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CONTENTS Foreword by Stephen Covey Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION 1. THE LAW OF THE LID Leadership Ability Determines a Person¿s Level of Effectiveness Brothers Dick and Maurice came as close as they could to living the American Dream¿without making it. Instead a guy named Ray did it with the company they had founded. It happened because they didn¿t know the Law of the Lid. 2. THE LAW OF INFLUENCE The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence¿Nothing More, Nothing Less Abraham Lincoln started with the rank of captain, but by the time the war was over, he was a private. What happened? He was a casualty of the Law of Influence. 3. THE LAW OF PROCESS Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day Theodore Roosevelt helped create a world power, won a Nobel Peace Prize, and became president of the United States. But today you wouldn¿t even know his name if he hadn¿t known the Law of Process. 4. THE LAW OF NAVIGATION Anyone Can Steer the Ship, but It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course Using a fail-safe compass, Scott led his team of adventurers to the end of the earth¿and to inglorious deaths. They would have lived if only he, their leader, had known the Law of Navigation. 5. THE LAW OF ADDITION Leaders Add Value by Serving Others What kind of a Fortune 500 CEO works on a folding table, answers his own phone, visits hourly employees as often as possible, and is criticized by Wall Street for being too good to his employees? The kind of leader who understands the Law of Addition. 6. THE LAW OF SOLID GROUND Trust Is the Foundation of Leadership If only Robert McNamara had known the Law of Solid Ground, the war in Vietnam¿and everything that happened at home because of it¿might have turned out differently. 7. THE LAW OF RESPECT People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves The odds were stacked against her in just about every possible way, but thousands and thousands of people called her their leader. Why? Because they could not escape the power of the Law of Respect. 8. THE LAW OF INTUITION Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias How does Steve Jobs keep reinventing Apple Computer and taking it to the next level? The answer can be found in the Law of Intuition. 9. THE LAW OF MAGNETISM Who You Are Is Who You Attract How did the Confederate army¿understaffed and underequipped¿stand up so long to the powerful Union army? The Confederates had better generals. Why did they have better generals? The Law of Magnetism makes it clear. 10. THE LAW OF CONNECTION Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand As the new leader, John knew that the most influential person in the organization could torpedo his leadership. So what did he do? He reached out using the Law of Connection. 11. THE LAW OF THE INNER CIRCLE A Leader¿s Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him Lance Armstrong is hailed as the greatest cyclist who ever lived. People credit his toughness. They credit his brutal training. What they miss is the Law of the Inner Circle. 12. THE LAW OF EMPOWERMENT Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others Henry Ford is considered an icon of American business for revolutionizing the automobile industry. So what caused him to stumble so badly that his son feared Ford Motor Company would go out of business? He was held captive by the Law of Empowerment. 13. THE LAW OF THE PICTURE People Do What People See Easy Company withstood the German advance at the Battle of the Bulge and dashed Hitler¿s last hope for stopping the Allies¿ advance. They were able to do it because their leaders embraced the Law of the Picture. 14. THE LAW OF BUY-IN People Buy into the Leader, Then the Vision They freed their nation by passively protesting, even when it cost them their lives by the thousands. What would inspire them to do such a thing? The Law of Buy-In. 15. THE LAW OF VICTORY Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win What saved England from the Blitz, broke apartheid¿s back in South Africa, and won the Chicago Bulls multiple world championships? In all three cases the answer is the same. Their leaders lived by the Law of Victory. 16. THE LAW OF THE BIG MO Momentum Is a Leader¿s Best Friend Jaime Escalante has been called the best teacher in America. But his teaching ability is only half the story. His and Garfield High School¿s success came because of the Law of the Big Mo. 17. THE LAW OF PRIORITIES Leaders Understand That Activity Is Not Necessarily Accomplishment They called him the wizard. His priorities were so focused that if you give him a date and time, he can tell you exactly what drill his players were performing and why! It won him ten championships. What can the Law of Priorities do for you? 18. THE LAW OF SACRIFICE A Leader Must Give Up to Go Up What would you give up for the people who followed you? This leader gave his life. Why? Because he understood the power of the Law of Sacrifice. 19. THE LAW OF TIMING When to Lead Is As Important As What to Do and Where to Go Leaders at every level dropped the ball: the mayor, the governor, the cabinet secretary, and the president. Not one of them understood the potential devastation that can come when a leader violates the Law of Timing. 20. THE LAW OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH To Add Growth, Lead Followers¿To Multiply, Lead Leaders Is it possible to train more than a million people around the globe? It is if you use leader¿s math. That¿s the secret of the Law of Explosive Growth. 