Making Great Decisions (Part 1

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome to the Maxwell Leadership podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply values to others. My name is Mark Cole, and I get to serve alongside of John Maxwell in what I believe one of the greatest decision makers I’ve ever met. John’s known for leadership. He’s known for being a business guy. He’s known for an author, a speaker. But in my second chair reality of John Maxwell, he absolutely knows how to make good decisions and turn them into great decisions. So this week, John Maxwell, Traci Morrow, and I began a two part series on making great decisions.

Mark Cole:
Now, that’s because the decisions you make, the more you impact you will have. And the more impact you will have, the more fulfilled your life will be and the lives of those that you lead. So this week, as we discuss how to make great decisions and how to prioritize those decisions, now, next week, we’re going to delve into common traps of decision making. You’re going to want to come back, build off the lesson today. If you would like to watch this episode on YouTube, or if you would like to download the bonus resource for this episode, visit MaxwellPodcast.com/Decisions now. Grab a pen and paper. Let’s start making better decisions. Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:
Once a decision is made, stop worrying and start working. Successful people make right decisions early and manage those decisions daily. Now, here’s what I want you to note. It is not always what we know or analyze before we make a decision that makes it a good decision. It’s what we do after we make the decision to implement and execute it that makes it a good decision and maybe even a great one. Let me explain. To be honest with you, I think decision making is overrated. I think a lot of people, when they look at a decision, they say, boy, I’ve just got to make the great decision, thinking that if they make the great decision, everything after that great decision will turn out great.

John Maxwell:
I find that not true. I think you ought not only to make good decisions, you have to not only have good decision making, you have to have good decision managing. Let me explain. On June the 14th, 1969, my wife Margaret and I got married. That was a good decision. But 35 years later, I am here to tell you that the good decision for us to get married has become a great decision. But it’s only become a great decision not because we said I do 35 years ago. It’s become a great decision because what we have done after we made the decision again, too many people overrate the decision making and underrate the decision managing.

John Maxwell:
There are two possibilities in making a good decision in your notes. One, there’s a possibility that we would manage incorrectly and have average results. Or number two, that we would manage correctly and have great results. Now, making good decisions better is kind of like the wings of an airplane. We need both good decision making and we need good decision managing, according to a study of unsuccessful executives in more than 200 firms conducted by the Laboratory of Psychological Studies of the Stevens Institute of Technology. Here we go. Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. It is much more common reason than lack of specific knowledge or technical know how.

John Maxwell:
Peter Drucker said this, whenever you see a successful business, someone made a courageous decision. So how do we prioritize decision making? Because we have a lot of decisions to make. How do we line them up and say, these are the decisions that I should spend time on? Once you are confident that you have identified an exhaustive list of decisions, take the following steps to separate today’s biggies from tomorrow’s minor ones. Number one, compare payoff. Compare payoff. Ask yourself which decisions on my list will produce the highest payoff? Think in terms of your investment in time and energy. On a scale of one to three, rate each item on your list as follows. One equals most important, two equals somewhat important, and three equals least important.

John Maxwell:
Okay, did you get that down? I’m teaching you now how to really begin to understand which decisions are more important to make than others. So when you get your list of all the decisions you have to make, put a one by those that are most important, two by the one that’s somewhat important. Number three is the things that are least important. So I’m helping you now to begin to compare payoff. I’ll explain that later. Number two, consider your goals. Not only do you need to compare the decisions you have to make in relationship to the payoff, but then you have to consider the goals. You have to consider, what are you trying to achieve? Now ask yourself, which decisions are essential to my goals? That means, first, reviewing your primary job responsibilities and reminding yourself of the key success factors that drive your performance.

John Maxwell:
For example, say, you and presumably your boss, measure your results by striving to attain goals tied to five main areas, low employee turnover, low error rates, quarterly revenues, inventory control, and communication with your sales force. Every decision on your list that relates to any of these five outcomes must take priority. Why? Because that’s your job description. That’s what’s required of you. Applying the same one to three scale above, rate each decision based on its relevance to your goals. Now, let me stop here for a second. Look what we’ve done in helping us to prioritize decision making. The first thing I did is I had you put numbers one for that which is most important, two for the middle, and three for the least important, I had you prioritize where your decision should fall.

