John C. Maxwell - The Leaders Greatest Return Workbook: Attracting, Developing, and Multiplying Leaders

THE LEADERS GREATEST RETURN WORKBOOK

2020 by John C. Maxwell

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by HarperCollins Leadership, an imprint of HarperCollins Focus LLC.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, www.yates2.com.

Scripture quotations marked ASV are from the Authorized Standard Version. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by

Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-310-11166-5 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-11167-2 (ebook)

Epub Edition November 2019 9780310111672

First Printing December 2019 / Printed in the United States of America

Ebook Instructions

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

CONTENTS

I want to say thank you to Charlie Wetzel and the rest of the team who assisted me with the formation and publication of this book. And to the people in my organizations who support it. You all add incredible value to me, which allows me to add value to others. Together, were making a difference!

W hy should you develop leaders? Why should you dedicate the time, effort, energy, and resources to help other people rise up and lead? Is it worth it? Can it really make a difference? Does the return warrant all the effort thats required?

Absolutely! Everywhere you look, there is a leadership deficit. In countries all around the world, there are not enough good leaders. That is certainly true in the United States. I think Americans of every party would agree that there are not enough good leaders. The same is true at the state and local levels: we need more and better leaders. And in businesses, nonprofits, and familiesthere are not enough good leaders!

The good news is that leaders can be developed, and everyone wins when leaders develop other good leaders. If you are a leaderat any level or in any capacityyour organization will benefit when you start developing leaders. And you can do that beginning today.

I want to help you develop leaders. I want to show you the pathway to receiving the leaders greatest return. There is nothing in this world that gives a greater ROI to a leader than attracting, developing, and multiplying leaders. Its the key to success for any country, family, organization, or institution.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DEVELOPING LEADERS

Its taken me decades to learn what I know about developing leaders. Ive had my failures as well as my successes. Ive poured my life into people only to have them walk away or disqualify themselves. Ive seen potential in people who couldnt see it in themselves, and as a result, never grew to be who they could be. Ive been disappointed and discouraged in the process. But I will never give up. There is no better investment than developing leaders.

As you prepare to take this leadership journey, there are some things you need to prepare yourself for:

1. DEVELOPING LEADERS IS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT BUT WORTHWHILE

If youve ever led people in any capacity, I think youll agree that leadership is hard work. There are no two consecutive easy days in the life of leaders. If today is easy, you know how tomorrow will probably go. But everything worthwhile is uphill. If the purpose of life was ease and comfort, no sensible person would ever take on the demands of leadership.

Developing leaders is even harder. Its like herding cats. That is why so many people who lead let themselves become comfortable attracting and leading followers rather than seeking out and developing leaders. Followers usually follow. Leaders, not so much.

However, the work of investing your life in developing other leaders has a high return. As my friend Art Williams is apt to say, I dont promise you it will be easy. I do promise you it will be worthwhile.

At age twenty-five, I discovered that everything rises and falls on leadership. I believed that truth with great certainty, and it propelled me to develop myself as a leader. Today my conviction is even greater, and it drives me to develop other leaders. That task is worthy of my best efforts, it adds the greatest value to others, and it gives me great joy. Developing leaders is the one activity that compounds a leaders time, influence, energy, vision, culture, finances, and mission.

2. DEVELOPING LEADERS IS A JOB THAT NEVER COMES TO AN END

When I realized the importance of leadership at age twenty-one, I began my intentional development as a leader. As I got started, I thought that at some point I would become a leadership expert. I wondered how long it would take before I reached the finish line. Five years? Ten years? Certainly by fifteen years Id know what I needed to know, right? Today in my early seventies, I finally have the answer. There is no finish line! The more I know about leadership, the more I know that I dont know. I am hungrier now to learn about leadership than I have ever been.

Gayle Beebe, the president of Westmont College in California, has studied leadership development extensively. In The Shaping of an Effective Leader, he wrote:

Our understanding of leadership does not come to us all at once. It takes time. In our instant-oriented culture we often want to short-circuit the thinking, reflecting and acting that mark our progressive development as leaders. Understanding how leaders develop and why they matter requires discernment, wisdom and insight.

It also requires time. If developing ourselves as leaders is a lifelong process, then we should also expect the development of others in leadership to be an ongoing process that never ends. Just as individuals never arrive, neither do organizations.

If you desire to fulfill a bold vision or do something great, you have to let go of a microwave mindset for leadership. The process cant be done instantly. Its slow, like a Crock-Pot. Anything worthwhile takes time. You must give up looking to cross a finish line and instead find your own internal fulfillment line. Thats something you can cross every day when you embrace the process of developing leaders.