I am a fan of the John C. Maxwell books on leadership and have started to read his pocket books, the 101 series.

The first in the series is Attitude 101 and I enjoyed it. A few highlights and quotes I pulled out:

• He does a lot of leadership workshops. One of his greatest concerns is that people come to the conference and do not change. They enjoy the ‘show’ but fail to implement the ideas. We overestimate the event and underestimate the process. So true. How many people have gone to a self help course – walked away enthused and then fell back into the old routine.
• Life is like a grindstone. It can either wear you down or polish you. It all depends on what you are made of.
• From NBA hall of famer Bill Russell: ‘the most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I made my teammates play’
• There was a great story in the book about a teacher who conducted an experiment with her art class (pottery). At the beginning of the term she told one group they would only be marked on the quantity of their output. She told the other group that they would be graded on quality. Off the two went, with the first team making item after item while the quality group focused on ‘what does quality mean?’. In the end, she found that the highest quality art pieces were not from the quality group – quantity had the best output because they failed early, often and learned while the others pondered perfection. This is an item that he advocates often – try, try again.
• When supporting people – value people, praise effort and reward performance. Throughout the book he focuses on failure as a key element of success. He points to the notion that failure creates resilience. William Saroyan is quoted ‘Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success’
• In the last chapter he makes an interesting point: When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself. So true. I have a philosophy – if you make others successful, you will be successful. Simple really.

Good quick read.