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Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know
Unleash your leadership potential with this need-to-know guide, direct from the playbooks of America's most trusted leadership expert, John C. Maxwell.
No matter who you are, you can lead—and lead well. That is the message New York Times bestselling author John C. Maxwell gives in this power-packed guidebook.
The consummate leader offers a succinct and inspiring framework for enhancing the leadership abilities you already possess.
In Leadership 101, Maxwell will teach you how to:
Follow your vision and bring others with you
Produce a lasting legacy
Grow the loyalty of your followers
Make continual investments in the quality of your leadership
Increase your ability to influence others
Determine your leadership "lid"
Empower others through mentoring
Create a foundation of trust
Use self-discipline to improve your character—and your results
One of the keys to successful leadership is applying the concepts that have made other leaders strong. Here's your opportunity to do just that.
No matter who you are, you can lead—and lead well. That is the message New York Times bestselling author John C. Maxwell gives in this power-packed guidebook.
The consummate leader offers a succinct and inspiring framework for enhancing the leadership abilities you already possess.
In Leadership 101, Maxwell will teach you how to:
Follow your vision and bring others with you
Produce a lasting legacy
Grow the loyalty of your followers
Make continual investments in the quality of your leadership
Increase your ability to influence others
Determine your leadership "lid"
Empower others through mentoring
Create a foundation of trust
Use self-discipline to improve your character—and your results
One of the keys to successful leadership is applying the concepts that have made other leaders strong. Here's your opportunity to do just that.
110 pages, Hardcover
Published September 10, 2002
450 people are currently reading
7761 people want to read
About the author
John C. Maxwell
1,003 books5,878 followersJohn Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. Titles include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. Some of his books have been on the New York Times Best Seller List.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 336 reviews
November 16, 2025
Oops, got a promotion. Somewhat unexpectedly, but I can sometimes be too charming and reliable for my own good. A leadership role requires such confidence, you see, and since I don’t exude uptight, micro-managing rigidity, I have managed to command respect and earn support leading by example. I don’t have much in common with the political, sportsman, and corporate figures lauded in this volume, but I have come to appreciate the practicality in discipline and influence.
I have always been skeptical of self-help and business books. I mean, Maxwell alone had written a dozen books on leadership previous to this one, and who knows how many since? Can there be that much new essential information every couple of years, or is it a bit of a racket, regurgitating time-tested wisdom and using others’ success stories to bolster one’s own success in the success business?
I won’t go scrounging for more, because I still suspect it’s all the same in increasingly expensive packaging (not a frugal choice for a leader to be spending so much money on leadership books), but maybe, somewhere down the line of an anticipated crisis I’ll call to mind the Pareto Principle and be able to appropriately prioritize.
Now back to literature.
I have always been skeptical of self-help and business books. I mean, Maxwell alone had written a dozen books on leadership previous to this one, and who knows how many since? Can there be that much new essential information every couple of years, or is it a bit of a racket, regurgitating time-tested wisdom and using others’ success stories to bolster one’s own success in the success business?
I won’t go scrounging for more, because I still suspect it’s all the same in increasingly expensive packaging (not a frugal choice for a leader to be spending so much money on leadership books), but maybe, somewhere down the line of an anticipated crisis I’ll call to mind the Pareto Principle and be able to appropriately prioritize.
Now back to literature.
May 2, 2012
Be disciplined; set good priorities;delegate jobs; work hard; keep learning an be trustworthy.
Now you don't have to read this boring book.
Now you don't have to read this boring book.
October 31, 2022
This was the first book I have ever read by John C. Maxwell and I really enjoyed it! This little book is only about 100 pages long and I read it in one sitting, but it took several hours because on almost every page I had to pause and take notes on various principles and insights that he taught that I thought were really very powerful and in some cases profound.
Here are the notes I took, some are quotations or paraphrases from the book and others are just thoughts that came to my mind as I read.
"Your leadership ability -- for better or for worse -- always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization"
"Personal success without leadership ability brings only limited effectiveness. A person's impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership. The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be."
"Leadership is always the lid on personal and organizational effectiveness. If the leadership is strong, the lid is high. But if It's not, then the organization is limited."
My thought: the righteousness of a family will never exceed the righteousness of its father.
"To reach the highest level of effectiveness, you have to raise the lid."
"What matters most [in becoming a leader] is what you do day by day over the long haul... If you continually invest in your leadership development, lettings your 'assets' compound, the inevitable result is growth over time."
"Although it's true that some people are born with greater natural gifts than others, the ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved."
The best way to learn leadership is to work with and learn from great leaders.
Learning leadership and becoming an effective leader is a process that takes considerable time and effort.
Leadership is predicated upon self-discipline. You will never become a great leader without developing self mastery.
3 Ways to Increase Self-discipline:
1 Remove excuses
2 Remove rewards until the job is done
3 Focus on the rewards. If you focus on the difficulty of the work you will become discouraged and develop self pity instead of self discipline.
A key to leadership is the discipline to prioritize and the ability to set and accomplish goals.
Pareto Principle:
The top 20% of your priorities will give you 80% of your productivity. Discipline yourself and focus on the few MOST important things.
Example: 20% of the people in the organization will be responsive for 80% of the organization's success.
Leaders initiate, followers react
Leaders spend time planning and anticipating problems, followers spend time living day to day reacting to problems.
Leaders invest time with people, followers spend time with people
Leaders fill calendars by priorities, followers fill calendars by requests
When Figuring Out How Best to Use Your Time:
Ask yourself: what do I have to do that no one but me can do? Those things should be high priority. Distinguish between what you personally MUST do and what can be delegated.
Ask yourself: what gives the greatest return for your time?
Ask yourself: what is the most rewarding? Our best work takes place when we enjoy it.
Priorities never stay put. You have frequently reevaluate, delegate, and carefully estimate and budget your time.
The good is the enemy of the best. Mercilessly cut the non-essential out of your life and focus on what truly matters most. Stay focused on the purpose of the organization.
Too many priorities causes paralysis. You have to learn to say no to the good to say yes to the best.
Deadlines help us prioritize. Create your own if you have to.
Trust is the foundation of leadership. Trustworthiness is the foundation of trust. Character, connection, and competency are the foundations of trustworthiness.
Character communicates consistency, potential, and respect to those you lead.
You build trust by achieving results, always with integrity and in a manner that shows real personal regard for the people with whom you work.
Leaders earn respect by making sound decisions, admitting their mistakes, and putting what's best for their followers and the organization ahead of their personal agendas.
If you violate your people's trust you are through as a leader because by breaking trust you lose your influence with them.
Vision is utterly indispensable for a leader. The vision leads the leader and sparks the fuel and fire within.
Vision comes from within, draws on your history, is far reaching, meets other's needs and adds value to them and their lives, and rallies people and resources to the cause.
Teach the vision to your people and help them feel its importance and difficulty. Inspire them and draw out their drive to accomplish it.
Vision comes from listening to the inner voice within. It has to come from a place of deep desire within your soul.
Pay attention to the status quo. Noticing what doesn't work and striving to change it is a great catalyst for vision.
Mentor's can help you sharpen your vision. As a leader you still need to be following an even greater leader.
The true measure of leadership is influence -- nothing more, nothing less. If you don't have influence you will never be able to lead others. True leadership comes from influence.
Leadership is about influencing people, management is about maintaining systems and processes. Leaders can create positive change. Managers can't.
Being a leader is more than being the guy out front, it is actually being followed. Being a leader is to be an example who followers voluntarily choose to model themselves after. People must intentionally follow his lead and act on his vision.
In a volunteer organization, only people who truly have influence can be effective leaders. In other organizations rank and title may sometimes secure a small degree of influence regardless, but that influence is temporary.
"The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate."
Real leadership is about more than having authority. It is about being the person that others will gladly and confidently follow.
Bosses drive workers, leaders coach them.
Bosses depend on authority, leaders depend on goodwill.
Bosses inspire fear, leaders inspire enthusiasm.
The boss says I, the leader says we.
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
When leaders lack confidence, followers lack commitment.
