing agencies think about when they design marketing campaigns? This podcast gives insider information that every business or nonprofit leader should understand about marketing! This episode explains Step 2 in the Growability Business Operating System – Prioritize Customers with 5 tools to help every leader create effective marketing. The Five Steps to Prioritize Marketing and create effective marketing are as follows: Customer Personas Company Story Brand and Marketing Posture Website & Social Strategy B-A-T-C-H Marketing Questions answered: How can I better understand my customer needs? What is marketing? How do you create marketing that works? How much should I spend on marketing? Why is understanding customer mindset so important? The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow scalable, effective, and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post Growability Step 2 – How to Prioritize Customers With Great Marketing first appeared on Growability.

How clear is the vision for your business? Is your team inspired by where your organization is headed? This podcast shares the first step in the six-step Growability Business Operating System. Clarify Vision! The Six Steps to Clarify Organizational Vision include: Business Season Market & Competitor Analysis Competitive Advantages Purpose Vision Mission Value Statements Community Impact Strategy Mission Map This podcast helps answer the following questions: Why Is vision important to my business? Do I really need a vision, mission, or values statement? How do I make a vision statement that’s actually useful? What is the most straightforward way to clarify vision? How does clarified vision help my team and the bottom line? The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow scalable, effective, and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post Growability Step 1 – Clarify Vision first appeared on Growability.

This podcast discusses the fundamental importance of having a business operating system with practical steps to implement a business operating system at your business or nonprofit. Should I have a formal system to run my business? How do I discover what I’m doing wrong at my business? Why is my team unhappy? The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod.The post What is a Business Operating System and Why Does a Business or Nonprofit Organization Need One? first appeared on Growability.

This Podcast episode shares the six necessary steps to bring an organization to scale. The Growability Podcast is designed to equip leaders and entrepreneurs to grow effective and generous organizations. Hosted by Bernie Anderson and the founder of Growability Joshua MacLeod. The post How to Scale – The Growability Six Fundamental Steps to Scale a Business or Non-profit organization first appeared on Growability.

Do you have the discipline necessary to be a good time manager? What if it was easier than you thought? This episode marks the beginning of our new series on Time Management. The post EP57 – Effective Strategies for Time Management – Part 1 first appeared on Growability.

Do you have a great CPA for your business? Today’s special guest Tina McGill is a certified public accountant that gives some incredible advice about finding the right CPA for your organization. The post EP56 – Finding the Right CPA for Your Organization first appeared on Growability.

Should a nonprofit run like a business? Today’s episode discusses the common challenges nonprofit organizations face with practical advice on maximizing impact. The post EP55 – Should a Nonprofit Run Like a Business? first appeared on Growability.

How do you overcome anxiety at work? Today’s episode talks about a common challenge for every leader. How to overcome anxiety in business and nonprofit work. The post EP54 – How to Overcome Anxiety At Work first appeared on Growability.

In part 1 of this series, we learned that good business owners have happy customers and a happy team. Today, in part 2, we discover two more ways to know if you are running your business well. A happy wallet and a happy soul! The post EP53 – Are You a Good Business Owner, Part 2 first appeared on Growability.

How can you tell if you are a good business owner? Do you have a happy customer, a happy team, and a happy wallet? What about a happy soul? The post EP52 – Are You a Good Business Owner, Part 1 first appeared on Growability.

Are you in the right career for your strengths, passions, and value add for others? Today’s episode features a very special guest Will Gray, founder of Vocationality. Let’s listen to this conversation about staying in your current career, or moving into your next season. Visit vocationality.com for your free career checkup. The post EP51 – Are You In the Right Career? first appeared on Growability.

Are you a part of a toxic work environment? Today’s episode talks about how leaders can overcome toxic work environments by creating a safe space, a grace space and second place. The post EP50 – How Leaders Can Overcome Toxic Work Environments first appeared on Growability.

Are you ready for retirement? This episode shares the fundamental ingredients necessary for a healthy retirement plan. Contact Jimmy Woods: Wealth Legacy Planners (615) 267-0036 The post EP49 Healthy Retirement Plan Fundamentals first appeared on Growability.

Is your marketing full of gimmicks or is it built on a comprehensive plan? Today’s episode shares the key ingredients for effective marketing. This is the final step in the 12-step Growability model. The post EP48 – The Key Ingredients for Effective Marketing first appeared on Growability.

Do you have key performance indicators in your business? Today’s episode shares the critical 11th step in the 12-step Growability model, measurement. The post EP47 Key Performance Indicators first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode is the conclusion of our two-part series about time management. In this session, we learn how to delete, do, and delegate. The post EP46 – How to Manage Time Effectively (Part 2) first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode is the first in a two-part series about time management. We talk about the tenth step of the Growability model, how to maximize time. The post EP45 – How to Manage Time Effectively (Part 1) first appeared on Growability.

In today’s episode, we talk about the ninth step of the Growability model, creating good systems for your business. The post EP44 – How to Create Systems for Nonprofit Organizations first appeared on Growability.

In today’s episode, we talk about the eighth step of the Growability model, pruning. Listen in to see if there are areas of your organization that need to be pruned. The post EP43 – 5 Things You Should Prune From Your Business first appeared on Growability.

In today’s episode, we continue our talk about the seventh step of the Growability model, by sharing how to build a sales funnel for your business. The post EP42 – Building a Sales Funnel for Your Business first appeared on Growability.

In today’s episode, we talk about the seventh step of the Growability model, building community. What are 5 key areas in the community that your business should focus on? The post EP41 – 5 Key Areas to Focus on in Your Business first appeared on Growability.

