The Uncommon Leader Podcast
Are you ready to break free from mediocrity and lead an extraordinary life? Join us on The Uncommon Leadership Podcast as we explore the power of intentionality in personal and professional growth. Our podcast features insightful interviews with inspiring leaders from all walks of life, sharing their stories of overcoming challenges and achieving greatness.
Discover practical strategies to:
- Think positively and cultivate a growth mindset
- Live a healthy and balanced lifestyle
- Build your faith and find inner strength
- Read more and expand your knowledge
- Stay strong in the face of adversity
- Work hard with purpose and passion
- Network effectively to build meaningful relationships
- Worry less and focus on what matters
- Love always and make a positive impact
In each episode, we'll dive into relevant leadership topics, share inspiring stories, and provide actionable steps you can take to elevate your life. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey, The Uncommon Leadership Podcast offers valuable insights and practical guidance to help you achieve your goals and live your best life.
The Uncommon Leader Podcast
Uncommon Greatness - 5 Fundamentals to Transform Your Leadership Approach with Mark Miller
Ever been thrust into a role you never expected and found yourself leading the way? That's just a glimpse into the formative years of Mark Miller, our remarkable guest and a leadership maestro who rose through the ranks at Chick-fil-A. Our conversation is not merely a chat; it's a treasure trove of insights, guiding you on a path to 'Uncommon Greatness', the masterpiece Mark pens that breaks down five fundamentals capable of transforming your leadership ethos.
Join us on a deep exploration into the 'iceberg model' of leadership, where skills are just the tip while the enormous, unseen heart beneath drives true influence. It's about connecting the dots between one's heart and the trust they instill in their team, a lesson I've learned firsthand in my own leadership journey. Ken Blanchard weighs in, adding to the robust discussion on how to intertwine skill with the essence of leading with heart. This episode is an invitation to challenge the common and embrace the uncommon, ensuring that your leadership practice is as heartfelt as it is strategic.
As we wrap up, we don't just leave you with ideas but with actionable strategies. I'm sharing how I balance my result-driven nature with the softer side of leadership—like setting personal goals for expressing gratitude—to foster relationships while chasing goals. It's about doing ordinary things in an extraordinary fashion, a philosophy that Mark and I believe can resonate well beyond our conversation and into the communities you lead. So whether you're looking to edge out as a leader in your field or just seeking to enrich your personal leadership style, this episode is your guiding star to 'Lead Every Day' with impact and heart.
Connect with Mark Miller:
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Did you know that many of the things that I discuss on the Uncommon Leader Podcast are subjects that I coach other leaders and organizations ? If you would be interested in having me discuss 1:1 or group coaching with you, or know someone who is looking to move from Underperforming to Uncommon in their business or life, I would love to chat with you. Click this link to set up a FREE CALL to discuss how coaching might benefit you and your team)
Until next time, Go and Grow Champions!!
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We just don't follow people that we don't trust and trust is an issue of the heart and we just believe that more leaders fail for heart issues than they do skill issues. You can learn skills, you can Google it, you can how to lead a meeting and how to, you know, solve problems, and I'm not saying those things are easy.
Speaker 2:Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher. Today's guest is Mark Miller, a seasoned business leader, a Wall Street Journal and international bestselling author and a dynamic communicator. Mark worked for Chick-fil-A for almost 45 years, starting out as an hourly employee at a local restaurant and then he became employee number 16 at their corporate headquarters. He worked his way up to the vice president of high performance leadership, which outline really Mark's passion, which is serving leaders. His content can be life changing. We chat today about his newest book, uncommon Greatness five fundamentals that transform your leadership. This book can reframe much of what you know about traditional leadership theory and practice and challenge some deeply held assumptions you might have. Every leader's got a choice to make when it comes to how they lead. Don't settle from your greatness. Raise the bar and go for uncommon greatness. Let's get started. Mark Miller, welcome to the Uncommon Leader podcast. It's great to have you on the show. I'm so looking forward to this conversation. How are you today?
