Keep Leading!® Podcast 077 | C’s of Leadership | Karl Mecklenburg

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast, the podcast dedicated to leadership development and insights. I’m your host Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. I work with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact.You’re listening to Episode 77 of the Keep Leading!® Podcast. Now, I normally don’t announce the episode of the podcast but in this case, I’m announcing it right from the start because the guest I have for you today, ladies and gentlemen, gives new meaning to the number 77. My guest today wore number 77 throughout his storied career in the NFL. My guest today is Karl Mecklenburg. He rose from a college walk-on and 12th round draft choice to an NFL career that included three Super Bowl and six Pro Bowl appearances. This former Denver Bronco’s captain spent his entire 12 years there in Denver. Karl Mecklenburg was arguably the most versatile player in the NFL, playing all seven defensive front positions often in the course of a single game. Karl was selected as the AFC Linebacker of the Year, AFC Player of the Year, and since retiring from the NFL, has been enshrined in the Denver Bronco’s Ring of Fame and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. Mecklenburg was also a pro football Hall of Fame semifinalist for eight consecutive years. Mecklenburg is the only NFL legend to have earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation, the CSP, that is issued from the National Speakers Association. As an author and speaker, Mecklenburg’s stories of teamwork and leadership are humorous and inspiring and he approaches his speaking career with the same intelligence, passion, and intensity that punctuated his great football career. And that’s why I am so excited to have with me today Karl Mecklenburg.

Welcome to the show, Karl.

Thanks, Eddie. Good to be with you again. It’s been a little while since we saw each other in San Diego.

It has been a little while and it seems like it’ll be a long time before we can do that again.

Yeah. I live kind of in the flight path not too far away from Denver International Airport and there’s not a whole lot of planes flying around right now.

No, things are awfully quiet unfortunately but you know how to make some noise. To get ready for our interview, Karl, I watched the NFL channel there and just kind of watched you in your historical highlights. And man, you used to put some hits out and I said “I do not want to get in your way.”

Well, that was that was 25 years ago, Eddie. I’m safe now. You’re going to put on that eye black, then if you see me with the eye black.

I saw your eye black, yeah.

I got that on yeah. You don’t want to mess with me but other than that, I’m good. I loved playing the game and it was a physical game. I mean, my job was to hit you as hard as I can. I expected the same from you and let’s see what turns out.

When you have a career like yours, and I read through in the bio there some of your outstanding highlights, but I’m sure I missed something. Tell me what I missed.

Wow. I think the thing that I’m proudest of was that I was a good teammate and I was selected as a captain. To me, that internal piece of it, I think, gets left out. And a lot of those guys are still some of my best friends. So, I loved my time in Denver playing for the Broncos but all good things must come to an end eventually. When you’re a 34-year-old guy in the NFL, you’re old. So, it was time. My body had worn out and it was time to walk away. And you know what, the thing I miss most from professional football is adrenaline. That adrenaline piece is really hard to replace and I found that same adrenaline when I get up in front of a group to give a keynote. It was something I didn’t expect but it was something that really got me excited about doing my job now. So, I’m a fortunate man. I’ve had the opportunity to work in two fields, in two professions that I dearly love.

I was going to ask you that. So, thank you for sharing, the adrenaline rush. I was going to ask you what do you miss and sometimes I hear athletes say that because to play at the level you played it at, you really had to get yourself up. And so, the adrenaline rush is a big thing that you missed but you said you’ve found a new way to channel it.

Yeah, I have, Eddie. And truthfully, you know what, I didn’t have a Jekyll and Hyde kind of thing going. I used to really irritate my teammates. I’d make a play and come to the sidelines and talk about my kids and my wife or something going on at home and then go back in and make another play like I got to have my game face on. It’s like I don’t have a game face. If a game broke out right now, I’d hit somebody in the mouth. That’s what you do when you play football. So, no, I didn’t have to change my personality or change my focus that much to play the game. And I know a lot of people do.

Well, it’s interesting you say that because when I was looking at all these, I’m like you’re just a gentle giant. When I met you, you were the nicest guy. I saw the photo, by the way, you sent me for the show and you sent me the nice headshot, you’re a good-looking guy in the suit. And then you sent me the one from the gridiron. I mean, boy, you left it all on the field. I mean, I just love that. It is the epitome of a football player, especially back in the day.

Yeah, that’s my money picture.

Yeah, it’s dirty.

I was a puncher. I was rolling around in the mud with the guys.

