The Dr. Josh Axe Show - The Art of Leadership is NOT What You Think with Patrick Lencioni
Episode Date: September 7, 2023Patrick Lencioni has shaped the landscape of leadership thinking for decades. Through his transformative books and work with Fortune 500 companies, he has revealed the power of trust, vulnerability, a...nd unlocking human potential within organizations. In this exclusive interview, Dr. Josh Axe goes inside the mind of the leadership icon. Join them as Pat reflects on his influential career, biggest leadership lessons, and vision for the future. You'll discover: How Pat built a legacy as a thought leader Tools to increase self-awareness as a leader Why fostering human potential lifts performance How to connect work to a substantive cause Emerging trends that excite Pat about leadership Pat's advice to leaders on leaving a legacy Let this conversation expand your leadership toolkit. Discover Pat's wisdom on strengthening company culture, empowering people, and leading with heart. Want more of The Growth Lab with Dr. Josh Axe? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter Follow Patrick Lencioni Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Websites: The Table Group & Working Genius Assessment Podcasts: At the Table with Patrick Lencioni & The Working Genius Podcast Books: The Six Types of Working Genius, The Ideal Team Player & The Motive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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If your motive for leading is service and responsibility, that's good.
If it's for what you get, if it's your rewards, it's really bad.
So the first thing is, are you humble and are you motivated by the service of others versus yourself?
Second is the least important, but it's important, and that's wisdom in the sense of acquiring knowledge,
reading books and learning things and adding arrows to the quiver of what you know.
We tend to worship that, and it's really important to know how to lead,
but if you're leading for the wrong reason, if you're not humble, all you're doing is putting
very dangerous arrows in your quiver, and when you shoot them, it's going to hurt a lot of people.
The third one is courage, and this is what's lacking the most in our society today.
Courage.
You have to have courage today as a leader, which means you have to be willing to lead even at the
prospect of suffering.
Hey, everyone, Dr. Josh Axe here.
Welcome to the Growth Lab podcast where each and every week we cover the science behind how to grow
yourself, your health, your wealth, your career, and your relationship.
And today we've got a great guest that I'm a big fan of, Patrick Lincione.
He's one of the most well-known and respected voices on business and leadership and how to grow yourself.
He is the author of 13 books, which I've read a couple of them, and he sold over 9 million copies of his book in 30 different languages.
I want to welcome today, Patrick Lincione, the show.
Pat, thanks so much for joining me here today.
Well, Josh, as you know, I speak all 30 of those languages, so I think that's pretty
No, I don't.
I didn't know there were 30 languages in the world.
So that's a funny thing.
And I was going to ask you why you haven't read all of my books.
Well, you know, well, I should.
So let me see this.
So I went to John Hopkins University.
I earned a master's in organizational leadership.
And one of the required readings was your book, the idea.
the old team player, right? So I read that book. Now, I wasn't forced to read. I actually had read it
previously, so I read it twice. And it was such a phenomenal book. And if anyone hasn't read any of
your books, they should. They're so well read and they're easy to read. But also, you know, I think
all of your books have this element of helping people grow to their highest potential as a leader.
And I think one of the first questions I have for you is sometimes when people hear the word
leadership, they think, oh, that's for a CEO or that's for an executive of a company. That's not for
me. But my experience is we need to be leaders every day in every area of our lives. Like I, you know,
I just left doing a lunch with my, my wife and daughter. I have a three-year-old. And it's like,
I need to be able to lead my three-year-old daughter well. Talk to me a little bit about your
idea of leadership and how it can be incorporated in a business, but also even in our, you know,
our families and our everyday lives. Well, so it's really about influence, isn't it? You know,
know, and having influence in your own family, in your church, in your school, and your, in your
business, whether you run that business or not is important.
And I think that's really important to understand there's two kinds of leadership in some
ways.
There's formal leadership.
I have a title, and therefore I do this.
And then there's moral leadership, moral authority, you know.
And I think that the moral authority is the more important one, because it's one thing to say,
I can make you do this because the bylaws say this or because this is what the legal
indication is. The other one is you can go to somebody and say, I want the best for you,
my intentions are good, and what I'm about to say is in your best interest. So I want you to
listen because I think this could be good for you. Now, I think in the world, moral authority
is far more important. And some people won't exercise it if they don't have formal authority.
And you see people say things like, well, that professor has tenure, so I can't do anything
anyway. Or who am I to do that? And it's like, no, you're a person of influence. And if your
intentions are pure, your job is to lead others to truth and goodness and beauty. And that's something
that everybody has to embrace. And then sometimes you get also into a position of formal authority,
but if you don't know how to exercise moral authority and humility, when you get formal authority,
it's going to be hard to do that well. We know, there's an interesting question I was posed.
I remember this. I took an ethics course of John Hopkins as well. And one of the professors asked
the question, did Hitler display leadership?
And it's interesting because he gets into that leadership is a virtue.
It's a positive quality.
Now, you can be a leader, but the actual term leadership is something that moves towards the good.
And so if you're displaying leadership, you're actually doing something that's towards, you know, loving God, loving people, making Earth the Heavenly Place actually towards the good, which is something, again, I love about, you know, your work and a lot of what you teach.
But this is something we're missing today because think about, you said the word influence.
There's so many influencers today, but they're leading people towards the bad, not the good.
Well, that's the thing. And we live in a society that says nothing is true and good anymore. So like, like I know Hitler's an easy one because everybody has, oh yeah, he was evil and he did all these things. But, but frankly, if he were around today, there would be people saying, well, I mean, who's to say what's right and wrong? And we don't know that, but we're so condemned to repeat the past because if we don't understand that there is an eternal good or a truth, then anything goes. And I mean, that's how he rose to.
to power is nobody said, no, this is bad. And so in a world of what we would call moral relativism,
it's really easy for a person to look like a leader and to be leading people to bad things.
I don't like the term servant leadership because I think all leadership should be servant leadership,
right? Yeah. And that's the problem. We tend to say, well, that person's a servant leader. They're
not, but they're a leader. It's like, no, they're leading for themselves. And we have a real
problem in the world today. Whenever I go to a graduation, Josh, and I hear somebody say,
go out and be a leader, change the world. I want to stand up and go, no, unless your intentions
are pure and you recognize that some things are good and other things aren't, then that's really,
really dangerous. And I think we live in a dangerous time where people think leaders are
influential, but it doesn't matter how they influence people. And I think that's, yeah, yeah, it's like,
hey, just get big at all costs, right? It's like, hey, the more followers you have,
It doesn't matter if it's towards good or evil.
And we see this with the rise.
I'm going to give an example.
I'm going to say a few of things, maybe semi-controversial here.
But I look at somebody like Andrew Tate, who has really grown in popularity and certain
other people.