Leadership flourishes with meaningful relationships. If you cannot build solid, lasting relationships you will be unable to sustain effective long-term leadership. You cannot lead people without loving them.
A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. A leader's responsibility is to develop others to do the work. A true leader can be recognized because his people will consistently demonstrate superior performance.
5 Levels of Leadership:
1-- Position. People follow because they have to. Your only influence comes with the title.
Security based on title, not talent.
Level gained by appointment rather than ability.
People will not follow a positional leader beyond his stated authority.
Positional leaders have more difficulty working with volunteers, white collar workers, and young people.
Level 2-- Permission/Relationship. People follow because they want to.
This kind of leader donates time, energy, and focus to his follower's needs and desires, focusing on the follower's personal development.
He loves people more than procedures.
Makes those who work with you more successful.
Does "win-win" or doesn't do it.
Deals wisely with difficult people
At this level the follower loves the leader
Level 3-- Production. People follow you because of what you have done for the organization.
You bring people together to accomplish a purpose and get results.
Leaders on this level must initiate and accept responsibility for growth.
Must develop and follow a clear statement of purpose.
Must develop accountability for results, beginning with yourself.
Must know and do things that give a high return.
Communicate the vision and strategy of the organization.
Become an agent of positive change
Make the difficult decisions that will make a difference.
At this level the follower admires the leader.
Level 4: people development/reproduction. People follow because of what you have done for them.
At this level the follower is loyal to the leader. The leader win people's hearts by helping them grow personally.
When you are at this level of leadership one of your biggest goals must be to develop other leaders to influence followers beyond your personal reach. You should put your leadership efforts into the top 20% of your people.
At this level the leader must realize that people are their most valuable asset.
The leader must be a model for others to follow.
You must expose leaders to key growth opportunities.
You must attract other winners/producers to the common goal.
You must surround yourself with an inner core that complements your leadership.
Level 5: Personhood/Respect. People follow you because of who you are and what you represent.
At this level your followers are loyal and sacrificial.
You have spent years mentoring and molding leaders.
You have become a statesman/consultant and are sought out by others.
Your greatest joy comes from watching others grow and develop.
You transcend the organization.
When climbing these steps:
The higher you go, the longer it takes
The higher you go, the higher the level of commitment required of the leader and the followers.
The higher you go, the easier it is to lead.
The higher you go, the greater the growth.
You never leave the base level. The levels build on each other.
If you are leading a group of people, you will not be on the same level with everyone.
For your leadership to remain effective, you must take the other influencers within the group to the higher levels.
You must know what level you are on at this moment.
Everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone. The question is what kind of leader are you going to be? Will you use your leadership skills to better mankind?
EMPOWERING OTHERS
People under the influence of an empowering person are like paper in the hands of a talented artist. No matter what they're made of, they can become treasures.
Empowering is giving your influence to others for the purpose of personal and organizational growth. It is sharing yourself -- your influence, position, power, and opportunities with others for the purpose of investing in their lives so that they can function at their best. It is seeing people's potential, sharing your resources with them, and showing them that you believe in them completely.
The act of empowering others changes lives, and it's a win-win situation for you and the people you empower. Empowering others increases the ability of others without decreasing yourself.
In order to empower someone else you must have a position of authority, a relationship with that person, having mutual respect, you must be committed, have the right attitude
"When you believe in people, care about them, and trust them, they know it. And that respect inspires them to want to follow where you lead."
You empower others by progressively giving them increasing responsibility and authority. You evaluate them and give them the right amount of authority that they are ready to handle. Otherwise too much and you set them up for failure, too little you frustrate and demoralize them.
Evaluate their current knowledge, skill, and desire and what they will need to succeed. Teach them the knowledge and skills they will need. Model for them how to do what is expected of them, show them the attitude and work ethic you want them to embrace. When you can, include them in your work.
You should expect success from those you lead and communicate that expectation clearly. Tell those you lead that you believe in them and want them to succeed. Be encouraging and supportive. Publicly show your confidence in them so they know you believe in them and so everyone knows they have authority from you to do what they are being asked to do.
You must transfer both responsibility AND authority AND ability to those you seek to empower. People become strong and effective only when they are given the opportunity to make decisions, initiate actions, solve problems, and meet challenges.
As they work, provide honest feedback. Meet with and coach them one on one through their mistakes and misjudgment. Praise them and applaud what they do well. Then release them to continue on their own. Give them as much freedom as possible as soon as they are ready for it. Don't helicopter or micromanage. If you have given them tasks they are ready for you won't need or want to.
A great leader prepares people and organizations to function effectively when he is no longer around to lead it. Leaders do this by making the organization as strong as they can, and also mentoring and preparing a successor to take over when they are gone.
Leaders who leave a legacy of succession:
Lead the organization with a long-term perspective.
Create a leadership developing culture at all levels of the organization.
Pay the price today to assure success tomorrow.
Value team leadership above individual leadership.
Walk away from the organization with integrity.
Leaving the right kind of legacy is one of the key responsibilities of leadership.
"Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself. Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things with him. Significance comes when he develops leaders to do great things for him. But legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him."
Your lasting value as a leader will be measured by how well your people and organization did after you were gone.
A really good book! I recommend it.
Here are the notes I took, some are quotations or paraphrases from the book and others are just thoughts that came to my mind as I read.
"Your leadership ability -- for better or for worse -- always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization"
"Personal success without leadership ability brings only limited effectiveness. A person's impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership. The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be."
"Leadership is always the lid on personal and organizational effectiveness. If the leadership is strong, the lid is high. But if It's not, then the organization is limited."
My thought: the righteousness of a family will never exceed the righteousness of its father.
"To reach the highest level of effectiveness, you have to raise the lid."
"What matters most [in becoming a leader] is what you do day by day over the long haul... If you continually invest in your leadership development, lettings your 'assets' compound, the inevitable result is growth over time."
"Although it's true that some people are born with greater natural gifts than others, the ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved."
The best way to learn leadership is to work with and learn from great leaders.
Learning leadership and becoming an effective leader is a process that takes considerable time and effort.
Leadership is predicated upon self-discipline. You will never become a great leader without developing self mastery.
3 Ways to Increase Self-discipline:
1 Remove excuses
2 Remove rewards until the job is done
3 Focus on the rewards. If you focus on the difficulty of the work you will become discouraged and develop self pity instead of self discipline.
A key to leadership is the discipline to prioritize and the ability to set and accomplish goals.
Pareto Principle:
The top 20% of your priorities will give you 80% of your productivity. Discipline yourself and focus on the few MOST important things.
Example: 20% of the people in the organization will be responsive for 80% of the organization's success.
Leaders initiate, followers react
Leaders spend time planning and anticipating problems, followers spend time living day to day reacting to problems.
Leaders invest time with people, followers spend time with people
Leaders fill calendars by priorities, followers fill calendars by requests
When Figuring Out How Best to Use Your Time:
Ask yourself: what do I have to do that no one but me can do? Those things should be high priority. Distinguish between what you personally MUST do and what can be delegated.
Ask yourself: what gives the greatest return for your time?
Ask yourself: what is the most rewarding? Our best work takes place when we enjoy it.
Priorities never stay put. You have frequently reevaluate, delegate, and carefully estimate and budget your time.
The good is the enemy of the best. Mercilessly cut the non-essential out of your life and focus on what truly matters most. Stay focused on the purpose of the organization.
Too many priorities causes paralysis. You have to learn to say no to the good to say yes to the best.
Deadlines help us prioritize. Create your own if you have to.
Trust is the foundation of leadership. Trustworthiness is the foundation of trust. Character, connection, and competency are the foundations of trustworthiness.
Character communicates consistency, potential, and respect to those you lead.
You build trust by achieving results, always with integrity and in a manner that shows real personal regard for the people with whom you work.
Leaders earn respect by making sound decisions, admitting their mistakes, and putting what's best for their followers and the organization ahead of their personal agendas.
If you violate your people's trust you are through as a leader because by breaking trust you lose your influence with them.
Vision is utterly indispensable for a leader. The vision leads the leader and sparks the fuel and fire within.
