John Maxwell Reflection

The principles 360-degree leaders practice to lead up. Principle #1: lead yourself exceptionally well.

This principle states that you have to be able to lead yourself well before trying to lead up. Not being able to lead yourself well will lead people to not trust you. “The key to leading yourself is to learn self-management” (Maxwell, 2013). He states that 360-degree leaders must be able to self-manage 5 things: their emotions, their time, their priorities, their energy, and their personal life. Good leaders know when to display emotions and when they need to delay them, they will always ask themselves “What will the team need?” not, “What will make me feel better?”. He also talks about how leaders should prioritize their tasks, 80% of the time should be working where you are strongest, 15% of the time should be working where you are learning, and 5% of time should be working on other necessary ideas. Next, Maxwell talks about the ABCs of energy drain. “Activity without direction, Burden without action, and Conflict without resolution” (Maxwell, 2013). Doing things that don’t matter, not being able to do things that really matter, and not being able to deal with the matter all contribute towards energy drain. Lastly, he talks about managing your personal life. “Success is having those closest to me love and respect me the most” (Maxwell, 2013). Having positive people around you will help you become a better leader.

I picked this principle because I feel like I can work on leading myself better, especially my energy. A lot of the time, I feel like I do things that don’t seem to matter too much without realizing it. After Maxwell went over this section, I wanted to work on managing my energy better so I can lead myself better. This principle is useful in TALONS because I feel like a lot of people tend to not manage their energy and priorities really well. Most of us will strive to work on things we are learning, but as Maxwell states, only 15% of the time should be focused that something we are working on. I feel like we can work on working more in our strength zones when we do projects, etc.

This concept will further my leadership skills by helping me to manage my emotions, time, priorities, energy, and personal life better. Being able to manage these will help me gain credibility, and others will want to work with me.

“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” (Maxwell, 2013).

The challenges 360-degree leaders face. Challenge #2: the frustration challenge

The frustration challenge is when you follow an ineffective leader. “Your job isn’t to fix the leader, it’s to add value. If the leader won’t change, then change your attitude or your work address” (Maxwell, 2013). Maxwell states that the role of leaders in the middle is to add value to the organization and to the leader. There are 6 steps to adding value.

  1. Develop a solid relationship with your leader
  2. Identify and appreciate your leader’s strengths
  3. Commit yourself to adding value to your leader’s strengths
  4. Get permission to develop a game plan to complement your leader’s weaknesses
  5. Expose your leader to good leadership resources
  6. Publicly affirm your leader

I picked this concept because we all have followed an ineffective leader in our lives and I thought that we need to learn to complete them, and not compete against them. This concept will be useful in TALONS because if a leader is being inefficient, we’ll need to be patient with them and not try to take over the leadership role. In my personal experience, I’ve seen some people try to take the leader role from someone who was struggling a bit.

This concept will help further my leadership skills by being patient with the people I work for and helping them complete themselves while adding value to them.

The principles 360-degree leaders practice to lead across. Principle #1: Understand, Practice, and Complete the leadership loop

“Leading is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process that takes time” (Maxwell, 2013). The leadership loop consists of 7 steps.

  1. Caring
  2. Learning
  3. Appreciating
  4. Contributing
  5. Verbalizing
  6. Leading
  7. Succeeding

As Maxwell states, people always move towards someone who increases them and away from anyone who decreases them. He also states that adding value to the people around them increases the credibility of the leader. Many people think that leading is the most important part of the leadership loop, but they don’t realize that adding value and appreciating their peers will help them lead better. “Great leaders don’t use people so that they can win. They lead people so that they can win together” (Maxwell, 2013).

I chose this principle because as I stated above, many people would think that leading would be near the front of the leadership loop. I found it interesting that it was actually second-to-last in the loop. The steps before “leading” will make the leading more efficient and build up the trust in the group. I feel like this principle would be useful in TALONS because we can work on the first few steps of the loop before jumping right into the leading, and it will help us connect with each other better.

I feel like this will further my leadership skills by getting to know people better and adding value to who they are. These two steps will make it way easier to gain trust with the group, therefore it’ll be easier to get our tasks done.

Are You Living in the Leadership Loop? |
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