By the way, I think part of his message is good, but part of it and part of where he's coming
from isn't so good.
And so I think, but it's like, well, he's having influence.
So that's leadership and it's good.
But it's not always that.
I just turned to one of my sons here.
I said, I don't know much about this guy.
He's crazy, isn't he?
Like, no, he's definitely crazy.
And yeah, even a crazy guy gets some things right.
I mean, Hitler probably made the trains run on time,
but it freaking doesn't matter because he was doing horrible things, right?
Yeah.
And I will say so many leaders in the Silicon Valley are, to me,
people of influence and power and wealth,
but they're doing things that are destructive and people don't want to question them
because, like, well, they're famous and they're rich,
so they must be doing something right.
And it's like, no, that's not.
That's not good.
Well, to prove your point, this is why this is so essential.
I read a study recently.
This is a, I believe it was a Harvard study.
And they found that 40% of CEOs today are fired for moral failures, where 35% are fired
for lack of performance.
So if you think about why CEOs are losing their jobs today, more of them are losing
their jobs for, you hit it nail on the head right at the beginning here, moral issues,
not even performance.
And so it's a major issue.
And we look at government.
We look at education system.
We look at churches.
We look at a lot, you know, a lot of places today.
And the issue is in performance, it's, it tends to be, are you aiming towards the good, right?
And that's the thing people are missing.
Actually, I would question that because it depends on what you determine to be moral failure.
What is moral?
And I, like I said, these CEOs in Silicon Valley don't get fired for moral failure because their morality fits the morality of society.
and yeah occasionally somebody does something that everybody agrees is wrong but more often than not
I mean if you look at politics morality is I don't even know what it is anymore and so so maybe
that happens in certain places but when they say moral failure and if it comes from Harvard I
would question well what do you think is moral and not moral so I wouldn't just accept that on
face value at all yeah yeah I do think you know
And I think the largest grouping of that was things like sexual harassment.
It had to do with some sort of, you know, sexual issue.
But I'm sure there's a percentage of it that wasn't.
Right, right.
And it's so interesting.
I mean, it gets harder and harder as a society for us to even determine what is unacceptable and what's acceptable.
And you see this in what's happening with our children and the way they're being raised and the way they're being taught in schools.
I think there's some fundamentally immoral things that we're teaching our children,
but teachers aren't getting fired for that and principals aren't getting fired for that.
And that's one of the problems we have in our society is we can't even decide what is good and moral.
So yeah, okay, if you were to rape a woman or sexually assault a woman, okay, we all know that's bad.
But goodness gracious, there's so many other things that are really bad that happen.
And people go, well, that's their own decision.
And it's like, well, is that good or not?
Can I tell you why that's so interesting, even that question and as severe of a thing,
as that is, as I've gone and studied a lot of history, that wasn't always considered an actual
evil thing, which is, which is crazy enough, some of what you're saying. So, so to your point here,
there has to be some sort of standard about what is good and what is real leadership look like. And,
you know, I know for myself, and I believe you're in a line with this, you know, there is a,
there's Judeo-Christian values that that's why we even believe that today. That's why we believe
that racism is evil. It's why we believe that, you know,
and women's rights and some of these things even 200 years ago that weren't into effect.
And so that's the reason, but it's so interesting because everybody's like, get rid of the
Bible, right?
Move away from those values.
But it's like that that's the standard we should be living by.
And if you remove that standard, well, who decides what the standard even is?
Exactly.
And the founding fathers knew this.
They said, when we step up this country, if there is not a moral people here.
And Tocqueville, I loved Alexis to Tocqueville.
He came here and he said, America's a great country because these people believe and they want to do what's right and good even if they can get away with doing something bad.
And when you kick God and truth and core goodness out of society, everybody decides, well, I'm God.
Then I get to decide what's good and bad.
And that's why we see such a divergence of behavior that's considered acceptable.
And yeah, I mean, this is the greatest threat to our society is moral,
relativism. Nothing is good. And remember what Pontchus Pilate said to Jesus, truth. What is truth?
And that's the recipe for it, the destruction of a society. Yeah. And so as we're getting into,
this is really where leadership starts and where it ends. It's really, it's important that we have,
you know, Aristotle used a term when he talked about the good. And it was sort of this term around
archery about what the good is. And so, you know, I think people need to know, okay, what's the, and by
way people are hungry for this today i look at a book like jordan peterson uh's book 12 rules for life
why why is that i think i just saw as 10 million copies in print it's selling like crazy why is that book so
popular because a younger generation gen z specifically they're like well i don't know where to aim well 12
rules okay that gives me an idea of what my you know it gives me an idea of at least a starting point
for some sort of purpose or how to be a good person in this word i think people truly want to
do good people want to live with purpose
I read another state that said only 25% of people today actually know what their purpose is.
And so it's another important point.
So let's talk about this with leadership a little bit more.
So where do you think people need to start?
If people are listening to this and they're saying, you know what?
I want to be a better leader.
I want to grow in my leadership ability to influence my family and my workplace.
Where do people start in terms of saying I want to grow as a leader?
I think there's three things.
if you want to be a leader, you have to have three things, and they're different levels of importance.
The first one is you have to have humility. This is critical. This is the chief virtue. Humility is that
it's, I am not the center of the universe. It's about serving others. And if I'm humble, I know that I'm good at some things and I should acknowledge those things and they're gifts that I've gotten from God.
But I'm not the most important person. I am here in a responsibility to serve others. If you're not humble, becoming a leader is dangerous.
Because it's going to be about you.
So humility is the first thing.
Purify your intentions.
I wrote a book called The Motive.
And it said, if your motive for leading is service and responsibility, that's good.
If it's for what you get, if it's your rewards, it's really bad.
And I've had people read that and go, oh, my gosh, I've been leading from a reward-centered
perspective.
I need to stop.
So even, it's not like a black or white thing.
People can slide.
So the first thing is, are you humble and are you motivated by the service of others versus
yourself. Second is the least important, but it's important, and that's wisdom in the sense of acquiring
knowledge, reading books and learning things and adding arrows to the quiver of what you know. We tend to
worship that, and it's really important to know how to lead, but if you're leading for the wrong
reason, if you're not humble, all you're doing is putting very dangerous arrows in your quiver,
and when you shoot them, it's going to hurt a lot of people. The third thing, and I want people to listen to
these and say, which of them do they have to work on? The third one is courage, and this is what's
lacking the most in our society today.
Courage.
Because even saying and leading towards something that seems good and clear is being attacked.
And people are getting canceled for saying things that five years ago and 10 years ago and
2000 years ago, people were like, oh, yeah, of course that's good.
