BOOK REVIEW DEVELOPING the LEADER WITHIN YOU Prepared

BOOK REVIEW “DEVELOPING the LEADER WITHIN YOU” Prepared by: Nur Rashidah binti Ab. Manan Nor Azmawati Binti Abd Aziz Nur Shafarini bt Mohd Nawi 2008531837 2009841554 2009221266

Info About the Book Author : JOHN C. MAXWELL Publisher : THOMAS NELSON Pages : 207 pages Best Seller : New York Times Best-Selling Author of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership • Chapters : 10 chapters • Market Price : RM 39. 90 (Kinokuniya KLCC) • •

Introduction of the Chapters • The Key to Success in an Endeavor is the Ability to Lead Others Successfully • Leadership can be Taught : 4 categories/levels of Leadership 1) THE LEADING LEADER 2) THE LEARNED LEADER 3) THE LATENT LEADER 4) THE LIMITED LEADER

CONTENTS Chapters and PARTS

1. The Definition of Leadership : “INFLUENCE” Being able to cause other people to move in the direction that they need to go to achieve the aims of the organization is all there is to being a leader. Whether or not that direction is correct (or even right, if you follow the difference) is irrelevant. You only become a leader by gaining followers. Maxwell notes that many people would define leadership as a position, not as the ability to influence, but that’s only one facet of being a leader. You are initially given a position of authority, but people don’t follow positions; they follow people. The only way to become a leader is to invest the time and energy into an organization (and the people that make up that organization) to prove that you’re someone worth following. As Maxwell says, quoting an old statement, “A man who thinks he’s a leader, but who has no one following, is merely taking a walk”.

2. The Key to Leadership : “PRIORITIES” As a leader, you need to set priorities. Maxwell discusses the Pareto Principle, which states that an organization derives 80 percent of its results from 20 percent of its people. You can’t do everything for everyone in your organization, so you need to take the time and effort to prioritize. Work in the areas which will produce the greatest return, and don’t focus on areas that aren’t high yielding. This goes for people, projects, and everything else. Ruthlessly protect the priorities you’ve set, because it’s impossible to do everything.

3. The Most Important Ingredient of Leadership : “INTEGRITY” That’s what it’s all about. Most people think, have a concept in their mind of what the word “integrity” means. It means you don’t lie, or mislead, you keep your word, and all that other stuff. That certainly is a part of what integrity is, but the definition is actually more broad. It’s “the state of being complete, unified”. It means that who you are on the outside is the same as who you are on the inside. You don’t present one persona to your friends and another to your business associates; you are who you are, no matter what company you’re in. If you can demonstrate this quality to those you’re attempting to influence, they’ll realize they can trust you. They’ll begin to know that you will do what you say you’re going to do, and that allows them to have confidence in the vision you’re trying to sell. If they don’t think you’ll pave the way for the organization to reach the goals it’s set, or that you’ll give up in the middle of the process, you’ll never develop much of a following.

4. The Ultimate Test of Leadership : “CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE” What people are looking for in a leader is someone who can create positive change in the organization. A leader brings not only new goals and visions, but the means to get from where the organization currently is to where it needs to be. The sad fact is that many people will resist change, because it’s scary. They don’t know what’s going to be around the next bend in the road, and so they’re more secure with the situation they know. Even if the vision of where the group is going is better than where they are, a lot of people won’t be up for it. It is the true test for a leader: to motivate those in the organization who are resistant to change, or find ways to work through the challenges without them. And, let’s not forget that the first change that has to occur in any organization is within the leader him/herself. You have to motivate yourself to become better before anyone else will believe you can help them improve their own situation.

5. The Quickest Way to Gain Leadership : “PROBLEM SOLVING” What people are looking for in a leader is the ability to get them from where they are to where they need to be (as was stated earlier). In order to do that, the leader has to be able to solve the challenges that arise in the way of the organizations’ goals. One of the most important abilities a leader must possess is the ability to discern between a problem and an environment. Problems are things that can be controlled or changed; environments are things that cannot. A leader has to identify the issues that can be changed, and find ways to work around the issues that can’t.

