Why Effort Matters More Than Results - Insights with Quinn Magnuson

Quinn Magnuson, an ex-pro football player turned performance coach, joins me, Jaclyn Strominger, to discuss a game-changing perspective on leadership and success. We dive into his belief that effort should take precedence over results in our results-obsessed world. Quinn shares his journey from the football field to the boardroom and emphasizes the importance of creating a psychologically safe environment where individuals feel valued for their efforts. He illustrates how true leadership is about lifting others up and fostering a culture of growth and support. Tune in for insights that challenge the conventional wisdom surrounding performance and discover how we can all become better leaders in our own lives. Leadership is not just a title; it's a privilege earned through influence and effort. In this episode, Jaclyn Strominger welcomes Quinn Magnuson, a former professional football player turned performance coach, to discuss the profound lessons learned from the gridiron and their application in the business world. Quinn emphasizes that in a results-obsessed society, we often overlook the importance of recognizing effort over outcomes. He shares his belief that true leadership fosters a psychologically safe environment where individuals feel valued for their hard work, which in turn motivates them to strive for excellence. Through anecdotes from his football career, Quinn illustrates how a supportive coach can inspire players to give their best, and this principle translates seamlessly to the workplace. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to enhance their leadership skills and create a culture of support and recognition in their organization.

Takeaways:

1. Quinn Magnuson emphasizes that leadership is about influence, not just titles or positions.
2. Effort should be recognized and celebrated, as it's the key to continuous improvement and motivation.
3. Creating a psychologically safe environment allows individuals to feel valued and supported regardless of their performance.
4. Both high achievers and underperformers need to be nurtured differently to foster a productive workplace culture.
5. Quinn's journey from football to performance coaching highlights the importance of helping others grow and succeed.
6. The conversation stresses that results are important, but the focus should be on effort and the learning journey that comes with it.

Your network is more than contacts. It is your greatest catalyst for opportunity.

If you are ready to elevate your business, expand your relationships, and create real momentum, here is your next step:

Book a private strategy call:
Let’s map your next level of growth
Book a Strategy Call

Join the Unstoppable Success Community:
Surround yourself with high-performing leaders and real conversations
Skool Community: Unstoppable Success

 Get the Book:
Charting True North

Stay connected and visible:
Unstoppable Success Podcast
Connect with Jaclyn on LinkedIn

Transcript

Recording Started

Introducing Quinn Magnuson

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Unstoppable Success Podcast, where we spotlight visionary leaders who have mastered the art of growth, purpose, and powerful connections. I'm your host, Jacqueline Stominger, connector, high performance coach, and creator of the Leap to Your Success Framework in Two Steps TS. Each week we dive into bold insights, real conversations, and powerful strategies to fuel your growth, deepen your relationships, and ignite transformational momentum. And why? Because you were meant to be unstoppable. Now let's leap into the podcast. And you know, on this podcast we hear from amazing leaders and influential influential people, like have tongue-tied today, um, all about their insights and the things that they have done to have to have unstoppable success. And today I love to bring on and share with you Quinn Magnuson. And let me tell you a little bit about Quinn. He, well, first of all, he is an ex pro football player. I mean, so you know, like coaches, like, he knows how to be coach and all those things. But um, he has gone from gridiron to the from from the gridiron to the boardroom, and again, pro-football player, turn performance coach, and he believes that we suffer in it, we suffer in an outcome results-obsessed world, and preach that effort is the true focus we should have. Leadership is not a title, it is a privilege, and it is earned. I and he teaches people how to be leaders in all walks of life. I would like to add to that, which I would probably also say, I think leadership is something that is can can be learned and is always to be worked on. So, anyway, welcome, Quinn.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Thank you, Jacqueline. I I'm excited to be here. I know it's been a while um, you know, trying to get this together, but let's let's chop it up, let's have some great conversations today, and I hope your audience enjoys it.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Oh, I am sure they will. So, you know, I'm sure a lot of people are thinking, okay, ex pro football player, right? And obviously you you've gone into leadership, but I'm really curious the football field. Leadership is paramount in in a team sport. So I wanted you to share, like, you know, what were some of those biggest lessons that you took from the field?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I actually um wrote an article about this for LinkedIn a f a few months ago, and I spoke to how sports and business, uh, you know, and and I mean a lot of walks of life, but sports and business really, there's tons of analogies between the two and metaphors between the two. And I would say that, you know, anyone on a football team or any sports team in general can be a leader. I think we know that you and I would agree that leadership is not something that's you know just entitled to the top level. But there's two people that really hold the power when it comes to as you know having influence. And I think leadership is influence on a football team, and that's really it's the quarterback and it is the head coach. And I would say that the thing that I learned from you know 15 years of of football, and that was you know, high school, college, pro, that when you want to run through a brick wall, and I use that metaphorically, um, you know, for that for that quarterback, for that coach that you play for, that says a lot about their leadership. And it's not because you know they dragged you kicking and screaming into the huddle and they basically yelled at you to do better. It's someone that you just you don't want to disappoint them. And you've you just love the way that they lead and how they talk to you and that they don't get down on you and they actually talk about the effort you're putting in, not just the result. And I remember distinctly I was playing in Winnipeg. Um, and for your for your audience out there, professional football is sorry to say it wasn't NFL, it was CFL. So thanks you for protecting me on that one, Jacqueline. Um still, it's still professional football. It is professional, it is, and we we got paid. Um, um, I had a quarterback in Winnipeg, his name was Matt Donnegan, and he's he's a Hall of Famer. Okay, so CFL Hall of Famer. Um, he's actually on TSN, which is the ESPN equivalent in Canada. And I remember going into my first game, and I was, you know, kind of scared poopless. And I was I got in there and I was like 22 years old, and I got into the game because the guy ahead of me had gotten hurt, and I got into the huddle, and he just looked at me and he kind of grabbed me by the face mask and he goes, You're gonna do great, kid. Let's go. And I was like, Wow. I felt like I could cry.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