So you have to have courage today as a leader, which means you have to be willing to lead
even at the prospect of suffering.
and I think in our society today so many leaders it's so crazy Josh there's people in other countries
that will risk their lives their livelihoods their freedom for for speaking truth and here people
won't speak truth just because they might get unliked online or not invited to a cocktail party
or condescended to in the public square or at work so courage is the one I think is lacking the most today
but it needs to be based on humility and wisdom,
but then we have to take a stand,
and courage might just be having a difficult conversation
with a colleague about their performance.
Courage might be standing up in front of your company
or in front of your congregation or in your neighborhood
and saying, I can't abide this.
Or it might be personal courage of looking in the mirror
when you're on your knees and just saying,
I'm not doing what I should do.
But courage is what is lacking today more than ever.
it's probably been true since the beginning of time, but I am amazed in Western society how
afraid people are of relatively innocuous punishments when there's other people in the world
that are willing to have courage with very, very serious, painful consequences. So those are the
three things, humility, wisdom, and courage, courage being the most lacking, I think.
That's so good. You know, those are three of the seven, you know, virtues.
that are, you know, that people have talked about everybody from, you know, starting with Aristotle to the Apostle Paul and others.
I mean, just so, so critical.
And this really ties into what you said at the beginning.
It's really about growing our virtues.
And for everybody here, virtues are what make up your character.
So you think about if somebody is good character, you think about, okay, how strong are they in these virtues?
And it's just, it's such an important thing.
And I think, you know, as we, I think it was very eye-opening for a lot of people as we went through the pandemic.
And there were different, you know, it, you know, there's a, now I didn't come up with this quote.
Someone else did before me.
I'm not sure who it is.
but crisis reveals character, right?
Yeah.
And that's the thing is when you're really pressed,
when it's about when something, you know,
if it's a relationship and money is involved or something like that,
there are certain things that really just start to reveal character.
And I think we need to know the principles we abide by
before we get in that situation.
I think one of the things I think about,
as we had talked about this, Pat,
is that, you know, when if you remove Judeo-Christian values
out of the picture and you're saying they're not there anymore. Okay, well, what are the,
what are the standards now? Okay, so it's asking sort of, we went there. So, you know, what's the new
standard now? So I think people need to understand is you need to be principled. You know, the opposite
of being principled, being unprincipled is, well, an unprincipled of a person is like unethical,
if you look it up in the dictionary. So one of the questions I have for you is, is that as people look to
grow as leaders, how important are knowing principles?
what are some ideal principles and how important is that we know them ahead of time so we know how to react in a crisis like situation?
Oh, it's critical. And our country's character was tested and failed during the COVID thing because we didn't, we had, we saw what happens when you lose those principles and everybody's kind of living on their own thing. And it became divisive. It came controlling and freedom was lost and kindness and and courtesy and empathy. We really failed that test. And that's because we don't.
have any core principles anymore, we have to ask ourselves as a society, we need to
in our organizations, in our families, what do I believe to be true that will guide me no
matter what the circumstances around me are? And this is what in a company we call core values.
You know, what are the two or three principles that no matter what the market is going
to reward me for, I'm going to stick with that even if it hurts me because that becomes
who I am. And I think what happens is when there are no core principles,
principles, it deviates toward pragmatism and power.
You know, I think it's really worth, I love talking about this.
I feel like I'm in a liberal arts conversation here.
People don't realize Hitler, Mao, Stalin, the people who killed the most people in the 20th century all did it under the auspices of what they called good.
They weren't saying, hey, I know I'm evil.
I'm just going to do this.
They were like, oh, no, this is good.
This is for the greater good.
That's what happens in communist countries today, North Korea, China.
Venezuela, Cuba, they think they are noble. And so when there's no core principles that we are made in
God's image and that we're meant to be free, well, then leaders can put anything on people and do it.
They actually say they're doing it for moral good. But of course, when there's no principles around
morality. And as people, we have to know what those things are too. But if we say these are my
principles and I will sacrifice them when I get punished for it, then they go. And that's the thing
We have to. That's why courage is so important today. I think that people are like, I just don't want to get hurt for being true to who I am. And by the way, there's people listening to this that aren't Christian or aren't a Judeo Christian background. You know, this guy, Vivek Ramoswami is running for president right now. And he, I don't think he is. Yeah, but he actually says we have to know who we are. And I'm amazed at how he articulates this, even though he might not consider himself to be in that.
religious group, he knows that we have to be built on something. And so people that are listening
as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I would never say something, I'm going to force you to follow
Jesus. God doesn't force me to follow him. I share my faith with people because I think it could be
good for them, but I will not hurt them. I will not punish them. I will not condescend to them,
and I will not ignore them because they don't agree with me. Well, well, you know, I'll say this
with Vivek Vec-Ramsway. Like, he, you know, he's Hindu. And so, and, and, and, and, and, you know,
And he has these really powerful great core values, right?
And so, I mean, he at least has, he has principles that he lives by.
And I've been very impressed with him.
But even on the other side, let's talk about like, you know, Robert F. Kennedy.
He's somebody, I think that, you know, if you're comparing him and Joe Biden,
and I didn't mean to get in politics here, but just to give an example, you know,
as we're talking about this, Robert F. Kennedy has principles that he actually believes in and he abides by,
like a very principled person where I look at someone like Joe.
bind some other people, there are no principles. It's everything goes. Yeah, it's actually,
whatever people are telling me that I think the wind is blowing, I want to be well liked by the loudest
voices. That's right. And you, that is not leadership. That is not leadership. Leadership doesn't
mean you're always under attack, but it means you have to know that my job isn't to avoid the
attack. It's to persist, persevere, to love people in truth, no matter what. This is another key.
point is that love requires grace and truth. And as a leader, and this is a hard thing as a
manager, I mean, I'm going through this right now in certain things. It's like, I want to be kind
to the people I leave. That's so important. But I also have to be truthful about their behavior or
their performance. And if I'm kind to somebody, if I give them grace, but I'm not truthful,
I'm actually being cruel because I'm hurting my organization and I'm hurting them because they're not
learning and they're not getting better. But if I'm truthful, I just tell people the truth without kindness,
that's cruelty too because it's just like in your face.
We need both grace and truth.
And without both, it becomes cruelty.
And a leader has to say, I'm strong enough to tell somebody the truth.
I can do so with grace.
And that means I'm leading out of love.
And I do think love is at the center of leadership.
True love.
I love that.
You know, there's a book I read years ago part of it.
And it was called Yen Yang Leadership.
And it was all about this.
It was a very similar idea.
And it comes to as a book on Asian leadership philosophy.
But part of the idea there was there's sort of this masculine and feminine of leadership.
And it's this sort of grace and kindness mixed with truth and justice.
And sort of when you combine them together, that's what leadership is.
It's a combination of I'm going to nurture you, encourage you and love you.
But I'm also going to challenge you to tell you you're better.
I'm going to be direct and tell you the truth with that.
