Posts by John Maxwell
Don’t use a hammer to swat a fly off someone’s head.
My wife, Margaret, and I were married in June 1969, and like most couples, we naively believed that nothing but smooth sailing lay ahead of us. Of course, it didn’t take long for us to find ourselves in the kinds of minor disagreements that all couples experience, especially when they’re first adjusting to married life.…
Read MoreThe joy of not knowing…
Some people believe that great leaders have all the answers. Not true. Successful leaders don’t know everything. But they know people who do. If you ask me a question related to one of my organizations and I don’t know the answer, I know which person in the organization does. If you ask about my profession,…
Read MoreComplicated problems need creative solutions
I’m still traveling this week, but like everyone else, I was horrified to learn of the tragic devastation that occurred in Japan. I lived in California for many years, where earthquakes were a fact of life. But I never experienced anything like the quake that hit Japan last week. And of course, the tsunami took…
Read MoreFrom my files: Integrity
Greetings from another hemisphere! As you read this, I’m in South Africa speaking to thousands of people about leadership. (See Events in the sidebar for details.) For today’s post, I thought I’d do something a little different. Over the years, many people have asked me how I find so much information and material for my…
Read MoreNo leader rides alone
In recent years, people in the business world have rediscovered the significance of teams. In the 1980s, the buzzword in business circles was management. Then in the 1990s, the emphasis was on leadership. Now in the twenty-first century, the emphasis is on teams. Why? Because nobody does everything well. Not everyone recognizes that those closest…
Read MoreAnnouncing the John Maxwell Company
Over the past four decades, I’ve spent a good part of my life working to grow and develop leaders, and the one thing I believe just as strongly today as I did forty years ago is that everything rises and falls on leadership. Leadership is the difference maker and the deal breaker. It’s how we…
Read MoreUnderstanding people makes the difference
The ability to understand people is one of the greatest assets anyone can ever have. It has the potential to positively impact every area of your life, not just the business arena. For example, look at how understanding people helped this mother of a preschooler. Leaving my four-year-old son in the house, I ran out…
Read MoreWhich comes first? Position or preparation?
When I meet people in social settings and they ask me what I do for a living, some of them are intrigued when I say I write books and speak. And they often ask what I write about. When I say leadership, the response that makes me chuckle most goes something like this: “Oh. Well,…
Read MoreOne Word — One Minute
I’m a communicator, so words are very important to me. They can teach, inform, rebuke, compel, and encourage. In short, words can change people’s lives. Aldous Huxley said, “Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.” I believe that with all my heart. Effective communication plays a critical role in every person’s life…
Read MoreHow do I maintain a teachable attitude?
Teachability is not so much about competence and mental capacity as it is about attitude. It is the desire to listen, learn, and apply. It is the hunger to discover and grow. It is the willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn. I love the way legendary basketball coach John Wooden states it: “It’s what you…
Read More