Speaker 1:I am fantastic, John. Thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to have our conversation today. Talk about your book that's come out and that's going to be a lot of fun. But I'm not giving you any slack at the start. I'm going to touch the first question with you, as I do every first time guest that comes on, and that's to tell me a story Mark about from your childhood that still impacts who you are today as a person or as a leader.
Speaker 1:I was probably 10-ish years old I wish I could remember exactly my mother's passed, so I can't ask her, but I think I was 10, might have been 11, showed up at baseball practice and the catcher didn't show up and the coach said Miller, you're going to be our catcher. And I said okay. And he said I've got two words of advice for you. And I said yes, sir, and he said stay low and don't reach. I said okay, great. So I did what I could.
Speaker 1:And the next day I went to school and I asked the teacher if I could go to the library and she said why do you want to go to the library? I said well, I need to see if they have a book on how to be a catcher. All right, so I see you chuckling here. So let me tell you how this story played out. She let me go to the library because I think it's the first time in my life I had ever asked to go to the library. So she was in shock.
Speaker 1:And I got to the library and I found a book by Johnny Bench all a famer, gold gloves, something the greatest catcher in the history of the game. I found a book by Johnny Bench on how to be a catcher. And I opened the book and on the first page it said you are the leader of the team, and he spent the rest of the book explaining why you were the leader and how you should lead. And so that was my first encounter, as I can recall, with the concept of leadership, much less being told that I was a leader. And so I just started doing the stuff that Johnny wrote in the book, and I noticed that the kids seemed to respond to it. Right, these are my peers, and I just have been trying ever since to learn how to lead, and that was a long, long time ago. That was just a few years ago.
Speaker 2:Well, to see Johnny Bench's book, and my mom, she'll listen to this podcast and always give a story behind it. She'll love it, cause you'll see, I got a baseball up there on my on my account as well in a story behind everything that's up there. But she would tell me. She said you know you, you didn't read as a child. What made you such a reader now in terms of being a leader? I said I've read books you just didn't like because I read all the sports books that Johnny Bench that's who I'd go and grab her the quarterback, terry Bradshaw or Larry Bird, whatever it was. So I was reading, I just reading sports all the time, and she's happy that I'm in leadership books now, though, as well, and I I love that, because you do remember the first time that you were given kind of a quote leadership book for me was a little bit on it. It's part of my story in terms of when a mentor gave me my first leadership book and sat down and reviewed it with me chapter by chapter.
Speaker 2:But I'm sure you were expecting to see something like put the pads on like this and make it happen. But to experience that as a leader can be pretty powerful, especially as young age. Well, and so it's. It's led you to to write many of those as well. And your latest book, uncommon Greatness. What a what a coincidence being on the uncommon leader podcast. But the five fundamentals to transform your leadership. Two of them are not stay low and don't reach, but you've gone through that book. Tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind writing this specific book, uncommon Greatness.
Speaker 1:Well, it goes back about 25 years ago. I'll give you the short version of a long story. I was working on staff for Chick-fil-A, incorporated, which I did for almost 40 years. Some of your audience may may not realize that, but we needed more leaders, and I don't know again everyone's experience, but I often see that when you have a problem to solve or an opportunity to seize, you put a leader on it.
Speaker 1:Well, 25 years ago we had problems to solve and opportunities to seize and we looked over our shoulder and our leadership bench was was. It was in channels. We just did not have ready now leaders and so, of course, in the short term, you just give those, those opportunities and those problems to existing leaders. But, to the credit of our executive committee, they knew that was a short term fix, and so they asked me to figure out how to accelerate leadership development, and I did the only thing I knew to do. I put together a team of really smart people and I said, hey, guess what we get to figure out. And out of that work we decided that we needed to have a point of view on leadership and we actually illustrated that back then as an iceberg and we said about 10% above the waterline represents the skills of a leader and the 90% below the waterline represents the heart of the leader. And we said that's kind of how leadership works. And so we then ended up partnering with Ken Blanchard. He sought me out, he found out about the work and he said, hey, that's gotta be a book. And I told him we didn't wanna write a book and I just blew him off. I said, ken, everything looks like a book to you and some of your audience may not know Ken, but at the time I think he had three books on the best seller list at one time and I'm still not sure anybody's ever pulled that off since then. But he persisted and he and I did a book called the Secret, but it was just about the skills. We had decided we're not gonna talk about the heart. That's not our current felt and pressing need.