John Maxwell:
The second thing I did after you assessed those numbers, I had you compare them to what you’re supposed and required to do as a job description. Now, the third thing I want you to do in helping you to prioritize decision making in your notes. Number three, delegate. Delegate. At this point, each item in your log should have two rankings alongside of it for potential payoff and alignment with your goals. Add the numbers together. Highlight all entries that total two or three. These matters clearly require attention.

John Maxwell:
Now focus on the remaining decisions and ask yourself which of these issues must be handled only by me and no one else. You may find that others can lighten your load and just as easily take charge of certain matters on your behalf. In fact, if you are grooming a few of your top lieutenants to accept more responsibility, allow them to exercise some influence and call the shots whenever possible. Let me put it another way. Let me give you a very simple approach that I have used for years that works for me in the area of decision making. Every morning I take five minutes and I look at my calendar. And when I look at my calendar for that day, the events that I’m going to enter into, I ask myself a very simple question. Of all the people I’m going to see, of all the things that I’m going to do today, what is the main event? And I decide right then that morning what the main event is going to be.

John Maxwell:
There can’t be two main events. There can’t be three main events. What is the main event? Once I determine what the main event is for the day, what I realize is I’m going to spend more time, more energy, more focus on that main event than anything else. And here’s why. I probably can’t go through every event and every person I meet throughout the day and always hit a home run or always do well. I probably am going to have some conversations that are average, or I’m probably going to do something that maybe is average. But here’s what I know. If I decide what the main event is at the beginning of my day, and if I put all of my effort and energy and focus there, what I know is when I come to the main event, I am not only going to do my best, but I’m going to probably be my best.

John Maxwell:
And here’s what I know. I don’t have to be good at everything I do throughout the day, but I had better be good at the most important thing. I would encourage you to use that kind of approach in prioritizing your life. Just take out five minutes every morning and basically ask yourself very simply, what’s the main event? Now there’s something else I’ve done for many years. I’m talking about I’ve done this probably since 1970, 419 75. Probably for 30 years I’ve done this. I call it the three r’s of prioritizing. For me to find out what my priorities are in decision making, I ask myself three questions that all contain a word that starts with the letter r.

John Maxwell:
For example, I ask myself the question, what is required of me? Now that’s very similar to what I shared with you when I said, consider your goals and gave you the illustration of you and your boss sitting down. And there are five things that you got to do. I look at myself and I ask myself, what do I have to do? What’s required of me? That’s one of the ways that I’m going to determine which one of my priorities I’m going to focus on. The second question with a word that starts with the letter r. Is this one what gives me the greatest return? In other words, of all the things that I do when I do this, it has a greater return, it has a greater profit margin. It just brings greater advancement than anything else. So now I’ve asked myself, what do I have to do? Requirement. When I do it, seems to have a greater return than anything else.

John Maxwell:
The third r, is what is rewarding to me. And I always ask the question, what’s rewarding to me? Because here’s what I know about me. If I don’t enjoy doing something, I’ll look for excuses not to do it. And so therefore, as I’m prioritizing my life, I ask myself what’s required of me? What gives me the greatest return and what brings me the greatest reward? All I’m doing is giving you tools, whether it’s that way or the main event way, or the prioritizing decision making by a one, two or three number. I’m just trying to give you ways to prioritize your decision making. Because listen to me carefully, activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re effective.

John Maxwell:
Hey, John Maxwell here. I’m in the studio. We’ve been recording all day and I was thinking about really one of my very favorite experiences that we have, and that is called day to grow. If you want to grow, you want to grow in every area of your life. I tell people all the time, you don’t want to go to something. You want to grow to something. But if you’re passionate about personal growth, development, your team and growing them, you do not want to miss day to grow. I’m going to have some real players with me, Dion Sanders, Jamie Kern, Lima, myself.

John Maxwell:
Oh, my gosh.

John Maxwell:
You don’t want to miss it. So market, come and see us on day to grow. I will promise you this. You come and bring your team. At the end of the day, you’ll come up and shake my hand and say, one of the best days I’ve ever invested in for myself and for my team. I’ll see you there.

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back, everybody. On behalf of Traci and John Maxwell and Jake here in the studio with us today, our entire team is honored to take a leadership growth, a personal growth, a leadership development journey with you and, man. One of the biggest understated responsibilities of a leader is making decisions. And not only making decisions, but it’s the pressure of making great decisions. And so John has taken us on a two week journey. I’m very excited about it. Traci and I are going to talk a little bit about it from an application standpoint. But, Traci, it’s good to have you on today.

