John Maxwell's #6 Law of Leadership: The Law of Solid Ground

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0:35this is the Ed Myland Show

0:4121 irrefutable laws of leadership series law six the law of solid ground if people don't trust you they may listen to what you have to say for a season but they'll never fully follow who you are trust is the foundation of leadership that everything stands on without it every decision gets questioned, every motive gets doubted, and every relationship becomes fragile. Welcome back to this special leadership series on John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In this leadership series, John teaches the timeless principle, and my job is to help bring it into the real world, what it looks like in business, under pressure, and when people are counting on you.

1:17Today's principle is the law of solid ground. Leadership isn't built on talent, gifting, or charisma. It's built on trust. And in my own life, I've learned that people can handle hard decisions, even difficult seasons and disappointment, if they trust the leader making the call. But once trust is fractured, even good leadership becomes harder to follow. In The Power of One More, I talk about keeping the promises you make to yourself. That matters because your integrity with yourself eventually becomes your integrity with other people. When your words and actions match in their incongruency, people feel safety around you.

1:50They know what version of you they're going to get on a regular basis. And that consistency is what earns influence over time. Trust is not built in big speeches. It's built in small moments. It's built when you tell the truth, even when it costs you. When you can give credit away. When you don't hide from hard conversations. When your team sees that you're the same person privately that you are publicly. That's why this law matters so much. Leadership rises or falls on credibility. So let's hear John Maxwell teach one of the most foundational principles in leadership, the law of solid ground.

2:27Law number six is the law of solid ground. And the law of solid ground says trust is the foundation of leadership. In fact, an expression I've used often that's in your workbook is this. Trust is the glue that holds an organization and the leader together. It's the glue. And I want to talk to you about trust and I want to talk to you about integrity. I want to talk to you about character. And in fact, to build trust in your notes, there are two things that you must as a leader be able to do. You must demonstrate consistent competence. Obviously you have to consistently be competent in the area in which you're leading.

3:14and secondly, you have to demonstrate consistent character. You have to consistently be a person of integrity. And I can think of no law that probably is more important to share with you than this law, and so allow me just to talk to you about a couple of experiences I've had. Recently, I was being interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, and the person that was interviewing me said, John, I would like to talk to you about business ethics. They said, you know, in corporate America things are not doing, going real well, and there are a lot of leaders that have probably violated the trust factor.

3:50So they said, he said, if you don't mind, I'd like to do about a 30-minute interview with you on business ethics. And I, I, I know I shocked him, and I said, well, I said, we don't need a 30-minute interview on business ethics because there's no such thing as business ethics. He got real quiet on the other phone. And the interviewer said, well, I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about, all this business ethics that we've had and all the corporate side and how that these leaders are just not really trustworthy. And they said, I want you to talk to me about business ethics. And I said, well, I'll be glad to talk to you.

4:22But I said, there's no such thing as business ethics. Then I said, there's just ethics. You either have it or you don't. And can I tell you something? If you have ethics, guess what? It works in business. And if you don't have ethics, it doesn't work in business. If you have ethics, it works in your community. If you don't have it, it doesn't work in the community. There's no such thing as family ethics or community ethics or business. No, no, no, no, there's just ethics. You got it or you don't. You're either a person of integrity or you're not. You're either a person that has character or you're a person that doesn't have character.

4:58And then we got into an amazing, wonderful 35-minute conversation about integrity and character and ethics. Now, what I want you to understand about this law of solid ground is that it's character and it's also confidence. I don't in any way want to take away from the issue of confidence. You have to consistently perform well if you're going to lead. And you have to consistently do right if you're going to lead. And you can't substitute, you can't say, okay, I'm a person of character. I want you to follow me because, you know, I'm true to my word. I won't tell you a lie. I'm a great person of integrity.

5:36Oh, by the way, I'm a lousy leader. I'm not competent, but follow me. Can I tell you, I don't want to follow somebody that has great character and low competence. Do you? You know, the good news is you can trust them. The bad news is you trust them in bad places because they didn't lead you well. So it's not like I want you to have character without competence, but I also don't want you to have competence. In other words, be a very good leader, understand, and have leadership skills and abilities. I don't want you to be a great leader and lack character. Because I'm not going to be able to trust you.

6:08And one won't substitute for the other. And what we have to understand about the law of solid ground is that in the law of solid ground, we either grow and get better in this area and increase our trust level, or we decrease it and we become worse in it. And the best way that, I think the best way to explain this perhaps is to illustrate it. And if you'll allow me to check, let me illustrate with you, okay? The best way I can explain this law is building trust is like having change in your pocket, okay? And so what I'm going to do is let's say that I've just come to the company. I'm the new kid on the block.

6:58and I have a kind of a leadership position and you want me to do well and check you're kind of like chairman of the board or whatever it is. Okay. So, so anyway, what you do is you give me X amount of change of which I am to operate. In other words, you, you, you feel I'm trustworthy. You hired me because of character. So, so, okay. And what you're going to do is I'm going to either, because I'm a trustworthy person, when I come to the company, I'm going to either increase the change or I'm going to decrease the change. For example, let's say I don't have very good character. I lack integrity.

7:27I'm not trustworthy. I don't always tell the truth. And so let's say, you know, I've been here maybe three or four months and you ask me about a report of which I make an excuse which you know is not true. Well, every time I do something that's not trustworthy, I give up some change out of my pocket. Do you see what I'm saying? But it's okay because I still have change. And as long as I have change, I can still operate because there's a certain level of trust I still have, but let's say a month or two later you find that I'm not trustworthy in another area, and perhaps I've gone over to Bridget's office, and again, she comes here and says, you know what, I don't think he's truthful with me in this matter.

