Latest / The Action Catalyst / REMASTERED: The Power of Positive Leadership, with Jon Gordon (Leadership, Inspiration, Author, Teaching)

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REMASTERED: The Power of Positive Leadership, with Jon Gordon (Leadership, Inspiration, Author, Teaching) · The Action Catalyst

• 0:00
  Host: Great episode for you today, Jon Gordon, he is just
• 0:03
  one of the most genuine like down to earth coolest guys ever.
• 0:08
  I'm sure you've probably heard of The Energy Bus, continues to
• 0:12
  stay on the bestseller list week after week after week. But he
• 0:15
  also wrote The Carpenter, he wrote The Seed he wrote You Win
• 0:18
  In The Locker Room First, he works with a number of the NFL
• 0:22
  NBA and Major League Baseball teams fortune 500, just an
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  awesome, awesome guy. And he has a book that is out called The
• 0:29
  Power of Positive Leadership. And so that's why we brought him
• 0:32
  back on the show. Jon, welcome back, brother.
• 0:35
  Jon Gordon: Great to be back with you. Thanks for having me
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  back.
• 0:38
  Host: So what's this all about? Like the power positive
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  leadership? Where did the inspiration come from?
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  Jon Gordon: So I wrote the energy bus in 2006. It came out
• 0:46
  in 2007. And I've been speaking on, you know, the power of
• 0:50
  positive leadership. I've actually been given these talks
• 0:52
  on the energy bus and leading with more optimism and belief
• 0:56
  and positivity and loving your passengers and building a great
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  positive culture. And this book was really the culmination of
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  all that I've learned working with businesses, working with
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  sports teams working with all these great leaders, like I've
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  had the opportunity to work with so many great leaders like Dabo
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  Sweeney, or Doug Conan at Campbell Soup and Southwest
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  Airlines and Dell and you get the opportunity to work with
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  these great leaders that I started to think about positive
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  leaders are the ones who change the world. They're the ones who
• 1:24
  transform teams and organizations.
• 1:26
  Host: What exactly is positive leadership?
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  Jon Gordon: Naysayers talk about problems, but they don't solve
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  them. It's the positive leaders who changed the world. It's the
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  positive leaders who transform their teams and their
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  organizations. So you know, when people hear the words positive,
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  they often roll their eyes, right, they think we're talking
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  about Pollyanna positive, where life is full of unicorns and
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  rainbows. But, you know, when I wrote this book, I really want
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  to make it clear that we are positive not because life is
• 1:53
  easy, we're positive, because life is hard, were positive,
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  because you will face all sorts of adversity, all sorts of
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  adversity, challenges, obstacles and setbacks. And as a leader,
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  you need to maintain optimistic in order to lead your team
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  forward, you have to have a vision of where you want to go,
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  you have to have a bigger purpose that ultimately drives
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  you. So this is a book that includes a framework of nine
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  characteristics, nine things that positive leaders do. And
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  then each chapter is one of those nine things broken down
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  into smaller parts. This is what makes great leaders great. My
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  favorite feedback from this book so far is that almost everyone
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  who's read it said, you know, I thought it was gonna be one
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  thing, but it turned out to be another and what it turned out
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  to be was very real, very grounded a lot of great examples
• 2:38
  of leaders and how they've led how they've changed the world
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  how they've won national championships. Dabo Swinney, for
• 2:43
  instance, incredible positive leader Alan Mulally turned
• 2:47
  around Ford in 2006. They were losing $14 billion, had them
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  profitable in a few years, one of the greatest leadership feats
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  in history, people talk about how he did it, it was
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  unbelievable. I interviewed him for this book, this book would
• 3:03
  not have been great without Alan's information, because he
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  defines his leadership as positive leadership. He's like,
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  You gotta love him up, John, you gotta love him up. But you got
• 3:11
  to hold them accountable to the process, a lot of love and a lot
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  of accountability. He centralized Ford Ford was very
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  regionalised. He centralized them to become one team, one
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  Ford with one goal. And one plan. He said everyone had to
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  know the plan, embrace the plan, and relentlessly work towards
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  the plan. And that's another key. It's about being demanding,
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  but not being demeaning. Positive leaders pursue
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  excellence. They want to achieve greatness because they believe
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  in a brighter and better future, like okay, hey, let's create it.