In today’s episode, we continue our talk about the sixth step of the Growability model about how to maximize a budget for your business. The post EP40 – How to Maximize a Budget first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the fifth step of the Growability model, showing you how to create quarterly, yearly and three-year business goals. The post EP39 – How to Create Useful Budgets For Your Business first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the fifth step of the Growability model showing you how to create quarterly, yearly and three-year business goals. The post EP38 Setting Business Goals first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode continues with the fourth step of the Growability model by sharing 4 things that great managers can do to be a better coach. The post EP37 Four Things Great Managers Can Do to Be a Better Coach first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode continues with the fourth step of the Growability model by sharing the 3 types of managers who will destroy your business. The post EP36 3 Managers Who Will Destroy Your Business first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the key ingredients in an exceptional job description. Podcast Transcript: Joshua MacLeod: Entrepreneurs have a superpower in “just figure it out and get stuff done” that the majority of team members do not have. Bernie Anderson: So true. Joshua MacLeod: If your team members don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to do, and I mean exactly what they’re supposed to do, they are never going to achieve the highest potential that they have at your organization and they’re never going to help your organization achieve full potential. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the growability podcast, your home for leadership, management, and marketing education, where we teach business and nonprofit leaders how to flourish in life and work. Today’s episode continues with the fourth step of the growability model by sharing how to create an exceptional job description. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: We could talk about team building for a very long time, because there’s a lot here. I used to work for a big international nonprofit organization. I was a fundraiser. Here was my issue. I went for five years almost and never got a raise. Never knew if I was doing a good job or not. How does an organization let the team know how they’re doing? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. The first thing that comes to my mind is that is terrible management. Bernie Anderson: It was horrible management. I agree. Joshua MacLeod: My first transition into leadership and management, my father-in-law taught me something that has stuck with me, and I’ve taught it now to hundreds of entrepreneurs and leaders. Every single person in every company in every position has three big questions in the back of their mind. The first question is, “What is in this for me?” The second question is, “What is expected of me?” The third question is, “Where do I stand?” Joshua MacLeod: The first question is really about incentive. What is in this for me? So what was the incentive? I just want to ask, what was the incentive for you working at this job? Why’d you stay there even though it just wasn’t just getting better? Bernie Anderson: Right. Yeah, that’s a good question. I think it was two things, Joshua. I think I stayed there, one, because of security, because it felt secure. So I had benefits. But then there was also a fair amount of freedom. I worked from home. There was travel involved. So I think stability benefits and freedom were probably the things that kept me being like, “Ah, I’d like to make a little more money, but I kind of like these other things, and let’s not rock the boat.” Joshua MacLeod: So that’s why people stay at work. There are three primary elements to incentive when you are at a job. The way that I like to categorize those three elements is use three Bs. So the first B is your base salary. What is the amount of money that you’re going to make? It’s your base. The second is the benefits. There could be medical benefits. There could be freedom benefits, time benefits. Then the third is the bonuses. Joshua MacLeod: So if you go to that same company today and you’re interviewing for the job, there’s three things you should ask as a potential employee of this company. The first is, “Okay. What’s the base pay?” Then the second is, “What are the benefits?” Then the third is, “Are there any bonuses? What’s the bonus structure?” Bernie Anderson: I think that’s good to understand, the base pay benefits, bonuses. Having that clear on the front end is just critical. Joshua MacLeod: The second thing that is critical for a job description is the expectations. If your team members don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to do, and I mean exactly what they’re supposed to do, they are never going to achieve the highest potential that they have at your organization and they’re never going to help your organization achieve full potential. Entrepreneurs have a superpower in “just figure it out and get stuff done” that the majority of team members do not have. Bernie Anderson: So true. Joshua MacLeod: I mean, 85% of team members do not have. So a lot of times, you have an entrepreneurial boss who’s part of this 15% of the population that just figures that stuff out. They don’t need a job description to know exactly what to do. They’re just going to figure it out. Then they hire some managers who are part of this 15% of the population that don’t need a job description that can just figure it out to make stuff done. Then they all get frustrated when the 85% of the population says, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: “I can’t do what I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, and I’m kind of standing here, feeling stupid, because I just don’t know what to do.” Bernie Anderson: What you just said is what I have in the back of my head every time I hear an employer, and I hear this a lot. You probably do, too. “Oh, you just can’t find good help. You just can’t find people that’ll come and work for you.” It’s like, “Oh, yeah, you can.” Joshua MacLeod: Yes. Bernie Anderson: “There’s lots of people. It’s on you to make sure they know what it is that you want them to do.” Joshua MacLeod: It is fundamentally the employer’s job to, A, give every single employee a good base, a good benefit, a good bonus, but now the second thing that is fundamentally critical for every employer is to provide very clear expectations. For expectations, you have three Ts. The first is the tasks. What are the tasks? Exactly what are the tasks that you are supposed to be able to do? The second is the time. How much time are you expected to put into accomplishing tasks? Then the third thing is the target outputs. What will be the fruit of this employee working on tasks and spending time to do that? Let’s break those down. Tasks are things that you can do in one sitting. A task is not build a website. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: Build a website is a project. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: The entrepreneur wants to hire the employee with projects in mind. “I need somebody that can build websites.” Employees get in, and they are lost because they don’t have it broken down into tasks that they can do. It’s not just, “Are you good at social media?” This is something that so many business owners do. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: They see a 16-year-old kid- Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: … that’s on their phone, and they’re like, “Oh, they must be good at social media. I’m going to hire them to do my social media.” What are you basing that they’re good on social media as, that they’re addicted to their phone? Bernie Anderson: They can scroll. Joshua MacLeod: They can scroll. Yeah. “Your scrolling is fantastic.” So now you’re going to let them run your social media? Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: Using social media does not make you good at social media. Bernie Anderson: No, no. Joshua MacLeod: So I’ve got to look at, “Okay, what is the education? What’s the experience? What are the technical requirements? What does a person need to do to do the tasks?” The second thing is the time. Some employers are totally fine if you’re five minutes late. Some employers are going to have a heart attack if you’re five minutes late. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: So what are the time requirements? You’ve got the task requirements. Then you’ve got the time requirements. Finally, you have your target outputs. How many boxes should you be getting out in a week, or how many boxes should you be getting out in a day? If I don’t as the employer have defined for my team member what the expectation is for their job, often what will happen is they become indifferent or they go look to somewhere that actually can set some clear expectations. What are the task requirements, what are the time requirements, and then what are the target outputs? Bernie Anderson: Having clear task time and targets, it’s critical, and if you don’t, you’re going to have a lot of people not performing. Right. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Okay. So the third thing then is accountability. Accountability, I like to use three Cs, communication, collaboration, and candor. Let’s start with candor. My boss isn’t giving me feedback about the performance that I’m giving at my job. If I don’t get any feedback, my assumption is if I’m 99% of the population, I’m doing okay, but there’s something wrong. Bernie Anderson: That is 100% true. Joshua MacLeod: If I feel about myself that I’m doing okay, then the energy that I spend every day is enough to do okay. If I feel like I’m doing great, then the energy that I spend every day is to do great. Feedback is fundamental towards health and growth and maturity and helping people grow in their organization. This is a huge, huge problem. You went four years without a review. That means basically that either they were the happiest people in the world and just immature or there was something that they could have told you about and addressed that you would’ve fixed. Bernie Anderson: Right, right. Joshua MacLeod: Instead you gave four okay years. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: That’s terrible. I mean, that’s just- Bernie Anderson: Yeah, no, 100%. Well, and what you just said is 100% true, because there was always this sense. I remember feeling this, and you described it perfectly, of, “I’m doing okay, but probably doing some things wrong.” The space that puts you in, it feels like you’re walking on eggshells. It feels like, “I’m probably on not super thin ice, but maybe a little bit of thin ice. I might break through it. I’ve just got to be careful how I navigate it.” It feels very political, and it’s just not a healthy way for a team member to function. It’s just not. Joshua MacLeod: It’s not at all. So the antidote, the thing to do as a boss is to be very candid, which is to say exactly the truth, but not in a way that is just harsh or mean and not in a way that is fake, but in a way that is actually just true. “I’m a little disappointed that you only got out eight boxes this past week. I feel like you have the potential to get out 20 boxes. I’m not sure what’s going on here.” So there you go. Now, that feedback is so much better than you walk in, you’re talking to the person, and they’re just kind of like … don’t say anything, but I get the little shifty look like, “Hmm.” Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: If you’re given the shifty look because that you think they should get 20 boxes out and they only get eight, tell them, “You should have got 20 boxes out, and you only got eight.” Bernie Anderson: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: So candor is really, really critical. The next is communication. Don’t expect your team member to know what’s going on in the whole business if you’re not communicating what’s going on in the whole business. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: We institute almost always at Growability, if we can convince our clients to do this, you’ve got to have a weekly meeting where everybody’s in the same room for an hour. Communication is just critical. Are you communicating with your team members every day? Do you have daily meetings? Do you have weekly meetings? Do you have meeting templates? I’ve become convinced that you should never have a meeting without a meeting template, because otherwise it’s going to be whoever’s the talker in the room’s going to talk all the time. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Yep. Joshua MacLeod: Whoever’s the smartest person that doesn’t say anything is just going to sit there, and then at the end of the thing, the sole result of the meeting will be that you schedule another meeting. When you have a meeting template, every meeting has a, “Here’s where we’re trying to get. This is our timeframe. This is how long we get here.” So never have a meeting without a meeting template, but does your organization have good meetings? Are there regular meetings? Joshua MacLeod: So you have communication, and then finally there’s collaboration. Collaboration is where everybody understands that part of their job is working well with others. It’s basically kindergarten again. “Hey.” Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Joshua MacLeod: “Bob, this is Sue. Sue, this is Bob. You guys have to work together.” If Sue doesn’t put away the blocks, then Bob has to put away all the blocks, and then Bob gets sad. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Don’t make Bob sad. Joshua MacLeod: Don’t make Bob sad. So when I’m interviewing someone, I’m thinking about this person, but the biggest question in the back of my mind is, “How well is this person going to interact with all of the other people that are in this organization?” So in summary of all of these three things, if you were going to create a job description for a team member, you have to cover incentive, expectations, and accountability. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: With incentives, you have your base pay, your benefits, and your bonuses. With expectations, you have your tasks, your time, and your targets. With accountability, you have communication, collaboration, and candor. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: If you cover those areas, then you have created an exceptional job description. If you’re going to get consultation for something really important in your business or anything in your business, get consultation for your job descriptions, because you have to answer a whole lot of questions to make really impactful and important job descriptions. Bernie Anderson: Yep, yep. I am prepping today for a consultation this evening on this very subject. So this is great. This is part of my prep time. So yeah. Joshua MacLeod: We do want to remind everyone that you are doing better than you think and that you have more potential than you know, and we are thankful and appreciate you growing with Growability. Have a great week. We’ll see you next week. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover more ways to flourish in your life and work, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops, and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support. Please consider sponsoring an episode or sharing with a friend.  The post EP35 – How to Create an Exceptional Job Description first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the primary roles of a C-Suite and provides advice in building a really great team. Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: I built a career on the fact that really exceptional people are willing to share what they’ve learned and what they know if you ask them politely and/or pay them money. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, your home for leadership, management, and marketing education, where we teach business and nonprofit leaders the necessary habits to make your organization thrive. Today’s episode shares key concepts in the fourth step of the Growability model, how to empower teamwork by recognizing innovators, equippers, and achievers. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod, and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: Here’s my question today, Joshua, and it’s a big one. How do we build a great team? Joshua MacLeod: Let me ask you this question, Bernie. What do all of these organizations have in common? Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, Google, the Walt Disney Company, and Mattel. What do all of those organizations have in common? You could probably come up with a bunch of things. Bernie Anderson: Probably come up… They’re big, they’re creative, profitable. And… Joshua MacLeod: And they all started in a garage. So when Apple and Hewlett Packard and Amazon and Google started in a garage, somebody in there had vision, “Hey, this is the change that can be, this is where we’re going to go.” Somebody in there had rhythm, “Hey, I’m going to show up and I’m going to work in this garage 10 hours a day for 40 hours a week or 50 hours a week or 60 hours a week.” And somebody in there had community, “Hey, you know what? I can get my buddy to connect on this. I can get a friend to work on this. Maybe we can hire somebody. I’ll be good at hiring people. We can sell some product, I’ll get our first customer.” Joshua MacLeod: So when you launch an organization, you need vision, rhythm, and community. The first thing you do when you build a great team is you ask yourself, “Okay, who is the primary engine for vision? Who is the primary engine for rhythm? Who is the primary engine for community?” If you are a solopreneur… You are. You are the answer for all of those things. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: You are the vision, you are the rhythm, you are the community. What we’ve done in our society is we put some big, fancy words on vision, rhythm and community. The vision word we call CEO or chief executive officer. They’re the person that is responsible for making sure that the organization is headed in the right direction and actually meeting objectives and staying profitable and doing the right thing. The person that’s responsible for rhythm, the habits, the systems, the processes, we call them the COO, the chief operating officer. They are responsible, not necessarily for creating the priorities and goals, although they may, but their primary job is to convert those priorities and goals into steps and tasks. So we’re going to go take this hill, that’s the CEO. Here’s the best way that we’re going to take that hill, that’s the COO so that the COO converts the priorities and goals into steps and tasks. And then you have community. This is known as the CMO or chief marketing officer. This is the person that is saying, “Hey, I can go get us customers. I can sell this. We can actually make this thing work.” Joshua MacLeod: So I’ve got the CEO, the COO, and the CMO that we’ve discussed. Bernie, who would you say is the next two key roles that you need in any business? Bernie Anderson: Well, you got to have someone taking care of the money. Joshua MacLeod: CFO. So the CFO- Bernie Anderson: There you go. Yep. Joshua MacLeod: … That’s right. The CFO is the chief financial officer. This is the person that is handling the money. Do you have a bank account? Is your bank account separate from your personal account? Do you actually know the word account means, do you know where all the money is going? Can you give an account for how much it costs to make these widgets. Joshua MacLeod: And then the final role, what would you say then is the final role? Bernie Anderson: I would say that would be the person that has to take care of all of the things that are all of your products, all of your teams, all of your managers, I would say would be the next kind of- Joshua MacLeod: That’s it. Bernie Anderson: … Yep. Joshua MacLeod: Exactly. The person who has to take care of all the things. This is actually the people that do all the work. Bernie Anderson: Exactly. Joshua MacLeod: So the final key role in any business, you got your CEO, your COO, your CFO, your CMO, but now I actually have to have people that are going to do the work. Bernie Anderson: A lot of times, I think people think that the C-suite folks are, they’re the leadership, of course, they’re the leadership, right? They’re the ones that are running and everybody’s like, “Oh, C-suite, what’s happening behind these closed doors here.” And it’s like this big mystery, but I think it’s important to remember from a leadership perspective that a good C-suite is actually empowering the managers to lead. Leading leaders, your managers should be people who are leading, are leading teams, they’re leading product lines, they’re leading… Really a C-suite is a leader of leaders, but they need to empower those leaders to actually lead. Joshua MacLeod: Yes. Bernie Anderson: I think ineffective C-suites are going to really- Joshua MacLeod: You won’t have many. Bernie Anderson: … Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: You won’t have many because the organization goes out of business so quick. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, that’s right. Joshua MacLeod: If your organization stays in business and you don’t become one of the statistics of the 8 out of 10 small businesses that fail, your C-suite is actually doing a good job. You might not think they’re doing a good job. If you work at their company, you might think, “They’re just a bunch of idiots that don’t really care about anything.” Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: If you’re in business, they’re doing a good job. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, that’s right. Joshua MacLeod: They’re working their butt off, they’re keeping the payroll happening, they’re keeping the thing up be built. Traditionally, if you look at an org chart, the org chart looks like here’s the CEO at the top and then it branches off into these other positions and then it branches down. Really, I think whoever designed the org chart in the first place should have flipped that thing upside down. Because when you talk about support and supporting people in an organization, the person at the bottom is the one that the whole weight of responsibility for the organization rests down on that person. Bernie Anderson: Exactly. Joshua MacLeod: The CEO, they’re the one that bears the weight of responsibility for will our product work and flourish in the marketplace? The COO is responsible for the fact, are our systems and process is good enough to give people jobs and to keep people in jobs and to create profit? The CFO, they’re responsible to make sure that we’re paying all of our bills on time and the government isn’t going to sue us because we did something stupid with taxes. The chief marketing officer, they bear the responsibility of is our message the right thing, or the activities that we do out in the marketplace. So when you think about your C-suite as those master equippers, like you were talking about, they equip everybody over them to accomplish and produce their job better. Joshua MacLeod: So I’m a CEO of an organization. I forget that sometimes. I get frustrated with, why aren’t they doing this stuff? Well, the answer is because you haven’t equipped them to do the stuff. So if you give them the tools, then they’re going to go do the stuff. If you’re frustrated that the stuff isn’t getting done, hire somebody. Well, I don’t have enough money to hire somebody. Okay. Do really, really good with what you have so that you get enough money to where you can hire somebody. And until that point, you keep doing it because you are responsible to see that thing through. Bernie Anderson: I had a question about this, and I think we touched on this last week, but I think it’d be good to touch on it here as well. You referred a minute ago to the fact that if someone is starting a business and they’re a solopreneur, they’re getting started, they’re the ones who have to be responsible for all of these areas. Would you say that it’s important for that solopreneur to understand where they excel and where they need to be a B-? You’re going to be A+ here, you got to be at least a B- on everything. You may need to get some training, some help or coaching or whatever. How would you advise a solopreneur going through this process and figuring the org chart out when it’s just herself? Joshua MacLeod: Absolutely. One of the smartest things that any business leader can do is think about your business, not from your own lens, but through the lens of your customer. My customer doesn’t get a product until somebody comes up with what the product is going to be and do to serve their need, the creation process, the production process, where you build that product and you make it excellent and you make it worthy of paying money for, and you make it reliable and you make it bigger, better, faster, cheaper, quicker, it has an advantage, it brings a lot of value that you got to produce it. And then I’ve got to get it to where I am as a customer. I’ve got to distribute it. Is it at Walmart or is it on Amazon or is it at the flea market, the C level in any company, the CEO, COO, CFO CMO, they’re responsible to make sure that all of those things get accomplished. The product is created, the product is produced, the product is distributed. That’s their responsibility. Joshua MacLeod: We have a tool that we use at Growability where we ask the question, “Okay, are you an innovator?” Which is really good at that creation process. “New ideas come easy, I got 17 new ideas for how we could improve. I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m like, ‘Oh, we could do this. We could go into this market. We could do this.'” Or are you an equipper? “Hey, let’s build all of the systems and processes. I don’t have to come up with the ideas. I like coming up with ideas, I see the ideas, but I really like making sure that people can flow with the ideas. Let’s make sure that the communication goes well.” That’s the equipper in the middle. And then there’s just the achievers. “Hey, let’s just distribute. Let’s get this stuff out the door. I need to do sales calls? We’re going to do 50 sales calls. Okay. We need a warehouse? Okay, I’m going to find a warehouse. We’re going to just get the thing done.” Joshua MacLeod: So one of the first key ingredients to answer your question is asking yourself, am I primarily an innovator? Am I primarily an equipper? Or am I primarily an achiever? And then looking at everybody else on your team and saying, “Okay, are they primarily an innovator, primarily an equipper or primarily an achiever?” Now, if you’re a solo entrepreneur, you don’t have anybody else to look at. So what you do is you have to build community outside of yourself and say, “Okay, what am I? Am I an innovator? Am I an equipper? Am I an achiever?” And then if I’m an innovator, “How can I be positively influenced or get advice from an equipper?” If I’m an equipper, I might say, “How can I be influenced by, or get advice from an innovator?” If I’m an achiever, I might say, “Hey, how do I know that the product that I’m using is innovative and that I’m fully equipped to do the job?” If you can’t hire people to fill those roles within your organization, what you can do is you can go out into your community and at least be influenced by people who are experts in those areas. Joshua MacLeod: I built a career on the fact that really exceptional people are willing to share what they’ve learned and what they know. If you ask them politely and/or pay them money. Or books. If I want to read about innovative companies, read about innovative companies, look what they do, and then go, “Oh, wow. Hey, there’s some really good innovation there. I can adapt that. I can pick that up.” But the best advice typically comes from high respect, high capacity individuals. I can get free advice from the teenager at the convenience store any day of the week. They are full of really good free advice. What I have found though, is you can go to the CEO of a bank and ask for advice. You can go to the CEO of a 100 employee company and get free advice. Take him a lunch, ask him a question. Say, “How did you build this? How did you grow this?” So the easy answer for the solo entrepreneur is, “Well, I can’t.” Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: Okay then, stop. Stop trying to be an entrepreneur. If your answer to every challenge is, “That’s never been done before. I don’t know anybody for that.” Then go find a different career. When you’re an entrepreneur, you find a way. My friend Oxana says you, “You got to be an earthworm.” You got to go, okay, we can’t walk over this. Well, we can dig around and get underneath it and figure out how to get in there. If you need information, you hunt people down. Look, if Apple and Hewlett Packerd and Google and Amazon and Walt Disney could grow the kind of organizations that they grew, they didn’t do it by sitting around and waiting for somebody to come and bring them anything. Bernie Anderson: Exactly. Right. Joshua MacLeod: They did that by getting out there into the market, finding the advice they needed, finding the leaders they needed, finding the team that they needed. Bernie Anderson: When it’s those essential things like vision, rhythm, community, leadership, management, marketing, creation, production, distribution, all of that has to be done. And if you are of the mindset of, “I’ve got great vision for this thing, but just, I’m terrible at administration, I’m bad at management.” You can’t do that. You can’t say that. You’ve got to go be an earthworm. You’ve got to go figure out who do I need to talk to, to make myself better as a leader? Well, we sure do appreciate everyone who has joined us today for the Growability live lunch and learn. And we want you to remember that you are doing better than you think, you have much more potential than you know, and we appreciate you growing with us at Growability. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover the necessary habits to make your organization thrive, visit Growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also who available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences subscribing to this podcast helps Growability, equip leaders throughout the world and we appreciate your support. Please consider sponsoring an episode or sharing with a friend.  The post EP34 – C-Suites Innovators Equippers and Achievers first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares some key concepts in the third step of the 12 step Growability model, The 5 Key Areas of Business Management. Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: More often than not, it’s the leader that says, “I’m going to go change the world, but I don’t want to put in the necessary work to actually know how to balance my checkbook. I’m going to go change the world, but somebody else is going to have to set up my books and run that piece.” And I would say, “No, that’s not a good idea.” Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, your home for leadership, management, and marketing education, where we teach business and nonprofit leaders the necessary habits to make your organization thrive. Today’s episode shares some key concepts in the third step of the 12 Step Growability model, how to understand your business season. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod, and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: There are a lot of organizations that help teach businesses, business owners, business principles. We do that as well at Growability. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: What makes Growability different from a Chamber of Commerce or an entrepreneur center or a startup incubator? What makes us different from those kinds of organizations? Joshua MacLeod: That’s a really great question. When I started a business, I was looking at all of these options to help me grow my business. Like, “Okay, I’m going to go to the community college, get an MBA program, or I’m going to join an incubator, or I’m going to join an entrepreneur center, or I’m going to go down to my local Chamber of Commerce.” When I started just looking at sort of the function of all of these different things, it really hit me that most of these organizations are not structured to help an organization over the long haul of the organization. That most of these organizations are structured for helping to provide a little bit of help depending on where you’re at as an organization. Joshua MacLeod: So I’ll give you an example. Who pays for the entrepreneur center? Entrepreneur centers are great and they’re mostly funded by charitable donations. Well, where do the charitable donations come from? Well, the charitable donations come from organizations that acquire startups. So now think about that for a second. So here you got an entrepreneur center that’s funded by all of these organizations that acquire startups. What’s the primary thing that you learn at an entrepreneur center is how to pitch your organization to venture capital companies. Bernie Anderson: Right. Right. Joshua MacLeod: So what happens is if I go to the entrepreneur center, I get really, really well trained in the startup mode. So I get really well trained how to define my market, the mission of the organization, how to look at all of the resources that I have and get more resources by getting venture capital. But what they’re not really great at is they’re not really great at helping you transition from startup to growth, from growth to maturity, from maturity to decline and renewal. So with Growability, one of the things that we want to help businesses through is not just launching up into the air so that you can sell your business to somebody else. We want to help you launch your business so that you can reach it’s full potential, and if you’re going to sell it, sell it at the top of the curve, not at the very bottom of the curve. Joshua MacLeod: Chambers of Commerces are really great in communities. But I started thinking like, who pays for Chambers of Commerces? The businesses that already exist in the community pay for Chambers of Commerces. There’s a sense in which if you don’t invest in your Chamber of Commerce, you’re not being a good citizen, but then I’m like, “This feels like a tax.” Like if I go to the Chamber of Commerce events, a lot of times it’s like, “Hey, here’s a bunch of bankers and here’s a bunch of realtors and here’s a bunch of banks and here’s some marketing companies,” and things like that, and so what ends up happening is, is that the business connections are only super helpful to a select group of people. Joshua MacLeod: When I want to go to a place, I want to go to a place where the people are just like me. And so sometimes at a Chamber of Commerce, that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get people that are just like you, but more often than not, there are a bunch of people that it’s kind of more like a networking event and I’m trying to just get you to buy my product instead of I’m going there to just learn. So when I started Growability, I was like, “Hey, we’ve got to do everything that we can to connect people who are in similar situations, but they’re not there to get customers. They’re there to learn.” So it’s not so much about the connections, but it’s really more focused on the education. Joshua MacLeod: The MBA programs are really helpful if you have an extra 80 grand laying around. Bernie Anderson: As we all do. Joshua MacLeod: And several thousand hours just, “Hey, I’m going to go get my MBA.” Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: The challenge with an MBA program is if you’re going to have your MBA, then you’re going to really go work for a company that would need an MBA educated person and most small businesses don’t. So if I am not going to be doing a ton of strategic finance, and if I’m not going to be working with McKenzie, or I’m not going to be on the C-suite of some major corporation, but I actually want to start my own business, run my business, be in a community, make a difference, it’s probably not a great idea to get an MBA. It would be a 10th of the cost and a 10th of the time investment to go through a Growability collaborative or hire a Growability coach and you’ll get the level of education that you need to run your business with a whole toolkit. Joshua MacLeod: So I think there’s a lot of differences between the way that Growability is structured and kind of how we’re structured, the way that we’re structured. Entrepreneurs need a comprehensive help. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: Throughout their startup phase, their growth phase, their maturity phase, and then their decline and renewal phase. And I think our tools are really designed for each of those stages. If you walk with us, we can walk with you all the way through all of them. If you don’t walk with us, you still need to know the fundamentals of startup growth, maturity, and decline and renewal, because you’re going to go through them anyway. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: So that’s where we’re trying to prepare people with that kind of holistic education that goes all the way through. Bernie Anderson: A lot of times, people who start businesses, kind of like we talked before, start with that passion thing. I’m really like, “I have this vision for this thing that I want to do.” Oftentimes I’ve found, especially because a lot of my work again is in the nonprofit space, I feel like that vision is sort of huge. “We’re going to change the world by starting this nonprofit that’s going to end world hunger or going to provide water for everybody in the world or whatever.” And so a lot of leaders end up talking about their vision, and what I find is they don’t know how to do the other things besides talk about their vision. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: So could you just walk us through maybe what are some of the other aspects that people who are running a business or who are leading a nonprofit, they need to do more than just think about the vision all the time. Joshua MacLeod: Absolutely. Bernie Anderson: What are the other things they need to know how to do or have a team that knows how to do? Joshua MacLeod: There are five key areas of organizational management. Those five key areas for running any organization are leadership, resource management, teamwork, operations, and marketing. If I want to start a business, or if I want to run a business or I’m going to take over a business, or I’m going to start managing a business, I’ve got to look at, “Okay, how healthy is our organization in leadership? How healthy is our organization in resource management? How healthy is our organization in teamwork? How healthy is our organization in operations? How healthy is our organization in marketing?” If I want to go change the world, that’s the leadership question. What’s the positive change that can be? What’s my acorn. What am I going to do? How am I going to go make a difference? But there’s a huge difference between, “I’m going to go change the world and I have a $100 or I’m going to go change the world and I have $100 million.” Joshua MacLeod: So the resource is the first filter that you have to go through as a leader. I’m going to go change the world and I’m incredibly talented, or I’m going to go change the world and I’m not talented. I’m going to go change the world and I have an extra five minutes a week, or I’m going to go change the world and I have an extra 50 hours a week. All of these things make a difference. The first thing I’ve got to filter through is my resource management. More often than not, it’s the leader that says, “I’m going to go change the world, but I don’t want to put in the necessary work to actually know how to balance my checkbook. I’m going to go change the world, but somebody else is going to have to set up my books and run that piece.” And I will say, “No, that’s not a good idea.” Bernie Anderson: Right. Right. Joshua MacLeod: If you’re going to go change the world, first learn how to balance your checkbook. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: Once I look at that, the most important resource in any organization is the team. How healthy is my team? What’s going on in our teamwork as an organization? Then I need to look at my systems. What is the way that we balance the checkbook? What’s the way that we post on social media? What’s the way that we do the creation, production, and distribution of our product or service? And then all of that creates stories that I then bring out to the market. So now I’m looking at marketing. Joshua MacLeod: In an organization, there’s this continual circle of leadership filters through the resource, the most important resource is the team, the combination of leadership, resource, and team is the operations, this is how we do what we do, that creates stories that I then market that grows our resource. And then leadership filters through the resource, the most important resource is the team, a combination of that is the operation, that creates new stories that we then market, a now our leadership has a new consideration. So there’s this continual cycle. Joshua MacLeod: But as an organization, if I’m even going to think about running an organization, starting an organization, who’s going to lead it? How are we going to manage our resources? Who’s going to be on the team? How are we going to build our systems and processes? And how are we going to market this thing? Where are we going to get this out? That’s a lot of what you learn through going through a Growability collaborative, is to focus on those things. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, one of the most important tools that we have is the Growability score. Joshua MacLeod: Yes. Bernie Anderson: That helps leaders to understand where it is that they are not completing the circle. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: I mean you kind of demonstrated that circle. And I think a lot of times people, organizations, leaders, will get around are they’re getting stuck somewhere in that circle. Like our teamwork, that it may be resource management. It could be as early as that, it may be somewhere at the marketing stage of things or operations. But so many people are getting stuck somewhere. And the problem is, is they don’t know where they’re getting stuck and I’m like, “We’re not able to complete the thing.” And I think that’s one of the most powerful things that we provide to business owners and to nonprofit leaders and to anybody leading an organization is a tool to evaluate and assess, “Aha, this is where I’m getting stuck.” Joshua MacLeod: Yes. Bernie Anderson: And we do that through our Growability score process, which I think is a really incredibly value tool for those leaders. Joshua MacLeod: When you start a business, you have no concept of all of that. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: So that’s why I’m saying, if you’re not already fascinated with working on the business, building strategic health in the leadership and the resource management, the teamwork and the operations and the marketing, then it really is better to go join somebody that is super fascinated with that who wants to spend their life building those things, because otherwise you’re just going to be frustrated. Not everybody is cut out for kind of strategic and organizational management. There’s a ton of leadership that is really more about just accomplishing specific tasks and not balancing and managing all of the tasks. Entrepreneurs, leaders of organizations, really have to continually improve the processes, the systems, the teamwork, the resource management, the goal setting in the organization. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: And that’s what we do. We help those leaders to do that. Bernie Anderson: Yep. I am starting first thing tomorrow morning a brand new online collaborative and we’re going to begin talking about some of these very things. So I’m always excited to kind of see those light bulb moments with leaders who have spent maybe even years struggling with their vision outpacing their capacity to administrate and not really knowing how to define that. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: And so when those leaders all of a sudden realize that, one, I can actually do that. I don’t have to live this way. Joshua MacLeod: Right. Bernie Anderson: And two it’s, I can learn how to do this. I can learn how to defer things. I can learn how to delegate some of this to people who have capacities in this area. All of a sudden their organization begins to flourish. And we love it when that happens. Right? Joshua MacLeod: Absolutely. Absolutely. So on that, Bernie, for all of those leaders, what are you going to say to those people? Bernie Anderson: I’m going to say that you are doing better than you think, and you have more potential than you know, and that you will grow with us when you grow with Growability. Have a great one, Joshua, we’ll see you later. Joshua MacLeod: Thanks Bernie. Bernie Anderson: Bye. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover the necessary habits to make your organization thrive, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Joshua and Bernie are also available for speaking engagements, workshops, and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world and we appreciate your support. Please consider sponsoring an episode or sharing with a friend.  The post EP33 – The 5 Key Areas of Business Management first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the second step in the 12 step Growability model, How to attract customers for your business or nonprofit. Podcast Transcript: Joshua Macleod: There’s kind of a general societal view that businesses who make a lot of money, do that from magic, when the reality is they figured out the secret magic to understand a customer. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, your home for leadership, management and marketing education, where we teach business and nonprofit leaders, the necessary habits to make your organization thrive. Today’s episode shares the second step in the 12 step Growability model, how to attract customers for your business or nonprofit. Here are your hosts, Joshua Macleod, and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: Last week, we talked about your vision, your mission, your values, why it is that you’re doing what you’re doing. Because our model is based on a tree, I have this whole jar of acorns here. I love what you say about acorns, Joshua, because the acorn goes in the ground and then it has the potential. Bernie Anderson: Every single one of these in this jar has the potential of becoming this monster tree that is 80 feet deep, 80 feet tall, 80 feet wide, and will produce in its lifetime, 15 million acorns in a lifetime. Right? Just astounding. So here’s my question for you this week, Joshua, what is the second step of the Growability model? Joshua Macleod: So this morning I was out on my walk. Actually, every Monday morning, I go out and clear the head and start the week and pray and go out on my little walk on the Monday morning. And I saw an acorn that was sitting on the sidewalk. I know about our episode today. And I’m, that acorn has all the potential in the world, but only if it gets put in to soil. So this week we’re talking about the soil, which in any business is your customer. If I have all the potential in the world and no customers, I don’t really have any potential. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua Macleod: The potential actually comes when somebody believes in your product enough to pay for the value that your organization creates. I think there’s kind of a general societal view that businesses who make a lot of money, do that from magic. Bernie Anderson: Yes. Joshua Macleod: So if I am a telecom company, if I am a stock broker, whoever I am, the airline industry, the cell phone industry, the TV industry, if I’m Sony or Nintendo, the concept is they figured out the secret magic to make a lot of money. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: When the reality is they figured out the secret magic to understand a customer. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua Macleod: But even more, more than that, even more than understanding a customer, what they have figured out is they figured out how to add value to a customer’s life in such a way that it’s worth paying for. So if we think about the way that our world is created, an acorn has unlimited potential. And I think every person in a sense really has unlimited potential. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: But the potential of the acorn isn’t fully unlocked until it finds the right soil. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua Macleod: So every leader, everyone who is in a leadership position really needs to discover not only what is their potential, what is their acorn, but also where is their soil or in other words, who is their customer? Bernie Anderson: Yes. Joshua Macleod: The reason that we need a customer, I think we need a customer because I think our potential is unlocked through service. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: When you look at that acorn, that acorn doesn’t stay the same, it grows. It has a shell and it has to break out of its shell. Leaders, like that acorn, we have to grow, we have to break out of our shell and we have to deepen and grow. Bernie Anderson: It’s good. Joshua Macleod: Humans don’t grow through selfishness. Humans grow through selflessness. Bernie Anderson: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Joshua Macleod: What if God made the way that things are so that humans would actually learn to be fulfilled in service? Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: What if business wasn’t just about exploiting people? What if business was training to serve people. And in the training to serve people, you get the reward of abundance. But what if the whole point of abundance wasn’t to have abundance? What if the point of abundance was to go and to give and to serve? So I guess, the question is Bernie, is there a way to build an organization that creates abundance all the way through? Bernie Anderson: End of last week, I was walking and thinking about this whole narrative, the narrative or the metaphor, it’s actually a metaphor. The metaphor for business, business is about winning. There’s an element of truth to that, right? But business is about winning. It’s about coming out on top. It’s about making the money. It’s about making sure that we are the best, we’re the brightest, we’re the richest, we’re the wealthiest, we are, we’re winning. Bernie Anderson: That’s the metaphor, it’s competition. I believe that a better metaphor for the context that we’re in is that business is actually about cultivation instead of competition. Cultivation means that we put the seed in the ground and we let it grow. And we work on an ecosystem where not just my business, but everybody else around me is benefiting from what it is that I’m doing. Joshua Macleod: So the pushback to that, then Bernie is, yeah, good luck with that because the world is competitive and your campy ideas are just going to get destroyed by the ruthless person that has a better sign or a better marketing plan or more resources or more money than you that can actually edge you out in the market. And we’ve both experienced that. There’s a lot of truth to that. Bernie Anderson: Sure, absolutely. Joshua Macleod: So what I would add to that is that if you don’t have wisdom in your cultivation, you’re done at step one. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: We tend to pat ourselves on the back and say, I’m the best hotdog stand in the world because I have this really good cultivation heart. But if we’re not able to be in the marketplace and be competitive, it’s the pipe dream that we talked about a long time ago. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: So balancing both of those things is important. Bernie Anderson: Well, and when you’re growing a tree, there is a competition in cultivation, right? There are certain trees that make it and certain trees that don’t make it because of positioning. So, I mean, there definitely is still a piece of that there I think. But you’re right, it’s with wisdom. So actually Joshua, let me just ask this question then. Joshua Macleod: Sure. Bernie Anderson: We’ve been so philosophical today. Whoa. Let me just ask you a super practical question then. How does a business find customers? Joshua Macleod: Well, Bernie, we talk about a lot the statistic that eight out of 10 small businesses fail. The two businesses out of 10 that succeed are those who figure out how to build value into their organization. So let me provide kind of like a step by step guide that’s very big picture overview of the process that we take at Growability to define who your customer is, to define what the value is that you’re going to make. So the first thing that we do at Growability is we look at Maslow’s hierarchy, is some of the value that is created by your organization in health and safety? Joshua Macleod: This is the bottom rung of Maslow’s hierarchy. The second question is, is some of the value created by your organization by belonging and confidence? So are you creating some kind of value of the tribe here, where it’s, people like us do this. And then the third question is, is there any value in your organization that is in achievement or altruism, reaching a high potential, being the gold medal winner or in serving others and impacting communities and things like that? So first we kind of look at very big picture. Joshua Macleod: Next, we start getting specific on that value. Okay. So let’s say you’re an organization like Nike, where we have health and safety. We also have belonging and confidence. We also have achievement in altruism. Okay. Does Nike, are they providing value with cost or speed or reliability? Kind of like the big three, we’re cheaper, we’re faster or we’re more reliable. And then secondarily, maybe it’s more of your niche market. Well, we do this easier or we are hard to copy or we are more flexible. We have more options than somebody else. And then third is kind of like, okay, we’re going to do this more beautifully. Joshua Macleod: So it’s going to give you more status or it’s got more emotional appeal or it’s got more aesthetic. So there’s a lot in that, but here’s the big picture. This is the core value. Then the secondary set is okay, let’s define that. And what I’m really trying to do is I’m trying to say with the resources that you have, how can you serve and add value more effectively than anybody else who is doing this? Bernie Anderson: Okay. Joshua Macleod: Because if you can’t add value more effectively than anybody else who is already doing this, you probably shouldn’t start that business. You should go join with somebody who’s doing it more effective than you. Why start something that’s not going to be adding more value to the world? If somebody else is adding more value, go work with them. Don start a business. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua Macleod: Don’t run an organization. Once I know what our core product is, what our values are, what specifically our values are, now I’ve got to ask the question, okay, who is in the market that will actually pay for that value? And so we go through the process of creating customer personas. So customer personas are people who are in a market or in an area or a group of people who pay to have a need met. And we’re asking questions like, what’s the problem that your value helps them overcome? What is causing that problem? What’s their environmental problem? Let’s really get inside the mind of the customer. Joshua Macleod: What are the effects of the problem? What are the negative things? But then we talk about, and we’ve done entire podcasts about this, the big three. What’s your competitive advantage? What’s your convenience advantage? What’s your consistency advantage? Once I have my core value that I can charge for figured out. Once I have my core customer that is really into and pays for that value figure out. Now I look at my markets and locations, where am I going to be doing this? Joshua Macleod: How many cities am I going to do this in? How many people am I going to be able to serve? Who are the competitors in that market? Who are my direct competitors? If I sell pizza, what are the other pizza shops in the area and who are my indirect editors? So this is, if I sell pizza, who are the other fast food places in the market? And then we dive in and really become great at doing customer surveys with the people that are buying our product. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua Macleod: When you look at the overview of what happens in the Growability customer section, we’re doing the service of learning. I think anybody listening to this that doesn’t really own a business or run a business, they’re kind of, “Well, duh, of course.” What’s crazy is how not well, duh this is in the market. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua Macleod: Because when you go to start and run your business, or when you’re operating your business has been running for 20 years, there’s so many things that are going on. I’ve got to have my taxes done, I’ve got to have my, here’s my new website update. I’ve got this customer complaint. I’ve got to go to this meeting. I’ve met this person. I go. You’re running around. And oftentimes, you lose sight of, wait a second. We only have a business when we’re providing value to a customer. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua Macleod: If we stop providing value to a customer, our business is very short lived. We’re going to crash and burn. As long as we are continuing to add value to a customer, our business is really going to grow. Staying in that symbiotic relationship of serving, meeting a customer need, getting feedback, looping back around it is so critical. Bernie Anderson: The symbiotic relationship between seed and soil. Joshua Macleod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: That’s gold important. Joshua Macleod: It’s important. That’s important. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, it’s important. So, all right. Well, we are out of time today. We would like all of you to remember that you are doing better than you think, and you have more potential than you know, and we are so grateful that you were growing with us at Growability. Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.   The post EP32 – How to Attract Customers first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the first step in the 12 step Growability model, How to create vision, mission, values, and standards of excellence for your business or nonprofit. Podcast Transcript: Joshua MacLeod: It’s incredibly easy to become discouraged by how hard running an organization is. If you run a business, if you run a nonprofit, it’s going to be tough. What vision does is it reminds you why what you do is important. What a vision statement does is that it reminds you, hey, this is why we’re going to push through this hard time and keep on going. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability Podcast, your home for leadership, management, and marketing education, where we teach business and nonprofit leaders the necessary habits to make your organization thrive. Today’s episode shares the first step in the 12 Step Growability Model, how to create vision, mission, values, and standards of excellence for your business or nonprofit. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: Last week, we began this new series in which we are talking about the Growability 12 Step Model, and we’re going to be sharing with our audience the intricacies of each step, which is pretty… Are we giving this away for free? What is going on here? This is great. This week we’re going to begin talking a little bit about step one. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. In the 12 Step Model, the first step is to have a vision. If you don’t have any vision, if you don’t know where you’re going, then your customer is lost. Your team doesn’t know where they’re going. Every organization needs to have some vision for where are we going to go and how are we going to get there? We use the analogy in Growability of an acorn. This little seed has the potential to create an oak tree that will be 80 feet tall and 80 feet wide and will produce 15 million new acorns. The potential of an acorn, the technology in an acorn… We can create rockets that’ll fly straight up to the moon. We can send satellites out to Mars. We can build super computers that will fit on our hand. We don’t have anything like the technology of an acorn. Joshua MacLeod: When you look at this, I mean, this is something that produces exponential growth by its very DNA. I liken the acorn in your organization to the vision, mission, and values of your organization. The vision, mission, values are like the DNA in your business. The acorn has DNA that can multiply and replicate and produce millions of new acorns. Well, the vision, mission, and values that you have in your business and the vision, mission, and values that you sew and plant into your business is what has the potential to multiply and grow. Bernie Anderson: All right. Here’s where it gets muddy. It’s like you could go into any business in your town, walk in and you could find either on a wall somewhere, sometimes it’s in the bathroom, sometimes it’s on a piece of paper on the desk in the back office underneath a lot of other things, you could go in and you could find a vision statement. You can find a values declaration. You can find a mission statement. And if you read those statements, they’re all over the place. There’s like, okay, here’s our vision. We’re going to do this. Could we talk a little bit about how do we differentiate between a vision, mission, value statement? How do we begin to understand what the difference is between those things? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. If I’m the owner of a company and I walk into a team meeting and I say, “Okay, everybody, we’re going to start today talking about our vision, mission, and values,” there’s like, like a collective like yawn or rolling of the eyes or pause or “eww.” Who really wants to work on vision, mission, value? And the reason why is because, first of all, if I say vision, mission, values in our society, that doesn’t mean anything. There’s no standard of what does a vision actually mean? What does a mission actually mean? What do values actually mean? When I say vision, mission, values, I’m likely inviting someone to a confusing process. And there are as many awkward and strange and differing definitions about what vision, mission, values are, as there are like taste of cars. Joshua MacLeod: There is so many different options that I think people are continually confused about what vision, mission, and values are. When we created the Growability Model, the focus was not just on what is the statement and how do I define it? The focus is on, how can that actually be used in your organization? It took a lot of time for Growability to figure out how are we going to define vision, mission, value standards of excellence at an organization? Let’s break down each one of these statements into what it is, how we define that at Growability, and hopefully we can add some clarity to this process for our listeners. What is a vision statement? The way that Growability defines a vision statement, we define it as the positive change that can be. Joshua MacLeod: When I think about vision, vision is what you see. For an entrepreneur, what you see doesn’t have to already exist. What is the change that can be? What’s our vision? In the Proverbs it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” If your business doesn’t have any vision for the business, it’s on a track for decline. Every business, every nonprofit organization, every family, every person needs to have some vision as to what is the positive change that can be? What is that thing that we can bring into society that we can change? Now, the vision is different, completely different from the mission statement, because a mission statement, you really can’t create a mission statement until you have a clearly defined vision statement. Joshua MacLeod: A mission statement asks the question, what are we doing to bring about that positive change in your vision statement? The definition of a mission statement is, how do you bring about the positive change? In my vision statement, I’m looking at the positive changes that can be. The mission statement is what I’m doing to bring about that change. Why are these two things important? Why is it important to define your vision as the change that can be? The reason is it’s incredibly easy to become discouraged by how hard running an organization is. If you run a business, if you run a nonprofit, it’s going to be tough. What vision does is it reminds you why what you do is important. Joshua MacLeod: What a vision statement does is that it reminds you, hey, this is why we’re going to push through this hard time and keep on going. If I walk down a road, the scenery is going to change a lot, but I’ve got to make sure that I’m on the right road. If I start getting off into the scenery and walking over here and walking over there, I’m not actually going to reach the destination unless I stay on that road.Vision is the roadmap for where you’re going to go as an organization. It allows you to stay focused and actually reach your destination without getting distracted. What the mission does, the mission helps keep you between the lines on that road. Without a mission, you can’t clearly define what’s different about you and everybody else. Joshua MacLeod: We might have the same vision. We might want the same change, but a mission talks about how I’m actually going to bring about that change. The vision is like, this is the hill that we’re going to take. The mission says, “This is the way that we’re to take that hill.” Bernie Anderson: I have an idea. I have an idea. I have in front of me just a few vision statements, and you have no idea what these are. We did not plan this together. Joshua MacLeod: Yes. Bernie Anderson: And these are called vision statements by companies that all of us have heard of. Joshua MacLeod: Okay, good. Bernie Anderson: And you tell me, is this a vision statement? Is this a mission statement? Let’s just tear it down a little bit in this framework. Okay. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Sounds good. Bernie Anderson: We’ve got a ton of time here, but I think it could be kind of fun. Eyeglass company. We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good looking with money in your pocket. We also believe that everyone has the right to see them. Is that a vision statement? Is that a mission statement? Or is that something in else? Joshua MacLeod: Okay. Well, there’s two more things that we should define as we jump into this, and I love this because I actually heard maybe three or four different things. I want to come back to that in just a second. The two more things let me define real quick. One is, what are value statements? Once I think about my vision statement, once I think about my mission statement, the next thing I want to really consider is my values statements. I love to define values as promises. Values are promises that I will make for my customer. If you run a company and I know what your values are, I know about the decisions that you’re going to make. When we help our companies create value statements, we ask the companies to create promise statements. Joshua MacLeod: We name your value statements as promise statements. Values are all about decision making. Now, the fourth thing that I think every business, I think every business should have a vision statement, mission statement, value statement, and standards of excellence. Standards of excellence is all about the quality from which you produce your product or your service. The standard of excellence isn’t necessarily looking out. It’s looking in. The standard of excellence is something thing that every single member of the team has to judge the quality of their work by. If our job is to create a diode on a computer that’s going to last 600 years, that’s a standard of excellence. Joshua MacLeod: If our job is to create a diode on a computer that’s going to last until it sells, that’s a standard of excellence. When you define your standards, you define who gets to be on your team. There’s the four things that every organization needs. We need a vision. We need mission. We need values, and we need standards of excellence. So now jump back into that eyeglass company. I have an idea. Bernie Anderson: Let me just clarify to make sure we’ve got this right. Your vision is kind of your what, like, here’s what we see. The change that could be its your what. Your mission is how we do this. Joshua MacLeod: Yes. Bernie Anderson: Your values are the promises that you make to yourself. Joshua MacLeod: To yourself, to your team, to your customers, to your stakeholders. Bernie Anderson: Yes. Joshua MacLeod: Values are the promises that you make to all of them. Bernie Anderson: To all of them. And your commitments are your standards of… Your standards are your commitments to this is how we define excellence in our organization. Warby Parker’s mission statement is, we believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good looking with money in your pocket. We also believe that everyone has the right to see. Joshua MacLeod: Okay. Fantastic. The thing about that is, there’s no chance that I’m going to remember all of that, and I bet they paid somebody like $100,000 to come up with that. But the thing there is you’re actually mixing a whole lot of elements. The very end is what I would call the vision statement. We believe that everybody has the right to see. Bernie Anderson: That’s good. Joshua MacLeod: This is the change that can be. Right now there are people who don’t have the right to see. We want to help them to become the people that have the right to see. I think the way that Warby does that is when you buy a pair of glasses, they buy somebody else a pair of glasses, and so it’s like helping people out. Now, the very first thing that they lead with sounds very missional to me. This is what do you do to empower this to happen. Read that first line. Bernie Anderson: The first one is, we believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Okay. So the mission… If I were to write this as a mission statement, our mission is to make buying glasses easy and fun. Our vision is to make it so that everybody in the world can see. Our mission is to make buying glasses easy and fun. And then they have some of their core values and standards of excellence… Bernie Anderson: It should make you happy, good looking with money in your. Joshua MacLeod: So within that, I’m going to say that one of their values is style. We only offer certain types of glasses. That’s like one of their core values. We’re not going to sell you glasses that are going to make you look bad. In that example, kudos to Warby Parker for having several of the ingredients of good vision, mission, values, and standards. Hit me with another one. How did I do on that one? Does that make sense? Bernie Anderson: Yup, that was a good one. All right. Let’s go with Uber. Here’s Uber’s… What do they call this? They call this their mission statement for Uber. We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. Joshua MacLeod: Ooh. We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. Useless. That has no value for me. That is very cool. Very cool. But is the team member in their organization igniting opportunity? No. Okay. I guess that be some of their mission. Okay, I can see a little mission in there. We’re uniting opportunities… Bernie Anderson: A little mission, because they help people get jobs or be an Uber driver or whatever. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah, but it’s not telling me who. It’s not telling me who it’s uniting opportunity for. Say it one more time. I don’t have it in front of me. Bernie Anderson: We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. You got to have some insider baseball here to know what’s going on with Uber. If I didn’t know who Uber was, I would be like, “That makes no sense to me at all.” Joshua MacLeod: I mean, it’s very sexy. It’s very cool. It’s not super functional. I don’t know what their standards of excellence are. I don’t know what their promises are. If their vision was more along the lines of, we are going to add mobility to every person in the universe, or we’re going to take down taxi cabs, or just whatever it is, the change that can be… I want to know what’s the change that can be, and then the mission is, how do you bring about that change? What are you going to do in that change? Let me say one thing. Sometime when organizations are confused about what their vision is, what their mission is, what their values are, what their standards of excellence are, then they dump everything into what’s called a purpose statement. Joshua MacLeod: Purpose statement is like a hodgepodge of all of those things. It can be anything you want it to be. It’s the magic bullet. Well, I don’t really know how to create this. Let’s just create a purpose statement and we’ll dump whatever we feel like in this thing. I’m fine with that. I prefer what we do at Growability is we do a find your acorn, which is kind of an upgraded version of a find your why. That’s a Simon Sinek thing, but anyway. We do do purpose statements, but we call them find your acorns. It’s different for sure. Give me another. Give me another one. Bernie Anderson: Let’s try this one. Let’s try this one. Let me do Google’s. Let’s do Google’s. Joshua MacLeod: Okay. Okay, good. Bernie Anderson: Google’s, this is their vision statement, to provide access to the world’s information in one click. Joshua MacLeod: See, that’s fantastic. That is a vision statement. That is the change that can be. If I want to have access to the world information in one click, do I have that now? I do. Does everybody in the world? Maybe not, but that’s what their vision is. They see a world where you have access to the rest of the world information in one click. The reason why Google is so successful year over year over year is that they keep the same vision. This is what we’re trying to do. I’m not trying to make it two clicks. We’re trying to make it one click. And that one click nowadays is, “Hey, Alexa, or Hey, Siri,” or whatever, but you click the button and then they search it. But that’s a great example of a vision statement. Joshua MacLeod: Any vision, mission, values, or standard of excellence that isn’t applyable is not going to be applied. If I want my team to do these things, I have to make sure that the vision, mission, values, and standards are applyable. That they’re applicable. That people can actually do this thing. You can mix Play-Doh together, but it’s not that great. It’s way better to keep the green separated from the yellow, from the blue. Bernie Anderson: Says the guy with eight kids, so he knows about Play-Doh. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Listen, I’m going to tell you what, when you mix the Play-Doh together, it seems fun and it is fun, but it’s only fun like once. When you keep them separated, you can continue to play with them time in, time out. The same thing is true with your vision, mission, values, and standards of excellence. Bernie Anderson: I have one more example of one that does exactly… This is the Play-Doh mix. Joshua MacLeod: Okay. Bernie Anderson: IBM. Here’s IBM’s, they’re calling this their vision statement, to be the world’s most successful and important information technology company. Joshua MacLeod: Vision. Bernie Anderson: Successful in helping our customers apply technology to solve their problems. Joshua MacLeod: Mission. Bernie Anderson: Successful in introducing this extraordinary technology to new customers. Joshua MacLeod: Nothing to do. Bernie Anderson: Important, because we will continue to be the basic resource of much of what is invested in this industry. They paid someone for this. Joshua MacLeod: They may have wrote this internally. Is that the end of it? Is that the end? Bernie Anderson: Yeah, that’s the end. I guess they’re defining what’s successful and important is to them. Joshua MacLeod: Here’s the fundamental difference between a Growability vision, mission, values, standard of excellence statement and a lot of Corporate America. What you just read from IBM is a statement written for a shareholder. Bernie Anderson: Yes. Joshua MacLeod: It shows you as a shareholder what IBM is going to spend money on and how they feel like they are going to guarantee the money from your investment. That’s not the way we roll at Growability. When we create vision, mission, values, and standards of excellence, we create them for a customer. Your vision, mission, values should be pointed at the direction of serving, not being served. If you point your vision, mission, values in the direction of serving others, you have unlimited potential. Bernie Anderson: That’s so good. Well, let’s do this then, Joshua. We’ve got some time left here. Joshua MacLeod: Sure. Bernie Anderson: Let’s focus a little bit on looking at the vision, mission, values statements that maybe we’ve helped clients to develop. What are some of the differentiations here between what we just read in Corporate America to what we would do to help a client be customer focused with their vision, mission, values statements? Joshua MacLeod: Okay. This is a great company. This is a surgeon. It’s a medical office here in Nashville. This is Middle Tennessee Oral and Implant Surgery. Dr. Mark Hardison runs that organization. It’s fantastic. This is their vision. Our vision is to see thousands of patients in Middle Tennessee with restored physical health and thousands of healthcare providers influence towards healthcare as it should be. What is the change that can be? Well, you’ve got thousands of people that do not have restored health. We’re going to restore their health. But more than that, they not only want to help patients, they want to help the healthcare industry be along the lines of something that we’ve coined as healthcare as it should be. Joshua MacLeod: So now what is their mission? So their mission is to provide healthcare as it should be. And then they dive into that a little bit, providing compassion, availability, and excellence to our patients and their families. Bernie Anderson: That’s good. Joshua MacLeod: This is what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to restore health. We’re trying to influence doctors. This is how we bring it about. We do that by providing compassion, availability, and excellence to our patients and their families. So now what are their core values? We write their core values as promises. Compassion. We promise to show kindness, dignity, and respect to every person that walks through our door. If you need to get your wisdom teeth done or you need a dental implant and you go to a company whose core value… The first one is compassion. We promise to show kindness, dignity, and respect to every person that walks through our door. As a customer, I’m liking this. Okay, number two, availability. Joshua MacLeod: We promise to show up on time and be available when our patients need us. So many surgeons, they establish their office to be ready on their schedule. If you need your wisdom teeth pulled, okay, six months from now on a Tuesday at 1:30, we can do that. Well, one of their core values is availability, so they have to schedule time for emergencies. They have to make it so that they can be ready. And then the third one is excellence. We promise to give our best every day and continually improve our systems and process. Let’s say, Bernie, that I just said, compassion, availability, and excellence. Okay, great. Put it on a cat poster. This is wonderful. Okay. This is what we do, compassion, availability, and excellence. Joshua MacLeod: We take that a step further and we actually add a promise statement. Now, everybody on their team knows about these. They actually read them every time they have team meeting, compassion, availability, and excellence. But this is also what the promise statement is. Okay, so now let’s look at the standards of excellence. Their first standard of excellence is patient-centric. We commit to fully understand the needs and concerns of our patients and educate before we medicate. The second is proactive. We commit to being focused on the task at hand and prepared to address any challenges that arise. And then third is positive. We commit to building a team culture that is encouraging, constructive, and optimistic. Joshua MacLeod: When we’re interviewing, and I’ve actually helped this organization interview staff members, when I’m interviewing them, I’m looking at, okay, is this candidate compassionate? Would they help with availability? Would they help with excellence? Do they seem to be patient-centric? Do they seem to be proactive? Do they seem to be positive? But then when you’re on the team, this is how the team polices itself. Hey, you know what? You weren’t proactive, so I had to be extra proactive. In their organization, if you’re kind of a low performer, you don’t last very long. This is the standards of excellence. That’s a medical company. That’s kind of the way that the vision, mission, values can be established in a medical company. Bernie Anderson: One thought here, Joshua, as we think about it, and this might be helpful for listeners, but your vision as I’m hearing you describe this has got to be in one sense quite aspirational. It’s the change that could be. It’s this big thing. Whereas your mission is going to be something that is… This is how we’re going to move towards this vision. This is how we’re going to put the operations and the products and the people into place so that we actually are acting towards the vision that we see. And then your values and standards are how you do the day to day. This is how we make our… Joshua MacLeod: This is how we roll. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. We roll like this and it’s super clear, super practical. It’s not aspirational. It’s just daily. This is how we do our things. And if this doesn’t fit you, then we may not be the company for you to work at. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Peter Drucker said culture eats strategy for breakfast and I’m a fan of that. Actually what we do is say, yeah, but culture only happens when you have good habits, which is why you need Growability to build your culture. I would agree with that with one difference. The vision is aspirational, but it’s also achievable. If I have a vision that’s aspirational and not achievable, then that’s not a good vision statement. When I look at Middle Tennessee Oral and Implant Surgery, it doesn’t say, our vision is to see millions of patients. It says, our vision is to see thousands of patients in Middle Tennessee with restored physical health. This is an actual thing. They’re not going to be in the scope of what they do. Joshua MacLeod: They’re not going to be in the hundreds of thousands. They’re just going to be in thousands. Your vision should definitely be aspirational, but only as much as it’s also achievable. Here’s a services company. This is a company called Pitcock Biomedical. Jeff is the owner out there. He’s incredible. They repair respirators and small different machines that do air quality and things like that for patients. Let me just run down their vision, mission, values. What I love about this formula is like this is a repair services company creating vision, mission, values. This doesn’t have to be sexy. This is just like, hey, what is our vision? What is our mission? What are our values? Joshua MacLeod: Here’s their vision, Our vision is to see thousands of community-based home care service providers located throughout the United States fully equipped to serve their patients in a timely manner. That’s our vision. What’s our mission? Our mission is to provide quality medical equipment repair that meets or exceeds manufacturer guidelines and has a quick turnaround. What is our vision? Our vision is the home healthcare providers have the materials they need to do what they do. What’s our mission? We meet or exceed the customer manufacturer guidelines, which other people don’t do. We also have a quick turnaround, which other people don’t do. This is our mission. That becomes a great simplifier for everything you do at the company. Bernie Anderson: Absolutely. It’s so much more clear than we ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah, exactly. Here’s their values: integrity. We promise to do the right thing and follow through on our commitments to our business team and customer. Friendliness. We promise to treat others the way we want to be treated. Teamwork. We promise to work together so that everyone gets the credit. Standards of excellence. Quality. We commit to meet or exceed manufacturer guidelines. Punctuality. We commit to efficiency in our work so our customers get their product on time. And consistency. We commit to creating a best practice where we spend time on the things that matter most. Punctuality is one of their standards of excellence. I got Joe who keeps showing up late. Well, Joe, one of our core values is punctuality. Joshua MacLeod: We commit to efficiency in our work so our customers get their products on time. You keep showing up late. You’re not hitting the punctuality thing. We’re going to have to write you up. If Joe just continues to do that, then either we have to change the standard of excellence and say, “We don’t care about time anymore,” or Joe needs to show up on time. But that’s where standards are so powerful because they give you something to measure yourself by in terms of the quality of your team and the excellence of your work. Okay. I got one more. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, let’s do it. Joshua MacLeod: This is hair salon in Nashville that is easily the top hair salon. Top notch. I’m inspired every time I work with any of the leaders at this organization. It’s just so cool. Oxana started the salon, and so her name’s Oxana, also the name of her salon. This is her vision. Our vision is to see millions of women throughout the world educated, empowered, and inspired. That’s her vision. Now, what does that have to do with hair salon? I don’t have any idea, but the reason why Oxana has a salon is because she wants to see millions of women throughout the world educated, empowered, and inspired. Okay. Well, now let’s hear what’s the mission. I know what the vision is. What’s the mission? Joshua MacLeod: Our mission is to inspire confidence by providing luxury brands, products, and services that help women live unlimited. Okay, so the mission is to bring luxury brands to the market and to scale. Brands, products, and services. If it wasn’t Oxana talking in this and like crafting this thing, I’m kind of like, “Eh. Betty Sue down on the corner is probably not actually going to accomplish all of these things.” Oxana is absolutely going to accomplish all these things. She’s incredible. I’m like, yeah, she’s going to have three luxury brands. She’s the next like, I don’t know, whatever, the Kate Spade or whatever that. She’s the next Vidal Sassoon. I’m like, heck yeah. Here’s her values. This is the promises that she makes to everybody that comes in to have their hairstyle. Joshua MacLeod: Connection. I promise to ask meaningful questions to discover the unique potential of every client. Synergy. I promise to step in and help and integrate my personal success with the success of my team. And growth. I promise to continually elevate my craft. If you’re going to go get your hair done at Oxana Salon, I was working with her social media Google Review, I’m like every day there’s like five star review, five star review, five star review, five star review. They flow in like daily. Well, part of that is every person that they walk in, they’re going to get connection, synergy, and growth. Here’s her standards of excellence, and I love these. This is your job application. If I’m going to work here, I’m like, “Whoa, okay, they’re serious about this.” Joshua MacLeod: Standard number one, make it happen. I commit to replace I can’t with I’ll find a way. Standard number two, kindness wins. I commit to being personally responsible for the power of my words in a hair salon. Standard number three, dependable excellence. I commit to great results even on my worst day. If you’re on Oxana’s team, you’re going to make it happen. You’re going to be kind, and you’re going to be dependably excellent. That’s where on your quarterly review if that doesn’t happen, well, then you can go work at one of the other salons in town, but you’re not going to be at the top dog, unless that’s how you roll. Joshua MacLeod: When you put into place vision, mission, and values statements and standards of excellence, it’s the fundamental ingredient to scaling and growing healthily in your businesses, defining what your vision, what your mission, what are your values, what are your core standards of excellence. If it’s real that eight out of 10 small businesses fail, if 80% of small businesses are going to fail, the two of them that succeed are going to have very clear vision, mission, values, and standards of excellence. If you understand who you are, what you do, what you don’t do, how you roll, how you don’t roll, the promises that you make, the commitments that you make, those are fundamental for creating synergy, the fundamental for creating growth, they’re fundamental for serving a customer with excellence. Joshua MacLeod: It really, really is important to get your hand and your mind around what’s our vision, what’s our mission, what’s our values, what’s our standards of excellence. Bernie Anderson: For sure. If someone’s like, yeah, I really want to start thinking well about this in my business, in my organization, how do you get started beginning to think about this for your organization? Joshua MacLeod: Best way, Bernie, like always, join the Growability Collaborative. Get in there with a group of other business entrepreneurs and leaders. Talk this through. Listen to their vision, mission, values and you can really, really work in community to create this and move forward. Bernie Anderson: This is a really fun conversation to have with other business owners, other nonprofit leaders, the other people in your collaborative. The things that have come out of the groups that I’ve been involved with has been just great. Cool. Well, we want you to remember that you’re doing better than you think. You have more potential than you know, and we very much have appreciate you joining us as we grow Growability. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability Podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit Growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops, and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world and we appreciate your support.   The post EP31 – How to Create Vision Mission Values Statements first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode shares the 12 steps in the Growability model and how business leaders can grow in community. This episode covers: An overview of the 12 Step Growability model Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: It’s not what I know that produces fruit, it’s where I sew. So I can talk about producing corn all day long, but until I plant the kernel of corn, I’m not going to get any corn out of the ground. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, your home for leadership management and marketing education, where we teach business and nonprofit leaders the necessary habits to make your organization thrive. Today’s episode shares the 12 steps in the Growability model and how business leaders can grow in community. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod, and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: Joshua, as I think about the Growability model, I think about this has been a long process. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: Growability didn’t just appear one night in a dream, you know? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: I know for a fact that the process of developing this model has been, I mean, it’s a good part of your life’s work. And helping others to implement this model is now becoming others of ours life work, you know? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: So this is important. One of the questions I have is what makes Growability different from other business models? Joshua MacLeod: It’s a great question. We have the luxury at Growability of using the analogy of growing a tree to explain how you should grow a business. Growing a tree is actually a pretty good analogy for growing an organization because everything in a business is interconnected. One of the key differentiators of Growability is that all of our training recognizes the necessary synergy between leadership, management and marketing. It’s very organic in design. The second we emphasize teams in order to accomplish the right thing to do requires teamwork. Joshua MacLeod: It requires leadership and management and teams working and getting on the same page so that the goals aspirations of the organization can be accomplished in community. I mean, that’s why we put so much emphasis on the team dynamics, strength dynamics, personality dynamics. We really emphasize habits. It’s not what I know that produces fruit, it’s where I sow. So I can talk about producing corn all day long, but until I plant the kernel of corn, I’m not going to get any corn out of the ground. Joshua MacLeod: Are you doing the habits necessary to make your organization thrive? So I think those are three huge differentiators. We recognize the organic nature of a business. We focus and emphasize teams working together. And then we focus and emphasize sustainable habits that are going to create maximum growth. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. No, that’s good. It’s funny because a lot of consultants set themselves up as the person, the go-to person. You need me and you need me forever, right? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: You need me for the rest. I’m on retainer. And actually I don’t want you to need me forever. Organizations can come in. They can learn how to grow organically, how to develop their team, how to develop the habits that need to sustain what they do for the next 20 years. Joshua MacLeod: Yes. We want your team to grow, we want you to grow. We want to grow right there along with you. But our long haul is, as long as it takes to get you up to speed, to be able to do this by yourself. Bernie Anderson: Well, I think everybody who’s been listening this far along are, “Well, what are the 12 steps? What are they?” What are the 12 fundamentals? What are the 12 steps? And why are each one of those things important? Joshua MacLeod: When we teach the Growability model, we walk through the analogy of growing a tree. The first thing you need, if you’re going to grow a tree is you need a seed. Now, when you think about an acorn, acorns or are the most amazing technology on the planet. I take this little thing that I can fit in my hand, and it has the potential to produce a tree that’s 80 feet tall, that’s 80 feet wide, that can live a couple hundred years and produce 15 million new acorns. Joshua MacLeod: All of those acorns that come out of that tree look very much like that acorn that I planted in the ground. And so the first step in Growability would look at the vision, mission, values of the organization. What is your DNA? Now the second step in the Growability model is to understand your soil. If you want to plant a tree, you’ve got to have some soil. The soil in any organization is your customer. Who’s buying what you’re selling. And that’s true if you’re a for-profit or a nonprofit. A lot of nonprofit leaders don’t like that word customer. Okay, you need a stakeholder or a shareholder or a partner or a donor or whatever… Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: The third thing it’s crucial for every organization to understand what season you are in. In a business world, you have startup and growth and maturity and renewal. So in the same way that in our natural world, we have spring and summer and fall and winter. Understanding what to do during each season is really important to prepare yourself for the next season. Joshua MacLeod: The fourth fundamental in our 12 step Growability model is water. So going back to the analogy, I’ve got my seed, this is my vision. I’ve got my soil, that’s my customer. I’ve got my season. I’m planting at the right time. If I don’t have water, this thing’s never going to grow. So water is like the team, the most important ingredient in any organization, which is water, which is your team. Joshua MacLeod: The fifth is about leadership. So the fifth fundamental or the fifth step in the Growability model is what we call tap root. How do you break out of your shell and dig deep? Setting goals is what we put in the tap root step. The sixth step is your trunk. Now your trunk adds structure to the organization. The trunk is your budget. This is the way that you handle money, finances. The structure for your organization that you can build branches off of is your trunk. Joshua MacLeod: So that’s the sixth fundamental. The seventh is the roots. How does your organization build community? It’s not the branches that hold a tree up in a storm, it’s the roots. So do you have a good community of people that surround your business and help it thrive? And then how are you feeding that community? How are you sewing into your root system for your organization so that your root system can sew into your growth? Okay. Step eight, step eight is your gardener. The way that I multiply growth in an organization is I prune it. Joshua MacLeod: I got to cut branches that are ineffective. Who’s your gardener? Who is helping you prune your organization? The ninth step is to streamline your systems. Your systems are branches. So what are we doing to build our systems? And then the 10th is how you manage your time. So leaves are how trees convert sunlight into energy. Time is how you convert priority into effectiveness. How do you maximize your time at an organization? The 11th is measurement. This is looking at the fruit. You don’t achieve what you don’t measure. Joshua MacLeod: You don’t improve what you don’t measure. Measurement is a fundamental ingredient for building any organization. And then finally you have multiplication, and this is marketing. How do you take that product of who you are and bring it out into the market and so on and so forth? Joshua MacLeod: So those are the 12 fundamental steps of the Growability model. They’re not for the gimick of heart. And they’re not for the get rich quick of heart. They are fundamental for the wise and heart. They are fundamentally for the team in heart. They’re fundamentally for people who want to do the things that have a 20 year lifespan, not just a 90 day gimmick span. Bernie Anderson: That’s right. Joshua MacLeod: This is not the shortcut. This is the long cut. We don’t even train this in a day seminar because I would be lying to you to say, you’re going to learn everything you need to know to run your business in my one day seminar. That’s just not true. But if you join a community of entrepreneurs and you meet together with them regularly for a year, you’re going to learn everything you need to know to thrive and survive and grow an organization that makes a deep impact in your community and around the world. Bernie Anderson: So you’ve gone through this entire model, Joshua, how do people learn to take this and make it real in their business, in their organization or their nonprofit? Joshua MacLeod: One of the reasons why we’re doing this podcast is so that I can write the Growability book so that for 20 bucks on Amazon or whatever, you can get a copy of, hey, here’s the fundamentals of each of these 12 steps that we just talked about. Until that book is written, I think the best low cost or free options are this podcast. If you listen to this podcast, you’re learning a lot of the tools and the philosophy and the strategy behind what it looks like to be a Growability business. However, there is no substitute for learning in community. Joshua MacLeod: I think the very best way to experience Growability is with a group of other entrepreneurs where you meet with them, either on Zoom or in person, and you meet twice a month for two hours, and then you learn the fundamentals that are necessary to grow your organization. So we call that the Growability collaborative. This is where you collaborate with other leaders. It’s group-based education. And then ultimately, if you can afford, or you have the resources to bring in a Growability consultant, we come in and teach your team. Joshua MacLeod: We help with your models, your processes, your marketing. We’re going to come along and really help your organization become a Growability empowered organization. So the cheapest way to get involved with Growability is free, which is listen to the Growability podcast and join the Growability podcast Facebook group, or ask for an invitation to that by sending an email to Joshua or [email protected]. Joshua MacLeod: The most impactful way is likely joining a Growability collaborative with other business owners and leaders and going through a year long course. Or if you can afford it, bringing in a growability consultant to actually run through the Growability process and adopt the Growability process in your organization, and then just go out and kick butt for 20 years. So those are the three ways that I would recommend free low cost reasonable, moderate costs, so. Bernie Anderson: Those collaboratives are just downright fun. Joshua MacLeod: They’re incredible. Bernie Anderson: And when people are- Bernie Anderson: I mean, everybody that I’ve talked to, that’s been a part of a Growability collaborative are, “That was so helpful, but it was also just fun.” We’re going to sign off here. We want everyone to remember that you’re doing better than you think, and you have more potential than you know, and we appreciate all of you growing along with us at Growability. Joshua MacLeod: See you next week. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability, equip leaders throughout the world. And we appreciate your support.  The post EP30 – The 12 Step Growability Model – Overview first appeared on Growability.

