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Andy Stanley - Two Questions to Grow your Business with Jeff Henderson, Part 1-From the Vault · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:02
Speaker 1: Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast,
0:05
Speaker 1: a conversation, as you know, designed to help leaders go
0:08
Speaker 1: further faster. I'm Andy and I'll be your host this
0:10
Speaker 1: month because today my friend Jeff Henderson is joining me
0:14
Speaker 1: in the studio to talk about something every leader is
0:17
Speaker 1: interested in, and that is growth, organizational growth, selling more
0:21
Speaker 1: of what you sell, whether it's goods or services. So Jeff,
0:24
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being a part of the podcast.
0:26
Speaker 2: Andy, good to be here, Good to see you.
0:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good to see you too. We don't see
0:30
Speaker 1: each other enough. Before Jeff dropped into church world. I'll
0:34
Speaker 1: let him tell you a little bit more about that
0:35
Speaker 1: in a minute. He's spent a number of years in
0:37
Speaker 1: the marketplace with organizations you've heard of Chick fil A,
0:40
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Braves, and the Callaway Gardens. So Jeff has
0:43
Speaker 1: had success in both the profit and nonprofit context. And
0:47
Speaker 1: a few years ago he was encouraged from several directions
0:50
Speaker 1: to write about his experience and he's done that, and
0:52
Speaker 1: he has a brand new book entitled Know what You're For,
0:54
Speaker 1: a Growth Strategy for Work and an even better strategy
0:58
Speaker 1: for Life, and got John Maxwell to write your forward,
1:01
Speaker 1: which is a big deal.
1:03
Speaker 3: Well, I tried to get the publisher to put his
1:05
Speaker 3: name in bigger funt size in mind smaller, but.
1:09
Speaker 1: But hey, an endorsement's one thing afward that that's that's
1:11
Speaker 1: pretty cool. So anyway, Jeff, you have experience in both
1:14
Speaker 1: the business world and the nonprofit world. And while both
1:17
Speaker 1: of us know there's a lot we can learn from
1:19
Speaker 1: the business world, one of the points that you make
1:21
Speaker 1: in your book is that there's a lot that business
1:23
Speaker 1: leaders could learn from nonprofit leaders. Talk just a little
1:25
Speaker 1: bit about that absolutely.
1:27
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you're our preacher's kids, so we have
1:29
Speaker 3: huge respect and value for business leaders and really have.
1:32
Speaker 2: Learned from them.
1:33
Speaker 3: But it's interesting to me as you look at the
1:35
Speaker 3: business world and the church world and the business world,
1:37
Speaker 3: it's the for profit world, and then we're the nonprofit world.
1:40
Speaker 1: Supposedly, yes, and oftentimes very nonprofit.
1:43
Speaker 2: That's right.
1:44
Speaker 3: So it's as if you have profit over here, and
1:47
Speaker 3: then I guess we could use the word purpose for
1:49
Speaker 3: nonprofit now. And for years profit and purpose have seemed
1:53
Speaker 3: mutually exclusive. You can't have the both. But what I'm discovering,
1:57
Speaker 3: and I think this is what thriving organizations you're discovering
2:00
Speaker 3: is that purpose and profit fuel one another. So the
2:03
Speaker 3: more purpose you have, the more profit you have, and
2:05
Speaker 3: the more profit you have, the more purpose that you
2:06
Speaker 3: can have. And so I know that sounded like something
2:08
Speaker 3: a pastor would say. What we're discovering and we'll talk
2:11
Speaker 3: about this in just a second. Is that research is
2:13
Speaker 3: proving this out. The younger the demographic goes, the more
2:17
Speaker 3: the younger demographic is saying, Hey, what are you doing
2:19
Speaker 3: as a business world and as a business leader to
2:21
Speaker 3: help the world improve?
2:22
Speaker 1: Yeah? What are you doing beyond your business? Absolutely, which
2:24
Speaker 1: is a question you and I It never crossed our
2:27
Speaker 1: mind in our twenties or.
2:28
Speaker 2: Thirty No, no, no, no.
2:29
Speaker 1: Never, I never never thought about it, And it is
2:32
Speaker 1: so much on the forefront in our culture.
2:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, which actually is very encouraging to me. Yeah that
2:37
Speaker 3: I see you know, kids that your kid's age and
2:39
Speaker 3: my kids age, they really want to help the world
2:42
Speaker 3: become a better place and they're looking for businesses and
2:45
Speaker 3: organizations to do that. So when you have a compelling purpose,
2:48
Speaker 3: it really helps your business. But the interesting thing is
2:51
Speaker 3: not just a customer gallups discovering that now for staff
2:54
Speaker 3: members and team members that While the paycheck's important, they
2:58
Speaker 3: want to know is their purpose waiting on me at
3:00
Speaker 3: the office when I get there. So this whole idea
3:02
Speaker 3: of purpose, I think is really important. And that's the
3:04
Speaker 3: world you and I live in. It's a nonprofit leaders.
3:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we should be leading the way, right And actually,
3:10
Speaker 1: that's why I'm excited about talking about your book because
3:12
Speaker 1: in so many ways you have in our organization led
3:14
Speaker 1: the way, and as you've coached business leaders, and as
3:16
Speaker 1: you're more and more even having the opportunities to talk
3:19
Speaker 1: to business leaders. This is a very easy thing to
3:21
Speaker 1: talk about because of where we are in culture and
3:23
Speaker 1: because of what you know we've both learned in nonprofit world.
3:26
Speaker 1: So before we jump into the details of the book,
3:28
Speaker 1: just a little bit more on this. So when you
3:30
Speaker 1: say there's a lot business leaders can learn from nonprofit leaders,
3:33
Speaker 1: give us give us a little bit more on that.
3:35
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Well, when you think about it, let's go back
3:37
Speaker 2: to purpose.
3:37
Speaker 3: When when you compete on price, eventually your margins get small.
3:40
Speaker 3: But when you compete on purpose more than on price,
3:43
Speaker 3: your profit grows.
3:44
Speaker 1: And agreeing that's amazing, say that again, when you.
3:47
Speaker 2: Compete on price, eventually your margins.
3:49
Speaker 3: Get small because you disappear or disappear because you're competing
3:52
Speaker 3: against what your competitors are pricing. But when you compete
3:56
Speaker 3: on purpose more than price, you can actually charge more,
3:59
Speaker 3: and then when you charge more, you profit grows.
4:01
Speaker 1: That's amazing, and that's so true. In fact, as you're
4:03
Speaker 1: saying that, I'm thinking of retailers and resellers who even
4:07
Speaker 1: say that right up front, right yeah, that you can
4:09
Speaker 1: find this somewhere else less expensive. But once you're committed
4:12
Speaker 1: to the purpose behind and not a specific item but
4:15
Speaker 1: a similar item, we are willing to pay a little
4:18
Speaker 1: bit more if we love the company. Yeah.
4:20
Speaker 3: And when you've connected what you're doing at that point, Andy,
4:22
Speaker 3: is you're connecting to the heart of the customer. And
4:25
Speaker 3: the heart of the customer is the battleground. And if
4:28
Speaker 3: you win their heart, you win, and you can have
4:31
Speaker 3: the greatest competitor in the world. But if you win
4:33
Speaker 3: the heart of your customer, you win them. And that's
4:37
Speaker 3: called brand loyalty. And that's what every organization is trying
4:39
Speaker 3: to get to. Brand loyalty. And so that's what purpose
4:42
Speaker 3: comes down to. That's why I think business.
4:44
Speaker 2: Leaders can learn from nonprofit leaders.
4:46
Speaker 3: But I give you an example, and I love this example.
4:48
Speaker 3: But a friend of mine, hugely successful in business world.
4:53
Speaker 3: We went to college together. He's already sold his business,
4:55
Speaker 3: so he's retired now.
4:57
Speaker 2: So we're having.
4:58
Speaker 3: Lunch and I'm telling you about the look and he
5:00
Speaker 3: kind of pushed back and said, wait, I mean, with
5:03
Speaker 3: all due respect, what can we as business leaders learn.
5:06
Speaker 2: From nonprofit leaders?
5:07
Speaker 3: And so I said, well, let me ask you this.
5:09
Speaker 3: How many of your employees do you pay? And he
5:12
Speaker 3: got to laughed and said, well, what do you mean,
5:13
Speaker 3: I mean all of them?
5:14
Speaker 2: I said, exactly.
5:15
Speaker 3: For me, hundreds of people show up on a Sunday
5:19
Speaker 3: and they we pay them in T shirts, coffee, and donuts.
