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Certified speaker, trainer and coach Will Bess returns once again to Practicing with the Masters<\/em>\u00a0to share John C. Maxwell’s next 3 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Today, Will teaches\u00a0us about laws 13-15 and how to use these laws to our benefit in our development as leaders.<\/p>\n Law 13 is the Law of the Picture.\u00a0This law tells us that people do what they observe. We live what we teach and leading by example, while sounding clich\u00e9, still holds true in any type of leadership. In order to inspire their followers, leaders have to show their teams how they want \u00a0and need for them to conduct themselves. True leaders know that they must be practical enough to realize that vision without action achieves nothing.<\/p>\n The next law that Will shares with us\u00a0is the Law of the Buy In.\u00a0This law explains how people actually buy in to the leader first and then the vision. Leaders have the dream and then find the people who will help them to achieve this dream; the people find the leader and then the dream. Ghandi, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, these were all leaders who inspired their followers to buy in to their dream.<\/p>\n Concluding this episode, Will explains the Law of Victory or how leaders find a way for the team to win. Crisis, adversity, pressure, these are all things that a victorious leader thrives under. Looking back in history, Winston Churchill exemplifies the Law of Victory because of not only his refusal to give in to Adolf Hitler\u2019s demands, but by his foresight and strategic planning. He was able to recruit and unite world leaders to a common goal of victory. You don\u2019t want to miss this episode’s valuable insights and lessons that will help you to become a better leader and that will help make the people around you – your team, your family – victorious.<\/p>\n Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. Allison believes that there are four pillars for a successful, fulfilling dental practice: clear leadership, sound business principles, well-developed communication skills, and clinical excellence. Allison enjoys helping dentists and teams excel in all of these areas. Each episode she brings you an inspiring conversation with another leading expert. If you desire to learn and grow and in the process take your practice to the next level, then this is the show for you. Now, here\u2019s your host, Dr. Allison Watts.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> podcast. I’m your host, Allison Watts, and I\u2019m dedicated to bringing you masters in the field of dentistry, leadership, and practice management to help you have a more fulfilling and successful practice and life.<\/p>\n I think everybody that is on these calls knows for the most part Will now. Welcome, everybody. I will have Will just take it away. Will, what are we on this week? Twelve, thirteen, fourteen? Or thirteen, fourteen, fifteen?<\/p>\n Will:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n Will:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, well, thank you, Allison.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re thrilled to have you.<\/p>\n Will:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good morning, everybody. Welcome, happy Friday to everybody. I hope that everybody has had a blessed and prosperous week thus far.<\/p>\n Just a quick recap, last week we covered three laws. We covered the Law of Connection, which basically says that leaders touch our heart before asking for a hand. So leaders understand that the way to get someone to help them is to help that person first. As Zig Ziglar said, you get what you want by helping others get what they want. So leaders touch hearts before they ask for something from somebody.<\/p>\n The second law we covered last week was the Law of the Inner Circle. That\u2019s the law that says a leader\u2019s potential is determined by those closest to him or her. So basically, the people that you spend the most time with are the people that are going to influence you and impact you the most. That\u2019s the Law of the Inner Circle.<\/p>\n The third law that we covered last week was the Law of Empowerment. That\u2019s the law that says only secure leaders give power to others. They’re not concerned about somebody outshining them. They’re not concerned about somebody doing the job better than them. They actually want the job done better than them. So they are secure enough to give authority and power to other individuals so that they can get better. So those are the three laws that we covered last week.<\/p>\n Today we\u2019re going to start with the Law of the Picture. That is the law that says that people do what people see. People do what people see. Now to summarize, and what John talks about in the book, he began the chapter talking about the HBO series the Band of Brothers<\/em>. I don’t know if any of you guys have ever seen that, but it\u2019s a really good series.<\/p>\n This was actually based on a book by historian Stephen Ambrose. So it was based on a true story. Now, of course, when you watch a movie or a television show, they kind of add some stuff for sensationalism to make it seem a little more dramatic but for the most part, it was based on a true story.<\/p>\n It was about the story of Easy Company, which was a group of paratroopers from the 101st<\/sup> Airborne Division, who fought in World War II. The Band of Brothers<\/em>, the story follows them from the invasion of Normandy to the end of the war.<\/p>\n John talks about a variety of leaders throughout that particular show, throughout the particular time period. One of the leaders that he talks about is Herbert Sobel, who is a bit of a sadist. He was also on the incompetent side. I particularly enjoyed the scene where this captain and his sergeant tried to teach the soldiers a lesson by stealing their weapons while they slept.<\/p>\n Now if anybody\u2019s been in the military, you know automatically that there is nothing humorous, there is nothing funny, about messing with somebody\u2019s firearms, messing with somebody\u2019s weapon. But these guys decided to teach the guys a lesson. So they snuck in in the middle of the night to steal the weapons. I guess to teach the soldiers that they should better secure their weapons when they are sleeping.<\/p>\n Well, they did manage to steal over fifty-something weapons. So I guess in his mind, his mission was successful. The next day while he\u2019s in front of his troops, chastising them for being sloppy, for being careless, they recognized that they had wandered into the wrong camp. They had stolen weapons from a whole other platoon and did not know that until that platoon came up to them looking for their firearms. So to say that he was a little incompetent was kind of an understatement.<\/p>\n John also talks about another commander in that unit who basically aborted decision making. He tended to take long walks when the men needed him the most. So whenever some action happened, whenever some drama happened, he was gone, taking a long walk, thinking, meditating, whatever it is that he was doing.