And that's when you combine those things.
So it's very, I mean, I love what you're saying there because it's very much that perfect pairing.
Yet it's one of the hardest things as a parent because you're constantly,
I would say if I had to summarize the most difficult part of being a parent,
it's that you're constantly trying to figure out how to balance those two things.
Is this a moment for grace or is this a moment for truth?
Is it discipline they need or do they need understanding?
And you're constantly, am I over-indexing on either one?
And it's such a, and I couldn't do it if I, I mean, it's hard to do.
And I have to say, please, God help me figure it.
this out.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, we're living in a world today where it's gone so far onto the, uh, onto, onto,
onto one side, right?
It's, it's all about and listen, love I don't know.
Before you say what it is, I don't know.
I don't know what side you're going to say.
I think in the public sphere, people yell at each other, but I think interpersonally,
we are way over indexing on, on grace.
That's what, that's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
you were going to say that some people would say oh it's all about truth you know no there are people
that think that no no it's interesting and this is this is an idea that i had heard at jordan peterson
talk about and he said you know what uh like things can start leaning left things can start leaning right
and what happens is you you tend to um like it used to be physical violence right people were fighting with
their fists people were uh it was very it was very direct today it's it's um part of what's happening is it's
verbal, but it's reputation destruction. It's canceling. So, so, so, so people are fighting more
with the pen with their words rather than their fists today, but it still can be just as vicious,
if not more. Right. But, but what's interesting is they're that way in, in public. You're wrong,
you're wrong, you're wrong. But, but in private, nobody wants to say to somebody, I disagree with you.
I don't think that's good. And I actually think that's.
That is the reason why we're in the place we're in.
We've become a society that says you should affirm everyone in everything.
And if you don't, you're not nice.
I think niceness.
Niceness is a horrific thing.
Kindness is wonderful.
Nice means I'm not going to tell you the truth because I don't want you to dislike me.
So I will let you persist in something that I think is bad for you.
I'll let society fall apart.
But at least nobody will say I wasn't nice.
and this happens in churches.
It happens in companies where people,
but then behind the scenes,
people are brutal to one another.
So I actually think we're far too nice as a society.
And that leads to people going out in the streets
and not being kind to one another,
but being brutal.
Well, think about how this happens
and today how social media has facilitated so much of this
because it's hard to say when you're in person with somebody
and you're having a conversation,
You get to know their family.
You have a real relationship there.
You're much more likely to be considerate in what you say.
If you have any level of emotional intelligence versus I'm hiding behind a screen, you can't
even see my picture.
And I'm just going to go troll every person.
I'm going to throw whatever insults I can.
And so obviously there's a level of that that's happening too that social media has helped facilitate.
But I, and it's so interesting.
I will say this, though.
I think the first thing, like when we know people that will be more considerate, I don't
think we're considerate.
I think we are nice.
I think we are protecting ourselves.
I don't think people are have the, this is the biggest courage,
interpersonal courage, to go to somebody and say,
I love you too much not to say something to you.
I will love you even if you disagree.
I will love you if you don't listen to me.
But I love you enough to put my relationship with you at risk
because I think this is best for you.
And that is true courage and love.
I think we have a bunch of people that go around to cocktail parties
and their churches and their schools and their friends and their workplaces.
And they're just like, oh, good for you.
Good for you.
You want to do that?
Whatever it is good for you.
And that's the new ethic on our society is as long as you never tell anybody that what they're doing might not be good, you're acceptable in society.
And the sort of love you're talking about here, it's a form of self-sacrifice.
Right?
Like I want you to like me.
But I'm going to sacrifice myself and telling you something I truly believe is going to help help you.
Yes.
And that I think is why things are so nasty in the other place.
because when you're sitting there and you're like, how yeah, yeah, yeah, then you go, gosh,
I haven't been honest with anybody.
I'm going to go out and I'm going to anonymously just rip people in the comment section
after an article.
Yeah.
And I love it when people are actually kind in the comment section.
And I like to think those are probably the same people that will be honest and true, true
in kindness to somebody interpersonally too.
Yeah, it's so good.
So I just want to do a review for, for every.
everybody here, just remember some of the things we're talking about.
So as Pat has talked about, it starts with humility.
You've got to have wisdom and you've got to have courage.
And courage in these conversations as well.
It's got to be a really beautiful blend of truth and love combined together.
I think is just, as we're talking about, just so, so important.
You know, one of the questions I have, Pat, is you have, you've been at this a pretty, pretty long time.
I know that you've spoke on the biggest stages.
You've had an opportunity to speak to some.
some incredible people, as we mentioned earlier, you have sold over nine million books,
30 different languages. And I want to kind of close it down to the past 10 years. In the past 10 years,
what is one of your biggest aha leadership moments you've had?
Well, for me, it's been around recognizing that we're all wounded, you know, that we have
wounds that that will prevent us from doing the right thing because we're pretty,
protecting ourselves, and that sometimes doing the right thing is hard, and it will lead to pain,
but it's ultimately a pain that's necessary for healing.
And so as a leader, I think that my wounds prevented me from being direct enough and from actually
having boundaries.
Henry Cloud is a friend of mine, and he writes about boundaries, because I didn't think I was
entitled to, and that was because of my wounds.
And so I would just like, oh, I'll carry the burden for them up.
And then I would get frustrated or the wrong thing would come out.
And I'm learning that I have to confront my wounds as a leader so that I can actually lead with true kindness and true truth.
And that if I do that, it's in everybody's best interest.
But for the longest time, I was playing this game where I was trying to, I was trying not to pay attention to my own needs.
And I'm not trying to say I was a great guy.
It was not good for others.
So it's like if we don't have our boundaries and we don't know who we are and that we're working,
you know honest conversation with people it can lead to others and ourselves getting hurt so
confronting my wounds is the biggest thing wow that's good you know I was reading a study it reminds me of
this is that uh I recently was going through and doing a presentation on uh how to create a world-class
culture for for organizations and what they found to be uh this is a study they found they it was a
large survey done I think it was a Gallup survey they went through and they they they
they said, what is the, what are the top things that create a toxic work environment? They interviewed
employees. And they said, by far, not even close, by far the number one thing was when I don't feel
respected or honored in the workplace. And so if I have a boss where they make me feel like I'm not
respected, but it makes me think of this, if you have a boss or somebody who's a leader and they don't
respect themselves and they don't think humans are worthy and honorable, those sort of things,
how are they going to treat other people? If they don't, if they don't respect and they don't see
themselves as being honorable. So again, it's sort of that hurt people, hurt people, or if you don't
respect yourself, you're not going to respect other sort of idea. Yeah. And what's amazing, though,
and I love this because it's counterintuitive because you think that person doesn't respect themselves
is going to be harsh on others. Eventually, they will, but at first they're not going to tell people
the truth. They're like, I don't respect myself, so I'm not worthy to say this is something
you need to do better. Or I have to draw a line here and you have to do better. So we'll, we'll,
We'll accommodate and we'll accommodate and we'll accommodate.
