The 360 Degree Leader by John C. Maxwell

I have to admit that I haven’t read a lot of leadership books, and so my take on “The 360 Degree Leader” by John C. Maxwell may be a little naïve, but I liked this book and think it is worth reading. I would highly recommend it to anyone who desires to be a leader in any organization.




One of my favorite books on leadership is “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People” by Steven R. Covey. This book, published in 1989, has many ideas that are so engrained into business now that they have become cliché (e.g. being proactive & synergy) , but one idea that especially struck me was that of the abundance mentality. This idea is that you, a person in a business, a family or other cooperative organization, do not have to take from others in your organization in order to advance, but rather everyone in your organization can advance if they are willing to continue to add value to themselves and to each other.

“The 360 Degree Leader” expands on the abundance mentality by presenting ideas on how a “middle management” leader can support those who lead him, learn and grow alongside his peers and teach & help develop those whom he leads. The principles that John C. Maxwell teaches and evangelizes persuade that by doing everything you can to help others in your organization, while doing your own job well, you will not only improve your organization, but also improve your own influence, leadership skills and eventually your own financial compensation.

The book is written in a very easy to read style that helped it avoid the dry-textbook style I was fearing when I first decided to read it. Maxwell has filled his book with personal, historical and biblical stories that help to support his principles as he presents them, and which make it easy to continue reading.

One of my favorite stories he presents is the account of Nehemiah as a “middle management” leader who is allowed by the ruler to rebuild Jerusalem. This story lead me to think of many biblical accounts, such as Joseph (of Egypt), Daniel, David, Esther and others who had great influence as “middle management” and helped me understand just how important those who lead in the middle can be.

The principle that made the highest impact on me in this book was the idea that a leader should see everyone whom he leads as a “10”. I have a tendency to try and determine the limitations of those I lead and then try to do the best with what is left, instead of embracing the idea that they not only CAN do better, but also WANT to be better than they are. If I’m not willing to believe they can be one of the best producers and leaders in my organization, why on earth would they trust me enough to let me influence their growth? Changing this part of my leadership mentality will probably be the biggest initial growth that this book inspires in sme.

My only real issue with the book is that it feels like John C. Maxwell is not fully focused on what he is trying to teach, and therefore the book doesn’t seem to be as important to him as other things might be. The simple fact that this is one of over 40 books that he has written on many topics, and that his focus seems to be torn between his organizations, his public speaking and the production of his books, makes it seem as though there could be a much more concise and focused version of what he is teaching if he would spend more time and energy distilling and researching the ideas. This isn’t a major problem for the book, just a nagging personal feeling. I’m much more likely to trust insights if they represent a heavy investment of the author, rather than just one of a few dozen concepts that have been fleshed out into a 300+ page book.
However, as I have mentioned above, the principles taught in this book are sound and worth adopting. I think anyone who invests their time in reading this book will easily reap sufficient benefits to make the time worthwhile if they are willing to continue to change themselves and put into practice at least a subset of the principles taught.