You’re doing too much on your own- John Maxwell

I get asked all the time about my busy schedule, and how I find time to accomplish all the things that I do.

When I answer that I delegate as much as I can, people nod in recognition. But I can tell that they’re not really satisfied with my answer. That’s because every leader “knows” about delegation. But most have had one of two experiences with it.

They either hold onto as much as they can and only give away what they absolutely cannot do themselves, OR they try to dump everything on unprepared and unsuspecting followers. The result? Burnout … or a train wreck.

So how do you avoid the extremes and make delegation work for you?

Create a culture of development.

I often hear from leaders who admire my assistant Linda Eggers, or my writer Charlie Wetzel. They’re amazed at how much I feel comfortable handing off to one or the other. And invariably, they ask, “How can I get someone of that caliber on my team?”

My answer is always the same. Find someone with the ability and willingness to learn, and then invest a lot of time in their lives.

With everyone who works closely with me, my goal is to teach them to think like I do. So at the beginning, I pour a lot of myself into them.

I don’t just make decisions and ask them to implement them. I share my thought processes and encourage them to tell me what they think I would do.

Linda, Charlie, John Hull (president of EQUIP)… Because of our time spent in development, I can now trust each one to make decisions and communicate the same way I would.

Give away everything you can.

It may seem to you that I give away some pretty important tasks. You’re right; I do. And that makes me unusual.

Generally, the more important a task is to the leader, the more tightly they hold onto it. Even if it’s not a good use of their gifts or it keeps them from doing other things.

So regardless of the task’s importance…

1. If someone else can do a task better than I can, I give it away.

And I’ve discovered that I do only four things really well: lead, communicate, create, and network. I routinely give everything else, such as administrative and financial tasks, to the experts.

2. If someone else can do a task at least 80% as well as I can, I give it to them.

John Hull, in his role as president of EQUIP, my nonprofit organization, came to me as an already seasoned leader and communicator. From the beginning, I felt confident handing the reins of the organization. And over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time together. Now he knows even better how I think. I’ve always been proud to have him represent me, so much that if you want a picture of how I would personally lead, I’d tell you to just look at him.

3. If someone else has the potential to do a task at least 80% as well as I can, I train them.

When Charlie Wetzel started researching for me, he gave me material that was of no interest or use to me. But I didn’t take that as evidence that I’d better hold onto that task. Instead, I came up with a process for teaching Charlie to look for material the way I would.

Here’s what we did: We would both read the same book of inspirational quotes and mark those that we thought were good. Then we’d compare our notes. At first, 90% of our choices didn’t agree. So I’d explain to him why I did or did not choose certain quotes, and we’d try again with a different book. Within a few months, Charlie and I agreed on 90% of all research material. We trained in a similar way with writing.

Today, fifteen years later, Charlie knows what I want before I do! He truly reads my mind and writes in my style. He knows my idiosyncrasies and my passions. Because of this, Charlie can take my material and make it better. He rewrites my writing and improves what I want to say. And I agree with 98% of his choices.

Take a look at your delegating style. What are you dumping without development? What are you holding onto that’s stealing time from your priorities?

If you take time to train your people, you can trust their thinking enough to let them do even the most important tasks well. Then you can use your best energies to do the things you do best.

Does teamwork really make the dream work in tough times?

In today’s economic climate, layoffs seem to be a fact of life. The newly-unemployed take the biggest hit, of course. But layoffs and restructuring cause difficulties for those remaining, too.

Last week’s post was about pre-layoff decisions that a leader must make. This time I want to talk about post-layoff situations that leaders must often navigate.

Suppose you’re facing a situation where staff has been cut, and departments have been combined and shuffled. Work teams that had years of experience together are dissolved, with their remaining members split up and partnered with people they have no history with. Employees are suddenly expected follow a leader they know only a little – or not at all.

Now imagine that you’re one of those team leaders. You’ve been assigned an unfamiliar team and new objectives. How do you get this new team up to speed and working toward a common goal?

1. Acknowledge the Challenge

The situation is awkward. You know it; your team knows it. Don’t be afraid to state the obvious: A group that has never worked together will not perform as well as one that’s been together for years.

By sitting down with the entire team and acknowledging the challenge, you create common ground. You also relieve the pressure of expecting instant camaraderie, while at the same time setting the team’s first goal: Getting to know each other.

2. Build Relationships

Relationship-building requires time. If members of your team barely know each other, you need to provide specific opportunities for them to interact. Call a meeting with a primarily social agenda. Encourage people to talk about more than work – i.e. topics like hobbies, background, family, etc. This will increase their comfort level for future interactions, when it’s time to really get down to business.

As the leader, you also need to get to know everyone individually. Schedule your own one-on-one time with each member of the team. Be intentional about getting to know them. The better you know their strengths and weaknesses, the better you can help them play to their strengths, maximize their potential, and work together as a team.