And then we get mad.
And it's so, so, so because a lot of people listening to this might say, well, I'm not mean to people.
I'm actually super nice to people.
And it's like, yes, but you're doing that for yourself, not for them.
And eventually it's going to hurt them and they're not going to feel respected.
Because telling somebody, you're doing a great job.
And then going out in the parking ladder, going home and telling your husband or your wife, yeah, this is this guy's driving me crazy.
That's not respecting.
them. So it's oftentimes we think it's going to be the, the really cool boss, but even the really
nice boss is not actually respecting the people they work for. And that's why it's grace plus truth
equals love. It is not loving to withhold the truth from somebody who needs to hear it.
That's so good. You know, one of the things I noticed in your books, and by the way, when you
sometimes create the characters in your book, it's so helpful. And, um, um, it's, um, it's so helpful. And, um,
Oh, good. Thanks.
Yeah. And, you know, one of the things I've heard you also speak on is the importance of vulnerability and building trust.
There's a quote I love from Jaco Willick, or he has in his book, Extreme Ownership.
And he basically talks about, he says, you know, trust building is the backbone of leadership.
And so just the importance about building trust.
Talk to me a little bit about leadership and the importance of being vulnerable of building trust.
But then also how to do it properly, because I want to say this, I've actually seen.
people be vulnerable in the worst ways. Do you do I'm talking about it's like like, and it's like,
well, don't be vulnerable with that sort of ridiculous thing that sort of degrade yourself.
Let's be vulnerable with something anyway. So please talk about vulnerability, trust building,
but also how to do it in our relationships. Right. And I'm glad you use the word vulnerable in
trust building because people think like, how do I trust somebody? And they think it's about predicting
their behavior. It's like, I've known you long enough, Josh, to know that if you say this, this is what,
what you mean. I can predict your behavior. That's not the kind of trust we're talking about.
We're talking about vulnerability-based trust, which means I trust you enough to reveal things about me
that are relevant and hard so that you can understand me, and I know that I can be safe in doing that.
So you don't do it right away. You have to help people build that over time.
Although it doesn't take that that long. But the root of the word vulnerable is wound.
I didn't realize that. The Latin root for vulnerable is wound, and that is I am wounded and I am willing to
say to you, here is my wounds. And so when we work with teams of executives, leaders of any kind,
we go around the table. We first do a very simple exercise where we just say, and it's crazy
how this works. We say, tell us where you grew up, how many kids were in your family and where
you fell in that order. And then just tell us the most difficult challenge of your childhood,
not your inner childhood, not like, and literally we say, take 30 seconds. And we go around the
room and eight minutes later, 12 minutes later, everybody is.
just said something pretty profound.
They didn't cry necessarily.
They didn't go into a lot of depth.
They just said, yeah, my dad died when I was young.
That was really harder.
I had a relative, a kid in my family,
and somebody in our family who had a drug problem.
Or we were poor, or I was an only child,
or we had nine kids, or we moved all the time,
whatever it is.
Everybody's sitting there going, oh, wow,
I think I understand you as a human being.
I relate to you more.
I understand you.
And that is where you start to build trust.
You're like, I'm a,
and everybody is always like honoring that.
And they say,
I didn't know that about you.
That's really amazing that you got through that.
And you're building the beginning of people getting comfortable,
being vulnerable with each other.
Okay?
And it's always, every time I do it, I think people are going to go,
we already knew this.
And every time they're like, I didn't know half of this about the people I work with.
St. Francis said, you know, seek to understand more than to be understood.
And the more you understand one another, the more you build trust with them.
And so that's one of the ways we do it.
Then we use, like we have a new tool called the Working Genius.
And there's other tools like Myers-Briggs that we've used for years where we go in and we get people to reveal this is what I'm good at.
This is what I'm not good at.
And suddenly people are like, so you know you're not good at that.
And the working genius, you look at the assessment and they're like, yeah, look, it says right here.
These are my lowest scores.
I'm terrible at these things.
And people are like, so you're admitting that?
Like, yeah, I feel comfortable admitting it because here's some data that corroborates that.
And now people are sitting around a room and they're willing to say things like, oh, don't ask me or I need help or.
Oh, I think you're better than I am at this.
Can we work together on this?
And suddenly people are no longer trying to pretend they're all that or trying to hide their weaknesses.
And so that's how you build trust is you get people comfortable being vulnerable around themselves.
And we see teams increase trust drastically in a day.
In a day, they're like, I've never talked to you like this before.
I've never heard from you like this before.
And I love this.
I mean, it's powerful.
You know, I think about, I had this family growing up that I was very, very close to my best friend in high school.
And every Thanksgiving, they would get around a table and they would all go around and say, this is what I'm most thankful for.
And I remember I would go every year.
And they had a big family.
I mean, they were probably 25 people or so.
And everybody, almost the whole time, would just be bawling and in tears because people would be sharing.
like I'm so, you know, just what they're grateful for.
But I think about a very similar thing.
People going around and sharing, you know, some, this is my wound, you know.
And what a great thing for a family to do too.
I mean, what a powerful relationship builder.
And this is something we just, we don't do today.
This is, wow.
You know what we do with leadership teams, Josh?
We at the end of a two-day off-site or a day and a half off-site, we take them through
another exercise, which is really about accountability, but it really builds trust too.
And I don't like 360 feedback because I think it breaks down trust because if it's
anonymous and you don't know who said it and you don't know where it comes from and a third party reveals
it to you feel kind of dishonored we have them sit around a table now they've been together for a day and a half
we've done some trust we've done some some things around the business a lot around the business and so
they've been together for a day and a half and then we say okay here's what we're going to do
we call it the team effectiveness exercise which is kind of a lame name it's just what it is
we say okay everybody write down one thing about everybody else at the table that they do that you
really think makes the team better and I don't mean their technical skills I mean like
What do they bring to this team that you want them to keep doing and you want them to know that you love that about them?
And one thing, the biggest thing, and everybody writes it down.
Then we say, now write down the one thing that that person does sometimes hurts the team that you probably like them to work on.
And that's what people get a little.
But it's like real time, they write it down.
And then we start with the leader.
We go, okay, let's do the leader first.
What did everybody say positive about the leader?
And they go around the table.
And this is the only emotional time.
And they're like, I love this about you.
I love it.
And usually the leader is like, wow, I didn't know you thought that way.
this is what I've always tried to do.
I really appreciate hearing that.
Wow, I've never felt so honored.
And then we go, okay, now let's go the other way
and talk about what the thing they can improve on.