Speaker 1:A few years later we got a lot of pressure from the organization to try and provide some clarity and some definition for the below the waterline, just like we had done above the waterline. Well, I wrote a second book called the Heart of Leadership, which is great, and we've been tooling along for about 20 years and our point of view was represented in those two books. Chick-fil-a came to me a few years ago, I think they finally realized I was gonna leave at some point, and they said "'Hey, before you go, we need you to help us solve a problem'". And I said "'What's that'. And they said "'Our point of view on leadership is now represented in two books'. And they said "'What we have discovered is there are many of our leaders who have read one book or the other and therefore they have a truncated view of our picture of leadership'. And so they are the ones that said, "'hey, can you put this together in one book', and the result is uncommon greatness'".
Speaker 2:I love that. No, I love that story in terms of so the skills and even the 10%-90% relationship. In that, and I tell you, I mean in some of my coaching and consulting, the 90% gets viewed as soft skills and not to worry about it, and it's such, as you said, a big part. I mean just the number itself and I'm gonna guess that you were pretty intentional with the word. So when you use the word uncommon, like what does that word mean to you? What is the definition of that uncommon leader to you?
Speaker 1:Well, I'd love to ask you because I know this is your domain as well.
Speaker 1:We'll have to take that conversation offline, but I think that far too many leaders make it about themselves and far too many leaders ignore the heart and the way we say it if your heart's not right, no one cares about your skills. And I think I can prove it. Most people can bring to mind a leader who has all the skills that they would not want to follow. In fact, they would choose not to follow them. And I'd say, if you could ask them enough questions and kind of get through some layers, it would be because they don't trust that person's heart, they don't trust their motives, they think they're more of a self-serving leader than a serving leader, and we just don't follow people that we don't trust, and trust is an issue of the heart, and we just believe that more leaders fail for heart issues than they do skill issues.
Speaker 1:You can learn skills, you can Google it, you can how to lead a meeting and how to solve problems, and I'm not saying those things are easy, but they're much easier to wrestle with than if you're self-serving or if you don't feel like you have anything. You can learn from anyone else If your ego is in your way, which, based on some research we did. We talked to over 4,000 leaders in six countries when we were doing this work and the number one issue that people said they had with their supervisor was ego. It was over 60%, so it's uncommon.
Speaker 1:It's over 60% and so it's uncommon. The leader that can embody a leader's heart.
Speaker 2:No, so I love that and yeah, in and of itself. Just that word on comma. We could talk about it in a podcast episode to try and define it, but it is extraordinary in what you're, in what you're saying and what I appreciate about your book as well and how you take us through we're going to dive into that is that it can be taught also, or it can be learned that it you know we can change. I mean again that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. It's very some.
Speaker 2:It's the quote that's been tattooed on the side of my head, if you will, from the first leadership book that I read, and it's so true and I think that statement struck me that I can. I can get all the tools and techniques that I want, but if I can't engage my heart in that transaction, the trust accounts never going to be built. So I think you're spot on and I think again as I read and it's one of the books that I've dog ear that's how I kind of, you know, measure some of the books that I read is the number of dog ears there that tell me to go back and read that again, because you got to, you got to put something like that in place. I think it's really cool. So you've done that research with those leaders. You talked about that 60%. You talked about ego as one of the barriers. What are some of the other barriers that prevent leaders from implementing this heart and trust approach?
