John Maxwell's #6 Law of Leadership: The Law of Solid Ground

📥 ⁠CLICK HERE⁠ to Download the free Leadership Workbook and submit your question for our Q&A with John and me. If people don't trust you, they may listen for a season. But they will never fully follow who you are. Law #6 of John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is the Law of Solid Ground, and the principle is this: trust is the foundation of leadership. Everything else stands on it. Without it, every decision gets questioned, every motive gets doubted, and every relationship becomes fragile. In this episode, John teaches this law with one of the most memorable frameworks in the entire series — a simple illustration that will change how you think about every decision you make as a leader and every interaction you have with the people around you. He also shares the story of a Wall Street Journal interview that stopped a reporter cold, and the answer he gave is one I think about constantly. I open this episode with something that connects directly to John's teaching: why the promises you make to yourself are the foundation of everything else, and why the person you are in private is ultimately the leader people experience in public. Here's what you'll gain from this episode: Change in Your Pocket: John's framework for understanding exactly how trust is built and lost, and the question every leader needs to ask themselves before their next meeting. There Is No Such Thing as Business Ethics: The story John told the Wall Street Journal and what it reveals about the only standard that actually holds up under pressure. Character Plus Competence: Why having great character but low competence still fails your team, and why one can never substitute for the other. The Integrity Test: John's single question that tells you immediately whether your leadership is getting stronger or weaker over time. Trust Is Built in Small Moments: Why the private decisions you make when no one is watching are the ones that determine whether people fully follow you or just show up. 🗓️ 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

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00John Maxwell?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 AM to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 PM. And my third day, 6:00 PM to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45John Maxwell?

  Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff, borrow better.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  This is the Ed Marlin Show.

• 1:13John Maxwell?

  21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Series, Law 6, The Law of Solid Ground. If people don't trust you, they may listen to what you have to say for a season, but they'll never fully follow who you are. Trust is the foundation of leadership that everything stands on. Without it, every decision gets questioned, every motive gets doubted, and every relationship becomes fragile. Welcome back to the special leadership series on John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In this leadership series, John teaches the timeless principle, and my job is to help bring it into the real world, what it looks like in business, under pressure, and when people are counting on you. Today's principle is the law of solid ground. Leadership isn't built on talent, gifting, or charisma. It's built on trust.

• 1:57John Maxwell?

  And in my own life, I've learned that people can handle hard decisions, even difficult seasons and disappointment, if they trust the leader making the call. But once trust is fractured, even good leadership becomes harder to follow. In the power of one more, I talk about keeping the promises you make to yourself. That matters because your integrity with yourself eventually becomes your integrity with other people. When your words and actions match and they're in congruency, people feel safety around you. They know what version of you they're going to get on a regular basis, and that consistency is what earns influence over time. Trust is not built in big speeches. It's built in small moments. It's built when you tell the truth, even when it costs you. When you can give credit away. When you don't hide from hard conversations.

• 2:41John Maxwell?

  When your team sees that you're the same person privately that you are publicly. That's why this law matters so much. Leadership rises or falls on credibility. So let's hear John Maxwell teach one of the most foundational principles in leadership, the law of solid ground.

• 2:59John Maxwell?

  Law number six is the law of solid ground. And the law of solid ground says, trust is the foundation of leadership.

• 3:10John Maxwell?

  In fact, an expression I've used often that's in your workbook is this.

• 3:15John Maxwell?

  Trust is the glue that holds an organization and the leader together. It's the glue.

• 3:24John Maxwell?

  And I want to talk to you about trust, and I want to talk to you about integrity. I want to talk to you about character. And in fact, to build trust in your notes, there are two things that you must, as a leader, be able to do. You must demonstrate consistent competence. Obviously, you have to consistently be competent in the area in which you're leading. And secondly, you have to demonstrate consistent character.

• 3:52John Maxwell?

  You have to consistently be a person of integrity. And I can think of no law that probably is more important to share with you than this law. And so allow me just to talk to you about a couple of experiences I've had.

• 4:07John Maxwell?

  Recently, I was being interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, and the person that was interviewing me said, "John, I would like to talk to you about business ethics." They said, "You know, in corporate America, things are not doing, going real well, and there are a lot of leaders that have probably violated the trust factor." So they said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to do about a 30-minute interview with you on business ethics." And I know I shocked them, and I said, "Well," I said, "we don't need a 30-minute interview on business ethics because there's no such thing as business ethics." It got real quiet on the other phone. And the interviewer said, "Well, you know what I'm talking about. All this business ethics that we've had, and all the corporate side, and how that these leaders are just not really trustworthy." And they said, "I want you to talk to me about business ethics."

• 4:51John Maxwell?

  And again, I said, "Well, I'll be glad to talk to you." But I said, "There's no such thing as business ethics."

• 4:58John Maxwell?

  And then I said, "There's just ethics.

• 5:03John Maxwell?