<\/p>\n In reading this, it triggered something back to me. It reminded me of a commander that I had when I was stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas, when I was serving in the army. This was back in \u201987. We had to go to Europe for 90 days. It was for a big world-wide war game. It was called Reforger. When we went to Europe, we went to Germany, we met up with different nations, the NATO nations, for a big training exercise.<\/p>\n So basically what we did was divide into two sides. You would have French soldiers, German soldiers, Japanese soldiers, whatever the case may be on one side. Then they would be split on the other side. So we would have the red team and the blue team and we would have simulated war games. Each side was equipped with electronic simulators that you would put on top of your clothing and on your firearm.<\/p>\n So if someone fired their M-16 at you and they hit you, then your light would come on showing that you were hit. Showing that you were officially dead. So your unit couldn\u2019t use you anymore. They would officially take you away from your unit and take you to the graveyard, that was just the nickname that they had. But they would take you there for a couple of days and your unit would have to do without you as if they would have to in a real war if you had really gotten hurt or killed.<\/p>\n It was a big, big deal. People took it really seriously. There was a lot of strategy involved. You know, it was a little fun. We kind of enjoyed it. But it was a big deal.<\/p>\n I was on the red team and I was assigned to a communications unit, which was assigned to an infantry squad. That was a pretty tough assignment because in the communications, we basically had to get to a site first to ensure the communications systems were up. Then we would be one of the last to leave because, of course, the captains and the sergeants and the majors and colonels or whomever, they wanted to have communications until the very last, until they actually left the site. So we had to wait around for them to leave.<\/p>\n Well on one particular day, we had received intelligence that we were going to get attacked by the blue team. So our orders were to relocate to another area because we were headquarters, so we didn\u2019t have the fighting unit there that would be able to prevent an attack.<\/p>\n The leader of my company was this high strung captain. I don\u2019t even remember his name. I know what he looks like, but I don\u2019t remember his name. But let\u2019s just call him Captain Smith. He was a mousey-looking man. He mumbled a lot. Really, nobody ever quite understood his rational about many of the things that he did.<\/p>\n So on this day in question, everybody was packed up and was ready to leave. But intelligence had advised us that we had about four or five hours before we had to leave. So there was carefully plotting and planning where it is that we were going to relocate to.<\/p>\n Well, captain was just in a hurry. He was in a hurry. He wanted to be the first one there. He needed to go get communications setup. So we\u2019re saying, \u201cYou know, captain, there\u2019s no big rush. We have plenty of time. We need to make sure we\u2019re going to the right place and doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Well he got the map and he got the location and he decided that he was just going to go there. He was just going to take our little unit, platoon, and he was just going to go. So he had the communications platoon load up and he was going to go there.<\/p>\n Now we\u2019re in Germany and I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever been in Germany or read a military map, but it\u2019s not like a map that you look at now. It doesn\u2019t have streets and houses and landmarks. It doesn\u2019t have any of that. It\u2019s really, really difficult to \u2026 you see the rivers, you see lakes, you see mountains, and that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n Anyway, he led the convoys, about a six-vehicle convoy, so he was driving first. I was in the vehicle right behind him. It was easy to see right after we left that we were lost immediately because we were going around in circles. You were seeing the same things over and over and over.<\/p>\n So finally he pulled over to the side, got out of his vehicle, you could see he was all animated talking to some of the other officers that were with us. He got back in his vehicle and one of the lieutenants who supposedly could read the German map a lot better got into my vehicle. So we became the lead vehicle and the captain was behind us.<\/p>\n We were driving and we came around a corner and we see a battalion, a huge battalion. They’re wearing blue. Their tanks have the blue emblems on them. Their uniforms have the blue on them. So we know that\u2019s the enemy team. We\u2019re the red team. They’re the blue team. And so the lieutenant calls back and says, \u201cCaptain, this is the blue team we\u2019re coming up on. We need to turn around.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, we need to go forward. We need to go forward. Drive straight through them.\u201d He was adamant. \u201cDrive straight through them.\u201d So I\u2019m looking at the lieutenant. The lieutenant is looking at me and I\u2019m like, \u201cUh, do we really want to just drive through an enemy territory?\u201d The captain is shouting on the radio, \u201cDrive through them! Drive through them! Drive through them!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, let\u2019s drive through them.\u201d So we\u2019re driving through them and the guys were like sitting on their tanks, sitting on their vehicles, eating, whatever, I guess they were just kind of taking a break. And they were all looking at us astounded because our vehicles had the red and stuff on it. So they knew we were the enemy. They were looking at us like, \u201cWhat in the world is going on?\u201d They were shocked.<\/p>\n So we had gotten almost all the way through before one of the soldiers I guess said, \u201cWait a minute, this isn\u2019t right.\u201d So he had a tank and he pulled the tank in front of my vehicle but I was close enough that I could swerve and go around his tank. I actually got through the battalion and I got out.<\/p>\n Well when I looked in my rearview mirror, they had actually blocked the captain and the rest of our unit. So we pulled over to the side of the road and got out of our truck and just looked back to see what was happening. We saw the captain getting out and he was flailing about, being all animated. Some soldiers came up with their M-16 pointed to him.<\/p>\n Long story short, they took him hostage. They took him as a prisoner, as well as the rest of the unit. So the lieutenant and I went back to the site that we were at originally and we went into the colonel\u2019s tent and we told him, \u201cWe have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the problem?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe captain has been captured.