Today, we're talking about the secret to taking your contribution to the next level.
If I could show you a way how you could activate that contribution and take it to the next
level so you can really multiply the value you bring the company, and you could fast
track your career, and even maybe help take your team to the next level, all while not
burning out or waiting for permission.
Would you be interested in that?
What we're talking about here is you do not need a title to lead.
You don't need a promotion to make a bigger impact.
What you need is a framework.
And I want to share that framework with you so that you can show up every single day in
a new way.
Look, you're not just a team member, you're a potential multiplier.
What if you could help find the missing zero in your company's growth?
If you could help 10X the entire business, what would that do for you, for your business,
for your career, for your reputation?
It would be absolute game changer, wouldn't it?
Look, people don't grow businesses.
People who grow, grow businesses.
And we've been talking about this whole innovation module for the last month.
As we come to that, I want to just share with you how I actually learned this.
A few years ago, I hit a wall.
I was so busy, jam-packed, working hard, but honestly, it didn't feel like it mattered.
So one day, I just asked myself this question.
What if I could change my contribution, if I could take it to an entirely different level?
This got me thinking about, well, what are the levels of contribution?
Things like, well, you should work smarter, not harder, were not really helpful.
It gave me no sense of actual value.
I mean, it just made me feel bad, because I didn't know what that actually meant.
So I wanted a really practical roadmap to help me see where I was in my contribution.
And how could I help not just my team, but potentially other teams, unlock their 10X
potential?
What if I could 10X my contribution, the business could 10X the business itself, and
then what if I could help others do that?
And that was, for me, the big epiphany.
I discovered it's not about grinding, it's about graduating to the next level.
So there are five levels of contributions, and each one multiplies your impact more than
the last.
You know, it really does start small, but the payoff is exponential.
When I understood this framework, the results quickly changed.
I found my contribution getting more substantial each time I went to the next level.
Not because I did more, though, but because I became more, because I upgraded the way
I saw myself.
And so we're going to get into a little of these, why this is such a great framework.
Maybe you're listening to this and thinking, I don't know if this framework is right for
me.
Look, this is not about personality, this is about principle.
It's not personality-based, it's principle-based.
Or maybe you're thinking, I'm not really leadership material.
You know, you don't become a leader first, you act like one first.
And that's what we've been learning as we've been becoming a team of leaders as we go through
this process together.
Or perhaps you're thinking, look, my company doesn't really empower this kind of growth.
And honestly, you don't need permission to lead.
You just need clarity and boldness.
So let's get into that a little bit.
So I want to share with you three secrets that really helped me understand how this
entire upgrading of contribution works.
And the first was to share the concept of the contribution ladder.
There is a contribution ladder.
So we go from just being an employee to becoming a leader that can 10x the team or 10x their
contribution without waiting for a promotion.
You know, my own story is when I first mapped out these five levels, I realized I'd been
stuck at level one way too long.
It wasn't that I was bad at my job or bad as a leader, it's just that I was underusing
this framework.
So I figured out that through study and looking at what the best leaders were doing, and then
trying some of this for myself and for my team, there was a lot of trial, a lot of experimentation,
and then came the breakthrough.
You know, leaders like Grant Cardone and Dan Sullivan really helped me accelerate my learning
in this.
So here are the five levels.
levels of the framework of five levels of contribution that help me clarify what I was
doing and get me off just level one.
So level one is what I call the essentialist.
This is where you know your one line job description, you know the box you own, you know you're
managing your inputs, you're managing your outputs, which what we've been discussing
for a good portion of this entire training.
And that's great because an essentialist means you're really focusing down on that
one thing that you do that moves the needle.
And this being an essentialist, being focused and putting your best time into that is a
serious contribution by itself.
But level two is where you become the effortless high performer.
This is where you start to master your buckets.
Remember we talked about having ten buckets a week.
We've talked about deep work.
So when you start to master buckets and you start to have at least one deep work session
a week, you're starting to upgrade your contribution because now you're thinking not just working
in the business, but you're really working on the business.
You're not just working in your job, you're working on your job.
You're working on your contribution.
So that's level two, effortless high performer.
Level three, which is what this month has all been about, is becoming an innovator.
So that means you start to thin slice everything.
You're bringing new ideas, new solutions and you know how to quickly put a thin slice together.
And that ability to do thin slicing quickly means you're rapidly innovating, rapidly iterating.
Level four is when you become a scaler.
This is when you start to adopt a 10x mindset.
This is where you truly start to become exceptional.
And level five is when you become a team multiplier.
This is where you become the leader that raises everyone else's levels and the whole process
again starts.
So it's like essentialist, level one, effortless high performer, two, innovator is three, scaler
is four and a team multiplier is five.
You know, our team used this model and they really went from being good to being exceptional
in 18 months without hiring anyone new.
In fact, we actually lost a few people.
What was the shift?
What created this change?
Our team started to think and act like high contributors and started to identify which
level they were at.
Just that awareness of what level I'm at is what starts to shift everything.
So that leads us to secret number two, which is the internal shift that happens in you.
We could call that secret the identity upgrade.
So this is when you step into a high level of contribution, you have to change the way
you see yourself.
If you see yourself just as a good worker or a good team member, that's not good enough.
You have to start to see yourself as a leader, as an innovator.