I know.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I felt like I could beat anybody. And then and the the sad thing was, Jacqueline, is on the first play, I missed my block. Oh, and we got back to the huddle, and I'm like, Um, he's gonna yell at me, he's gonna yell at me. I'm just I'm in deep caca. And he and he got me in the huddle, and in front of everybody, he looked at me again, grabbed my face back, he goes, forget about it. Next play. And I was like, and I was just like, I wanted to, I wanted to, like I said, run through brick walls for this guy. Like Matt Dunnegan was the greatest, one of the greatest quarterbacks that I ever played with. And I played with a lot of great quarterbacks, like played with Drew Bledsoe, who and it was a Hall of Famer with New England for years, but I played with him in college and other CFL quarterbacks. But leadership and in on the on the field and in the sports arena basically it is about creating a psychologically safe environment for your teammates, for the entire organization where people want to come to work every day and they feel good about it, they can be themselves, um, and they're being recognized more for their effort that they put in and the and the work ethic and the hard work as opposed to just results. So when I talk about effort over results, and I don't want to reveal too much right now because I'm sure you have questions, it's not I'm saying, well, effort is everything and everybody should get a participation medal. That's not what I'm trying to say. Results still matter, but it's the recognition of effort that gives people the let's call it the battery energy, the juice to want to try to continue to recreate that. Because as we all know, we can't affect results. We can't control the result. We can only control our attitude and our effort. So when you tell your child, when you tell your athlete, when you tell your student in a classroom, when you tell your employee um, you know, that you you really appreciate their effort, they will go to lengths to try and prove that and to mimic that and to recreate that again because they can control that. And so on the sports field, that's where I learned my greatest lessons was definitely that that that first you know relationship building with my coaches, with my you know, quarterbacks, with my teammates. It's about propping each other up and making each other feel better because you make a ton of mistakes. And as an offensive lineman in football, if you make one mistake, it could be the end of a quarterback's knee. It could be the end, you know, a play that goes for seven-yard loss. It's about going on to the next play, forgetting about it and appreciating what everybody's doing around you.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, you know, I love I I love what you're, you know, talking about the effort and and what you were able to see, you know, on the field. And and I'll share, you know, one of the things that I see happening, particularly right now, like in um high school basketball, because my son plays or just finished his senior year playing basketball, so he's off on to golf season soon. Um but one of the things that you would you would see is you know, a kid putting in a lot of effort and he misses a couple of shots. And then and then the coach pulls him because he missed a couple shots. Well, he's I would say, why are you pulling him? He's got he because he, you know, he missed two, but you know, we always say you you know, you miss every shot you don't take. Right? So, you know, if the effort's there and you know, whatever. So maybe the guy was blocking him away, I don't know, whatever it is, right? But what are you rewarding?