21. THE LAW OF LEGACY A Leader¿s Lasting Value Is Measured by Succession What will people say at your funeral? The things they say tomorrow depend on how you live today using the Law of Legacy. CONCLUSION Appendix A: 21 Laws Leadership Evaluation Appendix B: 21 Laws Growth Guide Notes FOREWORD By Stephen Covey When John Maxwell asked me to write the foreword for this 10th anniversary edition of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I was honored and intrigued. During the past two decades, John and I have traveled on parallel paths in our speaking and writing. We have both been called ¿leadership experts¿ over the years. We know and respect each other¿s work. But in spite of the similarities between our messages, we have rarely spoken to the same audience. So to recommend this book allows me to introduce John Maxwell and his teaching to members of my audience who have not yet read him. And what better book to recommend than this new and improved version of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership? It serves as a sort of manifesto for his teaching and his life. Study this book and you have gotten to know John Maxwell the person as well as his philosophy of leadership. When The 21 Laws was first published in 1998, I could see immediately how practical and applicable the laws were. They still are. For over three decades, John Maxwell has earned his reputation as a communicator. And as he says, communicators ¿make the complex simple.¿ Rather than an esoteric examination of leadership, this book is more like a foundational instruction manual. With each chapter, you will get to know individuals who did¿or some who didn¿t¿obey the law in question. The law itself is defined clearly and simply. And¿most importantly¿John will give you specific steps for applying it to the leadership in your office, community, family, or church. John has told me regarding this revision that he was excited about the opportunity to include the lessons he has learned since The 21 Laws was first written. I know what he means. Leadership is not static, and neither should be books about it. I believe this revised edition will have an even greater impact than its predecessor. Laws have been updated, illustrations refined, and applications enhanced. The foundational leadership concepts have not been abandoned; rather, they have been updated for a new generation of leaders. As good as the original was, this new edition is even better. If The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is new to you, let me say that you are in for a treat. It will change the way you live and lead. As you read, you will be encouraged and your ability to lead will expand. If you have read the original book, then you will be thrilled with this new edition. You will learn many new lessons as well as being reminded of truths that will serve you well. And by engaging in the new application activities, you will really sharpen your skills. I trust that you will enjoy and benefit from reading this book, just as I did. Absolutely amazing, inspiring leadership stories! Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The 8th Habit and Everyday Greatness. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to the thousands of leaders around the world who learned and sometimes challenged the laws of leadership, thus sharpening my thinking. Thank you to the team at Thomas Nelson who gave me the chance to revise and improve this book, and especially to Tami Heim for her strategic leadership and to Victor Oliver who was instrumental in the development of the original concept. Thank you to Linda Eggers, my executive assistant, and her assistant, Sue Caldwell, for their incredible service and willingness to go the extra mile every day. Thank you to Charlie Wetzel, my writer, and Stephanie, his wife, without whose work this book would not have been possible. INTRODUCTION Every book is a conversation between the author and the individual reading it. Some people pick up a book hoping for a bit of encouragement. Some devour a book¿s information as if they were attending an intensive seminar. Others find in its pages a mentor they can meet with on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The thing I love about writing books is that it allows me to ¿talk¿ to many people I will never personally meet. That¿s why I made the decision in 1977 to become an author. I had a passion to add value to people that energized me to write. That passion still burns within me today. Few things are more rewarding to me than being on the road and having someone I¿ve never met approach me to say, ¿Thank you. Your books have really helped me.¿ It¿s why I write¿and intend to continue writing! Despite the deep satisfaction of knowing that my books help people, there is also a great frustration that comes with being an author. Once a book is published, it freezes in time. If you and I knew each other personally and we met weekly or monthly to talk about leadership, every time we got together I¿d share with you something new I¿d learned. As a person, I continue to grow. I¿m constantly reading. I¿m analyzing my mistakes. I¿m talking to excellent leaders to learn from them. Each time you and I were to sit down, I¿d say, ¿You won¿t believe what I just learned.¿ As a conference and event speaker, I often teach the principles I write about in my books, and I¿m constantly updating my material. I use new stories. I refine ideas. And I often gain new insights as I stand in front of an audience. However, when I go back to books that I¿ve previously written, first, I become aware of how I¿ve changed since I¿ve written them. But second, I become frustrated because the books can¿t grow and change along with me. That¿s why I got excited when my publisher, Thomas Nelson, asked if I would like to revise The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership for a special tenth anniversary edition. When I originally wrote the book, it was my answer to the question, ¿If you were to take everything you¿ve learned about leadership over the years and boil it down into a short list, what would it be?¿ I put on paper the essentials of leadership, communicated as simply and clearly as possible. And soon after the book was published and it appeared on four different best-seller lists, I realized it had the potential to help a lot of people become better leaders. Growth = Change But now, years later, there are things I am no longer satisfied with in the original edition. I knew I could improve upon some ideas in the original edition. Some stories had become dated, and I wanted to replace them with new ones. I had also developed new material to better explain and illustrate some of the ideas. While teaching the laws for nearly a decade in dozens of countries around the world, I fielded thousands of questions about the laws. That process advanced my thinking beyond what it was when I first wrote the book. Working on this tenth anniversary edition has allowed me to make those improvements. By far the biggest change I wanted to make to the original book centered on two of the laws. ¿What?