Business Book Summaries

Developing Your Influence
From Anywhere in the Organization

By
John Maxwell

The Big Idea
What’s the number one question leadership expert John C. Maxwell is asked while conducting his leadership conferences? It’s “How can I implement what you teach when I’m not the top leader?”

People who desire to lead from the middle of organizations face unique challenges. How about if the person you work for is a bad leader? Welcome to The 360° Leader.

Why You Need This Book
Dr. Maxwell, one of the globe’s most trusted leadership mentors, debunks the myths, shows you how to overcome the challenges, and teaches you the skills you need to become a 360° leader.

If you have found yourself trying to lead from the middle of the organization, as the vast majority of professionals do, then you need Maxwell’s insights. You have a unique opportunity to exercise influence in all directions – up (to the boss), across (among your peers), and down (to those you lead).

The good news is that even if you are not a top leader, your influence is greater than you know. Practice the disciplines of 360° leadership and the opportunities will be endless… for your organization, for your career, and for your life.

The Principles 360° Leaders Practice to Lead Up
Leading up is the 360° Leader’s greatest challenge. Influencing your leader isn’t something you can make happen in a day. Your underlying strategy should be to support your leader, add value to the organization, and distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack by doing your work with excellence.

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 1: LEAD YOURSELF EXCEPTIONALLY WELL.
If I can’t lead myself, others won’t follow me.
If I can’t lead myself, others won’t respect me.
If I can’t lead myself, others won’t partner with me.

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 2: LIGHTEN YOUR LEADER’S LOAD.
When you lift a leader’s load, your load certainly gets heavier. Know, however, that the lift you give for the leader often leads to the leader lifting you.

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 3: BE WILLING TO DO WHAT OTHERS WON’T.
J.C. Penny said, “Unless you are willing to drench yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the average man, you are just not cut out for positions at the top.” People who want to be effective are willing to do what others won’t. And because of that, their leaders are willing to resource them, promote them, and be influenced by them.

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 4: DO MORE THAN MANAGE – LEAD!
Leadership is more than management.

Leadership is:
• People more than projects
• Movement more than maintenance
• Art more than science
• Intuition more than formula
• Vision more than procedure
• Risk more than caution
• Action more than reaction
• Relationships more than rules

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 5: INVEST IN RELATIONAL CHEMISTRY.
People can usually trace their successes and failures to the relationships in their lives. The quality of the relationship you have with your leader will impact your success or failure. It is certainly worth investing in.

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 6: BE PREPARED EVERY TIME YOU TAKE YOUR LEADER’S TIME.
Leaders may not always be aware of a missed opportunity because you failed to push, but they will definitely notice if you ought to back off but don’t. If you push your boss inappropriately too often, your boss might push you right out the door.

LEAD-UP PRINCIPLE # 7: BECOME A GO-TO PLAYER.
Everyone admires go-to players and looks to them when the heat is on – not only their leaders, but also their followers and peers. Go-to players are people who always produce.

An investment in your growth is an investment in your ability, your adaptability, and your “promotability”. No matter how much it costs you to keep growing and learning, the cost of doing nothing is greater.

The Principles 360° Leaders Practice to Lead Across

To succeed as a 360° Leader who leads peer-to-peer, you have to work at giving your colleagues reasons to respect and follow you. By helping your peers win. If you can help them win, you will not only help the organization but will also help yourself.

LEAD-ACROSS PRINCIPLE # 1: PUT COMPLETING FELLOW LEADERS AHEAD OF COMPETING WITH THEM.
The success of the whole team is more important than individual wins. Organizations need both competition and teamwork to win. When those two elements exist in the right balance, great team chemistry is the result.

LEAD-ACROSS PRINCIPLE # 2: AVOID OFFICE POLITICS.
Becoming a statesman for your organization is an excellent idea. If you continually keep the big picture in mind, remain unselfish in your efforts, and try to be a diplomat with your peers, you will distinguish yourself, gain credibility, and improve your effectiveness and that of the team. And you will also increase your influence.

LEAD-ACROSS PRINCIPLE # 3: EXPAND YOUR CIRCLE OF ACQUAINTANCES.
If you are not inclined to stretch yourself relationally, then think about this. People are like rubber bands. Your value as a leader in the middle will increase as you stretch and get out of your comfort zone relationships.

