Eleven changes a leader must make inside themselves to keep leading well while the world keeps changing.
Maxwell defines a leadershift as the ability and willingness to make a leadership change that improves both you and your organization. It starts with letting go of what worked yesterday, because today's best will not meet tomorrow's challenges.
A soloist shines alone; a conductor makes the whole orchestra sound great. Your focus moves from me to we - ask every day how you can add value to others and help them reach their potential.
Goals have finish lines; growth never ends, and becoming better beats doing better. Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy focused on getting better, trusting customers would then demand the company get bigger.
Wanting leadership for the corner office, title, and pay is having it backward. Real leaders are motivated by what they give, and they gladly pay the price leadership costs.
You cannot please everyone - roughly a quarter of people will never be happy and a quarter will follow you no matter what. You are in the leadership business, not the friendship business: set expectations early and ask people for their best.
Maintaining is coasting on tradition, and it is often rewarded with tenure. Creating means leaving the comfort zone for the creative zone - believing everything can improve, saying yes to new ideas, and accepting failure as part of the process.
The rest of this summary — and the one thing to do this week — is in the PDF.
Download the free PDFChange now moves so fast that a long-range plan that once stretched ten years now covers about two. Maxwell's answer is the leadershift: the ability and willingness to make a leadership change that positively enhances organizational and personal growth. The book lays out eleven shifts he made over his own leadership career, framed by a first chapter on staying nimble - like a cheetah, whose real weapon is not speed but the ability to change direction mid-stride. Its seven working habits include continually learning, unlearning, and relearning, valuing yesterday while living in today, and moving forward courageously in the midst of uncertainty.
The early shifts are about focus, development, and cost. Leaders must move from soloist to conductor, making others shine instead of starring alone; from goals to growth, because goals end but becoming better compounds for life; and from perks to price, trading the office, title, and paycheck mindset for a glad willingness to pay what leadership costs.
