Leadership 101

Leadership 101

What Every Leader Needs To Know
By John Maxwell


Unleash your leadership potential.

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: Leadership 101. Here the consummate leader offers a succinct and inspiring framework for enhancing the leadership abilities you already possess. Learn 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.


About the Author


Former preacher John C. Maxwell is a leadership expert and the founder of a leadership consulting company. He lectures on leadership principles and is the author of several leadership bestsellers, including 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

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Self-Improvement 101

Self-Improvement 101

What Every Leader Needs To Know
By John Maxwell


John C. Maxwell, an expert in leadership development, uses his decades of experience to teach readers how to reach their full potential through a commitment to personal growth. In Self-Improvement 101, he provides the essential tips and tools to help any leader continue striving for excellence no matter what industry, business, or level of leadership. You’ll learn: the secret of becoming a lifelong learner, where to focus your time for maximum growth, what sacrifices are worth making to keep getting better, how to overcome obstacles to self-improvement, the key to turning experience into wisdom, and why leaders need to be learners, among many other essential lessons. People never reach their potential by accident. Often, those who achieve the greatest success have the greatest desire to learn and grow. Self-Improvement 101 guides readers on an essential journey to uncovering their own desire, commitment, and unyielding determination to improve their life–and to improve themselves.

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Attitude 101

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Attitude 101

What Every Leader Needs To Know
By John Maxwell


Attitude can make or break you and the people you lead.

Good attitudes on a team do not guarantee its success, but bad attitudes guarantee its ruin. So says New York Times best-selling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell in this highly practical primer, Attitude 101. Anyone who has tried to lead people with bad attitudes knows the frustration it can bring.

With this concise and reader-friendly guidebook, you can master attitude issues. Learn to:

  • Recognize how individuals’ attitudes impact their performance
  • Pinpoint problem feelings, behaviors, and thinking in yourself and others
  • Identify six common attitude problems that undermine teamwork
  • Discover the secret to changing a bad attitude
  • Create new definititons of failure and success that will improve performance
  • Adopt the attitude that helps a leader keep going to the next level

Attitude is contagious!

You want to make sure your team is catching the right one!


About the Author


Former preacher John C. Maxwell is a leadership expert and the founder of a leadership consulting company. He lectures on leadership principles and is the author of several leadership bestsellers, including 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

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Relationships 101

Relationships 101

What Every Leader Needs To Know
By John Maxwell


Great leadership is built on great relationships!

Leadership is a relationship-intensive endeavor. If your people skills aren’t strong, neither will be your leadership. “If people aren’t following you,” sums up New York Times and Business Week best-selling author Dr. John C. Maxwell, “then you’re not really leading.” In Relationships 101, Maxwell provides time-tested principles for developing healthy relationships with others―inside and outside of your organization―such as:

  • The fundamentals common to all good relationships
  • How to motivate people by knowing five things everyone has in common
  • How to create a lasting connection with people on your team
  • Why listening skills can be a leader’s best friend
  • The crucial factor that creates the foundation of all good relationships
  • The most important relationship for any person’s success

Winning in every area of life comes from winning with people.

Improve your leadership and life with Relationships 101!

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How to Win Friends and Influence People

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How to Win Friends and Influence People

By: Dale Carnegie


You can go after the job you want—and get it!

You can take the job you have—and improve it!

You can take any situation—and make it work for you!

Dale Carnegie’s rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and timeless bestsellers of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People will teach you:

-Six ways to make people like you

-Twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking

-Nine ways to change people without arousing resentment

And much more! Achieve your maximum potential—a must-read for the twenty-first century with more than 15 million copies sold!


Recommendation


In the book that gave birth to the self-help genre, writer and lecturer Dale Carnegie spells out his plan for getting what you want from other people by changing your behavior. He expounds on the fundamentals of dealing with people and becoming a great leader. Carnegie developed these principles by drawing from examples of persuasive people in history, such as Abraham Lincoln, and from his own experiences. Since Carnegie wrote his book in 1935, many of his examples may seem obsolete or outmoded today, but his basic principles are timeless, eminently useable and presented in an easy-to-read and personal style.