LEAD-ACROSS PRINCIPLE # 4: LET THE BEST IDEA WIN.
When you think in terms of our idea my idea or her idea, you’re probably on track to helping the team win. That should be your motivation, not just trying to win friends and influence people. You’ll find that if you let the best idea win, you will win friends and influence people.

LEAD-ACROSS PRINCIPLE # 5: DON’T PRETEND YOU’RE PERFECT.
If you want to influence others, don’t try to impress them. Instead of impressing others, let them impress you.

The Principles 360° Leaders Practice to Lead Down
As a 360° Leader, when you lead down, you’re doing more than just getting people to do what you want. You’re helping them to discover and reach their potential.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 1: WALK SLOWLY THROUGH THE HALLS.
Take time to walk slowly through the halls in order to connect with people and give them an opportunity to make contact with you. As you see people in the parking lot, chat with them. Go to meetings a few minutes early to see people, but don’t start in on the agenda until you’ve had time to catch up.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 2: SEE EVERYONE AS A “10”.
If you desire to see everyone as a 10, help them by catching them doing something right. We are trained our whole lives to catch people doing something wrong.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 3: DEVELOP EACH TEAM MEMBER AS A PERSON.Don’t hold on to your people too tightly. When you continually develop people, there is never a shortage of leaders to build the organization and help you carry the load.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 4: PLACE PEOPLE IN THEIR STRENGTH ZONES.
When you place individuals in their strength zones, a couple of things happen. You change people’s lives for the better. Their jobs become rewarding and fulfilling. The other benefit is that you help the organization and you.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 5: MODEL THE BEHAVIOR YOU DESIRE.
Your leadership, if it is not continually growing, can be a lid to the potential of your people. Why? You can’t give people what you do not have. If you want to increase the potential of your team, you need to keep growing yourself.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 6: TRANSFER THE VISION.
People say that the bigger a ship is, the harder it is to turn. An organization is one big entity that has many small ones in it. If every leader in the middle of the organization is a 360° Leader who excels at transferring the vision to the crew in their area, then even a huge organization would be able to turn very quickly. It is not the size of the organization that matters; it is the size of the leaders within it.

LEAD-DOWN PRINCIPLE # 7: REWARD FOR RESULTS.
As a leader, you have a choice. You can try to push your employees to give more, hoping to swing the balance in your favor, or you can load up the rewards side – which is the only side you really have significant influence over – and wait for the balance to swing back to level as your employees respond by producing more. That’s what 360° Leaders do.

The Leader’s Daily Dozen
If you’re ready to revolutionize your organization, then every morning when you get up and get ready to lead your organization, make a commitment to these twelve power-unleashing activities.

Place a high value on people. The first shift for turning your organization into a leader-friendly environment must occur inside of you. You only commit yourself to things you value.

Commit resources to develop people. Whatever amount it costs to develop leaders, it won’t be as high as the cost of not developing your people.

Place a high value on leadership. If you value leadership, leaders will emerge to add value to the organization.

Look for potential leaders. If leadership is on your radar and you value it, you will continually be on the lookout for potential leaders.

Know and respect your people. As you select people to develop, work to strike a balance between these universal desires and the individual needs of your people. Try to tailor the development process for each individual as much as you can.

Provide your people with leadership experiences. If we don’t delegate leadership – with authority as well as accountability – our people will never gain the experience they need to lead well.

Reward leadership initiative. The best leaders are proactive. Most top leaders are initiators, but that doesn’t mean that every top leader feels comfortable when others use their initiative.

Grow with your people. When people in an organization see the top leader growing, it changes the culture of the organization.

Draw people with high potential into your inner circle. The best way to develop high-caliber leaders is to have them mentored by a high-caliber leader.

Commit yourself to developing a leadership team. If you want your organization to reach its potential, if you want it go from good to great, you need to develop a team of leaders, people who can fill in each others’ gaps, people who challenge and sharpen each other. If we try to do it all ourselves, we will never get beyond the glass ceiling of our own leadership limitations.

Unleash your leaders to lead. If you become dedicated to developing and releasing 360° Leaders, your organization will change – and so will your life.

Isn’t that what we all want as leaders – for our people and our organizations to succeed? Legendary Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu said, “A leader is best when the people barely know he exists.” That’s what the best leaders do – help others succeed. If you create an environment that develops 360° Leaders, that is what you will someday be able to do.
BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States. For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com