And people will look the leader in the eye and say,
hey, Bob or Jan, when you do this, it can be really frustrated.
But we've just flooded them with the honest positive.
And now they've fled them with the constructive improvement areas.
And the leaders are always on.
They're like, I appreciate you telling me that.
You're right.
I know it.
And then we do the whole team.
It takes about an hour and a half.
And that is when they're most bonded.
Because they said, you loved me enough to tell you what I do, to tell me what I do well.
You looked me in the eye in front of everybody else and did this.
And then you loved me enough to tell me what you think I need to get better at.
And that is when the trust goes through the roof.
But it builds up over time.
We don't start the exercise with a new team saying, let's tell each other what we don't
like about each other.
But part of it is knowing that you can actually care enough about somebody to tell us something
heart. Wow. I love it. I mean, that's powerful. You know, I think part of the thing I love too is that
this is an exercise that helps, helps them building self-awareness, right? Self-awareness is so, so crucial
for people. And I see this with a lot of leaders, you know, and I've spent some time
doing coaching and mastermind groups with a lot of specifically doctors. And, and one of the things I'll
notice is, is that the ones that are very emotionally intelligent and have a greater level of
self-awareness, they have the greatest potential to.
grow. But the ones that have no self-awareness, it's like, wow, it's, you just kind of see they
get stuck. It's very hard for them to grow. Talk to me a minute about part of what you just said,
but how it relates to self-awareness. This is so critical, Josh, it's a great point because
like, I'm dealing with a person in my life right now who is, I can't decide if they're not
self-aware or if they're just too invulnerable to admit it. And so when you kindly tell them,
hey, you know, this is how you come across and this is what, and they're like, oh, yeah,
okay, thanks for telling me.
I really appreciate it, but then they don't get better.
The question is, are you still not aware?
And if you don't know which of those two things is at play,
you don't know how to talk to them.
And like, I'm going to have to have a conversation with this person and say,
I am confused because I want to love you,
but I don't want to keep beating you,
beating this dead horse unless you're not sure,
you don't realize that the horse is about to die.
And if you are, then maybe what I need to do is talk to you about
why you just need to accept the fact
that you're a horse and we can talk about that.
Because there's a difference between a person not being self-aware
and not being willing to publicly acknowledge that they have a problem.
Does that make sense?
They might go, oh, I know how I come across.
I'm just not going to admit it because that's too painful.
Versus, oh my gosh, am I still doing it?
Now, what you want to do is make sure they definitely are getting the information
so they're aware, but sometimes even when they're aware,
it's just too painful for them to say, I know,
I just don't know how to fix it.
I mean, Pat, what it seems to, by the way,
everything that we've talked about almost,
I come back to is that a humility issue?
Is that a wisdom issue?
Is that a courage issue?
Right.
I mean, it comes back to these virtues and character.
It's so, so important to leadership.
You know, one of the ways that I always sort of believed in the way that I view
personal growth, development,
whether it's professional growth or personal growth,
was imagine a graph and you've got your talents and skills right here and your character right here.
And so your skill has to sit on top of the character.
But what we need to do, we need to maximize our character, maximize our skills.
Talk to me about, feel free to share your thoughts on that.
But also, what are some of the ways that people can do, whether it could be in the workplace or out of the workplace,
what are some of the best ways people can both develop their talent and their character?
We'll start with character.
That's the first thing.
Because, you know, we talk in our work about being smart and healthy, an organization.
Let's take an organization.
And every organization needs to be smart.
They need to know how to do their business well, but they need to be healthy.
Get rid of politics, good teamwork, clarity, all those things.
Always start with clarity.
Because, I mean, always start with health.
Because health is the multiplier of intelligence.
Take a person who, take a company that's a 10 out of 10 on intelligence, but a 4 out of 10 on health.
And they're not going to tap into, it's going to be dysfunctional.
And we see companies do this all time.
Take a company that's a 9 out of 10 on health and a 5 out of 10 on smart.
They're going to learn.
You can teach somebody how to be smart when they're behaviorally healthy.
So work on character first.
And Jack Welch at GE used to have this 2x2 matrix where he said, are they a cultural fit or are they a performer?
And of course, if they're both, okay, that's great.
But he said, invest in your cultural fits because it's a lot easier to,
to teach them to perform than it is to take a high performer and teach them how to be a cultural fit.
And I think it's a lot easier to take a person of high character, humility, integrity,
and teach them new things than it is to take a brilliant person and teach them how to have character.
Because sometimes by virtue of the fact that they went to a nice school and they have a good education,
they know a lot of things, it's even harder for them later in life to develop character.
It's so good.
You know, I'm thinking about this right now.
So I had a dad who served in Vietnam, was in the army, and just very disciplined.
And he worked at a phone company for 40 years.
So he worked out on power lines.
And I just had an amazing doubt.
I don't think he ever missed a single game I had.
And he just, you know, just was an amazing dad and a lot of integrity.
And then I think about a lot of people in the workplace today, like, like, you know,
there's these trends now like quiet quitting or.
I mean, I can list a bunch of other trends, too, that people have.
But I'm like, just the lack of integrity and character just to not even, you know,
it's a, it's a real issue.
But I think all of this comes back to your virtue and character.
Absolutely.
You know, we talk, we have a book called the ideal team player.
Well, you mentioned this before.
And, and we say to people, hey, if you really want somebody to, you want to hire somebody and you,
and you really have a culture where you want people to be on a team, which is most companies,
hire people that are humble, hungry and smart.
Those are the three things that we like, are they ego driven or are they about others?
Are they, do they want to work hard or are they slackers?
Smart is, do they have interpersonal intelligence or do they not?
And those three things, those are character traits.
Then skills can come later.
And we hire here at my company, if they have, if they're humble, hungry and smart, man,
we can move them into almost anything and teach them how to do something.
But if they're lacking one or more of those virtues, I don't care how smart.
they are. I don't care what their experience is. I don't care how talented they are. It's going to be
really hard for them to contribute in the way that we need them to. Can I tell you what else blows my
mind? And so I own a couple of companies. And with our values, I want to say this, seven years ago,
we looked at values they were important. Now they are the most important because when you look at this
sort of political landscape, everything we're in, I feel like now more than ever, you have to be
obsessed with what are the values of this person that's coming in? Yeah, and people go, well, that's
not inclusive. No, no, no, it is because every organization, every family, every culture, every
team, every company needs to know what it means to belong there. And that's not, and then everybody
who shares those two or three key values, then there's diversity like, oh, we can be, but if you have,
I like to say you should be brutally intolerant of diversity around your core.
values. That's right. And I say that because it gets people attention. Oh, you should never be
brutally intolerant. No, no, no. If you're building a company, and like to say Nordstrom, I've worked
with them, they had this amazing culture of customer service where people could bring back a shirt
and it could be ripped or torn and they did it and they're like, no, we're going to return it for you.
