John Mattone Global

John Mattone Global John Mattone Global, Inc. is the world's top authority on Intelligent Leadership and the creator of the IL Executive Coaching Process and Certification.

A company in Botswana called me in 2016 for coaching.I almost declined because I got cheated years earlier by someone. T...
09/17/2026

A company in Botswana called me in 2016 for coaching.
I almost declined because I got cheated years earlier by someone.

They wanted me to spend three days teaching their partners everything I knew about executive coaching.

I was reluctant to go.

Years earlier, I had taken another gig in Botswana and been cheated out of half my fees.

I had every reason to say no.

But my gut feeling told me to say yes.

At the time, my entire coaching philosophy had only lived in my head and client work.

No manual, no framework. 30 years and I never assembled anything.

So I sat down and built it.

What came out was a 600-page manual.

It was by no means perfect.

But the Botswana team found it valuable.

That manual became the foundation of the Intelligent Leadership® Executive Coaching Certification program, now with 750+ certified coaches across 55 countries.

If I had said no to that trip, my coach training program might not exist.

This is what the first dimension of the Intelligent Leadership®, Think Differently and Think Big, looks like in practice.

"Saying yes before no."

The most important moments in your career are usually the ones you are most tempted to say no to.

P.S. Sit with this question: What is the opportunity in front of you right now that you are about to dismiss?

- John

I have built a framework, which I named the Intelligent Leadership® Code, I now give to every executive who is ready to ...
09/16/2026

I have built a framework, which I named the Intelligent Leadership® Code, I now give to every executive who is ready to grow from the inside out.

Apply it to develop your own leadership mindset.

It has seven dimensions:

Think Differently, Think Big
→ Your vision is bigger than the moment itself.

The Vulnerability Decision
→ Your openness is a pathway, not a weakness.

Leverage Your Gifts and Address Your Gaps
→ Your weaknesses are worth the same courage as your strengths.

Courage to Execute with Pride, Passion, and Precision
→ Your work is an act of character, not just achievement.

Stay Present and Be Vigilant
→ Your focus is a daily decision, not a one-time choice.

Course-Correction
→ Your willingness to adjust is wisdom, not weakness.

Duty Over Entitlement
→ Your example is what your team follows, not your words.

Each dimension is rooted in the inner core and reflected in the outer core.

Each one, by itself, represents a goal to achieve, master, and optimize as a foundation to positively transform yourself as a leader and human being.

Together these seven dimensions are pathway you can take to ensure a positive transformation that sustains.

The leader you become by living these seven is the legacy you leave behind.

P.S. Which of the seven is the one waiting to be unearthed in you?

- John

If you're highly critical of yourself and your team, and your favorite words are "should" and "must," this is for you. A...
09/15/2026

If you're highly critical of yourself and your team, and your favorite words are "should" and "must," this is for you.

Ask yourself these four questions:

→ Do you notice what is wrong with your people before you notice what is right?
→ Are you satisfied with achieving 80–95 percent of your original goals?
→ Do you notice the critical details that everyone else has ignored?
→ Do you prefer a quality-oriented culture wherever you go?

If this sounds like you, you are leading with the "Perfectionist" trait.

It is one of the most principled and disciplined leadership forces I have measured across 30 years and 10,000+ MLEI® profiles.

At your best, you're an excellent planner and problem solver, but every trait has one mature side and the other derailing side.

On the derailing side, your team stops disagreeing with you. Not because they agree. Because the cost of being imperfect in front of you is too high.

They stop bringing you problems.
They learned to manage you instead.

The line between principled and impossible is one most Perfectionists cross without knowing it.

Your standards are the gift you give to your people.
The mature Perfectionist keeps the standards without losing the people.

The work is in knowing the difference.

P.S. Which side of the line have you been on this year?

- John
Comment:
I have used this framework in every coaching engagement for the last three decades. The MLEI® Assessment Guide is the cleanest articulation of it I have ever written.

https://bit.ly/4efzxuI

One exchange with Steve Jobs I'll never forget: Steve said, "Mattone, I want to tell you something that I've shared with...
09/11/2026

One exchange with Steve Jobs I'll never forget:

Steve said, "Mattone, I want to tell you something that I've shared with very few people before."

(This was during one of the five leadership coaching sessions I had with Steve.)