Vision comes from within, draws on your history, is far reaching, meets other's needs and adds value to them and their lives, and rallies people and resources to the cause.
Teach the vision to your people and help them feel its importance and difficulty. Inspire them and draw out their drive to accomplish it.
Vision comes from listening to the inner voice within. It has to come from a place of deep desire within your soul.
Pay attention to the status quo. Noticing what doesn't work and striving to change it is a great catalyst for vision.
Mentor's can help you sharpen your vision. As a leader you still need to be following an even greater leader.
The true measure of leadership is influence -- nothing more, nothing less. If you don't have influence you will never be able to lead others. True leadership comes from influence.
Leadership is about influencing people, management is about maintaining systems and processes. Leaders can create positive change. Managers can't.
Being a leader is more than being the guy out front, it is actually being followed. Being a leader is to be an example who followers voluntarily choose to model themselves after. People must intentionally follow his lead and act on his vision.
In a volunteer organization, only people who truly have influence can be effective leaders. In other organizations rank and title may sometimes secure a small degree of influence regardless, but that influence is temporary.
"The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate."
Real leadership is about more than having authority. It is about being the person that others will gladly and confidently follow.
Bosses drive workers, leaders coach them.
Bosses depend on authority, leaders depend on goodwill.
Bosses inspire fear, leaders inspire enthusiasm.
The boss says I, the leader says we.
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
When leaders lack confidence, followers lack commitment.
Leadership flourishes with meaningful relationships. If you cannot build solid, lasting relationships you will be unable to sustain effective long-term leadership. You cannot lead people without loving them.
A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. A leader's responsibility is to develop others to do the work. A true leader can be recognized because his people will consistently demonstrate superior performance.
5 Levels of Leadership:
1-- Position. People follow because they have to. Your only influence comes with the title.
Security based on title, not talent.
Level gained by appointment rather than ability.
People will not follow a positional leader beyond his stated authority.
Positional leaders have more difficulty working with volunteers, white collar workers, and young people.
Level 2-- Permission/Relationship. People follow because they want to.
This kind of leader donates time, energy, and focus to his follower's needs and desires, focusing on the follower's personal development.
He loves people more than procedures.
Makes those who work with you more successful.
Does "win-win" or doesn't do it.
Deals wisely with difficult people
At this level the follower loves the leader
Level 3-- Production. People follow you because of what you have done for the organization.
You bring people together to accomplish a purpose and get results.
Leaders on this level must initiate and accept responsibility for growth.
Must develop and follow a clear statement of purpose.
Must develop accountability for results, beginning with yourself.
Must know and do things that give a high return.
Communicate the vision and strategy of the organization.
Become an agent of positive change
Make the difficult decisions that will make a difference.
At this level the follower admires the leader.
Level 4: people development/reproduction. People follow because of what you have done for them.
At this level the follower is loyal to the leader. The leader win people's hearts by helping them grow personally.
When you are at this level of leadership one of your biggest goals must be to develop other leaders to influence followers beyond your personal reach. You should put your leadership efforts into the top 20% of your people.
At this level the leader must realize that people are their most valuable asset.
The leader must be a model for others to follow.
You must expose leaders to key growth opportunities.
You must attract other winners/producers to the common goal.
You must surround yourself with an inner core that complements your leadership.
Level 5: Personhood/Respect. People follow you because of who you are and what you represent.
At this level your followers are loyal and sacrificial.
You have spent years mentoring and molding leaders.
You have become a statesman/consultant and are sought out by others.
Your greatest joy comes from watching others grow and develop.
You transcend the organization.
When climbing these steps:
The higher you go, the longer it takes
The higher you go, the higher the level of commitment required of the leader and the followers.
The higher you go, the easier it is to lead.
The higher you go, the greater the growth.
You never leave the base level. The levels build on each other.
If you are leading a group of people, you will not be on the same level with everyone.
For your leadership to remain effective, you must take the other influencers within the group to the higher levels.
You must know what level you are on at this moment.
Everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone. The question is what kind of leader are you going to be? Will you use your leadership skills to better mankind?
EMPOWERING OTHERS
People under the influence of an empowering person are like paper in the hands of a talented artist. No matter what they're made of, they can become treasures.
Empowering is giving your influence to others for the purpose of personal and organizational growth. It is sharing yourself -- your influence, position, power, and opportunities with others for the purpose of investing in their lives so that they can function at their best. It is seeing people's potential, sharing your resources with them, and showing them that you believe in them completely.
The act of empowering others changes lives, and it's a win-win situation for you and the people you empower. Empowering others increases the ability of others without decreasing yourself.
In order to empower someone else you must have a position of authority, a relationship with that person, having mutual respect, you must be committed, have the right attitude
"When you believe in people, care about them, and trust them, they know it. And that respect inspires them to want to follow where you lead."
You empower others by progressively giving them increasing responsibility and authority. You evaluate them and give them the right amount of authority that they are ready to handle. Otherwise too much and you set them up for failure, too little you frustrate and demoralize them.
Evaluate their current knowledge, skill, and desire and what they will need to succeed. Teach them the knowledge and skills they will need. Model for them how to do what is expected of them, show them the attitude and work ethic you want them to embrace. When you can, include them in your work.
You should expect success from those you lead and communicate that expectation clearly. Tell those you lead that you believe in them and want them to succeed. Be encouraging and supportive. Publicly show your confidence in them so they know you believe in them and so everyone knows they have authority from you to do what they are being asked to do.
You must transfer both responsibility AND authority AND ability to those you seek to empower. People become strong and effective only when they are given the opportunity to make decisions, initiate actions, solve problems, and meet challenges.
As they work, provide honest feedback. Meet with and coach them one on one through their mistakes and misjudgment. Praise them and applaud what they do well. Then release them to continue on their own. Give them as much freedom as possible as soon as they are ready for it. Don't helicopter or micromanage. If you have given them tasks they are ready for you won't need or want to.
A great leader prepares people and organizations to function effectively when he is no longer around to lead it. Leaders do this by making the organization as strong as they can, and also mentoring and preparing a successor to take over when they are gone.
Leaders who leave a legacy of succession:
Lead the organization with a long-term perspective.
Create a leadership developing culture at all levels of the organization.
Pay the price today to assure success tomorrow.
Value team leadership above individual leadership.
Walk away from the organization with integrity.
Leaving the right kind of legacy is one of the key responsibilities of leadership.
"Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself. Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things with him. Significance comes when he develops leaders to do great things for him. But legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him."
Your lasting value as a leader will be measured by how well your people and organization did after you were gone.
A really good book! I recommend it.
September 16, 2016
Solid little book hitting the main ideas of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. But this wasn't just a condensed version. Maxwell delievers some new thoughts here, as well. It is good and only takes about an hour to read.
September 17, 2019
Short and sweet to the point leadership read. Some great points that make you think and help understand how to apply them to your everyday life. Whether you strive to be a leader or not, this book helps us understand how much influence we have on other people just through daily tasks.
January 25, 2011
I really like the 101 series of Maxwell's. They are easy reads and you get the meat of what his point is. They are practical, easy to read and understand, and realistic to apply.
November 10, 2015
Good thoughts. Nothing revolutionary.
September 19, 2017
Read it, put it down for a day, and then read it again. I need more information but this is a nice, general base on which to build.
November 18, 2020
To be frank outstanding and inspiring book. I strongly recommend everyone to read this book.
I would like to share just a little sentence from the book.
"A real leader knows the difference between being a boss and being a leader."
I would like to share just a little sentence from the book.
"A real leader knows the difference between being a boss and being a leader."
December 27, 2025
Leadership 101 is a great “big ideas, small package” kind of book. I really enjoyed it because it distills a lot of John Maxwell’s longer leadership works into something you can read quickly and actually finish in one sitting. If you’re looking for deep, layered leadership theory, Developing the Leader Within You is still the better choice. But this book works more like an outline or refresher—it hits the core traits of effective leadership and keeps circling back to the real goal: equipping and empowering the next generation of leaders around you. It’s not as rich or in-depth as his longer books, but it’s practical, clear, and perfect if you want a quick leadership reset without the time commitment.