5:23
Speaker 3: They don't get any money, and if they don't show
5:25
Speaker 3: up our mission, our organization will completely implode. And those
5:29
Speaker 3: are our volunteers. And while I understand there's a difference
5:31
Speaker 3: between volunteers and employees, we've got to give them a
5:35
Speaker 3: compelling purpose to show up. And I'm not saying that
5:37
Speaker 3: we shouldn't pay people. I'm just saying if you can
5:39
Speaker 3: combine a paycheck with a purpose that's compelling, then what
5:43
Speaker 3: happens is is people don't hit the snooze button. They
5:46
Speaker 3: get up and they know where they're going. Purpose await them.
5:50
Speaker 3: So for our organization, as nonprofit leaders, we've got to
5:54
Speaker 3: create a compelling purpose so that people don't hit the
5:57
Speaker 3: snooze button on their off day, yeah, Sunday. And so
6:01
Speaker 3: that's that's that's very challenging for us. So part of
6:05
Speaker 3: the point I'm making the book is if business leaders
6:07
Speaker 3: could take their really good product and combine it with
6:10
Speaker 3: a really compelling purpose and when the heart of the customer, wow,
6:14
Speaker 3: that's that's a game change.
6:16
Speaker 1: That's a win win win. Okay, So how does a
6:18
Speaker 1: for profit organization find a purpose? Because you know there
6:22
Speaker 1: are exceptions to this, but for the most part, businesses
6:25
Speaker 1: are built around an idea that has to do with
6:28
Speaker 1: a good or a service, not a purpose. So we're
6:31
Speaker 1: already up and running, we've already got a board of directors,
6:33
Speaker 1: we're already manufacturing something and now going to come along
6:36
Speaker 1: and add purpose to it. But it's got to be genuine.
6:39
Speaker 1: You know, this can't be a gimmick. So how does
6:42
Speaker 1: an existing company find or I guess discover purpose?
6:46
Speaker 3: Great question, and I would want to make sure that
6:48
Speaker 3: all of our business leaders understand when we're talking about purpose,
6:51
Speaker 3: We're not saying that we don't want you to grow.
6:54
Speaker 2: Growth is a byproduct.
6:55
Speaker 1: That's what this whole conversation is.
6:56
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's about growth. And because healthy things grow, unhealthy
7:01
Speaker 3: things die. And every organization, business or nonprofit, and so
7:04
Speaker 3: in former fashion needs to be growing. Now, how we
7:07
Speaker 3: define growth can be different for any organization, but I
7:10
Speaker 3: believe we need more thriving, growing organizations, both with business
7:14
Speaker 3: world and in nonprofit. But what I've discovered is that
7:17
Speaker 3: when we can leverage the greatest form of advertising that
7:20
Speaker 3: connects to purpose, then we create vision carriage. We're going
7:24
Speaker 3: to talk about two questions that can help you do that.
7:27
Speaker 3: But as a as a former marketing guy, what I've
7:30
Speaker 3: discovered in this world that we're in now is is
7:32
Speaker 3: a business and we'll talk more about this in a second,
7:34
Speaker 3: but a business is no longer what.
7:35
Speaker 2: It tells customers.
7:36
Speaker 1: It is.
7:37
Speaker 2: A business is.
7:38
Speaker 3: What customers tell other customers it is. That's that's where
7:41
Speaker 3: the game end. That's a big change, and that's that's
7:44
Speaker 3: now more than ever, the most important thing in terms
7:47
Speaker 3: of positive word of mouth advertising. So if you create
7:50
Speaker 3: a compelling purpose and get other customers to talk about it,
7:53
Speaker 3: they will fuel your growth, and when customers fuel your growth,
7:57
Speaker 3: that's the most healthy form of growth that there is.
7:59
Speaker 1: It's the last you've purchased something without reading a review
8:02
Speaker 1: on absolutely can't remember. And again, that's a much larger
8:05
Speaker 1: shift than I think, especially people are in our generation
8:09
Speaker 1: even think about.
8:09
Speaker 3: Right, because that company can tell me all day long
8:12
Speaker 3: how much better they are than their competitors and how
8:14
Speaker 3: great they are. But there's a little bit of a
8:16
Speaker 3: lack of credibility there because of obviously your bias. But
8:19
Speaker 3: when you have a list of online reviews that wins
8:21
Speaker 3: the day.
