[Music] [Music] welcome to the Maxwell leadership podcast this is the podcast that adds value to you you listener you viewer you leader because we know this you will multiply value to others my name is Mark Cole and today John Maxwell is going to teach us on a subject that will make you better because he's going to talk about how great coaches communicate whether you're a coach in sports whether you're a coach in business or even coaching your family this episode will give you a playbook for motivating your team your group to reach the next level after John's lesson I'll be joined by Chris C who Chris is a coach Chris coached uh football for years and years and years played the game coached the game Chris and I is going to discuss practical ways you can apply this to your life and Leadership if you would like to download the bonus resource and by the way you're going to want to today because John's going to give you 17 don't get overwhelmed he's going to do it quick but he's going to give you 17 points on How to Be an Effective coach how to coach and communicate effectively so if you'll download the resource for this lesson it will help you you can also watch the episode on YouTube just go to Maxwell podcast.com coach you'll find the link to YouTube you'll find the link to the worksheet let's get started here is John Maxwell excellent coaches communicate effectively they really have the ability to communicate in such a way that that the players know what to do red albach who was the coach for the Boston Celtics very very successful basketball coach one of the most successful professional basketball coach has said it's not what you tell your players that counts it's what they hear a communicator understand this the desire of a communicator is to say it in such a way that the people truly understand and in your notes I have found that in communication the two words information and communication many times are often used interchangeably but they signify different things information is giving out when you inform people you're giving out things and communication is getting through and a lot of people speak they give out you know they give out a lot of information but your goal and my goal isn't to give out information your goal and my goal is if we're going to be a great coach is to get through not to give out but to get through so I going to ask myself this question what should a coach communicate if you're going to communicate to your players what are the essentials what are you going to communicate I think first of all you want to communicate the value of teamwork you want to communicate the fact that if you're going to be successful you're going to be successful together the law of significance one is too small of a number to achieve greatness I think if you're going to communicate as a coach you secondly want to communicate the big picture because the law of the big picture says that the goal is more important than the role I think if you want to communicate successfully the third thing you want to do is communicate each player's role so they know what their job is they're very clear in what they need to do to add value to the team because the law of the niche says all players have a place where they add the most value I think coaches great coaches want to communicate number four the raising of the bar they want to get the bar the standard up higher for the team because the LA Mount Everest says as the challenge escalates the need for teamwork elevates number five hard decisions as a coach you want to communicate to your team the hard decisions because the law of the chain says the strength of the team is impacted by its weakest link number F communicate personal challenges let them understand that teamwork is tough because the law of the Catalyst says winning teams have players that make things happen number seven vision and Mission you got to communicate that as a leader the law of the compass says Vision gives team members Direction and confidence number eight and communicate to them the importance of a good attitude law of the Bad Apple tells us the rotten attitudes ruin a team number nine communicate to them personal responsibility law of accountability says teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts number 10 communicate sacrifice individually and corporately because the law the price tag says the team fails to reach its potential when it fails to pay the price communicate number 11 willingness to change law the scoreboard says the team can make adjustments when it knows where it stands number 12 as a coach communicate the value of each player because the law of the bench says great teams have great depth communicate as a coach 13th the value of the team the values of the team are very important because the law of identity tells us shared values Define that team number 14 a coach communicate the need for communication because the law of communication says interaction fuels action number 15 communicate leadership as a coach because the law of the edge tells us the difference between two equally talented teams is leadership number 16 as a coach communicate hope and encouragement the law of high morale says when you're winning nothing hurts finally as a coach communicate no shortcuts the law of dividends says investing in the team compounds over time so when you're saying what should I be communicating to my team communicate the laws of teamwork now what's interesting is the other day somebody sent me the Miami paper and on the front page of the sports section was Dave wanat and as he was out on his porch he had my laws of teamwork and he was reading it and they got a picture of him and they were talking about him as a coach communicating and when I saw the picture of him reading the laws of teamwork I thought to myself there's your guideline as a coach there's your guideline of knowing what to communicate but the question is after you know what to communicate how do you communicate how do you communicate as a coach things that are going to make