Speaker 1:Well, I think for many leaders there's a skill gap, because I don't, I don't, I don't want us just to focus exclusively on the heart. There are far too many leaders that actually don't know how to lead, and I have to remind leaders all the time Okay, I'm glad your heart is right, you have to learn to lead. It's not, it's not hard, instead of skill, it's they're together. Peter Drucker, the late management and leadership thinker, who I actually believe was the best thinker on this topic of the last 2000 years. He said the quality of character doesn't make the leader, but the absence flaws the entire process. So you got to have it, but you also have to skills.
Speaker 1:And again, I've challenged people. I said think about somebody you know with a great heart who couldn't lead themselves out of a room. Well, you're not gonna follow them either. And it's not a question of the heart. And so I think there are a large number of leaders that actually just have skill gaps. Now, if your heart's not right, you may not be willing to own those gaps, or your ego or your pride stands in the way. You don't, you don't, you're not willing to learn and grow. So there are, there are roots of the problem often in the heart, but sometimes leaders just don't know how to lead, and so we are. I've been trying to help with both because, as you said, the skills are clearly learnable and you can change your heart over time.
Speaker 2:Well, you touched on it. I think it's a choice. I think leaders have to choose to change the way they lead to be uncommon. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not gonna drift there. You're not gonna drift there.
Speaker 2:That's right, so it brings right to the essence of your book, right? So we know about the research that you've done about the barriers. And while I don't want we won't have time to go through every one of your five fundamentals, tell me how you came up with the five fundamentals. Tell me what they were, kind of at a very high level. Yeah, I would like to dive into a couple of them that I found very compelling.
Speaker 1:Okay, so 25 years ago we did qualitative work and a lot of desk research that that fantastic team I mentioned to you earlier. We read a couple hundred books on leadership, we looked at global best practices, we interviewed a lot of amazing leaders and we were able, after a couple of years of work, to distill down the fundamentals. Now what we did this time is we said let's go do some quat work, just to be sure, just to be absolutely positive. Now we felt like we had 25 years of track record. I mean that first books in 25 languages, and not because it's that good a book, it's because it's shock, full of truth, and people have found it to work, so it's kind of been validated. But we took another pass with the research and found out yes, in fact, these are the fundamentals that will help men and women excel in their leadership. So that's kind of how we got there, both qualitative and quantitative. 25 years apart, we got the same conclusions, which I felt very encouraged by. So here they are the five fundamentals. The first is to see the future.
Speaker 1:Leadership always begins with a picture of the future. If you're not pursuing something, if you're not trying to achieve something, if you're not trying to become something you're not leading. Now I don't know what you're doing. Maybe you're managing, I'm not sure but leaders are about the future and achieving something. Engage and develop others. You've got to. You've got to be able to rally people to that preferred future and, as you and your listeners probably know, engagement is a real challenge globally and in the American workforce, and I think that's an indictment on us as leaders. I think we are accountable for the engagement of our people. So we think that's. Number two reinvent continuously, which unfortunately sounds like a buzzword from the 80s, but we think it really is a powerful concept and that the best leaders understand that progress is always preceded by change. They don't see change as a burden or an obstacle or a nuisance. They understand it's at the heart of their job. Change in pursuit of the vision is what we do as leaders. We tell leaders that we'd like you to think about at least three domains how are you reinventing yourself, how are you in, are you reinventing systems and work processes, and how are you reinventing the structure to enable you to get that work done?
Speaker 1:The fourth of the fundamentals is to value results and relationships, which a lot of folks will push back on this and go whoa whoa, whoa, whoa. How do you do that? Well, it's what Jim Collins talked about in the genius of the, and when an organization says we're going to pursue two things that from time to time may be in conflict, and we're still going to pursue both, it's the perfect example that Collins uses. Is Toyota saying we're going to make low cost, high quality cars? He said, no, you can't do that. Well, they've done a pretty good job with low cost, high quality cars. When you value results and relationships, you actually maximize results. And the way you do it is you harness the tension that that pursuit creates value, results and relationships. And the fifth fundamental is to embody a leader's heart, which we've already touched on. That's how you build, follow ship.