8:22
Speaker 1: If you have two and a half stars, we just
8:24
Speaker 1: keep moving. I don't care what you say, right, Okay, So, Jeff,
8:27
Speaker 1: when I read the advanced reader copy of your book,
8:31
Speaker 1: you in the book you talked about these two questions,
8:33
Speaker 1: and you just you just hinted at the fact that
8:35
Speaker 1: we're going there. So let's just talk about these two
8:37
Speaker 1: questions because again, this is going to give us some handles.
8:39
Speaker 2: So let me take a little bit of a step
8:41
Speaker 2: back to do this.
8:42
Speaker 3: And we've probably all taken a marketing survey that asked us, hey,
8:45
Speaker 3: how did you hear about our business? How did you
8:47
Speaker 3: hear about our organization, and the list several options. It'll
8:49
Speaker 3: be television, billboard, social media, print, and then there's this
8:53
Speaker 3: final box called other And we all know which box
8:56
Speaker 3: gets checked the most. It's the other box. In this
8:59
Speaker 3: other box drive marketing. People like me crazy because we
9:02
Speaker 3: know what that is. It's what we just talked about,
9:04
Speaker 3: positive word of mouth advertising. But the other box seems
9:07
Speaker 3: so mysterious that we don't know how to figure it out.
9:10
Speaker 3: So what we do is we just focus on the
9:11
Speaker 3: things that we can control. So, for example, my first
9:14
Speaker 3: day in advertising, one on one, the professor stands up
9:17
Speaker 3: and says, hey, we all know that positive word of
9:18
Speaker 3: mouth advertising is the most powerful form of advertising. We
9:22
Speaker 3: don't know how to figure that out, so we're going
9:23
Speaker 3: to spend the rest of the semester on paid advertising.
9:27
Speaker 3: And even then I kind of wanted to raise my
9:29
Speaker 3: hand and go, I don't it's difficult.
9:31
Speaker 1: Can I get my money back? Yeah?
9:33
Speaker 3: I should have asked that, but I don't think the
9:36
Speaker 3: other box has to be so mysterious. And so that's
9:39
Speaker 3: what these two questions do, is they help you unlock
9:42
Speaker 3: the other box. And so if it's okay, let me
9:44
Speaker 3: just dive into the question Number one question Number one
9:47
Speaker 3: is what do you want to be known for?
9:50
Speaker 2: What do you want to be known for?
9:52
Speaker 3: And while that sounds like a very simple question, I
9:54
Speaker 3: think it is a simple question, it's not an easy
9:57
Speaker 3: one to get an answer to. In fact, we'll talk
9:59
Speaker 3: about this in just a little bit, but I encourage
10:02
Speaker 3: Andy leaders to do a vision inventory and just walk
10:04
Speaker 3: around the office or do it virtually and say, hey,
10:07
Speaker 3: what do you think we want to.
10:08
Speaker 2: Be known for?
10:09
Speaker 3: And if there's confusion in the office space about that,
10:13
Speaker 3: there will be confusion in the.
10:14
Speaker 2: Marketplace about that.
10:15
Speaker 3: So let me give you two real quick examples. One
10:18
Speaker 3: that shows I think how powerful the answer to this
10:21
Speaker 3: can be, and the second one can show you how
10:24
Speaker 3: we can kind of drift a little bit off of
10:26
Speaker 3: not understanding the power of this question.
10:27
Speaker 2: So what do you want to be known for?
10:30
Speaker 3: Zappos, the online retailer. They went from zero sales to
10:34
Speaker 3: a billion dollars in sales in ten years. They were
10:36
Speaker 3: recently bought by Amazon.
10:38
Speaker 2: Like we all will be one day, you know.
10:40
Speaker 1: If we haven't been already, that's.
10:41
Speaker 2: Right, that's heading in our future.
10:43
Speaker 3: So Zappos would answer this question Andy, they would say,
10:46
Speaker 3: we want to be known.
10:47
Speaker 2: For delivering happiness.
10:49
Speaker 3: That's what they want to be known for in terms
10:50
Speaker 3: of their service, and you would think, no, you deliver shoes.