Mark Cole:
Very excited about talking about great decisions.

Traci Morrow:
I am excited to be here and talk about this because I hope it is going to free up some people who are maybe stuck in the decision making process because they feel like they have to make a great decision right off the bat, Mark, because what John said and what I freed me so long ago, and I hope that you all heard it. And it was, I used to think that you had to make a great decision. And what John is teaching us today and what we’re going to hopefully break down is that it isn’t so much as making a great decision, but it’s managing a decision made, a good decision made that makes it become a great decision. It’s how you manage that decision, and that is all the difference in the world. Because I think we have so many friends, I know so many people on my team are that perfectionist mindset and with good reason. We want to steward what we are tasked with stewarding as leaders well, and with excellence. And so sometimes that can freeze us up, though, from making a good decision. And so just right off the bat, full honesty, Mark, I’m just curious, would you say that you have always been a good decision maker, like a fast, early decision maker, or is that something that you had to grow into with age and learning through making some bad, clunky decisions?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, I wish there was a universal answer to give to you, because in some areas, I’m extremely fast, and I make decisions that people go, whoa, don’t you need a little more context? And I’m going, no, I got everything that I need.

Traci Morrow:
Right?

Mark Cole:
There’s others, if they keep coming back and giving me the same to context over and over again as if I didn’t hear it the last time. And what they’re really saying is, let me tell you again what I told you last time. So you’ll hurry up and make a decision, right? So I do wish, Traci, that I had this universal, yes, I’m a great decision maker, or, no, I’m an incredible processor. But when I make a decision, it’s a great one. In actuality, it’s somewhere in that tension that we probably all find ourselves here as we listen today. I have found, to your question, though, Traci, I have found in my areas of strength, I’m a relational leader. In my areas of competence, I have some abilities to really see math and see some opportunities in the areas of my strengths. In my giftings, I’m a lot faster, because I’ve developed an intuition, and let me say this right here, it’s not only that I’ve developed an intuition, I have developed a security.

Mark Cole:
I’m comfortable in my skin in the areas of my strength and weakness. And I know that if I make a bad decision, I have recovered from bad decisions in that area before. Practically, it’s when I take on a new task or a new responsibility or a new group of people to lead that I start slowing down. What am I missing? What else do I need to learn before I make a decision? So I feel like I am fast when it comes to organizational decisions. I feel like I am slow when those organizational decisions impact people that I love, that I appreciate, that I want the best for, and I think that comes back to being a relational leader. I slow down when a decision I’m going to make negatively impacts another human being.

Traci Morrow:
Is that something that you process through on your own, or you process that through with your inner circle?

Mark Cole:
Yeah. So I’ll never forget. You perhaps have heard me talk about this on the podcast. Before the podcast ever started, I think John gave me the greatest leadership mentoring that he’s ever given me. And it was on this concept of, Mark, you need to make a choice, do you want to lead or do you want to be loved? And I was like, of course I want both. Now, what’s the next question, John? What’s the next question? Both. And he’s, no, no. There’s some situations.

Mark Cole:
Sometimes in some circumstances, you can’t choose both, which is going to be the highest priority at this season in your life. For years, I got away with, whether consciously or unconsciously, I got away with people were my first choice. But when I became CEO, which was back in the early 2000 and teens, 2010, 2011, what John was really saying, to be an organizational leader to where people follow you, level three of the five levels of leadership, people follow you because of what you’ve done for the organization. For those of you that are not familiar with the five levels of content, level one is the position level. People follow you because they have to. Level two is the relationship level. People follow you because they want to. Number three, the production level is people follow you because they get to, because they have watched you do something great.

Mark Cole:
And what I found in my CEO world is I had not found a niche in people following me because of what I’d done for the organization. So John went down this route, and of course, it is both. Traci, you and I are both very relational leaders, but I have found over and over and over again, there comes a time to where you have a first filter that you have to make a good decision with, and then you make it a great decision by helping people understand the context after the decision is made. Here’s what I was trying to do before. I would try to go get a sense of unity, camaraderie, and buy in before I would make the decision. And John’s saying, you can’t do that. Vision separates. It does not unify, ever.

Mark Cole:
When you set a clear vision, some people are going to opt out. I don’t think I’m up for that.

Traci Morrow:
Right.