8:08Well, every time what happens is every time I don't do well, I give up change, but it's okay because I still have some change. See, as long as I have change in my pocket, I can operate. Well, let's say a few more months go by and now there are other people who are beginning to talk about the fact that I'm not probably a person of my word and they're not sure they can really trust me. And so you talk to me about it. And so now what happens is there's a day when I do something I shouldn't have done. And I walk into your office and what I've been doing is I've been using my change. I've been living off of goodwill.

8:47You follow me? I've been living off of the slack that you gave me. And this time, Chuck, I come in the office and you say, John, you know, here's another issue. And I reach, automatically what I do, I reach in my pocket. Isn't it interesting? Instead of changing my ways, I want to live off of goodwill. And this time when I reach in my pocket this time, and when I do it this time,

9:12this is a picture of a leader in trouble.

9:21I'm out of gas. I have no more change in my pocket. It's over. I'm going to have to go to a new organization. Why? Because I have used up the change in my pocket. Now, as I can deplete it by doing things lacking character and lacking integrity, it's also true that if I do things that show character, I increase my change. I was just reading the other day, and this is huge, about a CEO that told his employees, brought together a company meeting, and he said, let me tell you something. If anybody in this company asks you to do anything that's wrong, here's my personal phone number. And anybody ever asks you to tell a lie, anybody ever asks you to fudge a report, anybody ever asks you something that violates your integrity, he said, you don't need to go to your supervisor.

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12:31And so I come back.

12:36Chuck, look at that. I love this. Come here. Hey, Chuck, now Chuck, I've given him a five. I've given him a 20. I've given him a 50. I even gave him$100. I mean, I gave him some bills. You got me? So when Chuck is now giving me back change, he looks through all the bills and gives me a five back. I mean, Chuck, he's very stingy now. Now he's slowly, you know, all right, here's five, you know, here's five. Now let me just stop here for a moment because Chuck and I didn't plan this at all. We're just talking. But I want to tell you something. This is exactly the way it works. Listen very carefully.

13:14In the area of character, you lose it a lot quicker than you get it back. And when you start violating issues of integrity with people, and they begin to realize that you've probably manipulated them, violated them, I promise you that as you try to build that trust level back, they'll dole it out one dollar at a time. You lose it a lot quicker than you gain it. Does that make sense? Now, what's happening here in this illustration with Chuck is, if I continue to be trustworthy, Chuck will give me a little bit more change. and you're still going to the lowest dollars aren't you huh and I say thank you and by the way every time he gives me a little bit change well I've got more change in my pocket and then we come up with another time and I do and I'm just showing trustworthiness I'm showing character I'm showing integrity I'm making right decisions maybe not even good for me but good for the company and I get a little more and every time I wait Chuck and you know what after a while I start liking our meetings because I'm liking our meetings because I'm gaining change I had a guy one time tell me so well you know I don't like my board meetings.

14:24I don't like my meetings when I get the key players together. And I say, it's because you're losing change. Let me tell you something. If you're losing change with people, you don't like meeting with them. But if you're getting change, if you go to a meeting, you know you're going to get some more bucks, huh? Boy, you say, this is going to be a good meeting. See, you're either building in, you're either depositing or you're withdrawing in this area of solid ground and trust. And so I do well and I get a little bit more. And you know, this is the fourth time you give me something. Three times I had all the money to you and it's taken but I do well and I keep coming back and finally I get that last piece.

15:01Now here's what I want you to see. Here's what I want you to see. You know you're on solid ground when you walk around your company or you walk around your department or your place of business and your pockets are loaded with change. In fact, if you have to walk around with a limp, why are you limping? I'm just loaded with change. That's your goal. In fact, the goal of a leader, the goal of a leader is to increase his or her change in their pocket. In fact, let me say this. Hang on, hang on, here we go. You cannot make changes in the organization unless you have change in your pocket. It takes a lot of change in your pocket to make big changes in your company.

15:53Isn't that true? But if there's a high integrity level, there's a lot of trust level, and the law of solid ground is there, you can make a lot of huge changes. It could be very, very successful, but it takes change in your pocket to make changes in your organization. And I want you just to take a moment and look at a couple of statements I have in your notes. Statements such as a leader cannot continually break trust with people and continue to influence them. Oh, the questions are huge. Questions such as, do I have change in my pocket? Is my change increasing or decreasing? Do I pass the integrity test?

16:31Somebody says, what's the integrity test, John? The integrity test is this. With integrity, the longer I lead, the better it gets. without integrity, the longer I lead, the worse it becomes. That is so true. The law of solid ground says trust is the foundation of leadership.

17:10and A sessions coming up in a few weeks. Get the guide, join the list, and let's get back to the teaching. So trust is the currency of leadership. When people trust you, they will go through with you every challenge, any uncertainty, and even change. If you lose trust, you lose the ground leadership stands on. When it comes to leadership, it's not safe to take shortcuts. Over time, if you make good decisions and record wins for your organization, you'll build up credibility. Trust is the foundation of leadership. For this week's rep, treat trust as your most precious asset. Character makes trust possible and trust makes leadership possible.

17:48To build trust, make sound decisions. Admit mistakes and consistently put the well-being of your followers and the organization ahead of your self-interest. Do some self-reflecting on how do your followers and peers trust you? Or how can you build integrity from others around you? This week will be key for building into next week, where we wrap up Season 1 of this series with The Law of Respect.

18:18This is the Ed Myland Show.