"You remember the 'Think Different' campaign, right?"

"Of course," I said.

"Well, that initiative was definitely centered around relaunching the Apple brand and selling our products. But when I took the stage that day to give my speech, I was in many respects speaking symbolically."

That stayed with me, and I asked: What do you mean by symbolically?

And his answer gave me chills.

"During my fifteen years away from Apple, I did a lot of soul searching. What I learned became one of the tenets Apple was built on. If you want different results in your personal life or your business, you have to have the courage to step outside your comfort zone and disrupt yourself. You have to think as big as possible about who you are and what you have to contribute to the world."

Read that one more time. Slowly.

If you want different results, you cannot stay the same person who built the results you have now.

I have coached hundreds of leaders since that session.

Most people see "Think Different" and feel something for an afternoon, but Steve Jobs lived it for 15 years before he ever popularized it.

I recognized it and made it the first dimension of Intelligent Leadership®, the door every other dimension walks through.

P.S. What is one belief about yourself or your market that you have been afraid to disrupt?

- John

I did not build a career and then look for a principle to fit it. I held a principle and let the career be what that pri...
09/09/2026

I did not build a career and then look for a principle to fit it. I held a principle and let the career be what that principle produced.

That principle is: "Intelligent Leadership® is inside out".

It was true long before any of the recognition arrived. The principle came first.

Inside out means inner core + outer core.

The Inner Core is what sources your leadership.
The Outer Core is what your leadership produces.

The outer half does not exist without the inner half feeding it.

That is the entire thesis.

The recognition I have received in the last eight years is itself an example of inside out at work.
→ 6 times #1 executive coach (Global Gurus 2019–2025).
→ Corps D'Elite Hall of Fame 2025.
→ 750+ certified coaches in 55+ countries.
→ 16 USPTO trademarks, 11 books, 5 bestsellers.

Every ranking, every book, every certification, every framework I have built sits on top of one sentence I refused to abandon.

The recognition is only the result. The principle should be the priority.

That is the same advice I would give any leader who wants to build something that lasts.

Start where the source is.

Build the Inner Core. The Outer Core will follow.

The recognition is only the result, but the principle should be our top priority.

That is true for me. That is true for you.

P.S. What conviction have you been holding privately that no one has rewarded you for yet?

I was hired to clean up the cultural damage from a messy merger a few years back.When I interviewed everyone who had pla...
09/07/2026

I was hired to clean up the cultural damage from a messy merger a few years back.
When I interviewed everyone who had planned it, I found something that should not have been possible.

Not a single person had actually thought the merger was a good idea but everyone had supported it because they assumed the others were behind it.

I have noticed this pattern in many of the leaders I have worked with. Staying quiet to avoid going against the group.

I call this Collective Unintelligence.

→ The team agrees to things nobody internally wants.
→ Trust quietly breaks.
→ Honest voices stop raising real disagreements, because the culture has made it costly to do so.
→ Your best people are the first to leave.

Here is what I have seen work consistently.

Next time someone on your senior team pushes back early in a meeting, even if you disagree with them, thank them out loud for the pushback. Not for being right. For going first.

Three meetings later, the team will start sounding different.

People will raise doubts before the vote.

The decisions you make will hold up better in the future.

You do not get the senior team you want.
You get the senior team you reward.

P.S.
When did you last agree in a big decision but disagree internally and what did it cost your team?

- John

One of my clients (a CEO) closed his office 72 hrs before the year's biggest deadline. They were having trouble making p...
09/03/2026

One of my clients (a CEO) closed his office 72 hrs before the year's biggest deadline.

They were having trouble making progress on a big project.

It seemed like no matter how long or how hard they worked, they never seemed to get any closer to their goal.

And the deadline was fast approaching.

He closed the office down and took everyone out for drinks...and let them talk about their kids, family, and everything except the project.

Plus, it was an indication from him that he valued everyone as human beings, and didn't think of them as robots.

It ended up like supercharging their morale and ultimately their productivity.

By Friday, they had finished the project and celebrated another round of drinks.

The lesson stuck with me from that day: "Being present for your people means making them feel valued more than the output."

The dimension I call "Stay Present and Be Vigilant" one of the Seven Dimensions of Intelligent Leadership®.

