The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization [Hardcover]

John C. Maxwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

Don't wait for that promotion!

Start leading NOW... right where you are!

What's the number one question leadership expert John C. Maxwell is asked while conducting his leadership conferences?  "How can I implement what you teach when I'm not the top leader?"

Is it possible to lead well when you're not the top dog?  How about if the person you work for is a bad leader?  The answer is a resounding yes!  

Welcome to The 360° Leader.  People who desire to lead from the middle of organizations face unique challenges.  And they are often held back by myths that prevent them from developing their influence.  Dr. Maxwell, one of the globe's most trusted leadership mentors, debunks the myths, shows you how to overcome the challenges, and teaches you the skills you need to become a 360° leader.

If you have found yourself trying to lead from the middle of the organization, as the vast majority of professionals do, then you need Maxwell's insights.  You have a unique opportunity to exercise influence in all directions-up (to the boss), across (among your peers), and down (to those you lead).

The good news is that your influence is greater than you know.  Practice the disciplines of 360° leadership and the opportunities will be endless... for your organization, for your career, and for your life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this latest treatise, leadership mega-guru Maxwell (The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership) taps a rich vein of corporate angst: the plight of the middle manager, saddled with responsibilities but lacking real power, torn by conflicting tasks and time-management dilemmas, seething with thwarted ambition. As Macbeth shows, it's a predicament fraught with tragic potential, but the staid, platitudinous treatment given it by Maxwell and ghostwriter Charlie Wetzel drains away the drama. They generally counsel acceptance of limitations. Maxwell tells middle managers to work diligently in subordinate positions, support the CEO's vision, find the good in incompetent or malevolent leaders, infiltrate their bosses' emotional lives ("Listen to your leader's heartbeat.... What makes them laugh?... Cry?.... Sing?") and "stand up for your leader whenever you can." They can thus exert an unsung but crucial "influence" over higherups, while themselves practicing a higher, sublimated form of leadership by selflessly nurturing the potential of their own colleagues and underlings. Unfortunately, Maxwell's practical advice boils down to vague truisms ("when you find a problem, provide a solution") or clichés ("If your boss is a golfer, you may want to take up the game"). His bland injunctions to resignation, patience and self-effacement are unobjectionable, but also uninspiring. (Jan. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

John C. Maxwell is an internationally respected leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold more than 19 million books. He is the founder of EQUIP, a non-profit organization that has trained more than 5 million leaders in 126 countries. Read his blog at JohnMaxwellOnLeadership.com.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785260927
• ISBN-13: 978-0785260929
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (143 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 19 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, organizations that have trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books which have each sold more than one million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. You can find him at JohnMaxwell.com and follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

(What's this?)

#8 in Books > Business & Investing

#23 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#46 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

#51 in Books > Self-Help

#8 in Books > Business & Investing

#23 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#46 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

#51 in Books > Self-Help

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 73 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Up to Maxwell's Usual Standards January 10, 2006

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format: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 360ş 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 360ş 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 360ş) 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 360ş 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. Read more ›

19 of 20 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

By Lee Biles

Format: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

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable reflections for the middle manager January 12, 2006

By Robert David STEELE Vivas HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format: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. Read more ›

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing Leadership Principles Together January 6, 2006

By D. Athey

Format:Hardcover

The 360° Leader is a very easy to follow and enjoyable book to read. Dr. Maxwell writes in a very personable style using real life stories, analogies, and numerous quotes to provide the reader with great advice on leading from not only the top, but also from the middle and from the bottom of an organization. I was initially drawn to this book due to my interest in 360° performance appraisals; looking for ideas on how to better write them. However, not only did I gain a better understanding of what to look for in writing appraisals, I also now feel I have a better understanding of what I need to be doing to get great 360° performance appraisals myself. The best part of the book is that each section includes either suggestions for leaders or questions leaders should be asking themselves. Dr. Maxwell then provides a step-by-step process for each of the books leadership principles that any leader can immediately use. Many of the suggested steps use real world examples that I could easily relate to; which I plan on using in my own organization.