Transcript
Chris Goede (0:00)
Foreign.
Mark Cole (0:08)
Hey, welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that we've committed to add value to leaders because we know they'll multiply value to others. I'm Mark Cole and this episode is all about the characteristics of a builder. It was Steve Harvey that said, a person has to remember that the road to success is. Is always under construction. That's why John Maxwell is rightly gifted to talk about building and to talk about construction and to talk about taking people somewhere. John's going to answer this question today. What does a builder look like? This way you will know how to recognize them on your team and you can actually take these principles, these ideas that John shares today and you can grow yourself as well. After he shares this lesson, my co host, Chris Goede, and I will offer you practical ways you can apply this lesson both to your life and to your leadership. I'd like to invite you to download the free bonus resource and also to tune into our episode by YouTube. You can do all this by going to maxwellpodcast.com builder. Here we go. Here is the builder himself. Just John Maxwell.
John C. Maxwell (1:31)
The characteristics of a builder and great companies. One of the things you can always know about them is that all great companies have builders. Now, not everybody is going to be a builder, but I want you to become a builder in some way or another, at some level or degree. So let me just quickly share with you the characteristics of what a builder looks like for two reasons. One is it'll help you to identify builders on your team, because once you can identify them, they're the ones that will produce and bring great results and success for you. And number two, if I give you these characteristics of a builder, honestly, you may say, well, I think there are a couple that I have that I can kind of make bigger and maybe it'll help me to even build better than I ever had before. So what does a builder look like? Well, the first thing, and I think it's the first because it's the most obvious, builders love results. You know, builders love to make things happen. And so therefore, anything that's growing, anything that's showing progress, builders just love. So they love to talk about. In fact, sometimes they maybe are kind of braggadocious, but they love to talk about, you know, where the team was when they got hold of the team and where the team is now. And here's what we're producing and this is what we're doing and this is what we're enabling people to do. Builders love. They love numbers, they love results, they count it matters to them. And so if you're just looking at where you are and you're constantly trying to have better numbers and bigger numbers, and this is something that you find yourself attracted to, it's probably because you have a characteristic, at least this characteristic. Characteristic of what a builder really looks like. Another characteristic of a builder is, honestly, they're seldom satisfied, even when they succeed. It's kind of like I was having a conversation one day with Mark Cole, who we were traveling international. He said, john, I watch you just build something and. And it becomes successful. And we all celebrate. And the next day, you're no longer celebrating. You're already thinking about the next thing you want to accomplish. And we had an interesting dinner conversation that night about, because that's who I am, I'm seldom satisfied. Now, it doesn't mean I'm not fulfilled, but what that does mean is that for many years, I had a sign in my office that just simply said, yesterday ended last night. And I love that sign. And I tell people all the time, if you have a big victory, you got 24 hours. Celebrate and then get over it, move on. And by the way, if you had a big loss, take 24, you know, 24 hours to moan and groan about it and then move on. In other words, you got to get over it. You got to get over your success. You got to get over your failure. And the way you do that is to always, you know, never, never be satisfied with yesterday. It ended last night. And the person that I'm probably the most hard on is myself. But I have found that builders themselves, they just really. Here's what I think. I think you're better to be hard on yourself and a little kinder to others. I know some people that are kind of kind to themselves and harder with others, but builders just. They're always looking for that. Next thing, I was talking to a fellow last night at dinner, and he said, john, I was attracted to your organization when you developed what you call the Million Leader mandate. And what I did is I challenged my nonprofit organization to train a million leaders in the world. And it caught on fire. It was contagious. And for the next six years, hundreds and hundreds of people volunteered to make that happen. And when we got to a million, I never said anything. And we got to 2 million. And finally one day somebody came and said, boy, you know, you. It's not the Million Leader mandate. Now it's 2 million. You know, aren't you done? I said, oh, no, no, I'm not. I said, we've left the million leader mandate. Now. Now we're going to, we're going to train leaders in every country of the world. Now what was I doing? I was already making it bigger and say, well, you know, okay, we did a million, but we haven't trained every leader in every nation yet. So let's go. That, that's what I'm talking. That's who a builder is. That's what a builder feels like. They're never really quite, you know, satisfied. Thirdly is they're very comfortable with uncertainty because they're always on the edge. They're always going where they haven't gone before. And because of that, they don't always have the answers. And because of that, sometimes they have misses but it's okay because they're very comfortable with themselves. They're not really certain about the entire future, but they're certain about what they're doing today. And so, you know, there's a comfortableness in uncertainty that just builders have where most people want to stop and kind of say, I'm not going to do anything until I can get this figured out. You know, builders are just out there saying, oh, I'm going to do a lot of things and I'll figure it out that way. My father was an incredible builder, and so, you know, he was in his, I don't know, early 80s probably, and my sister was down visiting him. And he said, my car needs the oil change. So they went to the oil change place to get it. And that day there was a long line and for whatever reason, something happened. And they had been waiting over an hour for this supposed to be quick, speedy oil change. And my dad finally looked at my sister, he said, I can't handle this anymore. He said, let's just go buy another car. Let's buy a car. I can buy a car faster than I can get my oil changed here. There's just an edge and then patience about builders that they just, they're going to move and if everybody else isn't moving, that's okay, you know, they're going to move. You know. You know, builders, they become contagious. They become contagious in the fact that, you know, a real builder could almost, they could sell their vision to a raccoon. Honestly, they can. They, you know, what they do so well is they get people to believe in them. And here's the way this works. It's the law of buy it. When people believe in the leader, they begin to believe in the vision. And builders have a confidence, a contagiousness about them, that people are attracted to them, and they just bring people to them again. They're kind of like a builder's magnet. And then one other thing that the builders just do really well, and that is that they're producers. Wherever they are, wherever they go, they produce results. And if there's not enough time, they'll find more time. If there's not enough money, they'll find more money. If there's not enough people, they'll go find more people. In other words, builders never accept no for an answer. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine that's an incredible builder, and I was casting a vision with him. Well, really, honestly, I was casting a vision of about 5,000 leaders. And when I finished, I went to the green room and Larry came into the green room and he looked at me, gave me a big hug, and he said, the answer is yes. And I said, what do you mean the answer is yes? He said, the answer is yes. I'm on the team. I'm in. And then he looked at me, said, I live on the other side of yes. I'm always ready. I'm always ready to help add value, to. To build, to make a difference. Now, I gave you those characteristics of a builder because those are the kind of people that you want. And if you'll start teaching those qualities and characteristics, you'll have people that will begin to lean towards being a better builder in your life. And when you build up builders, then everything, everything begins to compound.