Takeaways


  • Be genuinely interested in other people.
  • Don’t criticize, condemn or complain about people.
  • Encourage others to talk about themselves.
  • If you make a mistake, acknowledge it quickly.
  • Before criticizing someone else, talk about your own mistakes first.
  • Praise all improvements, no matter how slight.
  • If you want to change others, start with yourself first.
  • To feel important is one of the strongest human desires. Always make others feel important and never undermine anyone’s sense of importance.
  • Remember people’s names. A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
  • Express your ideas in a dramatic way. Use illustrations and showmanship to get your ideas across.

Recommendation


“Fundamental Techniques in Handling People”

To master the art of winning friends and influencing people, first learn and practice the three basic principles of dealing with people. Constantly remind yourself of the importance of these tenets. Review them, and consider how to apply them to your life. Employ them whenever you can, and even ask a friend, your partner or a business associate to remind you when you violate one of these precepts. As you practice, you should review your progress and keep notes showing when you have used each of these methods.

Principle 1: Be Nice

The first and foremost basic principle of handling people is to be nice. To this end, you shouldn’t criticize, condemn, or complain about people. Instead of judging people or disparaging them, you should try to understand them and to figure out why they do what they do. This way, you can be supportive, show sympathy, and be tolerant and kind. People like others who treat them in this way. Individuals respond positively to such an approach.

“Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home.”

You may need to exercise self-control to refrain from expressing your negative feelings about someone else, but do so. In fact, if you have the desire to change others, it’s more profitable to refocus your concentration on yourself.

Principle 2: Find Out What They Want

A second fundamental technique is recognizing what others want and giving it to them. People have several aspirations. Some of their most common desires include health and the preservation of life, food, sleep, money and the goods and services money can buy, sexual gratification, the well-being of their children, and a feeling of importance.

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

Most of these wants are usually fulfilled, except the desire to feel important, though that is a very strong basic desire. It’s the yearning that motivates individuals to wear the most fashionable styles, drive the most modern cars and seek success.

The way to understand a person’s basic character is to know what triggers his or her feeling of importance. Once you know that information, you can make that person feel important. At the same time, avoid saying or doing anything that undermines an individual’s sense of importance.

“Make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.”

For example, when offering feedback to an employee, use incentives rather than criticism to motivate him or her. Remember, nothing kills a person’s ambitions more effectively than criticism from a superior. Offer praise where you can, and be hesitant to find fault. However, avoid insincere flattery, as this doesn’t work well. Generally, people will see it as shallow and selfish. Instead, provide honest and sincere appreciation.

Principle 3: Help Them Get What They Want

The third fundamental principle is to stimulate an eager want in others. This principle works because all individuals are interested in getting what they want. So if you want to increase your influence over other people, find out what they want to accomplish and help them achieve it. To do this, it helps to understand their point of view and examine a situation from their perspective, as well as your own.

“Six Ways to Make People Like You”

To get people to like you, pay attention to others and show you are concerned about their well-being. Follow these six fundamental rules:

The First Rule

Become genuinely interested in other people. By doing so, you can gain the attention of others and secure their cooperation again and again. By showing a sincere interest in others, you, as a manager, can deepen your employees’ loyalty to your company as well, since people see you as a representative of your organization.

The Second Rule

Make a good first impression by smiling. This is important, since actions speak louder than words, and a smile helps to show people that you like them. It demonstrates that you are glad to see them and that you want to be friendly. Of course, a smile shouldn’t be an insincere grin. People resent such false and mechanical expressions. But a heartfelt smile that comes from within will help attract people to you.

The Third Rule

Learn people’s names. You can develop a simple technique to achieve this. When you meet someone for the first time, find out that person’s name as well as some facts about his or her family, business, or interests. Visualize this information as a picture in your mind. Then, when you see that person again, you will remember it. The power of recall is critical because people value their names highly, as reflected in the way many companies are named after their founders or the way donors give large bequests to organizations that name libraries, museums or other buildings after them.

The Fourth Rule

Be a good listener, and encourage people to talk about themselves. It is especially flattering to pay exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you, rather than looking around to see who else might be there. Listening is also a very important skill for someone in customer service. For example, if a client comes to complain, just listening attentively can help diffuse that customer’s anger. It may even make the person’s grievances disappear.

The Fifth Rule

Talk in a way that interests others. Speak about their hobbies and passions. Theodore Roosevelt mastered this skill. He was well-versed on a wide variety of topics. When he expected to meet with an important dignitary, he would study up on that person’s interests. This habit enabled Roosevelt to wow people with his wealth of knowledge. He knew that “the royal road to a person’s heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most.”

The Sixth Rule

Find a sincere way to make others feel important. For example, ask yourself what characteristics about other people you can honestly admire. The psychologist William James said that, “the deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

“The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.”

By showing your appreciation for others, you help nurture their feelings of self-importance. However, you need to be sincere when you show your gratitude so compliments don’t come across as insincere flattery.

“How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking”

Follow 12 techniques for convincing other people to believe what you are telling them. Consciously try to apply each method in your conversations:

  1. The only way to win an argument is to avoid it – Generally, disagreements only make others defensive, and a person who feels he or she has lost a dispute loses face. Once you get drawn into an argument, you can’t win, because if you lose it, you lose, and even if you win it, you lose. Thus, avoid engaging in a quarrel.
  2. Show respect for other people’s opinions – You don’t want to make others think you disagree with them with careless words, looks, intonations or gestures. When you challenge other people’s views, you make them want to strike back, not change their mind.
  3. Admit when you are wrong – If you make a mistake, acknowledge it quickly. Making such an admission is especially helpful when you know that others are thinking that you are wrong and want to say as much. It is easier to listen to self-criticism than criticism from others, and generally when you admit a mistake, other people are more likely to be forgiving and supportive. When you don’t, they are likely to be more critical and frustrated.
  4. Even if you are angry, begin in a friendly way – Use honey to make the medicine go down. You can’t win over someone who feels negativity toward you. But by soothing that feeling, you can start to bring that person around to your point of view.
  5. Get the other person to say “yes” in the beginning – Begin by discussing issues on which you both agree. Once you receive a “no” response, you will face a hurdle that you need to overcome, since your fellow discussant wants to remain consistent. Thus, it helps to start off with questions that will evoke a “yes” or a statement that will bring about agreement. Once the person is in the habit of saying yes, you can broach the harder questions.
  6. When dealing with complaints, let your clients do the talking – Allow them to say everything they want to say. As you listen, you will learn more about their business and their problems, and you will be in a better position to help. Listen patiently with an open mind, be sincere, and encourage your clients to express their concerns and ideas fully.
  7. Seek cooperation – Let the other party feel responsible for generating an idea. People have more faith in the suggestions that they themselves propose.
  8. See things from the other person’s point of view – Put yourself in the other person’s place so you can better understand what he or she wants and needs. This can be especially helpful if you are trying to sell someone a product or a course of action. This will help you understand what motivates the other person.
  9. Sympathize with what the other person thinks or wants – This way, even if you disagree or would do something differently, you show that you understand and empathize. Say something like: “I don’t blame you one iota for feeling as you do. If I were you I would undoubtedly feel just as you do.”
  10. Appeal to people’s higher aspirations and nobler motives – People usually have two reasons for doing something: the real reason and one that sounds good. Since people are idealists at heart and like to think they act out of good motives, you will have better luck in changing people by appealing to these positive intentions.
  11. Express your ideas in a dramatic way – By dramatizing your plans, you make them more powerful and persuasive. Use strong illustrations and showmanship to get your ideas across. This approach works well because merely stating a truth isn’t enough; the truth has to be vivid.
  12. Use a challenge to motivate others – This technique works because successful people love the chance to prove their worth. For example, the industrialist Charles Schwab once drew a large figure 6 on the floor of a mill to note how many items the day-shift employees made. The next day, when the night-shift staffers came in, they drew a 7 on the floor to show they had performed even better. That inspired the day-shift workers to toil even harder and place a 10 on the floor when they left. By expressing what he wanted, Schwab encouraged his staff to work more productively and more diligently. This tactic was more effective than if he had just asked his employees for improved work.

