Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness I often open my leadership conferences by explaining the Law of the Lid because it helps people understand the value of leadership. If you can get a handle on this law, you will see the incredible impact of leadership on every aspect of life. So here it…

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“I love mankind – it’s people I can’t stand.” Charlie Brown, in Charles Schulz’ timeless comic strip, “Peanuts” Charlie Brown had a point: relationships with other human beings are wonderful – in theory. In reality, they can be difficult and messy. But nothing determines our success in life as much as our ability to work…

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“True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned. The only thing a title can buy is a little time-either to increase your level of influence with others or to undermine it.”1 Leadership is influence. Just because someone has a title, doesn’t…

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For this day before the United States’ Independence Day, I’ve been thinking about America’s Founding Fathers, and the legacy they left us over 200 years ago. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights – these documents describe the system of government they worked so hard to establish. And they didn’t just write…

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Leaders can only succeed if they are able to influence people at various levels in relation to them; above, below and side-by-side.  Leadership is influence and every leader has the opportunity to influence people at every level of a business, corporation or organization. At The John Maxwell Company, we call this leading from the middle…

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Just because you assemble great players does not mean you have automatically have a great team. I have always loved basketball, and I played throughout high school. Entering my junior year, our team was loaded with talent, and we were projected to contend for the state title. I was one of two juniors in our…

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360-Degree Leaders are all-around leaders. As one, leading up can be the greatest challenge. “Most leaders want to lead, not be led. But most leaders also want to have value added to them. If you take the approach of wanting to add value to those above you, you have the best chance of influencing them.”…

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“I can do what you can’t do and you can do what I can’t do. Together we can do great things.” ~ Mother Teresa Insecure leaders don’t like diversity. They shortchange their organization because they’re uncomfortable with people who have different skills than they do. They’re threatened by the thought of someone else being better…

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“To succeed as a 360-Degree Leader who leads peer-to-peer, you have to work at giving your colleagues reasons to respect and follow you. How do you do that? By helping your peers win. If you can help them win, you will not only help the organization, but will also help yourself.” 1 At The John…

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Last time I wrote about the difference between good timing and procrastination, and included some tests you could apply to find out whether you were putting off decisions that needed to be made. Just like there are two sides to every coin, there are two extremes when it comes to taking action. Procrastinators are at…

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