John Maxwell: Chick-fil-A Leadercast

John C Maxwell
Leadership expert and best-selling author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Connecting with People

• Would you like to influence your boss?

• If you could gain influence with people it would increase your leadership abilities.

Leadership=Influence, nothing more nothing less!

• Many people talk to people, but don’t connect with people.

• If you think you are leading but look behind yourself to see if anyone is following you. If not, you are just taking a walk.

Connecting=ability to identify with and relate to people in such a way that it increases our influence with them!

• How do you connect with others?

1. Connecting is all about others: if we are going to connect effectively with others we must realize it is not about us, it is all about others.

• If you help other people get what they want, they will help you get you what you want. Zig Ziglar

• Early on I was trying to get people to help me, I had it backwards, I had to turn it around, and begin to help others first then my success rate started to change.

Put others first!

• If you are at the top all alone, you are not a leader, you have no followers.

• Connect with people where they are.

• Get off mountain and go to where people are and then take them up the mountain with you. Then you have accomplished something as a leader.

Leaders never cross finish line first because they are bringing others along with them, it is a little slower, but that is what leadership is all about.

• When you are younger your are immature, you are more selfish, think of self first, like a little child. This should not still be the case in adulthood, but it is still the case for many aspiring leaders and it is a road block to their success as a leader.

It’s Not About You!

• True connectors understand this statement.

• It is all about others.

• Must committed to always think of others first.

When you become leader you give up your rights to think of yourself first!

2. Connecting requires energy: we must work hard at it, if you are good at connecting you must spend effort and energy to accomplish connecting with others.

• You must do it intentionally.

• You must exert an effort to connect.

• It takes more energy and effort with some people than others.

• As soon as you get married you have a powered outage, prior to marriage expend lots of energy connecting, after wedding vows are said you quit working at it in many cases.

• Connectors understand that if they are going to connect they will have to give it a lot of effort, give it a lot of energy.

Stage 5: Capitulation to irrelevance or death

• It took lots of prayer and deliberation with my wife to determine the Lord had other things for me to do right now.

Who do you have to expend a lot of extra effort and extra energy with in order to really connect with them?

Connectors find common ground

• Connectors are constantly looking for common ground.

• Connection is based on similarity, not difference.

• If we ate lunch together, I would ask questions looking for common ground and then camp out there because that is how I connect with people. Find common ground and build from there.

• I find common ground then I take them to higher ground over time.

• Once you find common ground you can elevate them to higher ground by connecting with them where they are currently.

• Walk slowly through crowd in order to connect with people, notice people, take time to recognize them and appreciate them. These are some keys to connecting with people.

• Care for people!

• Be open.

• Strive to be open with our lives.

We can make a choice not to be open, we can stiff arm people and keep them at a distance. This method will keep people from hurting you, but they won’t help you either.

Go out and increase your influence with others!

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