How to Add Stunning Value and Be More Influential

How do you add value? You know, people are always asking this because of my high performance academy work, they're saying, okay, if I want to become the highest performer at whatever I do, you know, if I want to become the highest performer, the biggest achiever, the highest paid person at my work, how do I add more value so that I can get paid more, so that I can have more influence, so that I can make more of a difference where I'm at? You always hear it all the time, right? Add more value. Well, how. How do you add more value so you can get paid more and have more influence? Well, I've spent my entire career trying to understand that question. Because as I started doing these videos, as I started writing all of my books, as our seminars grew and grew and grew, as my sort of celebrity client network started growing and growing, growing, it was always this question is, they're always trying to go to the next level. To go to the next level, you have to learn to think differently and behave differently. And. And in order to do that, we have to put in a new foundation of how you're going to add value. So I want you to think about this. As you're listening to this and watching this, I want you to think about this very simple thing. What is it you're trying to do right now where you're trying to succeed at another level in terms of your work world or your network? If you wanted to add more value, how would you do it? Well, let me give you three simple ideas that I think will really shift how much value you're adding to anything you're doing. The first idea is this. Be more Socratic. All that means is ask better questions. If you can ask better questions in any given situation, you're going to be the person who understands things better. As you understand things better, you can make better pieces of distinction about how to add value. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're a consultant. You get brought into a major organization to work with them. Your job is to try to figure out, well, how can I add some value here? So this client loves me. Well, here's a very simple framework that I am always using when I'm thinking about asking questions. In every meeting I'm ever in, every meeting I'm ever in, I have this framework going in the back of my mind that I'm going to ask questions related to this framework so I can understand how I'm going to add value. So if you're ever in a meeting, your goal is to think of Asking those folks in that meeting, or those folks in that network, or your co workers, or the people you're leading, whatever your situation is, this framework you're trying to figure out, what are the goals, the audience, the roles, the capabilities and the measurements that everybody needs to understand in order to succeed. What do you mean by that? Well, look, any given meeting, if you're all going to leave that meeting, obviously there's a goal, right? We all came together to do something, we all did it at the meeting. Now what's the goal? If you understand the goal in advance, if you're saying, okay, what is it, guys, we're really trying to accomplish here, what is our short term goal and our long term goal, what are we really after? If you're the person who understands everybody's objectives and outcomes, then you're going to be the smartest person in the room. Because most people don't even ask anymore. They get together to do a small little task. But we've gotten trapped into a culture that's very good. Tasks and spreadsheets at the myopic level. But they have no idea how it connects to a larger purpose. And because of that, if you're the person who understands the larger objectives that people have, now you know how to add more value, even if you just clarify it with people. The second thing I always try to understand from people is the audience. Who are we trying to impact? Who are the stakeholders who are involved in this? Who are our clients? What do they desire and what do they want? Who are the co workers who are involved? What are they challenged with? To try and understand the who of any given situation is incredibly powerful. To ask simple questions like, well, if we did that, who would it affect if we took this course of action? Who wouldn't like it and why? To ask very simple questions like that about the who, the audience will increase your ability to add value, to get people thinking through it. The biggest part of adding value is helping people think differently. And that's what you're doing by asking Socratic questions based on the Socratic method, asking questions to get people to be thinking. The third part of that framework is capabilities. What are the capabilities that people can do or can't do? So you ask questions like, do we know how to do this? Do we not know how to do this? Does our team have the knowledge, the skills, the abilities, the resources to be able to go and do this? You're basically asking questions about capabilities and competencies. To be the person in the room who understands what we can do as an organization and a team and what we cannot do. The person who knows the capabilities in any given organization better than anybody else will always be the person who knows how to add more value. Because you say, oh, guess what? Tom knows how to do that, Pete knows how to do that. Oh, you know what? We can't do that because we only have this limited budget. You become the decision maker when you actually understand the real capabilities of an organization. Next is measurement. How are things going to be measured? How do we know if we have success? How do we know if we're progressing well? Hey guys, so how are we going to check back in on this? Who's going to be responsible for this? How will we know if we've done well? What does success look like for all of us? These very simple things. I know it's so simple and so basic. But if you're the person asking better quality of questions to the people that you influence, work with, lead, then you're going to be the person that everyone always wants at the meeting. You're going to be the person that everybody always wants to ask questions to. You're going to become the influencer in the group because you're helping people think of things that you wouldn't usually do. And if you're the person who everyone knows is the go to person