On My Mind

On leadership

Nowadays when I read books, I like to take notes so I can go back and review later. Even though I might forget what I read, my detailed notes can help refresh my memory if needed. 

As I am reading John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I am jogging down a lot of notes. 

In the section on what leadership is, the author mentioned several factors that determine your leadership ability: 

• Character – Who you are, the inner person. People will only follow you if you are a man of character. 
• Relationships – Who you know. Build relationships with the right people. You are a leader only if you have followers. 
• Knowledge – What you know. Do your homework and know the facts. 
• Intuition – What you feel. Have the ability to deal with intangibles (morale, energy, timing, etc.) 
• Experience – Where you’ve been. The greater the challenge you faced and overcome in the past, the more likely people are to follow and trust you in the present.  
• Past success – What you’ve done. If you have a positive track record, people are more likely to trust your leadership ability and follow you. 
• Ability – What you can do. The bottom line for followers is what you can capable of.