091: Mark Sanborn - What’s Your True Potential?
We all want to reach our potential yet nobody really knows what that really is. So, how can we recognize and keep hitting new levels of our potential? Well, today’s guest has all the answers.
Mark Sanborn is the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea lab for leadership development and turning ordinary into extraordinary. He is also the author of The Fred Factor and his most recent book, The Potential Principle, which is what we’ll be talking about on today’s episode!
Mark got into competitive public speaking when he was ten years old and later in life, he went on and founded Sanborn & Associates. He wanted to help leaders communicate better and turn them from ordinary to extraordinary.
Mark wrote The Potential Principle after working 30+ years with leaders. Mark realized that his clients were already really, really good at what they do. However, it dawned on him that in order for them to continue being the best at what they do, they had to continue to get better and improve themselves — but how could they do that if they were already the top leaders in their industry? They have no one else to emulate. They’re on the frontlines and they’re making things up as they go.
The more you learn about any particular skill or industry, the more you realize you have to learn. There’s nothing wrong with arriving at your destination in your industry but the real problem is when you stop growing and stop challenging yourself to reach a new level of potential.
What is the Potential Principle? Well, in a nutshell, we all know how good we’ve become, but none of us know how good we can be. The potential principle highlights this problem to help you realize and plan where your ‘next’ step is. As Mark was researching the book, he found out that 58% of professionals said they had a commitment to getting better, but only 30% had a plan. Commitment without a plan is just wishful thinking and daydreaming.
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