Be a Person of Massive Value

I had breakfast with the operations director of a leadership conference.

He told me about having John Maxwell as one of the speakers.

John Maxwell is pretty well known as a leadership guru.

Prior to the conference, all the speakers were to provide outlines of their talks.

When he received Dr. Maxwell’s he became nervous.

It was so sparse and so simple, he wondered if he had made a mistake.

He feared it would disappoint the audience and be an embarrassment for Dr. Maxwell.

This was at the time of the release of his book Intentional Living.

That book has a very simple thesis: 

If you want to make a difference, good intentions aren’t enough; you have to be intentional.

One of the main things that people who make a difference do is ADD VALUE TO OTHERS.

Adding value has to be something a person is intentional about doing.

This was the topic of his talk at the conference: becoming intentional about adding value.

I attended this conference too. I was hearing this backstory after-the-fact.

And it was a big one. There were 7,000 attendees live and another 400+ satellite locations.

There was a lot riding on his slot in the event. If it was a flop, it would get a lot of attention.

I remember he started his talk stating: the core value of leadership is adding value to people.

He went on to say, “You can’t add value to people everyday if you don't value everyone.”

Then he gave 5 points, which was the outline he submitted for his talk:

1. Value people
2. Think of ways to add value to people
3. Look for ways to add value to people
4. Do things that add value to people
5. Encourage others to add value to people

That was it.

As he went through each point though, the weight of what he said grew.

And isn’t it true?

It starts with seeing people as worth valuing.

You have to have a value-adding mindset.

Your attention has to be on adding value.

Then you have to do it!

He quoted John Wooden who said, “Don’t tell me what you’re going to do—show me.”

Finally, all the above is worth sharing. This is worth getting others to join you.

It is so simple, but what a difference this would make in your world if you actually did it.