But you’re a nice guy and I’ve got just meet you and your wife, just good exemplary people. So, you would talk about that even in the huddle with the guys and then they go out and make the next play.

I’m not in the huddle now but on the side. You’re in the huddle, that’s serious. You don’t have much time in there and I was responsible for making the calls and stuff. I wanted everybody’s attention and there was serious business in there. If you lose concentration for a second on a professional football field, you’re going to get hurt. When it’s game time, when the whistle blows, I’m all business.

And you look like it.I loved also the idea that to become a captain of a sports team, especially a professional team, that says a lot about you as a leader. So, talk to me a little bit, if you would, about being a leader of other men, strong powerful men who all have huge egos.

I was really honored by the selection and I was a captain for a long time. I was also the player rep on the team for the union. I was in charge of the Bible study chapel thing. I mean, I was involved. To me, there should be leaders at all levels. The coach is a leader. The owner is a leader. Players have to have leadership. The staff has to have leadership. I look at a team as a seesaw or a teeter-totter. On one side you’ve got the leaders. They think long term. They think we instead of me. They put the team passion, the team mission before their own, issues. On the other side you’ve got egos. They think short term – “Where’s my money? How little can I do today and still keep this job?” And the rest of the team is in the middle. That’s the largest group and it can kind of go either way. So, by adding or subtracting a leader or an ego, you tip that teeter-totter, that seesaw one way or the other. The middle group slides that way and you’ve got momentum towards success or you’ve got momentum towards failure. That’s how it happened in the NFL. That’s how it happens in my family. That’s how it happens in a business. That’s how one person can make a huge difference in a large team concept. And I took that seriously. I tried to find opportunities for leadership wherever I could.

And that’s one of the other reasons I wanted to talk to you because, obviously, this is the Keep Leading!® Podcast. And so, to listen to a leader like you who can talk about what it is like in a highly competitive field of professional sports but then to transition out of sport successfully and then to do that on stages around the world as a professional speaker, I said it in the bio but I should probably just put a punctuation on this. For folks who are listening and they’ve never heard about the Certified Speaking Professional credential, that means that Karl Mecklenburg is in the top 15% of professional speakers in the world but setting him further apart is no other professional athlete has achieved that status. Well, you’re the first to achieve that status, I should say.

Actually, no other football players. There’s a number of other athletes. I hope there’s more football players. I’ve been speaking of leadership. I’ve been involved in the sports celebrity workshop at the Influence, the annual national convention of National Speakers Association. I’ve been involved for years. Walter Bond set it up and [Inaudible][10:32] have been involved with it and myself and John registered and a number of people but it’s a way to reach out to other athletes or speakers because there’s a lot of them out there messing it up for the rest of us to go out there and give kind of half-hearted canned speech that really has very little to do with the audience and come and drink your beer and just hang out with your people a little bit but it’s not a professional thing. And so, we’re trying to raise that bar and make sure that they understand that it is a profession and it’s got some rules and got some regulations but also has all kinds of knowledge that you can pick up and become a better and better speaker. So, I’ve been involved with that too.

Yes. And as I was saying that, Walter flashed through my mind. That’s what made me do a course correction in the middle of that. So, yes, you’re the first football player but certainly other athletes have it as well but still that puts you in an elite company and it’s a big deal to be a Certified Speaking Professional in the National Speakers Association.So, you’re leading in that way and you came up with a signature speech that talks about the Three C’s of Leadership. Can you tell us about that?

Well, I talk about Three C’s of Leadership that are pretty simple. It’s interesting when you look at leadership, there are so many different styles, there are so many different personalities but if you understand what the cornerstones of your organization are, Cornerstones, that’s the first one, that’s your purpose. That’s the “You don’t cross this line” type thing. For the Denver Broncos under Pat Bowlen it was “We’re here to win championships and we’re here to serve the community.” There are things that you don’t achieve and then you get a medal and you just stop. It’s a level of performance that needs to be maintained.For example, one of my stories, I love ice cream. 250-pound man, of course he loves ice cream but not just regular ice cream you buy at the store but the seasonal varieties you get at restaurants. For example, Chick-Fil-A has that peach shake that’s just unbelievable. It comes through every year. There’s a restaurant here in town, a drive-through restaurant called Good Times. It has an Oregon Blackberry Spoon Bender they call it, just unbelievable, but the one I like the best is the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard at Dairy Queen. I’m driving home from a speech down Colorado Boulevard and drive past Dairy Queen and there’s a big sign out front “Yes, we have Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.” So, I’d pull a U-Turn and go in the Dairy Queen and I’m hankering for a DQ Pumpkin Pie Blizzard and I go to the desk and ask the guy for the Blizzard and he’s like “Karl, I apologize but we’re out of ice cream.” This is Dairy Queen, DQ. I thought their cornerstone was “We sell ice cream,” right? That’s the first one is make sure you’re consistent with who you are. And that’s a hard thing to do in some situations. For example, in the middle of the coronavirus, make sure that you still are who you are even if you have to do it on remotely or on Zoom or from a different direction but you can’t lose those cornerstones or you’re going to lose your followers, you’re going to lose your team. So, make sure your cornerstones are solid and you’re clear and you’re consistent about those cornerstones.