10:54
Speaker 3: Their CEO, Tony Say, has been quoted as saying, I
10:57
Speaker 3: don't even really like shoes. What I like or people,
11:00
Speaker 3: and I wanted to deliver happiness to them and shoes
11:02
Speaker 3: are a platform to do that. So their whole strategy
11:05
Speaker 3: and their whole vision is built around these two words
11:08
Speaker 3: deliver happiness. Now let's take another organization that I have
11:12
Speaker 3: huge respect for. But let me show you show you
11:14
Speaker 3: how this could kind of you can.
11:15
Speaker 2: Kind of drift off of this.
11:17
Speaker 3: You and I read a book by Al Reese called
11:19
Speaker 3: Focus a few years ago as a marketing legend. He
11:22
Speaker 3: was brought in to help Burger King improve their chicken
11:26
Speaker 3: sandwich sales. And so the first part of the meeting,
11:30
Speaker 3: Al raises his hand and says, can we go outside?
11:33
Speaker 3: So they all go outside because he's Al Reese and
11:37
Speaker 3: what are we doing here? So he points to the
11:39
Speaker 3: sign that says Burger King, and he says, on the
11:41
Speaker 3: count of three, I want you to say the name
11:43
Speaker 3: of the company out loud, So they one, two, three,
11:45
Speaker 3: Burger King.
11:46
Speaker 2: He goes great.
11:46
Speaker 3: So here's my question, why are you selling chicken sandwiches?
11:51
Speaker 3: And I think that may have been the last day
11:52
Speaker 3: that our worked.
11:53
Speaker 2: On the marketing account.
11:54
Speaker 3: But here's my point. You can't be known for everything.
11:57
Speaker 3: You do need to be known for something.
12:00
Speaker 2: What is that?
12:01
Speaker 3: What do you want to be known for? And that
12:04
Speaker 3: question leads to a clarifying and compelling purpose.
12:07
Speaker 1: Okay, So the first question is all about clarifying a
12:09
Speaker 1: compelling purpose or answering the question what do we want
12:12
Speaker 1: to be known for? And then the second question is
12:15
Speaker 1: the question we're a little bit afraid to ask sometimes
12:19
Speaker 1: as leaders. You know, it's it's it's that Jim Collins
12:22
Speaker 1: thing of you know, picking up the rock and looking
12:23
Speaker 1: at all this stuff underneath that we really don't want
12:26
Speaker 1: to know about. So the second question is.
12:28
Speaker 2: What are you known for?
12:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, in fact, the first time my actual reputation.
12:33
Speaker 2: The first one's fun.
12:34
Speaker 3: We get to go and a retreat, you know, to
12:36
Speaker 3: a nice place and dream and and but then ultimately
12:38
Speaker 3: you come to customers or people that are donating to
12:42
Speaker 3: your nonprofit and and then this is their question, this
12:45
Speaker 3: is the one they get to respond to. And to
12:48
Speaker 3: your point, Andy, it's a challenging question because it reveals
12:52
Speaker 3: a gap. And here's the power of these two questions.
12:55
Speaker 3: When what you want to be known for is what
12:58
Speaker 3: you are known for, When that compelling your unique niche
13:02
Speaker 3: in the marketplace, that's what customers are experiencing, then you
13:05
Speaker 3: create a salesforce for free. You harness the other box
13:09
Speaker 3: that we just talked about, Wow you aren't you harness
13:12
Speaker 3: positive words of mouth advertising because what people are saying
13:15
Speaker 3: is Zappos, I've experienced the fact that you delivered happiness
13:19
Speaker 3: to me. I'm going to tell my friends about you.
13:22
Speaker 3: If there's a gap, and there's a gap, that's.
13:24
Speaker 1: Going to say for most of us, there's some sort
13:26
Speaker 1: of gap.
13:26
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, there is no perfect organization. That's why I
13:29
Speaker 3: think I think one of the main goals of any
13:32
Speaker 3: organizational team should try to be to shrink the gap
13:35
Speaker 3: between these two questions, because there is a gap, and
13:38
Speaker 3: we shouldn't be scared of that. We're we're in perfect
13:42
Speaker 3: people and we but we get to go to work
13:45
Speaker 3: every day trying to shrink the gap between those two questions.
13:48
Speaker 1: And Jeff, I know a good deal of the book
13:50
Speaker 1: is committed to my next question, but I'll ask it anyway,
13:52
Speaker 1: and how do we do that? You know, what's the
13:55
Speaker 1: short answer to how do we close that gap?
13:56
Speaker 3: I think you've got to be a four minded organization
14:00
Speaker 3: and you have to be for four groups of people.