3. Develop a Clear Strategy

A new team probably means new goals and responsibilities. Bring everyone together to communicate the big picture for the team. Then strategize with the entire group on how you will work together to achieve team goals.

Creating a strategy helps team members to know their position, which creates clarity and security. They’ll be confident of what they need to prioritize and what they can expect other team members to deliver.

Tough times bring tough leadership situations. But then again, so do good times. Everyone’s saying that this economy will eventually turn around. When it does and organizations start growing, you may again find yourself leading new teams of people that you don’t know in tasks that they’ve never done before. You’ll be able to use this same trust-building strategy then, because it works in good times as well as bad.

The purpose of leadership, or why I do what I do - John Maxwell

Next week I’ll return home from my trip to Asia. After 17 days of traveling, speaking, touring and meeting with leaders on the other side of the world, I’m often asked why I devote my life to writing and teaching about leadership. At 62 years of age, I sometimes wonder myself.

Alright, not really. In over thirty years of leadership, one lesson I learned very early on was that taking people to the top is more fulfilling to me personally than arriving alone. I wrote about this in my recent book of all-new material, Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading.

Here’s an excerpt to illustrate:

A few years ago I had the privilege of speaking on the same stage as Jim Whittaker, the first American to climb Mount Everest. During lunch I asked him what had given him the most fulfillment as a mountain climber. His answer surprised me.

“I have helped more people get to the top of Mount Everest than any other person,” he replied. “Taking people to the top who could never get there without my assistance is my greatest accomplishment.”

Evidently this is a common way of thinking for great mountain guides. Years ago I saw an interview with a guide on 60 Minutes. People had died while attempting to climb Mount Everest, and a surviving guide was asked, “Would the guides have died if they were not taking others with them to the top?”

“No,” he answered, “but the purpose of the guide is to take people to the top.”

Then the interviewer asked, “Why do mountain climbers risk their lives to climb mountains?”

The guide responded, “It is obvious that you have never been to the top of the mountain.”

I remember thinking to myself that mountain guides and leaders have a lot in common. There is a big difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, “Go.” A leader says, “Let’s go.” The purpose of leadership is to take others to the top. And when you take others who might not make it otherwise to the top, there’s no other feeling like it in the world. To those who have never had the experience, you can’t explain it. To those who have, you don’t need to.

From Leadership Gold, Thomas Nelson (2008)

Be impressed Not Impressive - John Maxwell

Too often we think that if we can impress others, we will gain influence with them. We want to become others’ heroes – to be larger than life. That creates a problem because we’re real live human beings. People can see us for who we really are. If we make it our goal to impress them, we puff up our pride and end up being pretentious – and that turns people off.

If you want to influence others, don’t try to impress them. Pride is really nothing more than a form of selfishness, and pretense is only a way to keep people at arm’s length so that they can’t see who you really are. Instead of impressing others, let them impress you.

It’s really a matter of attitude. The people with charisma, those who attract others to themselves, are individuals who focus on others, not themselves. They ask questions of others. They listen. They don’t try to be the center of attention. And they never try to pretend they’re perfect.

Spend today listening to others and letting them impress you.

~ From The Maxwell Daily Reader

Pick Your Battles - John Maxwell

If you’ve spent any time on this earth, you know that life contains conflict. And there are times in the life of every leader when he or she needs to fight. But if you fight all the time, you can wear yourself out. That’s why it’s important to pick your battles.

To gain a better perspective on when to fight back and when to “let it go,” practice the following disciplines:

1. Spend time with people who are different from you. This helps you appreciate and understand how others think and work. You will be less inclined to judge or battle them.

2. In matters of personal preference or taste, give in. Keep the main thing the main thing. If you don’t save your energy for what really matters, you’ll wear yourself out and wear out your welcome with others.

3. Don’t take things too personally. In general, hurting people hurt people. And they’re also easily hurt by others. Keep that in mind when you’re on the receiving end of someone’s anger.

4. Practice the 101% Principle. Whenever possible in a difficult situation, find the 1% that you do agree on and give it 100% of your effort.

5. Be a servant leader. If your mindset is to serve rather than be served, you will be less likely to encounter resistance.

The best team doesn’t always win;
it’s usually the team that gets along best.

Adapted from Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork

Are you driven by Emotion? Or Character?

Earlier, I shared this statement from Dick Biggs:

The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.

Life would certainly be easier – and success more simple – if all it took to achieve was to KNOW the right things and DECIDE to do them, right? But I think it’s more accurate to say that a decision is just one bookend of achievement. The other is discipline. Decisions can only help us start. Discipline helps us finish.

That’s where character comes in. Emotion might drive us to make a decision. But character is what keeps us going, even when it gets hard.

In Developing the Leader Within You, I wrote about some differences between character-driven and emotion-driven people:

Character-driven people…

1. Do right, then feel good.
2. Are commitment driven.
3. Make principle-based decisions.
4. Let action control attitude.
5. Believe it, then see it.
6. Create momentum.
7. Ask, “What are my responsibilities?
8. Continue when problems arise.
9. Are steady.
10. Are leaders.