“Be a Leader”

If you are in a leadership position, employ nine important principles to motivate people to change without giving offense or arousing resentment:

  1. If you have to discuss a fault or a concern with someone, begin with sincere praise and honest appreciation.
  2. If someone makes a mistake, raise awareness of his or her mistakes indirectly.
  3. Before condemning another person, reveal your own mistakes first.
  4. Instead of giving someone a “direct order,” ask questions, such as “What do you think of this?” to let employees propose their own suggestions.
  5. Never put someone in a position where they lose face.
  6. Give improving employees praise, no matter how slight their progress.
  7. “Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.”
  8. Offer employees encouragement, and make their fault seem easy to rectify.
  9. Make other people feel happy about trying out your suggestions.

About the Author


Dale Carnegie was a well-known inspirational teacher and author who wrote a series of popular self-help books that sold millions of copies in the 1930s and 1940s. His books became the basis for a series of seminars and training programs and addressed the topics of self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. How to Make Friends and Influence People was first published in 1936. It became an instant hit and remains hugely popular today. Carnegie’s other books include How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking, How to Enjoy Your Life and Your Job, and The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking. Dale Carnegie died on November 1, 1955.

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The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow

By: John Maxwell


In the tradition of his million-seller The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, author John C. Maxwell provides a concise, accessible leadership book that helps readers become more effective leaders from the inside out. Daily readings highlight twenty-one essential leadership qualities and include Reflecting On It and Bringing It Home sections that help readers integrate and apply each days material.


Recommendation


Leadership expert, former preacher and prolific author John C. Maxwell asks readers to savor his chapters on the essential qualities of a leader a little at a time. He suggests reading one chapter a day like you are taking a vitamin, to give the lessons time to sink in with practice. Each of the 21 traits he cites stems from a basic value leaders can use to guide their actions. This follow-up to Maxwell’s useful 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is a thinner book in every way, though still nicely thoughtful. getAbstract recommends it as a source of inspiration for self-growth and reflection.


Takeaways


  • The first person you lead is yourself.
  • Followers are drawn to a leader’s character.
  • If you work to develop your character, you will improve as a leader.
  • Your vision inspires you and helps you inspire others.
  • It’s easier to accomplish goals when you take yourself out of the equation. In other words, focus on others.
  • Leaders work harder for longer periods.
  • Leaders have the courage to blaze new paths.
  • Leaders are more willing to take risks than most people. Of course, this means they’re likely to make more mistakes. Learn from your errors and move on.
  • You will draw people who are like you. If you don’t like the people you’re attracting, work on your own character.
  • Leadership skills evolve over time as the result of consistent effort.

Summary


1. “Character: Be a Piece of the Rock”

People are willing to follow leaders they believe have deep character. Bill Lear, inventor of the Lear corporate jet, is this kind of a leader. Just as his company was taking off (literally and figuratively), he discovered a dangerous defect in the aircraft and asked all the owners of new Lear jets to ground their planes. The delay was a big setback. Lear fixed the problem, but it took two years to rebuild the company. Another man might have been more cautious, but Lear sacrificed his success for the sake of his integrity. Like Bill Lear, you create your own character. A crisis such as Lear’s product defect often highlights a person’s character. In a bind, your actions will show if you are true to your intentions. Integrity emerges in what you do, not what you say. In fact, when talented people achieve phenomenal success and then break down, psychologist Steven Berglas says their fall is often due to the lack of a strong foundation of character. To build your character, beware of the “four A’s:” “arrogance, aloneness, adventure seeking and adultery.” Fend off weaknesses by distancing yourself from stress sources. Get professional help if needed. Face your character faults, so you can fix them.

2. “Charisma: The First Impression Can Seal the Deal”

You don’t need to be born with charisma; you can develop it. Become a person who embraces life – just like the kind of people you enjoy having around you. When you expect great things of others, usually they will rise to the occasion. If you can inspire others to hope, they will follow you willingly. The secret is to focus on them, not yourself. Then, the enemies of charisma – being conceited, lacking confidence, being pushed around by mood swings, demanding perfection and taking a cynical view – cannot undermine your personality.

