Maxwell, John C. Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace. New York, NY: HarperCollins Leadership, 2019.
Summary in a Sentence
Maxwell expounds upon eleven essential paradigm shifts required for leaders to grow capacity and scale in an accelerated environment.
Elevator Pitch
Good leaders adapt and improvise with the world around them because their environment or marketplace is in continuous flux (5). Every leadership advancement requires changes in thinking, acting, and influencing. Leaders must grow up to go up, as well as be the first to adopt transformative changes to effectively model values and inspire their followers to action.
Problem, Solution, and Significance
Problem: The world around us is changing faster than ever before. The twenty-year plan is now the two-year plan. Tension exists between the stability toward security and the adaptability that affords opportunity (8). Yesterday’s methods of management and leadership do not work for the specific needs of today and tomorrow (10). Uncertainty about tomorrow is why the world needs leaders today (16).
Solution: Good leaders must adapt/shift, not conform (6). Leadershifts make us more effective in influencing others as we navigate on the brink of unchartered waters (8). Leadershifts are layered learning experiences built on self-reflection and willingness to grow (56). The eleven Leadershifts are 1) soloist to conductor: the focus shift, 2) goals to growth: the personal development shift, 3) perks to price: the cost shift, 4) pleasing people to challenging people: the relational shift, 5) maintaining to creating: the abundance shift, 6) ladder climbing to ladder building: the reproduction shift, 7) directing to connecting: the communication shift, 8) team uniformity to team diversity: the improvement shift, 9) positional authority to moral authority: the influence shift, 10) trained leaders to transformational leaders: the impact shift, and 11) career to calling: the passion shift.
Significance: People will honor leaders for what they did yesterday, but they will respect them for the consistency of what they’re doing now (11). ‘Destination entitlement/syndrome’ is only for those who get out of the leadership game. If they desire to remain relevant as leaders, they must be all in and continue growing (75).
Personal Application
- When I become keenly aware of and able to see what I need and want, I’ll be able to attract it. When I know who I am and what I want, I’ll know what kind of people I’ll need to attract (14).
- I must focus on getting better. My customers will demand that my organization expand.
- I must 1) make growth my number-one priority, 2) look for growth possibilities in every situation, 3) ask questions that will help me grow, 4) file what I have learned, and 5) pass on what I have learned to others (51-52).
- I must believe in myself before and more than others do. Self-belief comes first (70).
- Silence equals approval. Problems left unaddressed cause inner erosion. I will lose respect for myself internally if I do not confront myself. The Law of Diminishing Intent: one of these days becomes none of these days (94-95).
- The 25-50-25 Principle: my job is to help the middle 50 percent (undecided) join the first 25 percent (supporters) and let the last 25 percent (resisters) go (98).
- I speak and write books to extend my influence to people beyond my personal touch (116).
- I will only teach what I believe – passion. I will only teach what I experience – confidence. I will only teach what I live – authenticity (210).
- My calling is: 1) mainly about others, 2) something chosen for me, 3) integrated into my entire life, 4) never leaves me, 5) something I must do, and 6) measured by significance.
Quotes
- “Sad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing, when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do” (7-8). Phillips Brooks
- You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want” (20). Zig Ziglar
- 1) Focus on adding value daily. 2) Add as much value as possible as often as possible. 3) Never wait to add value. 4) Give without keeping score so motive stay pure. 5) Welcome any return as an unexpected blessing.
- “If we get better, our circumstances will demand that we get bigger” (48). Truett Cathy
- Growth is the only guarantee that tomorrow will be better than today (49).
- “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” Let me define the reality of your leadership potential: it’s uphill all the way (63) JM and Max De Pree
- The Vice Admiral James Stockdale Paradox: Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. And at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be (65). Reference to Jim Collins
- Most people want empowerment when what they need first are responsibility and accountability.
- “…Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself” (93). Seth Godin
- Leaders willing to progress from the coasting and comfort to the challenge and creative zones are the ones who will expand their leadership and legacy (106).
- “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity” (109). George S. Patton
- “Do for one what you wish you could do for many” (141). Andy Stanley
- “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you are willing to work” (156). Oprah Winfrey
- I can either be the sage on the stage or a guide by their side (167).
- “Authenticity is the new authority in leadership” (210). Mark Batterson
- “A different world cannot be built by indifferent people” (221). Peter Marshall
- We are all salt and light. Sometimes God calls us to a cause so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested for him in that cause. Mother Teresa described this as “the call within a call” (240).
- “Instead of wondering what your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from” (247). Seth Godin
David Lockwood 