Steve Jones

Every single day, we have opportunities to change people's lives. And we don't even know it, right? By a simple comment, by an encouragement, by a deed, by an action, whatever it is. And to me, I just think when you look at leadership through that lens, it really dissolves it down to its simplest form of making a positive impact on other people's lives.

Tim Spiker

Did you know that being a leader puts you in a unique position to change people's lives? Well, it does. I'm your host, Tim Spiker, and this is the Be Worth* Following Podcast, a production of the PeopleForward Network. On this show, we talk with exceptional leaders, thinkers, and researchers about what actually drives effective leadership across the globe and over time. You just heard from Steve Jones, a former high school football coach. Wait, why are we talking to a former high school football coach? Isn't this the podcast where we talk with exceptional leaders in business? Yes, that is who we normally talk with. But sometimes we need to go outside the boundaries of business in order to learn great lessons about leadership. And that is what we are going to do today until very recently, Steve Jones was the head football coach at Kimberly High school in Kimberly Wisconsin.

During his 11 year tenure as head coach, his record was 129 wins and nine losses. Now, can Steve have your attention? Whether you're a sports fan or not, you can do the math on 129 wins and nine losses. But those impressive numbers, aren't the only ones that Steve has. At one point, his team won 70 games in a row and five consecutive state championships. When it comes to leadership, we should all be listening to Steve as you'll hear from Steve. It wasn't the Xs and Os the strategy of football. That was the primary driver of his team's success. Instead, it was the development of his student athletes as young men and as leaders. I mentioned that Steve is a former high school football coach. You see his success as a leader in secondary education. And as a high school football coach has given him a larger platform now to influence leaders and organizations.

He's a sought after speaker. He's the co-author of a book called The Twin Thieves how great leaders build great teams, which has some fascinating subject matter that Steve and I are going to talk about. And he is the co-founder of the consulting firm, Jane Jones, who has worked with well known brands, such as Verizon, Mutual of Omaha, and yes, a rather popular pro football team in Wisconsin called the Green Bay Packers with speaking one-on-one business coaching and consulting on the topic of leadership as Steve's full-time job now, more and more people are benefiting from his perspective and wisdom. And today we will as well. Steve learned early in his life that when leaders pay attention, even in small ways to those they lead, it can be the lasting impression. And that is where we begin.

Steve Jones

I'm the youngest of five. I was an oops baby. So my siblings were substantially older than me. And I also grew up with a dad who is a severe alcoholic and an abusive alcoholic. And after years and years and years of trying to get him help my mom mustered up enough courage to leave him and take on five kids. And my brothers again were quite a bit older, so they're going off to college, but it was still a lot. So we had to move neighborhood, start a new school. It was this whirlwind for me. And I remember there was one particular day early in the school year. I got to school, I unpacked my backpack and I realized, I forgot my lunch now to a 5th grader, that's a big deal, but I didn't want to say anything because my mom just got a new job.

I didn't want her to have to leave her job to come bring me my lunch. And I didn't want to say anything to my teacher because one, luckily I got a male teacher as an elementary student, like 5th grade student. That's a little rare and not only did I have a male teacher, but he was so cool. His name was Mr. Stoskopf and he was the head hockey coach at our high school. He was really successful hockey coach. He was young. He had a boat, he had a dog. In my 5th grade mind, he was it. So I didn't want to say anything to him because I was still a new kid. I didn't want him to think I was irresponsible. So I was just going to make it through the day 90 lunchtime rolled around our gymnasium was also our cafeteria. So a big elementary school. I'm surrounded by kids. None of them are talking to me because I'm still a new kid. They're all talking to each other, but I'm all by myself and all of them are eating except for me because I forgot my lunch.

I can't put my head down and thinking my life could not gain any worse, all the stuff going on in my family on top of it, I forgot my lunch. I look up, and through the big gym doors enters, Mr. Stoskopf like it was one of those ah moments, right? Because in the doorway, he's holding a bag of Hardees, the fast food restaurant, a big soda. And he's looking through the gymnasium or the cafeteria. Him and I make eye contact and he weaves his way through and he places the Hardees and the big soda in front of me and he simply says, "Enjoy your lunch." And he slaps him on the back and he just walks out.

Now a couple things happened for me in that moment. One I became instantly cool, because I had a Coke, a big Coke. How about you? But in elementary school, nobody has a Coke. Everybody else is drinking milk out of a carton. And I had a cheeseburger and I had fries. Everybody else seemed like fish sticks and corn off of a tray. So I went from the new kid to the cool kid really quick, but more importantly, what I realized was there was an adult male that actually cared about me and of all the things I needed in my life at that time. That's what I needed the most. And the irony behind that is I've written Mr. Stoskopf I told that story. He came to watched me present once I'm telling that story and I start tearing up because there he is. And he doesn't really remember that.

It wasn't a big deal to him, but it was huge deal to me. So when you talk about people or instances that shape your beliefs around leadership at an early age, I didn't realize it, but it really shaped the idea that anybody can be a leader because anybody can make an impact on other people, right. Anybody, if you look for, and you're intentional, there's all of these moments every single day. And oftentimes, I link that story to the old starfish story of you can't change the world, but you can change the world for that single starfish. And we can all have an impact on other people. If we look for opportunities to serve and to make a difference like Mr. Stoskopf did to me. And I started off as an elementary school teacher, my first teaching job was teaching 1st grade and I got into coaching. And a lot of it was because of the impact of people like Mr. Stoskopf on me growing up. And I think it really shaped who I am and my thoughts around leadership.

Tim Spiker

There's so many great things about that story, including the fact that he's gotten to be in the room. And here you share that story, hear you share the impact that he had with you. And it is interesting that in his memory, he doesn't remember that specific day, but the idea of intentionality, the idea of being on the lookout for where you can be of service, where you can help that isn't always the picture. When we think leader for many people, the picture of somebody on the hunt to be helpful is not the picture that comes to mind and yet for you with him. And now, later on into your very successful career and starting the next chapter of what you're doing. You see that desire to be helpful, to be of service. You see that as a direct connection to leadership. Can you say a little bit more about that?

Steve Jones

I like that mindset, that story because to me what it does is it strips away. I don't know if you would call it excuses or reasons why people think they can't lead because they don't have a certain title or a certain amount of experience or whatever they want to tell themselves or tell others it strips that away because ultimately if you look at your own life or I challenge the listeners to think about moments in their life where other people said something, they encourage them, they maybe held them accountable. They did something for them that changed the trajectory of their life.

And we all have these moments. And when you flip that lens and you start looking at it yourself and we look at ways in which every single day we have opportunities to change people's lives. And we don't even know it right by a simple comment, by an encouragement, by a deed, by an action, whatever it is. And to me, I just think when you look at leadership through that lens, it really dissolves it down to its simplest form of making a positive impact on other people's lives. And you don't have to be a CEO. You don't have to be a president. You don't have to have X amount of experience to do that. You just have to be intentional like you said.

Tim Spiker

So you have this experience as a young 5th grader, you end up going into teaching and coaching and then you have this extraordinary level of success as a high school football coach.

Steve Jones