The next one is Commitment, commitment to the team passion, the team mission. And that’s a little different than cornerstones. Cornerstones are these targets – “This is who we are. This is our purpose” – where a commitment is the day-to-day thing. If you ask Pat Bowlen what our record was going to be every year, they asked him before the season, “Sir, what’s your record going to be this year, Mr. Bowlen?”, he’d always say “16 and none.” And if we had lost a couple games and you asked him, he’d say “They’re going to be 14 and 2.” Our commitment was to win each game and we were expected to prepare at a level where we could win each game. And even if we got to the end of the season, it would actually help us to lose a game as far as drafts positioning. No, we’re there to win each game. There have been some inexplicable wins at the end of seasons where it really would help us to lose but no, because our commitment is to prepare to win each game.

And then the third and maybe the most important is Connection and it’s got to be clear and consistent once again but that connection to your team to understand who your people are, use the strengths of the individual to help the team, use the strength of the team to cover for the weaknesses of the individual. That connection has got to be there. And, once again, COVID really makes that difficult. You’re social distancing, you’re working from home and you’ve got to figure out a way to keep that connection.

And what do the New England Patriots do other than cheat? I can tell you what they do, Eddie. Patriots’ Bill Belichick is unbelievable with this piece, with connection. He knows what his people are capable of. A few years back he ran a four tight end offense, four tight ends in the game at the same time and at least half the plays that whole season he had a four tight end off, I’ve never seen it before in my life, but he went to training camp, identified that four of his top 11 offensive players were tight ends and he figured out a way to get them in the game. That’s leadership, understanding what the strengths of the individuals are and putting them in position to be successful.

So, for me the Three C’s are Cornerstones, Commitment, and Connection. And then you’ve got the Clarity and Consistency of each of those.

Outstanding. Thank you for sharing the Three C’s of Leadership.I’m talking to Karl Mecklenburg. He is an NFL legend with a storied career and he’s a Certified Speaking Professional in the National Speakers Association. We’ll have more with Karl Mecklenburg right after this.

Okay, we’re back, everyone. I’m talking to Karl Mecklenburg, number 77, on the Denver Broncos, had an amazing career in the National Football League and he is now a professional speaker, one of the top professional speakers in the world, Certified Speaking Professional with the National Speakers Association.Before the break, in addition to sharing some memorable highlights from his career as an athlete, he talked about the Three C’s of Leadership. And you told us, Karl, why they mattered in sports and in leadership. How can leaders listening today, especially amidst the crisis we’re facing, apply those three?

This is when leadership really needs to shine. This is when the confidence, the joy of your commitment to that team, to that group needs to rise. Right now, businesses are closing, they’re closing all around and leaders need to have the ability to circle the wagons and get people heading in the right direction. So, for me, that understanding of what your cornerstones are and that fulfillment of that even though you’re under stress and under pressure, that commitment to the team passion, the team mission of whatever it is for you, whether it’s customer service, whether it’s quality, whether it’s timeliness, whatever it is for your organization, and then that connection, don’t lose the connection with your people. They need you and you need them in these times. And that connection with your clients. And you’ll be surprised how often people make a decision on who they’re going to buy from based on relationships. If you have that strength of the relationship and when relationships are strengthened is when there’s trouble, when there’s challenge. Now is the time to strengthen those relationships.I played professional football for 12 years. I had multiple surgeries, totally 18 football-related surgeries in my life. While I was playing, I believe there was eight or nine of them. So, I’d have surgery in the off season and I was thinking about this as this coronavirus hit and I was feeling sorry for myself, I was like “You know what, I’ve been here before.” Everybody else was out working out, getting ready for the next season and I’m just trying to walk on crutches again but there were things I could do, there were things I could control. I could be a leader in the training room. I could cement relationships in that locker room. So, basically what I’m saying is do what you can do. Control what you can control. You can’t control when the virus gets cured. You can’t control when the government decides to let business start again but you can control some things. So, take advantage of those opportunities. I’m doing podcasts like this with Eddie. I’m writing a book. This is my third book. I’m writing a book now. I’m taking advantage of this time to do some things that will help my business in the long run and I suggest that you do the same thing as a leader and get your team moving in that direction.