Speaker 2:Hey listeners, I wanna take a quick moment to share something special with you. Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations. If you've been inspired by our conversation and are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me. It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team. Okay, let's get back to the show.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate that explanation. Mark those five fundamentals again, spot on. They also spell out an easy acronym serve, which makes a whole lot of sense inside the leadership world. And again, I'd love to dive into all five, but first I want folks to buy the book so they can get all of them. But there are a couple that again, when I talked about the bookmarks, there were things for me and you mentioned Toyota. So let's dive actually into that one where Toyota talked about that. Or you mentioned Toyota inside the book as well. To reinvent continuously, and you talk about there's power, excuse me, reinvent contingently. Keep peddling marginal gains both in those three areas that you talked about. Tell me a little bit about reinvent continuously what that means for you in terms of self, and what that means is processes.
Speaker 1:Well, again, it's one of those examples. I wish this phrase were not so tired speed of the leader, speed of the team, but it's still true. And a leader who's not pursuing personal and self-reinvention is not gonna have the moral authority to encourage others to do so. So the best leaders are learners. They've always been learners, and whether by choice or by nurture or temperament or I don't care how they got there, the best leaders are learners. And so it starts with self, and then the whole systems and processes. The systems, processes, beliefs and behaviors that you hold are perfectly aligned with the outcomes that you're currently receiving, and so if you wanna change the outcome, you really need to go back and examine the systems, the processes and the other things that are generating that outcome. It doesn't frustrate me as much as it used to because I think maybe I'm a little more mature, but it still gets under my skin when I talk to a leader who's got an issue and they talk about hope and I say hope is a really good thing, but it is not a strategy that's right, particularly not a strategy for improvement. Like, if you want a different outcome, what are you gonna do? And then, third and finally, too many leaders, I believe, find themselves or feel themselves a victim of a structure.
Speaker 1:Now I'll quickly acknowledge structure is something many leaders, particularly in an organizational context, do not have unilateral control.
Speaker 1:However, if the structure is impeding performance or impeding progress, I don't care what your level is, I think you at least need to raise the flag and go hey, I think we may have a structural issue here Again. I don't know all that goes into this, I'm not a psychologist and I try not to pretend that I am, but a lot of organizations just think structure is fixed. And to reference Drucker again, I don't know, this might be the only thing he ever said that I can't wholeheartedly endorse. But he said you need a new structure for every 35% growth, and my only hesitation there is for some organizations, I think it's quicker than that, and in some industries perhaps you could go longer. But the point is still well made Structure is to enable, not inhibit, and if the business grows, you're gonna have to change the structure if you wanna continue to facilitate that growth. And so I know there's a lot in there. But it is a huge, huge opportunity for a lot of leaders, I think you're spot on.
Speaker 2:Again. I think about this because the I believe, the rut that we run into today, we put a lid on our growth by allowing those structures and the go back to even we'll talk about change, continuous change to prevent us from growth and prevent us from growing at the rate that we could. And the reason is because kind of things are okay now, I mean they're just okay. I'm okay with growing 10 or 15%, but as leaders, you go back to seeing the future here a little bit, when they can see what's possible and to inspire others to change even when things are okay. That's very important. You said it. The systems and the processes are designed perfectly for the results that we achieve today. If you wanna always have those, then don't change. But if you wanna be uncommon, okay. Back to that word on common terms of greatness. You have to be willing to change, even when remaining the same doesn't feel too bad.
Speaker 1:It's just and I think I said it a moment ago. I'll say it again I think a lot of leaders have to reframe change in their own heart and mind. It is not a burden, it's not an obstacle. It is your job To change in service of and in pursuit of a mission or vision or whatever it is you're trying to do changes why we need leaders. If there was nothing that needed to change, you would not need leaders.