unknown 8:41

Right?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Yeah, you know, you know what? There's a fine line, I think, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

You know, there is, there is, and and I mean we have to look at the big picture there. So how I would I would sort of process that situation if it was my son, okay, and puts in tons of effort, but you know, was just shooting cold that night, just not hitting the hitting the rim, hitting the basket, and it's having a struggle. It's I'm okay with the coach pulling a player because of that, if they if it looks like that they've just gone cold. It's like pulling a goalie in hockey. If they they're let in five goals on six shots, it's like, okay, something's just not right, they're having a rough night, but it's how you act when they come off to the bench and what you say to them in that moment is what can either kill their spirit or bring their spirit up. So as a coach, if I had, you know, let's say I pulled your son off and he'd missed a few shots, I might just say, hey, take a rest. Missed a couple shots, don't worry about it. We'll get you back in the game, okay? Just a little bit cold right now, all right? No big deal. Just make him, don't make him feel bad that he missed shots. Like as he's walking off, don't say, you know what, you can't hit anything tonight, just go sit on the bench. It's it's all in the messaging. And this is what I preach to my, you know, the organizations that I work with. It's like, nope, you can you can tell someone that they're not performing well, but give the reasons behind it and give them a chance to fix it. And so what we see in sports a lot is uh, you know, a receiver that drops three balls you know during the course of a quarter or a half. And the coach actually said, or the quarterback will often go, hey coach, let's throw to that guy again. Let's give him a chance to recover his confidence, right? And you'll do that, you'll go right back to the same guy who just dropped three balls because you don't want him spiraling downward uh mentally and and just for the rest of the game. So you go, you know what, we're coming back to you. And that's it's like you said, there's a fine line, right?

The Journey of Leadership and Performance Coaching

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Right, there's a fine line to that. So so I'm curious, you know, you're on the football field and you decide to obviously stop playing. What made you go and go into performance coaching and and leadership?

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Well, I would say that there is uh there is a uh several years between when I finished playing football, which would have been 1997, as I as I tell my kids in the 1900s, I quit playing football. Um and I started uh coaching businesses and on leadership and performance in 2010. Okay, so that's a that's a gap. That's a 13-year gap. But after I finished football, I actually went back to school because the first time around I didn't get my degree. So I went back to school and I got my teaching degree, and I actually was a was a high school teacher for five years.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

And I'm gonna I'm gonna keep this short because there's a there's a there's a line that goes through all of this. Um, and then I decided that you know what, I love working with kids and I love teaching and educating kids. I just don't like doing it in a classroom setting. So my wife and I actually became business owners, and all the employees that we hired for this particular business we owned were between the ages of you know 16 and 25, so young, entry-level type kids. Then we sold the company, and that's when I started working for an advisory group, you know, up here in Canada, which is where I started doing my business advising and coaching and performance coaching. What I noticed, Jaclyn, from you know, even when I was in high school, but but that that entire timeline, everything has one common thread, and it was I love helping people get better. Okay. So even when I was, you know, playing football, I was always one that's gonna help the other players get better. We're gonna watch film together. When I owned my company, I wanted these kids to be hired and I want them to leave better than when I found them and to go on to bigger and better jobs. Um, when I was a teacher, I wanted all my my students and my athletes at the school that I worked with to leave better than when I found them. And then business coaching for the last 15 years and now a full-time you know performance coach. Because even in even my book that just came out, it talks about how we can be a leader in every single walk of our life. Whether you're a parent, whether you're a coach, a teacher, aunt or uncle, grandpa, grandma, uh business owner, it doesn't matter. If you're if you are concerned with helping others get better, especially young people, then you can be a leader and you should be a leader. And this is the message that I'm trying to bring is that we don't grow more resilient and confident, kids certainly don't, by having results-based messaging shouted at them. They grow by learning from mistakes, they grow by being able to be themselves, they grow by not being shown everything how to do it. It's like when, you know, when you're working on the car with your dad and you go to, you know, turn something or wrench or a screwdriver and he goes, Ah, you're doing it wrong. Give me that, I'll do it, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

That's not helping.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Right. That's not teaching.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