We love our customers. If you don't love treating people that way, you should not work there. They
should not let you work there. You should be brutally intolerant of people that don't love giving
customers the benefit of the doubt.
That is actually not exclusive or not nice.
It's building a culture around something.
And so I think it's fine to say, hey, if you want to work here, this is really kind of what makes up our environment.
We're not saying you're a bad person if you don't fit.
We're just saying you just don't belong here.
And yet some people recoil at that.
Like, oh, it's like inclusive about everything means you're going to have nothing in common.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's, it's, this is such a big deal.
And we're seeing this with companies who haven't paid attention to that and some of the
repercussions.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And the divisiveness in our society as a result of not.
And again, I, I think it's good.
It's like no matter what side you're on or anything, just know this.
When you, you're in an organization or society, a country, a family, and there is a lack of
agreement around what is core, there is going to be a problem.
I mean, there's surveys that now show that people.
think that censoring free speech, like close to 50% of Americans are like, no, I think that's fine
as long as it's the speech I don't like. And it's like, no, you don't understand. The purpose of free
speech is to protect hard speech because that's how a country doesn't go off the rails. But we have
a lot of young people who don't understand. We haven't taught them our core values. And they're like,
yeah, I think we should censor people. And it's like, wow. Or I don't think freedom is really
that important if it's not, I don't think people that agree with.
me should be free. And it's like, that's the risk we face in our nation that is there any core
principles. It used to be like freedom and exchange of ideas. You can believe whatever you want.
You respect to one another and you, but now it's like, no, you know. And so that's where we're at
as a society right now. We have to really fight to get that back. Absolutely. And this is why it's
so important. I think even as an organization, you know, one of the things we did at my company,
ancient nutrition we've done it and we're starting to do at companies like leaders media that I have
is really focused on we're very focused on core values but also we want to be able to develop the leaders
within the business and so at ancient nutrition I put together a sort of a leadership manual
where we read a book together once a month I present on it and we even have you know some small
we have growth groups that are part of it and I think it's been such a great part of our organizational
culture is focusing on growing the individual, which then actually helps grow the organization as well,
right? So I think that, you know, when it aligns very closely to what you said. You want people that
are humble, hungry, and smart, right? So that humility, like, I want to learn, I want to grow. I'm
hungry to learn and grow. And I want to become smarter, right? So anyways, I think that's so important.
But talk to me a little bit about just the importance of, of what you've seen over the years, the importance of
people that are dedicated to growing themselves personally?
Well, gosh, I want to have a good answer.
I'm sure I could give an answer that sounded like word salad here.
But I think that vulnerability and humility and personal development go hand in hand
because if a person comes into a situation and says, I'm done.
I don't want to be exposed.
I don't want to be pushed.
I don't want to acknowledge that I don't know something.
I don't want to acknowledge that other people have something to teach me.
I'm done.
There's a ceiling on how that everyone is going to grow in that environment.
And if one person in a group of 10 is not like that, it's going to affect the other 10 in profound ways.
And so I think that personal development is actually at the core of humility.
It's I don't have everything I need and I am willing to learn.
And you know what's interesting is like I work with younger people.
now, like, because I'm older. So, um, I learn things from 25 year olds that I'm fascinated by and that I,
and that I, when I'm talking to them about something they know about more than me, I feel like,
and I don't mean this in like in some, like I'm a wonderful guy, but I feel like a student again.
I'm like, you know more about this. I want to learn from what you went through. And that I think
is about I don't have to pretend I'm the guy that knows the most. I don't pretend I have to be the
strongest, the smartest, or the least vulnerable. So I think personal growth and humility go hand in
hand and without it. And I've hired people before that were like they wouldn't move. No matter
what was compelling, no matter how much people poured into them, they were like, I don't want to
grow or change. And when they left, it changed everything. When we finally said, I think it's time
to move on. Everybody else grew faster. Yeah, it's that you become who you surround yourself with.
And this is another point.
I think that a lot of people maybe will become aware of this.
But when you keep somebody on the team that's toxic, you're hurting everyone else.
When you have somebody else whose values don't align or they're not towards the good, right?
It can hurt all the other people on the team.
So to not let them go or not move on to them, you're not doing justice to the team as a whole.
Absolutely.
One of the hardest things for people to realize is it's, and the, the, the,
thing that pushes them over the edge is when I say to a leader, hey, because so many leaders,
most of them wait way too long to move a person out. I've done it myself. And because there's
a goodness in that in the sense of when in doubt err on the side of grace. But we move way beyond
doubt. And now it's just postponing it. And what I tell them is, hey, not only is your company
suffering, not only are you suffering, but that person is suffering. So you think by not moving on them
and not telling them the truth, you're actually protecting them.
But when you realize they're actually suffering more,
that's often the thing that gets the leader to go,
okay, then I have to do it.
Because they're well-intentioned, you know.
It's just they don't realize that that person knows that they don't fit
and they need the freedom to go to go elsewhere.
You know, one of the other things, I think,
and just a couple questions left here for you, Pat.
You know, I think that purpose is so important for,
for an organization.
And I see this today that there are so many people,
especially young people in the workplace,
and they're doing things for,
let's call them social justice causes in a lot of cases.
And it's because there are,
not that there are some, I think, some great social justice causes.
I think there are some that are ill-informed in terms of the way that they're,
I'm trying to say this as politically correct as possible,
but just insane to where they're being destructive.
and everything else. But my point there is, is like, people are hungry for purpose in their life.
How do you, how should leaders today tap into that why and that purpose to get that out of people?
Because people are hungry for it. I just think it's misdirected sometimes.
Well, yeah. And I can't deny. When you take God out of society, there's something missing.
And St. Augustine said, you know, our hearts will not rest until they rest in God.
There's a God-sized hole in our heart. You know all this stuff. And it's everybody's searching for that.
And I think there's always been social justice causes.
I think that's what, for me, being a little older, it's like, you guys think you invented this?
But what's happening today is it is a, I really do think it's a replacement for faith.
And people get all worked up about social justice.
And I think they should be, they want to contribute to others.
And that's good.
But it takes on a different point because it's really replacing something else.
So when you think the environment is important, and of course the environment's important,
that's always been important, it's God's creature.
But when you don't understand that there is a God and you don't understand that I'm just a small part of this,
you can then, that can become almost a source of bitterness.
And so I think what we have to do is we have to help people in humility take these things on and not in condescension.
I saw somebody testifying before Congress the day, this woman about the environment.
And she was berating these politicians for what are your kids going to say when you didn't.
And they're like, well, my constituents have jobs.
and you want me to tear down society so you can feel better about your particular issue,
but there's other ways to look at this.
So I think humility has to be there.