Thank you. I was going to ask you about that advice for leaders but something else that you’re doing, I noticed. Now, you are a keynote speaker who’s spoken on some of the biggest stages in the world but I saw something on Instagram. Can you tell businesses that are listening out there right now what else you’re doing to meet the need of audiences?

Yeah, I’m doing things obviously virtual. It’s a little different. I enjoy it in a way. I miss the interaction with the crowd but you can get some of that with chat, you can get some of that with polls. I’m doing some stuff on the internet through Zoom and have enjoyed it and the groups that I’ve had the chance to speak to have enjoyed it too. So, I’m stretching myself. I talk about universal keys to success when I’m speaking and the courage to try new things is right up front. If you’re going to keep up in any business, in any relationship and just keep up with life, you have to have the courage to try new things. And I tell a story when I’m speaking around a misunderstanding where I tore the Seahawk up at the Museum of Natural History. It’s a hilarious story but the point is you’ve got to have the courage to try new things even though they might go wrong. And the older we get, the more experience we have, the more likely it is that we’ve done things that have gone wrong but that’s all right. That’s part of learning. Move forward. Everybody loses a game now and then. Learn from it. We go to meetings and we watch film of everything that we do. In the NFL, they film every game from two different angles, they film every practice and now they even film meetings. So, theoretically, you can sit at a meeting watching film of yourself, watching film of yourself practicing. So, everything’s on video, everything is evaluated and if you’re an all-pro level player, you grade out about 90%. So, 10% of the time you’re wrong and you have to be able to look at yourself and say “You know what, I made a mistake here. This is what went wrong. How do I fix that?” and you set some goals and you fix it and you get ready for the next week and something else is going wrong the next week and you’re expected to set some goals and fix it. It’s a sports mentality, I think, that the ability to be honest and forgiving with yourself, look at mistakes, look at failures and learn from them rather than dwell on them and think you can’t do it.

Indeed. So, we want folks to know that, yes, you are indeed available to be a virtual keynote speaker. I saw that photo of you delivering that speech and I just smiled. So, kudos to you for making the pivot. And, as you said, you’re having a great time doing it and your audiences are enjoying it as well.

Well, I appreciate that, Eddie. Everybody needs to change and, truthfully, I think, ultimately, it’ll be a good step. It’ll be another offering that I can help people out with. For me, my job is to help the meeting professional put on a memorable event, whether that’s a virtual thing or whether that’s an in-person thing, whether that’s a keynote for, I’ve done 10,000 people before, or whether it’s a keynote for 12 people and I’ve done them both, my job is help that meeting professional put on a memorable event. So, however I can do it. I can’t do it at a meeting right now. I might as well do it online, right?

Absolutely. Well, I’m a part of the Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 coaches and Marshall, when I interviewed him, he talked about how difficult it is for many athletes to make the transition from being a professional athlete, what all of that entails, to regular life and talked about the numbers that he’s seen in his research in terms of those who go through divorce and go through substance abuse and all the challenges they face. One of the things I was noticing about you and why I said you’re such an exemplary man, you and your wife have been married for many, many years, beautiful family, children, you’re a man of faith and you made the pivot successfully as a speaker after your career in sports and now you’re making this pivot again. What advice can you give other athletes and other leaders in general about the things that worked for you that could possibly work for them?

