John Edmund Haggai - 365 Things Every Successful Leader Should Know

Cover by Dugan Design Group, Bloomington, Minnesota365 THINGS EVERY SUCCESSFUL LEADER SHOULD KNOW Copyright 2010 by John Edmund Haggai Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com ISBN 978-0-7369-2940-0 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / BP-SK / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 F or over seven decades, writing has occupied the center ground of my life and thought. Lord Bacon said, Writing makes an exact man. He spoke the truth. Writing produces exactitude by forcing you to set down ideas in logical relation to one another. Writing crystallizes your thoughts and makes your ideas specific.

At crucial times, I have locked myself away from human company in order to write. The globe-encircling ministry of Haggai Institute took shape in the Bali Beach Intercontinental Hotel. I shut the door to my room and applied myself single-mindedly to the business of committing my thoughts to paper. For two days I did nothing but scribble on a yellow legal pad. Later I devoted four years to writing a book that contains the basis of my thinking about leadership. Writing matters.

It is the most potent way in which language can transmit invisible thoughts from one mind to another. So when Bob Hawkins Jr. of Harvest House Publishers suggested that I bring together a distillation of ideas on leadership for this volume, I immediately agreed. The words on the following pages come from a range of my books and writings, including the private circular Notes From My Diary, which I send only to a group of close associates. Beyond that, these words are rooted in more than a hundred journeys around the world, innumerable meetings with the worlds truly great leaders, and decades of personal reflection and application. Each thought in the pages that follow is a tiny lens through which you will see more clearly the quality and direction of your own leadership.

Each page will cost you just sixty seconds of reading and reflection. Some may keep you thinking to the end of the day. Someas I have foundyou may still be wrestling with to the end of your life. Attempt something so great for God, its doomed to failure unless God be in it. HAGGAIS LAWS Leadership is the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfill the groups real needs. THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER Hurry is symptomatic of a weakly organized mind.

HOW TO WIN OVER WORRY Todays attitude is tomorrows reality. HAGGAIS LAWS When I first talked about goal setting, I laid great emphasis on making the goals realistic. Only a couple of years ago, after a lifetime of setting goals, did it occur to me that Id never set a realistic goal in my life. THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER Worry is a time thief. HOW TO WIN OVER WORRY Have you ever had an idea thats so obvious, so simple, that you thought: If there were any value in this, surelysomeone would have acted on it by now? THE LEADING EDGE Givers enjoy talking about giving. NOTES FROM MY DIARY The effective speaker has something worthy to say and says it worthily.

THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER Time is more than money; time is life. When you waste it, you destroy part of your life. THE STEWARD Negative thoughts and fears become self-fulfilling prophecies. HOW TO WIN OVER WORRY One cannot lead an army from behind a desk. Nothing takes the place of face-to-face. NOTES FROM MY DIARY A God-given vision is an awesome responsibility.

Fulfillment can lead you to the heights of tremendous service to God and your fellow man. Failure to follow the vision will deprive others of the leadership they need. THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER God does not look for perfection. He looks for obedience. NOTES FROM MY DIARY Goals simplify the decision-making process. Goals tone up mental and physical health.

Goals generate respect. Goals provide a system of measure so you may enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. Goals produce persistence. And goals, under God, deliver the leader from bondage to the plaudits of people. THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER Shape the way you think by what you do. HAGGAIS LAWS Love is not a sentimental emotion but an act of the will in which a leader works toward the highest good of others.

THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER The most difficult sin for Christians to overcome is the sin of financial dishonesty. NOTES FROM MY DIARY Your influence for God rests squarely on your ability to create and cultivate friendship. HAGGAIS LAWS Leaders without vision are like guides without a map. Though they may come across as strong, confident, and independent, in reality they are not influencers but influencees. THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER Criticism has taught me a lot more than praise. I prefer praise, but I profit from criticismeven when it is unjust.

NOTES FROM MY DIARY A large gift is a gift of any size into which the sacrificial spirit has been introduced. THE STEWARD If you dont have the luxury of vacations where you can get away from others, find ways of creating your own solitude. Find time at the beginning of the day to do your undisturbed thinking. Or cultivate your own inner solitude even in the midst of a noisy crowd. THE INFLUENTIAL LEADER