Today’s episode marks the beginning of a new series sharing the 12 business fundamentals found in the 12 Step Growability Model. In this episode, Joshua shares the why behind the what of Growability. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. This episode covers: The story behind Growability The “why” behind our “what” Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: But the thing that I learned in my first career was what I call the myth of success. And I see this in a lot of people climbing the corporate ladder, a lot of young people, a lot of old people. The concept is success and money are going to make me happy. If I’m going to spend a considerable amount of my life climbing this ladder, I don’t want to do that if I’m not going to end up happy at the top. Announcer: Welcome to The Growability Podcast, your home for leadership, management, and marketing education. Growability teaches business and nonprofit leaders how to minimize stress and maximize growth. Today’s episode marks the beginning of a new series sharing the 12 business fundamentals found in the 12 Step Growability Model. In this episode, Joshua shares the why behind the what of Growability. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: We’re going to be taking the next several weeks on the podcast, maybe even in the live lunch and learn to talk with everyone who’s listening to us about the 12 Step Growability Model. I’d actually like for us to talk for a minute about the why behind the what, Joshua, because I’ve known you for a long time. I’ve known how you have spent some significant amount of your life in the nonprofit world. Bernie Anderson: I would like to know why you moved from the nonprofit world into the for-profit world of being a business coach and a mentor. Tell us a little bit about that story and why that is something that you did. Joshua MacLeod: Excellent question, Bernie. I appreciate that. I didn’t start out in the nonprofit world. I started in the for-profit world. But the thing that I learned in my first career was what I call the myth of success. And the concept was, and I see this in a lot of people climbing the corporate ladder, a lot of young people, a lot of old people, the concept is success and money are going to make me happy. Joshua MacLeod: I’m the guy climbing the corporate ladder, and then I’m rubbing shoulders with people who are at the top of the ladder, and they’re all telling me, “Josh, you’re great. You’re going to get up here with us when we’re at the top of this ladder.” But I looked up at the top of the ladder and I’m like, “You’re not happy.” If I’m going to spend a considerable amount of my life climbing this ladder, I don’t want to do that if I’m not going to end up happy at the top. Joshua MacLeod: So looking at that, I was climbing the corporate ladder to cover the bases, to build a career, to make sure that I was taking care of my family. I don’t want to not pay the bills, and I don’t want to lose my potential, so I’m going to stay in this career. The challenge was I didn’t feel like my first career was, A, something that I really liked, and B, something that I was designed to do. Joshua MacLeod: The challenge was, do I stay on the corporate ladder because the corporate ladder is what everybody else does, and then once I get to the retirement age, I can just figure out and go do what I want to do with the money that I’ve accumulated, or do I jump off of the corporate ladder and take a risk and just hope things are going to work out okay? So I figured, okay, I’m 27 years sold. I’ve got great career prospects. Joshua MacLeod: I’m going to jump off this ladder and see if I can go do something more aligned with what I believe that I’m designed to do and more aligned with what I think will be impactful for myself and for others. You asked me a question about why did I go from the nonprofit world to the business world, and I’m spending all this to I’m talking about, first of all, why I went from the business world to the nonprofit world. Bernie Anderson: I think, Joshua, that there are a lot of people who… Your story there is not uncommon. You figured this out at 27. There’s a lot of people my age who are just now figuring out, “Oh my gosh, I have spent all of this time and effort to climb the corporate ladder. I’m at the top of this corporate ladder,” or whatever that is in your field, but you’re at the peak and the pinnacle of your career, and now what? You know? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: You figured that out. You had an early midlife crisis apparently. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah, you’re exactly right. I had a midlife crisis at 27 years old. I had the cover of the Nashville Bar Journal. I was working on $100 million lawsuits. I had respect. I had a team. We opened another office. My income had more than doubled since I started at the company. I was in really great shape. But for whatever reason, the itch was not scratched. I didn’t feel like I was doing what I was designed to do. I don’t recommend jumping off of ladders, unless you have two things that are fully in place. One is if your spouse is 100% on board. Joshua MacLeod: Don’t jump off a ladder if your spouse is like, “This is a bad idea,” because most likely they’re right. But the other thing is, is if you don’t have peace with God. For me, when I jumped off the ladder, I felt like more than this is okay to do, that this is an assignment, or this is something that I have permission to do. If you don’t have peace with God and you don’t have peace with your spouse, stay where you are until you can be in a place where you have peace with and your spouse, and then you can take a risk and jump off the ladder. Joshua MacLeod: I jumped off the ladder and I decided that I would do what I thought was the most fun thing that I could think of, which was I’m going to go become a filmmaker. I had enough people who were a community of friends and a church that supported me and then was like, “Hey, give it a shot. Go for it.” People started funding me to learn how to be a filmmaker so that I could travel all over the world and be a filmmaker. So that’s what I did. I spent seven years in 21 countries. I spent about three years of my life in that seven years on the field, but it wasn’t in one location. Joshua MacLeod: It was in 21 different locations. I would go for 20 days at a time, learn the story of the organization, the people who were doing the work. But here’s what I learned in that second career. In the first career, I learned the myth of success, that success and money are never going to make you happy. In the second career, I learned the myth of heart. Having a good heart doesn’t mean that you’re going to be a great leader. Maybe I’ll call that the Disney myth. There is no substitute for a good administration. Joshua MacLeod: As I was traveling all over the world, I saw beautiful, wonderful hearted people, but some of them were making a tremendous impact in the communities where they were serving. Some of them were making a mediocre impact in the communities that they were serving. What I realized was is that those as people who were making a tremendous impact in the communities in which they were serving had a combination of, A, a really good heart, but B, they were really, really smart. The way that they decided to interact, they were relational. Joshua MacLeod: They were strategic. They put into practice that are necessary for organizations to grow. In the business community, you have all the really smart administrators. In the missional community, you have all the really great hearted servants. What if you combined those two? That’s when I became more fascinated in building the organization that would serve people than just telling the story of the person with a really good heart. And I realized, you know what? There’s a ton of people who can go out there and tell stories better than I can. Joshua MacLeod: There’s better filmmakers out there. Realizing that I had aptitude and access and ability to help build and structure organizations and to encourage leaders, I started becoming more fascinated with the necessary practices to make the organization thrive, to combine the heart with the smart. I started thinking, oh my goodness, here I am kind of running away from the business world because the assumption was that the business world was just these people that are stuck and climbing a ladder that doesn’t bring any happiness. Joshua MacLeod: But then I realized, no, there’s a ton of people who are not stuck, who are in the business world, and they’re making an incredible difference all around the world. I was like, well, what if I shifted gears? Instead of just working with the teams overseas and the really goodhearted people, but what if I started working just with leaders in general? If they’re on the team overseas, great. But if they’re the ones that are funding that work, great. That’s kind of where I got into Growability and started building the Growability Model. Joshua MacLeod: And then we officially launched Growability in 2010. What I’ve learned in the Growability career, so since 2010, I’ve been working with and consulting leaders. Bernie, you and I both, this is what we do. What I learned is you can be smart and you can have the right heart, but it doesn’t mean you’re actually going to change your behavior. The only way that people are going to change the behavior is if the things that they’re assigned to do are, one, easy and, two, attractive. If it’s not easy and it’s not attractive, I’m not going to do it. Joshua MacLeod: I realized that to empower leaders to empower others, they need to be able to build systems where you can create habits. At Growability, when you look at these 12 steps that we’re talking about, the 12 steps are not just smart steps and they’re not just heart steps, but they really are the tools to build habits that every organization needs so that they can survive and then they can also thrive. Bernie Anderson: Here’s the takeaway from this that I think is really important. There is a false dichotomy in so much of the world in thinking, well, I can either make my life count by making a lot of money and climbing the ladder and doing the thing and I could do that, or I can make my life count by throwing all that away, jump off the ladder, and I’m just going to like the heart’s dichotomy. It’s such a freeing revelatory experience to understand that, oh, I can do both. I can have a huge heart. I can actually make money. Bernie Anderson: There’s nothing wrong with that. But I can do both of these things at the same time in a way that’s sustainable, in a way that’s thriving, in a way that serves the community and the people around me and isn’t selfish, greedy. I think that your story really shows how you can do that. I think the Growability Model is… That’s what we teach. We teach people that, hey, you should care about your purpose and you should also care about your budget. You should have that habits that you need to really make that happen. I love that. Joshua MacLeod: Bernie, I would say, it’s not success that makes people happy. It’s service. If you decide to take everything that you are and have and the access and the ability and the opportunity and you center it on serving other people, you’re really, really going to be happy. The second thing is with the myth of heart, kind of like this idea that, oh, if I have a good heart, everything else is going to work out, there’s a conflict there with reality. The only way that the myth of heart works is if you don’t measure anything. Joshua MacLeod: I learned in the fundraising world or in the nonprofit world, you don’t need to have a hundred good stories a year to raise a million dollars. You only need one. There are organizations out there, some of them are doing a hundred good things or a thousand good things with a million dollars, and some are really just doing one. To me, it was an integrity issue of whoa, whoa, what is the difference? Joshua MacLeod: If these people have a good heart, the difference between the one and the hundred and the thousand really is a lot of times it’s the integrity of your system. It’s the integrity of your process. It’s the integrity of your budget. It’s the integrity of your teamwork. No matter who you are, I think if you’re a business person, the Growability Model is designed to help you add a little more heart to your organization. Joshua MacLeod: If you are a missional person, the Growability Model is designed to bring a little more smart to your organization. When you combine those things, it’s a powerful combination, both of which are designed to make sure that you do what you’re talking about, not just talk about what you’re talking about. Announcer: Thank you for listening to The Growability Podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops, and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders through the world, and we appreciate your support.  The post EP29 – The Growability Model – Why Behind the What – Series Episode 1 first appeared on Growability.