That's not teaching. You're not coaching, they're not learning. And and it, Jacqueline, it took me 50 years to figure all of this out because the effort over results philosophy that now I've written a book about and it's the name of my coaching service. It was like my kids finally taught me this lesson. And I was like, you know what? I kind of not that I was a bad father, it's just that when I raised my kids and I coached my kids too, it was too much results-based messaging. So here's an example. Um, if people are confused by what I mean by that. My son would, um, actually, my daughter. My daughter was born talented right out of the womb. So she would finish a swim meet and she would have won all of her races and she broke a provincial record. And I would acknowledge that. I'd be like, you broke a provincial, you won all your races. Holy crap, right? Or she got 98% on a test. Or like she was just good at everything she did. She didn't even really have to try. She was so talented. And so I kept saying that, you're so talented, you're so athletic, you're so smart, you're so, you know, beautiful. When you tell kids that at a young age, and this is a Gen X Gen Z problem, because we were told as parents, Gen X parents, tell your kids how great they are, even if they aren't. And I told her this. And I just go, and she got in her mind, I'm I'm I'm awesome. I need to be awesome all the time. And if I'm not awesome all the time, I'm a failure. That's what you're telling kids. That's what you're telling people when you constantly remark the result that happened. But when you tell your children, students, athletes, whoever, when you say, I saw the work you put in practice this week, that's why you had a good game. Right. Their brain says, I can control that effort thing. I'm gonna keep doing that because maybe I'll have more good games. But even if they don't, you still want to reward the effort because they'll continue to try to recreate that. But when you tell them you're so smart, athletic, talented, they have this vision of themselves that is their self-worth is based on success alone, not the journey.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

You know, it's so true. There's so many things that that we tie to I'm just gonna call it the number, right? Like the number of baskets, the the scoreboard, the you know, the bank account, the the speaking engagements, the whatever. Like and people, it it's true. It it's show the effort and and and and but not to give everybody a trophy, because not everybody gets the trophy. Just because you showed up doesn't mean you put in the effort. Right. There's a huge difference. And you and and I always I always feel that that is one of the biggest things that we need to have that unstoppable success. If you are putting in the effort, there's also that tipping point of where you know you keep putting in the effort, you keep putting in the effort, and then all of a sudden the more of the results will start to come, right? There's that you'll tip over and like it's gonna be oh, you'll see the benefit of all the time.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

We don't know when that's gonna happen. We don't know when that's gonna happen. That's the thing. You can you can put in effort for six days, you can put in effort for six years and and and see result, you know, in those time periods. We don't know when that's gonna happen. All you can do is just do it. And so I I love the screen that was on when I was in the waiting room before the show. It was basically just small, consistent efforts every single day is what makes us successful. Yeah, because once again, you can't control the outcome. If I'm 350 pounds and I want to get to down to 250, and I'm just constantly just looking at the scale, it just beats you down. But what about the 14 days of you know one one mile walking you did? What about the fact you did lose 20 pounds, but maybe not not the hundred you wanted? Those are all celebrated successes, right? But but and I find this in society, and I hate to say this to your American listeners, but I mean, American society is based on a scoreboard. It is literally it like you were born out of conflict. This country, your nation was born out of conflict, and it's like, you know, we're the back-to-back world war champs, right? You know, stuff like that. And and that's great, and that's fine. And I love celebrating, I love winning. I love trophies, I love championships. But when that's the only thing that you're messaging is like it's win at all costs, or you know, you either win or lose, or as Bobby, who's it? Ricky Bobby would say, you either win or you're a loser, like second place is the first loser. Man, it just this is why this is why people in business situations get burnt out. Because they work their tails off, but maybe they didn't get that contract signed, maybe they didn't hit their target for the quarter, maybe they didn't hit budget, and their manager says, Well, you didn't hit budget. Gee, thanks, Mr. Obvious. Like, I know I didn't hit budget. I'm already beating myself down for that. I don't need to hear that. But if you say, you know what, all the effort you're putting in, it's it's market conditions, it's a bad economy right now, just keep doing what you're doing, just takes the pressure off, makes them want to work harder. And this applies to everything.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

