John C. Maxwell - The 360 Degree Leader Workbook: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization

List three leaders who have had a great impact on their organization or environment:

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M aybe you thought of William Wallace leading the charge of his warriors against the army that would oppress his people, Winston Churchill defying the Nazi threat as much of Europe collapsed, Mahatma Gandhi leading the two-hundred-mile march to the sea to protest the Salt Act, Mary Kay Ash going off on her own to create a world-class organization, or Martin Luther King Jr. standing before the Lincoln Memorial, challenging the nation with his dream of reconciliationthese are all classic pictures of leadership.

Each of these people was a great leader. Each made an impact that has touched hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. Yet these pictures can also be misleading. The reality is that 99 percent of all leadership occurs not from the top but from the middle of an organization. Usually, an organization has only one person who is the leader. So what do you do if you are not that one person?

Ive taught leadership for nearly thirty years. And in just about every conference Ive ever taught, someone has come up to me and said something such as: I like what you teach about leadership, but I cant apply it. Im not the main leader. And the person I work under is, at best, average.

Is that where you live? Are you working somewhere in the middle of your organization? You may not be a follower at the lowest level of the organization, but youre not the top dog eitheryet you still want to lead, to make things happen, to make a contribution.

Believe it or not, you do not have to be held hostage to your circumstances or position. You do not have to be the president or CEO to lead effectively. And you can learn to make an impact through your leadership even if you report to someone who is not a good leader. Whats the secret? How do you do it? You learn to develop your influence from wherever you are in the organization by becoming a 360-Degree Leader. You learn to lead up, lead across, and lead down.

Not everyone understands what it means to influence others in every directionthose you work for, the people who are on the same level with you, and those who work for you. Some people are good at leading the members of their own team, but they seem to alienate the leaders in other departments of the organization. Other individuals excel at building a great relationship with their boss, but they have no influence with anyone below them in the organization. A few people can get along with just about anybody, and their coworkers love spending time with them, but they never seem to get any work done. On the other hand, some people are productive, but they cant get along with anybody. But 360-Degree Leaders are different. Only 360-Degree Leaders influence people at every level of the organization. By helping others, they help themselves.

At this point, you may be saying, Leading in every directionthats easier said than done! Thats true, but its not impossible. In fact, becoming a 360-Degree Leader is within the reach of anyone who possesses average or better leadership skills and is willing to work at it. So even if you would rate yourself as only a five or six on a scale of one to ten, you can improve your leadership and develop influence with the people all around you in an organizationand you can do it from anywhere in the organization.

Fill in the following organizational chart:

Leading in all directions will require you to learn three different sets of leadership skills. But before we get into those, we need to get some other things out of the way, beginning with seven myths believed by many people who lead from the middle of an organization. That is the subject of the first section of this workbook.