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  And that often includes innovation. It includes a focus
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  on excellence, a passionate desire to be your best because
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  you can't create a great future if you're not working hard for
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  it. But you also have to be optimistic and positive as you
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  work hard. So that's what I love about this. People are saying,
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  you know, the research in it the examples and really dealing with
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  the negativity that exists in a very practical way. This makes
• 4:02
  this a book that's not pie in the sky, not theory, not
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  Pollyanna. This is real stuff.
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  Host: So what about realism? So how do you reconcile those two
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  dynamics?
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  Jon Gordon: Well, you don't have to be an extrovert to be a
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  positive leader. You can be an introvert First off, and I think
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  it's important that we address that because people think
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  positive leadership means you're bouncing off the walls, you're
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  high energy. No, it's really from your essence of how you
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  lead the love you have the passion you have from inside
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  you. So it's not anything that you necessarily do, you know, on
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  the outside in a in an energetic or frenetic way. But there's
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  something about positive leadership that says, I believe
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  in a brighter and better future. So yes, these are challenges. We
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  do address them in a realistic way we confront the reality that
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  exists but because we're optimistic because we're
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  positive, we're finding ways and we're finding solutions to help
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  be successful in the future. It's not pessimistic, it's not a
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  complainer if you're complaining you're not lead thing
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  complainers focus on problems, positive leaders focus on
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  solutions. So we have to understand too, that it's all
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  about, you know, it's subjective. It's never
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  objective. You talking about realism, you know, people say,
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  I'm just being a realist. You know, I'm just being a realist.
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  Well, yeah, you're being a realist. But guess what time and
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  time again, Steve Jobs as team would say it was impossible to
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  create the software, the hardware that he wanted created,
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  they talked about this in his biography, they call it as they
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  call it, his reality distortion field. And time and time again,
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  he would actually convince them they could do it. They said he
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  distorted their reality from pessimism, or some would say
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  realism to optimism. And then time and time again, they
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  accomplished the very thing that they thought was impossible
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  because of his optimism. So leaders lead with this faith,
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  they lead with belief, they lead with what's possible. So I think
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  it's often dangerous to say, I'm just being a realist. I think
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  it's okay to confront the reality. But why not say we
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  could find a way to make it happen. You know, when you look
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  at Ford, for instance, during the Great Recession, they had
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  done everything, right. They had done the restructuring, they
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  were making great products. Now, they had a great platform for
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  the Ford vehicles. Alan did everything right. And yet the
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  great recession hit, and it looked like it was all for
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  naught. But did they wallow? Did they complain? Alan? Well, he
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  said wallowing is not an option. Complaining is not a plan, we
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  have a plan. And we will continue to work towards it. If
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  we have to adjust we will but positive leaders find a way
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  forward and without him for doesn't turn it around without
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  him for doesn't save hundreds of 1000s of jobs for doesn't make
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  it back. So it's incredible of what they're doing and how and
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  how they're accomplishing great things. What happens if a
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  realist was in in his role? What happened if that was the case? I
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  told my dad I want to be a writer and speaker, his response
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  was what the heck you want to do that for? That's a load of junk
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  that would amount to anything. My dad was in New York City
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  police officer in his mind, like, No, you focus on your
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  restaurant at the time and I owned a restaurant. That's
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  something that's real, that's something you can make money at
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  writing and speaking, doing that for a living. For him. He was
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  being a realist. He wasn't even trying to be negative. He was
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  just being a realist of how he saw the world. But I didn't see
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  the world as he saw it. I saw it through an optimistic lens. And
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  I pursued my passion with a vision. I think that's a very
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  real example that we confront all the time. Now, will I ever
• 7:22
  play in the NBA, I could say I'm gonna go play in the NBA right
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  now, that is not being realistic. And that is not even
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  optimistic. That is a pipe dream. It's so hard to identify
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  what the difference is. The difference is when my son is
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  growing up, and he's a tennis player, and he says, I want to
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  play professional tennis. And I say to him, You know what, if
• 7:44
  you have a dream work towards it, let's see what God has in
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  store. Let's see what the plan is. But should I ever crushes
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  Jim and said, That's not realistic? No. So I believe you
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  have a dream, you go for it. As he gets older, you'll start to
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  see if that's now possible. If that's realistic, now he's a
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  junior, right? In high school, we're starting to see is it
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  possible still too early to tell? Because he's good, but
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  he's not great. But they say he has a lot of potential. So he
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  could become great over the next couple of years. So I'm never
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  going to shoot it down. I'm never gonna say that's not a
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  possibility. You see what happens? And then you trust that
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  God has a plan? Being positive doesn't guarantee you'll
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  succeed, but being negative will guarantee you won't. So we're
• 8:32
  not saying hey, just be positive and anything can happen. No, I
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  like what Maxwell Kato said. He said, You know, you can't be
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  everything or anything you want to be because you really can't.