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean he\u2019s been captured?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been captured.\u201d<\/p>\n We told him exactly what happened and we could just tell by the look on the colonel that for some reason he just wasn\u2019t shocked. So the captain had been captured. So this Band of Brothers<\/em> story and these captains just reminded me of the incompetence that goes on sometimes.<\/p>\n I just thank God every day that I wasn\u2019t in a real war with that captain. Because had I been, you might have been on this phone call right now, but somebody else would have been giving it to you because I probably wouldn\u2019t have been here.<\/p>\n Anyway, going back to the story that John was talking about. There were also some good leaders in Easy Company. That company turned out to be one of the best companies in the army. One of the things that made them special was the leadership. The good leaders.<\/p>\n The leaders exemplified the model that they wanted the soldiers to be. So the soldiers followed that. Those leaders modeled the Law of the Picture. They showed the soldiers the right way with the right actions. The followers, the soldiers, copied them and succeeded because that\u2019s what the Law of the Picture says. The Law of the Picture says we live what we teach.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like when you tell your children to do something as a parent but you realize that children do what you do and not what you say. When I was a federal probation officer, I used to tell young men and women that I dealt with in the federal system that, \u201cYou know what, you can tell your sons, you can tell your daughters all day long not to hang out with the wrong crowd. Not to use drugs. To get a job. To be a pro-social person. To be a positive contribute to society. You can tell them that all day long. But as long as you continue to live the lifestyle that you’re living, that\u2019s going to be more powerful to them than any words that you say. Because they’re doing what you’re doing, not what you’re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why unfortunately I saw generations of people come through the federal system. Grandfathers, fathers, and grandchildren. The whole generation. Because while they were saying, \u201cYou know what, don\u2019t follow my actions. Don\u2019t do what I\u2019ve done.\u201d They were still doing it and that\u2019s what the children were modeling, what they saw. It\u2019s like Gandhi once said, \u201cWe must be the change we want to see in the world.\u201d Leading by example sounds like a clich\u00e9 but it still rings true. And it will always ring true.<\/p>\n Leaders must be practical enough to realize that vision without action achieves nothing. Leaders make themselves responsible for helping their followers take action. Many times leaders come up with a vision of how to improve the workplace, or how to improve morale, how people can improve, self-growth.<\/p>\n But then they take no action in helping the followers get there. So they come up with these plans, they come up with the, \u201cOh, we should do this, or this would be a good idea. Let\u2019s try this.\u201d But they don\u2019t actually follow up on it.<\/p>\n See, the leader is the one responsible for seeing the big picture and what\u2019s best for the entire team. The leader is the one who communicates their vision but they don\u2019t stop there. They don\u2019t tell their people that you need to invest in self-growth. That you need to do this. That you need to do that. But they don\u2019t do it. They don\u2019t model it themselves.<\/p>\n Yesterday we had a training and Audrey and her team was there, which was wonderful. I was glad to see them there. But I really appreciate you, Allison, because you’re not that parent that tells their children to go to church but they don\u2019t go to church. You know?<\/p>\n You’re that leader that says, \u201cOkay, this is what we should do as a team\u201d and you’re there leading the way. That\u2019s what leaders do. The leader is the one who communicates the vision, \u201cThis is how we want to be.\u201d Then they do it. They model the way. The followers see that. Thus, they want to follow.<\/p>\n Good leaders are always conscious of the fact that they are setting an example and others will do what they do, for better or worse. So if you want your team to have a good attitude, you have to have a good attitude yourself. If you want your team to be positive, you have to be positive.<\/p>\n You’re not perfect. Leaders are not perfect. And leaders are not expected to have the answers all of the time, but that\u2019s okay. As author Andy Stanley made the comment, he said that \u201cUncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership. It simply indicates a need for leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n He goes on to say that the nature of leadership demands that there is an element of uncertainty. Leaders can afford to be uncertain, but they can\u2019t afford to be unclear. So not having all of the answers right then and there, that\u2019s okay. As long as you are clear about the direction that you’re going to take.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to share with you guys some modeling insights for leaders. One of the things that you have to look at is that followers are always watching you. They’re always watching you. I know a woman, she was at ATB. She went to ATB to get some groceries and then she went back home. So it was a typical cold and windy day in the middle of winter in Midland. You know how it is, always windy. It was cold that day.<\/p>\n She had her little son with her and I think he was about two or three. He was strapped into the vehicle. As she was getting the groceries out of the car, the wind was howling, she was cold, and so she said something to the effect of, \u201cI can\u2019t believe how cold it is out here. I\u2019m so tired of this wind. I wish this \u2018blank\u2019 would just end.\u201d The word that she said, it rhymes with split but it wasn\u2019t split. But you can figure it out what it was.<\/p>\n So she preceded to get the groceries out of the car. She took her child from the car and she went into the house and they weren\u2019t in the house for two minutes before the little fella promptly yelled out, \u201cSplit!\u201d Again, he didn\u2019t say \u201csplit,\u201d he said the word that rhymes with that. It was funny when she was telling me that, it was so funny because she had said two full sentences but the only word that the little boy decided he wanted to repeat was the one word in those two sentences that he wasn\u2019t supposed to say.<\/p>\n We know as parents that children learn more from what they see than anything else. For better or worse, they’re paying attention, they’re watching you, they’re listening to you. It\u2019s the same thing with leaders. For better or worse, people are paying attention. They’re watching you. They’re listening to you.