Emotion-driven people…

1. Feel good, then do right.
2. Are convenience-driven.
3. Make popular decisions.
4. Let attitude control action.
5. See it, then believe it.
6. Wait for momentum.
7. Ask, “What are my rights?”
8. Quit when problems arise.
9. Are moody.
10. Are followers.

The late Louis L’Amour is one of the best-selling authors of all time, with over 300 million copies of his popular western novels and short-story collections sold. When asked the key to his prolific writing, he responded, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

Which comes first? Position or preparation? - John Maxwell

When I meet people in social settings and they ask me what I do for a living, some of them are intrigued when I say I write books and speak. And they often ask what I write about. When I say leadership, the response that makes me chuckle most goes something like this: “Oh. Well, when I become a leader, I’ll read some of your books.” What I don’t say (but want to) is: “If you’d read some of my books, maybe you’d become a leader.”

Good leadership is learned in the trenches. Leading as well as they can wherever they are is what prepares leaders for more and greater responsibility. Becoming a good leader is a lifelong learning process. If you don’t try out your leadership skills and decision-making process when the stakes are small and the risks are low, you’re likely to get into trouble at higher levels when the cost of mistakes is high, the impact is far reaching, and the exposure is greater. Mistakes made on a small scale can be easily overcome. Mistakes made when you’re at the top can cost the organization greatly, and they damage a leader’s credibility.

How do you become the person you desire to be? You start now to adopt the thinking, learn the skills, and develop the habits of the person you wish to be. It’s a mistake to daydream about “one day” when you’ll be on top, instead of handling today so that it prepares you for tomorrow. As Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden said, “When opportunity comes it’s too late to prepare.” If you want to be a successful leader, learn to lead BEFORE you have a leadership position.

The Urgency to be fed and to feed

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I often ask God why the pastors that I really wanted to invest into my life never really did. Well, he answered it all right! For one, I never took the time to connect with all of them, so they didn't know me that well or at all! Reason number two, I received from an amazing message by Erwin McManus. He said it very simply, Paul says to Timothy in 2 Tim 2:2, "You have often heard me teach. Now take this teaching and give it to followers who will be faithful to tell others" (paraphrased). I wanted pastors and people that I looked up to in ministry to invest into my life, but how much did I sow into others? How faithful was I to share with others? Did I look like I was "investment worthy" with the way I invested? Probably not... However, it made me shut up, stop complaining and grumbling and aim towards becoming someone who gave and sowed into the lives of those that are in need and those who would like me to invest into their lives. God is faithful to his word and I find people, through not-so traditional methods of investing, investing into my life in some very fascinating and enriching ways!
My urgency to be fed, led me to feed faithfully first! My first words for this season are Faithful and Dependable (i.e., God finds me faithful and dependable with His mission, work and agenda). After all, we are all about our Father's business aren't we?

Should I keep this memory?

No one has heard this side of my story yet. A lot of different things in my life have taught me different things. But this one had not brought itself out till lately. It's not like it was on the priority list even for me till I kept encountering it. You might be waiting to know what this is. Asking the question, "Is it a family issue," "is it an insecurity?",... To be honest, when I tell you some of you might want to gag, burst out laughing and seeing it from someone else's perspective does make this thing look a lot sillier than it really is. It is a door. This door, for a whole lot of my life had grabbed the power to control how something would turn out. Would this door protect me? Would it stand and defend me? Would it thrash onto the floor and let me face life alone? It had a choice to make, but only according to who was standing on the other side of it!
You see, like me, it was powerless as well. It couldn't defend me or protect me or hide me from the world for a while as I took a moment to breathe.
It was a lifeless piece of plastic that had come to be a part of my life.
So today I ask the question, this door still stands, some adjustments made to it, but still stands, should I keep the memory of all that has happened, and what could potentially have been prevented, if I had a different door, a door with character and strength and power to protect me when I needed it most?
All I want to do sometimes is to hit and break this door for all the painful memories. But it had been brought to my life based on a financial and easier decision than custom making a door. But also because this door taught life lessons that other doors or things wouldn't have.
This door reminded me to be cautious, to not be naive, to be confident but humble, to stay in the presence of Jesus, to not alienate myself and to trust people one by one.
I think the pro's have a greater effect or me than the cons'. So should I keep the memory that makes me more powerful, authentic and reachable today or forget one that made me shake, cry and long for something more or different?
A lot of the times I have to write about a painful incident. I have to let out the words of frustration and hurt, to move past my indecisiveness. And this revelation just helps me rest in the decision that even when I am weak and am going through a hardship, then in fact, I am strong cause I am in Him.
It reminded me of Paul, this is what he wrote;


2 Corinthians 12:7-10


"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."


If my memory can be related to the thorn Paul had to live with and my victory allows me to boast in the One who stands taller and stronger than a door, should I keep the memory that will keep me humble, relatable and strong?