Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know

Leadership could a very vague concept. The book explains leadership in a way that provides a clear understanding of the concept of leadership and allows readers to take steps to improve the leadership skills. I have read the book 6+ times and have given out 7 copies to people in my workplace. It is a wonderful book for anyone who wants to be a leader.

The author of this book has written over 25 books on leadership, and here he tries to distill a lifetime of thought, practice, and study to produce an introduction to the subject. This book is not and does not pretend to be comprehensive, but it is useful to students of the ever growing field of leadership studies and to practioners in a myriad of fields. While this book invokes Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter, Princess Diana, General "Black Jack Pershing, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier, football star Jerry Rice, basketball star Jerry West, U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas, National Hockey League coach Mike Keenan, among others, the thrust of this book is on business leadership--with heroes like Walt Disney, Roy Kroc of McDonald's, and Roberto Guizeta of Coca Cola. The field of leadership studies is more and more entering the turf of the social sciences, with numerous case studies and comparative studies, but this volume does not go there. Anecdotes are piled upon anecdotes to make point after point. A person less credible than the author, one of the most prolific writers on the subject, would meet more resistance with his generalizations. The level of leadership in an organization serves as a lid on how successful an organization can be, the author says. The hire the level of leadership, the greater the potential of an organization. He speaks approvingly of the philosophy of firing old leaders when taking over a failing organization. "The higher the leadership, the greater the effectiveness," he says. "Leadership develops daily and not in a day," he says. In other words, building leadership skills is the work of a lifetime. The four phases of leadership growth are (1) "I don't know what I don't know;" (2) "I know what I don't know;" (3) "I grow and know and it starts to show;" and (4) "I go because of what I know." There are no overnight successes, he says. The catchiness of this description might lead some to take it less serioiusly than it deserves to be taken. A good leader, he says, has the traits of being disciplined. That includes "the discipline to prioritize and the ability to work toward a stated goal...." He draws distinctions between leaders and followers: (1) leaders initiate, while followers react; (2) leaders pick up the phone and make contact, while followers wait for the phone to ring; (3) leaders spend time planning and anticipate problems, while followers spend time living day to day reacting to problems; (4) leaders invest time with people, while followers spend time with people; (5) leaders fill the calendar by priorities, while followers fill the calendar by requests. Leaders keep priorities in place by evaluating requirements, return, and reward. They eliminate unnecessary work by asking what can be done by someone else. They ask subordinates what are the top projects they are going and how long it will take. He quotes a survey of regrets of people 95 and over conducted by

A leader cant lead without vision. He/she cant reach that vision without people who are willing to follow and share that same vision. And in order for others to follow that leader has to show integrity, passion and earn respect in the process. He/she has to put the interest of the organization and its people above his/her own personal interests... then he/she can earn the title of a leader.

I was torn in deciding how to grade this book. Clearly, anyone who has already enjoyed most of Dr. Maxwell's outstanding leadership books would find this book to be a valuable, inexpensive and highly portable reminder of those many lessons. For that person, the book is clearly a five star value! Carry it around and draw sustenance from it!! My rating above reflects this perspective, since there are lots of people who do know his work well. When you face a leadership challenge, pull this book out to refocus you and your energies in the right direction!What about the person who's new to leadership? I would have to grade the book much lower, probably a 2 or 3. Somewhere in the middle of the book (probably between chapters 5-7), most people new to leadership would lose the thread. It's just a little too condensed. In addition, I just didn't think that several of the examples worked for the point they attempted to make. For instance, Dr. Maxwell could have found more meaningful examples for me than Princess Diana and Roberto Goizueta if I were a new leader. I would nominate instead Barbara Bush for her caring and Frances Hesselbein for preparing successors.Here are the book's structure and key examples for its 108 jam-packed pages:Part I: The Development of a Leader1. Why Should I Grow as a Leader? The McDonald brothers versus Ray Kroc in developing McDonalds. 2. How Can I Grow as a Leader? Teddy RooseveltPart II: The Traits of a Leader3. How Can I Become Disciplined? Jerry Rice4. How Should I Prioritize My Life? Paul Tsongas5. How Do I Develop Trust? Billy Graham6. How Can I Effectively Cast Vision? Walt DisneyPart III: The Impact of Leader7. Why Is Influence Important? Princess Diana8. How Does Influence Work? Robert Dilenschneider9. How Can I Extend My Influence? His father10. How Can I Make My Leadership Last? Roberto GoizuetaFinally, what's the best part of the book? For me, it was the repetition of the Law of the Lid: Your ability to accomplish things is circumscribed until you can energize others in the same purpose. There's a nice set of graphic displays to make this point. As a technical note, some of the information in the examples seemed dated. I don't believe that Mr. Dilenschneider has been head of Hill & Knowlton for many years . . . yet that's the way he is described. Roberto Goizueta's hand-picked successor at Coca-Cola, Douglas Ivester, did not work out (although he is described as a great success here) and had to be replaced. Paul Tsongas later reentered politics to run for president rather than smelling the roses with his family (even though he had had a recurrence of the cancer that soon killed him). It's almost as though these examples were all written a number of years ago, and not revisited.Draw inspiration from your vision of serving others . . . and get busy!

Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs To Know by John Maxwell (a gifted public speaker and the founder of "INJOY", an organization helping people maximizing their personal and leadership potential) is a concise and profound guidebook to unlocking one's inner potential to influence, motivate, and unite others toward a common goal. Tips, tricks, techniques, insight, keys to self-confidence and more fill this practical and resourceful pocket resource. Leadership 101 is strongly recommended, highly rewarding reading for anyone with leadership responsibilities or aspirations.