Speaker 2:Very easy, right. We just need managers to run processes, right. That's right as they're going through the issue. You're exactly right. I love Mark. I just love this book overall, thank you. I wanna dive in because it's been something that I've been challenged with recently from my coaching and consulting work, and that's this concept of valuing results and relationships, and you touched on this already, but I had written this down. You said there's power in the tension. Manage the tension between results and relationships. Please elaborate. I have leaders that get to be. They're focused on results and they're really heavy on those results and they're seen as this driver and people can get things done. They can forget the relationship side and vice versa. Those who say, well, I'm just a relationship guy, I can't really hold somebody accountable to get the results, you know they're just doing. Okay, tell me about that tension. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, first let me address the tension by saying I'm gonna go out on a limb. Your listeners 95% of them are gonna find this to be the hardest of the fundamentals, because I believe that about 95% of leaders have a natural bias they are either wired more toward results or more toward relationships. Now, the way I've been coaching leaders for 25 years on how to deal with this and I've coached myself. By the way, I have a bias and I might reveal that in a moment, but it's a two-step process and I love it because I'm a simple guy we sold chicken for all those decades and they're still selling chicken. But it's simple. It needs to be simple.
Speaker 1:Two steps acknowledge your bias. Quit trying to dodge it, quit trying to deny it, quit trying to explain it, quit trying to hide it. Everybody around you knows if you're more results oriented, so you gotta own your bias. And then step two is you need to compensate for that which you do not naturally do. Well, I'll often ask people do you know a leader that wears glasses? Most people do. I said do you think that man or woman is a lesser leader because they wear glasses? Well, of course not. That'd be absurd. Alright, I would even take it a step further. I would say they're pretty smart because they found something they didn't do naturally well and they have sought out appropriate lenses to correct their vision.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're more results oriented, you've got to put mechanisms and people and things in place to offset your bias. That will help you on the relationship side and vice versa, and it's that compensation that allows you to value both. I don't think you're ever going to change your natural wiring, but that's not what I think we're advocating with this fundamental. It's how do you value both? And I'll give you one tactical idea. I wish we had more time to unpack this, but it could be as simple as a leader ensuring that they have people in their inner circle whether it's on their team or their trusted advisors that have a different bias than they do. So you're looking at it as a relationship in a person.
Speaker 1:I need people around me to look at it like a results of bias leader and vice versa, and sometimes that's all the compensation you'll need Now for others. Me, I'm a results oriented guy. I need more compensation than that and I spent my whole life trying to create those mechanisms. One tactical example I've done this several times over the years. It's probably time to do it again. I put a goal in my annual plan on how many notes of encouragement and appreciation I'm going to write Now to the relationship oriented people. They freak out like that feels slimy. But to a results guy, now I can count, way and measure it and I'm going to write a whole lot more notes because it's in my development plan. So those are the kind of things that you do so that you can value both. And it is possible if the leader's willing, you can find the right prescription to allow you to value results and relationships. Oh and you'll maximize results. That's the magic of it. You don't maximize results by focusing on results. You maximize results by focusing on both.
Speaker 2:I agree I've managed attention and I think the results become exponential more than they do linear as well in terms of that improvement, and I would say that I have a natural relationship bias. Now I'm a process, though I got to have processes then to hold me accountable for what that means visual and you touch on it and I love the simple tactical saying if your relationship based and you're the leader of the organization, it would be very good for you to have someone on your team and your close center circle that was results focused, that keeps you on track Okay, because you'll have parties all day long but you'll never get the results of. That person is there and I could tell stories of my own, but I'm not going to do it on my podcast.
Speaker 2:I'll tell it to somebody else, that's how that really worked and stories that worked for me. Mark, this is going to be great. I mean, those two topics are really important. When I interview authors, one of the things that I talk about with them is the book test. Somebody's going to read your book. Somebody's going to put it up on a shelf. They're going to say it's a really good book. They're going to put it up on the shelf and they're going to look back at that shelf later on down the line, six months, nine months, a year, down the road. What do you want to be the story when they see your binding or your book that's sitting there on that shelf? Maybe that they come back to? What do you want them to remember about reading your book?