You know, it's I I love that you just said that because you know, one of the things that that I feel like that we talk a lot about on this show is we talk a lot about, you know, the those values that are aligned in alignment, right? So in leadership, you know, that value of being able to like to, you know, to me, like one of the biggest values is is that um support. It's not the right word that I'm thinking of right now, but like to really, you know, lift people up and not to, you know, to be that cheerleader to say, hey, guess what? Right? Like, you know, one of those values, it's if you're working with a comp with somebody who doesn't value cheerleading the others, that's not gonna be the right place for you. But it's so important for us to promote the effort and to remind people that those small steps, it compounds. So the weight that you want to lose, right? Right, atomic habits, the compound effect. You name you name the book, right? It's it's been written about it, right? You know, do those little things. But the other key part is in doing those little things, it's the long game, right? You know, um, it's I mean, unless you're selling, unless you're selling gasoline, burgers, fries, right? You know, you're you're out there and your business is the long game. You're building relationships. I love calling it relationship capital. You're building that relationship. And the person that you, whatever you're doing today, two years down the line, right? They might, you know, that that they might pick up the phone and call you. They might change their mind because they're seeing something that you're doing. I mean, there's so many things that can happen in those small little things that we do daily.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

That is the hardest thing to get business owners to change their mind on. Because, and I get it, I understand, as a business owner, founder, CEO, whatever you want to call it, they are being measured by results. Okay. Or even if you're your your own business owner, you own your own business, you are measuring yourself daily by how much revenue do we do today, how much we do this month, what is the KPIs on that? We know what's our our margins. And it's like, I get it, because that's your livelihood, it's putting food on the table for your family. But that's the hardest thing that I I come up against when I'm working with business owners because most business, and this is a generational thing. So most business owners that that I work with are Gen X. So these are people born between 65 and 81, and and some boomers are still left over, the ones that are long in the tooth, still kicking around. Some boomers and some gen and lots of Gen X owners. Well, we uh because I'm Gen X, we grew up in a in a culture of results only. Yeah, everything was results, results, results. And and that's just how I grew up. I knew it, and everybody knew it, and it and it wasn't bad. It was like get results. It's it's the millennials that finally started to question it and they wanted more world work life balance because of it. And now the Gen Z are basically going. Too bad, I'm walking. See ya. Because I don't want to be part of your results obsessed culture here. I want to know how do I fit in? What role do I play? What's my purpose? Because I will give you my energy, but where are my energies going?

unknown 22:13

Yeah.

The Changing Landscape of Workplace Culture

SPEAKER_00 22:14

And that's the difference. And this is the like I said, when I work with younger business owners and like millennials and then the occasional Gen Z, young, really young ones, they all have a totally different mindset. They still want results, but they understand how important culture is, how important relationships are, how important it is to grow your people. Because right now, we're living in a society where getting finding a new job is very tough, or you can't find good people. Well, that why not keep the people you have? And and how you do that and the the culture that you build is what keeps them. People aren't going down the street for an extra buck an hour. They're going, they're leaving your company because they don't like you and they don't like your culture. That's what Gen Z is doing. They're they're using their feet to basically send a message to these business owners saying, listen, I I don't feel psychologically safe here. And I'm not trying to turn this into some you know left woke stuff. That's not what psychologically safe means. Psychologically safe just means I can be myself, I'm I'm recognized and rewarded for the effort that I put in, and you're trying to coach and teach and grow me so that I can do that for others that come behind me. Right. But business owners struggle with that.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

You know, it's interesting that you say that business owners struggle with that. Because I think the long game, yeah. Right? It's the long game, right? But the other thing too is, and I think this has been around for eons, is you know, it doesn't to me doesn't really well, maybe not the boomers because they just stayed in the jobs because they just stayed and and they, you know, they worked for got their first job out of school, and they or a lot of times they stayed at the company for 25 years and 30 years or whatever. Doesn't know.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

It's all about stability. Yeah, stability, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

They wanted that. They yeah, they wanted the stability. That was like that that that mindset then. But somewhere along the way, uh it always has to me, it has always been people don't leave companies because of the money. They leave companies because of how the companies make them feel. They will say it's the money, but it's never the money. Like in the end, it's usually never the money because you know, and and I've said this before, you know, you know, and and I think statistically speaking, the human resources, you know, um group could probably, you know, back me up with some statistics. But if you take the counteroff, or if you say I'm leaving Company X, and you you know, you say to your boss, I'm leaving Company X, I'm leaving blah, blah, blah, whatever. I got another job at Company Y. And your boss says, Okay, well, we're well, what are they offering you? And they're gonna say, Oh, they throw me$20,000 more, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, Okay, well, we're gonna offer you 35. And if you take it, what's gonna end up happening? Six months later, you're still gonna leave. Because you were not happy.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