And the humility to recognize that the world has always had social justice causes and that we need to put them in a larger perspective so we can not be destructive in the way we do that.
I think too many people think tweeting about something or putting something on social media is how they're a social justice warrior.
And I would say, why don't you go find a person and help them before you get on the stand?
I think that we need to kind of make it more local and more tactical and tangible.
And that brings humility as well.
Well, this so aligns with what you see with virtue signaling.
I was watching an interview where Bill Gates is being interviewed on climate health.
And finally, the reporter in the interview asked him one hard question.
And it was what I saw that.
Yes.
So do you realize that your carbon footprint?
And one of your trips on your private jet is actually more than the average person will put out in their entire lifetime.
And so it's just crazy when you think about it.
And I'll give you an example.
So one of my organizations, ancient nutrition, we are very committed to regenerative agriculture.
Myself and business partner, Jordan Rubin, we own 4,000 acres of certified organic land.
We grow superfood plants there.
We're really committed to doing everything we can to support climate health.
And I'm not saying anything about climate change, but just, but you can change climate, improve the health in local areas.
So we're doing.
Soil.
Yes.
And we've been able to build back this.
So it's been really incredible.
We're partnered with Rodea on doing some research on it.
So anyways, I am very committed to climate health, as committed as anyone else I know.
However, it doesn't sit in the highest place for me, right?
Like environmentalism and taking care of the environment, it's very, very important.
But, but, you know, God and the health of people, like, that's, that's even more important.
So I think, I think sometimes people have values, but the values are out of order in terms of
where they should sit in a hierarchy.
Yeah, you know, I have a dog.
I love Freddie.
And I love animals.
And animals are God's creatures.
And I think we should treat them well.
But sometimes I feel like people are more worried about a stray dog, which is fine because
they tug at your heartstrings.
then the man who lives next door
who hasn't spoken to a person forever
and like he needs company
or somebody needs a kind word
or they need food or things like that
and I do think there's a hierarchy of these things
and I think that humility says
I can care about something
and recognize there's other things
that are important too
and not that mine has to take
and what it really comes down to I think Josh
is the humility thing.
It's like if you're doing your social justice
to feel good about yourself
and to make other people see you as more important
it's going to come across wrong.
But if you're really committed to a cause,
you're not going to do it in a way that's destructive and self-aggrandizing, right?
And so the environment is so important.
But there's other things that are important too.
And we can't be so selfish to think that only our thing is what's most important.
And I think life, whether it's an old person who's vulnerable,
I'm a believer in the unborn who are the most vulnerable.
I think we need to love on them.
We need to love on unwed mothers or people that can't, you know, they're struggling on the poor, on the, it's like immigrants.
I think we need to be compassionate.
Does that mean we should open up our borders?
No, that's not compassionate because a lot of these people are being trafficked and they get here and they're in crime and they're taking advantage of.
And we can't sustain that.
So we need to have a holistic view about the human being who I believe is made in the image of likeness
God and start there. And then there's room for all of these different issues. So anyway, I don't
think it should be all that controversial. I think we should have good conversations. And we shouldn't be
canceling somebody who says, well, I think there's something more important in the environment.
But then they're going to say, this person doesn't care. So good for you for doing what you're doing.
And I like it. And we're all doing our part. And we should do that humbly and pray for guidance.
That's my, that's my thinking. I love it. I love it. Well, one of the last couple questions here.
One, for aspiring leaders out there, people saying, I want to be, I want to be a level five leader on a scale of five.
What are some of the things they can start doing now?
What are some of the most important steps?
Purifying your intentions, which is your motive.
The movie, the book, I mean, the movie, the book, the motive that I wrote came out right when COVID did.
And so so many people are writing me now, you have to re-release it because we didn't see it because it came out when everything shut down.
But the motive is actually the first thing.
a level five leader, and I remember when Collins came up with that concept, and he and I had been
working on some stuff together, like, you have to check your ego. And you cannot be a level five leader
if it's about taking care of yourself. And that's true. If you look at every hero and every saint
and every great character throughout history, if they were truly a leader that was not about them,
it was about others. And so if a person says, I want to be a level five leader, my question would be, why?
Why? Why? Do you want to be known to be a level five leader? Do you want somebody to put you on a list? Do you want to be celebrated for that? Or do you want to know in your heart of hearts when you stand before God and, you know, and look in the mirror that that's who you are? So start with purifying your intentions, being really humble and vulnerable. And after that, it becomes so much easier.
I love it. Last question for you. What are you excited about right now? Right now and life and the future, what gets you excited?
Well, I'm pretty excited about lunch right now, to be quite frank, because we're doing this,
but I say that just because I'm trying to appreciate the day-to-day, like the little things,
because too often in my life, I thought I'm excited about this thing happening next year,
and it's like, no, God puts things in our lives right now that I need to be more aware of.
So I was watching this, Aaron Rogers, the quarterback, had a hat on it on this TV show,
and it just said, cherish the little things.
And I want to do that.
I want to be more grateful.
But as far as in my career, I'm excited about exploring this concept of wounds.
Most leaders have wounds that they don't understand how it impacts how they lead.
And I'm really excited to help leaders take the first step in identifying their wounds so they can get the help they need and they can be better leaders.
So that's the thing that I'm excited about exploring that.
I'm going to start writing on that pretty soon.
I love it.
It's helping heal leaders.
That's powerful, powerful.
I want to encourage everybody to check out Patrick's books.
Again, I have read a couple of them.
The Ideal Team Player is a fantastic book for anyone looking to develop their leadership in an organization.
Also, his book, The Motive.
It's found in Amazon.com, bookstores nationwide.
Again, the ideal team player and The Motive.
Also, you can visit Pat's website.
It's tablegroup.com.
That's tablegroup.com.
And he also has a great assessment.
It's called Working.
So you can get a work assessment at working genius.com.
And Pat, I just want to say it was such an honor to talk to you today because I'm such a
huge fan.
I've read your books.
I've learned and grown as a leader because of you.
So just big, big thank you for coming on today.
Thanks so much.
You know, I do a lot of podcasts.
I love doing these.
But I can really tell when a person, like what their motives are in terms of like how they do.
I just love the nature of the questions and the way you ask them, the way you followed up.
So keep doing what you're doing.
this is great Josh. I can't wait to follow you more. And the people that listen to you are
fortunate to have you doing that. So thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. God bless.
Thanks so much, Pat. Hey, everybody, thanks for watching or listening to another Growth Lab
podcast would be back next week. And thanks everybody for subscribing and sharing. If you know any
leaders or anybody in the business space or just anybody who needs to grow his leadership, which is
everybody, hey, thanks everybody for liking and sharing this video as well. And again, thank you so
much. It was such an honor to have Patrick Lincione on the show today. Have a great week, everyone.