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  But you could be everything that ultimately God created you to be
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  you trust that there's a plan, you work hard towards it, you
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  believe you put it out there, and then you see what happens.
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  But you shouldn't ever not go after your goals. Because you're
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  being a realist. Like, you know what people from our family
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  don't achieve success like that people from our part of the
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  neighborhood in our part of the town, don't go after dreams like
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  that people in our family, don't go to college, you know, over
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  and over again, you'll hear things like that from people and
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  I that's why I say it's dangerous to tell people what
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  they can't do. The world needs more encouragers believers
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  inspires to inspire people to encourage them to what they can
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  do. But then someone say you it's dangerous to tell someone
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  to go out to California and pursue their dream of acting,
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  they could fail and come back and be miserable only if they
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  allow that failure to define them. And so if it's an
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  experience that you get pursuing something and you don't succeed,
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  then you don't succeed. My brother was an actor right out
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  of college, he pursued acting, he worked in New York City, he
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  bartender for years while he pursued acting, he never made
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  it. It was never a huge success with acting. He never really
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  also committed to being great. That's part of the journey. But
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  He then got into sales became very successful in sales. Then
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  he actually went to consulting and now he's the Chief Marketing
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  Officer. serve a company. You know, it's unbelievable how his
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  path has moved forward, but I would have never told him don't
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  pursue acting because the odds of being a successful actor is
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  minuscule when Dabo Swinney, for instance, was fired as a coach,
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  you know, Alabama, the whole coaching staff was fired. He
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  went into real estate, you know, for a couple of years, and then
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  went back to pursue coaching. Now, if he was a pessimist, he
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  would, he would say, You know what, that coaching thing, I
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  don't want to lose my job again, I'm not gonna go after it. He
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  said, Now, the best is yet to come. I'm going for it. So now
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  he's a wide receivers coach and a recruiting coordinator at
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  Clemson, then he gets the job as the head coach, because Tommy
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  Bowden was was let go. And so now he steps into this
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  opportunity. He meets with the Board of Trustees, and the Board
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  of Trustees says, We want to create a program, a football
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  program, that's like Florida. That's like Michigan, we want to
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  be like them and dabbles in that meeting. And he says, Sir, I
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  respectfully disagree. But my vision is so much bigger than
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  that. I want to create a program where they want to be like us.
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  That's my vision. And so he was now saying that they probably
• 11:01
  thought this guy is crazy. Right? This guy is full of pipe
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  dreams. He's got a lot of words. But let's see what happens.
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  Yeah, sure. Dabo. Thanks. We'll see you in a couple of years
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  when you're not coaching anymore. But he believed and
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  then he walks into the room with a sign that said, I can't with a
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  T crossed out another sign that said Believe and he starts to
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  instill that program with belief that they can be great believe
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  that they can be the best. Now they had some couple couple good
• 11:30
  seasons, but they go six and seven in 2010 was almost fired,
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  but wasn't ad still believed in him. After that 10 OR MORE WINS
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  every year with a run up to the national championship and
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  winning the national championship. People outside the
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  program never thought this was possible. Many inside ERP I
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  never thought this was possible. But there's one belief is one
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  man's positive leadership changed everything.