  You either have it, or you don't." And can I tell you something? If you have ethics, guess what? It works in business. And if you don't have ethics, it doesn't work in business. If you have ethics, it works in your community. If you don't have it, it doesn't work in the community. There's no such thing as family ethics, or community ethics, or business. No, no, no, no, there's just ethics. You got it, or you don't. You're either a person of integrity, or you're not. You're either a person that has character, or you're a person that doesn't have character.

• 5:30John Maxwell?

  And then we got into an amazing, wonderful 35-minute conversation about integrity and character and ethics. Now, what I want you to understand about this law of solid ground is that it's character, and it's also competence. I don't in any way want to take away from the issue of competence. You have to consistently perform well if you're going to lead. And you have to consistently do right if you're going to lead. And you can't substitute. You can't say, "Okay, I'm a person of character. I want you to follow me because I'm true to my word. I won't tell you a lie. I'm a great person of integrity. Oh, by the way, I'm a lousy leader. I'm not competent, but follow me." Can I tell you?

• 6:13John Maxwell?

  I don't want to follow somebody that has great character and low competence. Do you? You know, the good news is you can trust them. The bad news is you trust them in bad places because they didn't lead you well. So it's not like I want you to have character without competence, but I also don't want you to have competence. In other words, be a very good leader, understand, and have leadership skills and abilities. I don't want you to be a great leader and lack character because I'm not going to be able to trust you. And one won't substitute for the other. And what we have to understand about the law of solid ground is that in the law of solid ground, we either

• 6:52John Maxwell?

  we either grow and get better in this area and increase our trust level, or we decrease it, and we become worse in it. And the best way, I think the best way to explain this, perhaps, is to illustrate it. And if you allow me, Chuck, let me illustrate with you, okay? The best way I could explain this law is

• 7:20John Maxwell?

  building trust is like having change in your pocket, okay? And so what I'm going to do is, let's say that I've just come to the company. I'm the new kid on the block. And I have a kind of a leadership position, and you want me to do well, and Chuck, you're kind of like chairman of the board, or whatever it is, okay? So anyway, what you do is you give me X amount of change, of which I am to operate. In other words, you feel I'm trustworthy. You hired me because of character. So, okay. And what you're going to do is I'm going to either, because I'm a trustworthy person when I come to the company, I'm going to either increase the change, or I'm going to decrease the change. For example, let's say I don't have very good character. I lack integrity. I'm not trustworthy. I don't always tell the truth.

• 8:04John Maxwell?

  And so let's say, you know, I've been here maybe three or four months, and you ask me about a report of which I make an excuse which you know is not true. Well, every time I do something that's not trustworthy, I give up some change out of my pocket. Do you see what I'm saying? But it's okay, because I still have change. And as long as I have change, I can still operate because there's a certain level of trust I still have. But let's say a month or two later, you find that I'm not trustworthy in another area. And perhaps I've gone over to Bridget's office, and again, she comes to you and says, "You know what? I don't think he's truthful with me in this matter." Well, every time, what happens is, every time I don't do well, I give up change.

• 8:48John Maxwell?

  But it's okay, because I still have some change. See, as long as I have change in my pocket, I can operate. Well, let's say a few more months go by,

• 8:58John Maxwell?

  and now there are other people who are beginning to talk about the fact that I'm not probably a person of my word, and they're not sure they can really trust me. And so you talk to me about it. And so now what happens is, there's a day when I do something I shouldn't have done, and I walk into your office. And what I've been doing is I've been using my change. I've been living off of goodwill. You follow me? I've been living off of the slack that you gave me. And this time, Chuck, I come into the office, and you say, "John, you know, here's another issue." And I reach, automatically what I do, I reach in my pocket. And it's interesting, instead of changing my ways, I want to live off of goodwill. And this time, when I reach in my pocket this time, and when I do it this time...

• 9:43John Maxwell?

  This is a picture of a leader in trouble.

• 9:53John Maxwell?

  I'm out of gas. I have no more change in my pocket. It's over. I'm gonna have to go to a new organization. Why? Because I have used up the change in my pocket. Now, as I can deplete it by doing things lacking character and lacking integrity, it's also true that if I do things that show character, I increase my change. I was just reading the other day, and this is huge, about a CEO that told his employees, brought together a company meeting, and he said, "Let me tell you something. If anybody in this company asks you to do anything that's wrong, here's my personal phone number. And anybody ever ask you to tell a lie, anybody ever ask you to fudge a report,

• 10:38John Maxwell?

  anybody ever ask you something that violates your integrity, he said, "You don't need to go to your supervisor." He said, "You call me immediately." I thought, "What a huge statement."

• 10:48Ed Mylett?

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• 11:32Ed Mylett?

  Go to ro.co/mylet to see if you qualify. That's R-O dot C-O slash my let to get started on Ro. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to ro.co/safety. R-O dot C-O slash safety. So when I end up by in the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating, and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place. And I'm like, "I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff." And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed, and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand-vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's all I can tell you. The stuff has lasted over time, it looks great, and I get compliments on it.

