Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (Hardcover)

by John C. Maxwell (Author) "I often open my leadership conferences by explaining what I call the Law of the Lid because it helps people understand the value of leadership..." (more)
Key Phrases: high urgency, empowering others, United States, Roberto Goizueta, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This diminutive tome is a particularly sketchy treatise on the already vague subject of leadership, stitched together with excerpts from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and other Maxwell books and featuring an ad at the back directing readers to a Web site where they can buy one of the author's longer works. Maxwell's themes-don't just pull rank, don't sweat the small stuff, establish rapport with co-workers, "empower" underlings-are commonplaces of leadership lore, couched in aphorisms ("The boss says 'I'; the leader, 'we'"), pseudo-statistics ("Twenty percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production") and bromides ("If you lack vision, look inside yourself"). But in distilling this wisdom, the nitty-gritty that might make it useful has been boiled off, leaving readers to grapple unaided with bullet-pointed truisms like "Deal wisely with difficult people." Perfunctory leadership profiles of usual suspect Theodore Roosevelt, Princess Di, executives and football notables scarcely flesh out the meager intellectual content of this book, which seems, more than anything, like a $10 congrats card for the recently promoted.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Drawing from John Maxwell's bestsellers Developing the Leader Within You, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, and Becoming a Person of Influence, Leadership 101 explores the timeless principles that have become Dr. Maxwell's trademark style. In a concise, straightforward style, Maxwell focuses on essential and time-tested qualities necessary for true leadership --influence, integrity, attitude, vision, problem-solving, and self-discipline --and guides readers through practical steps to develop true leadership in their lives and the lives of others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (September 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785264191
• ISBN-13: 978-0785264194
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful Summary of Dr. Maxwell's Leadership Concepts, June 1, 2003

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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 Leader

1. 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 Roosevelt

Part II: The Traits of a Leader

3. How Can I Become Disciplined? Jerry Rice

4. How Should I Prioritize My Life? Paul Tsongas

5. How Do I Develop Trust? Billy Graham

6. How Can I Effectively Cast Vision? Walt Disney

Part III: The Impact of Leader

7. Why Is Influence Important? Princess Diana

8. How Does Influence Work? Robert Dilenschneider

9. How Can I Extend My Influence? His father

10. How Can I Make My Leadership Last? Roberto Goizueta

Finally, 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!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leadership 101 by John Maxwell, August 6, 2005

By	Elijah Chingosho "Dr Elijah Chingosho" (Nairobi, Kenya) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Many people attain positions of leadership in the organisations, community and other spheres of life but with no guidance of what good leadership entails. John Maxwell did a good job of writing a small book packed with useful guidance on how to be an effective leader. He divided the book into three parts. The first part describes how one can develop as a leader, whilst the second part explains the traits of a leader and the last part is on the impact that a leader can have on people.

The need for a clear vision as a leader becomes very apparent after reading the book. As a leader one should be aiming at producing a lasting legacy, that is, one should be aiming at making a difference to the lives of others. Followers should be willing to follow you because of the positive influence that you have on people as a good leader. To be an effective leader, one needs to continually develop oneself. High quality leadership entails empowering others to exercise their huge potential for the benefit of the organisation or the team. Followers have to trust you as a leader and trust has to be earned from one's actions.

One cannot hope to be an exceptional leader unless one is self-disciplined. Leadership starts with being able to lead yourself before one can lead others.

The book is written in simple easy to follow style which makes it readable by anyone at leadership position in an organisation or other sphere of life.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good entry level book into the world of leadership., December 13, 2004

By	Jon Barstow - See all my reviews

John C. Maxwell has apparently spent the majority of his life striving to become one of the leading members of society. Maxwell is an ex-preacher, a key notes speaker, and runs a leadership development consultant firm. Needless to say Maxwell's rhetoric is very impressive. I enjoyed "Leadership 101" as much as anybody can really enjoy a textbook. I felt that the book was very well organized, but that Maxwell used his stunning organization to tip-toe around the fact that the book actually contained few useful guidelines to becoming a leader.
It is not very often that you find a book so well written that you do not mind reading on despite that lack of inspiration from the text. John Maxwell does cover many topics concerning leadership during his book. Such topics are the Lid of Leadership, or the Four Stages of Developing into a Leader, and the Development of Personal Vision. These topics cover tangible ideas about leadership theory, but do not really create any solid conclusions about how the reader should begin to attain these goals. Maxwell uses stories about famous icons such as Jerry Rice, Princess Dianna, and Mother Theresa to explain his theories of how to become a leader, but somewhere along the way the messages seem to fall shortof their goal. The stories seem to overwhelm the information, and Maxwell offers no real plan to the reader to follow on their own
As a student of Communications I am very aware of the ideas that leaders are born and also created. but to a certain degree all characteristics of being a good leader can be studied, copied, and eventually learned. This journey towards leadership, even if guided by a personal mentor, will always be a personal experience. Despite this,you would think that after 21 books on Leadership John C. Maxwell would have developed a more tangible plan for his audience to follow.
In defense of this book, I am aware that it is one of Maxwell's shorter works, and that with a more compact text not all the information required to become a leader can be squished into just 108 pages. If I was to describe the type of person I would recommend this book for I would have to say a person looking for an entry-level book on the topic of Leadership. This book will give you a good base structure from which to work. Maxwell emphasizes that individuals must work on personal traits such as discipline, perseverance and commitment, while working towards developing their personal character. This is important ground work for anybody working towards becoming a leader.
Unfortunately I would say that a more advanced student of leadership would be mildly disappointed by this book. If you are a fan of Maxwell's work and wish to check it out; I would recommend this book as a quick read while traveling. This book will remind you of the qualities you must possess as you continue your journey towards becoming a leader. Maxwell's "Leadership 101" will be a nice refresher course, but if you are a true leader you will be thirsty for more information when you finish the last page.