October 18, 2022
Full disclaimer: I just read this for the heck of it. I definitely was not interested in what the author had to say and my rating justifies that.
I also did not agree with the very first assessment made by the author: the rule of lids, I do not think leadership affects effectiveness that much for me personally. I stay far away from leadership roles but I don't feel I am so useless lol.
It is no doubt a good book for people looking to get motivated and raise their productivity levels but sadly it is of no use to me.
I also did not agree with the very first assessment made by the author: the rule of lids, I do not think leadership affects effectiveness that much for me personally. I stay far away from leadership roles but I don't feel I am so useless lol.
It is no doubt a good book for people looking to get motivated and raise their productivity levels but sadly it is of no use to me.
August 23, 2020
John delivers the focal points of leadership in a bite size book you could consume in one sitting however when taking time to set aside notes it should take you longer.
Video review on Instagram
https://instagram.com/stories/jaredds...
Video review on Instagram
https://instagram.com/stories/jaredds...
February 21, 2021
A good introduction to leadership, like all his books. Good book to recommend to young people. My only complaint, like with all his books, is the overt christianity. The book would be just as good, and approachable by a wider audience, if he deleted the handful of christian references.
March 16, 2021
Nothing new here if you’ve read any leadership literature before. Would be a good starting place for someone with little experience in or knowledge of leadership basics.
Maxwell’s stuff always sounds the same to me.
Maxwell’s stuff always sounds the same to me.
June 25, 2023
The overarching message was clear: lead to help others succeed. The book was succinct. I listened to jt in one day. I think the written book would have been more effective. That way I could have taken it in smaller nuggets and processed it better.
June 3, 2022
Corto y sintetizado. Muy buen material.
August 17, 2022
Great insights on leadership!
April 30, 2023
Great basics with a hint of autobiography. This is the type of book you read once, then reread with a pen or highlighter.
June 27, 2024
Un libro que ha llegado en una etapa de transición en mi carrera laboral. Disfrute enormemente cada capítulo y me fue de muchísima utilidad!!
February 18, 2019
Un libro con un contenido sustancial sobre el liderazgo. Disfrute mucho de esta lectura y lo recomiendo ampliamente a cualquier persona.
November 15, 2022
Leadership 101 (2002) concentrates the wisdom and practical advice from decades of publishing and research on leadership. Written as an introductory short course, it’s packed with inspirational examples and concrete steps to grow the skills, character, and influence necessary to successfully lead in any area.
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 19 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, organizations that have trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books which have each sold more than one million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. You can find him at JohnMaxwell.com and follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell.
---
Cut through the hype and jump straight to the practice of leadership.
Few buzzwords inspire more misunderstanding or confusion than leadership. After all, leadership is for business bros, Fortune 500 types, and entrepreneurs, right? And leaders are born – they’re not made.
If these myths about leadership ring hollow, it’s because they’re not true. Anyone can be a leader; anyone can inspire others into action or growth. Leadership can be learned, nurtured, and mastered.
Come on board for a quick tour of the big lessons, daily habits, thoughtful reflections, and self-discovery that will take your leadership to the next level. We’ll skip right to the good stuff to begin growing your leadership, and multiplying your impact, today.
---
Chapter 1: Success without leadership is possible, but it’s limited.
These days, it seems like everyone is extolling the virtues of leadership – but why?
Well, it all comes down to what it takes to be successful in life. Real success comes from mastering skills in four basic areas: relationships, self-directed learning, attitude, and leadership. And it’s that last one – leadership – that helps multiply the impact of the other three.
Why is leadership so important? Because the traits of leadership actually relate to all the other areas of success. Leaders know how to prioritize, and they show discipline in getting the job done. Leaders cultivate trust in others, and they do it by reflecting deeply on what’s most important. Leaders align their vision and character with their values, and they communicate those values clearly.
In short, getting leadership right can make or break success in other aspects of life.
Take two brothers, Dick and Maurice. These brothers opened a drive-in restaurant in Pasadena in 1937. They saw the potential in California’s booming car culture and created a restaurant where patrons were served food in their cars – complete with china and silverware! Their car-hop venture was a huge hit, and by 1940 they were enjoying enormous profits. But by 1948 they could see that drive-in culture was on the wane. So they made the smart decision to switch from a car-hop to a walk-up restaurant. They streamlined the menu to focus on hamburgers, and switched from china and silverware to paper and plastic. Their profits doubled with the changes, and they opened a second location.
And that’s exactly where the story of Dick and Maurice McDonald would have ended if it weren’t for the entrance of a visionary leader, Ray Kroc. The McDonald brothers wanted to grow, but they didn’t want to shoulder the extra work of opening more restaurants themselves. Kroc was familiar with the concept of franchising, and he saw the potential in McDonald’s opening up in many cities. In 1955, he partnered with the brothers to form the McDonald’s Corporation. In the next four years they opened 100 additional restaurants. Four years later, there were 500.
In 1961, for just over 2.7 million dollars, Ray Kroc bought the rights to McDonald’s. Today, McDonald’s has restaurants in most corners of the world. It’s true that Dick and Maurice McDonald worked hard and were very successful, but it took a leader to see the company’s true potential, develop a vision, and get the right team onboard to make it grow into a worldwide phenomenon.
So, how can you do the same? That’s what we’ll tackle in the next chapter.
---
Chapter 2: Leadership is a journey that never ends.
If the story of a legendary leader like Ray Kroc is inspiring, that’s great! But leadership isn’t just for leaders. And – spoiler alert – those folks at the top of the corporate ladder might not be leaders, either. They may not even see what opportunities they’re missing, or what potential influence they aren’t having.
No matter where you are on your leadership journey, a good place to start is understanding the four phases of leadership. That’s right: leadership is a process, and it has four distinct stages.
The first phase is acknowledging that, like everyone else, you don’t know what you don’t know. Whether you want to grow in a new role or deepen an important relationship, you can’t know everything from the start. Uncovering your blind spots takes curiosity, soul searching, and research – but in the process, you’re already starting on the next phase.
Phase two is getting to the point where you know what you don’t know. This may be a phase you reach many times along your journey, and that’s a good thing. Successful leaders are lifelong learners, they learn today to lead tomorrow. They make reading, audio books, or study a daily habit, and education is an ongoing part of their lives. Do this, and phase three will take care of itself.
Phase three is trusting that as you grow, the effects will show. Patience with yourself is key to this phase. It might help to know that no one becomes a great leader overnight. Even those born with natural gifts have to work at it. And though it might feel strange at first, cultivating the self-discipline and perseverance to keep at it every day pays off, as do all the little, daily habits you adopt. Not only do the benefits compound over time, but you’ll also develop trust in yourself and your abilities, which brings you to phase four.
This final phase is when everything coalesces and leadership starts to come naturally. Again, don’t expect this to happen overnight; it takes daily practice. The good news here is that no matter where you’re at now, your leadership development is an ongoing process. Ask any effective leader in your life, and you’ll more than likely find out they rely on a self-development plan to maintain and grow their skills.
But what other traits do effective leaders develop along the way? That’s what we’ll dive into next.
---
Chapter 3: The first person you lead is you.
Since discipline and perseverance are key to the four phases of leadership, how can you grow these in yourself? Well, this too comes down to a few simple steps.
First, to develop discipline, begin by challenging your excuses. The reason most of us fail to achieve our goals is that we’re really, really good at making excuses. Take Jerry, the promising young high school football player. One sweltering Mississippi day, Jerry caught himself sneaking back to the locker room to avoid doing uphill sprints with the rest of the team. Angry at himself for slacking, he told himself, “Don’t quit!” He knew that if he got used to quitting, it would become the norm.
Today, Jerry Rice is known not only for his outstanding sports leadership, but for his unrelenting approach to daily training and self-discipline. Quitting never became OK, and this impacted every aspect of his extraordinary professional life.