And so using this language, using these levels to describe yourself, I'm an essentialist,
level one.
I'm an effortless high performer.
I'm an innovator.
I'm a scaler.
I'm a team multiplier.
That really is what is the game changer.
You know, I used to believe that contribution meant waiting for someone else to notice.
But the turning point came when I realized I wasn't waiting for someone else to see me
correctly.
I was waiting for me to see me correctly.
You know, you don't have to be louder.
You just have to be more intentional.
You know, because contribution really isn't about the effort.
It's about the effectiveness.
It doesn't matter how much work you do.
It's did you move the needle?
What was the result?
Did you change something?
Did you manage to move the thing a step forward?
Well, it took, I worked for 10 hours, doesn't mean anything.
Whether you worked 10 hours or one hour, did you move the needle is all that matters.
How effective were you?
And so the best contributors are obsessed with just being better.
Being better than they were yesterday.
Being making the product better than it was in the previous version.
You see this with Apple.
Apple will announce, you know, here's the new iPhone.
And they will say things like, this is the best iPhone we've ever created.
They don't compare themselves to others.
They compare themselves to themselves.
That is a sign of great contributors.
You know, I saw a quiet team member become one of the most valuable players on the team
just by switching how she.
approach problems in communication.
She was not trying to be impressive.
She was trying to be effective.
She was trying to be impactful.
And these are the kind of changes
when we change how we see ourselves.
And this leads me to secret number three.
You know, creating a team of leaders
isn't about waiting for somebody
to create a culture that encourages.
You know, some people say,
well, I don't belong to a company
that encourages that sort of change.
But when we start acting like an owner,
whether we're in charge or not, that is the shift.
So acting like an owner,
whether you're in charge or not, is secret number three.
And here's the strategy.
You know, most teams are stuck
because they're waiting on a title or permission.
Honestly, you know, culture is created by actions,
not memos.
You don't build, you know,
a high-performance culture by policy.
You build it by example.
So be the leader.
Be that person.
Be that person who takes initiative, act like an owner.
You know, I once coached a startup team
where everyone had a voice,
but no one took any ownership.
It was like, oh, we were just all equal.
We all just sit around the table,
everybody has something to say,
but it never went anywhere.
But when we applied the levels of contribution
and this kind of 10X mindset, ownership exploded.
And the startup didn't just grow.
It doubled in 90 days.
Look, I know that's a bit of an exceptional situation,
but it does demonstrate that when we take ownership
and don't wait for permission or a title,
we just get on with it.
The titles and permission will follow your action.
At some point, you know,
the people who run the business will see
that you're doing and already are running
and taking full response.
You're already doing the job.
Let's just give them the title.
And so here's a quick strategy.
Simple ways in which you can really elevate
your whole team's contribution.
So here's four practical things you can do.
One, do a weekly level check.
Maybe each person can share, you know, once a week,
which level are you think you're working at this week?
Number two, ask one bold question.
You know, maybe at least once a week,
we should all be asking the question,
what is the 10X version of this?
If we added a zero to this number,
what would that look like?
Now, what would we have to do to make that a reality?
Number three, let's celebrate innovation,
not just completion.
Oh, you finished the project, great.
Let's really celebrate new thinking
and really value creation and creativity.
And number four, encourage ownership language.
Let's replace, you know, they should with, I can do this.
And I think that sense of ownership,
well, you know, they didn't say, or nobody told me,
or, you know, I'm waiting for,
let's replace all that sort of low level
contribution language with, I could do this,
here's the contribution, here's my suggestion.
Now, there was a small marketing team that I worked with,
and they used just two of these changes.
And six months later,
they'd literally doubled their output.
The morale was like super high.
A lot of people with shiny eyes in the team.
And, you know, they were used to just functioning
as certainly when they jumped to this next level,
they didn't even add new people.
There was no new budget.
They just learned new habits.
They learned to understand this framework,
this contribution framework.
So here's my call to action for you.
Take this simple contribution assessment.
Ask yourself these three questions.
Number one, when it comes to the contribution ladder,
which level am I at?
And this means a little bit of soberness.
You may want to chat to, you know,
people you work with and get more input.
But at least start with, okay, I'm here.
For some people, they haven't even hit level one.
They're not even essentialists.
They just do everything.
They're not really concentrating
on the essential contribution they make to the business.
Okay, question number two is the identity upgrade.
How do I need to change how I see myself
so that I can go to the next level?
So take the title of that level that you want to go to
and say, make that an I statement.
I am an effortless high performer.
You know, I am an innovator.
Just take identity.
We know from neuroscience that the first step
in changing your performance is to change your identity.
Right, don't say I want to become a runner.
Say I am a runner.
What do runners do?
They run.
I am an innovator.
What do innovators do?
do? They innovate. So, take on that new identity. Number three, creating a team of
They run.
leaders. If I were truly acting like an owner, what would I do differently? That's
a great question. If I were truly acting like an owner, what would I do
differently? Here's a couple of red flags. Do you use language like, you know, they
should... if it's the they should do this and they should do that or they
didn't tell me rather than I should. So, when we move from they to I, that's one
of the real signs we're stepping in and acting like an owner. Look, you get to
lead where you are. Don't wait for permission or a promotion. Just start now.
I hope you enjoyed that.