a difference in the lives of people I would suggest two things as a coach communicate with passion in fact what makes a coach a great coach is that they thoroughly believe the principles they teach the quote is so true you should put everything you've got into everything you do and when I think of great passionate coaches I think of the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi in 1959 he went to the Green Bay Packers in the previous year they had lost 10 games tied one and one1 took a team at the bottom of the division assembled his troops together and held up a football and because they hadn't done so well the year before looked at him and said this is a football thought he better introduce it to them he wasn't sure they knew what it was he said I'm going to teach you how to do the basics I'm going to teach you how to block I'm going to teach you how to run I'm going teach you the basics of this game I'm going to teach you how to tackle we're going to start at Ground Zero we're going to do 101 stuff in this Camp he said I'm going to teach you not only how to do the basics but I'm going to teach you how to do it with passion they said I want you to understand something the difference between one pro and another Pro in the National football league is not their skill level they all have it they wouldn't even be here if it was skill issues so the only difference between a winning team and a losing team on Sunday is that the winning team wants the game more than the losing team they want to win so he said I'm going to teach you to be passionate people and they said I'm going to expect you to be full of enthusiasm in fact he he looked at him I love this qu he said if you aren't fired with enthusiasm he said I will fire you with enthusiasm that that a great statement he built a great team but if you look at the Vince Lombardi teams the differen maker was the passion that they had within them now here's what I want you to understand about coaching you cannot give what you do not have if you do not have a passion for what you're doing the players will never have a passion for what you're you're sharing understand that passion is something that has to be given from one to another it's not caught out of midair it's caught from an individual enthusiasm it's caught from someone and if you do not have it you can't transport it and if you do not have it the people that you coach won't have it it's a fact of life you don't see a very laidback coach with a passionate team never has happened it's not going to happen with yours it always begins with the leader it always begins with the coach and I love the quote the end of this one section on passion in your notes man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul impossibilities vanish you know what your job is as a coach your job is to be such a good coach that your players start playing to use the sport phrase they start playing over their head that's your goal your goal isn't to bring the the best out of people don't listen to people tell you that kind of stuff your goal is to get your players to play over their head when you get to play over their head they're doing more than their best they're playing on a level they shouldn't be playing on they're doing things that they normally shouldn't do they're beyond their gifts they're beyond their strengths they're beyond their abilities that's the job of the great coaches the great coaches don't get the best out of their people they get the best out of their people to such a degree that they create a Synergy on that team that allows that team to play over their heads until they look at their team and they realize their team is doing better than what they're capable of doing and I can tell you that all begins with passion you've never seen a team playing over its head void of enthusiasm you've never seen a team nonchalantly reproducing more than they have the ability to reproduce you have never seen a player have his greatest game with a take it or leave it attitude to that's why when I see a board leader or I see a board coach they ask me what they should do I tell them quit now usually that's not the advice they're looking for but just quit if you're a board Pastor quit if you're a board CEO of a company quit if you're board leader quit just do us all a favor you're killing the team you're killing the team get off the team leave when you have a been there done that mindset you'll never get a team that can reach his potential so communicate with passion as a coach one other thing I would talk about how to communicate and that is communicate with Simplicity keep it simple effective leaders have the ability to boil down complex issues into concise straightforward statements of what should be done and since I started with Vince let me just close this first quality of a great great coach with Vince Lombardi who was at a coach's convention for three days of which they were taking turns standing up in front of other coaches and giving their offense and defense strategies as coach many of them were complex many of them were very difficult to understand many of them were highly sophisticated finally on the third day was Vince Lombard's turn and he got up and he said well I've done my best to understand what's been said he said my offense and defense strategy is kind of simple when we're on the offense we have the ball and we do our best to run the ball for a touchdown and we figure our greatest odds are knocking all the defensive players down so it aids Us in scoring said my defensive strategy it's kind of simple too because they have the ball and our goal is to knock all their players down again cuz he said I have found in coaching if your team knocks their team down you win so simple so simple as Leaders it's so tempting to feel like we need to do it all we put this enormous pressure on ourselves to accomplish more today than we did yesterday to earn more this year than we did last year and somehow along the way we still want to be present and more available in our