This is the second of a two-part series about running your business like Pixar with 5 key lessons from the book Creativity Inc. written by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. This episode covers: Being wrong as fast as you can Making sure everyone is responsible for improvement Podcast Transcript: Joshua MacLeod: Modeling failure in front of a team is one of the best ways to establish your leadership. If you fail well, you will have loyal followers. If you fail poorly, people are going to jump ship. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to The Growability Podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. This is the second of a two part series about how to run your business like Pixar. Let’s listen as Joshua and Bernie discuss points four and five of the key lessons from the book, Creativity, Inc., written by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Joshua MacLeod: The third point in creating leaders who create leaders as seen through the lens of Creativity, Inc. If you’re going to be wrong, be wrong as fast as you can. Mistakes are the inevitable consequence of doing something new. If you’re going to do something that is really amazing, you’re going to have to add creativity. If you’re going to add creativity, mistakes are inevitable. One of my favorite quotes from the Creativity, Inc. book was, “In Pixar, early on all of our movies sucked.” So the whole concept was, hey, we’re going to try this creative thing. But they hadn’t figured out the creative playbook yet because they threw it out there fast. We’re going to try it like this and this and this. They were able to make adjustments. Some of the notes I have here, “Make your best guess and hurry up about it so that if you’re wrong, you still have time to change course.” Bernie Anderson: I tend to be a pretty like bulldog as far as, all right, I’m going to do this and I’m going to persevere. Perseverance is everything. I sometimes have a hard time trying to figure out, all right, is this something I really should continue persevering on? Or is this something that I just need to let go as a failure? And it’s fine. Let’s start with the next thing. How do I differentiate between failure of concept and failure of strategy? Joshua MacLeod: So that leads perfectly into the fourth point, which is change directions when enlightened. Bernie Anderson: Got it. Joshua MacLeod: If you are going to be a leader who makes leaders, you have to model changing direction when you have more information. One of the best ways for a leader to gain trust with his team or her team is to respond well to failure. Modeling failure in front of a team is one of the best ways to establish your leadership. If you fail well, you will have loyal followers. If you fail poorly, people are going to jump ship. I remember at the beginning of COVID, I realized, okay, everybody’s going to start doing video streaming. And so I got on Google and I spent two hours looking at what video streaming service should I use. So I looked at all the options and I chose GoToMeeting. So then I’m like, well, let me get a deal. So I’m going to buy a year’s worth of GoToMeeting up front. Here we go. Joshua MacLeod: I drop $300, GoToMeeting. In the next week, I had three people say, “Hey, can you come to my Zoom meeting?” And then I heard they started calling it Zoom meetings on the news. Nobody’s saying, “GoToMeeting meetings.” Everybody is saying, “Zoom meetings.” So I had to make a decision, what am I going to do? So you know what I did? I bought Zoom. I bought a year’s worth of Zoom. I was like everybody’s going to use Zoom. I don’t want to be stuck with GoToMeeting. When you get enlightened, change direction. Joshua MacLeod: So Steve Jobs is known for changing his mind instantly in light of new facts. What they did at Pixar is every single time that they made a movie, every single time they made an edit, every single time they did a round of revisions, they had this process of reviewing what they learned. There’s a five step process. Number one, schedule a time to talk and review. The second thing is they would consolidate what they learned. Here’s what we learned. The tools that we picked up. These are the strategies that we picked up. Number three, anybody who wasn’t there, somebody couldn’t make the meeting, they were hunted down. If you didn’t make the meeting, you still had to get the education. Number four is to talk about any resentment. So for two minutes you get to talk about how you feel, what you don’t like, why this went south. And then number five is to ask a list of questions for what are we going to do next time. Ask yourself, “What did we learn at the end of every project, every activity, every new thing that you do?” Bernie Anderson: “What are you learning right now?” is such a valuable question. Calling your team together and saying, “Team, what are we learning right now?” is so powerful. Because if you can get your team to articulate what it is that they’re learning, to get it out loud, out of their heads and even better on a whiteboard or something where you actually write down, “Here’s what our team is learning right now.” Just to have that there for them to see and to process. A super powerful thing, I think, for teams and team building and really moving your organization forward. Joshua MacLeod: It’s such a beautiful thing. Companies become exceptional by realizing those areas in which they are not exceptional. So if you know where you’re not exceptional, it allows you to say, “Okay, well, we don’t have to be. I don’t have to do that.” That’s an enlightenment in itself that is huge for decisions. If I learn, hey, we’re not exceptional about onboarding. So we might need somebody else to help us onboard. We’re not exceptional about reporting. Well, we might need to bring in a team member that can help us with reporting. What an opportunity to change directions when you’re enlightened. Ask the question, “Hey, what did we learn?” Model failure in a beautiful way and then realize where you’re not exceptional and make adjustments. Joshua MacLeod: So the fifth thing, this is the final thing. The fifth thing in Creativity, Inc., distilled, is to make sure that everyone on the team is responsible for improvement. Continual improvement is not the job of the boss or the manager or the team leader or the secretary or the whatever. Continual improvement in the organization is the job of everyone. The reason why Japan went from a fundamentally decimated economy after World War II to grow to become the number two super economic superpower in the world. Deming goes over to Japan and is helping with the reconstruction of the automotive industry. He said, “Look, we are going to work on improving, not just as the leaders, but we’re going to work on improving everybody.” The guy that’s on the shop floor working on the car handle. And then there’s the person that’s up in the surveying booth that’s working on the financials for the organization.” And what would happen in the society is that this person that’s up in the box was making all the decisions when the person who’s actually on the assembly line didn’t have any input into that. Joshua MacLeod: So Deming just convinced the leaders, “What if it wasn’t just the job of the overseer to make the improvement plan? What if it was the job of the person on the line to make the improvement?” And when those two people started having really good conversations, well, now you have Toyota and now you have Honda and now you have Nissan. When everybody is responsible for the solution that is critical because now there’s information flow from decision makers and people doing the work. There’s this constant flow back and forth. Joshua MacLeod: But the other thing is, don’t see your limitation as a weakness, see your limitation as an opportunity. Creativity thrives in limitation. I need to figure out how to outfit this room and make it look really great with $200. I’ve got a blank room. I’ve got to figure out how am I going to make this thing look great with $200. Well, guess what? You can do it. There are creative ways to do that. We have only been getting six units out the door on Thursdays. We have got to figure out how to get 30 units out on Thursdays and we only have this fork, $16 and a small shrub. So we’ve got to figure out how to make this happen. But limitation actually fuels creativity. Bernie Anderson: Another way to put this is to MacGyver everything. Joshua MacLeod: MacGyver everything, that’s exactly right. If you can figure out how to MacGyver situations, you’re going to thrive. An organization that learns to accomplish more with less creates what we call profit. So your limitations fuel your profitability. Limitations are actually good, that’s one of the things, everybody’s responsible for improvement and open communication. Even if people are not responsible for the same things, everybody should be communicating about everything else in the organization. If I only have this conversation, I’m hiding this bit of information from everybody else in the organization, then I’m losing like 60% better idea of potential. Joe on the shop floor might have the $10 billion idea just sitting there but only if Joe actually has access to have communication with the president of the organization with his idea. That’s why I like companies like Google and Apple, they set up these totally open areas because you could just walk over to the booth and talk to that person. They’re the CEO, yeah but they’re available. So open communication really makes a huge difference in everybody being responsible for improvement. Bernie Anderson: I think that goes back to some of the culture things we were talking about early on in the workplace because open communication is going to mean that it’s okay to mess up. If you mess up, own it and it’s fine. And I think having an organization where everybody just is, hey, this is who I am. I’m comfortable in my shoes. Oh yeah, we messed up here. Great, now we can go do it right. Having that kind of culture is really something to strive for, isn’t it? Joshua MacLeod: It’s what I want, Bernie. And I’m excited about being able to surround myself with people who are smarter than me, who are not intimidated by challenging ideas and who are comfortable failing fast, improving steady. It’s really cool. It’s really, really cool. Maybe we should start making animated films. What do you think? Maybe we could invent the next Bernie Anderson: I think that goes back to the thing about failing fast, as fast as you can and realizing that maybe this isn’t our space. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Realizing where you cannot be exceptional. Bernie Anderson: Maybe we can excel in helping somebody else who makes animated films so or something? I don’t know. Joshua MacLeod: So Bernie, what do we want to remind everybody here at the conclusion of our podcast? Bernie Anderson: We want to remind everybody you are doing much better than you think, you have more potential than you know and we appreciate all of you who have joined us today, growing with Growability. And we’ll see everyone next week. Joshua MacLeod: See you next week everybody. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to The Growability Podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world and we appreciate your support.  The post EP28 – How To Run a Business Like Pixar- Part 2 of 2 first appeared on Growability.