If you’re going to be a professional athlete, you’re going to be the best of the best, why would you settle for less than that when you’re done with your athletic career? I’m amazed at how many guys … If you can make it in the NFL, you’re very good at learning new material because it changes every single week, you’re very good at dedication, the amount of dedication it takes to get to that level of athleticism, lifting, running, consistency, all that type of stuff, you have qualities that will allow you to be successful as you go on out of the NFL or out of college football. I talk about universal keys to success, teamwork with leadership being the ultimate expression of teamwork. Courage – the courage to try new things, the courage to be decisive. Dedication which is hard work, constant learning, refusing to quit. Desire, that’s the dream, the passion, the mission. Honesty and Forgiveness with yourself and self-evaluation with others. And, finally, goal-setting, reasonable, short term, specific steps to get you those desires, those passions, those missions. You’ve got those things. Those are so valuable out in the real world. The world is looking for those things. You just need to realize you’re capable of it and be able to humble yourself enough to start at the bottom. I think that’s the biggest challenge. A lot of guys aren’t willing to say “Okay, I’m new at this. I’m a rookie.” They don’t remember when they were a rookie in the NFL but that’s the challenge, humble yourself and start over with that open mind but also an understanding of what you’ve already done and your understanding of teamwork is so valuable in a corporate environment.

Good advice, indeed. Thank you for sharing that, Karl.What is the main message you want to leave our listeners with today?

As you can hear, I’m throwing all kinds of stuff against the wall but the main message that I give leaders and teammates, and we’re all leaders and teammates, is that success is overcoming obstacles on the way to your dreams. I got pulled out of class in first grade and second grade to go to a speech therapist because I had a lisp. I’m a dyslectic who’s writing his third book. I’m a slow white guy from the suburbs who was an NFL all-pro. Success is overcoming obstacles. That’s what it is. If you run into obstacles, instead of turning away from them, find out a way through them, find out a way over them, find out a way around them. If you have an extravagant, long-term, somewhat general desire, passion, mission in your life, for me, it was “I’m going to be the greatest football player that ever played the game,” I made decisions around that, I made steps and set goals in that direction and that was the target. Don’t sell yourself short but understand you’re going to run into obstacles when you pursue those extravagant desires. When you do, I hope you think about my keys – Teamwork, Courage, Dedication, Desire, Honesty and Forgiveness, and Goal Setting.

Wonderful. And this is the Keep Leading!® Podcast. So, we like to give leaders something to help them keep leading in addition to the content you’ve shared. Is there a piece of leadership advice you’ve received that you live by or a quote that you love that you can share with our leaders?

Change is inevitable. I remember Dan Reeves, when I was playing for him, once a year he felt like we weren’t progressing the way he expected us to. And he’d call us all together as a team and in his Georgia draw, he’d say “Now, man, you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. You can’t stay the same.” Dan said a lot of things I’m still trying to figure out but I get that. Change is inevitable. It’s going to happen. Don’t be surprised by change. Embrace it. Improvement is change, right? There’s no way to get better without change. So, take advantage, control what you control, and come out the other side of this in a better place than you went in.

And those are great words indeed, especially during this time.Where can my listeners learn more about?

They can go to KarlMecklenburg.com. You can misspell it a few different ways and still get there.

We’re going to make it easy for them and put a link in the box for them.

Nice. That’s a good place to start. I’ve got a lot of video up on YouTube. I’m on LinkedIn. I’m on Facebook. I’m on Twitter. I’m on podcast. I’m out there. So, my son was bragging me up as a football player. My son’s a lawyer here in town. He was bringing me up as a football player to one of his lawyer buddies. He looked me up and he couldn’t find anything about football. All he could find was about speaking and I was so happy.

Well, that’s a big deal for a speaker, right?

Oh man, yeah. I was so pleased.

That’s awesome. That means you’ve done a good job on your SEO and rewriting the algorithm up here.

Apparently so. I don’t know, maybe I just threw enough stuff out there.

That’s huge.

So, yes, I’m out there. You can look me up. You’ll probably find a lot of places you can buy football cards and jerseys and stuff but there’s also a lot about my speaking too.

Yeah, I love that. It’s a great story. We wouldn’t have gotten that story otherwise. So, thank you for sharing that. So, we’re going to make it easy. We’re going to put it in the show notes so that folks who are holding their devices or who visit the KeepLeadingPodcast.com website are able to easily connect with you, follow you on social media, book you to give a virtual speech and certainly face to face when that day comes back around for us.

I appreciate it, Eddie. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. It has truly been a pleasure to have you on the Keep Leading!® Podcast, helping us all to learn the C’s of Leadership.And thank you for listening. That concludes this episode, everyone. I’m Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®, reminding you that leadership is not about our title or our position. Leadership is an activity. Leadership is action. It’s not the case of once a leader, always a leader. It’s not a garment we put on and take off. We must be a leader at our core and allow it to emanate in all we do. So, whatever you’re doing, always keep leading.