Mark Cole:
And I kept thinking when I cast vision or direction that I needed everybody to go with me. And John said, that’s the worst thing that could happen for a leader, is the dead weight, the laggers going with you when you’re trying to go somewhere. And so it was good, Traci, to come back, and I made a good decision to say, I want to lead during this next season as a first filter, and I want to continue to be in love because it gave me a first filter dimension that I had not had before that. And I still used my people skills, people abilities to then get people on board with that decision. Once it was made.

Traci Morrow:
And that’s right in line with he talks about two possibilities in making a good decision. He talks about how we manage it. We can manage it incorrectly and have average results. And that’s the difference between the average and the great results when we manage it correctly. Now, what you just talked about was the managing of a situation ahead of things and seeing something more in before, like what John talks about and casting the vision and it becoming people decide which side they’re on. But what about managing? Before we even get to John’s prioritizing decision making and what that means. What about managing? Talk a little bit about what that means when you manage between average and great. How you manage when there’s an error or a Blunder that’s been made as a leader because I think a lot of leaders died on the side of average because they are afraid to manage through a mess up, a blunder or an error.

Mark Cole:
Yeah, there’s three things that come to mind as I think about that. And by the way, this is going to apply to your question. How do you manage a good decision into a great decision? It’s also how do you manage a good decision that turned bad?

Traci Morrow:
Right.

Mark Cole:
Because I think it’s both way to say that.

Traci Morrow:
Way more succinctly than me.

Mark Cole:
Yeah. I think as a leader, we have to really be truthful that we’ve made some good decisions to manage them to great, and they turned out bad. Even though we managed them well. They were just bad decisions.

Traci Morrow:
Right.

Mark Cole:
I think there’s three components to managing a decision, from good to great or from good to bad. I think number one is owning the decision. We talked about it. It is my decision to make. I call the balls and strikes. I called a strike. Swing away. I called a ball.

Mark Cole:
I called a bunt. And everybody was charging in baseball and I just missed the timing of that call. I think you have to own it and not waver. And I’ve watched too many leaders make a decision, and the next day you couldn’t tell if they really made the decision or not. Be unwavering. You made a decision. Your team will rally to your decision, good or bad, because people want strong, effective leadership now. So ownership own the decision.

Mark Cole:
A good decision going to great, a good decision going to bad, own the decision. This was my decision. Number two, deflect praise for the good decision going to great and accept responsibility. On good decision going bad, the leader should not get any credit for a good decision going great. The team should, and a leader should own all the responsibility. When a good decision turns into a bad decision or a bad reality. So ownership. But then take people with you.

Mark Cole:
In other words, let them feel the joy or let them feel the disappointment. I just recently stood up in our state of culture. At the beginning of 2024, I stood up. I think you were there, Traci.

Traci Morrow:
I was.

Mark Cole:
And I said, guys, gals, I got to tell you something. I really did not lead well in 2023. I didn’t lead with good communication. I didn’t lead with great decision making. The decision making from 2021 and 22 caught up with us in 2023. I want you to know I am aware I made good decisions that turned bad. And I want you to know I’m responsible. And then here comes the second thing.

Mark Cole:
Apologize. Apologize. And I looked at as many people as I could. I even said it. I wish I could see every one of you on Zoom right now. I want to look you deep in the eyes and I want you to feel a heartfelt apology from me. Too many leaders wait for somebody else to point out they made a bad decision rather than owning it and stating it before everybody else does. By the way, they’re already thinking it.

Mark Cole:
They’re glad you finally know it and then apologizing. The third thing that I would say is managing a good decision to great or a good decision to bad stays in the follow through. Too many leaders make a decision and leave it, wash their hands from it and never follow back up. And that that gets repeated, gets done. We know that from a vision, teachings that we’ve all done, that that gets managed, gets reported. We know that from an accountability teaching that we’ve done. But I will tell you, a decision going from good to something good or great or bad is all about staying with that decision and being involved with it all the way through.

Traci Morrow:
I just have to say we’re going to get right into how John talks about prioritizing decision making and what that looks like. But I have to say, what you did in that state of the culture meeting was exactly the quote that John gave by Peter Drucker. And that is when you see a successful business, someone made a courageous decision and apologizing and owning something that a mismanaging or a bad decision or anything, it’s a reset of sorts. And I think leaders are so afraid of that that they hide from it. And it actually does worse damage that when you come forward and you say, this is exactly what I see, and this is where it went wrong and this is what I will do to change it, and I apologize for that, it is a complete reset because it gives such confidence to people when they hear a leader say, this is what I see. This is what happened, and this is what we’re going to do to change it. What more could you want from a person? Because that’s solid. Leadership is when someone can step forward.