Do you apply the leadership principles used at Pixar? This is the first of a two-part series about running your business like Pixar with 5 key lessons from the book Creativity Inc. written by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. This episode covers: Getting the right team is more important than the right idea Great products require constructive tension Podcast Transcript: Joshua MacLeod: Great leaders not only find the right team, a team that’s good for their future, a team where you’re hiring people smarter than you, a team that everyone shares the same values, but they also are really good at building environments where you can have candid and constructive conversations. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability Podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. This is the first of a two-part series about how to run your business like Pixar. Let’s listen as Joshua and Bernie discussed five key lessons from the book Creativity, Inc. Written by Edwin Catmull and Amy Wallace. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: I really am enjoying, Joshua, the conversation we’ve had over the last couple of weeks talking about leaders, and I understand you have another book today that we can maybe take some time to talk about. Joshua MacLeod: I made a tactical error, Bernie, on our podcast by starting with Abraham Lincoln. Like what? So I started thinking about, okay, great. We’re talking about leaders who make leaders, let’s start with Abraham Lincoln, and now it’s like, oh crap, where do you go from Abraham Lincoln? Like we should have ended with that. But yeah, I thought today we could talk about the book Creativity, Inc. Creativity, Inc. is kind of the story of Pixar. I’m thinking like 15 years ago is actually when I picked up this book. I came out with five key concepts, and I thought let’s just talk through the same way that we did with the Abraham Lincoln book. Let’s talk through some of these five key concepts in the Creativity, Inc. book. Joshua MacLeod: Number one, getting the right team is more important than getting the right idea. I think sometimes we assume that if I have the right idea, everything’s just going to work. The ideas are going to make it easier. The ideas are going to make it more beautiful. All I need is the brilliant idea. I was into conversation this week actually, and I reminded everybody, okay, hey, let’s remember the idea is 1% of the solution. 99% of the solution is blood, sweat and tears. Ideas don’t create paychecks. Bernie Anderson: Right, right. Joshua MacLeod: Completed ideas actually create paychecks. So if you have the right team, and if you build the right team, your ideas are going to become realities. Hire people who come up with lots of solutions in a short amount of time. If you can find people who are able to come up with options, that’s what really smart people do. People who are smart think smart, and they help you learn how to think smart. Hire people who are definitely smarter than you. Bernie Anderson: Steve Jobs who was very much involved with Pixar, he’s the prime example of someone who hired people smarter than he was. Steve Jobs didn’t know anything about the computer animation of making Woody, the cartoon character, right? He got the right people in the right place at the right time to do that and did that really, really well. Joshua MacLeod: Hire people who are little intimidating. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: If they come and work with you, you’ll get smarter. And if you are hiring them, first of all, you’re the one hiring them. You’re giving them an opportunity. You’re giving them a job. And people, when they go to work somewhere, they go to work somewhere where they can use their gifts and talents. There’s nothing better than being able to bring a lot of value and bring a lot of joy into your life and your work. If you go somewhere and they celebrate your smart, no matter what that smart looks like, then it really does, it’s going to help them explore and reach their full potential. Joshua MacLeod: So I got two more points about getting the right team being more important than the right idea. First point would be, A, hire people who are smarter than you. The second is hire people who are a good fit for your future. Often we want to hire people who are a good fit for our right now, but then once you achieve whatever’s done in the right now, they may not be a good fit for your future. Joshua MacLeod: So one of the things I wrote down from this Creativity, Inc. book is protection of the future must be a conscious action. If we don’t put a lot of thought into our future and protecting our future, and hiring people towards our future, you look at Apple and Steve Jobs has been deceased for several years, well, Steve Jobs hired Tim Cook. Tim Cook just got some like $500 million payout because all of the stock projections were well above where they thought they were going to be. So when Pixar was hiring, they didn’t just hire people who were good for their present, they hired somebody that’s going to be able to figure out the programs that work for the next 20 years. Joshua MacLeod: I want to say this quote, I really like this quote, “Find, develop and support good people, and they in turn will find, develop and support good ideas.” So when you get the right people in your organization, they are the kind of people that find, develop and support good ideas. If you are the only one in the organization that can find, develop and support good ideas, then the organization is only going to grow towards your own capacity. If you can find support and develop the kind of people that find support and develop ideas, then the organization can grow to an unparalleled capacity, like your future is really great. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, I feel like that’s really important. How does a leader do that? How does someone in the hiring process, what are they looking for when they’re looking for someone who’s a good fit for the future? Joshua MacLeod: My opinion on this is hire someone old. Now that makes seem way counterintuitive. Bernie Anderson: As an old person now, I feel like that’s a good thing. Joshua MacLeod: So the thing is when you hire someone young, they’re really trying to accomplish everything on their own. They’re trying to prove a point. When you hire someone old, they’re really trying to leave a legacy. They’ve learned that the journey is more important than the destination. They take life in more stride, they have more insight. So if you want to hire somebody for the future, hire someone old. Joshua MacLeod: Now, what you may not get from that person is the longest shelf life. They might say, “Okay, I’m 60 years old. I’m going to retire in five years.” But in that five years, you’re going to be able to develop five other people or five really good ideas. So if you want to hire somebody for the future, one of the first things I’d say is hire somebody old. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: The second thing I would say is understand your business season. So we can’t really go into that right here, but there’s four different seasons of business growth. So you have organizations that are in startup, organizations that are in growth, organizations that are in maturity, and then organizations that are in renewal. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: So if I’m thinking about a hire for my organization and I’m a startup, I might hire somebody that’s more of a growth mode person. If I’m in an organizational mode of a growth, I might hire someone for a more mature position. If I’m in maturity, I might hire the next startup thinker in the organization. Bernie Anderson: That’s good. And if someone is interested in knowing more about business seasons, you can go to growability.com and reach out for a coach, and we will be happy to walk you through that. Bernie Anderson: Back to the one thing, Joshua, about hiring someone old, but hiring someone old who has the heart of a coach, I think is really important. I’m about others. I’m about coaching others. I’m about serving others. That’s the kind of old person you want. As I, again, step into middle-agedness, I find there’s two different kinds of people. There are the kinds of people who are willing to give and teach and serve and cheer on the younger generation. And then there’s the kind of people that continue to hold onto power. And if you hire someone old who’s holding onto power, then you’re not actually working for the future. Joshua MacLeod: No. Bernie Anderson: But if you hire someone old who’s willing to let go of power to the next generation, that’s the person you want to hire. Joshua MacLeod: People who are able to do that, that have kind of the internal fortitude of just being like, “Hey, I’m a going to step out of the way here,” is really critical. Joshua MacLeod: Okay, so getting the right team is more important than getting the right ideas. Hire people who are smarter than you. Bernie Anderson: Good. Joshua MacLeod: Hire for the future. And then third thing is hire people who share your values. If you have a person on your team who does not have your same values, it doesn’t matter how exceptional they are, eventually it’s not going to work out. Values are what drive us to make decisions. If I understand what someone’s core values are, I’ll understand the decisions that they’re going to make for the future. So if I have somebody that has opposing values than our organization has, then I’m going to bring somebody in who’s going to have opposing decisions than what our organization makes. They might be the most exceptional person in the world, they might help my organization grow, but after a while, it’s going to be like we don’t see eye to eye here. We have a major problem. So you always want to hire people based on whether they share the exact same values that you share as an organization. Joshua MacLeod: Okay, number two. Number to key point from Creativity, Inc,, great products require constructive tension. If you want to know what goes into creating an iPhone, or you want to know what goes into creating a Pixar film, or you want to know what goes into creating a Fortune 500 company, all of those companies recognize the value of constructive tension. If I’m on a team where I say to everybody, “Hey, here’s my best idea,” and everybody just says, “Oh, they’re the boss. Great, let’s not attack that idea,” then you’re never going to reach the best idea. The thing that the leaders of the organization have to do is invite people to challenge the idea. They’re not challenging the person, but they’re challenging the ideas. Great leaders facilitate constructive tension. Great leaders facilitate conversations that challenge the norm of an idea. So the manager’s job is to figure out how to help people have conversations that are constructive, but not destructive relationally. Constructive in getting the best idea out, without crossing the line and becoming destructive in the relationship. Joshua MacLeod: Now, you can mature in this. And I think that Creativity, Inc. book does a really good job of talking about how Steve Jobs matured in this. So Steve Jobs was really great at pushing people, but he matured and got a little bit more order about when is it appropriate to push someone versus when is it appropriate to kind of pull back from that push so that you don’t break them. So what you want to do, you want to push them up to the point where they’re close enough to the fire where it’s warm. You don’t want to push them into the fire. Where it’s warm is where you can bend the metal, but you don’t want to break the metal. You want to bend it but not break it. Bernie Anderson: I feel like that’s a really cool way to actually just run any kind of business, is that, hey, we can always make this idea better. It’s not about excellence in the sense of great first draft. The quest for excellence is having an environment where it’s okay to have a not excellent rough draft. In fact, you want that because actually you need something to edit and to make better. And so getting the draft out and being okay with the fact that, hey, isn’t very good yet. And they talk about this in this book a lot. When Toy Story first came out, they were in a meeting and they were like, “This isn’t very good.” It just wasn’t great. But it’s okay because in that environment, they were able to be free and candid enough with each other to eventually make one of the best movies of all time. Joshua MacLeod: Well and that formula continued. Toy Story 1 worked because of candid communication, challenging ideas and showing people the rough draft. Well, so did Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 and Toy story 4. They all worked out. Bernie Anderson: It all worked. Joshua MacLeod: So what candor does, we think that candor might make it so that people aren’t going to like me or they’re not going to trust me because I told them that they have some ketchup on their face. The opposite actually happens. When I tell somebody you have ketchup on your face, then they go, “Oh, you’re the kind of person I can trust. You’re going to tell me if I have ketchup on my face.” Without candor, you cannot have trust. And without trust, you cannot have collaboration. Joshua MacLeod: What great leaders do, great leaders not only find the right team, a team that’s good for their future, a team where you’re hiring people smarter than you, a team that everyone shares the same values, but they all so are really good at building environments where you can have candid and constructive conversation. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability Podcast. The mission of growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world and we appreciate your support.  The post EP27 – How To Run a Business Like Pixar- Part 1 of 2 first appeared on Growability.

