Maxwell - The 5 Levels of Leadership

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Copyright 2011 by John C. Maxwell

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

The author is represented by Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agency, Orange, California.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version ( NKJV ). Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible ( NASB ), Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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ISBN 978-1-4555-0751-1

25 Ways to Win with People

Becoming a Person of Influence

Encouragement Changes Everything

Ethics 101

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

The Power of Partnership

Relationships 101

Winning with People

The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork

Developing the Leaders Around You

Equipping 101

Make Today Count

Mentoring 101

My Dream Map

Partners in Prayer

Put Your Dream to the Test

Running with the Giants

Talent Is Never Enough

Today Matters

Your Road Map for Success

Attitude 101

The Difference Maker

Failing Forward

How Successful People Think

Sometimes You WinSometimes You Learn

Success 101

Thinking for a Change

The Winning Attitude

The 5 Levels of Leadership

The 10th Anniversary Edition of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leaders Day

The 360 Degree Leader

Developing the Leader Within You

Go for Gold

How Successful People Lead

Leadership 101

Leadership Gold

Leadership Promises for Every Day

This book is dedicated to EQUIP (www.iequip.org) and all the people who are a part of this leadership organization. EQUIPs Rule of 5: Every day we

1. Think Globally
2. Evaluate Our Leadership Strategy
3. Create Resources
4. Develop Associate Trainers, Partners, and Donors
5. Train Leaders to Train Leaders

Millions of Leaders are being trained because of your efforts. Thanks!

Thank you to:

Charlie Wetzel, my writer;

Stephanie Wetzel, my social media manager;

Linda Eggers, my executive assistant.

L eadership is one of my passions. So is teaching it. Ive dedicated more than thirty years of my life to helping others learn what I know about leading. In fact, I spend about eighty days every year teaching leadership. In the last several years, Ive taught about it on six continents. The subject is inexhaustible. Why? Because everything rises and falls on leadership. If you want to make a positive impact on the world, learning to lead better will help you do it.

In all the years that Ive taught about leadership, there has been one lecture that I have been asked to give more often than any otherfrom West Point to Microsoft and in countries all around the world. That lecture explains how leadership works, and it provides a game plan for learning how to become a leader. Its The 5 Levels of Leadership.

My belief that everything rises and falls on leadership solidified in 1976, and it set me on a leadership journey that I am still traveling to this day. I began the journey by asking many questions. How do you define leadership? What is a leader? How does leadership work? Unfortunately, peoples usual answers to those questions are not very helpful. Some people identify leadership with obtaining a leadership position. But Ive known bad leaders who had good positions and good leaders who had no position at all. Havent you? Other people say of leadership, I cant describe it, but I know it when I see it. While that may be true, it doesnt help anyone learn how to lead.

The conclusion I came to early on is that leadership is influence. If people can increase their influence with others, they can lead more effectively. As I reflected on that, a concept for how leadership works began to crystallize in my mind. That concept was the 5 Levels of Leadership, which took me about five years to develop. I have been teaching it ever since. And whenever I present it, one of the questions people always ask is, When are you going to write a book about this? As you can see, Im finally answering that question.

T here are a lot of books about leadership lining peoples bookshelves. Why should you read this one? Because it works. The 5 Levels has been used to train leaders in companies of every size and configuration, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies. It has been used to help nonprofit organizations understand how to lead volunteers. And its been taught in more than 120 countries around the world. Every time I talk about it, people ask questions and make observations. Those things have helped the 5 Levels of Leadership to become stronger and to develop greater depth. The concept is tested and proven. In addition, it offers several other benefits: