Developing the Leader Within You

The following contains excerpts from the book, Developing the Leader Within You (John Maxwell).

The subject of leadership is rarely, if ever, taught in the arts or humanities. However, in order to succeed as an artist, one must first know how to get along with others. Then, in any large-scale artistic endeavor, the artist must learn how to motivate, inspire and lead others. Without these skills, an artist loses the opportunity to connect with his community.

In our music school in Odessa Texas, we hope to help students see the value of earning Leadership.

“Developing the Leader Within You” is one of John Maxwell’s earliest collections of thoughts on leadership, which contains the ideas of “The Five Levels of Leadership” in its first chapter, from which he later develops the book centered around that title. The focus of the book is the development of personal leadership mentalities, which of course is the hallmark of his work.

In the book he sets forth ten basic principles of leadership, which are as follows.

1. Leadership is creating positive influence.

• • The Five Levels of Leadership
    • Position.  Indicators of excellence are when a person is Highly skilled, Knows the job description thoroughly, Has strong initiative, Is proactive, Is highly responsible.

[We expect students in our music school in Odessa Texas to rise to the level of their potential, which begins by becoming skillful in their artistic discipline.]

1. 1. • Permission/relationships.  Indicators of excellence are when a leader: Exhibits genuine care for people, Has strong people relationships, Believes in win-win results, and Knows how to deal with difficult people.
      • Production/results.  Indicators of excellence are when a leader is: Driven by a statement of purpose, Is accountable for results, Knows and does things that give a high return, and Accepts responsibility.

[Accepting responsibility is one of the core principles we teach students in our music school in Odessa Texas. Personal accountability is the only path to sustained success.]

• • • People development/reproduction.  Indicators of excellence are when a leader: Recognizes that people are a valuable asset, Role models for others to follow, Develops people, Shares goals, Surrounds himself with a core group that complements his philosophy, and when Leadership is coursed through the core group.
    • Personhood.  Indicators of excellence are when a leader: Has followers who are loyal and sacrificial, Mentors and molds other leaders, Transcends the organization, When his ultimate joy is watching others grow and develop.

2. Leadership is setting the right priorities.

• The Pareto Principle: 20 percent of priorities will give 80 percent of one’s production.
• Organize.  Identify three or four high priority projects.
• Keep priorities in place through regular evaluation, elimination and estimation.
• Evaluate requirements, returns and rewards.
• Learn how to overlook the unimportant.
• Know what you want. Ninety-five percent of achieving anything is by knowing what you want.

3. Leadership is modeling integrity.

1. • Integrity is grounded in trust  In order to successfully lead followers, a leader must gain the trust of followers.
   • Integrity is what the person is. It must not be a false image of baseless perception.
   • Integrity is earned. It is the result of a leader’s self-discipline and honesty as well as followers’ trust.

4. Leadership is creating positive change.

• A leader who is receptive to new ideas and is willing to make personal changes before asking others to follow him has the makings of a successful change agent.
• How to create a climate of change.
  • Create a high-trust relationship with people.
  • Make personal changes before asking others to do the same.
  • Exhibit and effort to understand the history of an organization.
  • Tap the support of influencers in the organization before making the change.
  • Share the ownership of the change with the people by providing them information, by waling them through the implications, explaining the objectives, seeking people’s participation, fostering open communication, stressing belief and commitment to change, fostering enthusiasm, and assisting and recognizing change implementers.
  • Develop a meeting agenda to facilitate and smooth the change process.
  • Stand firm that change will happen and that it is never too late to change.

[At our music school in Odessa Texas we see growth and change in our students every day.  To facilitate this growth, we strive to create an environment of trust and love.]

5. Leadership is problem solving.

• The test of a genuine leader is the ability to recognize a problem before it become s and emergency.
• How to recognize problems.
  • Intuition.
  • Curiosity.
  • Processing. Gather information and accurate data.
  • Communication. True leaders share their feelings and findings to trusted colleagues and followers.
  • Documentation. Define and write the problem.
  • Evaluation.
  • Leading. Leaders made a decision.

• Steps to problem solving.
  • Identify the problem. Define it by asking the right questions, talking to the right people, getting the hard facts.
  • Prioritize the problem.
  • Select people who can help.
  • List problem causes.
  • List as many solutions as possible.
  • Select the best solution by asking which solution has the greatest potential to be right, which is in the best interest of the organization, and has momentum and training on its side.
  • Implement the best solution.
  • viii.Evaluate the solution
  • Set up principles or policies to keep problems from repeating.

