John C. Maxwell - The Self-Aware Leader: Play to Your Strengths, Unleash Your Team

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RELATIONSHIPS

25 Ways to Win with People

Be a People Person

Becoming a Person of Influence

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

The Power of Influence

Relationships 101

The Treasure of a Friend

Winning with People

EQUIPPING

The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork

Beyond Talent

Developing the Leaders Around You

Equipping 101

How Successful People Grow

How Successful People Think

My Dream Map

No Limits

Your Road Map for Success

ATTITUDE

Attitude 101

The Difference Maker

Failing Forward

The Power of Attitude

Sometimes You WinSometimes You Learn

Success Is a Choice

Think on These Things

The Winning Attitude

LEADERSHIP

The 5 Levels of Leadership

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leaders Day

The 360 Degree Leader

Developing the Leader Within You 2.0

Good Leaders Ask Great Questions

How to Lead When Your Boss Cant [Or Wont]

Leadershift

The Power of Leadership

2021 Maxwell Motivation, Inc.

Derived from material previously published in Leadership Gold: Lessons Ive Learned from a Lifetime of Leading.

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

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ISBN 978-0-7852-6664-8 (HC)

ISBN 978-0-7852-8819-0 (eBook)

Epub Edition July 2021 9780785288190

Printed in the United States of America

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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!

What sabotages more leadership efforts, holds back more good teams, and derails more leaders careers than anything else? Lack of self-awareness! When leaders dont see themselves clearly, are unaware of their strengths and weaknesses, or fail to recognize their negative interactions with their team members, they limit their influence and undermine their own effectiveness.

When I talk with the finest executive coaches in my organization, they tell me that lack of self-awareness is the single greatest problem they see in the leaders they coach. Sadly, they have observed that poor self-awareness is as common in the C-suite as it is among entry-level leaders.

How do you know whether you are self-aware as a leader? Perhaps you dont! All leaders have blind spots. If yours prevent you from seeing yourself clearly, you wont be aware of it. So you need to get help. Ive written this book to help you and get you on the journey to better self-awareness. Ill ask you questions to get you thinking, point out where common blind spots lie, and give you strategies to grow and change. You will become better at leading yourself, become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses, andmost importantimprove your interactions with the people on your team, which is where most leaders who lack self-awareness experience breakdowns.

If youre new to leadership, the following chapters will help you get a better start on your leadership journey. If youre an experienced leader, this book will help you fine-tune your leadership. No leader can be too self-aware. The better you know and manage yourself, the better you will be able to lead and serve your team.

What has been your greatest challenge as a leader? Your mind may go to a season of struggle for your organization, a particularly difficult problem you had to deal with, or a person who betrayed you or caused your team to fail. But if youre really gut-level honest, the greatest challenge leaders face is leading themselves.

I know thats always been my greatest challenge as a leader. I also think thats true for all leaders regardless of who they lead or what they accomplish. We sometimes think about accomplished leaders from history and assume that they had it all together. But if we really examine their lives, whether were looking at King David, George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr., we can see that they struggled to lead themselves well too. Thats why I say that the toughest person to lead is always yourself. Its like Walt Kelly exclaimed in his Pogo cartoon strip: We have met the enemy and he is us. Thats why you need to become good at leading yourself.

Acknowledging that leading myself is a challenge brings back some painful memories. Many of my leadership breakdowns have been personal breakdowns. In a leadership career that has spanned more than five decades, Ive made plenty of mistakes, but I have experienced only four major leadership crises. And Im sorry to say that all of them were my fault.

The first occurred in 1970, just two years into my first official leadership position. After two years of work, I had won over many people and there was a lot going on. However, one day I realized that my organization had no direction. Why? Because I lacked the ability to prioritize correctly and bring focus to my leadership. As a young leader, I didnt yet understand that activity does not necessarily equal accomplishment. As a result, my people, following my example, wandered in the wilderness for sixteen months. In the end, I didnt really lead them anywhere.