What Is Leadership?: Defining Leadership for Personal Success

by John C. Maxwell, Les Brown, Sheila Murray Bethel

In dog sledding, they say unless youre the lead dog the scenery never changes. But what is leadership? What is a leader? Whether you want to successfully lead a team or lead yourself, you need to be clear on these definitions. What Is Leadership? is a multisession leadership retreat in a box. Why spend $20,000 to hire one expert for your meeting when your team can benefit from expert perspectives for the same price as a business lunch? With What Is Leadership? youll be able to clearly define what it takes to be a leader and have unlimited access to the worlds top success coaches any time you want. With topics ranging from productivity and time management to positive thinking, this audio collection featuring several New York Times bestselling authors will give you the confidence to take your team to new heights and offer hours of inspiration and practical steps to power-up your influence in all areas of the workplace and beyond.

Audible Audio

First published December 1, 2011

About the author

John Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. Titles include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. Some of his books have been on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Reviews

[Tim Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of the leadership book phenomenon, but this one was free on Audible, so I thought I'd see how Les Brown and John Maxwell define leadership. I found the audio book's packaging a little misleading. Instead of getting seven hours of thought from the lead authors on "What is Leadership," the book is a collection of 45-60 minute presentations from eight different leadership and motivational speakers...and none of them really answered the title's question.

There are a few nuggets in here, but it is mostly seven and a half hours of thoughts ranging from obvious, to trite, to occasionally questionable. I finished one chapter / speaker and had to go back and listen again, taking notes this time, just to see if I heard it right. I did. Here, according to the world-class leadership consultant Brad Worthly (I'm not sure the last name is spelled right) is what it takes to be a leader:

1. Walk the walk and talk the talk.
2. Focus on the few main things (which is laugh-out-loud funny considering the remainder of his talk…read on)
3. Never let them see you sweat
4. Make sure everyone in the office flies together (translation: like geese—on the same team)
5. Ask not “did everyone do what they were supposed to do,” ask “did I do all I was supposed to do to make them successful”
6. Dialogue with employees about what they did to make themselves and their team successful
7. Dialogue about barriers
8. Create culture of freedom not fear
9. Coach your employees
10. Create a climate of learning.
11. Create more time in your day by keeping a list of time wasters.
12. Prevent problems by looking out several months and anticipating them
13. Be the kind of leader that puts water on a fire, not the one that runs around shouting fire
14. Delegate duties but not personal responsibility.
15. Don’t offer solutions to employees’ problems. Allow them to figure it out.
16. Keep a delegation log
17. Make clearly defined boundaries for employees
18. To build a good culture, never use “program” or “initiative”. That implies an end date
19. Cultures need to be non-negotiable
20. Coach rather than teach your employees (I know he already addressed coaching, but here we are…)
21. To be an outstanding leader, you need to know your employees’ learning style: visual, auditory or kinesthetic
22. Be aware of your body language when talking to an employee or customer
23. Also, watch your posture
24. Have employees tell you how they will improve—a personal action plan (I know…not much of a transition from body language and posture)
25. Mentor your employees. You should have a mentor program (bit of a conflict with his instruction not to use “program” above)
26. Help employees innovate
27. Use a weekly employee praise list
28. But don’t praise ordinary performance
29. Write thank you notes to employees

Really?

Even listening to this audiobook at 2x was time wasted.

[AttackGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this before so I guess either Audible, Kindle or Goodreads has lost track of it. Or perhaps I have read it so many times now or maybe so many leadership books that its all the same story over and over. This is a good book for people starting out or a refresher for others. It’s always good to keep on top of the latest business ideas and everyone needs pep talks and reminders.

This did remind me of when I was selected to sit on the IMC board where my first meeting was a call in meeting and they asked me specifically what I thought and I told them…

[Justyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good parts but overall this book was very hard to stay focused on. If I was given a chance to undo this read and get a refund on my time lost, I would undo this read and get the refund on my time. This would've be a 1 star review, but it gained a star for the very little new material that I was able to absorb from a couple parts. I say you should invest your time into a different read. That's my honest review.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some really great principles and motivation speeches, but not I found myself checking the title because it didn't define leadership. The last speaker talked about some great people but it played an annoying song between every person discussed.

Overdrive

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for every leader.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent book to listen to while driving, it has some inspirational speakers. My favorite by far is the speaker for chapter two, Les Brown, was by far my favorite speaker.

[Shirley Mattson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a good start to taking the John Maxwell leadership course