because you're going to help them think in ways they haven't thought before, guess what? All the big ideas they have, they're going to want to come and bounce against you now. You're going to become the person who is also the one with sort of the insider knowledge of what's happening in the organization because everyone's going to bounce their big ideas off of you first because you're going to be the person who helps them think through it. If you become the person who helps people think through things, you now become an influencer. Once you're an influencer, that's your way of adding value. Second way to add more value is to be the linchpin. To be the person who's always connecting other people with other folks, right? The connector in any given network, the linchpin, as it's often called. If you're that person who has in your knowledge of everybody that you've met, you kind of have in your mind a picture of who the advisors and the experts are that you can introduce to other people. When you hear an idea that's related to that, that's an incredible way of adding value. If someone shares an idea with you and you're like, oh, you know what? Make sure you go check with Sally, because Sally knows how to do that. Or you say, oh, you know what? I know somebody who's already doing that. Let me connect with you then via email. Let me make a phone introduction between the three of you. If you're the connector in any given network, you're the person who's adding more value than anyone else. Even though you don't have to do any work, your work is just connecting people. So this is about you keeping a better memory in mind of what are people's capabilities, competencies. As I spoke about earlier, if you're the person who knows who's good at what, and you're constantly connecting them as people are trying to achieve things. See, remember, you knew people's goals, and as you know people's goals, you know other people who can help them achieve that goals, and you connect them. It's one of the greatest ways to add value you could ever do. So start studying, start learning, start knowing who's good at what in any given network. Start connecting them, and then you've added value. Third thing, so simple, so very simple. Everything that you're going to contribute from now on to any given network, any given job or career, it's so simple. I want you to think about every project that you do, and before you finish that project, ask three very simple questions. Is what I've created here or contributed here distinct? Meaning? Is it different? Is it adding value in a way that nobody else has added value in? Does it look and feel. Feel different aesthetically? Is it something that will really impress people because it's from an angle other people haven't thought of, but yet it also includes other angles people thought about? So it's different, but it also encompasses what other people have done. So it doesn't seem like it's crazy, right? The difference between doing something that's distinct and something that is crazy is what is distinct is you're doing things that are also built on a foundation of what other people wanted as well, but now you're adding just that extra amount of value, so it's different. The second question is, is this my most excellent contribution? Did you slop it together or did you do a good job? Did you take the time to prepare? Did you take the time to make it look amazing? Did you take the time to make it look professional? Did you take the time to ask a lot of people questions before you contributed it so you knew it was excellent before it hit the table, before you gave the PowerPoint, before you sent the file that other people already, that you ask, your advisors, your friends, people that you understand are informed, say, that's awesome. Before I ever contribute something, I already know it's awesome, and I know that sounds like an egoic statement, but it's not. It's because I've already checked it against people. Someone's already said, that's awesome. So I deliver it with confidence. If I have a client presentation before that presentation hits their desk, I know it's awesome. I know they're going to be impressed by it. I'm not hopeful. I already know it. Crushed because I did a diligence in advance that's being excellent at what you're doing, caring about, is this the best level I can contribute here? Have I got some feedback from other people that this is the best level. So that before you create it, before you contribute it, you've thought through things to make it excellent. When you do that, everyone knows you're adding a different level of value than anyone else. And that last question that you're going to ask, the simplest question is, is their heart in here? Did I think about this from a service mindset, A service of making difference in the world, a service of helping other people with this. Is there emotion in this thing I've contributed? I mean, part of adding value is helping people reconnect with some emotional side of their lives. I know that sounds so simple in some ways, but also philosophical that a lot of what we experience today in this world is, is just so cheap and so commoditized and so technically driven that it's our job, if we want to add a lot of value, to bring back in humanity, to bring back in the emotion, to bring back in the color, the flare, the joy, the vibrancy, the real hues of human emotion that are often missing from everything. If you bring that back into everything that you're contributing, you'll go to a level of adding value that most people will never understand. And people won't just follow you because you're the person who asks the best questions. People won't just follow you because you're the person who knows the most people. People will follow you because you're an inspirer and you're a leader, because they can see within you that you have true energy, true engagement, true human emotion with everything that you're contributing. And because of that, they know that you're somebody they want to follow. So ask that, have I really done those things? And if you'll do those things over and over and over and over, again. You'll not just add more value to your network. You'll not just build more wealth or create greater connections at your co workers or impress your bosses more or rise up in any given network. You feel alive again.