THE ED MYLETT SHOW - John Maxwell's #3 Law of Leadership: The Law of Process

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

This is the leadership law that changed the trajectory of my entire family... 📥 ⁠CLICK HERE⁠ to Download the free Leadership Workbook and submit your question for our Q&A with John and me. Welcome back to our series on John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Law #3 is the Law of Process, and it cuts against everything social media is selling you right now. Leadership develops daily, not in a day. In this episode, John dismantles one of the most damaging myths in leadership: that greatness is an event. He breaks down the critical difference between overestimating the event and underestimating the process, and why so many talented people get stuck, frustrated, and quit before their progress becomes visible. John also draws one of the clearest distinctions I've heard in any leadership teaching: you can make a sudden decision, but you cannot make a sudden change. That is a process. And then he says something I want you to hear: most organizations are trying to microwave their leaders. You can't microwave a leader. You have to crock-pot them. I open this episode with something deeply personal: the story of my father's sobriety, and how his commitment to "one more day" is the most powerful picture of the Law of Process I have ever seen. My dad didn't become the man who changed our family in a single moment. He stacked days. And so do great leaders. Here's what you'll gain from this episode: The Event vs. The Process: Why we consistently overestimate what a single moment will do for us, and why the daily commitment to growth is the only thing that actually builds a leader over time. You Can Make a Sudden Decision. You Cannot Make a Sudden Change: John's sharpest line in the episode, and the distinction that explains why so many people feel stuck even after making big commitments. Stop Microwaving Leaders: Why trying to fast-track development creates Pop Tart leaders, and what the crock-pot approach to growing yourself and your team actually looks like in practice. The Secret of Your Success Is in Your Daily Agenda: John's closing principle for the Law of Process: what you do every single day is the single best predictor of who you will become. One More Day at a Time: My personal story about his father's sobriety, and why stacking small, invisible wins is exactly how leaders and families are transformed. 🗓️ New law dropping every Thursday so make sure you're subscribed so you never miss one. Click ⁠HERE⁠ to Subscribe to my email list to MAXOUT your life (all value, no fluff) Thank you for listening —Please Share it and get the word out! ⁠👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ←  ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LINKEDIN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. This is the Edmireland show. 21 irrefutable laws of leadership series, law three, law of process. In today's world, I see a lot of people that want to be an overnight success. They want instant gratification. I think social media in a real negative way has contributed that everybody thinks they can be a millionaire overnight. And if they're not, they feel terrible about themselves because they think they're seeing this on their phone every single day.

Someone just became another millionaire. It happens overnight. Everybody seems to want overnight success. But leadership doesn't work that way. Welcome back to our leadership series on John Maxwell's 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Today's principle is the law of process. Leadership develops daily, not in one day. One of the biggest myths about success is that it happens in a single moment.

You see these gurus go viral on social media all the time, you know, showing you how overnight or in one moment, or there's one key or one thing if you change. And the fact of the matter is, you are one decision away from changing your life. But leadership and building something is a process that takes time, especially if it's going to be sustainable and long lasting. And so the 15 minutes of fame will be long gone after success actually shows its head. But if you study great leaders, you'll discover something very different. Literal leadership didn't appear overnight. It was built through daily growth, showing up one more day at a time, doing the reps, growing themselves, pouring into people, transferring skills to people, believing in people, increasing their vision, through love. learning themselves through discipline, through reflection, through self-awareness, and through making

mistakes, frankly. I know I've made more than I can count. But you know what the key is? Improving from those mistakes. Great leaders become great because they commit to getting better every single day. Not because they're perfect, not because it happens overnight. You know, in my book, The Power of One More, I talk about when my father decided to get sober.

She's not perfect all of his life. He had tried other times to get sober. When he finally pulled me over in the car one day, on the way to a baseball game. And he said, Eddie, I'm going to try to get sober one last time. I asked him if he could actually do it. And he said, I remember him saying, I'm not sure. But I can promise you this, I'm not going to drink for one more day.

And my dad stacked up those one more days. I think that's a lot like leadership. For the rest of my dad's life, he never had another drink one day at a time. I think becoming a leader is one day at a time. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in one moment. But all of a sudden, you start making it. invisible progress in your life that you never knew you were making until you look back

someday and know you were stacking those wins daily. And my dad proved that to me. He changed the trajectory for my entire family and he did it one day at a time. Leadership is not an event. It's a process and that process sometimes can be difficult. Let's hear John Maxwell teach the foundation of this principle, the law of process. Have you noticed your sheets slipping off the corners lately or maybe your pillows just don't feel supportive like they used to? You want to get a better night's sleep and be healthier? Replace your beding. That's why I upgraded our bed with Bowling Branch.