6. The Extra Plus in Leadership : “ATTITUDE” “Your attitude in life determines your altitude”. “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it”. I’m sure you can think of many more tired cliches to exemplify the importance of attitude in a successful life. I’m not a rah-rah kind of guy. I don’t get super-hyped up about many things in life; no screaming at the TV (unless the Mariners ever make a World Series) or anything like that. However, I believe that these statements and the many others I didn’t list about the necessity of a good attitude are overused precisely because they’re true. If you have a poor attitude, a tendency to look at the glass as half-empty instead of half-full, or just to be a downer, then you’re not going to get very far. People aren’t attracted to others who don’t make them feel good, and if you’re negative all the time, you’re not going to feel good about yourself or those around you. Attitude is extremely important.

7. Developing Your Most Appreciable Asset : “PEOPLE” No one leads in a vacuum. If you don’t have other people following you, you’re not a leader. And, if you are concerned about the people that you lead eventually leaving you, you’re limiting yourself and your visions. The ability to develop other people into leaders is a force multiplier. If you can raise up an army, you’ll do well on your own. However, if you can raise up leaders of other armies, you’ll have allies in your quest. By developing leaders, you don’t just attract more followers. You engender loyalty in those you’ve trained in the past, and they’ll be willing to journey along with you to achieve your dreams. Viewing other people as individuals, not as numbers, is crucial to your own success.

8. The Indispensable Quality of Leadership : “VISION” Vision is what drives a leader to become more than what they currently are. They see things as the way they should be, not as they are, and they formulate plans to make the changes necessary to get there. It’s amazing, but many people are so set in their ways that they cannot imagine life being any different than what it currently is. A leader not only has a vision for the way things should be, they also have the ability to pass that vision on to others. If you can’t articulate the way things should be, you’ll never be able to convince other people it’s worthwhile to come along with you.

9. The Price Tag of Leadership : “SELF-DISCIPLINE” It’s really not much fun to do things that you don’t want to do, but sometimes it’s necessary. Self-discipline is about subjugating the things you want to have or do in order to be able to achieve things that you have to do. What you have to do is achieve your vision. What you need to eliminate is anything that’s going to get in the way of achieving the goal you’ve set in the timeline you’ve set it. If you’re trying to finish a master’s degree in order to get a job that will provide a better standard of living for you and those you love, then you might have to give up things like Friday and Saturday night at the bar, football games on Sunday, or playing XBox in the evenings. You’d much rather be doing something fun, but you know that what you’re doing instead is better in the long run. You have to focus on the results of the activities you’re doing, not on the activities themselves.

10. The Most Important Lesson of Leadership : “STAFF DEVELOPMENT” This chapter combines a lot of the teaching from chapters 2 and 7. You need to take the time to develop the people around you, and you identify those folks using the 80/20 principle. You encourage everyone in your organization, but you need to invest time with those who are already making a difference. The people who will rise up as leaders will self-select. They’ll show you they want to be leaders by how they work and achieve results. It’s all about teamwork; people pulled together by a common purpose. Maxwell went on to write another book called Developing the Leaders Around You, which delves more deeply into this subject.

New Updates About the Book/Author • In Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, John C. Maxwell takes readers through the Five Connecting Principles and the Five Connecting Practices of topnotch achievers. He believes that a person's ability to create change and results in an organization - be it a company, church, non-profit, or even a family - is directly tied to the ability to use the teachings of this book. • Market Price : RM 102. 42 (Kinokuniya KLCC)

Lesson Learnt • “Success is not a destination thing, it’s a daily thing. ” – John C. Maxwell

• Managers do things right—but leaders do the right things. That’s the fundamental difference between a leader and a manager. As a leader, we discern the right course, set the pace, influence others to follow, and inspire them to excellence and success.

• We must show them—not just tell them. Don’t push rope—pull it. In the same way, we must engender trust through integrity and model the behaviour and outcomes they wish to engender. As a leader, we must mean and act what we say.

• Our disposition is more important than our position. That’s because our disposition will dictate our position. As we make positive affirmations, think positive thoughts and listen to positive people, we can-do attitude will inevitable lead us and our team to success!