personal relationships I would suggest something has to give doing it all is a myth of leadership in fact the best leaders are the ones who delegate operate out of their strengths and set others up to do the same if you want to discover that kind of freedom and that kind of Effectiveness ble can help ble pairs busy Leaders with highly vetted you us-based virtual assistance that save them from administrative overwhelm and direct them back to working on what matters most to help you Bay is offering Maxwell leadership listeners a free download of their resource called The Power of productivity it has everything you need to get back on track with more productive workdays simply text Maxwell to 55123 that's MX x w l to 55123 get ready to accomplish more and juggle less with ble hey welcome back I I mentioned in the top of the show that Chris is here Chris you're a you're a leader of coaches you coach our sales team you coach our corporate Solutions team and you've actually coached the game that you played football and uh I love it because because I want to start with a quote that Phil Jackson said he said good teams become great ones when the members trust each other when they trust each other enough to surrender the me for the we and uh there is a underlying theme that John has right here that the Difference Maker in great teams is not Talent a lot of talent out there right the difference is a coach that can pull out that special uniqueness that it factor out of the coaches and I or out of the teams and I I bet you you can attest to that I can um unfortunately I've retired from coaching because this principal we're going to talk about today didn't work in the last Middle School team I was coaching I tried my hardest and I was like this is not working but I have had the opportunity to coach at multiple different levels and I think you're right that that's the challenge you know he he talks about how do we help them build rapport and to your point cohesively how do we help them bring that out and it's through the power of communication and you and I have been in this leadership space for a long time and this is something that I know you work really really hard on and I know it's something that I try to improve on because this is ultimately I believe the key to connecting to people and we say all the time right you got to connect with them first before you can lead them through anything and I think you got to be able to communicate we've all we've all had leaders in the past or coaches in the past that have been great communicators and then well you know where I'm going right they've been a little bit of a struggle I want to talk I want to start off and I I just want to pull a couple things out of you John gave us a ton of content here it's like a Playbook right they can go and download that I want to pull a couple of areas out that I just want you to give us some practical advice how you're leading how you're working through that how you're communicating and before we even get to the list I was struck by him saying hey there's a difference between information and communication and I know I was like oh man I know a lot of times I just want to give information I really do a good job of communicating talk a little bit about when you heard John mention those two things and in your leadership how do you how do you differentiate them and then how do you really work on the communication side of getting through to people versus just giving out the information yeah you know um so I'm now 23 years in John's organization and even before I came to to work at enjoy back then Maxwell leadership um I had the chance to lead in fact my first chance to be visibly a leader at Maxwell leadership again 23 years ago back in the day was coaching our company softball team and I think I've told the story on the uh podcast before but I am convinced that it was me coaching our team that gave our leaders who are also on that team visibility that I could actually lead in a business environment as well so going back to softball I didn't hit many home runs I didn't make many spectacular plays but I made an impression with leadership that perhaps got me here today but um you know we we talk a lot about communication how how to communicate effectively everyone communicates you connect John's written several topics he just wrote the book 15 laws of communication but um the thing that and I said said 15 laws it's actually 16 laws I just stumbled on myself it's 16 laws of communication but um we talk a lot about you need to listen more than you need to talk and I think that's right in fact we've talked about listen learn then Le make sure you learn something before you leave we talk about listen to understand don't listen to respond but today I really want to bring a different angle sometimes we as coaches As Leaders we need to communicate to be heard and I get it I get it I again I'm not undoing everything we've been talking about in in this current generation of leading and that is leaders need to stop talking as much and start listening but there are times leaders you need to be heard yeah that your game plan coach needs to be understood and so that's really what I'm talking about today when I say there are times that we need to listen to be heard and I think that's what John's saying information is giving stuff out but when John says that communication is getting through he's talking about the same message the same two groups of people but are you just getting information out for someone to digest or not or are you getting information to get through to that person to make them a valuable part of your team I would challenge all of us that communicate with something to say in other words you're a coach and you have a game plan at an entire group of people needs to listen to you're a leader you have a team of people that needs to be on the same page I would challenge you after you communicate your game plan after you communicate your direction to ask three questions of the people you just spoke to and