Do you lead like Abraham Lincoln? This is the final conversation about the Top 10 Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln. Reflections on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin This episode covers: Step out of the way when necessary for the cause Loneliness and melancholy are normal for exceptional leaders Invite Young Leaders to the Table. Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: I don’t know at what point I transitioned from, “I have to do this myself and learn this myself,” to, “I’m going to let somebody else take the blows in this stupid tax, and I’m just going to learn from them. But books are phenomenal ways to do that, where you can just really learn from somebody else. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability Podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching, consultation, and business collaboration needs. This is the third and final episode in our three-part series, sharing the top ten leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln. Let’s pick up with Joshua and Bernie, as they discuss lessons seven through ten. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Joshua MacLeod: All right, number seven, this one is, step out of the way if necessary for the cause. Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a really successful run of elections leading up to the presidency. He had several failed elections before he actually became elected to be the president of the United States. You have the Republican Party and you have the Democratic Party. And so, Abraham Lincoln’s on the Republican Party and there’s another person running for this seat. I think it was the Senate seat. I can’t remember exactly what seat he was running for. The other side had 49 votes or something like that, that was in the other party. He had 48 votes. And then, there was this guy who had three votes that was in his same party, in his same ticket. They did several rounds of ballots, and these three people, they just weren’t going to budge. In order for the party to win the result, the only way that it would be possible is to take the guy who had 48 votes and give all of those votes to the person that had three votes. So that the party could win. Bernie Anderson: Wow. Joshua MacLeod: And so, in this case, Abraham Lincoln did that. He took all of his votes, he gave them to the other person in the party so that the party could win. When I heard that, I was listening to the book and I was like, pause, “Wow.” Step out of the way, if it’s necessary for the cause. Sometimes it’s critical to humbly, let someone else take your place, and let your future have a higher ceiling. Abraham Lincoln was like, “I’m not in this for the short game. I’m not in this for power. I’m in this for the long haul, I want to serve people. I’m going to let the party win this one so that we can gain some ground. Sometimes you just really got to step out of the way and do what’s right for the organization. Not just progress your own cause.” Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua, do you think that the ability to do that has something to do with your clarity of vision, that you’re about something bigger than you, right? Good vision is not about you. It’s not about… Your vision isn’t for yourself. It’s for something bigger than you. It seems like you would have to have that clarity before you’d even be able to step out of the way for the cause, right? Joshua MacLeod: Fundamentally. Abraham Lincoln’s thinking about slavery, he’s thinking about civil war, he’s thinking about all of the factors that are in the country that are rife. And he is like, “Somebody has to stand up against these things. And if I can’t do it, but the cause is doing it, I need to get out of the way.” I think true vision in any organization has to be about something bigger than you, has to be about a cause greater than you, and I don’t think you can make decisions that are bigger than you if you’re not doing something that’s bigger than you. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Really that’s my takeaway right there for this piece is having vision is going to enable you to step out of the way when necessary, because it’s not about you. You’re about something bigger. So, that’s great. Joshua MacLeod: Number eight. Eight points from Abraham Lincoln, loneliness and melancholy are normal for exceptional leaders. When you think about an org chart and you’re like, “Who’s the person at the top, and then who are the next people down, and then who are the next people down? The org chart is actually best represented completely flipped upside down. And the question is, how much weight is on the person that is on the bottom that holds all of the responsibility for all of these things? Joshua MacLeod: So when you look at Abraham Lincoln and he’s got the entire nation of responsibility on him. It’s like, okay, here’s my cabinet that’s standing on top of me, and then here’s the house and the Senate, and then here’s all the generals and all of these people. The weight of leadership often is crushing. It’s difficult, it’s challenging. So we expect somebody to be a leader that never gets depressed, that never feels lonely, that never has bad days. Melancholy and loneliness are absolutely normal for exceptional leaders. There was a season where Abraham Lincoln faced several deaths. Family members and friends and people who were very close to him died and he would have these seasons of depression. But what happened is he let those seasons of depression develop deep empathy for other people and if we have a season where just, why does it have to be so hard? Joshua MacLeod: I was talking with this leader, Larry Warren, he had this organization called African Leadership and they trained 40,000 leaders in Africa or something like this. And I was sitting with Larry and I was saying, “Larry!” I’m a young guy. I’m 28 years old. And I’m like, “Why does it have to be so hard? We’re doing good stuff here. Why does this have to be so hard? This is so hard. Why? I’ve worked in things that aren’t this hard. Why does this have to be so hard?” and Larry looked at me and he said, “I don’t know. And I don’t like it, but that’s the way it is.” Joshua MacLeod: And I just was like, “Oh, so it’s not like I’m doing something wrong.” sometimes really, really good things are really, really hard. And if you feel sad about the brokenness of the world, that means you’re somewhat connected to the brokenness of the world. If you look at the Beatitudes, the second Beatitude is, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And so seasons of loneliness, seasons of melancholy, depression, that’s actually not uncommon. If you look at Abraham Lincoln, the things though that separated him out as an incredible leader is his mood never impacted his decision. So it didn’t matter how he felt, the decisions that he made were based on the right thing to do. For moving at the speed of people, for accomplishing beautiful objectives, he didn’t let his mood determine the decision. He was very rational and separated the melancholy from the meaningful, incredible person. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. I think that’s the key right there, Joshua. What you just said about his mood never impact his decision. There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling melancholy, but I think the thing that sets apart somebody who’s really going to lead well, is that at the end of the day, they still make the decisions that they need to make, not based on how they feel, but based on what’s right. On what is going to make sense for the cause for the vision. I think that’s really good. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah, I don’t have to be happy about pulling the weed. I don’t have to be happy about pouring the water. I don’t have to be happy about planting the seed. I don’t have to be happy about putting the fertilizer on the thing to see something grow beautiful. Abraham Lincoln was pretty melancholy. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, he was. Joshua MacLeod: He was not. Even reading his biography was like, that was really hard and sad, but when it comes down to it, golly, what a legacy, what an impact. Okay. The ninth point. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Number nine. Joshua MacLeod: Number nine. Pursue excellence, not acceptance. Abraham Lincoln was absolutely excellent in everything that he did, but he was super comfortable in his own shoes. Abraham Lincoln was the opposite of, “I’m not going to ask that question because I might look stupid.” He would ask the question and didn’t care whether he looked stupid because he wanted to know the knowledge underneath the thing. I’ve got a note here, it’s more important to be educated than fashionable. So we think that to raise the ranks in society, you need to drive this, you need to look like this, you need to X, Y, Z. No. What you need to do is actually be educated to have options where other people just have copycat solutions, you actually have well-thought educated decisions. You spend your time more learning how to learn than you do, spending your time, learning how to look. Joshua MacLeod: If I’m so worried about what I look like, I’m not spending enough time learning how to learn. And so another note that I have here is that your capacity to learn will determine your future success. The moment that you stop learning and start judging and critiquing, you’re putting a limit on the amount of people that you can serve or the height of where you can go in your organization. Learning is fundamentally connected with humility. Abraham Lincoln was somebody that regardless of his position, he continued to learn. He didn’t see his position as a privilege. He saw his position as an opportunity to even get better and learn more and grow. What an example, what an incredible example. Bernie Anderson: That’s great. Yeah. I love that. Joshua MacLeod: Number 10. So the 10th thing that I learned from Team of Rivals about Abraham Lincoln was to invite young leaders to the table. Abraham Lincoln surrounded himself with the future and he let them in the room where it happened. He let them watch. He let them see. He was continually looking out at people with potential, particularly young leaders. And he would invite them to the conversation I wrote down here in my notes, delight in children, if you want to have a delightful future because the people that you delight in when they’re young become delightful people. He could have looked at the young people and thought, “Oh, these people are adding too much drama. I need to really think about my important decision right here with the smartest people in the room.” He didn’t do that. He invited young people to the table. Joshua MacLeod: Another note I have is cultivate relationships with people half your age so that you have strong relationships for your entire life because the pool of people if you’re going to live long, the pool of people that are going to live along with you start dropping off. But if you are cultivating relationships with the people that are half your age and delighting in them, then you’re going to have really strong relationships your whole life. Bernie Anderson: I love that. I love that. Joshua MacLeod: Really, really cool. Bernie Anderson: I think it’s important for us as we get older, to be just a raving fan of the younger generation. I love that advice. And I think that as we help each other get better, that’s actually leadership as opposed to, “Ah, those kids these days.” or whatever. Joshua MacLeod: It’s challenging though. In order to work with generations that are different than you, you have to do two things as an older person. One, is you have to get out of your comfort zone. And the second thing you have to do is you have to be a really good listener. It’s not just about, “Hey, I’m going to go tell all of these kids, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” you actually have to listen and see. I’ve got some incredible examples of people in my life that do this. My dad and my father-in-law, I was over yesterday, just listening to my dad, to my kids, just talk about normal stuff. The kids are just going on and on and on and on about, “And this is my homework, and this is this.” My dad was just like, “Wow. Oh wow. That’s so cool. Oh.” and it’s the delight of kids to be listened to by somebody that’s older. I think it’s easier for older people to critique the stupidity of youth. It’s easier to do that than it is to listen and encourage people that are growing. Bernie Anderson: These 10 things are great. I mean, I have this book that’s on my slate. It’ll probably… I’ve got two things to finish before I start on it, but it’s coming because I’m looking forward to read it myself. But… Joshua MacLeod: Incredible great writing Doris Kearns Goodwin. Team of Rivals. Incredible writer. Bernie Anderson: That’s so good. So all right, my friend. Joshua MacLeod: And then remember we have our new end of the show here. So remember… Bernie Anderson: You’re doing better than you think. You have more potential than you know. And thank you for growing with Growability. Joshua MacLeod: Oh, I love it. There you go. Bernie Anderson: Sounds lit. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community to discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops, and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.  The post EP26 – How To Lead Like Abraham Lincoln – Part 3 first appeared on Growability.

This is the second episode in our three-part; series sharing the top 10 leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln, based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Do you lead like Abraham Lincoln? Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: There’s not a single instance where Abraham Lincoln, did what everybody else in his entire community did. They made excuses and blamed somebody else. Abraham Lincoln always said, “It was my fault.” No matter what it was. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability Podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders, a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation, and business collaboration needs. This is the second episode in our three-part; series sharing the top 10 leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln, based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Do you lead like Abraham Lincoln? Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: Last week, we started talking about a book that you’ve read about Abraham Lincoln. Joshua MacLeod: Yes. So last week we talked about, the power of pause, where you want to pause before any important decisions. Never use the first draft and then appointing leaders in your organization based on their strengths. Not necessarily based on affection or affiliation, Bernie Anderson: I could give you three different occasions in which all three of these things were something that I used this week. And I was like, huh, Abraham Lincoln. Power the pause. Not a first draft. Don’t do your first draft, hiring by strengths. And not by just because you like somebody, all three of those things I literally use this week. So yeah… Joshua MacLeod: That doesn’t mean you want to not like the people that you hire. Bernie Anderson: I only hire people I hate. Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: So let’s talk about the fourth major point… Joshua MacLeod: So I’ve got 10 points here, top 10 points from Abraham Lincoln. The fourth thing that I learned from Abraham Lincoln was the incredible importance of becoming a storyteller. So Abraham Lincoln’s dad, one of the things that Abraham Lincoln learned from his dad is how to tell a great story. So even as a child, he would watch his dad, make everybody laugh and make a point that people would remember. And as a leader, it’s crucial. I can’t think of actually something more fundamental for a leader than to be able to tell a story. Humans learn through story. The things that we remember the most, are when they’re connected to a story, when we try to make a point and we don’t connect it to a story, people forget the point. When you make a point and you connect it to a story, they actually will remember that story. So three things that Abraham Lincoln did is; one is he kept a notebook of great stories. Bernie Anderson: Hmm Joshua MacLeod: So he would constantly, he had this book that was like a story collector and he would have this notebook and he would write down any time that he heard a good story, as a leader, one of your jobs is to keep a story notebook where you’re collecting. Good, good analogies. When you read a book and you come across a good story that you could use to share with somebody else, write that down. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: The second thing is he would spend hours and hours practicing his stories. Even if he didn’t understand the punchline as a kid, he would see where the punchlines were and like where the data was important. And then he would learn how to craft that story and then tell it to his friends. Joshua MacLeod: So he would listen to stories from his dad, go practice it, go share it with his friends. Eventually when he was in debates, eventually when he was on stage, eventually when he was in a complex conversation. He would always have this pool of stories that he could pull from. And he also had stories that were really, perfectly tuned to the situation because he had so many stories. Abraham Lincoln had a tendency to laugh louder than anyone else [crosstalk 00:03:55]. So he was telling the story and when we tell stories as the leader, the question is, are we the one laughing louder than everybody else in the room? So if you walked into a room where Abraham Lincoln was telling a story, first of all, everybody’s listening because the story is so great and it’s so practiced, but then secondarily, you got to get into it. So if you want to be a great leader, collect really good stories, keep a notebook to do that, practice your storytelling. And then third, whenever you’re telling the story, make sure that you laugh louder than anybody else. Bernie Anderson: I love that. It made me think of a time when we lived in central Asia and we would go to the movie theater. A lot of times the movies are in English. And so the jokes are nuanced and I would be, I’m a loud laugher anyway. [crosstalk 00:04:39] And so I would be like the only one in the whole theater laughing. It was like, what is wrong with this American guy? That was hysterical. And I love that advice. I think that’s super cool. Fifth point. Joshua MacLeod: Fifth point from Abraham Lincoln about great leadership. Move at the speed of people. There are so many leaders who are attempting to, get their organization or their team to move at their speed. The problem is, most leaders, especially exceptional leaders. They move at a pace that’s faster than the rest of the group. If you study Abraham Lincoln and you look at, how he moved, the speed at which he moved on, abolishing slavery, if you look at it at the end, looking back, you’re like, well, he didn’t move fast enough. And he didn’t make this statement clear enough and he didn’t do XYZ. But if you really get to know him, like through this book, he was actually being very strategic, not only in the decisions that he was going to make, but actually the timing of how he was actually going to make the decisions and being strategic. We had a very racist society and Abraham Lincoln was less racist than the majority of people in the nation, but he still had to work with a bunch of racist people to bring about an end to systematic slavery. Joshua MacLeod: One of the things we talk about a lot, Bernie, is not just doing the right thing, but doing the right thing at the right time when you are working with a team or when you’re working with an organization, or even if you’re working with a state or a country. It’s so important that you learn to move at the speed of people. Bernie Anderson: Hmm. Joshua MacLeod: So what is the speed of people? The speed of people is when you generally understand, at what point in time will the people actually embrace this, not just nod their head, but actually sign off, get in the game and make a change. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: Sometimes as leaders, we make mistakes, we run too fast. We outrun, we outpace our team, but Abraham Lincoln was always slowing down. I mean, the guy was a strategic genius. That was just well beyond any contemporary, but he also had a fundamental understanding of the pulse of the north and a fundamental understanding of the pulse of the south. And at what point would the cabinet move here? At what point would the Senate move here? At what point would this army move here? At what point? You really have to move at the speed of the people that are on your team. So Abraham Lincoln had the power of the pause. He never used the first draft. He appointed leaders based on strengths and not friendships. He became a storyteller and then he also always moved at the speed of the people. Bernie Anderson: Wow. That concept is very striking to me. Joshua, have you ever had a leader or worked with a leader or had someone in your life where they either A, did this really well? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: Or B did this really poorly? Joshua MacLeod: Yes. I definitely have done this very poorly personally. One of the ways that, you know you have a strength, is when you look at somebody doing a task or a job, and you’re like, why do they just not get this? How is it possible that they can’t just do that? I’ve made this mistake in business. I’ve made this mistake in ministry. I assigned people based on what I can do, which is the dumbest thing in the world. Everybody is wired completely different. I’ve definitely made mistakes, assigning people to stuff that’s a little bit outside of their comfort zone or not taking enough time to give them the teaching, the training, the tools necessary for them to go out and actually be a little bit more comfortable in that space. Is this the right time to do it? And if it’s not the right time and if people aren’t going to embrace it and people aren’t prepared, then as the leader, your job is to work towards those things. Bernie Anderson: Yes. Joshua MacLeod: Work towards making someone embrace it, work towards preparing the people to actually do it, and then wait for that perfect ideal time to where it’s like, now’s the time let’s move. It’s kind of like the power of the pause, but with a policy. Bernie Anderson: Yeah I love that. Joshua MacLeod: So in one thing, Abraham Lincoln would make the power of the pause with a correspondence. But in the second thing is you would also work on the power of the pause with a policy. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, so good. Joshua MacLeod: Okay. Next up. Should we go to the next one? Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Let’s go to the next one. Joshua MacLeod: Number six. So sixth point, Abraham Lincoln, always take the blame. Bernie Anderson: What? Joshua MacLeod: When Abraham. Always 100% of the time, Abraham Lincoln never… blamed somebody else. If Grant was out fighting and did a foolish thing, Abraham Lincoln said, “I didn’t give him enough information”. If a policy went through that, one of his cabinet just put together this crazy policy. And it went through Abraham Lincoln said “it was my fault. I was the reason behind that”. Joshua MacLeod: In this whole 1000 page book, there’s not a single instance where Abraham Lincoln did what everybody else in his entire community did. They made excuses and blame somebody else. Abraham Lincoln always said; “it was my fault”. No matter what it was. And so the fortitude of just being able to say, this is on me, this is totally on me. You did a stupid thing. Knowing full, well, it wasn’t him. He didn’t have anything to do with it, because he was in charge. Bernie Anderson: Hmm. Joshua MacLeod: He always took the blame. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: If people weren’t prepared, “it was my fault”. If we lost this battle, “it was my fault”. Bernie Anderson: Wow. Joshua MacLeod: If whatever happened, he would always take the blame. That reminds me of a friend of mine, Warner Butters, just an incredible guy. He was a hospital administrator and he went into a hospital. They hired him to come in and bring the hospital to turn it around. When he went in to the hospital, everybody working in the hospital was absolutely gun shy of any risk at all. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: Because, what had happened with the previous administrator was, anytime that anybody did anything wrong, they were smacked down. They were yelled at. It was just a very toxic environment where, you made a mistake. And because you made a mistake, you’re an evil person. And we hate you. So Warner came in and he talked to all of the leaders in all of the managers. And he said, “you guys have so much more potential than we are utilizing as an organization. I want you to know that this is a different leadership style. We’re going to do a different thing. And here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take your best idea and are going to run with it”. So this is just him and the hospital staff, the managers, the people that are in this hospital, he said, “here’s what we’re going to do. Joshua MacLeod: We’re going to take your very best idea and we’re going to run with it. And here’s, what’s going to happen with the results. Number one, if we use your best idea and it works, we are going to celebrate because it worked. Number two. If we take your best idea and we try it and it does not have a lot of gain, it’s just kind of like an out wash. We are going to celebrate because we got smarter in the process, but if we use your best idea and either abysmally fails, we are going to celebrate because we got smarter and I will tell every single person above me and in the entire conglomerate, across the nation, that it was a hundred percent my idea. If it wins, you get the credit. If it has zero result, we all get smarter. Joshua MacLeod: If it abysmally fails, it was my fault. I’ll take the blame”. The next year, that hospital turned around and was more profitable than any other hospital in the region. And then the next year, they were more profitable than any hospital, in the state. That’s the kind of leader that I want to work for. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: That’s the kind of leader that everybody wants to work. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: They’re not going to yell at you for making mistakes. They’re going to encourage you. They’re going to work or they’re going to take their own blame. Abraham Lincoln did that for an entire country. Everybody that worked under him, “Hey, if we try it and it works, we’ll celebrate. We try it. And there’s no change. We got smarter. We tried and it dismally fails. I’ll take the blame”. So one of the things that great leaders do is they always take the blame. Bernie Anderson: That’s so rare. I know I respect when I work with a leader who is willing to shoulder blame, even when it may not be her fault at all, it doesn’t matter. The buck stops at my desk and I’m going to take responsibility for it. That’s just so powerful. Someone who can do that is an incredibly powerful person. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work. By developing vision, rhythm, and community to discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability, equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.  The post EP25 – How To Lead Like Abraham Lincoln – Part 2 first appeared on Growability.