And, you know, shame on that company for then saying, Well, we'll give you 35. Well, you should have given them the 35 in the first place.

unknown 25:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Right?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Like so, so basically you were undervaluing me right from the start.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Right, right. So, yeah, so go to go take a hike.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. People like I mean, it's you see it all over Instagram on business accounts, like and and coaching accounts. Like, basically, it's people don't leave bad companies, they beat lab beat or sorry, they leave bad leadership. Right. And and this, but I'm giving a I'm giving a keynote speech um on Wednesday this week, and it it basically I'm going to try to get the CEOs that are in the room, because they're all over 10 million in revenue, to see the correlation between as a business owner, trying to grow your people through that effort recognition, that growth mindset through psychological safety. But I always try to get them to first go. I I asked them, are you a parent? Like, do you have children? Almost everybody in the room does, right? How many of you have coached a sports team, your kids' sports team? 60 to 70 percent have. How many of you have ever had to teach somebody something? Yeah, a few, okay. It's all the same. You should treat your employees the way you treat your children, your students, your athletes. They should all be treated the same way. You're trying to grow them, get them better, so that the culture of the team becomes a place that people want to work at or play for or be part of. And and so I try to, it's not dumbing it down, Jaclyn. It's it's basically simplifying it for them because we need to stop thinking like it's 1968 again, where it business is separate from social life, business is separate from family life, business is separate from everything. It's not anymore at all. And I use Maslow's hierarchy of physiological needs to talk about this because at the bottom it's just your basic food, water, shelter, you know, clothing. Well, there's a business Maslow's hierarchy as well, which is basically just are you giving them a fair wage? Do they have a safe working environment and so forth? And every level on that hierarchy and the pyramid going to the top, you can see where in the early 1900s, business owners, oh, we have to pay them more. Oh, we have to give them only eight hours a day instead of 20 hours a day, right? And then in the 90s, it was like, oh, barbecue Fridays, okay, we're creating culture. Well, the new Maslow's hierarchy, the self-actualization at the top, is effort recognition, is growth mindset in the workplace, is physiological safety and psychological safety. Right. And business owners need to start grasping that. And the the millennial owners are coming on to it, the Gen Zs will, but the boomers and the Gen Xs are fighting it tooth and nail.

