Wow.

And, and, and it's just, it just...

it, it's exploded.

And, um, but, but, but I think a lot of that growth and casting vision, peop- attracting people is because I've been in the leadership world for, for 40 years.

I was a proven commodity.

People didn't say, "I wonder if I should follow him." I think part of the, of that ability of being contagious with vision is, is the success.

I think the more success you have, that itself, it draws people.

That's cool.

Mm.

And I think for most people there is.

Uh, I think for exceptional people there's not.

Um, and what I mean by that, I think if, if I have a self, if, if I have a self, you know, a self-imposed finish line, like, you know, when I get so much money, or when I get a certain age I'll retire, whatever.

Um, the problem is when you cross that, uh, line, you're finished, and that bothers me.

And so I, I don't wanna ha- I don't wanna have a finish line, but I do have to have people around me who will help me when I ... 'Cause there'll be a time when I won't be able to do what I can do.

And, and then I wanna have the grace to listen to them, and, and then I wanna have the grace to be the greatest encourager of others that I possibly can.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And y- I know you're a good parent because you're saying, "I know it's not what it was, and how do I get it back?" And let me see if I can help you just for a moment.

You get it back when you talk to your children and ask them how you get it back.

This is so key.

I, I learned with our children that when it wasn't going well, instead of me telling them why it wasn't going well, I sat down and said, "Help me out as a parent.

It's not going well.

I, I...

Right

[laughs]

But basically, I was trying to share with people how important it is to have respect.

Now what I want you to understand is respect is not a given.

It's earned.

In fact, if you think back at the law of influence, when I taught you about the five levels of influence, I taught you that the highest level was the personhood level, and the keyword there was respect.

People follow you because you've done so well with so many for so long, that you've absolutely gained their respect.

Now, you have to gain respect.

[laughs]

So let's hear John Maxwell teach one of the most foundational principles in leadership, the law of solid ground.

[upbeat music] Law number six is the law of solid ground, and the law of solid ground says, "Trust is the foundation of leadership." In fact, an expression I've used often that's in your workbook is this: Trust is the glue that holds an organization and the leader together.

It's the glue.

And I wanna talk to you about trust, and I wanna talk to you about integrity.

I wanna talk to you about character.

And, and in fact, uh, to build trust, in your notes, there are two things that you must, as a leader, be able to do.

You must demonstrate consistent competence.

Starving for five dollars.

Toyota, let's go places.

[rock music] This is The Ed Mylett Show.

So let's hear John Maxwell teach the foundation of this principle, the law of addition.

Law number five in the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is the law of addition.

Leaders add value by serving others.

I, I wish when I was a young leader that I would have fully understood and exercised this law.

A- as a young leader, I had a title and position, and so for a, a, a couple of years, I leaned heavily on that to allow me to lead.

And honestly, I, I really wasn't really successful relying on position, because positional leadership honestly is almost opposite of, of servant leadership.

Let's hear what John Maxwell has to say about this law of navigation.

[upbeat music] Law number four is the law of navigation, and the law of navigation says anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.

I've often described leadership in kind of two terms.

There's what I call the art form of leadership, and then there's the technical form of leadership.

The, the law of navigation is a technical form of leadership.

It's, it's very tangible.

It's point A to point B to point C.

Mm-hmm.

Speak a little bit to, to that.

When somebody... 'Cause I'm asked that quite often.

When somebody says, "What's the biggest failure that you ever...?" The biggest failure I think I ever had was the unwillingness to address that failure and admit that failure quickly.

I tried to hide it because I th- again, I thought, "Well, what will people think? I'm, I'm supposed to the leader, and I, I just messed up." And so whenever you take failure and you don't a- um, address it and, and address it with others- It, it's just a failure that either gets bigger, or it's a failure that doesn't go away, or if it does go away, it'll come back real quick.

Mm.

It's kinda like, "Oh, my gosh, I am about to learn something and receive something that if I wouldn't have failed, I wouldn't have received, and God, I am ready to receive from you." It's kind of like my prayer life greatly changed about eight or nine years ago.

Greatly changed.

One day when I was reading in that passage where Jesus just basically says, "I know more what you want than you know what you want." In, in other words, "Truly, I know what's best for you more than you know what's best for you." And I thought, "I think that's true.

Mm.

I, I, I don't have to survive.

It's, it's okay.

It's gonna be okay.

It...

And I was so moved by I don't have to survive, because I felt that we were trying to survive.

We were trying to make sure that we could live another day.

Right.

Hmm

But what happened, Ed, was, um, you can't manage speed.

And so by the late, eh, by the mid-1990s, things were happening so fast that you couldn't manage them anymore, and somebody says, "We gotta get ahead of them," and that's what leaders do.

They see more and before.

And so therefore, all of a sudden leadership began to be the thing, and so I said, "You can develop yourself as a leader." And then in developing yourself as a leader, I began with the lid saying to yourself, if you have a five, you can learn leadership skills.

You can go to a six.

With a lot of time working on your skills, get to a seven.

Hmm.

Got it

... to, to, to be able to now, to now be comfortable with the fact that I'm not always gonna hit it.

M- Linda, who's been with me at Edgar- for 39 years as my personal assistant, all the way up, I drove up from where I lived up here for this, and, uh, so we had about an hour and a half conversation, and she said something very interesting.

She said, "John, I think your secret sauce," she says...

I, I look at...

She said, "Your secret sauce is that, um, you don't have to win, but you do have to learn."

Mm

... happens in the fact that you're going where you've never been before, you're learning things you've never known before, you're doing things that you've never tried before, and you know, you know you aren't gonna do it all right.

Here's John Maxwell.

[gentle music] The most important ingredient in a leader's life, the most important quality, is humility.

When you are a person of humility, when you're marked, when you're marked by anything, you become marked in a meaningful way.

And I don't want you to miss those two words, meaningful way.

We're all marked when difficulties hit us.

When adversity comes, we're all marked.

We're, we're all changed.

It does, man.