Leadership Guru John Maxwell on Leadership

John Maxwell is a best-selling leadership author. I, Danny Pettry have always enjoyed his books. I had the fortunate opportunity to hear Maxwell speak for the first time at the Leadership Training that was sponsored by Chick-fil-A on May 7, 2010.

Here is a link for Maxwell’s newest book, which is on my personal list of books to read:




I found Maxwell to be humorous, motivational, and easy to listen to. I like him a lot more after hearing him speak. Prior to this event, I had never heard him talk. He walked out in a nice business suite with bright red tennis shoes. They were funny. He may start some type of trend with this.

Here is my summary of Maxwell’s tips and wisdom that he shared during his talk.

Let your kids live.

Everyone communicates.
Few people connect.

Here is how Maxwell defines connecting:

It is the ability to identify with and realize with people so that it increase influence with them.

He suggested using social networks like twitter to influence people. Here is his twitter link: http://twitter.com/johncmaxwell

He posted chapters for his book on connecting with people online and let them give suggestions. He gave them credit in his book.

Connections are all about other people. It is not about us, but others.

Maxwell told of a time when he went to listen to a Zig Ziglar speech. He said Zig looked right at him in the audience and said his famous quote:

If you help others get what they want then they’ll help you get what you want.

Leaders connect with people. Leaders bring people to the top with them.

Here is the quote you want to hear:

You’ve done so much for us. Now, what can I do for you?

It’s not about me. It is about them. How can I add value to people?

He uses dating and marriage as a metaphor.

People put in energy during dating. During marriage they have a power outage.

During dating, she’ll say, honey, will you pick up something for me. He’ll say, sure, I’ll do that on my lunch break. During marriage, she says she forgot to pick something up and asks if he’ll get it for her. Then he says something rude: you’ve got arms, right?

Connecting with people takes a lot of energy. A person must continue to put fourth energy to connect with people.

Stories make it fun! A story is a good way to get people interested.

Maxwell asks an important question:

Who do I need to put more effort in order to connect with them?

Find common ground with people. Focus on the similarities and not the differences.

Maxwell said that he has techniques to help get people from common ground to higher ground in his new book on connections.

Here are some techniques:

Walk slowly through the crowd.
Care for people
Be open.

He says to go out and increase my influence with others by connecting with them.

I think, I, Danny Pettry, would love his new book.



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