John C. Maxwell's Blog, page 8

Daily Decisions That Affect A Leader’s Success

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Decisions. Choices. Selections. Whatever word you want to use, a leader’s day is filled with opportunities to go one way or another; to create this or that; to push forward or pull back.

And that’s just the easy stuff.

Years ago, I wrote a book on decisions called Today Matters. The thesis of the book is simple—successful people make the right decisions early and manage those decisions daily. The earlier you make those right decisions and the longer...

Mark Cole: Life: One Long Gift

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John Maxwell and I recently experienced one of the most challenging trips we have ever been on:

17 days 6 countries96 hours on planes or in airports59 hours in the air37 hours waiting to get in the air.19 airports

To say it was tiring would be a huge understatement. As we jumped from one plane to another I couldn’t help but think—John is 72 years old and still giving himself away!

While we were in one middle Eastern country, a couple came up to us a...

One Thing That Makes or Breaks a Leader

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In my book, Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently, I share one of the most overlooked aspects of leadership. If you’ve read the book, you know where I’m going, but if you haven’t read the book, let me tell you—you don’t want to miss this thought.

In fact, it’s the one thing that makes or breaks a leader, and it’s worth sharing again, so here we go:

Connection.

Leaders cannot succeed in life without communicating e...

Mark Cole: Delegation

It’s 8:00pm on Friday night after a long week and you are the only one at the office. You were hoping to get home and take your wife out on an impromptu dinner date, but there was just way too much to get done before the weekend.

Yes, you know you’re doing too much.

And yes, you know you need to delegate things to other people.

But you’ve tried it, and it doesn’t work. Every time you try to trust someone else with a task, it backfires big time.

Consider this: is there any chance that it’s n...

Five Fast Rules for Leaders Navigating Challenges

I’ve been saying it for a while now, but the connected world is moving faster than ever. The speed of relationships, business, communication, and information continues to accelerate as we struggle to keep up.

For every leader, learning to navigate that breakneck pace is essential.

For many leaders, it is also quite challenging.

That’s because change is challenging. I’ve said for years that nobody likes change unless change is their idea, and that’s especially true for leaders. When we’re at...

Mark Cole: More Production. More Results.

I’ve never met a leader uninterested in learning how to accomplish more results. On the other hand, I’ve met plenty of leaders who lack the discipline it takes to get there.

Let me start with the good news: You can increase your capacity for production. Sure, talent and natural ability are important, but anyone can become more productive regardless of his or her level of giftedness.

Will you let me help you? I’ve observed and applied the following to my life, and I believe they will benefit...

Rest—Investing Time to Become a Better Leader

Recently, one of our team members at the John Maxwell Company shared an interesting struggle in his life: he’s forgotten how to rest. Some of the team was gathered for lunch and he volunteered his thoughts as everyone was talking.

“I just feel like, when I’m resting, that there’s something else I should be doing,” he said. “I feel like my time would be more productive if I were reading, or making something, or working towards a specific goal.”

Now, this is a highly productive team member wh...

Mark Cole: Curiosity Killed the Cat but Grew the Leader

The most successful leaders are committed to lifelong learning, growth and development. And the ones who are successful in doing so all have something in common: curiosity.

Here’s why: knowledge, understanding and wisdom will not seek you out. You have to go after growth. And the best way to do that is to be curious.

Curious leaders never stop growing because they never stop learning.

Unfortunately, the higher you climb in leadership, the more difficult it is to remain curious. I have seen...

Possibility Thinking, Part Two

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Last week, I wrote about the power of Possibility Thinking, and the three things it helps you escape. In that post, I told you that I’d be back this week to tell you how Possibility Thinking helps others break free as well.

Well, here I am. And I want to tell you a story of how Possibility Thinking changes the lives of those around you for the better. I want to tell you how looking at the world through a lens of “what could be” sets people free from the disco...

Mark Cole: Deciding Isn’t Enough

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Success is not sometimes in the actualization phase; it’s always in the actualization phase.

The longer I lead, the more I understand this to be true.

John Maxwell shares a story about a lesson he learned from his dad as a kid.

Melvin said to John, “Five frogs were sitting on a log and four decided to jump off. How many frogs are left on the log?” 

“One!” John responded with great confidence.

Then Melvin surprised John with the point of the story: “All five...