14:02
Speaker 3: You have to be for the customer, obviously, you have
14:05
Speaker 3: to be for the team, you have to be for
14:08
Speaker 3: the community.
14:09
Speaker 2: You've got to go.
14:09
Speaker 3: You've got to have a bigger purpose than just staying
14:12
Speaker 3: in business. If your goal is to stay in business
14:15
Speaker 3: in today's world, you won't. It's just that simple. If
14:18
Speaker 3: that's your ultimate goal, just to stay in business, you want,
14:21
Speaker 3: But there's a fourth group or person that you have
14:24
Speaker 3: to be for. And this might sound counterintuitive, but it's
14:26
Speaker 3: really you. And we'll talk about this, but really the
14:29
Speaker 3: best gift that you can give your organization is inspired,
14:34
Speaker 3: ready to work, ready to go, fired up you and
14:37
Speaker 3: we talk about that in the book. But when an
14:39
Speaker 3: organization is for these four groups of people, then these
14:43
Speaker 3: four groups of people return the favor and they're for
14:45
Speaker 3: the organization. While this might seem intuitive, the reality for
14:49
Speaker 3: many organizations is that their spotlight isn't.
14:52
Speaker 2: On the four groups. Here.
14:54
Speaker 3: The spotlight of the organization is on the organization and
14:57
Speaker 3: how these four can ultimately serve the organization.
15:00
Speaker 1: Wait wait they say it again. That's amazing. So you're saying,
15:04
Speaker 1: for there's always the spotlight's always on something, right, and
15:07
Speaker 1: we tend to run organizations or staff or vision, cash
15:11
Speaker 1: or whatever as if the spotlight should be on the organization.
15:14
Speaker 1: And if we don't figure out how to be not
15:17
Speaker 1: only for the organization, but for these other three groups, then.
15:20
Speaker 3: Well that's you're competing really at that point in terms
15:23
Speaker 3: of price. You're competing not on your purpose. But when
15:27
Speaker 3: when when these really four groups of people really realize
15:30
Speaker 3: that the organizations for me, then you begin to win
15:33
Speaker 3: their heart. And it's easy to lose sight of this,
15:36
Speaker 3: but when I see a lot of marketing and advertising,
15:39
Speaker 3: the spotlight is clearly on the organization. Yeah, and we
15:42
Speaker 3: got to get these four groups of people to come
15:44
Speaker 3: over here and support this.
15:45
Speaker 2: It's much like if you looked at it from a
15:47
Speaker 2: football field.
15:48
Speaker 3: Many times, in a lot of marketing advertising, the organization
15:51
Speaker 3: is on the field and they want customers in the
15:53
Speaker 3: stands cheering them on. I'm talking about flipping that. I'm
15:56
Speaker 3: talking about putting the customer on the field and the
15:59
Speaker 3: organization in the stands, and the organization is cheering the
16:02
Speaker 3: customer on because, as our friend Donald Miller has told us, the.
16:06
Speaker 2: Customer is the hero.
16:07
Speaker 3: It's not the organization, right, The business is not the hero,
16:10
Speaker 3: it's the customer. It's why I say in the book,
16:13
Speaker 3: if a business was a person, many businesses would be
16:16
Speaker 3: considered narcissists because it's look how great we are, because
16:20
Speaker 3: you know, how better we are than our competitors, and
16:22
Speaker 3: we're so wonderful.
16:23
Speaker 2: Look at us, and it seems so easy.
16:26
Speaker 3: But when I talk to organizations about this, they begin
16:29
Speaker 3: to think, oh wow, it's so easy to put.
16:31
Speaker 2: The spotlight on us.
16:32
Speaker 3: And I think that's how we were taught to do
16:34
Speaker 3: things in the business world. I feel like, especially as
16:37
Speaker 3: you get younger and younger in demographics, millennials and younger
16:40
Speaker 3: demographics are saying, what are you doing for us? And
16:43
Speaker 3: how are you making our world a better place? Because
16:45
Speaker 3: it's not about you?
16:46
Speaker 1: And how are you making the group that I represent better? Absolutely,
16:49
Speaker 1: even just the individual. Absolutely the next month's podcast, Jeff
16:52
Speaker 1: and I are going to continue this conversation, but in
16:54
Speaker 1: the meantime, Jeff, give us a little bit of homework.