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  Host: What about when people internally don't believe?
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  Jon Gordon: I'm glad you asked that. Key story, Donna Orender
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  takes over the WNBA, she had left the PGA Tour to take over
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  the WNBA to become the commissioner, there was so much
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  negativity in the WNBA, there was a lack of belief that people
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  cared about women's basketball, there was a belief that they
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  didn't care, there was a lack of optimism of what it could be.
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  But Donna saw the passion in the players and the coaches. And she
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  believed that the WNBA could be something special. So she said
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  you start with the believers, there are those core group of
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  people that believe and you get them on your bus first and
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  foremost, and you really energize and inspire them to
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  move forward, then you have some wins, you actually create a few
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  wins here in there, then you have to reach the next level of
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  believers. And that happens when you show proof of concept, you
• 12:50
  show that success, you show what is being accomplished. And that
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  might be in a football season, you know, you have some more
• 12:57
  wins every year. And so people start to see that success. So
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  now you get the next level of believers on your bus. And now
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  they're believing. And then the next level are the people that
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  don't believe that no matter what you show will not be
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  successful, you have to get those people off the bus. So
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  you're letting the people who have no belief who will never
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  believe in you and what you're doing, you have the next level
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  that you have to see proof of concept. And you have your early
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  adopters, you have your core believers. So she said you
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  create a system of collective belief going through one group
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  at a time. And that's how she did it. And I share that in the
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  book. It's some great advice.
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  Host: What a practical way, like a systematic way to go about
• 13:36
  creating transformation from the inside.
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  Jon Gordon: Right. And that's your A lot of times they talk
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  about painting the building just by painting the building by
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  painting the shed by painting the bar and people start to see
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  improvements. So they actually start to get excited about
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  what's happening. And you'll see that with businesses, hey, we
• 13:53
  got this win here, hey, we got this sale, things are looking
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  up. And so you do want to highlight the successes. You
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  want to showcase the real successes, but it's really
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  important that you address the negativity that exists the lack
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  of belief when William Bratton was the police chief under Rudy
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  Giuliani and I wrote about this in the book as well. They said
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  that crime couldn't be reduced in New York. Well, we know years
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  later that he reduced it. He was asked how he did it. He said
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  well, I met with my five bureau chiefs one on one and I asked
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  him one question, do you believe that crime can be reduced in
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  your area? Three said no. Wow. Two said yes. He said
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  unfortunately, I had to fire three people that day. Why play
• 14:34
  the game if you don't believe you can win. So he hired the
• 14:37
  optimist people who believed and then set out on their plan. Now
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  you have to have a plan. Alan Mulally says everyone has to
• 14:43
  know the plan, embrace the plan and relentlessly work towards
• 14:48
  the plants he that's the thing. It's relentless optimism
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  relentless work towards a goal and plan that brings it to
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  fruition. Duke University did research and they studied opt in
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  Next and they found it, they worked harder, got paid more and
• 15:03
  more more likely to succeed in business, sports and also
• 15:07
  politics, which is interesting. And with the research, what the
• 15:10
  researchers found was that the optimist because they believed
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  in a brighter and better future, they then actually worked harder
• 15:18
  to create it, it became a self fulfilling prophecy. The
• 15:21
  researchers called it deluding that they will deluded
• 15:23
  themselves to working harder. I'm not a fan of that term, but
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  because they worked harder, they then took the actions necessary
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  and then created it and so much of life is belief leads to
• 15:36
  action.
• 15:36
  Host: Jon Gordon is who you're listening to JonGordon.com. J.
• 15:41
  O. N. Gordon. No. H. Man, Jon, just thanks for being a catalyst
• 15:47
  of this light in the world.
• 15:48
  Jon Gordon: Well thanks, appreciate it.