Speaker 1:I think there are two answers. If a leader has already purposed in their heart to pursue uncommon greatness, I hope they'll say that book helped. I mean it is full of tactics by design, really short on theory, really heavy on tactics. So if they've already made that decision, I hope they'll find it helpful. For the leader who has not yet decided to pursue uncommon greatness, I pray that this might be the catalyst for them to rethink what they're chasing.
Speaker 2:Marcus Sory. This book is loaded with stories and tactics. Do you have a favorite story? I know it's hard for you to kind of point it out, because everybody said, well, you want to be a favorite, but is there one that really touches you, that you love putting in there?
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's probably the last chapter in the book because thank you for acknowledging. Yes, we worked hard. I had a great research team. We found a lot of stories modern world and historical diverse lots of great stories but we got to the end of the book and we talked about as a team that we've chopped this thing up into all these pieces. It's like we need to show people what this looks like when you put it all together. And I was able to close the book with a story about Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, the guy that hired me as the 16th corporate employee. A hero and a mentor were for me for decades and it was really fun for me to look at his life through the lens of these five fundamentals. I got to tell that story and I think that was my favorite story in the whole book.
Speaker 2:Excellent. I appreciate you sharing. Mark. I know this book is going to be big for you. I really do. I know you do more than just write books as well. I just said you coached well and when I went through your bio and kind of through your website and even signed up for the extras for the book, there's this philosophy that comes out that you have grabbed onto of lead every day. What is that behind that philosophy and how you've been doing it in terms of? Tell me more about that.
Speaker 1:Well, that is the organization that I have recently co-founded, having left Chick-fil-A, and we're committed to serving leaders. We dream of a world well led, and just imagine what could happen if leaders step up in homes and schools and churches and the halls of education, and chicken restaurants and auto manufacturing plants and every. I mean what would happen if the world were well led, and so we're committed to encouraging and equipping leaders to change their world, and collectively we might just change the world.
Speaker 2:Love that, Mark? How do folks stay in touch with you and learn more about lead every day and more about your book?
Speaker 1:All right, two or three things. My cell number is 678-612-8441. My email is mark at lead every day dot com and our website is lead every day dot com. It's probably 60 or 70% finished, but we felt like we'd love to go ahead and get it out there. We think there's enough content that it might serve some leaders.
Speaker 2:Are you crazy? I'm not at my lead. I don't have millions of people that follow this thing, but you just shared your mobile number. What's?
Speaker 1:behind that Sure. Well, I can't serve people, I can't connect with.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. I've not had anybody share their mobile number right off the bat. Thank you very much for sharing that. Thank you very much for sharing with the listeners. I'll finish you up with the last question. I want to honor your time. I can't believe how fast our time has gone already. But the question I always finish up with all my first time guests as well. A little bit different for the book again. Folks get out there and get the book, listen to this podcast, share it with others who need to hear it. But I want to hear kind of that closing thing from you. Mark, I'm going to give you a billboard. You can place it anywhere you want to. You get to put a message on that billboard. And what message do you put on that billboard and why?
Speaker 1:I would. Again, I'm torn. There are any number of things that. Could you give me several billboards? No, okay, you got me one billboard, one billboard. In light of our conversation today, I might put a George Washington Carver quote on that billboard and he said when we do the common things in an uncommon way, we'll command the attention of the world. But I take it a step further. I might say when we do the common things of the world in an uncommon way, we can change the world. That's what we, that's what we need more leaders to step up, be uncommon Awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Mark, for sharing with the listeners the Uncommon Leader podcast. I wish you the best in the book and going forward as well.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been my pleasure.
Speaker 2:And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon Leader podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration we've shared. Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders. Until next time, go with, grow champions.