6. Leadership is having the right positive attitude.

• Leadership has a lot to do with disposition and less to do with position.
• A leader’s disposition is important because it will influence the way the followers think and feel.
• How to change to a positive attitude.
  • Develop a written statement of the desired right thinking.
  • Complete a daily progress report of right thinking.
  • Identify a person to whom one will be accountable.
  • Read a daily diet of self-help materials.
  • Associate with the right thinking people.
• Resolve to change.

7. Leadership is developing people.

• Principles of people development.
  • Make the right assumptions about people.
    1. Everyone wants to feel worthwhile  Make people feel important.
    2. Everyone needs and responds to encouragement.
    3. People buy into a leader before they buy into his leadership.
    4. People think success is luck. Leaders teach followers that success is the result of planning and happens when preparation and opportunity meet.
    5. People are naturally motivated.
    6. Avoid de-motivation people by belittling, publicly criticizing and cutting conversation; manipulation or using people; being insensitive and discouraging personal growth.

[We believe in the unique giftedness of each individual in our music school in Odessa Texas, seeing their potential for growth and believing in their ability to rise to their potential greatness.]

1. • Ask the right questions about people.
     1. Am I building people or am I building my dream and using people to do it?
     2. Do I care enough to confront people when it will make a difference?
     3. Am I listening to people with more that my ears?  Am I hearing more than words?
     4. Have I placed a high priority on the job?  Use the words regularly: “It will make a difference.”
     5. Have I shown the value the person will receive for this relationship?  Leaders must care for people to develop and grow them successfully.  A Wall Street Journal survey revealed that of the 16,000 executives studied, about thirteen percent identified as high achievers cared about people as well as profits.  Average achievers concentrated on production while low achievers were preoccupied with their own security.

8. Leadership is having a vision.

• What hinders vision
  • Being led by limited leaders.
  • Being led by dogmatic talkers who only follow convention.
  • Being led by self-seekers who live for themselves.
  • Being led by failure-forecasters who are largely pessimistic.
• Setting the environment for visioning.
  • Explain the vision.
  • Share the vision’s endless possibilities and opportunities.
  • Keep hoe and enthusiasm alive.
  • Challenge followers to overcome the obstacles.
  • Allow people to grow as they pursue the vision.
  • Provide followers with the needed direction
  • Walk with the people in the pursuit of the vision.
  • viii.Make the people realize their role and valuable contribution.

9. Leadership is self-discipline.

• Developing personal discipline
  • Confront personal inner issues.
  • Begin early. Do the thing one must do, when it ought to be done, whether on likes it or not.
  • Start small. Take one step at a time.
  • Begin now. Take action. Translate good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions into action.
  • Organize.

[We believe that the first lesson of leadership is to lead one’s self well. This starts with self-discipline, and it is one of the highest values we can seek to foster in the students in our music school in Odessa Texas.]

• How to organize.
  • Clearly set priorities.
  • Calendar priorities.
  • Set a little time for the unexpected.
  • Do one project at a time
  • Organize one’s workspace.
  • Work according to one’s temperament.
  • Us driving time for light work.
  • viii.Develop systems suitable for one’s work temperament.
  • Focus on results not the activity.
  • Welcome responsibility by being completely responsible for one’s self and for what one can do.

10. Leadership is developing staff.

• Winning teams have great leaders.
• Winning teams move in an environment of success.
• Winning teams have excellent leaders who avoid the seven deadly leadership sins.
  • Trying to be liked rather than respected.
  • Not asking team members for advice and help.
  • Restricting talent by emphasizing rules rather than skills.
  • Not keeping criticism objective and constructive.
  • Not developing accountability and a sense of responsibility among team members.
  • Treating everyone the same way
  • Failing to keep people informed.
• Winning teams pick good people.
• Winning teams make their team members more successful.
• Winning teams keep improving.

All of the principles listed above, after years of hearing and reading leadership lessons seem basic to me now, but implementing them successfully in each situation can prove to be challenging at times.  As Maxwell sets forth all of these principles in this early book, it is interesting to see how he has developed the materials in later works, and even deepened or adjusted some of the concepts further.