Do you lead like Abraham Lincoln? This is the first of a three-part conversation about the Top 10 Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln. Reflections on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: If you are a genuine leader, your rivals will eventually become your champions. When they see that you’re not just blowing smoke and that you’re the real deal, it’s safe to invite people who are your challengers and who have a difference of opinion than you. Appoint leaders based on strengths, not friendships. Your rivals will become your champions and those who are only seeking power will be exposed and diminished. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. What would happen to your business if you led more like Abraham Lincoln? This is the first episode in our new series, Sharing the Top 10 Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: The question I have for you today, Joshua, is how do you develop leaders? And more specifically, how does an organization develop leaders who develops leaders who develop leaders? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: How do we do that? And how do organizations in particular do that well? Joshua MacLeod: One of the best ways for someone to become a leader who can make new leaders is to study great leaders. For me, one of the best leaders that I’ve been able to study is Abraham Lincoln. There are some incredible books out about Abraham Lincoln, but one of the best books about Abraham Lincoln that I read was called, Team of Rivals. This book is really about how Abraham Lincoln surrounded himself with people who were his rivals, people who were actually trying to get in the seat of the presidency, who were trying to actually really replace him and how instead of being threatened by that, he really just kept the main thing in mind, try to develop the country as best as he could. I’ve got a top 10 list when I read Team of Rivals that I think is a good start, maybe to start looking at leaders. Bernie Anderson: Abraham Lincoln, let’s talk. Summarize this thousand page, 67 hour book on Abraham Lincoln. Joshua MacLeod: The first thing that really stood out to me about Abraham Lincoln was the power of the pause. Abraham Lincoln was a professional “pauser.” When he would be confronted with disgruntled, often arrogant, rival in the political machine, coming to demand something of him, instead of just like whipping back and just ripping him a new one, he would just pause and take that in and wait a day and then he would send a letter and bring a response. Abraham Lincoln was always pausing. He would get advice from a trusted advisor before making a major decision. I think what a pause does is a pause allows you to look at the scenario strategically rather than just emotionally. The pause allows you to extract some of the emotion to give it some clear and rational thought and then make a strategic decision. So Abraham Lincoln was an absolute master of pausing. Joshua MacLeod: Now I’ve got to point out though, there’s a huge difference between a pause and a delay. If you pause, you’re just making sure that I’m not acting emotionally or irrationally or something like that. If you delay, you’re missing the opportunity. So many of the things that Abraham Lincoln had to make a decision about were things to do with war, things to do with policy, putting out fires. So you can wait a day, but you can’t wait two days, pause and then make a decision. Delay is different. Delay is not making a decision and just putting it off. Abraham Lincoln never did that. He always made a decision. He just always made the decision on the other end of a pause. Bernie Anderson: That’s great. I can think of so many times in my life where the pause was not there. There have definitely been times in my life where the pause would have done me a lot of good and actually, it’s one of those things you just learned the hard way over 30 years of working in leadership development and various fields and all that. Joshua MacLeod: So you can either pause or you can pay the stupid tax. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: The cost of the pause is very minimal. The cost of the stupid tax is often very maximal. I’m getting older. I’m getting a little smarter. I still pay stupid tax, but golly, the power of the pause, it’s important. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. I love that. Joshua MacLeod: So the second thing I learned from Abraham Lincoln, and specifically from this book, Team of Rivals, never use the first draft. It really surprised me that Abraham Lincoln rewrote three or four times every single piece of legislation, the letters that he was going to write to his friends, the speeches that he gave. Abraham Lincoln refined everything. He wrote a letter, he waited a day, he “power of the pause” it, and then he made a couple tweaks and then send out the letter the next day. What I wrote down as the bullet points for this, your very best speeches or policies will be your third or fourth draft. Joshua MacLeod: Even in we’re teaching people to make customer personas, we’re teaching them to create vision mission value statements, we’re teaching them to create sales funnels, we’re teaching them… Hey, your first draft doesn’t have to be perfection. Your first draft just needs to be created so that you can get to your third or fourth or fifth draft. So just start somewhere and then work with it. If you try to do perfect on the front end, mm-mm (negative), it’s not going to happen. Abraham Lincoln had the power of the pause. He also never used his first draft. It’s comforting for me to know that when Abraham stood up and said, “Four score and seven years ago,” that wasn’t the first draft. That was like the fifth draft, which is really cool. Bernie Anderson: That’s so applicable today, Joshua, to our culture of everything being at the speed of clicks and sending an email or posting something online or whatever. I think so often maybe if we did a little less, but did less but better, did less, but with a little more of an edit to it- Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: It would be way more powerful. Joshua MacLeod: Okay. So third point, third lesson from Abraham Lincoln, appoint leaders based on strengths, not friendships. And this is what I think set Abraham Lincoln apart from literally every president before him. It would be like, imagine if Joe Biden becomes the President and hires all of Donald Trump’s cabinet to come in and actually be his chief advisors in the government. That’s what Abraham Lincoln did. Bernie Anderson: Amazing. Joshua MacLeod: Abraham Lincoln looked at all of the people that were running against him for the presidency. He made this one, a Secretary of State. He made this one, the Attorney General. They made this one, the Secretary of the Treasury. All of his main competitors. He brought them in to actually be in his cabinet. And so the thing is, if you are a genuine leader, your rivals will eventually become your champions. When they see that you’re not just blowing smoke and that you’re the real deal, it’s safe to invite people who are your challengers and who have a difference of opinion than you. Appoint leaders based on strengths, not friendships. Your rivals will become your champions. And those who are only seeking power will be exposed and diminished. Joshua MacLeod: That played out entirely in Abraham Lincoln’s life. It’s the reason why the Civil War didn’t split the entire nation. If Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have figured out how to, in his own sphere of influence, get everybody with animosity to work together, there’s no way that he would have been able to, in our country, figure out how to get people with animosity to work together. In a sense, our government leaders need to read Team of Rivals and take cues and see if they can actually create cabinets that aren’t just, you’re stupid and I’m smart, but actually let’s work together for a common good and compromise where we can to move the nation forward. So that’s the third thing that Abraham Lincoln did. Bernie Anderson: Wow. So you read this book and you 10 things that you learned from this book. Do you always have 10 things that you write down that you learned from a book or was this just an exceptional book that you learn 10 things from? Joshua MacLeod: So leaders are learners. Leaders have to have a learning engine when they process information. When I read a book, I’m looking for, what are the things in this book that are generally true with all of the other books that I’ve read and what are the things in this book that can really serve someone else? And then, what are the things in this book that are easily taught to someone else? I start an Evernote, so Evernotes an application where you take notes on things. And I just put that book title as the title of my Evernote document and then I write chapter one and I put a bullet list under chapter one. Joshua MacLeod: And I can read it later, a year later after reading the book, and I have, here’s the chapter, here’s the little notes under each one, so then if I want to recommend to a client like, “Hey, here’s a book. Read chapter 12. Tell me if that helps you in your situation. You might want to read the rest of the book, but chapter 12 is really good when we’re talking about this dynamic.” And then what happens is eventually you have a library of books and information on the books that are just really helpful and tools for other people. If you’re just skimming books or just reading books, you’re not really… We’ve got to do more than just “read the book”. We’ve got to actually do some processing and some follow-up or else we’re not going to get the meat out of the book that we read. Bernie Anderson: It’s reading with other people in mind. It’s not reading selfishly to check off, oh, I read one more book. I got one more thing on the good reads or whatever, but it’s reading for the benefit of others. I think that it’s amazing to me that we’ve talked about three really incredible leadership principles about the power of the pause, don’t use your first draft and appoint leaders based on strengths, not friendships. I mean, if you could get that, you will develop as a leader very quickly, if you can figure out those three things right there. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: That’s huge. Joshua MacLeod: And that’s why I’m so thankful for leaders like Abraham Lincoln, who showed the way in that he really was exceptional. He broke the mold. When our nation was at its deepest crisis, we needed somebody who was willing to surrender power and surrender comfort for the good of the whole and he did that. And so what that looks like, in the case of Abraham Lincoln, was surrounding himself with people who were very, very different than he was. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: So I think we should maybe stop there and then we can pick up. I’ve got actually a ton more points from this one book that I think is probably helpful. We’ll see if people respond to it. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world and we appreciate your support.    The post EP24 – How To Lead Like Abraham Lincoln – Part 1 first appeared on Growability.

You are a good leader: Yes or No? This is the second of a two-part conversation, about five characteristics of exceptional leaders. Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: I love the quote, the Maxwell quote, “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can,” leaders aren’t complaining about, what they don’t have, or letting what they don’t have define their actions. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders. A more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. Are you comfortable in your own shoes? This is the second of a two-part conversation, about five characteristics of exceptional leaders. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod, and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: So comfortable with your own shoes, comfortable with your style. So those are the first two. What’s the next one? Joshua MacLeod: Okay. The third S is comfortable with your screw-ups. Yes, probably the most important one ever. When I was in my litigation services career, I spent the first year knocking on doors, trying to go through “the front door.” I could not get an attorney that was on “the small end” of legal services to even return my call…. the paralegals wouldn’t call me back. And after a year of frustration, I was just like, this is the hardest industry in the world. I’m never going to do anything legal, but I had that mover and shaker in me that was like, okay, I’m going to just, I’m not going to give up. So I was doing a deposition, videotaping a deposition and I met an attorney and I said, Hey, you guys really need to check out the legal tech services that we offer. And so he was like, oh yeah, that sounds good. We have these weekly lunches. You seem like a smart guy. Why don’t you come out? So I got a presentation set up. It was the back door. I was at the deposition. I would have never been able to get this attorney on the phone. So he was at an uppity up partner at one of the biggest law firms in town. So I got set up, I got my projector, I got my screen. I put my PowerPoint together. So I’m going to give a presentation to a group of attorneys. And I decided that I’m going to lead off with an attorney joke. So I go up the escalator, I get to the top of the escalator and I opened the room into the conference room that I’m going to give this presentation in. And there’s a table in this room. That’s like bigger than my house. And like, we’re on the top floor of one of these skyscrapers downtown. There’s a table with like a hundred chairs around it. I set up the screen and the projector and my screen at the end and all these attorneys start coming in. It’s time to start. And I give my attorney joke… And not a single person in like a hundred attorneys sitting this room even smiled or snickered or anything. They all looked at me like you are the most pathetic human in the entire world. We are the big dog. You were an idiot. What are you doing? How did this guy get past the guard to come and give the presentation? And literally I struggled through that presentation and I left and I was just like, I quit with litigation service. I’m not going to do this. But here’s the thing. The attorney that invited me, he wasn’t there that day. He had to go out of town. So he wasn’t at my horrible presentation. And he called me and he said, Hey, will you help me with this case? I’m going to work on. Right. So I was like, yeah, absolutely. And I went over and I helped him learn a technology. He went out with this case, ane he won a $60 million lawsuit, which was the largest verdict against the state in this individual case. And then he told everybody about how amazing this tech was and how the support was great from this $60 million case that we won. But here’s the thing I’ve really screwed up. Like, I didn’t understand my audience. I wasn’t prepared. I went into this thing, guns ablazing, when I should have gone in as like, I know you all are 50 times smarter than me. If I would have let that just haunt me and mess me up, it would have just really shut me down. I think leaders and I don’t want to call myself a great leader or anything like that. But I have seen this, like the thing that leaders do that non leaders don’t do is when they mess up, they move on. It’s like, okay. Yeah, I messed up. So everybody’s going to mess up. Like everybody in their whole life is going to do something really stupid for me. I did it at one of the largest law firms in town, in front of a hundred of the smartest people in town. Okay. So what, the next year I had the cover of the Nashville bar journal. I’m on the front of the cover with like “Considering Courtroom Technology,” because I didn’t let that thing shut me down. Being able to be comfortable with your own screw-ups is fundamentally important in business. It’s also fundamentally important. Screw-ups. Most of the time in business and entrepreneurial-ism are just accelerated education. Your first business fails because you really didn’t know what you were doing. Guess what? You got a better degree than Harvard. That’s awesome. You’re ready to go. You can do some more stuff. So you’re comfortable in your own shoes. You’re comfortable with your own leadership style and then you’re comfortable screwing up. That’s what makes a good leader. Bernie Anderson: I tend to respect leaders who not only are comfortable with their screw-ups and seeing them as learning experiences, you know, and we did this. We’ll move on, but those who own them as well, like, Hey, yeah, I did this. Like this was a mistake guys. You know, I think none of us really expect our leaders to be a hundred percent perfect. 100% of the time, right? Yeah. None of us do. But when a leader expects of herself, Hey, I’m going to be a hundred percent perfect. A hundred percent of the time. That’s just not realistic. That’s not going to happen. So for ourselves, we as leaders, we need to make sure that we’re, Hey, I’m going to be wrong sometimes. And when you are wrong, own it, learn from it and move on. Joshua MacLeod: My screw-ups are not what defines me, how I respond to my screw-ups are what define me. So when I look at leaders who basically are unwilling to say they screwed up, they’re not really safe. You know, that’s not really like, … what’s going to happen is at some point in time, they’re going to point the finger at me and say it was my fault instead of their fault. Right? So I’m going to take the fall for something. They screwed up leaders who take their own fall. They’re so safe. Bernie Anderson: Shoes, style, screw-ups. Number four. Joshua MacLeod: Number four is being comfortable with your own story. We wish we had somebody else’s story. I wish I went to this school. I wish I grew up in this family. I wish that I was able to have this platform. I wish that I was able to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Your story is your story. Your story is what is fundamentally necessary to bring the unique offering that you bring to the world. So what’s your story? Well, there’s four things that I think we should really consider when we think about our own story. The first is what have we learned? The second is what have we experienced? The third is what if we overcome? And then the fourth is who have we known? You have learned something in your life that is so helpful for somebody else. What you’ve learned you can use to help other people. Joshua MacLeod: So many times we ask the question, like, why did this horrible thing happen to me? Well, those horrible things that happened to us are simply platforms that we can help all of the people who have gone through that horrible thing. On the positive side, I can ask what wonder joy or life experience can I share that is inspiring to somebody else. Let me tell you when I was at the U2 concert and I got on stage and blah, blah, blah, let me tell you about going to Hawaii and seeing this, you know, this flower or the, you know, there’s all of this wonder and experience that people need. Like, we need to have inspiration. We need to have people that kind of enlighten us and pull us up. So we all have unique experiences. Leaders are people who are comfortable with their own story. You know what? I grew up in a gutter, I grew up poor. I grew up whatever. They’re comfortable with that story. And they’re able to share with other people the impacts that have happened in their life. Bernie Anderson: Joshua, when you interview leaders and ask them these questions, what kind of responses do you get from leaders that maybe have never been asked questions like that before? And have never actually seen that, Hey, I have a platform and I have influence, and I’ve not seen this, but when you’ve done these interviews, what has been some of the responses to you asking these kinds of questions? Joshua MacLeod: Tears. Typically we carry with us our history. There’s limiting beliefs that happen in our life because of things in our history that we haven’t dealt with. So I was told all of my life, like, you’re not good enough. You can’t do this. So then I have this limiting belief. I’m not good enough and I can’t do this. Or well, but there was that time when I was told I couldn’t do this…. and then I overcame that. So then you start having this belief, this empowering belief. That’s like, Hey, no, I can do that. I can overcome something. Like I look at our history is like pulling back the arrow, whether it’s good or bad or whatever it’s pulled back. And now there’s so much opportunity to shoot forward into the future as leaders draw out other people’s stories and find something beautiful and intentional about what has happened in their life to help them move forward into the future. Joshua MacLeod: The shallowness of our culture is so pervasive. We look at glamour and success that are just fake. And then we think that if we don’t have glamor and success, we don’t have value. And that’s just so wrong. The hustle culture is just such a bunch of crap. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t try to edge people out and just knock them down on your way to the top. What I want to know is what have you learned? What have you experienced? What have you overcome? What have you known? And I want to know that so that you can discover what’s the best way to use your skill, who needs the inspiration? Who can you help? How can you share a positive message leaders? Do that leaders draw that out of people. And then they’re comfortable with their own story. Bernie Anderson: We have one more. We have one more “S”. What is that one? Joshua MacLeod: The fifth and final S for this episode, comfortable with your status. Like, I love the quote, the Maxwell quote, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Yeah. Leaders, aren’t complaining about what they don’t have or letting what they don’t have define their actions. Right? What you have is good enough to get you, where you need to go? Like I remember meeting a leader that inspired me so incredibly. It was a musician in Malawi. I’m at this orphanage. There’s no electricity, there’s no money. Everybody only makes like $200 a year. And it’s like, you know, this kid doesn’t make anything a year eats once a day. And he’s at an orphanage with no electricity, but somehow he had a gas can and a block of wood that he had figured out how to turn into like a ukulele like thing. And the thing could play chords. So he was playing chords on a gas can and a block of wood. And I was so inspired that I sent him my best guitar. So now the kid has a $700 Alvarez because he was using what he had is doing what he could. Opportunities don’t arrive once you’ve arrived opportunities arrive when you’re making the best use out of where you are. Be comfortable where you are. Don’t try to be precocious, just be who you are. Let the thing go. You know, I think great leaders really do that. They start where they are. They use what they have. They do what they can. Bernie Anderson: Yeah, that’s so good. Super, super good. So if anyone wants any help with any of this stuff, we would just love to have a conversation with you about what it might look like to do some of these coaching pieces in your, in your life or in the life of your business or your organization. Joshua MacLeod: We are so incredibly privileged to work with so many incredible leaders at Growability. We get to hang out with incredible leaders every day, right? It’s easy to think about what makes a great leader because we get to hang out with great leaders all the time. So if you’re a leader that doesn’t feel connected to other leaders, join a Growability collaborative, and then you’ll get the hang out with some other amazing leaders. Probably I don’t know for you, Bernie is probably one of the best things in my life is running a collaborative with a group of leaders who start empowering serving teaching each other… Super killer. And I guess you have one of those coming up soon on zoom, Bernie Anderson: Two different Zoom ones that I’m going to be saying, if you don’t live in Nashville, and if you don’t live in Greenville, South Carolina, you could join a Growability, collaborative online, over zoom, and you will meet leaders from literally all over the world who will be a part of these collaboratives. It’ll be so much fun. So yeah, I would love to hear from anyone who is interested in doing that. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the growability podcast. The mission of growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability, equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.  The post EP23 – 5 Exceptional Leadership Indicators (Part 2) first appeared on Growability.