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That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash ed for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash ed. The third law is the law of process. And the law process says leadership develops daily, not in a day. This is an incredible law. I love to teach it, and the reason I love to teach it is because if a person can understand process, they're going to be very effective as a leader. But if they don't understand the process of becoming a leader, they're going to get very frustrated.

Let me explain to you. Many times when I do leadership conferences, when we have a Q&A period of time, probably the most common question asked me when I do leadership conference, somebody raised their hand and say, John, here's a question. Are leaders born? And whenever they ask me the question, are leaders born? I always look at them. I always say, of course they are.

Think about that question. I've never met an unborn leader. I don't particularly want to either, thank you very much. Now, what they're really asking is, they're not asking our leaders, born. What they're really asking us, are there leaders that, are people when they're born, they kind of got it? You know what I'm saying?

They got it, and there are people when they're born, they don't got it? And I suppose if you got it, you lean, if you don't got it, you get in line. You know what I mean? And hope there's a water fountain at the end somewhere, okay? That's a very important question, because what I have found is this, and this is so huge. What I have found is there are a lot of people who just, just think you either have it or you don't have it.

And I'm going to tell you right now, that is not true. There are people that have leadership. Leaning, of course there are. Just like there are people when they're born, they have kind of musical leanings. So there are leanings toward leadership that some people have that other people don't have. But anyone can learn to be a leader. In fact, that's why I have such a passion to teach leadership. That's why I have such a passion to teach these laws.

Because if you learn these laws, it becomes absolutely amazing how well you're going to be able to learn to lead. So let me take a moment and explain to you a couple of things. important thoughts in this law. In your notes, we overestimate the event and we underestimate the process. I have found this to be very common with people in leadership. They overestimate what an event will do for them. They come to a leadership conference or they read a leadership book and they say, oh my goodness, this is so good and this is going to make me a leader. This is going to change me. Now let me just explain to you the difference between the event and the process because this will help

you understand the law process. For example, when you go to a leadership event, I'm talking about like going to a leadership conference, reading a leadership book, okay, listening to a leadership lecture, okay, when you go to a leadership event, that encourages decisions. That's what it does. In other words, you go and they say, oh, my goodness, I know it's important for me to lead, so I'm going to make a decision. For example, when I taught you the law of the lid and said that everything's going to rise and fall on your leadership, many of you made a choice probably. You said, oh, my goodness, then if that's the truth and my lid of leadership is going to determine how effective I am in my business, I'm going to have to learn to lead. That's a decision. Events encourage decisions.

The process encourages development. The emphasis in process is continuing to grow and develop yourself. The event motivates people. We all love to come and be motivated and encouraged, but the process matures people. And we're wanting to mature you as a leader. To motivate you? Yes, but mature you is much more important. The event is a calendar issue. You say, okay, on this certain date, I'm going to go to an event and learn some leadership, whereas the process is a culture issue.

It's being in an environment or a culture that encourages you every day to learn, every day to grow, every day to develop yourself as a leader. The event challenges people. I'm challenged when I go to leadership events, but the process changes people. Why? Because you can't change overnight. You can make a sudden decision, but you can't make a sudden change.

That's a process, and there's a lot of difference between that. You see, here's what I think. I think the event is easy, and I think the process is difficult. And I want to encourage you as you're watching these training tapes to understand that it's a process. And it's not one day, one time, one book, one lecture that's going to change your life. But it's going through the process of doing that.

And the reason that leadership must be a process is because leadership is many-faceted. In fact, think about it for a moment. There are 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Just the very fact there are 21 laws of leadership tells you you just can't absorb it, or you can't learn it or you can't apply it instantly. I was doing a leadership lecture in, oh, I don't know, a couple years ago, doing a conference. And I'll never forget, during the break, I was signing books, and this kid came up to me, and he's just out of college, and kind of probably a business major,

and he was all excited about leadership, what he was learning. And I could see his passion. I love kids, because, you know, they just have great passion. So he came up to him, and he kind of gets in my face a little bit, and he said, Okay, John. He said, I love this leadership stuff. I said, I've been listening to you all day. So I've got a question. I said, what's your question? He said, what's your question? He said, what's the one thing I need to know about leadership?