<\/p>\n I recall a story when I was in high school, several months was at a friend\u2019s house. Now this guy, he was a good guy. He was a bit of a redneck. I mean, he was country as country comes but he was a nice guy. We\u2019re over at the house and I\u2019m the only African American there but we\u2019re having a good time. We\u2019re sitting around talking and shooting, and shuckin\u2019 and jivin\u2019, and shooting the breeze.<\/p>\n His little sister comes into the room. She\u2019s about six years old, cute as she could be. She preceded to tell us about her day in school that day. So she was telling us about a classmate of hers. So in describing the classmate, she referred to the young man as the N-word. Now she had no idea it was a bad word until her brother, who was extremely red-faced yelled at her, \u201cDon\u2019t say that! Don\u2019t say that! Get out of here! Get out of here!\u201d So she turns around and hightails it out of the room.<\/p>\n So he\u2019s apologizing to me, \u201cI\u2019m sorry. I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry. I\u2019m sorry that she said that. Don\u2019t be mad at her.\u201d I said, \u201cShe\u2019s a child. I\u2019m not mad at her. I\u2019m not mad at her.\u201d I said, \u201cShe was only repeating what she had heard in this house, Mike. That\u2019s what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cSo I don\u2019t know the things that you guys say in this house but you need to recognize whatever you’re saying in this house, this child is listening and she\u2019s repeating it.\u201d I said, \u201cIf she will say it here, she\u2019ll say it to somebody else. She\u2019ll say it somewhere else. So you may want to get with your parents, you guys may want to discuss this.\u201d<\/p>\n Children watch and they emulate the behavior they see. Employees do the same. Followers do the same with leaders. If you’re coming in late, they’re going to come in late. If you’re leaving early, they’re going to leave early too. If you’re calling in for any reason, they’re going to call in too. But if they see that you’re devoted, they see that you care, they see that you’re interested in growing yourself and growing them, they\u2019ll follow that as well.<\/p>\n Number two: it\u2019s easier to teach what is right than to do what is right. I think we all know that. I do leadership training and I tell the audience that I\u2019m speaking in front of, \u201cI don\u2019t want you guys to get confused. Don\u2019t get it misunderstood. I\u2019m not an expert at all of this stuff. I struggle with the same things that you guys struggle with.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to tell you right now, it\u2019s a lot easier for me to tell you guys how to behave and how to act than it is to do it myself. I think that\u2019s all of us. That\u2019s one reason parents, we would tell our children, \u201cDo as I say, not as I do.\u201d Because we recognize it is a lot easier to them not to do it than us to stop doing it. It\u2019s easier to tell our little kid, \u201cDon\u2019t use a foul word. Don\u2019t use this foul language.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I said so. Because I\u2019m mommy. I\u2019m daddy. You’re a child. You’re not supposed to it.\u201d We shouldn\u2019t be doing it ourselves but, it\u2019s kind of hard, but it\u2019s easier to tell them not to.<\/p>\n John makes the statement that many leaders are like bad travel agents. They send people to places that they\u2019ve never been before. He said, \u201cBut they should be more like tour guides.\u201d A tour guide is somebody who takes you somewhere that they\u2019ve gone. They\u2019ve been there time and time again. So when they’re taking you, they can share the wisdom of their own experiences.<\/p>\n So those are the kind of leaders that we should strive to be, like the tour guide. That when we\u2019re telling someone something or we\u2019re sharing or we\u2019re pouring into them or we\u2019re adding value to them, we have the experience. We\u2019ve been there before and we can share that with them.<\/p>\n The third one is that we should work on changing ourselves before trying to improve others. Although as leaders we are responsible for the actions of others, but we must be very careful in trying to change someone else\u2019s behavior before we change ourselves. Because as leaders, we really have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than we do others. The leader is the one who should work the hardest.<\/p>\n So many times, people want to be elevated to positions of leadership because they think they\u2019ve earned that right because they think it\u2019s easier. \u201cI’ve been working hard all of this time, now it\u2019s my turn to be promoted. It\u2019s my turn to sit back and kick back.\u201d Because in their mind, that\u2019s what the leader does. That\u2019s what the boss does. But the real leader, the true leader understands that no, the more responsibility you add, the more rights you give up as a leader.<\/p>\n So the leader is the one who should be setting the example. That\u2019s the one who should be working the hardest. That\u2019s the one that should be working the longest. Just like on a sports team, and you guys know I was going to go to sports. The leader of the team, that\u2019s the athlete who works the hardest to set the example. That\u2019s not the one with the loudest mouth. That\u2019s the one who walks the walk. They talk the talk and they walk the walk.<\/p>\n If you’re a team player, you’re the leader of that team, you’re a future hall of famer, you know your spot is secure. Ever year when you go into the season, you know you have a starting position on that team. You know you are. But even still, you work harder than anybody else. You work harder than that fifth-round rookie who\u2019s trying to make the team. You work harder than that free agent who doesn\u2019t even have a contract in front of them to make the team. You’re working harder than those guys.<\/p>\n If you’re the one that\u2019s working like that, who has the audacity not to follow you when the best player is working the hardest? When the leader of the company, the one who\u2019s paying your salary, is working the hardest, who has the audacity to not follow that?<\/p>\n I went to this organization to do some team building for the owner because this owner was concerned about the employees and their morale. There\u2019s a lot going on there, the owner was concerned. So the owner brought me in to do some team building. So I did a group team building and then I did some individual one-to-ones with the employees.<\/p>\n What I found out was this: the real problem was the owner. I spoke with the owner and I relayed that. See because this particular owner, they wanted me to come in and fix all of the individual employees but the owner wasn\u2019t willing to fix himself or herself. They weren\u2019t. They wanted everybody to get into shape and to get it together, but they were the ones doing those things that were causing other people to not get it together, to not get in shape.