In his book Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, John C. Maxwell shares that connectors live what they communicate. They do so by…
- Connecting with themselves
- Righting their wrongs
- Being accountable
- Leading the way they live
- Telling the truth
- Being vulnerable
- Following the Golden Rule
- Delivering results
The one I want to focus on is delivering results. John states that he’s amazed by the number of speakers, consultants and life coaches in the market who have very little credibility because they’ve never accomplished anything themselves.
Ouch!
In fact, John goes on to say…
“They’ve studied success or leadership or communication, but they’ve never been on the front lines, building a business, leading an organization or developing a product or service. They’re selling a promise, but don’t have a track record of success. It mystifies me.” (p. 243)
This is similar to going to a bank to get small business advice, but the person who’s giving the advice has never managed a small business of their own. How can they advise me what to do if they themselves don’t have the business scars to speak from?
This lacks the connection I need to digest the credibility of their advice.
Over dinner last night, I shared with one of my bestest and most trusted friends (outside of my sisters) about a new certification program I’m launching this Spring.
She knows nothing about the industry I’m in (none of my close friends or family do), but out of complete love and loyalty, she listened to me intently.
She has a background in instructional design and gave me some amazing ideas on how to make the certification program pop. After she gave me that thoughtful advice, she asked me one question:
“Leesa, why you?”
I rattled off for about 10-minutes “Why me?” confident about my skills, passionate about my experience and challenging anyone to come up with credentials more impressive than the ones I’ve developed over the past 10-years.
Can you do the same? If you launch a program, if you speak in front of a group or if you launch a new business, have you ever stopped to ask yourself the question – “Why me?”
As John concludes in the section of his book about delivering results, he says…
“If you want to build the kind of credibility that connects with people, then deliver results before deliver a message. Get out and do what you advise others to do. Communicate from experience.”
So, why you?