• 12:17Ed Mylett?

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• 12:53John Maxwell?

  Well, Chuck, if I'm trustworthy, and you begin to see that I am a person of my word, and that I do follow through, and I do take responsibility, what happens is you start giving me some change. And so I come back.

• 13:09John Maxwell?

  Chuck, look at that. I love this. Come here, come here. Hey Chuck, now Chuck, I've given him a five, I've given him a 20, I've given him a 50. I even gave him a hundred dollar. I mean, I gave him some bills. You got me? So when Chuck is now giving me back change, he looks through all the bills and gives me a five back.

• 13:29John Maxwell?

  I mean, Chuck, he's very stingy now. He's slowly, you know, he's all right if here's five, you know, here's five. Now, let me just stop here for a moment, because Chuck and I didn't plan this at all. We're just talking. But I want to tell you something. This is exactly the way it works. Listen very carefully.

• 13:47John Maxwell?

  In the area of character,

• 13:50John Maxwell?

  you lose it a lot quicker than you get it back. And when you start violating issues of integrity with people, and they begin to realize that you've probably manipulated them, violated them, I promise you that as you try to build that trust level back, they'll dole it out one dollar at a time. You lose it a lot quicker than you gain it. Does that make sense? Now, what's happening here in this illustration with Chuck is, if I continue to be trustworthy, Chuck will give me a little bit more change. And you're still going to the lowest dollars, aren't you? And I say, "Thank you." And by the way, every time he gives me a little bit of change, boy, I've got more change in my pocket.

• 14:36John Maxwell?

  And then we come up another time, and I do, and I'm just showing trustworthiness. I'm showing character, I'm showing integrity. I'm making right decisions. Maybe not even good for me, but good for the company. And I get a little more. And every time, "Boy, Chuck." And you know what? After a while, I start liking our meetings.

• 14:52John Maxwell?

  Because I'm liking our meetings because I'm gaining change. I had a guy one time tell me, he said, "Well, you know, I don't like my board meetings. I don't like my meetings when I get the key players together." And I said, "It's because you're losing change." Let me tell you something. If you're losing change with people, you don't like meeting with them. But if you're getting change, if you go to a meeting, you know you're gonna get some more bucks, huh? Well, you say, "This is gonna be a good meeting." See, you're either building in, you're either depositing, or you're withdrawing in this area of solid ground and trust. And so I do well, and I get a little bit more. You know, this is the fourth time you've given me something. I, three times, I had all the money to you, and it's taken, but I do well, and I keep coming back. And finally, I get that last piece now. Now, here's what I want you to see. Here's what I want you to see.

• 15:39John Maxwell?

  You know you're on

• 15:42John Maxwell?

  solid ground when you walk around your company, or you walk around your department, or your place of business, and your pockets are loaded with change. In fact, if you have to walk around with a limp, you know, why is it, why are you limping? "I'm just loaded with change."

• 16:00John Maxwell?

  That's your goal. In fact, the goal of a leader, the goal of a leader is to increase his or her change in their pocket. In fact, let me say this. Hang on, hang on. Here we go. You cannot make changes in the organization

• 16:16John Maxwell?

  unless you have change in your pocket. It takes a lot of change in your pocket to make big changes in your company. Isn't that true? But if there's a high integrity level, and there's a lot of trust level, and the law of solid ground is there, you can make a lot of huge changes. It could be very, very successful. But it takes change in your pocket to make changes in your organization. And I want you just to take a moment

• 16:44John Maxwell?

  and look at a couple of statements I have in your notes. Statements such as "A leader cannot continually break trust with people and continue to influence them."

• 16:54John Maxwell?

  Oh, the questions are huge. Questions such as "Do I have change in my pocket? Is my change increasing or decreasing? Do I pass the integrity test?" Somebody says, "What's the integrity test, John?" The integrity test is this. With integrity, the longer I lead, the better it gets.

• 17:15John Maxwell?

  Without integrity, the longer I lead, the worse it becomes.

• 17:22John Maxwell?

  That is so true.

• 17:24John Maxwell?

  The law of solid ground says trust is the foundation of leadership.

• 17:33Ed Mylett?

  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's 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 trust is the currency of leadership. When people trust you, they will go through with you every challenge, any uncertainty, and even change. If you lose trust, you lose the ground leadership stands on. When it comes to leadership, it's not safe to take shortcuts. Over time, if you make good decisions and record wins for your organization, you'll build up credibility. Trust is the foundation of leadership. For this week's rep, treat trust as your most precious asset.

• 18:16Ed Mylett?

  Character makes trust possible, and trust makes leadership possible. To build trust, make sound decisions, admit mistakes, and consistently put the well-being of your followers and the organization ahead of your self-interests. Do some self-reflection on how do your followers and peers trust you? Or how can you build integrity from others around you? This week will be key for building into next week, where we wrap up season one of this series with the law of respect.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  This is the Ed and Myron Show.

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