<\/p>\n So this was a case of, \u201cI want you to fix everybody else but don\u2019t worry about fixing me.\u201d We can\u2019t do that as leaders because we recognize the hardest job you will ever have in leading is leading yourself. We\u2019re our biggest problem 9.9 out of 10 times. So we have to lead ourselves before we can lead others.<\/p>\n The fourth is the most valuable gift a leader can give is by being a good example. By being a good example. More than anything else, employees want a boss who will lead by example and their actions line up with their beliefs.<\/p>\n Now John mentions Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York when September 11th<\/sup> happened. Many people in New York City and basically around the country, when they looked at Rudy and how he lived and how he carried himself and conducted himself after September 11th<\/sup>, many of us learned how to deal with that tragedy by watching him and how he dealt with it.<\/p>\n Because Rudy was determined not to let the terrorists dictate to him how he was going to live his life. He was determined not to let terroristic acts dictate to the city of New York how they were going to live their life.<\/p>\n So he was saying, \u201cTourists, we don\u2019t have the Twin Towers anymore, but we\u2019re still the same fabulous city that we\u2019ve always been. Come and see us. You\u2019ll be okay. You’re safe here. Come and see us.\u201d And that\u2019s how he led his life. He modeled the behavior.<\/p>\n He gave the example of how New Yorkers should recover from September 11th<\/sup> and that\u2019s what they did. He was a good example and that\u2019s the most valuable gift that we can give as a leader, whether it\u2019s an organization, whether it\u2019s in our personal life, is by being a good example. That\u2019s the best gift we can give to our children, is by being a good example.<\/p>\n The next law, the Law of the Buy-In. The Law of the Buy-In says people buy into the leader and then the vision. The leader follows the dream and then the people. The people will follow the leader and then the dream. John talks about Gandhi and how his vision for non-violent civil disobedience captured an entire nation and eventually won India home rule.<\/p>\n See many leaders approach leadership in a backwards view. They think if the cause is great enough, that people will follow. They think if the why is good enough, that people will follow. I mean, why wouldn\u2019t people want to follow? This is a good reason. This is a good cause. Why wouldn\u2019t you want to follow?<\/p>\n People are not built like that. It\u2019s just simply not true. People will follow a worthy leader who promotes a cause that they believe in. They won\u2019t just necessarily follow the cause because there is a good cause. If you run a nonprofit organization, and that\u2019s really a place where you can really practice good leadership because many times people are not being compensated for the things that they do. So it really takes good, strong leadership to influence people to do things.<\/p>\n But if you run nonprofit organization, you may get a few people who follow you because they’re personally invested in the cause. Maybe they are afflicted with some sort of ailment or somebody in their family or they lost a loved one to something, so they may be personally invested in the cause.<\/p>\n But for the most part, people will follow because they believe in you and then they support the cause. So it doesn\u2019t matter, if the leader hasn\u2019t built credibility with the people, they won\u2019t follow. No matter how great the cause is, no matter how great the vision is, they won\u2019t follow.<\/p>\n John gave the example of the dot-com boom back a decade or so ago, where any and everybody with just a little bit of computer experience was attempting to start their businesses. We hear people like the Mark Cuban\u2019s of the world who started his dot-com and sold it and became a billionaire.<\/p>\n We hear some individual stories about people who became millionaires and billionaires, but the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of people who start their own dot-com business, they never found backers to finance them. They didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n The people who did find investors the first go around, they found it much easier the second time to get backing. The second time, sometimes the investors came to them, looking to give them money because the investor wasn\u2019t even really particularly interested in what that person was trying to do.<\/p>\n They had a vision, they had a goal, yeah, fine, whatever, but they believed in the person. They saw that that person had success so they believed that whatever it is that that person was trying to do, they were going to be successful at it. So they were invested in that person not so much what that person was doing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of like the coach who implements the game plan before a game. The players may not know exactly why the game plan is that way, they may not know why we\u2019re running plays that we have not run all year long. They may not know why we are running defenses that we\u2019ve not played all year long. But if they believe in that coach, if that coach has led them to success before, they’re not going to question the plan. They’re going to learn it and they’re going to buy into it because that\u2019s what people do.<\/p>\n You can have the greatest plan in the world and that\u2019s fine. But if the people don\u2019t buy into you, they don\u2019t trust you, if they don\u2019t believe in you, they’re not going to buy into your vision, which is why it makes sense that we need to connect with people first before we push a vision on them. Every message that people receive is filtered through the messenger who delivers it. It could be the greatest message in the world but if the messenger is not somebody with credibility, the message will be lost.<\/p>\n When we think about the greatest speeches in the world, you know, \u201cFour score and seven years ago,\u201d Abraham Lincoln. And Dr. Martin Luther King, \u201cI have a dream.\u201d When we think about those speeches and those magnificent words that were spoken, they’re wonderful, they send chills through your spine, but you look at the people who gave those speeches. That\u2019s what gave those speeches juice. That\u2019s what made them come alive. Because the individuals who gave those speeches were the people who the world, who the country for the most part, had bought into.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the reason why so many entertainers and athletes and people of that such make so much money promoting products. Most athletes, the really, really good ones, who have a lot of endorsements, their endorsements paid them more than the actual sport that they play.<\/p>\n Michael Jordan was never the highest paid athlete when he was playing. He didn\u2019t need to be because his endorsements paid him four or five times the amount that his salary did. So he wasn\u2019t concerned about his salary because there were endorsements.