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57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Up to Maxwell's Usual Standards, January 10, 2006
This review is from: The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization (Hardcover)
I have read and then reviewed most of Maxwell's previously published books which offer solid content, if not head-snapping revelations. For The 360º Leader, he has selected an important but neglected business subject: the middle manager who has far more responsibility than authority, who struggles to earn respect from her or his peers while accommodating the needs and interests of superiors, and who frequently feels overworked and under appreciated. That situation is even worse when reporting to the kind of pedant whom Jean Lipman-Blumen describes in The Allure of Toxic Leaders. As usual, Maxwell has organized his material with almost mechanical precision: a separate chapter devoted to each of seven "Myths" in Section I, to each of seven "Challenges" in Section II, to each of seven "Lead-Up Principles" in Section III, to each of seven "Lead-Across Principles" in Section IV...you get the idea. Perhaps because of Covey's influence, seven remains a favorite number to Maxwell and to other authors of business books.
I do not assert that Maxwell has a "cookie cutter" mentality. Rather, to suggest that he demonstrates in this book far greater facility with bromides than he does with insights. He is a conscientious recycler of ideas, especially those expressed in his earlier books. I found much in The 360º Leader that is clever but very little that is original. I appreciate the "Review" at the conclusion of each of the five sections. I regret that he merely lists the seven whatevers without annotations which would have made a periodic review of key points more rewarding.
With regard to this book's title, I think it has far greater potentiality than what Maxwell offers. It is indeed highly desirable for all managers -- not only those in the shrinking middle of once hierarchical organizations -- to maintain a synoptic (i.e. a 360º) perspective on the business world which surrounds them. Peripheral vision is no longer sufficient. Moreover, it is also important to "look" up -- at goals yet to be reached or visions yet to be fulfilled, for example -- and to "look" down to make certain that one's feet are on solid ethical ground. In my opinion, Maxwell fails to demonstrate a 360º perspective on his subject: how to develop (positive and productive) influence from anywhere in the organization.
There is also the matter of how one defines "leadership." Presumably Maxwell agrees with me that it is not dependent on one's rank, social status, title, salary, etc. Rather, it is the result of natural talents and innate qualities which have been carefully developed, indeed nourished. (Maxwell has much of value to say about that in other books.) Add some good luck, fortuitous timing, and a spoonful of "street smarts" and you have someone whom others respect and trust, someone whom others will voluntarily follow. What I think Maxwell means by "leadership" is actually initiative, one of the qualities most highly praised by Napoleon Hill who stressed the importance of "going the extra mile" and by Dale Carnegie when explaining how to win friends and influence people. Maxwell acknowledges neither in this book.
I have indicated my disappointment in a book I was so eager to read. Presumably it will be of interest and value to some people. If so, good for them as well as for Maxwell. However, I suspect there are others who need thought-provoking insights rather than the broad generalities on which so much of Maxwell's narrative depends. To them I strongly recommend James O'Toole's Creating the Good Life and Michael Ray's The Highest Goal. Neither is an "easy read." Fair enough. Neither are many of the situations we face in our lives each day.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally a book for those middle leaders with ants in their pants., January 9, 2006
This review is from: The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization (Hardcover)
John Maxwell hits another home run. If you are a Maxwell addict like me you will enjoy this book. I have almost read every book Maxwell has put out. And if you are anything like me you finish each of his books with things you can implement immediately and something's you know your leaders do wrong and get ants in your pants trying to find a way to help them be a better leader. As you may have read in "Developing The Leader Within You" or in "Developing The Leaders Around You" you know there is some discomfort in having a leader above you with less potential than you have grown to be. This book helps you find a way to shake some of those ants out. This is the how to guide to implementing these two books with some new good stuff for "leading-up." He continues in the format you have come accustomed to. It has many sub-sections to each chapter; this makes the book easy to squeeze in to your busy schedule a paragraph at a time. My only distaste of this book was the section reviews. I did not find them much help. Most of the review sections are the same as the table of contents (granted Maxwell's books have great TOC's) and a quick commercial, reminder, for the website 360DegreeLeader.com. The website required a lot personal information just to create a profile. (Password is in the jacket, so if you buy it used make sure this is still included. The survey was valuable.
-Lee
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable reflections for the middle manager, January 12, 2006
This review is from: The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization (Hardcover)
I do not share the somewhat down reviews of this book, and give it five stars to make that point. Instead of seeing this book as uninspired, I actually see it as reflective, and helpful in showing that we often overlook some of our most potential contributions.
Above all, the book stresses relationships and the nurturing of relationships up, down, sideways, all over. For this alone it is meritorious. The book also concludes with a comparison of the industrial era leaders versus the new leaders who take risks, serve others, nurture outsiders, etcetera.
My appreciation of this book is influenced by my interview of Alvin Toffler last night at the Lowes hotel in Beverly Hills. The new book that he and Heidi Toffler have coming out, on "Revolutionary Wealth," has many important insights but among those he summarized for me last night were three that help show the value of this book:
1) Sub-state and non-governmental organizations have been as important if not more important than national governments. How we study them, interact with them, nurture our relations with them, will have a lot to do with how promising a future we build.
2) The industrial era corporations and government bureaucracies are broken beyond repair. Entirely new network and localized alternative organizations are emerging or needed, that take a task force approach that fully integrates what have up to now been confrontational forces (e.g. Defense versus State).
3) Decision making is broken also. The scientific method is repressed and under-funded, while decisions are made based on shared assumptions, comfort levels, and consensus, regardless of what the facts are.
This excellent book is on a level with the Tofflers, and in my own view, is a fine primer for middle managers that would like to avoid becoming yes men drones under the dinosaurs, and instead break out to find new paths to moral capitalist success.
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