Key Lessons from John Maxwell

I have always been fascinated by the writings and mentorships of John Maxwell, an expert who has authored many books regarding leadership and why effective leaders need to have passion. In particular, I have been following Maxwell’s advice while delivering speech in international forums, podcasts and in international media which have helped me shape my leadership skills at various levels. Further, the author has helped me comprehend how passion works and how it should be developed to improve one’s career. What is even more interesting is the fact that despite Maxwell’s advice being focused at a professional perspective, I have found it applicable in many other contexts other than in business or organizational perspectives.

Despite securing a job position now, my interest in team management, organization and leadership started while I was still a young boy. I still followed by interest in high school through to college where my leadership capability were recognized accordingly. While at high school, I was selected as the assistant chairman of the student’s council. On the other hand, I was the secretary for student association at the college which I effectively handled until my graduation. However, I was not contented with my leadership capabilities. Rather, I always worked hard to improve these skills. In this regard, I sought regard from various successful and model leaders including counselors, professors, summer managers, internship managers, as well as reading and listening to renown and successful leaders such as John Maxwell, Kotler P, among others. The pursuit for this interest was particularly drawn from my strong passion in organization, leadership and management. Because of this passion, I became so involved with one particular organization on my college which eventually gave me a leadership opportunity. The practical opportunity I gained in various spheres, as well as the knowledge I acquired in my course helped me not only in developing my leadership capabilities but also understand the true essence of leadership and applying it in organizational and life contexts.

I do believe that the strong passion in me has stirred my interest to reach the level I am at the moment. In addition, I also believe that this passion will propel me to seek new heights of my capabilities as I eagerly work towards improving them. Maxwell reiterates that in order to full his or her particular vision, an effective leader must use passion and not position to do so. In other words, the motivation to achieve goals, vision is driven by passion, not one’s position. Similarly, I strongly believe that organizations must look for people who have passion to perform specific functions and roles in order for the particular organization to thrive. I believe that people with passion may not need to be directed every now and then or to be told what to do but will act on their own to achieve the specified objectives. Stated differently, employed with passion are self driven and may not work because of money or position but because they simply love what they do. Accordingly, it is important for organizations to understand how to make their workers passionate about their jobs. This way, it is possible for an entity to make sustained performance benefits as well developing the needed resilience in this dynamic market environment and the related challenges.