The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization

Wondering how to apply leadership principles if you're not the boss? Maxwell has answers! Debunking myths and clarifying challenges, the popular author asserts that you don't have to be the "main" person to impact your organization. You'll discover specific ways to influence peers and superiors-and become a more valuable team member.

In his nearly thirty years of teaching leadership, John Maxwell has encountered this question again and again: How do I apply leadership principles if I’m not the boss? It’s a valid question that Maxwell answers in The 360 Degree Leader voted best business book of the year by Soundview Executive Book Summary subscribers, and 2006 recipient of their Harold Longman Award. In this award-winning book, Maxwell asserts that you don’t have to be the main leader to make significant impact in your organization. Good leaders are not only capable of leading their followers but are also adept at leading their superiors and their peers. Debunking myths and shedding light on the challenges, John Maxwell offers specific principles for Leading Down, Leading Up, and Leading Across. 360-Degree Leaders can lead effectively, regardless of their position in an organization. By applying Maxwell’s principles, you will expand your influence and ultimately be a more valuable team member.

In this latest treatise, leadership mega-guru Maxwell (The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership) taps a rich vein of corporate angst: the plight of the middle manager, saddled with responsibilities but lacking real power, torn by conflicting tasks and time-management dilemmas, seething with thwarted ambition. As Macbeth shows, it's a predicament fraught with tragic potential, but the staid, platitudinous treatment given it by Maxwell and ghostwriter Charlie Wetzel drains away the drama. They generally counsel acceptance of limitations. Maxwell tells middle managers to work diligently in subordinate positions, support the CEO's vision, find the good in incompetent or malevolent leaders, infiltrate their bosses' emotional lives ("Listen to your leader's heartbeat.... What makes them laugh?... Cry?.... Sing?") and "stand up for your leader whenever you can." They can thus exert an unsung but crucial "influence" over higherups, while themselves practicing a higher, sublimated form of leadership by selflessly nurturing the potential of their own colleagues and underlings. Unfortunately, Maxwell's practical advice boils down to vague truisms ("when you find a problem, provide a solution") or clich s ("If your boss is a golfer, you may want to take up the game"). His bland injunctions to resignation, patience and self-effacement are unobjectionable, but also uninspiring. (Jan. 10) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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Reviewed by Alfreda Brewer-opatz (Owings Mills, MD), April 18, 2008

I bought this book for my husband and I have enjoyed reading it also. It provides a lot of insight to being a leader right where you are and in all that you do. I would recommend this book to anyone already in a leadership position,aspiring leaders and if you have issues with those who are leading you. Great book!

Reviewed by howard wharton (new castle, DE), July 23, 2007

This book is a must read if you are a leader in an organization in any capacity, especially if you're leading from the middle. This book is an instant classic, this is one of those books that will help any leader anywhere in the world.

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