<\/p>\n Because people like and buy into the person who\u2019s making the endorsement, they assume the product is good as well. That\u2019s why paying those people, popular people, that\u2019s why they endorse products, because the companies understand if you get the person who people like, who people trust, who people buy into, then they\u2019ll buy the product.<\/p>\n When Tiger Woods had that fiasco several years ago involving his personal life, a lot of his sponsors dropped him. Why did they drop him? Because he wasn\u2019t a good golfer anymore? Because he wasn\u2019t going to the hall of fame anymore? No. it wasn\u2019t any of those reasons. But he had lost some credibility and trust with the public and they realized that if the public doesn\u2019t like you or trust you as a person, then they’re not going to like the product that you’re pushing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same thing with your vision. If they don\u2019t like and trust you as the leader, they’re not going to like the vision that you’re pushing. When Michael Jordan came out with his tennis or basketball shoe brand, Air Jordans, and they sold better, and still sell better, than any shoe in the history of tennis shoes.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t because the shoes were so fabulous, it\u2019s not that you were going to put them and all of a sudden you were going to play like Michael Jordan and start dunking the ball like Michael Jordan, no. Kids wore them because Michael Jordan wore them. And he\u2019s Michael Jordan. That was a good enough reason. If they’re good enough for Mike, they’re good enough for me. Once people believe in you, they\u2019ll always give your vision a chance.<\/p>\n Another one is when followers don\u2019t like the leader of the vision, they look for another leader. When followers don\u2019t like the leader or the vision, they look for another leader. The only time a person will follow someone that they don\u2019t like and who has a vision they don\u2019t like, it\u2019s when the person has leverage on them. More likely than not, that\u2019s the person who holds the keys to your employment.<\/p>\n So although you may like them, you may not like them, or how they do things, you follow them anyway because they sign the paycheck. And you need the paycheck. They follow because they don\u2019t have a choice. But more than likely, while they’re following you, they’re looking for somebody else to follow. That\u2019s why people rarely quit jobs, they quit people. Because if they don\u2019t like you, they don\u2019t like your vision, they’re going to look for somebody else.<\/p>\n Second one is people also look for a new leader when they like the vision but don\u2019t like the leader. So you might love your job, I cannot tell you the number of people that I\u2019ve talked to, they love their jobs. Their actual job, they enjoy it. That\u2019s what they want to do. They may enjoy and appreciate the vision that the job forecasts but they don\u2019t like you. They don\u2019t like the leader. They don\u2019t like their boss. They don\u2019t like their supervisor. That\u2019s enough for them to change jobs. Although they like the job, although they value what they’re doing, they don\u2019t like the person leading them, they will look elsewhere.<\/p>\n John brings this up talking about sports, and this time it was John, not me. He made the point that that\u2019s why teams change coaches so much because the vision of winning a championship is the same for every team. That\u2019s why you play the sport, is to win the championship. But if the coach loses the team and the players stop listening, stop respecting the coach, stop responding to the coach, the team will change the coach. You will change the leader. So the vision is the same, you’re trying to win a championship. But the leader has to go.<\/p>\n The third is one is when followers like the leader but not the vision, then they try to change the vision. Sometimes it will work to convince the leader to change the vision. If you don\u2019t know by now, I\u2019m a diehard Longhorn fan and in 2004, Texas Longhorns had a sophomore quarterback named Vince Young. They had lost a game to Oklahoma Sooners, the Red River Rivalry 12-0. First time Texas had been shutout in over a decade. The game right after that they played Missouri and they won the game but they didn\u2019t play well. And actually, Vince Young was taken out of the game for certain parts of the game.<\/p>\n So after that game, Vince Young went to coach Mack Brown. He said, \u201cMack,\u201d well he didn\u2019t say Mack, he said, \u201cCoach Brown, I need you to loosen the reigns a little bit on the team. I need you to loosen the reigns a little bit on me. Let me have a little more fun. If you watch the tape when I played in high school at Houston Madison, you saw that I conducted myself a certain way on the team. I played fun. I played loose. That\u2019s what I do. So I know this is college, I know this is a different ballgame, but I\u2019m not being me. If you allow me to be me, and allow me to have some more influence on this team and the attitude of this team, I think it can help.\u201d<\/p>\n So Mack Brown was smart. Mack Brown was well liked by his team. He was respected by his team. But they weren\u2019t completely sold. His quarterback, the leader of his team, wasn\u2019t completely sold on Mack\u2019s style of leading the team. So he liked the leader but didn\u2019t like the vision. So he changed the vision. Mack Brown said, \u201cOkay, you know what. We\u2019re going to try it this way. We\u2019re going to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n What happened is for the rest of Vince Young\u2019s career as a quarterback at UT, which spanned a period of twenty games, Vince Young and the rest of the Longhorns never lost another game and they won a National Championship. Because they liked the leader, didn\u2019t like the vision, changed the vision, and it worked.<\/p>\n Fourth and finally, when followers like both the leader and the vision, they follow both. No matter how bad the conditions get, they’re going to follow. That\u2019s why the Indian people followed Gandhi and refused to fight back even though they were being massacred by the military. That\u2019s what inspired the U.S. to fulfill JFK\u2019s vision to put a man on the moon. That\u2019s what inspired people to continue to have hope even after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. Because when people like and believe the leader and the vision, they’re going to run through walls for you. They’re going to go to the ends of the earth for you.<\/p>\n The buy-in is not about the leader. It\u2019s about the leader\u2019s ability to make the people, to take the people to where they need to go. So if you can get people to understand that you’re there to help them and take them to another level, and you get the buy-in from them, then you’re on your way.