In this interview, we delve into the remarkable story of how Chase Kreger, the Owner and CEO of Maximize Value Consulting, has paved his path to success in the business consulting world. Join us as Chase shares his experiences, leadership style, and the values that have guided him along the way. Discover how Chase navigates the challenges of leadership and his aspirations for the future. Get ready to be inspired by Chase’s journey and his relentless pursuit of excellence in leadership and business.
Q: Chase, can you start by sharing how your leadership philosophy has evolved over the years?
Chase Kreger: Absolutely. One of the most important epiphanies I’ve had over the last decade is centered around the age-old hard-work debate. We all agree, working hard is not only virtuous, it is essential – and no successful person would ever argue against it. But the ongoing question I keep asking myself is why people work so hard on their careers but won’t put the same amount of effort into their marriage, their kids, their physical health, their spiritual life, their financial wellbeing? I’ll never understand why people give so much energy to their work and then turn into complete slobs the moment they return home. To me, this is the ultimate paradox of “successful” people today. But how does this relate to leadership? It’s directly connected to the credibility matrix. If we, as leaders, don’t have a compelling life outside of work, why would anyone follow us? The answer is, they shouldn’t. Get your priorities straight and maybe you’ll earn the right to have others follow you.
Another paradigm shift I’ve had is connected to the power of differentiation. We must figure out a way to apply what I call the Lambert’s Principle. Named after Lambert’s Café, a small restaurant chain that brilliantly created an iconic dining experience for their guests. If you’ve ever been, you know their main attraction is their unique tradition of throwing hot, freshly baked rolls to guests. Instead of bringing them to your table, the waitstaff tosses them across the room, creating a dopamine-inducing experience that has become a hallmark of the restaurant. What’s the point? As leaders, we all must find a way to uniquely differentiate ourselves and provide a memorable experience for the people we serve. How are you different? What makes you memorable? God created you differently for a reason, let’s make sure we don’t look like and sound like everyone else.
Q: What key leadership traits do you believe are most essential today?
Chase Kreger: I’m convinced the most vain leadership pursuit of all is the aim to please everybody. Looking back, it is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous leadership approach than people-pleasing. First of all, it is impossible. Secondly, in order to help people be their best, you have to help them get outside of their comfort zones. This, in and of itself, is not going to please everyone. Long-term, it is tremendously rewarding. In the short-term (growth phase) you aren’t going to get a joyful response while pushing them to a place of discomfort. If you say you want everyone you serve to be happy all the time, you are essentially telling the world you don’t want to do what it takes to be a great leader. One of the underappreciated traits of truly great leaders is to learn to stop caring what other people think. As with most things, easier said than done.
Q: What strategies do you use to inspire and empower others?
Chase Kreger: In my leadership journey over the last two decades, I’ve discovered how real the Pareto Principle has been in my business. 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers. 80% of output comes from 20% of employees. 80% of value comes from 20% of the tasks. Once we figure out where majority of output is coming from, divorce ourselves from almost everything else. Truly, the majority of your success comes from such a small number of inputs and your progress has as much to do with the things you don’t do, as much as the things you do. One of the most empowering things you can do is to give your people permission to distance themselves from the non-mission-critical items that consume their time and energy. I’ve made that a flagship of my leadership and it has been a cornerstone of our success as a company.
Another inspirational technique is what I call energy transfer. This may be at the very top of the list. Sure, some people call it passion or enthusiasm. Others call it optimism or positivity. Whatever you call it, the ability to transfer energy and give your team the adrenaline and excitement need to pursue a worthy purpose – now that is a differentiator. Good leaders find energetic teammates, great leaders create energetic teammates. You must learn to be the standard-setter when it comes to fueling your team with the energy they need to be successful.
Q: What trends do you see shaping leadership in 2025 and beyond?
Chase Kreger: When it comes to trends, culture building is always somewhere near the top of the modern day leader’s list. I’ve found that culture building is as much about strategic environment design as anything else. We need to learn to position our people properly and then providing them with just enough of the right resources, but not too many. It is true that everyone can be a distraction and everything around you is a magnet for your time and attention. Are the people and things around you drawing you closer to the vision or pulling you away from it? Quickly disassociate ourselves from the distractions and invest the time and energy designing the environment where we remove the friction keeping our teams from pursuing their goals. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges leaders face today?
Chase Kreger: Creating psychological and emotional safety for your team-members is paramount today. Most leaders don’t understand the importance of making their followers feel safe and secure. You can’t create a safe environment without trust, and you can’t create trust without vulnerability. Thus, vulnerability is one of the most important elements when it comes to effectively leading people. This is great in theory, but in practice it requires you to put your imperfections out into the world to be judged and evaluated. Most people are too scared to do this, so they never end up impacting people as much as they could have. Get over yourself and be real – the quality of your relationships is dependent upon it.
There are a lot of smart people on this planet but most of them are invisible to the majority of the world. Why? Because of what we call the knowledge transfer gap. For simplicity, leaders don’t get rewarded for their ideas. We get rewarded for our ability to communicate the ideas.
Q: What advice would you give to emerging leaders?
Chase Kreger: In our modern, media driven world, the status game is a dangerous one. Who is number one? Who is number two? Who cares? Status games are a vanity metric and they militate against the true meaning of success (true success doesn’t create losers). At some point on your journey, you’ll realize that the only catalyst to the destination of success is to help others be successful. While you’re trying to find shortcuts please remember that everyone you look up to doesn’t know what they’re doing. We are all just figuring it out as we go. Myself included.
Another important piece of advice is going to sound paradoxical coming from an author and an owner of a learning and development company. And before I say what needs to be said, I am absolutely a fan of reading. But please know this, you will almost always learn way more by doing the thing than reading hundreds of books on how to do the thing. Sure, slowing down before we speed up is important… Just don’t spend so much time sharpening the axe that you forget to actually cut down the tree.
And my last piece of advice is actually related to how to take advice. I’m a big believe that you should never take criticism from anyone you wouldn’t take advice from. There are many people in the audience waiting to throw insults at you, but it’s really easy to sit in the audience and be an armchair quarterback. The hard part is getting on the stage. Why? It’s vulnerable and lonely on the stage, but it is where growth happens. Keep putting yourself on stage, and only take advice from people who have been on the same stage, otherwise it’s just a theory – and we all know that most theories don’t survive contact with reality.
Q: What’s next for you in your leadership journey?
Chase Kreger: In business, there are not many things more rewarding than working on projects you love with people you love. I’ve been blessed to build many partnerships of this magnitude, and my aim is to continue making these relationships a priority in our business and in my life. Over the years I’ve found out just how expensive it is to make money doing something you don’t enjoy and working around don’t appreciate you or make you better. I’ve reverse-engineered the algorithm, and trust me – it’s a euphoric way to live. Highly recommend you design your life so this is your reality.
