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Introduction

John Maxwell’s  “Developing The Leader Within You 2.0” is an immersive experience. Organized in ten chapters, Maxwell employs a diverse toolkit. Within each chapter he uses steps, directions, formulas, questions, stories, diagrams, and other tools to help you truly visualize the next steps in advancing your leadership. By using these tools, Maxwell does a great job of explaining how to develop the leader within you. This book is an engaging adventure, so join me as we explore each of Maxwell’s ten leadership fundamentals. We will uncover the transformative insights and challenges Maxwell lays out for us.

The Definition of Leadership: Influence

Maxwell begins his exploration of leadership by describing  five levels of leadership. Starting from the bottom, the levels are position, permission, production, people development, and pinnacle. Throughout the levels, you should grow from a leader who only has followers because of your leadership position, into a peak of respect where you have followers because of how you lead and what you represent. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” (Maxwell, 2018, p.12). This quote is one of my favorites, and I believe it  represents the chapter well. This chapter and quote made me think about the importance of building and maintaining relationships. Within each of these levels, Maxwell provided stories that are funny and easy to understand. Maxwell also relates the levels to previous stages of his life and leadership positions, and talks about how he has grown over time. Maxwell’s description of influence helped me better understand the personal aspect of leadership.

The Key To Leadership: Priorities

Next, Maxwell identifies that the key to leadership is setting priorities. Maxwell identifies that as humans we prioritize second things first, and these tasks steal a lot of our time. If you are not prioritizing correctly, then nothing is a priority. You have to make choices in order to be successful. I think I can speak for many people when I say I get stupid things done first to check them off a list. Maxwell helped me truly see why this is a problem. He says that we should organize things by how important and urgent they are in order to determine their priority. You can also use the 80/20 rule which says that 20 percent of priorities will give you 80 percent of your production, if you're prioritizing correctly. You can also use the Three R’s, requirement, return, and reward, to identify priorities. Prioritization is vital to maintain your priorities. He also provides worksheets on how to manage these tools. If you struggle with prioritizing miniscule tasks over important goals, Maxwell includes steps to help you manage your priorities well. 

The Foundation of Leadership: Character

Next, Maxwell identifies that the foundation of leadership is character. I had never thought about the importance of leading myself before reading this book. It’s easy to lead others, but leading yourself is a different story. If you truly are someone of character, you are worthy of anything. Something I hadn’t thought about when it comes to character is that you can not change how you started, but you can change how it’s going to end. Your character influences your trust, talent, and inner peace. If you are internally achieving, your reality on the outside will reflect this. People value other people, not companies. This chapter Maxwell uses reminders that make you rethink the importance of character. If you can embrace good values, practice self-leadership, and value people, then you can develop your character.

The Ultimate Test of Leadership: Creating Positive Change

Maxwell uses an acrostic, a poem in which each first letter of a new line spells out a word or message, called “PLANAHEAD” to help you understand and develop creating positive change which I found very helpful and easy to follow. Predetermine needed change, lay out steps, Adjust priorities, Notify crucial people, Allow time, Head the action, Expect issues, Always signal to successes, and Daily progress review. The key to this acrostic is credibility. Understandably, people will buy into you before they buy into your vision. Your credibility can eventually lead to authority. You can apply this process to anything, it’s easy to follow and engage with. 

The Quickest Way to Gain Leadership: Problem Solving

Problems are unavoidable, thinking problems will not occur is unrealistic. Maxwell identifies that as a leader, you should expect to problem solve and know it’s going to happen. I also learned that problems will make you better if you handle them correctly. If you can keep perspective, your personal values, find humor, avoid feeling sorry for yourself, avoid blaming others, and work towards problem solving then your number of problems will decrease. Everyone knows the old saying that emphasizes how you can’t do more than one thing at a time, the same is true for problem solving. If you are solving one problem, don’t try and solve another before the first one is finished. Maxwell stresses the importance of problem solving in leader development, “What you face helps you face yourself, and what you are able to carry defines you” (Maxwell, 2018, p.102). You have to work your way through problems to move forward!

 The Extra Plus in Leadership: Attitude

This was an interesting perspective involving attitudes. This perspective dealt with gratefulness and how it correlates into your attitude. This stood out to me because it shows the importance of appreciating what you have often. The first step to fixing your attitude is never making excuses for yourself. This is something that I personally lose sight of, and I think other people do as well. The lesson I found most eye opening was that “It is hard to discover when your mind is made up” (Maxwell, 2018, p.127). So many great reminders that seem so simple and easy, yet they seem to get lost within our own egos. It’s important to adjust your attitude, everyone needs to do at some point in their life..

 The Heart of Leadership: Serving People

Maxwell suggests that the heart of leadership is serving people. Maxwell’s definition helps you understand how true this statement really is. For The Heart of Leadership, I feel as if many quotes speak for themselves. I am going to list them below and I think you will feel the same way as I do.

• “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Maxwell, 2018, p.149).

• “Servant leaders should listen without judgment, be authentic, build community, share power, and develop people” (Maxwell, 2018, p.149).

• “The goal is more important than the role” (Maxwell, 2018, p. 153).

• “I don’t appreciate the struggles most people deal with” (Maxwell, 2018, p.157).

• “As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness” (Maxwell, 2018, p.159).

The Indispensable Quality of Leadership: Vision

Before I read Maxwell’s book, the term “vision” confused me. I know what the words mean, but why did my vision matter? Why was it such a big deal? I started reading and stumbled upon “Good leaders don’t allow themselves to be dragged down into mundane territory. They set their eyes to the horizon and their hearts on their people” (Maxwell, 2018, p.169). Your vision should be one of your top priorities and you should be actively looking for people who want to expand your vision! Vision is so much more than just an idea, it guides you. You should keep your vision near and always look ahead.

The Price Tag of Leadership: Self-Discipline

Maxwell identifies that the price tag for leadership is self-discipline. A key takeaway from this is that you need control over yourself before you can control any person or thing.  To maintain self control, you must remain disciplined. Anything and everything you desire to achieve is going to be an uphill battle. Nothing will come easy, which is why it’s so vital to maintain self-discipline. It’s at your hardest points where you grow the most as an individual. If you aren’t growing, you are moving backwards.

The Expansion of Leadership: Personal Growth

As Maxwell’s final principle, Maxwell motivates you to achieve all of your goals and lessons learned throughout the book. As you grow personally, your hope will also grow. Growing today is something to look forward to tomorrow. Isn’t that exciting? This puts things into perspective. Are you willing to take risks and face challenges to achieve your dreams? I hope so. You should be. Growing is changing, and you should always strive for growth no matter what. “Growth’s highest reward is not what we get from it, but what we become because of it” (Maxwell, 2018, p. 223)

Conclusion

Overall, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. I truly felt motivated and really enjoyed the layout of the book. The chapters are set up so strategically and clearly. There are also plenty of quotes, stories, and thoughts to really help you understand the importance behind all of the factors talked about within the ten chapters. I would recommend it to anyone with any sort of leadership position. This book is for people of all ages and ranges of experience. Everyone has to start somewhere, no matter what you are doing in life or what stage of life you are in. The real question is whether or not you are ready to start your own personal journey to greatness. The writing style Maxwell used really helped me understand the concepts and steps. By using many examples, quotes, personal stories, diagrams, acronyms, and other techniques, I was able to apply the concepts to my life and goals.