<\/p>\n So these are reasons that people will buy into a leader. The leader develops relationships. The leader is honest, authentic, and develops trust. The leader holds themselves to higher standards. The leader gives people the proper tools to become better. The leader helps followers achieve their goals. The leader develops the leadership of the followers.<\/p>\n When you’re thinking about your vision and the vision that you want to have in your life and with your team, ask yourself these questions. Does your vision resonate with them? Then ask yourself this question: Are you giving them enough time to buy into your vision? Because sometimes the leaders will come up with a new vision, and a new direction, a new way of doing things, and they don\u2019t give the people time to adjust to it. To let it soak in. To let it marinate. You want them immediately to jump on board, immediately. And it\u2019s not always immediate. So you have to ask yourself, are you giving people time to buy into you? Into your vision?<\/p>\n Then the final question you want to ask yourself, is your vision right for other people? It may be right for you. But is it right for the team as a whole? Is it right for the organization as a whole?<\/p>\n Sometimes a leader, someone in charge, wants to change some policies, change some procedures because it impacts them directly but it may be negative for the whole other team. Then they can\u2019t understand why the team is not buying into it. Well that\u2019s because you’re the only person that benefits from that vision. So you have to ask yourself, is your vision truly right for everyone?<\/p>\n Finally, the last law we\u2019re going to talk about is the Law of Victory. That\u2019s the law that says leaders find a way for the team to win. It\u2019s that simplistic. Leaders find a way for the team to win. The question in this chapter is what does it take to make a team a winner? What separates the leaders who are victorious from the ones who are not?<\/p>\n John says that the victorious leaders have one thing in common. They have a refusal to lose. Crisis and adversity brings out the best in all of us, that includes leaders. True leaders thrive under pressure. They don\u2019t run from it. They don\u2019t hide from it. They don\u2019t cower in the corner. They thrive under pressure.<\/p>\n Little history lesson this morning. John talks about Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II, who battled Hitler, who was threatening to crush Europe and remake it under his own insane and evil image. In 1932, Churchill foresaw what Germany was trying to become. He saw it early. See that\u2019s one of the great signs of leadership, they see first and they see more. Churchill saw it. He was trying to prepare England for what was to come. He spoke out against Germany but the other leaders in England did nothing to stand against Hitler and more of Europe fell to the Germans.<\/p>\n By the 1940s, most of Europe was under Germany\u2019s control until the control of England fell into the hands of the 65-year-old Winston Churchill. For more than a year, Britain is still alone facing the threat of German invasion, but he refused to deal with Hitler.<\/p>\n Hitler wanted to make a deal. No. He refused to deal with him and he stood firm even when Germany started bombing England. Churchill continued to rally the British people, including his first speech after becoming prime minister. I won\u2019t say the whole speech, but basically he said victory at all costs was the goal and the aim. Victory at all costs, no matter what.<\/p>\n See Churchill hated communism but he was smart enough to ally himself with Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. He would send the Russian\u2019s aid even when his own troops, even when England needed the aid himself, he would send it Russia. Healing that relationship. He also was very clever. He built a personal relationship with another powerful world leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president of the United States.<\/p>\n See Roosevelt was reluctant to enter the war and Churchill respected that. But Churchill worked to build the relationship from one of friendship and mutual respect to a full-fledged war alliance because he knew if we have the United States on our side, that would change things. So he worked on that relationship.<\/p>\n And Japan, bless their hearts, they assisted Churchill greatly when they decided to bomb Pearl Harbor because they drew the United States into the war and the rest is history. That\u2019s a pun intended. That the rest is history. We know what happened.<\/p>\n See the president of the United States at the time, Roosevelt, he was a leader himself who practiced the Law of Victory. This was a man who overcame polio to win the presidency and he was responsible for pulling the American people out of the Great Depression. There were only a dozen or so democratic states on the earth around 1941 and Churchill and Roosevelt, they provided the democratic leadership, like John says, like a one-two punch.<\/p>\n Victory was the only option for both of those men. Had those two men accepted anything less than victory, I’m afraid of what the world would look like right now. But the world would be a different place right now. Hitler had a plan. He had a thousand-year Reich plan that German was going to dominate for a thousand years.<\/p>\n But because of the greatness of men like Churchill and Roosevelt, and the courage of the men and women who battled, his bloody rein lasted twelve years. Now that was twelve years too long but that twelve years was a lot shorter than what it could have been and what he was intending for it to be. See great leaders find a way to win.<\/p>\n Nelson Mandela, another great leader. Did the same thing. He was in prison for 27 years but he became the president of South Africa at the end of apartheid. He found a way to win, refused to give in.<\/p>\n A leader\u2019s mindset is one that losing is not an option. It\u2019s not a choice. It\u2019s not even on the table. There\u2019s a plan A: win. There\u2019s no more plans. There\u2019s no backup plans. It\u2019s plan A. Losing is not an option. It\u2019s not business, it\u2019s personal. Some people say, well, it\u2019s not personal, it\u2019s only business. No. It\u2019s personal to a leader.<\/p>\n Leaders, you have to make sure that you surround yourself with people who believe in you, but they think different thoughts. Because if everybody is thinking alike, then somebody is not thinking. In the leader\u2019s view, leadership is responsible, losing is unacceptable, passion is unquenchable, creativity is essential, quitting is unthinkable, commitment is unquestionable, and victory is inevitable. That\u2019s how a leader views the world.<\/p>\n John refers to Michael Jordan who was the epitome of a winner. Michael Jordan was an exceptional player. His athletic ability and his athletic talents were superb. But to a man, those who played with Michael Jordan, those who played against Michael Jordan, nobody said that, \u201cYou know what, Mike was so quick, I couldn\u2019t hold him.\u201d Nobody said, \u201cMike jumps so high that I \u2026\u201d Nobody said that. Nobody talked about his physical skills, although they were plenty. They talked about his desire and his will to win.