John Maxwell Interview Notes — Impact Theory

January 1, 2022 Business

(Unless specified, all quotes are from John Maxwell. A lot of these notes are word-for-word too.)

"If you had spent one hour a day everyday on one subject for five years, you could become an expert on that subject." — Earl Nightingale

"Instead of asking myself 'how long will it take'?, I started asking myself 'how far can I go?'"

Value people
Think of ways to add value to people
Look for ways to add value to people when I'm in the setting; what can I do; what can I say
Do things that add value to people
Encourage others to add value to people

In order for this formula to work, you have to be intentional and consistent. Consistency compounds.

Books
Learning lunches — "Tell me about your greatest failure" / "Who do you know that I should know?"

"Before you lead people, you have to find them."
In order to lead, get off being lonely at the top, and start a relationship with people you lead
Value people, and show you value them by starting a relationship and lead them with their best interest in mind
Character is developed out of adversity
You can grow yourself if you don't know yourself
You have to be aware of yourself — you need other people's help; self awareness comes from other people speaking into my life
Competence and skillset is developed through time and practice

Experience is not the best teacher; reflection turns experience into insight; experience isn't enough: what did I learn from that?
What did you learn?
What did you love?

Agenda: Decisions you have to make; Ask questions about things you need to do as a leader

Your Role: Participate; Ask questions; Be given a project to execute

Everyone ought to come to the table, but that doesn't mean everyone is going to stay there
"It's one thing to be a friend: it's good to be together and even good to work together, but you have to produce, we gotta have the results to have the road."
"It's a big gap for many people to go from a relationship-level to a leadership-level where now we have to get you to be effective and fruitful."
"If I truly value you as a person, I'm going to share with you how you can improve."
"It's one thing to say 'I don't like what you are doing'. It's more important to say 'there's some things you are going to have to improve there.'"
Always give people a path to improvement; give them the decision — Can he/she? (competency). Will he/she? (attitude).
Important for the leader to share their own difficulties/weaknesses
Have upfront expectations; don't friendship them through the process
Leaders prepare their people for both the ups and downs
90% of leaders never develop leaders; they only have followers

"The greatest return a leader ever gets is developing other leaders. That's when your leadership really begins to compound."

Your own example — people do what people see; follow me
Be intentional — commit yourself to finding them; let them come to the leadership table; discern their capacity; develop a program for them; you don't automatically get better
You have to empower them — let them practice; let them run; coach them when they don't do it as well as you

"I want you to work yourself out of a job; find someone to replace you, and I'll give you another job."
"I can't promote you until I replace you."
"Influence the influencer; you don't have to get all the credit."
"If you learn good values and you live them out, you just become more valuable to yourself and other people."

Notes On John Maxwell's Interview with Impact Theory