After coaching 750+ top executives across 55 countries, I am convinced of one thing: Being fully present has become a unique skillset.

And just like anything else, being fully present takes practice.

I want you to sit with this one: When your team looks at you mid-crisis, do they feel like they matter?


- John

In 1996, I built the Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory (MLEI) to measure the maturity of a leader's inner core.Beca...
09/02/2026

In 1996, I built the Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory (MLEI) to measure the maturity of a leader's inner core.
Because every other assessment tells you what you are.

None of them tells you whether the version of yourself has actually grown up.

Three decades and 10,000+ MLEI® profiles later, the architecture rests on nine traits.

1) Perfectionist Trait:
→ Detail-oriented and disciplined; delivers excellence.
Risk: paralysis through over-criticism.

2) Helper Trait:
→ Compassionate and giving; builds beloved teams.
Risk: burnout from forgetting themselves.

3) Entertainer Trait:
→ Charismatic and success-driven; inspires through energy.
Risk: tilts toward needing applause.

4) Artist Trait:
→ Creative and emotionally expressive; brings ideas no one else can see.
Risk: loses traction the moment ex*****on begins.

5) Thinker:
→ Analytical and methodical; brings precision to every decision.
Risk: freezes when the data runs out.

6) Disciple:
→ Loyal and dependable; builds the structures everyone relies on.
Risk: waits too long to assert their own voice.

7) Activist:
→ Energetic and forward-thinking; drives more initiatives than anyone in the room.
Risk: spreads themselves too thin.

8) Driver:
→ Bold and goal-oriented; hits the numbers nobody else hits.
Risk: flattens collaboration to get there.

9) Arbitrator:
→ Skilled at finding consensus and resolving conflict.
Risk: avoids the hard confrontations growth requires.

Every trait can build a great leader. Every trait can derail one.

The trait you lead with is not the issue; the maturity of the trait is.

Because a mature version and derailed version of the same trait behave like two different humans.

Which of the nine traits do you lead with the most?

In 2008, Starbucks CEO shut down every U.S. store for three hours.Howard Schultz returned as the CEO after an eight-year...
09/01/2026

In 2008, Starbucks CEO shut down every U.S. store for three hours.
Howard Schultz returned as the CEO after an eight-year absence, the company had drifted away from its core.

Growth had come at the cost of customer experience, product quality, and the culture that built Starbucks in the first place.

So he did something most leaders won't: he stopped.

He closed every U.S. store for three hours for re-training.

That decision sent one clear message: “This is not acceptable.”

He didn't manage the pain first. He named it.

That sequence matters more than most leaders realize.

The most dangerous thing a leader can do is skip straight to fixing the pain without ever naming it first.

I know this personally.

When I faced bankruptcy at 39, with four children and my company closing, my instinct was to manage it first.
Soften it. Explain it away and keep moving.

But nothing got better until I asked one honest but harder question: What is actually broken here?

Pain only becomes useful when you stop hiding it and start seeing it clearly.

Name it first. Then manage it.

P.S.
What's one "we need to stop and name this" moment your team or company needs right now, but hasn't had yet?

- John

You're not the same leader under pressure. In 30 years and 10,000+ leadership profiles, I've noticed this pattern: Even ...
08/28/2026

You're not the same leader under pressure.


In 30 years and 10,000+ leadership profiles, I've noticed this pattern:


Even mature leaders slip into their derailer when pressure hits.


In the Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory (MLEI®), I map this precisely.


Your dominant trait, the one you naturally lead with, shows up in two versions:


1) The mature expression
2) The derailer


A mature leader who leads with decisiveness makes clear calls and earns trust through action.


But when the deadline tightens, when the board pushes back, when the team struggles, that same decisive leader turns domineering.


Stops listening. Makes fast calls that hurt people.


Same trait. Same leader. Completely different version.


It reveals that pressure doesn't expose your trait's weakness.


It exposes the limit of your maturity with it.


The leaders who don't derail under pressure aren't the ones with the strongest dominant trait.


They're the ones who built enough maturity in that trait to catch themselves before pressure pulls them into the derailer.


So ask yourself: when pressure hits hardest, which version of your dominant trait shows up?

— John

Address

Fort Lauderdale, FL
33301

Opening Hours

Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+18554335945

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when John Mattone Global posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category