<\/p>\n That was what made Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan. His desire and will to win were unmatched. See early in his career, when he first came out of North Carolina and played for the Bulls, Michael relied on his natural talent. He had a lot of individual success. He would lead the league in scoring, averaging over 30 points a game. He would do all these wonderful things on the individual level, but his teams ultimately were not successful.<\/p>\n But when Jordan developed leadership skills and he turned his attention to making the whole team better, then the Bulls become a legendary team. The greatest players in any sport are always known for that. They’re always known for that. Not just being great themselves but making other people better.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the same thing with leaders. It does you no good to be great alone. Do you make people around you better? Do you make the people around you better? Do you lift them up? Do you help them lift their game up? Because if you help them lift their game up, the team is going to be better.<\/p>\n Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John Elway, Joe Montana, all of those guys had that in common. It didn\u2019t matter what the sport was. It didn\u2019t matter what their talent level was, that\u2019s the thing that they had in common. They made people around them better and they refused to lose. That\u2019s what leaders do. Leaders make the people around them better and they refuse to lose.<\/p>\n There are three components to victory. Leaders create a unity of vision. You get people who are playing for the team and not for themselves. The second is leaders find a diversity of skills. You can\u2019t have a team only good in one area. It just won\u2019t happen because you\u2019ll be weak. Diversity is a strength. In order for the team to win, everybody has to do their part. Different skillsets. Same vision, same goals, but different skills. Diversity is key.<\/p>\n The third one is leaders raise team members to their potential by knowing and utilizing team\u2019s strengths. You have to know what the strengths are of the people that you’re working with. You have to have the ability to free them from their weaknesses. Wherever you’re going, take them with you.<\/p>\n You expose them to an experience and you cultivate their personal growth. That\u2019s how you raise their potential, by doing those things. Knowing their strengths, freeing them from weaknesses, taking them with you, exposing them to an experience, and cultivating their personal growth.<\/p>\n Some organizations, some leaders, they go to all these magnificent leadership conferences and trainings and stuff, which is wonderful, that\u2019s great. But they never take their people with them. You want to cultivate their personal growth as well. So I\u2019m just going to end by giving you three steps in practicing the law of victory.<\/p>\n You want to take responsibility for the success of your team, for your department, and for your organization. Make it personal. We invest more when it\u2019s personal. Your commitment and passion must be higher than that of your team members. If you have an organization and the most excited and enthusiastic and passionate person is not the leader, then you’re going to have a problem.<\/p>\n The second, ensure the right people are on your team. Hire smartly, recruit wisely. People have asked John, \u201cHow do you motivate employees? How do you motivate people?\u201d His answer is, \u201cI hire motivated people.\u201d That\u2019s how you do it. If you hire the right people, if you recruit the right people into your organization, you’re not going to have to spend a lot of time doing all of those other things.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve had somebody working for you for four or five months and you\u2019ve got to send them a training on attitude. You have to send them to training on how to motivate them. No, it\u2019s ridiculous. You shouldn\u2019t have to do that. You hire smartly, you recruit wisely. Make sure the right people are on your team.<\/p>\n Finally, find out if your vision is unified. Find out what\u2019s important to your team members. Because your vision may not be theirs. But if you were to find out, if you were to take the time to find out what\u2019s important to them. What are the things that they feed into? What are the things that they want to do? What\u2019s valuable to them? It may help you, it will help you, in getting buy-in from them. Because even if you say well, my vision has to remain the same, at least you can address the things that are important to them or you can explain the benefits of the things that are important to them by doing your vision.<\/p>\n Ask questions. Talk to people. Get their opinions. Don\u2019t be defensive. When you ask for an opinion, be prepared to get the worst opinion imaginable. Not saying that you will, you probably won\u2019t, but be prepared. That way, you’re not going to be mad and angry and defensive. I don’t know about you guys, but nothing irritates me more than someone asking my advice or asking my opinion for something and then when I give it to them, they’re upset with it. What do we say, \u201cWell, don\u2019t ask if you don\u2019t like the answer.\u201d Don\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n So you talk to your people. You ask questions and you find out if your vision is unified. Be prepared that everybody may not buy into it. But as the leader, if they bought into you, they will eventually buy into your vision. So thank you very much. That ends our conference for today.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists, with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. For more about how Allison Watts and Transformational Practices can help you create a successful and fulfilling practice and life, visit transformationalpractices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Certified speaker, trainer and coach Will Bess returns once again to Practicing with the Masters\u00a0to share John C. Maxwell’s next 3 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Today, Will teaches\u00a0us about laws 13-15 and how to use these laws to our benefit in our development as leaders. Law 13 is the Law of the Picture.\u00a0This law tells […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[309,305,304,307],"yoast_head":"\nWhat You’ll Learn From This Episode:<\/h3>\n
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Listen To The Full Interview:<\/h3>\n\n
Featured On The Show:<\/h3>\n
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Full Episode Transcript:<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nThe 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership with Will Bess Part 5<\/h3>\n
CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT (9,066 WORDS )<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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