Once you’ve challenged your excuses, up the ante by removing positive rewards until you’ve accomplished your goals. This has a couple of benefits. First, if you lack self-discipline, you might be rewarding yourself before the job is done. Like eating dessert before your vegetables, this has additional, negative effects. If you have lots of great ideas but aren’t seeing much progress in your life, it could be that you lack self-discipline.
After challenging your excuses and saving rewards for a job well done, it’s important to stay focused on results. By concentrating on results rather than the temporary discomfort of your new routine, you’ll keep yourself from drifting into self-pity – the natural enemy of self-discipline.
Finally, understand that how you prioritize your time and effort is key. A common principle in business is the 20-80 rule. On average, just 20 percent of the people on any team provide about 80 percent of its success. And the top 20 percent of projects bring in 80 percent of revenue. So, it’s common for successful leaders to spend 80 percent of their time on the top 20 percent of their priorities. This works for everyday life too. Spend 80 percent of your time or resources on the top 20 percent of your people or priorities.
While your priorities will naturally shift over time, being aware of your choices can help you adapt quickly too. We often don’t realize what’s truly important until it’s too late. Remember that too many priorities can paralyze you, so just focus on those that are most important. Finally, it’s OK to prioritize the things that bring you the most reward. Nothing keeps your motivation higher than focusing on what brings the most joy.
---
Chapter 4: Trust is the foundation of leadership – and its most precious asset.
As you grow in your leadership process, one of the most important lessons you can learn is how trust works. Imagine that you begin your first day in a new job with a pocket full of petty cash. Each good decision you make adds to the stash in your pocket, and each poor decision costs you. No matter how good your intentions might be, too many poor decisions will ultimately leave your pocket empty.
Similarly, every leader starts with a certain amount of goodwill when they begin in a new role. Over time, this trust either builds or fails based on a leader’s actions.
There are three basic traits you’ll need to demonstrate to inspire trust in others – competence, connection, and character – and they’re not all alike. For instance, many can forgive a leader for an honest mistake or a lapse in competence, especially when they’re new or always trying to learn. But lapses in character or violations of trust can have a lasting effect.
Like self-discipline, character is the secret to successful, enduring leadership. Not only does it communicate consistency and strength to those around you; it also demonstrates a real connection with others. Character communicates respect to those around you. When a leader makes sound decisions, readily admits to their mistakes, and puts their followers’ agendas ahead of their own, they foster mutual respect and trust that elevates any team.
And when all this trust and mutual respect is established, what’s next? That’s when the real power of leadership becomes clear, as we’ll see next.
---
Chapter 5: Successful leadership is measured in influence.
At the start of this quick tour through the basics of leadership, we made a bold claim – that leadership is the “secret sauce” that multiplies and amplifies your success. Let’s dig a bit deeper into this. We’ll start by looking at why bad leadership sometimes prevails.
In business, even poor leaders have a lot of leverage, which they can use to their advantage. They control the working conditions and salaries of their employees, after all. The same is true for military leadership, where rank can be pulled to order compliance or punish insubordination. Parents, too, can be ineffective family leaders, but young children are dependent and have little choice but to follow.
But none of this applies to volunteer organizations, charities, or religious institutions. In fact, any group that relies on people choosing to follow a leader relies on the real power of leadership: influence.
Why influence? It boils down to two major factors.
First, if you can’t force people to follow, then you’ll have to influence them. This is where all the personal and character development of leadership comes into play. For pastors, community leaders, educators, and the like, demonstrating the competence, connection, and character of a leader is essential to get anyone to follow.
Influence also requires vision. A vision is the shared future of any project or endeavor. If you can’t align that vision with everyone’s values, or communicate that vision clearly and passionately, no one will see it clearly or rally to bring it about.
The second factor comes with time. The most vital benefit of successful leadership is how it influences others to take up their own leadership journey. As your consistent and compassionate leadership develops, you’ll influence others to develop as leaders themselves.
In this way, the impact of your personal or professional growth can ripple outward through your network, family, or community. This multiplies your impact and influence many times over – without any extra time, energy, or expense on your part.
Influencing others to lead also leaves a legacy. Mature leaders understand that they don’t lead alone and that they’ll move on at some point. Preparing the organization for this transition is a part of their work right now.
Mentoring and growing tomorrow’s leaders helps ensure success long past the time your own life’s work is done. When nurturing future leaders, people follow your example because of what you have come to represent. This final stage of leadership is one very few achieve, but their legacy endures.
What does it take to achieve this kind of legacy? The same commitment to competence, connection, and character development of any leadership journey. The higher you go, the more commitment it will require – but the higher the rewards will be too.
---
The most important thing to remember is that leadership is a process, and over time it can transform every aspect of your life. Unfolding in four phases, leadership demands consistent discipline, personal reflection and prioritization, character development, and a lifelong commitment to learning. But the benefits multiply with time; with enough perseverance, you can even change the world. Ultimately the measure of leadership is in influence – persuading others to follow and to take up their own leadership journey.
And here’s some more actionable advice for you:
Find your “top 20.”
You know that effective leaders spend 80 percent of their time on the top 20 percent of their people. But do you know who your 20 percent are?
To find out, make a list of all your current team members. Then ask yourself, “If this person withdrew their support, would I still be able to function?” If the answer is no, put a check mark next to their name. If it would hurt but not make or break you, then don’t add a check mark.
By the end, you should have marked between 15 and 20 percent of your team. Those are the people that should receive about 80 percent of your time, your resources, or your focus.
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 19 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, organizations that have trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books which have each sold more than one million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. You can find him at JohnMaxwell.com and follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell.
---
Cut through the hype and jump straight to the practice of leadership.
Few buzzwords inspire more misunderstanding or confusion than leadership. After all, leadership is for business bros, Fortune 500 types, and entrepreneurs, right? And leaders are born – they’re not made.
If these myths about leadership ring hollow, it’s because they’re not true. Anyone can be a leader; anyone can inspire others into action or growth. Leadership can be learned, nurtured, and mastered.
Come on board for a quick tour of the big lessons, daily habits, thoughtful reflections, and self-discovery that will take your leadership to the next level. We’ll skip right to the good stuff to begin growing your leadership, and multiplying your impact, today.
---
Chapter 1: Success without leadership is possible, but it’s limited.
These days, it seems like everyone is extolling the virtues of leadership – but why?
Well, it all comes down to what it takes to be successful in life. Real success comes from mastering skills in four basic areas: relationships, self-directed learning, attitude, and leadership. And it’s that last one – leadership – that helps multiply the impact of the other three.
Why is leadership so important? Because the traits of leadership actually relate to all the other areas of success. Leaders know how to prioritize, and they show discipline in getting the job done. Leaders cultivate trust in others, and they do it by reflecting deeply on what’s most important. Leaders align their vision and character with their values, and they communicate those values clearly.
In short, getting leadership right can make or break success in other aspects of life.
Take two brothers, Dick and Maurice. These brothers opened a drive-in restaurant in Pasadena in 1937. They saw the potential in California’s booming car culture and created a restaurant where patrons were served food in their cars – complete with china and silverware! Their car-hop venture was a huge hit, and by 1940 they were enjoying enormous profits. But by 1948 they could see that drive-in culture was on the wane. So they made the smart decision to switch from a car-hop to a walk-up restaurant. They streamlined the menu to focus on hamburgers, and switched from china and silverware to paper and plastic. Their profits doubled with the changes, and they opened a second location.
And that’s exactly where the story of Dick and Maurice McDonald would have ended if it weren’t for the entrance of a visionary leader, Ray Kroc. The McDonald brothers wanted to grow, but they didn’t want to shoulder the extra work of opening more restaurants themselves. Kroc was familiar with the concept of franchising, and he saw the potential in McDonald’s opening up in many cities. In 1955, he partnered with the brothers to form the McDonald’s Corporation. In the next four years they opened 100 additional restaurants. Four years later, there were 500.
In 1961, for just over 2.7 million dollars, Ray Kroc bought the rights to McDonald’s. Today, McDonald’s has restaurants in most corners of the world. It’s true that Dick and Maurice McDonald worked hard and were very successful, but it took a leader to see the company’s true potential, develop a vision, and get the right team onboard to make it grow into a worldwide phenomenon.