Effort Over Results: A New Approach to Business Success

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Right. I love that. So, listeners, I think this is actually, I I want to just share, this is so important to understand, both, you know, whether you yourself are growing a business or you're within a business and you're a leader, or maybe you're a solopreneur. Think about those efforts. I mean, seriously, listen to Quinn. I mean, you know, it is your effort that you're putting in. Yes, you want to see results. If you're not getting the results you need, maybe you need to change the effort, but don't stop the effort, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Let me let me let me clarify this. This will help. Um, because I I'm gonna play my own devil's advocate. The two questions that I get one is so uh basically any effort counts as as you know, I should recognize any effort, you know, the once again, participation metal idea, that whole concept. I'm like, no, not at all. Effort still needs to be intentional, right? So here's a here's a very simple example. If you are overweight and you're trying to lose weight, don't go and lift weights more. You need more cardio, right? There's a way to lose weight that works, so it's intentional, the effort, so that you can get the results. Same thing in business. If you have a salesperson and they think the best idea to get new clients is to only just email them, well, it's been proven that reaching out to people verbally through a phone or or meeting with them for coffee, lunch, or whatever is better. So the intentional effort there needs to be more directed towards that. So we're not saying that if you have an employee that is putting in effort every day and it looks like they're just sweating bullets every day and putting the, you know, working hard looks good. Are they producing? No. Okay. We need to now decide is the effort they're putting in intentional and purposeful towards what they're trying to accomplish. So I want to clarify that because people go, Well, I've got people who bust their tails and they still don't produce. Well, let's take how a chat, let's have a chat with them about what are the inputs that we need to get outcomes. The second one is what about those people who can get results without trying? And I go back to my daughter, who was that one of those kids who was just naturally gifted at everything. And they go, Well, what if what if we have an employee that you know hits their budget all the time and basically barely barely works at all? I said, Well, how would you handle that? Number one, I asked them how they would handle that. And they go, Well, I really don't care. The person's hitting their targets, they're killing it. Yeah, but I'll tell you what, they're gonna get bored quick and they're gonna go to another company because you're not you're not making them feel fulfilled and growing them. If they're just if all they're there is just to to kill the scoreboard, they will leave. I said, Why don't you ask them to teach the others? Why don't you say, you know, how do you how do you just kill your results every month? What is it that you do? Ask them. And if they say, Well, I don't really do a whole lot, but I do do this, can you teach that to the others? Because obviously it's working. And you get them to buy in now to being a leader to the others. So I I I hate when when I'm you know speaking to an audience and someone goes, Well, this is just participation medals, or you know, what do you tell that person who just kills it all the time and they don't have to really try hard at all? There's ways around that. There's ways to grow them.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Right. And but it but one thing that I think is really important that you just said, you know, that's underlying in in that is communication.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Right? The communication is so important. Ask them, you know, so because somebody who's killing it, yay, we whether somebody is killing it or they're not killing it, both people need to be supported and feel like they're part of the team and that they're contributing and they're also that they feel that the that the leadership is helping them grow.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Or maybe they need to be challenged more. I uh here's another great example, and and once again, I'm I'm I'm using cross-referencing in the classroom. Uh you have four or five students that are all just A students, they're gonna get nineties. No matter what they do, they're getting nineties. They don't have to work very hard at it, they're just smart and they just get it, right? And I basically just go, okay, well, I still should spend time with them, or maybe I should challenge them even more. I would let them just, you know, define their own um project they're gonna do. Okay, you tell me how are you gonna meet curriculum objectives? Do your own project, and they'll they'll eat that stuff up, right? Because even the high achievers, the ones that can show up and just succeed, want more. I call them lions. They're lions. Feed your lions, keep feeding your lions, right? And the ones that are struggling, okay, you need to spend more time with them, but then you need to understand why they're 50% students. Probably a backstory there, and maybe life's not good at home, what have you, whatever. But that goes for your employees too. If you have an employee that's underachieving or falling asleep at work or showing up late or whatever, well, I would say it's your job to find out why, right? And try to support them and help them in that area because you're probably gonna end up firing them if you don't. So why not at least give them an opportunity? Because there's generally a story there. But challenge your overachievers and nurture and coach your underachievers and try to make them work together.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

I love that. I absolutely love that. Uh Gwen, I can talk to you for hours on this subject because it is so important. But um, how can my listeners connect with you and get more of all that um your teaching and sharing, you know, effort over results? It's so great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

So um very, very simple.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Um, my website is effort over results, all one word, effortoverresults.com. Um, my my first new first book just came out, Effort Over Results. Yeah, just came out this week, and you can find that at book.effortoverresults.com. You can also just go to the main website. Um, I'm on LinkedIn, just look for Quinn Magnuson, but I would say basically just go to the website. We also have a podcast, the Effort Over Results Podcast, that is on YouTube. So you can go find it there as well as Apple and Spotify. But literally, if you just search Effort Over Results on any major platform, you're gonna find us there. And I love talking about this stuff. So very, very happy to be here today. Thank you very much, Jacqueline, and I hope to hear from some of your audience.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Oh God, I hope everybody, guys, seriously, reach out to Quinn and please do me the favor. Um, two things. Number one is we actually have a brand new uh community on school called school, the S-K-O-O-L, Unstoppable Success. So please, listeners, jump over to school and jump into Unstoppable Success. Um, we are offering tips, trainings, some courses. There's some free, there's gonna be some paid, but get in now while it's free uh and you'll love it. Uh and then do me the next favor, please, and hit subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. And please make sure that you share this with a friend, business colleague, or somebody else that you think might be able to get some nuggets from this great message. So thank you again for listening. Again, thank you, Quinn, for being a great guest. I'm your host, Jacqueline Stomager, and this is the Unstoppable Success Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me on the Unstoppable Success Podcast, where we don't just talk about growth, we leap toward it. If something today lit a fire within you, sparked a new idea, or gave you the extra push forward, please don't keep it to yourself. Share this episode and podcast with a friend, colleague, or fellow high achiever. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review, and most importantly, connect with me, Jacqueline Schombinger, at leaptoyoursuccess.com. For coaching, community, and your next old move. Keep leading with intention, keep building your network with purpose, and most of all, keep leaping because you are meant to be unstoppable.