¿ you may ask. ¿How can you change one of your irrefutable laws?¿ First of all, while teaching them I soon discovered that two of the laws were really just subsets of other laws. The Law of E. F. Hutton (When the Real Leader Speaks, People Listen) was really just an aspect of the Law of Influence (The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence¿Nothing More, Nothing Less). When people around a table stop and listen to a leader speak, they are revealing that the speaker has influence. Because the ideas in the Law of E. F. Hutton were part of the Law of Influence, I merged those two chapters. Similarly, I recognized that the Law of Reproduction (It Takes a Leader to Raise Up a Leader) was assumed in the Law of Explosive Growth (To Add Growth, Lead Followers¿To Multiply, Lead Leaders). For that reason, I combined them as well. The other thing that happened was that I began to realize that I had missed some things when writing about the laws of leadership originally. The first omission I discovered as soon as I had taught the laws a few times in developing countries. I found that in many of those places, leadership was focused on position, privilege, and power. In my paradigm of leadership, I took some things for granted. I see leadership primarily as a form of service and had never identified a law to teach that principle. The second oversight had to do with modeling leadership and impacting the culture of an organization. The result is the inclusion of two new laws in this tenth anniversary edition of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: The Law of Addition: Leaders Add Value by Serving Others The Law of the Picture: People Do What People See From today¿s perspective I ask myself, How could I have missed them? But I did. The good news is that you won¿t! I feel certain that these two laws will add immeasurably to the book and to your ability to lead. Serving others and showing others the way are two critical components of successful leadership. I wish I could revise each of my books every ten years to include things I missed! More Lessons Learned There are two other things I¿ve been reminded of as I¿ve taught the 21 Laws these last ten years: 1. Leadership Requires the Ability to Do More Than One Thing Instinctively, successful people understand that focus is important to achievement. But leadership is very complex. During a break at a conference where I was teaching the 21 Laws, a young college student came up to me and said, ¿I know you are teaching 21 Laws of Leadership, but I want to get to the bottom line.¿ With intensity, he raised his index finger and asked, ¿What is the one thing I need to know about leadership?¿ Trying to match his intensity, I raised my index finger and answered, ¿The one thing you need to know about leadership is that there is more than one thing you need to know about leadership!¿ To lead well, we must do 21 things well. 2. No One Does All 21 Laws Well Despite the fact that we must do 21 things well to be excellent leaders, it is reality that none of us does all of them well. For example, I am average or below average in five of the laws¿and I wrote the book! So what is a leader to do? Ignore those laws? No, develop a leadership team. At the end of this book there is a leadership evaluation. I encourage you to take it to evaluate your aptitude for each law. Once you¿ve discovered in which laws you are average or below, begin looking for team members whose skills are strong where yours are weak. They will complement you and vice versa, and the whole team will benefit. That will make it possible for you to develop an all-star leadership team. Remember, none of us is as smart as all of us. Some Things Never Change Though I have made adjustments to the laws and updated the ways I teach them, some things have not changed in the last ten years. It¿s still true that leadership is leadership, no matter where you go or what you do. Times change. Technology marches forward. Cultures differ from place to place. But the principles of leadership are constant¿whether you¿re looking at the citizens of ancient Greece, the Hebrews in the Old Testament, the armies of the modern world, the leaders in the international community, the pastors in local churches, or the businesspeople of today¿s global economy. Leadership principles are unchanging and stand the test of time. As you read the following chapters, I¿d like you to keep in mind . . . 1. The laws can be learned. Some are easier to understand and apply than others, but every one of them can be acquired. 2. The laws can stand alone. Each law complements all the others, but you don¿t need one in order to learn another. 3. The laws carry consequences with them. Apply the laws, and people will follow you. Violate or ignore them, and you will not be able to lead others. 4. These laws are the foundation of leadership. Once you learn the principles, you have to practice them and apply them to your life. Whether you are a follower who is just beginning to discover the impact of leadership or a natural leader who already has followers, you can become a better leader. As you read about the laws, you may recognize that you already practice some of them very effectively. Other laws may expose weaknesses you didn¿t know you had. Use your review as a learning experience. In this edition, I¿ve included exercises at the end of each chapter to help you apply each law to your life. No matter where you are in the leadership process, know this: the greater the number of laws you learn, the better leader you will become. Each law is like a tool, ready to be picked up and used to help you achieve your dreams and add value to other people. Pick up even one, and you will become a better leader. Learn them all, and people will gladly follow you. Now, let¿s open the toolbox together.
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