16:57
Speaker 1: Kind of some folks are going to rush out and
16:58
Speaker 1: buy the book. I hope they do. But for those
17:00
Speaker 1: of us who are going to kind of sit on
17:02
Speaker 1: this dilemma of the gap between what we're actually known for,
17:06
Speaker 1: what we would love to be known for, and then
17:08
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out what do we want to
17:10
Speaker 1: be known for? What what can we do on the
17:12
Speaker 1: next few weeks before we finish this conversation.
17:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do want to challenge everyone to do a
17:16
Speaker 3: little homework before next month's podcast, and I want to
17:19
Speaker 3: give you two homework assignments. You can choose both or
17:22
Speaker 3: you can choose just one. But if you do this
17:24
Speaker 3: homework assignment, I think you'll be better prepared for next
17:27
Speaker 3: month's conversation because you're going to have some handles in
17:30
Speaker 3: terms of the gap between these two questions. So the
17:33
Speaker 3: first one might be a little bit easier because it's
17:35
Speaker 3: more conversational in nature, But I think one of the
17:37
Speaker 3: best steps that you can get to gain clarity is
17:40
Speaker 3: simply walk around and ask these two questions, Hey, what
17:43
Speaker 3: do you think our organization wants to be known for?
17:45
Speaker 3: And then just listen, and then after that conversation response,
17:49
Speaker 3: then say, well what do you think we are known for?
17:52
Speaker 3: And the goal of these conversations is you will know Andy,
17:54
Speaker 3: isn't to push back, is it to defend, It's not
17:57
Speaker 3: even really to say anything, it's just to go hunh.
17:59
Speaker 3: That's an interesting conversational data point. And what you're looking.
18:04
Speaker 2: For is consistent gaps.
18:06
Speaker 3: You may have someone that says something about the gap,
18:09
Speaker 3: and it might actually be inaccurate, but if there's a
18:12
Speaker 3: consistent theme and you're hearing the same thing, then that's
18:16
Speaker 3: when the red light on the dashboard should be blinking.
18:18
Speaker 3: Now that's one conversational from a conversational standpoint. For those
18:22
Speaker 3: that would would want hard data. Another homework example is
18:26
Speaker 3: you can just download on the show notes to free
18:29
Speaker 3: research document. Basically, I created a research document that organizations
18:33
Speaker 3: could take and to try to figure out where the
18:35
Speaker 3: gap is. Ask customers, ask the team, because what we've
18:38
Speaker 3: discovered is you might be clear about what you would
18:41
Speaker 3: be known for with the customer, but the team may
18:43
Speaker 3: not be experiencing it. In the next month's podcast, we're
18:46
Speaker 3: going to talk about why that is a very dangerous
18:49
Speaker 3: place to live. So in terms of homework, you can
18:52
Speaker 3: take the conversational approach, you can take the research approach.
18:56
Speaker 3: I would encourage you to do both, because when you
18:58
Speaker 3: do that, you'll be you ready and armed with some
19:01
Speaker 3: helpful information as we have next month's conversation. But how
19:04
Speaker 3: we shrink the gap?
19:06
Speaker 1: Well, Jeff, thanks so much for being here today, looking
19:08
Speaker 1: forward to continuing this conversation next month. But before we
19:11
Speaker 1: say goodbye, Jeff, if somebody wanted to get in touch
19:13
Speaker 1: with you or bring you in to talk to their organization,
19:16
Speaker 1: what's the best way to contact you?
19:17
Speaker 3: Thanks, Andy, They can just go to my website Jeff
19:20
Speaker 3: Anderson dot com and just email me there.
19:21
Speaker 2: Would love to help in any way.
19:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jeff's doing more and more conversations with business leaders
19:26
Speaker 1: in our community and it's fantastic content, as you can
19:28
Speaker 1: already tell me anyway. In addition to all of that,
19:31
Speaker 1: if you'll visit Andy Stanley dot com. Andy Stanley dot com,
19:33
Speaker 1: you can download the Leadership Podcast application guide that goes
19:37
Speaker 1: with today's content and you can find a document that
19:40
Speaker 1: Jeff was talking about on that same side. As always,
19:42
Speaker 1: thanks for listening and we will meet you right back
19:44
Speaker 1: here next time for another episode of the Andy Stanley
19:47
Speaker 1: Leadership Podcast