Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 - John C. Maxwell (?????)

Week 13 - Book 13

This book taught me so much in such a short span. It is a relatively quick book that I blazed through in a couple of days. I didn’t want to keep it down because there was no random fluff or filler and every page taught me something new.

My key takeaways were:

1. Leadership is influence

If I were to carry forward one learning from this book for the rest of my life, it would be this. I learned the five levels of leadership and the reasons why people will be influenced by you. It is a fantastic hierarchy and absolutely one worth following in life.

i. People first follow you because they have to, because you are in a position of influence.

ii. Then they follow you because of the relationships they build with you, because they want to.

iii. Beyond that, people will continue to follow you because you deliver results consistently. Many people settle at this stage and while it is not a bad place to be, it is not the culmination of one’s true potential as a leader.

iv. The fourth stage of influence is when people believe in you as a leader because of what you have done for them. There is a sense of loyalty and reciprocity that comes here and people want to follow someone who has had their back.

v. The pinnacle of leadership is Respect. People look up to you and because of what you represent. You have gone beyond simple influence here and stepped into the realm of empowering every individual and every organization to achieve more. People respect you for enabling them to be more.

2. Prioritization

This book reaffirmed some very wise words my manager had said to me a few years ago. Everything in life is a function of prioritization. If you feel you are falling short of time to do the things that are important to you, it’s merely because you’re not prioritizing those things above what you’re doing. It’s the 80-20 rule as usual; 20% of the work you do yields 80% of the result. So focus your energy on the high impact decisions in your life.

3. Ethics and Attitude matter

The first part of the book taught me why people will follow a leader. This part taught me why people continue to follow one. Ethics and attitude are what keep people invested over long periods of time. They are the foundation, the cornerstone on which one’s leadership is built. They are non-negotiable.

4. Problem solvers and People movers

People will follow someone who solves their problems. I learned how to identify and tackle the source of a problem rather than the symptom. This has often been a mistake I’ve made and this was a helpful eye-opener that helped me reflect on my technique. I also learned the importance of delegation and why scale matters. A natural leader moves from problem solving to people moving. People will buy into a leader before they buy into their ideas; become a leader worth buying into.

5. Vision

For me, personally, this was the hardest part of this book. Some of the concepts were beyond my grasp today and I absolutely need to read up more on how to develop good long term vision. It is one of the most critical aspects of being a leader and also one of the most ambiguous.

If you’ve made it this far, feel free to leave a quick note below with your feedback on the takeaways as well as recommendations for this genre.

In case we haven’t met before, I’m Rohan Kamath.

Thank you for reading. I hope I could help you smile today. :)