Are you comfortable in your own shoes? This is the first in a two-part conversation about five characteristics of exceptional leaders. Podcast Transcript Joshua MacLeod: People who are not comfortable in their own shoes, spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about themselves and thinking about what they need to do to fit in. So rather than just being who they are going to school, rocking their styles, or going to the office, being their own person, not really worried about what everybody else thinks. They have enough energy then to focus on the problems they’re focusing on at work, the customer needs that they’re trying to serve. If you’re not comfortable in your own shoes, you’re spending all your time worrying about keeping up with the Joneses and what everybody else is doing. How can you lead others? You don’t have enough mental space. Podcast Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders. A more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. Are you comfortable in your own shoes? This is the first in a two-part conversation about five characteristics of exceptional leaders. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod, and Bernie Anderson. Bernie Anderson: You said something about there being 5 S’s of what makes a great leader. Tell us about the 5 S’s that make a great leader. Joshua MacLeod: So the first S that makes a great leader is someone who is comfortable in their own shoes. We live in a society where everybody is trying to be somebody else. And so when somebody just shows up on the scene and they are not trying to be somebody else, they’re not trying to prove a point. They’re not trying to do something they don’t believe in. They’re not trying to wear this fashion or that fashion, or drive this car or that car. Just somebody who actually is comfortable in their own shoes is such an important key to not only being a great leader, but becoming a great leader. So Bernie, I have a confession to make. This is hard for me to say on a public platform on our podcast here, I have a confession. I hate golf. Like I really…golf, This is even worse because I’m Scottish. Joshua MacLeod: Like, you know, MacLeod, I’ve got the Scottish name here. I, and I hate golf. In fact, it’s like the Scots realized that they couldn’t dominate the world. You know, this Viking heritage, they realized we can’t just take over. So they decided to do two things. They were going to ruin sports and they were going to ruin music. So to ruin music, they invented the bagpipes and then to ruin sports, they invented golf. And so they have frustrated millions and millions of people. Even if you can’t take over the world in a Viking ship, you can at least frustrate millions of people. What’s crazy here Bernie is I used to think if I don’t play golf, I’m going to lose so many opportunities. I’m not going to have good business deals. And the best decisions happen out on the golf course. And you’re trying to make the big deal. Joshua MacLeod: And the big client comes in from out of town. So I’ve got to go and I’ve got to learn golf. So I’m at the golf course and I’m spending like my first thousand dollars learning to stick my butt out and keep my head down. And even though it feels like I’m going to hit my knee, keep my knee popped out and swing the club. Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: And so then I go out on the golf course and they’re going left. They’re going right. I’m putting my butt out. I’m doing all of this stuff. But at some point in time, I have to realize like, wait a second. I don’t really like this. I don’t know if it’s just me. It may be that I’m the only one. But I think a lot of times business owners feel stuck with the, I-have-to’s of business. Like I have to do this. Joshua MacLeod: I have to do this. I have to do this. Listen, if you don’t like golf, that’s totally fine. I haven’t lost any clients from golf. I’ve told tons of people now that I don’t like golf and it doesn’t matter. Anybody that’s trying to be somebody else or faking. They don’t really attract people. So I think one of the things that makes someone, a great leader, they’re comfortable in your own shoes. Like I help a lot of clients interview their teams. And one of the questions in the back of my head, whenever I interview anyone, is this person comfortable in their own shoes? If they’re not comfortable in their own shoes? I don’t know that. I mean, it might take me 10 years to figure out who they actually are. So what do you think about that? Do you think that that’s a trait that is important for leaders? Yeah. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. If a leader is simply someone who just goes with the crowd, they’re not really leading, are they? One question I have Joshua, when you are doing those interviews or training a client on, “Hey, let’s look for this particular leadership quality.” How do you look for that? How do- what are the signs that you get to say, ah, this person’s comfortable in their own shoes? Joshua MacLeod: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think one of the core signs that somebody is comfortable in their shoes is when they’re just kind of brutally honest about something. Let’s say you’re interviewing someone for like a tech company and they, they want you to understand like three different programming languages. And you just say, I’ve worked in this one comprehensively. I really understand this one. I don’t understand that one at all. Or I’m really, don’t like that one. Like that is just not my cup of tea. It’s almost like we’ve trained everybody to have not an opinion about things, Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: What if you have a different political persuasion than me, and now you’re going to just hate me because I voted for so-and-so or I think so-and-so? Really, that’s just shallow. If people can’t relate to each other with differences, then it’s going to limit their capacity to grow. Like you only are ever going to make friends who are just like you, which is not really, you know, that’s just crazy. Bernie Anderson: And if you’re comfortable in your own shoes, then you’re comfortable with other people being in their own shoes too, right? Joshua MacLeod: Well, and if you think about it, Bernie, people who are not comfortable in their own shoes, spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about themselves and thinking about what they need to do to fit in. So rather than just being who they are going to school, rocking their styles, or go into the office, being their own person, not really worried about what everybody else thinks. They have enough energy then to focus on the problems they’re focusing on at work, the customer needs that they’re trying to serve. If you’re not comfortable in your own shoes, you’re spending all your time worrying about keeping up with the Joneses and what everybody else is doing. Joshua MacLeod: How can you lead others? You don’t have enough mental space being comfortable in your own shoes is definitely a hallmark of what it takes to make a great leader. What makes you a great leader? Bernie Anderson: All right, well, what’s the second S? Joshua MacLeod: The second S is being comfortable with your own leadership style. You read a book on leadership style from Jack Welch, and it’s like, “this is how to be a leader.” No, that’s how Jack Wells should be a leader. You read a book about Steve Jobs that says, “this is how to be a leader.” No, that’s how Steve jobs was a leader. Bill Gates is a way different leader than Steve Jobs. It’s not being a different kind of leader. It’s being your kind of leader. What kind of leader are you? I read this great article in Forbes, they did this study with 1200 different entrepreneurs at different businesses. Joshua MacLeod: And after doing this study, they came out with data that said, there’s really, there’s like five different types of leaders. The five different types of leaders that they mentioned, the first one is ‘Movers and Shakers.’ So movers and shakers are people that they help move a business forward by sheer force of will. They’re intense. They’re Rocky Balboa. They’re the Energizer bunnies. They stay focused. They get the job done. When they show up to work, they work. That’s a leadership style. It’s a style that you see in a lot of startups. It’s a style that you see in organizations that are very successful in larger organizations, but their leadership style is let’s shake things up. If you were a mover and a shaker, you’re going to move, and you’re going to shake. The second type of leader that they have is an ‘Experimenter’. The only thing that they’re shaking up is like the test tube. Joshua MacLeod: Like they shake up lots of different ideas. So the experimenter gets in the lab. They’re the idea tank. They’re the idea factory. And they’re willing to take a risk. Experimenters are people who will try 10 different things to see if one of them sticks. And the one that sticks is often so good, that it’s a hundred times better than every safe option on the market. So you have to take a risk to try a bunch of different things, and you have to take a risk to do something that nobody has really done before. If you take that risk, that thing can explode. The thing that’s important though, about experimenters. Sometimes there’s people in our lives and everything is a get rich, quick scheme. I’m going to make a million dollars with new cell phone idea or my new skincare idea or my new blah, blah, blah. Joshua MacLeod: And they’re always running from the new idea, the new idea, new idea, new idea. And they never actually have any success. So experimenters are not people that are just money chasers. They’re people who have actually done at least one thing that works. And then to their next business or their next thing, they are going to expand and take some risks. The third is the ‘Star Pupil’. You know, there’s that kid in high school where when you call on them and you’re like, Hey, do you know what the square root of 694? And he was like, Ooh, I know the answer. And then they do know the answers. Star pupils are basically just good at everything. Good at building a brand. They’re good at getting things done. They’re either the superstar that’s out in front, like singing, you know, with a great tone or they’re the drummer in the background is just hitting the drum and staying on beat every single time. Their whole game is I’m going to be the Olympiad and I’m going to be the best of the best. They’re just really good at everything. Bernie Anderson: Yeah. Joshua MacLeod: The fourth is people who are just super careful in your company, let’s say that it costs you 5 cents to produce 10 cents worth of profit. Well, they’re like, “well, what can we do to only cost 4 cents to produce 10 cents of profit?” So they’re really good at systems and processes. They want to make sure that everybody is on the same team. They want to make sure that everybody is in the same line. So that the name for this type is ‘The Controller. They’re like the financial controller. That’s what a financial controller in an organization does. They make sure that they’re producing more with less, like how can we cut our costs and still produce more? And then finally you have the, what I call ‘Anchors.’ Joshua MacLeod: Anchors are people who look, we’re going to stay in the middle. My favorite position is right down the middle. I’m not going to risk over here. I’m not going to risk over there. What worked in the past? Well, let’s stay on that and let’s do it again. They like to pick the middle. There’s five different styles of leadership. One is mover and shaker. The second is an experimenter, the third, a star pupil, the fourth, a controller, and then the fifth and anchor, what great leaders do is they realize, Hey, this is my leadership style. And then they don’t try to be something else. If your Rocky Balboa just take the punch in the face and keep going. If you’re an experimenter and something, doesn’t work, try something else. If you’re a star pupil, make sure that what you’re doing, what you’re good at. If you’re a controller, figure out how you can fix sloppiness. Joshua MacLeod: If you’re an anchor, Hey, stay the course. Like keep people down to earth. In an organization, If you’re working with a leader that has a different style than you like, then go find an organization that has a leader that you do like. The leader just needs to lead in their way. Now here’s, what’s really important, no matter which of those types of leaders that you are, it’s really important to make sure that your organization is in the right season to maximize your leadership style. If I have a startup organization, a mover, and a shaker and an experimenter and a star pupil, like all of those great a controller doesn’t have anything to do. If I’m a CFO that helped like a billion dollar organization, and now I’m going to go help this a hundred thousand dollar organization. You don’t really have anything to do. Like, what am I going to do? Bernie Anderson: Right. Joshua MacLeod: So at the same time, if I’m in a billion dollar organization and I have a mover and shaker that wants to come in and change everything, it’s kind of like, well, you know, wait a second, we already got a working thing here. Maybe you could start the new division. So leaders are comfortable with their own style. They’re comfortable in their own shoes, but they’re also comfortable in their leadership style. Bernie Anderson: Which style do you tend towards? Joshua MacLeod: So getting to where we are, mover and shaker, it’s 22% of executives are movers and shakers. They basically just keep going until it works, stay alive and stay humble. And it will work. Also. I think I have a bit of just star pupil. I’m not intimidated by something. I don’t know, because I figure I’ll make that work. Yeah. Experimenters controllers and anchors are kind of like, eh, let me just, I’ll toss the ball to somebody else to do those things. I, I want to be good and I want to see it through, how about you, Bernie? Which of those do you see for yourself on that list? Bernie Anderson: I see some combination of experimenter, star pupil, in my experience. I’m not afraid to try things and. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: And what you were-the reason I know this earlier is probably because of the weakness side of things of, Hey, you need to stop trying things. And actually like, like Joshua MacLeod: Finish that thing. Bernie Anderson: Do the thing that’s gonna work, right? but that’s where the star pupil piece comes in where I do. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Bernie Anderson: Like I want to learn and know how to do this and do this well. So I would see myself kind of in that space, I believe. Podcast Announcer: Thank you for listening to the growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.  The post EP22 – Five Indicators of Exceptional Leadership – Part 1 first appeared on Growability.

This is the ninth episode in our series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk with social media guru, Jason Elkins, about which social media platforms are relevant for the business owner. Podcast Transcript Jason Elkins: I saw John Mayer go live one time and just show people how he practices scales and he’d go, John Mayer needs to practice. This is, is ridiculous. Joshua MacLeod: What I’m hearing is social media is a phenomenal opportunity to share about something that matters. Even if there’s so many people using social media to share about something that doesn’t matter, the platform is there, the access is there. You can really connect with people with something that actually matters. Announcer: Welcome to the Growability podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching consultation and business collaboration needs. This is the ninth episode in our series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk with social media guru, Jason Elkins, about which social media platforms are relevant for the business owner. Here’s your host, Joshua MacLeod with special guest Jason Elkins. Joshua MacLeod: We’re here with Jason Elkins today, I’m super excited. Jason has been a dear friend and a social media mentor. If I need a really good idea or 17, I call Jason. He always has really great ideas. And Jason, I’ve got my cup of coffee. Jason runs 100 Cups Consulting. So we are continuing today our series about how to sell without being fake. So Jason, this is going to be the biggest challenge of answering that question how do you sell without being fake on social media? But before we get into that conversation, tell me about 100 Cups of Coffee. So where did you get this name? 100 Cups of Coffee. What do you do day in and day out? Jason Elkins: I really appreciate you asking the question. Foundationally, marketing coaching. So companies hire me to come alongside them and help them figure out which social media channels we’re going to go after? How do we build a campaign? What do we talk about? What are things that people care about? You mentioned I’m an idea guy, not all of them are good, but we’re going to find one that is over time. Joshua MacLeod: All right, let’s just talk about social media. Because this is something that is such a difficult topic in the world. I’m 44 years old, I run a consulting business. What social media platforms in 2021, when we’re recording this, should I actually be aware of, should I be thinking about? Which are particularly good for businesses and what should people at least understand or know about even if they’re not using them. Jason Elkins: So I’m going to throw out I appreciate you saying that. One of the things I’m going to throw out is maybe a little industry secret or maybe something that not everybody thinks about with what I would consider one of the most unused social platforms and that is YouTube. I read statistics recently that said, if video isn’t part of your social game over the next 24 months, you are going to be buried and lost. We have to be embracing this. The reason YouTube is so great is that it’s owned by Google and there are multiple areas as you upload a video that you can fill those areas out for support. So the title is one. Jason Elkins: You need to make sure you got a lot of good keywords in your title. There’s 1500 characters that you could fill out in the body. So telling people about the video and what you do is great. And then even after that, you can kind of build your own link farm by linking to all your other social channels and your website and whatnot. And I’m more likely to click on a search result if it has a video eight times out of 10. That’ll get 80% more clicks than even the top listing of if there’s a video result in the just general Google results. Joshua MacLeod: Wow, okay. Which social media platforms out there with YouTube? Jason Elkins: So other platforms, depending on the audience, Facebook is the king still partly because their ad network is just so vast. If you run an ad on Facebook and click a few buttons, that ad could go on Instagram, it can go on mobile gaming, it can go on Spotify, it can go in a lot of places. Their ad network is really incredible and you can dive deep into demographics to get a message to a very specific audience. The more niche you are, the better off you’re going to be in the ad world of Facebook. One of the things, one of the secrets there that I’m seeing more and more are groups that are segmented out to support cause or an industry. People can kind of utilize those to talk to their message to a very passionate group of followers potentially. It’s not for everybody, but that’s something that I don’t want to miss if you’re looking at Facebook for marketing. Jason Elkins: LinkedIn used to be something that not a lot of people paid attention to is really a place to put your resume, get a job, that was kind of what you used LinkedIn for. Since Microsoft bought them, I think three or four years ago, they really haven’t messed with the algorithm much. And I’ll have a post on LinkedIn, just a general update that will get comments two weeks later or get a like a week and a half later. Nothing that I post anywhere else will have that kind of longevity. Instagram is really an interesting platform right now and will continue to evolve. They’re doing one thing that I love and that is they’ve got a great relationship with Shopify. If I have a store on Shopify and I connect that to an Instagram, there’ll be a way for me to buy that product with just a couple clicks. Jason Elkins: The thing that makes Instagram great is that it has beautiful pictures and there’s not a lot of the same back and forth kind of craziness that you get in the comments section on Facebook. So it’s been like a kind of a nice reprieve from people that just get social media overload and they can kind of be on there, still see their favorite brands, make some purchases and interact. You mentioned kind of these other platforms. It’s interesting, lot of come and go. I think TikTok is really interesting, it’s got the same kind of energy that some of the earlier social platforms seem to have. I could make an argument that if you’re a retailer and you want to show clothing and kind of your stuff within the store, TikTok is a wonderful platform for that. There’s a lot of people on it and they spend a lot of time there. I don’t know how long that’ll last, but at this very moment, you could make an argument that that could be a good platform if you’re going after a younger, somewhat affluent audience. Joshua MacLeod: So let me ask this question, Jason. So social media has nothing really to do with business. Business just kind of came in and took over. The thing that was set up to share my photos and videos and what I’m doing and talk about me. Why should businesses invest in social media when it’s not even really a business thing. Jason Elkins: It’s gotta be social. Joshua MacLeod: Yeah. Jason Elkins: So let’s not put 20% off coupons to download on Facebook. At least let’s not do that every day or every time. There’s a construction company that I work with that does mostly state contracts. They’re not winning bids by their social media presence. However, they are hurting for employees. And we are posting a lot of content for them that’s targeting their work environment, what a benefit it is to be there, we’re pushing out videos, sort of commercials for jobs there. We’re talking to some of the old dogs and some of the new hires and getting their perspectives and putting that out there. We’re recognizing people that have done a great thing at the company or won an award for safety. These are constant things that we talk about on their social. Jason Elkins: So their platform is really not for their buyers. The platform is really so that they can hire employees easier and it’s a way for them to showcase and support their employees that are currently working there because surprisingly enough, by talking about your people on social, those are things that they’ll share with their family or their family will make comments on or somebody just wanted to be recognized. Joshua MacLeod: It’s not only about selling. You can use social media really as a platform to achieve different missional objectives. You need hiring? You can do social media. You want to celebrate your team? You use to media. If you want to build the culture at your organization, you can use social media. Jason Elkins: I saw John Mayer go live one time and just show people how he practices scales. And he goes, John Mayer needs to practice? This is ridiculous. Right? But he was showing something really unique that you’d never would be able to see anywhere else. Nobody’s going to shoot a documentary about his practicing. It wasn’t even a shot, they had candles, the lighting wasn’t great. It didn’t matter, it was a wonderful piece of content. Joshua MacLeod: What I’m hearing is social media is a phenomenal opportunity to share about something that matters. Even if there’s so many people using social media to share about something that doesn’t matter, the platform is there, the access is there. You can really connect with people with something that actually matters. Jason, this has been an incredible conversation. I want to make a huge sales pitch right now for Jason Elkins. So I’ve put the little web URL right up there, 100cups.coffee. If you Google that, if you Google A Hundred Cups of Coffee with Jason Elkins, you will find him. If you do not have a social media strategy, if you do not have a social media person, if you are confused about social media, I just, frankly highly recommend Jason Elkins. Do yourself a favor, check out 100cups.coffee and start sharing things that really matter on your social media platform. Jason, you’re delightful. Wonderful to have you. Thank you to our live lunch and learn listeners and we’ll see you next week. And I think Bernie will be back. If not, then Jason’s going to be on from now on because he’s just so great. Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Growability podcast. The mission of Growability is to equip leaders to flourish in their life and work by developing vision, rhythm, and community. To discover if there is a more excellent way to run your business, visit growability.com and speak with a certified Growability coach. Bernie and Joshua are also available for speaking engagements, workshops and conferences. Subscribing to this podcast helps Growability equip leaders throughout the world, and we appreciate your support.  The post EP21 How To Sell Without Being Fake (Part 9)- Social Media first appeared on Growability.