I'm going to give you those again you've been writing furiously because John gave us a lot of content today I'm gonna ask you to keep the pen in your hand for just another moment because there's three questions that every coach every leader needs to ask of his or her people after he delivers the game plan after he delivers the the the Strategic initiative plan number one you need to ask your people what did I say get them to give you back your talking points I know the Atlanta Falcons they're not a great example we have won no Championship but I remember the years that we were better than most years which there's only about two or three of those and it was the Brotherhood rise up the Brotherhood and everybody in the locker room was using the same language in other words the coach sometime asked them what did I say and they said you said Brotherhood you said rise up there were talking points that when you can hear what I say you will repeat what I say yeah so question number one what did I say question number two is what did you hear in other words when I say Brotherhood what did you hear when I say that that means we're one for all that we've got each other's back we're not going to go to the media complaining about m Ryan's throwing or or um Jones his his catch Coolio Jones his catching ability those were the Glory Days guys and and we we're not going to go and throw each other in the Buss because we're a Brotherhood so what I heard is we stand up for each other that's what I say is the talking points the buzzword the repeatable phrases what I heard is how I interpreted what you said how I am going to absorb that information and here's the third question what did I say what did you hear question number three is what will you do and when a great coach a great communicator a great leader can hear back take time if you've got a 30 if you got a 30 minute spot only speak for 20 minutes and spend the last 10 minutes asking those three questions because it's in the what will you do that you begin to see your game plan beginning to be lived out the tangible handles that makes that game plan that strategic plan really makes sense and you can't know if your plan sticks until you ask them what did you hear what what did I say what did you hear and what will you do about it those are three great questions and I I've actually seen you live this out and uh over the last 12 months or so um so whether or not you have the ability to communicate with a lot of words or maybe you don't communicate with a lot of words these three questions are relevant for however we communicate and in leadership meetings you'll make sure we're all paying attention CU you'll just jump up and in the middle you'll be like hey what was it that I said and then tell the team what did you hear in your own words and what's fascinating about these three questions I I love that you use here is the first two you asked during the meeting the last one you always save to the end of the meeting Y which is what are we going to go do about it and then not only are you making sure that there's Clarity but then you're almost having peer-to-peer accountability based off of how you've leted us and what you've communicated to us love that man so I I I love that I wrote them down again believe me I'm aware of them because I am sitting on go at times uh for me to call you out for Mark to call me out yeah and so man I love that we haven't even gotten into the meat of the lesson again we want you to download that because John gave us so many things but that right there out of the choot with information or communication is so important now there's one other thing I want you to unpack a little bit for us and this could fall under several of these different um topics that John gave us we probably would put it under leadership just because that's our natural bent but when I just talked about Clarity it reminded me um man for a couple years now especially when we were coming out of coid but even even to this day you talk a lot about leaders or communicators right there's a difference um between Clarity and certainty yep unpack that a little bit as we're communicating to the team making sure we're not just giving information right we're trying to get the best out of everybody we can for the benefit of the person first the organization second talk about the difference between those two as we're communicating in that team yeah and I in full disclosure we've had them a couple of times on this podcast uh a great communicator Andy Stanley here in the Atlanta area is actually the one that enlightened me on this and when he taught it really effectively was right at the beginning of coid and he said when a leader can't be certain of a leader must always be clear and I went who whoa wait wait wait yeah everybody wants certainty I want certainty are we going to be okay is everything going to be fine and often times as Leaders especially in times of uncertainty we can't give certainty that's right uncertainty hence no certainty that's right and so we but but everybody wants it and when we can't give it we start questioning our ability to lead and that is incorrect that is a wrong litmus test of saying can I be certain the answer is no what if there's an economic meltdown what if the world crumbles and falls apart we don't know we can do our best to be certain but we've all LED long enough or most of us have led long enough to know that sometimes the best intentions the best level of disciplines leads to a completely different results that's because of the life's uncertainties that's good but you can always be clear always be clear and what that means is is I may not can give you the final step but I can give you the next step I may not be able to give you the results of what this next step's going to be but I can tell you this we're going to all be in sync on this next step too often my leadership has been rendered ineffective because I didn't take the time to be disciplined in communicating Clarity of The Next Step yeah way too many times