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The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
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Deep Diving into studying The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
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James, Summarizing and sharing as part of a Team is a great activity. I did the same with the 21 Laws, and also with The 17 Qualities of a Team... by John. I made outlines and then used this as a training tool for my Team. Great stuff!
You should also check out the "Lunch and Learn" series available at The John Maxwell Store.
Thanks Jay, that's great! Yeah, I'll have to go back to the 17 Qualities. Great suggestion!
Mod
Hmm, you know, I didn't now that you mention it, and really didn't think that much about it, though now that you ask, I probably should have, so there may be a day that I get an email about that. I took the test from the back of the book and digitized it. Hopefully he and his team see it as that the test if it got popular if anything would drive more book sales and not less. I have a few leaders that I'm using it with who have the books but I'm asking them to use the tests as diagnostic tools for themselves. For example, taking the full 21 laws test, and then focusing on the ones that come up as potential strengths(scoring only between 5-7 on). I told them using the tests as a reminder for themselves will at least remind them to be mindful in those areas and retesting themselves will force them to ask themselves if they are actually improving in those areas.
Hopefully John will be cool with that, but I can respect if I get a take down notice at some point and will just have to limit that opportunity to just my local team at that time, ha.
Mod
My team an I have had to make a lot of changes in the past year. We have taken on new roles. Due to these role changes we were able to pull together as a team and steer our way to success. One thing I did before assigning new roles was evaluate each individual on the team to make sure I was putting people in roles of their strengths. John C Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable laws:
This book had some valuable tips.
Mod
Yeah this book is so good! Dominic, I liked your suggestion of reading "Developing the Leader within". Did you guys read and discuss that book yet?
Mod
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I look forward to reviewing many books with this group!
Just wanted to share in case it was of interest to the group. Here's what I wrote up for the Law of Navigation. If you go to the site, I've actually integrated a test that will score for you how you are doing in each law. I'm working on summary for chapter 5, so I'm still working at it.
Let me know what you think and any other feedback you have if you decide to check it out.
Thanks!
http://leadershipupgrade.com/books/th...
Chapter 4 - The Law of Navigation - The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell
Thoughts and Summary:
The chapter begins with comparing and contrasting two polar expeditions. One by Roald Amundsen and another by Robert Falcon Scott. Amundsen paid attention to detail, proper planning. His pacing was one that gave his team time for rest. He located and stocked supply depots along the intended trail ahead of time. He also gave his people the best equipment possible.
Scott instead used ponies and motorized sleds instead of dogs. The motors quickly failed and soon so did the ponies. That led to the men hauling the sleds themselves. It's almost a worst case scenario kind of story. Poor clothes gave them frost bite, bad goggles made them snow blind, with poor planning on food and water to boot. When they hit the north pole, Amundsen's team already beat them by a month.
The stories of the teams end very differently. The worst that happened to Amundsen's team was someone needed to get a bad tooth pulled. For Scott's team, everyone ended up snow blind, starving, frostbitten, dehydrated and eventually dying, never making it back to the base camp. The only reason we know what happened is because they left us with diary entries before they died.
To sum it all up in this chapter, can you chart a good course for your people or not? Will you choose to think through your journey yourself or at least have someone else help you think through the important parts of your team journeys so you can make sure everyone makes it to the other side? This is the law of Navigation.
Key concepts:
Navigators can see the trip ahead - they can visualize
They plan with a few things in mind:
They have vision for getting to their destination
They Understand what it takes to get there
They know who they'll need on the team to be successful.
The larger the organization the further you'll need to see ahead to make steering changes.
Good Leaders as Navigators use:
Drawing on past experiences - learn deeply from mistakes as well as successes. Don't just brush by them.
Examine the conditions before making commitments - They example not only measurable factors like finances, resources and talent but also intangibles like timing, morale, momentum and culture for example.
Listen to what others have to say - Leaders get ideas and answer from inside and outside their organizations and not just only from their own heads.
Make sure their conclusions represent both faith and fact - Go in with eyes wide open, confronting the brutal facts, then once you've made the trip in your mind, inspire faith in yourself and your team to start and make the trip to the end.
Favorite quotes:
"A good leader remains focused . . . Controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it." -- Jack Welch
"A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do?" -- Leroy Eims
"If you can't confidently make the trip in your mind, you're not going to be able to take it in real life." -- John Maxwell
"Realistic leaders are objective enough to minimize illusions. They understand that self-deception can cost them their vision." -- Bill Easum
"You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end and you must also confront the most brutal facts of your current reality." -- Jim Collins on the stockdale paradox
"Balancing optimism and realism, intuition and planning, faith and fact can be very difficult." -- John Maxwell
Questions to ask yourself: How would your team rate your ability to plan ahead? What ways can you change how you plan to make the journeys you take with your teams to be smoother than they've ever been? In the comments, I'd love to hear about the different ways you go about planning successfully or if you know this is not a strength, how you've worked with others to build team strength in this area.