The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Book Summary

Book Summary

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Brief Summary

Leadership skills can make or break your mission. The way to successfully increase the success of your organization, you should develop and master your skills as a leader. Great leaders exhibit qualities of excellent strength and resolve, and are more importantly good and reliable people for their followers. To become a good leader, you should become like those you admire. People will voluntarily follow when they notice they are in good hands.

About the Author

John C. Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor. He was born in Garden City, Michigan in 1947. He is an evangelical Christian who followed his father into the ministry. He graduated from Circleville Bible College in 1969 and from Azusa Pacific University with a Masters in Divinity. He obtained a Doctor of Ministry degree at Fuller Theological Seminary. He lives in South Florida with his wife. He works as an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Church.

He speaks annually to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations such as the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best selling author and has sold over a million copies of his books.

He was named the No 1 leadership and management expert in the world by Inc Magazine in 2014.

Topics

Management & Leadership

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Key Insights

This book contains a series of “laws” or traits shared by great leaders like Winston Churchill, Harriet Tubman, and Teddy Roosevelt. The laws illuminate what it takes to master any position of leadership and build a loyal following. Maxwell insists that no one is a born leader: these traits are skills that can be learned and mastered by anyone.

The potential for success is capped by the leadership’s skill. The most important skill is the ability to influence others.

John Maxwell states that the most important determinant of a mission’s success is the leadership abilities of those running the show. This is known as the “Law of the Lid” which states that the lower an individual’s ability to lead, the less their organization is likely to achieve.

For example, the original McDonalds brothers experienced great success when they opened their drive-in restaurant but couldn’t figure out how to effectively market their business. When they handed leadership over to Ray Kroc, a more experienced leader, the company exploded into a nationwide phenomenon. This is a classic example of how unskilled leadership can limit the capacity for success while skilled leadership can take things to new heights. Therefore, those in charge are the most accountable for the success or failure of their organization.

When choosing a leader to take your organization to new heights, look for those who have a great ability to influence their followers and get people to join their mission. This is known as the Law of Influence. An example of a leader who had great influential ability was Mother Theresa, who was able to attract an army of followers to help her in aiding the poor.

To develop this skill in yourself, pay attention to the feelings of your followers. Is anyone feeling upset about the decisions of leadership? By respecting and treating your followers with sensitivity, you boost the morale of your entire operation. Another way to do this is by acknowledging the successes of the operation as often as possible. In order to want to be influenced, followers must know that their leaders care.

Great leaders earn respect by being stronger than their followers. Respect is maintained through trustworthy behavior.

When you think of great leaders, you imagine those that possess exceptional levels of courage, strength, and determination. That is because followers appreciate leaders who are more competent than themselves. By cultivating these qualities and exhibiting them openly, leaders can become the kind of people others admire and listen to.

One way of doing this is showing courage when the organization is struggling. By being a model for faith, followers will appreciate the resolve and strength needed to remain focused in hard times.

People also only withhold respect for those leaders who they can trust. Trustworthy leaders are honest, fair, and don’t take shortcuts. If followers notice their leaders are avoiding the rules, they will rightfully feel slighted. This is known as the Law of Solid Ground: followers want unwavering trustworthiness so they don’t have to constantly second-guess the morality of their leadership.