Traci Morrow:
I was applauding you. I was one of the people on Zoom. I felt like you were looking at me through the camera. Anyway, I just wanted to say that to a leader who needs to say something to their team. Your team needs to hear it.

Mark Cole:
Let me say this. Thank you, Traci, and I love you. Being on the team with you, it’s incredibly humbling. We get to co host here. We get to lead. You’ll be on stage multiple times in 2025. You partner with John. A lot of things we do together, but I love co leading and co learning with you.

Mark Cole:
It’s my favorite thing. Let me go back to this and then you can move us and I will butcher this quote. And who made the quote? But it’s in my life plan this year on the idea of stand, having done everything to stand, stay standing on what, you know, John says the older he gets, the less certain he is about more things, but the more certain he is about a few things. And so that’s kind of the concept that’s driving stand. I am very confident on several things, and I’m going to stand on those in the midst of all the uncertainty. One of the quotes that really struck me, I’d never heard this quote before. I can’t tell you who it is, even though it’s in my life plan, and I can’t quote it exactly right now, but I will come back to a podcast and give it to you exact. Here’s the quote.

Mark Cole:
In essence, when a leader makes a decision, good or bad, she becomes a light. Now think about that. You know what a lighthouse is for? It’s not to say, welcome home, come see me. It’s to say, get the heck off of this place because you’re getting ready to run into the shore. And we love lighthouses, but lighthouses is telling us where not to go, not where to go. And I’ve worked with some leader that I was certain of their decisions and it showed me what not to do in my leadership going forward. Don’t despise decision making. Just use it as a light.

Mark Cole:
A light to shed insight or a light to reject direction, but take it as a gift. Because he or she that makes a decision is casting a light.

Traci Morrow:
So good. So good. I know somebody needed to hear that. It’s just so good for me to hear it and just appreciating the decision John Maxwell made in having you sit in the chair that you sit in and that you get to be on this podcast and sharing what you share with all of us. I know I learn from you each time we sit together and learn together. So, prioritizing decision making. He gives three, he talks about three points, comparing payoff, he gives how to put his schedule together. Then he talks about considering your goals and how you go through those three points and then how to delegate.

Traci Morrow:
Now we have really landed on that first part, which I think was important. I would like to one and two kind of go together. It’s prioritizing and then considering those priorities as you consider your goals. So, first of all, when he talks about, on a scale of one to three, making the list of things that you have to do and saying what’s most important, somewhat important, and least important, how often do you do that, Mark? And what does that look like in your day to day?

Mark Cole:
Unapologetically, I do it every single year. What’s most important? What’s somewhat important? What’s least important? I look at what I treated as important in the previous year and I reflect and say, did I get that one right and did I nail it? Did I accomplish it with the focus? And then if not, and it’s a high importance, then I put there, if I didn’t accomplish it or did accomplishment, it was the least important. It didn’t give me the return. I learn from it and make a decision for what’s going to be prioritized in 2024. So I am relentless, ruthless, if you will, about doing that at year end. What I am not as good at is doing it on a monthly basis, and I believe a leader should do it on a monthly basis as it relates to business plans, life plans and ambitious goals for a given year. With having said that, I just like John talked about, I start every day. I start every day looking at my calendar and saying, what is the most important thing of today? It’s where John has trained us to say, where do I have to be 100% today? Where can I be 90, where can I be 50? Where can I be 20 and somebody else be the other 100? And I identify that in the morning, every single day.

Mark Cole:
What I also do, and John does this as well. He didn’t cover it in the lesson today. At the end of the day, I grade myself. Did I get that right? Did I guess the right thing was the most important thing? And what did I do with the most important thing and how can I learn from it?

Traci Morrow:
Yeah, I love that. And can I just say, that could be to our parents out there, this is something that way ahead of schedule, you can teach Chris to your kids. This can be taught to kids where they make a list. You teach them to make a list of what they have to do and then highlight with a highlighter pen the things that absolutely have to be done, because the things that we keep in our head feel way more stressful. But if we can write them down or put them on their phone, teach them to make lists each day, we’re going to deal with a lot less stress cases in kids. But we’re teaching them something. We’re teaching them to do something, and they need to see us do it. So by all means, model it as well.