So, how can you do the same? That’s what we’ll tackle in the next chapter.
---
Chapter 2: Leadership is a journey that never ends.
If the story of a legendary leader like Ray Kroc is inspiring, that’s great! But leadership isn’t just for leaders. And – spoiler alert – those folks at the top of the corporate ladder might not be leaders, either. They may not even see what opportunities they’re missing, or what potential influence they aren’t having.
No matter where you are on your leadership journey, a good place to start is understanding the four phases of leadership. That’s right: leadership is a process, and it has four distinct stages.
The first phase is acknowledging that, like everyone else, you don’t know what you don’t know. Whether you want to grow in a new role or deepen an important relationship, you can’t know everything from the start. Uncovering your blind spots takes curiosity, soul searching, and research – but in the process, you’re already starting on the next phase.
Phase two is getting to the point where you know what you don’t know. This may be a phase you reach many times along your journey, and that’s a good thing. Successful leaders are lifelong learners, they learn today to lead tomorrow. They make reading, audio books, or study a daily habit, and education is an ongoing part of their lives. Do this, and phase three will take care of itself.
Phase three is trusting that as you grow, the effects will show. Patience with yourself is key to this phase. It might help to know that no one becomes a great leader overnight. Even those born with natural gifts have to work at it. And though it might feel strange at first, cultivating the self-discipline and perseverance to keep at it every day pays off, as do all the little, daily habits you adopt. Not only do the benefits compound over time, but you’ll also develop trust in yourself and your abilities, which brings you to phase four.
This final phase is when everything coalesces and leadership starts to come naturally. Again, don’t expect this to happen overnight; it takes daily practice. The good news here is that no matter where you’re at now, your leadership development is an ongoing process. Ask any effective leader in your life, and you’ll more than likely find out they rely on a self-development plan to maintain and grow their skills.
But what other traits do effective leaders develop along the way? That’s what we’ll dive into next.
---
Chapter 3: The first person you lead is you.
Since discipline and perseverance are key to the four phases of leadership, how can you grow these in yourself? Well, this too comes down to a few simple steps.
First, to develop discipline, begin by challenging your excuses. The reason most of us fail to achieve our goals is that we’re really, really good at making excuses. Take Jerry, the promising young high school football player. One sweltering Mississippi day, Jerry caught himself sneaking back to the locker room to avoid doing uphill sprints with the rest of the team. Angry at himself for slacking, he told himself, “Don’t quit!” He knew that if he got used to quitting, it would become the norm.
Today, Jerry Rice is known not only for his outstanding sports leadership, but for his unrelenting approach to daily training and self-discipline. Quitting never became OK, and this impacted every aspect of his extraordinary professional life.
Once you’ve challenged your excuses, up the ante by removing positive rewards until you’ve accomplished your goals. This has a couple of benefits. First, if you lack self-discipline, you might be rewarding yourself before the job is done. Like eating dessert before your vegetables, this has additional, negative effects. If you have lots of great ideas but aren’t seeing much progress in your life, it could be that you lack self-discipline.
After challenging your excuses and saving rewards for a job well done, it’s important to stay focused on results. By concentrating on results rather than the temporary discomfort of your new routine, you’ll keep yourself from drifting into self-pity – the natural enemy of self-discipline.
Finally, understand that how you prioritize your time and effort is key. A common principle in business is the 20-80 rule. On average, just 20 percent of the people on any team provide about 80 percent of its success. And the top 20 percent of projects bring in 80 percent of revenue. So, it’s common for successful leaders to spend 80 percent of their time on the top 20 percent of their priorities. This works for everyday life too. Spend 80 percent of your time or resources on the top 20 percent of your people or priorities.
While your priorities will naturally shift over time, being aware of your choices can help you adapt quickly too. We often don’t realize what’s truly important until it’s too late. Remember that too many priorities can paralyze you, so just focus on those that are most important. Finally, it’s OK to prioritize the things that bring you the most reward. Nothing keeps your motivation higher than focusing on what brings the most joy.
---
Chapter 4: Trust is the foundation of leadership – and its most precious asset.
As you grow in your leadership process, one of the most important lessons you can learn is how trust works. Imagine that you begin your first day in a new job with a pocket full of petty cash. Each good decision you make adds to the stash in your pocket, and each poor decision costs you. No matter how good your intentions might be, too many poor decisions will ultimately leave your pocket empty.
Similarly, every leader starts with a certain amount of goodwill when they begin in a new role. Over time, this trust either builds or fails based on a leader’s actions.
There are three basic traits you’ll need to demonstrate to inspire trust in others – competence, connection, and character – and they’re not all alike. For instance, many can forgive a leader for an honest mistake or a lapse in competence, especially when they’re new or always trying to learn. But lapses in character or violations of trust can have a lasting effect.
Like self-discipline, character is the secret to successful, enduring leadership. Not only does it communicate consistency and strength to those around you; it also demonstrates a real connection with others. Character communicates respect to those around you. When a leader makes sound decisions, readily admits to their mistakes, and puts their followers’ agendas ahead of their own, they foster mutual respect and trust that elevates any team.
And when all this trust and mutual respect is established, what’s next? That’s when the real power of leadership becomes clear, as we’ll see next.
---
Chapter 5: Successful leadership is measured in influence.
At the start of this quick tour through the basics of leadership, we made a bold claim – that leadership is the “secret sauce” that multiplies and amplifies your success. Let’s dig a bit deeper into this. We’ll start by looking at why bad leadership sometimes prevails.
In business, even poor leaders have a lot of leverage, which they can use to their advantage. They control the working conditions and salaries of their employees, after all. The same is true for military leadership, where rank can be pulled to order compliance or punish insubordination. Parents, too, can be ineffective family leaders, but young children are dependent and have little choice but to follow.
But none of this applies to volunteer organizations, charities, or religious institutions. In fact, any group that relies on people choosing to follow a leader relies on the real power of leadership: influence.
Why influence? It boils down to two major factors.
First, if you can’t force people to follow, then you’ll have to influence them. This is where all the personal and character development of leadership comes into play. For pastors, community leaders, educators, and the like, demonstrating the competence, connection, and character of a leader is essential to get anyone to follow.
Influence also requires vision. A vision is the shared future of any project or endeavor. If you can’t align that vision with everyone’s values, or communicate that vision clearly and passionately, no one will see it clearly or rally to bring it about.
The second factor comes with time. The most vital benefit of successful leadership is how it influences others to take up their own leadership journey. As your consistent and compassionate leadership develops, you’ll influence others to develop as leaders themselves.
In this way, the impact of your personal or professional growth can ripple outward through your network, family, or community. This multiplies your impact and influence many times over – without any extra time, energy, or expense on your part.
Influencing others to lead also leaves a legacy. Mature leaders understand that they don’t lead alone and that they’ll move on at some point. Preparing the organization for this transition is a part of their work right now.
Mentoring and growing tomorrow’s leaders helps ensure success long past the time your own life’s work is done. When nurturing future leaders, people follow your example because of what you have come to represent. This final stage of leadership is one very few achieve, but their legacy endures.
What does it take to achieve this kind of legacy? The same commitment to competence, connection, and character development of any leadership journey. The higher you go, the more commitment it will require – but the higher the rewards will be too.
---
The most important thing to remember is that leadership is a process, and over time it can transform every aspect of your life. Unfolding in four phases, leadership demands consistent discipline, personal reflection and prioritization, character development, and a lifelong commitment to learning. But the benefits multiply with time; with enough perseverance, you can even change the world. Ultimately the measure of leadership is in influence – persuading others to follow and to take up their own leadership journey.
And here’s some more actionable advice for you:
Find your “top 20.”
You know that effective leaders spend 80 percent of their time on the top 20 percent of their people. But do you know who your 20 percent are?
To find out, make a list of all your current team members. Then ask yourself, “If this person withdrew their support, would I still be able to function?” If the answer is no, put a check mark next to their name. If it would hurt but not make or break you, then don’t add a check mark.