I can tell you I I'm thinking of issues right now leadership challenges that I have faced over the years and so often it's when I didn't pursue Clarity and I tried to give certainty yeah and and we as Leaders listening to this podcast we need to know the next step and if you don't know the next step stay in the hole of your office until you get it because people need the clarity of the next step now you need that next step what you don't know and it's okay and you're uncertain is the 15th step that's right you and I are coming off of an incredible week with our our nonprofit and you and John um have this massive vision and this this this just audacious goal and you're communicating of saying hey let let me let me go back on this this movement is what we were talking about a little bit last week and and and John was communicating to us we we didn't know what this was going to look like but I was very clear on what the next thing is that's right and the next thing and the next thing and so I absolutely love that As Leaders we need to be aware of that because depending on your personality type at times you'll get paralyzed that's right and then you'll shut the whole thing down that's right and but if you're very clear then just take that next step we're completely uncertain on on what the future would look and let me say one more thing on that Chris that's such a great example of uh the nonprofit Maxwell Leadership Foundation we had no idea no idea that five steps 10 steps in really four years five years in that we were radically going to Embrace a new idea and that was to truly transform a country to truly transform a community you've got to start with the Next Generation you can make moderate changes with the existing generation you can get a little affirmation from the previous the older generation say oh that's good Sunny go do that but that moderate change and that affirmation is not going to transform a country you're going to transform a country by the young people by the Next Generation by beginning to develop a values conscience with the Next Generation we wouldn't have known that when we started now we are training over 4 million School AG students in different communities around the globe why because we did we took the first step that we knew and we let that step give Clarity to the next step to the next step to where now it is a huge part of what we're doing yeah that's great I appreciate you unpacking that because I think that is key and remember you know we've all heard the statement of of how you do some things is how we do everything yeah and I see you and John living that out when it comes to the the clarity versus the um uncertainty okay we're we're off topic a little bit there but that's right you and I tend to do that here's as we as we're making our way to close I think this is really key and I want to hit on this it's the last thing John talked about where he talks about communicating with Simplicity yeah and as a leader or as a head coach or whatever it might be we we know the complex situations that are in our head you just mentioned a few minutes ago lots of things you're thinking about complex situations but man we have to keep it very simple and when we do that it reminded me as I was listening to this lesson you and I had a conversation this was a couple years ago you you went into a team meeting and you were communicating something and you're like hey it just didn't feel right I I felt like it was a little complicated I feel like I missed it half the room missed it and we started talking about the difference and this is just a little nugget for you listeners your your team members either listen in the why we're doing something or why you're communicating something or the how are we going to do this and you and I began unpacking this had a little leadership conversation around the difference and it's changed the way that we communicate the way I communicate so that I can do it as be as simple as possible um this is something I know you you self- admittedly will start thinking and talking and and I know John has worked with you and you're really getting your messages down to very very very simple why why is that so important as we're communicating to our team our peers our spouses our family why is simplicity so important to you as a communicator well so every good leader has processed a lot of things before she or he gives a message and often what we don't understand as communicators of a message is there's a difference in the leader responsibility to make sure that the the the idea is fully vetted is fully looked at from multiple angles what we don't realize is we lose it at that point and when we start giving all the rabbit chasing that we did trying to seal it down we confuse people with what the real issue or what the real expectation is that's good and often times we also want to prove our worth hey we really spent two weeks on this 20 minute decision and it's it's more to show that we've are valued and that we took it serious when really what people want to hear is just what are we going to do and what does this mean to me yeah what are we going to do and what does this mean to me what's the win now it's not that they're selfish although people are very selfish all of us are it's not that they're selfish but most people are following you not because of the direction you're going but because of the connection they have with you that's right and if they're following you with the connection we spend so much time trying to justify the the the direction and they're not even asking that question we are because we're trying to see more than before the leader trying to see The Horizon trying to anticipate the challenges trying to make sure that the obstacles doesn't stop us but most most of the people are just saying hey point me in the right direction and tell me tell me what the benefit is yeah if we can distill down our messaging to just be that simple and give the message in a five 10 minute spot and then spend the rest of the time asking