3. “Commitment: It Separates Doers from Dreamers”

Michelangelo went to Rome to sculpt the papal tomb. Instead, the Pope asked him to paint the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo, who didn’t consider himself a painter, wanted to turn down the assignment, but he felt duty-bound to honor a request from the Pope. Once he committed to the work, he gave it his all, and created a lasting masterwork of colossal scale and beauty. It required lying on his back for four years and it permanently impaired his vision. Yet, the Sistine Chapel made him famous in his time and shaped the history of art. Michelangelo didn’t have to throw himself so whole-heartedly into this task, but once he agreed to it, his commitment was 100%. Commitment comes before accomplishment and is measured by what you achieve. Sometimes it is the only driving force you can rely on to press forward.

4. “Communication: Without It You Travel Alone”

To lead, communicate your ideas and your intentions succinctly. Convey a sense of excitement so people will follow you. Improve your communication skills by simplifying your message, focusing on your audience, speaking the truth, and asking for responses or actions. To focus on others, keep their concerns in mind. Determine what responses you want to elicit. Try to reach people on an emotional level with simplicity and clarity as your watchwords. Work to convey important ideas without making them complicated.

5. “Competence: If You Build It, They Will Come”

The biggest secret to becoming more competent is working at it every day. Aim for high quality in everything you do. To motivate others to adopt your goals, you must be capable and inspirational. Find ways to boost your performance levels and keep them high. Measure your ability to perform consistently at the top of your game.

6. “Courage: One Person with Courage Is a Majority”

A leader often must take greater risks than ordinary people, so you may have to do things that scare you. Leaders frequently struggle inwardly before facing an outward battle, but they must know where they stand – and when to stand firm. People always worry, whether they face big risks or small ones. What would you rather worry about: trivia or real achievement? If you’re worrying anyway, make it count. Face your fears. Build your courage. The more you do it, the more you will feel you can accomplish – and your courage will inspire others.

7. “Discernment: Put an End to Unsolved Mysteries”

Discernment allows a leader to wade through lots of data and get to the heart of an issue, but it requires rational thought and intuition. Thinking rationally can help you sort information so you begin to get a full picture, while intuition can fill the gaps in your understanding. Discernment helps you know when and where you need to show up; that’s how leaders create opportunities.

8. “Focus: The Sharper It Is, the Sharper You Are”

Consistency is a great benefit of focus. Boost your priorities by harnessing your concentration. Dwell on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Devote 70% of your time and resources to developing your current strengths, 25% to developing new strengths and 5% to improving any weaknesses. Stick to your strengths and delegate to cover your weak areas. Considering your priorities, determine how to take your strengths to the next level.

9. “Generosity: Your Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another”

Contentment begets generosity. To give, you must feel grateful for what you have. The crucial requirement for generosity is putting other people’s needs ahead of yours and fighting against the “desire to acquire.”

“Commitment always precedes achievement.”

People think that the more they own, the more they control their lives, but the obsession for possession is a corrupting illusion. Don’t hold money too tightly. It’s only as good as what it buys. Whether those purchases have value is up to you. Use your money for philanthropy and for accomplishing meaningful purposes.

10. “Initiative: You Won’t Leave Home Without It”

Leaders take immediate advantage of opportunity. They develop the skill to take quick action. In part, this comes from being sure of what they want. Since leaders are willing to take more risks, they also end up making more mistakes than those who take no chances. Leaders are willing to live with the discomfort of pushing themselves into new territory. If you have trouble initiating action, figure out why you hesitate. Address your issues. Focus on the full potential of your opportunity.

11. “Listening: To Connect with Their Hearts, Use Your Ears”

Oprah Winfrey is best known for talking, but her real talent is listening. Really listening to others is a prerequisite to making a meaningful connection. If your goals don’t resonate with others, they won’t follow you. Leaders care about their company’s customers and listen equally to positive or negative comments. Really hearing what your customers perceive may yield new opportunities, while listening to your competition will expand your knowledge. When you listen, go beyond facts. Try to hear the speaker’s feelings. Ask questions to find out who the customer is as an individual. Seek common ground to forge a sincere connection.

12. “Passion: Take This Life and Love It”

The greater your passion, the greater the results. You need passion to inspire others. Your passion will make your followers believe that your mission is achievable. Passion leads to accomplishment, boosts your determination, enables you to beat the odds and makes you more devoted to your goals. If you lack passion for your current work, consider going back to something you loved doing earlier in your life.

