SIMPLY LEAD
If you are looking to invest in your growth as a leader I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite leadership events each year, Leadercast. This transformational event will be held on May 5th this year. Over the next several weeks I am posting notes from past Leadercast speakers to whet your appetite for next month’s event.
Leadercast was recently named by Forbes as one leadership conference you don’t won’t to miss in 2017.
Each year I come away inspired with a notebook full of new insights to help me grow and successfully overcome the challenges that leaders face.
The year’s theme is, “Powered By Purpose”. This event will inspire and encourage you in your growth as a leader and a person. You will learn at the feet of leaders who are known around the world for their accomplishments and leadership abilities.
This one-of-a-kind event will be broadcast live from Atlanta and simulcast into communities across the globe. For more details and to register check out their site: Leadercast.com
In anticipation of this year’s Leadercast event I am re-posting some of my favorite content from past events. Below are my notes from John C. Maxwell’s talk at the 2013 event.
John C. Maxwell is a #1 New York Times best-selling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more than 25 million books. He was identified as the #1 leader in business by the American Management Association® and the world’s most influential leadership expert by Business Insider and Inc. magazine in 2014. That same year John also received the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership from the Luminary Leadership Network. His organizations – The John Maxwell Company, The John Maxwell Team, EQUIP, and The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation – have trained more than 5 million leaders in every nation.
Below are my notes from John’s talk at Leadercast 2013:
SIMPLY LEAD
“Business schools reward complex behavior, but it is the simple things that makes you successful in life.” Warren Buffett
An Educator takes something simple and makes it complicated, but a Communicator takes something complicated and makes it simple.
- A Genius is someone who takes the complex and makes it simple.
- Connectors do the work of keeping it simple
- It is not easy to be simple but it is effective.
- It is easy to be simplistic but not easy to be simple.
- It is a process to make things simple.
Simplistic is shallow and fast, no depth to it, very easily understood, but very shallow.
The Process to Get To Simple
- In every of you biz you have to go from simplistic to complex, complex is deep and slow.
Example: Take the statement: “Experience is the best teacher”
Is experience really the best teacher? Experience is not really the best teacher, many people are getting older but not getting better
- Complexity requires questioning. Complexity tells us that simplicity is a half-truth. After spending time in complexity then you will move to simple.
Simple=Deep & Fast
- Deep & Fast is what you want in your leadership. You want to develop something that you can grab hold of and it is of value and depth to it.
- Many used to say that Leadership=Position. I learned this is not so, lots of people with positions have no leadership abilities at all. They do not perform well as a leader despite holding a position. Position does not equal Leadership.
- Leadership=Influence
Leadership is Influence, nothing more, nothing less!
- Take your business through the grid> Simplistic->Complex->Simple
Key Principle To Keep It Simple
Add Value To People Everyday!
- If you really want to be an influencer add value people everyday
- Everyone who has a positive influence with you is because they add value to you.
- Intentionally add value to people every day
- I ask the question at end of day: “Did I add value to someone today?”
Simple Math Formula for Expanding your Leadership by Expanding your Influence
A. Subtract Landmines From Your leadership.
- All of us has certain parts of our leadership that can destroy us, these are our land mines.
B. Multiply Your Strengths By Developing Them
- Your strengths are those things that you do well, those things that you excel in & are most effective in doing. These are where you are the most productive and add the most value to your organization.
- Make sure that you find your strengths for this is where you where you will have your greatest level of influence.
You don’t have influence in your areas of weaknesses
C. Divide your weaknesses by delegating them.
- Great Leaders get paid to put the ball in the right hands. These leaders know how to maximize the effectiveness of their organizations by using all the strengths of their different team members while minimizing the impact of their weakness by delegating those duties to team members who are strong in those areas.
- Learn to pass off your weaknesses to others on your team who have those as strengths.
- Your people already know your weaknesses, share them with your team so that they know you know your weaknesses.
Our problem is that we keep trying to find a leader to solve our problems. The right answer is be the leader that solves the problem.
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 19 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Company, organizations that have trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books which have each sold more than one million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. You can find him at JohnMaxwell.com and follow him at Twitter.com/JohnCMaxwell.
Here are a few of my favorite books that John has written over the years.
Grab Your Free
Leadership Reading Guide
©2025 Learning To Lead | Helping Good Leaders Become Great Leaders