Traci Morrow:
But we need to teach them to do something that will carry through into their adulthood, into their professional lives and their personal lives, that will help them organize their thoughts and their minds, which will help them sleep better, which will help them be more productive both in their personal lives and their professional lives. And if we can teach this to kids young, imagine how productive they will be and less frenetic they will be. So by all means, teach that. I teach my kids, make a list. I give them notepads, and then I have them highlight the things that absolutely need to be done first and then teaching them to do the same thing. Look at their calendar at the beginning of the day, looking at the end, and they’re way less apt to forget something, miss a meeting, miss being on time somewhere. So I just wanted to put that in there because I always like to put in something to do with parenting.

Mark Cole:
Love that.

Traci Morrow:
Lastly, delegating. Delegating. I believe the mark of a great leader is someone who knows how to delegate. One of the first things I learned from John as a 20 something was staff your weaknesses. And for me, that was just learning very early on to do the things that I am really good at doing, know the things I’m good at doing and what bring the return and what’s required of me and where I need to show up the best. But also learn to delegate to someone who is great at something I’m terrible at, that enjoys something I don’t enjoy doing, and that has to do with our team. How good are you, Mark, at delegating? Is that something? Talk to our people who are hold everything kind of control freaks, which is kind of also the mark of a leader, and talk to them about how you developed as a delegator. And what that kind of looks like.

Mark Cole:
Well, for me, number feel. I feel there’s a big difference between delegating and just kind of dumping on somebody or I believe there’s a difference. I look at delegating and I know John talked about it. Here’s delegate. I really work hard for me to make a distinction between delegate and empower. I think delegating a lot of times is misused by leaders. They give tasks that they don’t want to focus on. They give tasks that there’s not enough resources and they hope there’s a miracle worker that gets it.

Mark Cole:
Or they give tasks because they don’t really believe in the task in the first place. Most leaders are like me. They hold on to the things they’re certain of. They love the things that gives them great fulfillment. Yes, I think a great leader delegates from a place of empowerment. I love to delegate to somebody something that they can do about 80% as good as I and then watch them outgrow anything that I can do or have ever done. And I think empowerment is more about giving things that I believe in and giving things that I am willing to resource and giving things that I am willing to serve the leader while they make it successful. And if I can get those three things down pat, I think I have to use John’s word in this lesson.

Mark Cole:
I think I have delegated well. Again, I call that empowerment. But I feel like I have empowered well. If I give somebody something that I really am passionate about, I could do it very much. Thank you very much. I give people something that I am willing to put my money behind it, I’m ready to resource it, and I’m willing to stay engaged. To me, that is empowerment. But let’s go because there’s a big tool that John has given us right here.

Mark Cole:
It’s actually in developing the leader within you 2.0. For those of you that don’t have that book, he does. A whole chapter on developing the leader within you is about prioritizing. And in that prioritizing section, he talks about the three r’s. That’s in your notes today. We’ll put that in the show notes. We’ll give you a 15% discount on both on 21 laws of leadership and on developing the leader within you. But let me finish this right here.

Mark Cole:
I think for all of us that are feeling like we’re strapped with responsibility that we do not want or that we are holding people around us back from leading like they would like to, I believe that you need to go work through this exercise of what’s required of you, what gives you the greatest return, what is rewarding to you. I believe that exercise of identifying those three things and then looking for ways to delegate with empowerment off of those things will make a difference for you. Let’s unfortunately wrap it up. I know Dr. Phil. Some of you listen to Dr. Phil. He has a great quote.

Mark Cole:
He says, sometimes you make the right decision. Sometimes you make the decision right. And I love that by Dr. Phil because it goes back to making a good decision that turns bad. You still got to go make it right. We illustrated that in the lesson today. Hey, Gary listened to goal oriented to growth oriented podcasts. Gary is one of our longtime stay the course part of the family podcast listeners, viewers and so, Gary, thank you.

Mark Cole:
Here’s what Gary said about that lesson. He said, thank you, Mark and Traci, for this lesson. I love three things that you said. Establish your strengths and purpose, share your vulnerability with my inner circle, then others, and determine and overcome my fears. Gary, that’s why we do what we do is for you to have takeaways like that so that you can go lead better, because everyone deserves to be led well.