the questions from the people's Vantage Point yeah and often again we make we build 10 points to make the Simplicity point and we lose people on point three and they never get the the meat of the message give the meat of the message and then let them determine the points needed to solidify it in their mind and that communication if we could just if I could do this man I'm preaching to the choir here if I could just go what is the simple message I'm trying to give how many times do I need to repeat it for it to settle and then spend the rest of the time clarifying it yeah I think one of the things I'm convicted by you just said that's interesting is we want to communicate the message but we're also trying to communicate what it took for us to get to that message I mean you know lost hours and sleepless nights and this and you know uphill both ways and and I just I was convicted by that cuz I was like no no no that's my responsibility as a leader as a coach that's your responsibility it's everybody that's listening as responsibility then we got to just communicate it in a simple way um all right I'm throw it to you for closing thoughts here in just a minute here's one last thought that I wrote down as I was again thinking through what John just talked about you know this is not easy Mark Mark has been communicating for a long long time and matter of fact he's being mentored by the best Communicator out there both on stage and in meetings and here's what I want to encourage you this takes practice and what I want you to understand is that this is not about as a coach or as a leader when you communicate these ways that John gave you and and the points that Mark shared with you it's not about winning or losing a game a project a kpi for us it's about adding value to people if you figure out how to communicate effectively like on the mark of laid out here you're going to win some and you're going to lose some but if you do it the right way with some of these tips you're going to always add value to people through your communication and that's the key so give us some closing thoughts on this where you're at and then wrap up wrap us up well there's two books that I'm going to recommend the first one is sometimes you win and sometimes you learn because Chris just said sometimes you win some sometimes you lose some and as a brand carrier say sometimes sometimes you learn some but that's the first book and it really is a good book that's very appropo to what we've been talking about today but the the big book the big idea that I want to leave you with today is the book 17 laws of teamwork now you just heard John go through 17 different components of what great coaches do to communicate but he'll take you deeper in this book and I've asked the team to give the 15% discount just use the code podcast and that book will really truly change your perspective on a Leader's responsibility to her or his team so pick that book up you know John made a point he didn't say it exactly like this so if this doesn't make sense call my English teacher um and remind her how bad I did in English but John made a point that it wasn't exactly like this but this was kind of the idea great coaches make teams better than their talent great coaches always make the team better than the individual Talent on there every one of them that's good you you look at the Difference Maker go talk to any winner of the past World Series or past Super Bowl and they'll talk about some it factor that was beyond the talent of the individual the cohesiveness they work together I mentioned the Brotherhood a while ago there was just this deep connection coaches have the ability to find that and pull out and by making the team better than Talent you realize that Talent is great can't do it without talent but with Talent you still cannot do it yeah that's right because you've got to be able to find that unique identifier and when you do Talent becomes better Talent becomes sharper Talent becomes more noticeable because you have brought out something bigger and better than the talent to search it too many teams that rely on indiv idual Talent end up not making it work in the end from the from the idea of pursuing and accomplishing a championship yeah and that is because they have not found something bigger to focus on coaches leaders it's our responsibility to find that thing that's bigger than talent and that's what the whole topic of today's conversation was about and uh we hope that we've added value to you I do want to go to Eric from Woodburn Indiana Eric gave us a comment Eric your comments as well as all of you wherever you listen to this podcast wherever you view this podcast give us a comment let us hear from you out there I'll love talking about these but Eric said hi there love the statement that says I'm not who I was I am who I was born to be remember that thanks Eric goes on to say Enjoy your journey through life may God richly bless you and live life loud Eric is uh talking about the podcast that we just had be the one so go check that out we'll put it in the show notes Eric thank you because that is a great statement by the way why do you want to be a great communicating coach cuz everyone deserves to be led well hey podcast listeners many of you listening right now would probably love the autonomy that comes with owning your own own business or becoming a coach that helps other businesses succeed well we have a phenomenal strategy where you are 100% in control of your own business earning income on your own terms and have access to the people tools and resources you need to build a thriving leadership development business when you become a Maxwell leadership certified team member you join a global community of entrepreneurs led by our expert team of mentors and faculty including John C Maxwell you'll also get one of the top leadership certifications in the world next to your name giving you the Boost you need to get started visit us online at Maxwell leadership.com sloin the team to find out [Music] more