I thought, oh, my. So I sucked it up to get energy, you know, here we go. I got to match this kid's intense. So I looked at him and I kind of got in his face. And I said, the one thing you need to know to be a great leader is that there is more than one. thing you need to know to be a great leader. In fact, they said, there are 21 things that you need to know to be a great leader. Now, you see, here's the kid. What's he doing? He's trying to take leadership and condense it. He's basically wanting me to fast food leadership. He's wanting to come to the window of leadership and get a sack of leadership. You know what I'm saying? And take off down the road with the sack of leadership and kind of eat it on the way and come out of the car. as a great leader. Can't happen. Why? Because leadership is many facets. Let me explain. Look at your notes for a moment. We've already understood that, first of all, leadership is influence. So it certainly

is the ability to influence people, but it's more than influence. You show me, I can show you people that have influence, but they're not great leaders. Isn't that true? Well, it's also, secondly, navigation, the ability to take people from point A to point B to point C. So there's a navigating principle of leadership, and yet I can show you people that are tour guides, that aren't good leaders. Or thirdly, it's empowerment, it's the ability to take people and empower them. Of course it is. To be able to put belief in people and let them go to a higher level on their own. But it's more than empower them. Number four, it's relationships. It's getting along with people, yet I know people who get along with me very well, but they can't lead

anything. Number five, it's timing. There's a huge amount of timing that's involved in leadership and the ability to understand timing. It's huge. In fact, there's a whole law on it, but it's more than timing. Number six, it's momentum. If you do timing right, you get the big moe going for you, and hence the ability to sense and feel the surge of momentum in an organization, but it's more than momentum. It's more than just getting the big moe going for you. Number seven, sacrifice. It's the ability to give up so you can go up. Of course it is. And yet I know people that they've sacrificed and they're still not great leaders. You see, you're beginning to catch this number eight. It's its attitude. It's the way you think. And yet I know people have great

attitudes that aren't great leaders. Now let me just stop down. Here's what I think it's very obvious to all of us right now. It's very obvious to all of us. And that is it's many faceted. In other words, it's the ability to understand a lot of things that make you a well-referral rounded mature leader. It's kind of like in the NFL and pro quarterbacks. It's kind of like a rookie quarterback coming into that major league. It's impossible for them the first year to be probably a great quarterback. There's just too much. I was up speaking the other day with Cleveland Browns and Butch Davis and the crew and they were talking to me and I literally had a guy give me a 30 minute teaching on the quarterback and all they have to learn in their first year. I was amazed. I thought,

oh my goodness. It's, you know, read the defenses and understand. the offense and be able to sense the shifts and be able to change the play in a moment. It's a lot of stuff. Now, here's what I want you to know. I think that the problem is too many times we try to microwave leaders. Yeah, we put them in a microwave. We get them in our company and so, oh my goodness, I've got to develop some leaders. I got this Maxwell stuff.

He said, develop leaders. So come here, here. I want you to be a leader. I think you can be a leader. Here, get in the microwave. We push them on here, push a few buttons and zap them. By the way, because we microwave so many leaders, that's why we have some many pop-tart leaders running. You've got a lot of pop-tart people in your company.

It's because you've been microwaving. We need to quit microwaving leaders, and we need to start crockpotting leaders. That's huge. One more thought about this tremendous law of process. That is, the secret of our success. is discovered in our daily agenda. What we do every day is the secret to our success. Not what we do at one moment or not what we're going to do sometime.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a book called Your Roadmap for Success. And I'll never forget when I wrote the book, my publisher wanted to call it Your Roadmap to Success. I said, no, no, no, you can't call it the Roadmap to Success because there's no such places. Success is not a destination. it's a journey. It's a process. And so many times we confuse true success with what I call recognition of success. It's like my friend one time said to me, he said, Johnny said, all my life I've worked hard at being an overnight success.

Bingo, that's so key. It's a process. The law of process says leaders develop daily, not in a day. If you haven't done it yet, click the link below. You need the 21-page workbook in your hands to track the rep for every law. Plus, that is the only way to get your questions in front of John and I for the Q&A sessions coming up in a few weeks. Get the guide, join the list, and let's get back to the teaching. So leadership growth compounds over time.

The small improvements you make every single day create extraordinary results. As John said, we overestimate the event and underestimate the process. So brilliant. being a leader isn't easy or everybody else would be doing it. To start building the process for you to become a leader, choose one leadership habit you'll practice every day this week. Maybe it's reading, maybe it's mentoring someone, maybe it's reflecting on your leadership decisions,

maybe it's going back and listen to a few of our podcasts here that pour into you on the topics that mean most to you. Small daily growth creates massive long-term impact. We'll see you next week. This is the Edmunds show. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up?

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