By the end, you should have marked between 15 and 20 percent of your team. Those are the people that should receive about 80 percent of your time, your resources, or your focus.
July 8, 2024
In John Maxwell’s book “Leadership 101,” he discusses the “law of the lid.” According to Maxwell, “The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid of his potential” (1). When we spend our time trying to be “good” through “fitting in,” our leadership will never exceed level 5 out of 10. This is because the standard of mediocrity is intermediate (halfway) in nature. When applied numerically, the law of the lid states that our potential, observed in terms of “effectiveness” will always be one level below our leadership capacity. This means that if our leadership is a 5 out of 10, our level of potential or effectiveness is a mere 4 out of 10. With this in mind we must ask ourselves this question: am I willing to limit my lid of potential to a meager 4 out of 10?
If you are still reading this, then I am willing to bet that you want to raise your lid of potential beyond a 4 out of 10. This means you are no satisfied with merely being good. You want to begin the journey towards greatness. If you want to embark on the arduous journey towards greatness, you must be willing to stand out. If you feel like you already stand out, that’s great because if you stand out, then you might as well be outstanding. So how exactly does one begin to raise their own lid of potential? Well, according to Maxwell, they must become a better leader. Everyone is a leader to some extent. This is because leadership is simply “influence.” We all have the power to influence someone, whether for good or for ill.
Leadership must begin with yourself. How can you expect to lead someone else if you cannot lead yourself? So what are you waiting for? Begin your leadership journey by taking control of your own life. Leading yourself can begin with something as simple as making your bed every day - or setting half an hour aside every day to read a book. After all, leaders are almost always readers. Maxwell says that leadership is “developed daily,” which means that you must be consistent (17). Do not quit, not even once, because “once you get into that mode of quitting, then you feel like it’s okay” (26). Ultimately, consistent growth in self-leadership requires discipline. It takes approximately 30 days to form a habit. Even if you have talent, you must maintain it with discipline. As Author H. Jackson Brown. Once said, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways” (29).
Another key tenet of self-development and leadership is prioritization. The Pareto principle states that “twenty percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production IF you spend your time, energy, money, and personnel on the top 20 percent of your priorities” (31). What a lot of people do not realize about prioritization is that it requires “planned neglect” (38). It is important to make sure that we do not “underestimate the unimportance of practically everything” (38). One way we can get our priorities in order is to “distinguish between what [we] have to do and what [we] can delegate to someone else” (36). Another important thing to note about priorities is that they will naturally and “continually shift and demand attention” (37). When it comes down to it, our priorities must be determined by purpose. This is true for both businesses and your own life. When you run a business or organization, you have a mission statement. The priorities of the business must be aligned with the vision of purpose of the collective group. As you spend time leading yourself, you must delegate, align your time with your vision, and learn to say “no to the good in order to say yes to the best” (41).
Let’s spend a little more time talking about vision. Vision is absolutely essential to both self-leadership and leadership of others because “you can seize only what you can see” - “vision is everything for a leader (52, 53). If you ask Maxwell about vision, he would say “ show me a leader without vision, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t going anywhere. At best, he is traveling in circles” (53). Where does vision come from? Vision “isn’t some mystical quality that comes out of a vacuum, as some people seem to believe. It grows from a leader’s past and the history of the people around him” (54). One of the most valuable benefits of vision is that it “acts like a magnet-attracting, challenging, and uniting people. It also rallies finances and other resources. The greater the vision, the more winners it has the potential to attract” (55). Find your vision. Ask yourself, “what stirs my heart?” “What makes me cry? What makes me dream? What gives me energy?” (56, 57). Always remember that passion paints, and vision frames. Once you have found your vision, you will be able to lead both yourself and others.
Once you have found your visions, set your priorities, and dedicated time every day towards getting control over your own life through leadership, you must develop character. Maxwell says that “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character” (46). It takes strategic thinking to set priorities in your life that help you achieve your aspirations. The reason that character is so important is because it “makes trust possible” (47). No one is going to follow someone they do not trust. Trust is the result of “competence, connection, and character” (46). In other words, to be trusted, you must be competent in your knowledge of yourself and the area in which you are trying to demonstrate leadership while being able to connect with the person you are leading, and demonstrate strong character to “communicate consistency” (47). One important part of character (and trust by extension) is humility. You must be willing to admit your mistakes. Character is the result of self-leadership, humility, consistency, and hard work. Combine character with competence and connection, and you will receive other’s trust. Always remember that when you “violate your people’s trust, you’re through as a leader” (51).
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. To be a leader and influence others, you must have a vision. You must learn to lead yourself by aligning your priorities with the vision, delegating where needed, and say no to “good” to say yes to “best”. By consistently learning and growing, you can start to develop character. Combine character with competence and connection, and you will develop trust. Do all of this and you will be an effective leader, right? Not exactly. The most important part of leadership is taking your focus away from yourself. Your influence can only last so long when you exude all of your time and energy inward.
Change your focus from inward to outward. People do not care about how much you know until they know how much you care. Make sure your vision is not about “me” but “we.” The difference between a leader and a boss is that a boss “inspires fear” while the leader “inspires enthusiasm” (73). When people are “under the influence of an empowering person, they are like paper in the hands of a talented artist. No matter what they’re made of, they can become treasures” (85). There is only one way to raise your leadership lid to a 10 - enabling people to continue the vision you started. In other words, leaving a legacy. There is only one legacy worth having - a legacy of love. To raise your lid of leadership, you must learn to love. Greatness is not about “me” - it’s about “we”.
If you are still reading this, then I am willing to bet that you want to raise your lid of potential beyond a 4 out of 10. This means you are no satisfied with merely being good. You want to begin the journey towards greatness. If you want to embark on the arduous journey towards greatness, you must be willing to stand out. If you feel like you already stand out, that’s great because if you stand out, then you might as well be outstanding. So how exactly does one begin to raise their own lid of potential? Well, according to Maxwell, they must become a better leader. Everyone is a leader to some extent. This is because leadership is simply “influence.” We all have the power to influence someone, whether for good or for ill.
Leadership must begin with yourself. How can you expect to lead someone else if you cannot lead yourself? So what are you waiting for? Begin your leadership journey by taking control of your own life. Leading yourself can begin with something as simple as making your bed every day - or setting half an hour aside every day to read a book. After all, leaders are almost always readers. Maxwell says that leadership is “developed daily,” which means that you must be consistent (17). Do not quit, not even once, because “once you get into that mode of quitting, then you feel like it’s okay” (26). Ultimately, consistent growth in self-leadership requires discipline. It takes approximately 30 days to form a habit. Even if you have talent, you must maintain it with discipline. As Author H. Jackson Brown. Once said, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways” (29).
Another key tenet of self-development and leadership is prioritization. The Pareto principle states that “twenty percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production IF you spend your time, energy, money, and personnel on the top 20 percent of your priorities” (31). What a lot of people do not realize about prioritization is that it requires “planned neglect” (38). It is important to make sure that we do not “underestimate the unimportance of practically everything” (38). One way we can get our priorities in order is to “distinguish between what [we] have to do and what [we] can delegate to someone else” (36). Another important thing to note about priorities is that they will naturally and “continually shift and demand attention” (37). When it comes down to it, our priorities must be determined by purpose. This is true for both businesses and your own life. When you run a business or organization, you have a mission statement. The priorities of the business must be aligned with the vision of purpose of the collective group. As you spend time leading yourself, you must delegate, align your time with your vision, and learn to say “no to the good in order to say yes to the best” (41).
Let’s spend a little more time talking about vision. Vision is absolutely essential to both self-leadership and leadership of others because “you can seize only what you can see” - “vision is everything for a leader (52, 53). If you ask Maxwell about vision, he would say “ show me a leader without vision, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t going anywhere. At best, he is traveling in circles” (53). Where does vision come from? Vision “isn’t some mystical quality that comes out of a vacuum, as some people seem to believe. It grows from a leader’s past and the history of the people around him” (54). One of the most valuable benefits of vision is that it “acts like a magnet-attracting, challenging, and uniting people. It also rallies finances and other resources. The greater the vision, the more winners it has the potential to attract” (55). Find your vision. Ask yourself, “what stirs my heart?” “What makes me cry? What makes me dream? What gives me energy?” (56, 57). Always remember that passion paints, and vision frames. Once you have found your vision, you will be able to lead both yourself and others.
