Welcome to Darren Daly on demand, your most trusted resource to help you become better every day.

Here's your success mentor, Darren Hardy.

Darren Daily member, Nicholas Marcoe, asked a great question, and it's one that I want to answer for all of you right here this morning.

Here's what he wrote. We remember great leaders from their unforgettable and inspiring speeches. Yet, Darren, you often

say that the great leaders prefer asking questions rather than making big statements. What is the

balance between listening and learning and making statements, affirming your vision, and

inspiring other people? Yes, there is a time for rally cries and casting visions and giving great speeches.

And there's a time for inquiry, asking questions, and assessing the situation by seeking input from

others. The balance is 99% 1%. And guess which is what? 99% inquiry, asking questions, and then listening.

And maybe on the high side, 1% making speeches or declarations.

And the 1% is essentially just a summary of what was discovered in the 99%.

So a while back I was spending time profiling the then-CEO and still executive chairman of Intuit,

Brad Smith, a great guy. I published the profile in Success Magazine. And prior to him having the

big chair of CEO, Brad was the senior VP of Intuit's small business division. So when asking him

about how he motivated his team, his reply was, quote,

I've done a number of things in the spirit of employee motivation. He said, I tend to be a storyteller

and a student of history. I often told stories of great battles like the Battle of Thermopyla

as a metaphor to inspire teams who face what appear to be insurmountable odds. He added, and yes,

I've been known to don costumes raging from a

Roman soldier to Elvis Presley to add an element of theatrics to get my point across. So in other

words, yes, Brad had the unique ability to give rousing speeches. But when he took over as CEO,

that is not what he did. The first thing he did and the only thing he did for the first 90

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