13. “Positive Attitude: If You Believe You Can, You Can”

A positive attitude can help you overcome life’s hurdles. Being positive is contagious and inspires others to have hope. Remember that no matter what’s happened to you in the past, you have the power to create whatever attitude you desire today. You will attract people who are like you. Be positive to draw positive people.

14. “Problem Solving: You Can’t Let Your Problems Be a Problem”

Sam Walton began his retail career in a small town, Bentonville, Arkansas. He opened his first Wal-Mart down the road from his home to compete with the new wave of discount stores that swept the country in the ’60s. He was really just solving a problem. As Wal-Mart grew, bigger problems presented themselves and Walton solved them innovatively. His ability made his store a successful model for discount retailers. At every juncture in its growth, Walton faced a “sink or swim” problem. His genius was his ability to keep swimming. The rest is history. Good leaders see problems coming. They face dilemmas by viewing them as accurately as possible and working for improvement. Keeping the big picture in mind, leaders focus on one solution at a time so they can make systematic progress toward their goals. Once committed to solving a problem, leaders are relentless, even when the going gets tough.

15. “Relationships: If You Get Along, They’ll Go Along”

Building good relationships starts with having common sense about human nature. For instance, people want to feel that they are special, so offer them specific, sincere compliments. People look to leaders for hope and guidance. If you can provide that, they will follow you. When you propose a course of action, illustrate how your plan addresses the issues that matter to others. Encourage those around you to persevere. If you want to be a leader, put the needs of others ahead of your own. Serve them.

16. “Responsibility: If You Won’t Carry the Ball, You Can’t Lead the Team”

Leaders embrace responsibility. They know that, no matter what, the buck stops with them. Successful people are hard working. They work diligently. They labor toward excellence and don’t stop until they achieve it. Following through to the last detail is crucial.

17. “Security: Competence Never Compensates for Insecurity”

Your followers want – and need – you to offer them a sense of security. If you are insecure, you cannot make them feel secure. Insecure people constantly look for approval, so they find it hard to reassure others. Good leaders aren’t afraid to share power, but insecure people are. In fact, someone who is insecure may prevent others from shining. Improve your sense of confidence by practicing ways to give credit away and uplift others.

18. “Self-Discipline: The First Person You Lead Is You”

Establish habits that help you meet your daily priorities. Develop discipline related to your goals. Self-discipline helps you stick with good habits, making them part of everyday life. It helps you focus on the rewards of your efforts, not the difficulty of the path.

19. “Servanthood: To Get Ahead, Put Others First”

During the Vietnam War, General H. Norman Schwartzkopf routinely went by helicopter to any place where a soldier got injured to check on the wounded man personally and helicopter him back out.

“You’ve got to love your people more than your position.”

During one trip, a soldier accidentally triggered a land mine near the General’s helicopter. The man fell, flailing, hurt and scared. Schwartzkopf realized that the soldier probably could be saved, but only if he could stop moving. The general walked carefully through the mine-laden field, and lay down atop the soldier until he got him to be still. In that moment, he defined his leadership by using his body to calm the terrified soldier. When you put others first, you serve without expecting a reward.

20. “Teachability: To Keep Leading, Keep Learning”

The actions that made you successful are not necessarily the ones that will keep you on top. Once you reach a goal, don’t rest on your laurels. Determine how you need to grow to reach your next goal. There are no shortcuts to knowledge. You must learn things for yourself, so you have the information to make up your own mind. The more you grow and accomplish, the more mistakes you may make. It’s only natural. Don’t dwell on your mistakes. Don’t let them stop you, just remember the lesson so you never repeat the same mistake.

21. “Vision: You Can Seize Only What You Can See”

Vision inspires a leader to inspire others. A vision comes from within. If you don’t have a vision, find a leader whose goals you trust or seek the advice of a mentor with experience that is germane to your quest. A deep, clear vision adds value to the lives of those you serve. Listen to your inner voice. Follow your dreams and pay attention to what really matters in your life. That’s where vision comes from, but you have to hear it, see it and act on it.


About the Author


Former preacher John C. Maxwell is a leadership expert and the founder of a leadership consulting company. He lectures on leadership principles and is the author of several leadership bestsellers, including 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

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