Once you have found your visions, set your priorities, and dedicated time every day towards getting control over your own life through leadership, you must develop character. Maxwell says that “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character” (46). It takes strategic thinking to set priorities in your life that help you achieve your aspirations. The reason that character is so important is because it “makes trust possible” (47). No one is going to follow someone they do not trust. Trust is the result of “competence, connection, and character” (46). In other words, to be trusted, you must be competent in your knowledge of yourself and the area in which you are trying to demonstrate leadership while being able to connect with the person you are leading, and demonstrate strong character to “communicate consistency” (47). One important part of character (and trust by extension) is humility. You must be willing to admit your mistakes. Character is the result of self-leadership, humility, consistency, and hard work. Combine character with competence and connection, and you will receive other’s trust. Always remember that when you “violate your people’s trust, you’re through as a leader” (51).
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. To be a leader and influence others, you must have a vision. You must learn to lead yourself by aligning your priorities with the vision, delegating where needed, and say no to “good” to say yes to “best”. By consistently learning and growing, you can start to develop character. Combine character with competence and connection, and you will develop trust. Do all of this and you will be an effective leader, right? Not exactly. The most important part of leadership is taking your focus away from yourself. Your influence can only last so long when you exude all of your time and energy inward.
Change your focus from inward to outward. People do not care about how much you know until they know how much you care. Make sure your vision is not about “me” but “we.” The difference between a leader and a boss is that a boss “inspires fear” while the leader “inspires enthusiasm” (73). When people are “under the influence of an empowering person, they are like paper in the hands of a talented artist. No matter what they’re made of, they can become treasures” (85). There is only one way to raise your leadership lid to a 10 - enabling people to continue the vision you started. In other words, leaving a legacy. There is only one legacy worth having - a legacy of love. To raise your lid of leadership, you must learn to love. Greatness is not about “me” - it’s about “we”.
August 1, 2018
"La disciplina para establecer las prioridades y la capacidad de trabajar hacia una meta fijada son esenciales para el éxito de un líder. En efecto, creo que ésta es la clave del liderazgo".
Sin descubrir el hilo negro nos ayuda a pensar que estamos haciendo pero sobre todo también que estamos dejando de hacer.
Sin descubrir el hilo negro nos ayuda a pensar que estamos haciendo pero sobre todo también que estamos dejando de hacer.
March 10, 2015
Q-Give one quote from the book that impacted your thought process and describe how.
A-When asked if great leaders are born, John Maxwell answers, “Why of course! I have never known a leader who wasn’t born first.”
Q-Which co-worker would you recommend this book to?
A-I would recommend this book to anybody who is in a leadership role-Department Heads, Leadership Team Members, etc.
Q-Rate this book on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest rating.
A-8-John Maxwell is one of my all-time favorite authors (I have even seen him speak twice). This audio book was about 2 hours long and very easy to listen to.
Q-What is a specific real world application that you will be able to make from what you learned in this book?
A-Anyone can be a leader. Just because you aren’t the Captain of the Varsity team, or the Manager at a store doesn’t mean that you can’t lead others.
Q-What is the one thing that you think you will do differently or think differently about since you read the book?
A-I didn’t have a mentor in college or even in my early career. I would like to be someone’s mentor.
A-When asked if great leaders are born, John Maxwell answers, “Why of course! I have never known a leader who wasn’t born first.”
Q-Which co-worker would you recommend this book to?
A-I would recommend this book to anybody who is in a leadership role-Department Heads, Leadership Team Members, etc.
Q-Rate this book on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest rating.
A-8-John Maxwell is one of my all-time favorite authors (I have even seen him speak twice). This audio book was about 2 hours long and very easy to listen to.
Q-What is a specific real world application that you will be able to make from what you learned in this book?
A-Anyone can be a leader. Just because you aren’t the Captain of the Varsity team, or the Manager at a store doesn’t mean that you can’t lead others.
Q-What is the one thing that you think you will do differently or think differently about since you read the book?
A-I didn’t have a mentor in college or even in my early career. I would like to be someone’s mentor.
February 7, 2008
I didn't like this book too much, because by the time I got a little ways into it, I started REALLY not liking the author, which discredited the advice he was giving. I liked his historical little stories about the startups and leadships of now huge companies, but I didn't like that he also talked briefly about the growth of his Mega-Church with thousands and thousands of followers, like convention-center churches and $7.8 million fundraisers for a new facility. That is nuts, and because of that little snippet he put in there, I definitely don't like this book, regardless of whether or not he's renowned as the business world's Leadership Expert!
March 16, 2019
Một quyển sách mỏng, nhỏ, nhẹ, dễ đọc, chữ to và nên đọc. Rất hay ạ😍
August 2, 2016
كتاب ظريف ملئ بالقصص الواقعية ، لكنه تحدث عن الجانب الايجابي فقط ، كيف تطور وتؤثر ..الخ ، وأهمل كيفية التعامل مع المشكلات التي قد تظهر ، كعدم التزام الأفراد ومماطلتهم مثلا ، كذلك استخدم بعض الأمثلة المتشابهة في اغراض متناقضة ، فتحدث مثلا عن حسن قيادة رئيس شركة كوكاكولا لدرجة عدم تأثر الشركة بعد وفاته ، بينما في موقف سابق جعل من تأثر مؤسسة أخرى برحيل عضو ادارتها دليلا على قوة تأثيره ، حتى في القسم الأخير من الكتاب -والذي اعتبره افضل جزء- لم يتحدث بشكل واضح عن كيفية علاج الغيرة من تقدم وتطور الافراد الصغار في المؤسسة بدرجة قد تطغى على مزايا القائد ، واكتفى بذكر ضرورة تقبل هذا الأمر .
November 19, 2019
اقتباسات أعجبتني
" القيادة الحقيقية تعنى أن تكون شخصًا يتبعه الاخرون بكل سرور وثقة"
"المعيار الحقيقي للقائد هو التأثير"
" مهما بلغت الموهبة الفطرية للقائد، فإن تلك الموهبة لن تصل أبدًا إلى أقصى قدراتها بدون الانضباط الذاتي"
"لقد ظل روزفلت يكافح من أجل التعلم وتحسين نفسه حتى الرمق الأخير . كان لا يزال يطبق قانون العملية"
" القيادة تتطور يوميًا وليس في يوم واحد"
"لا يقاس النجاح بواسطة ما تنتتقل اليه، وانما يقاس النجاح بواسطة ما تتركه وراءك"
"تذكر ان الواحد رقم صغير جدا على تحقيق العظمة بمفرده"
" القيادة الحقيقية تعنى أن تكون شخصًا يتبعه الاخرون بكل سرور وثقة"
"المعيار الحقيقي للقائد هو التأثير"
" مهما بلغت الموهبة الفطرية للقائد، فإن تلك الموهبة لن تصل أبدًا إلى أقصى قدراتها بدون الانضباط الذاتي"
"لقد ظل روزفلت يكافح من أجل التعلم وتحسين نفسه حتى الرمق الأخير . كان لا يزال يطبق قانون العملية"
" القيادة تتطور يوميًا وليس في يوم واحد"
"لا يقاس النجاح بواسطة ما تنتتقل اليه، وانما يقاس النجاح بواسطة ما تتركه وراءك"
"تذكر ان الواحد رقم صغير جدا على تحقيق العظمة بمفرده"
November 27, 2011
Surprising quick read that has depth.
Maxwell discusses what Leadership is, and how to influence and become a leader. He focuses on Development, Traits and Impact of a leader, including leaving a legacy. Don't be fooled by the short length.
Maxwell discusses what Leadership is, and how to influence and become a leader. He focuses on Development, Traits and Impact of a leader, including leaving a legacy. Don't be fooled by the short length.
Read
January 18, 2013This is book is awesome. so much I have let on being a lead and leading others and still learning!!!
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