Vontarius Falls 's Key Ideas from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
by John C. Maxwell

Leadership develops daily, not in a day. Compound your ability to lead by working on it daily. Leaders are learners. To lead tomorrow , learn today.

Anyone can steer the ship but it takes a leader to chart the course. A good leader remains focused, controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it.

Good leaders examine the conditions before making commitments. When you prepare well, you convey confidence &trust to people. Lack of preparation has the opposite effect.

Add profits by adding value.

The bottom line in leadership isn't how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others

Trust is the foundation of leadership. Leaders cannot lose trust & continue to influence others. To build trust, a leader must exhibit competence, connection, and character.

When a leader's character is strong, people trust him & they trust his ability yo release their potential.

People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves. Your reputation will determine the level of respect you command from others.

People naturally align themselves & follow leaders stringer than themselves.

"One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you" - Dennis A. Peer

Leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias. They base their leadership decisions as much on intuition as on facts. That often separates great leaders from merely good ones.

Who you are dictates what you see.

Leaders have the ability to step back from whats happening at the moment & to discern not only where the organization has been but also where it is headed.

Who you are is who you attract. Leaders help to shape the culture of their organization based on who they are & what they do. If you want to grow an organization, grow the leader.

Attracting employees unlike yourself requires a high degree of intentionality.

Become the kind of person you desire to attract.

Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart comes before the head.

Its the leader's job to initiate connections with people. To lead yourself use your head, to lead others use your heart.

A leader's potential is determine by those closest to him. The leader finds greatness in the group & he or she helps the members find it in themselves.

Only if you reach your potential as a leader do your people have a chance to reach their potential.

Leading well is not about enriching yourself, its about empowering others. The number one enemy of empowerment is the fear of losing what we have.

Enlarging other make you larger.

"Great leaders gain authority by giving it away" - Jones Stockdale

People do what people see

Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary & highly practical.

The leader's effective modeling of the vision makes the picture come alive.

"Leaders tell but never teach until they practice what they preach"- Featherstone

People buy into the leader, then the vision.

The leader finds the dream & then the people. The people find the leader, then the dream.

Every message that people receive is filtered through the messenger that delivers it.

People don't at first follow worthy causes, they follow worthy leaders. People buy into the leader first, then the leader's vision.

Leaders find a way for the team to win.

Victorious leaders possess an unwillingness to accept defeat.

Three components of victory:

Unity of Vision: have a unified vision of what victory looks like.

Diversity of Skills: A team doesn't win the championship if its players are working from different agendas.

A leader dedicated to victory & raising players to their potential.

Leadees who practice the Law of Victory have no plan B.

Momentum is a leader's best friend.

Start small, you can even start slow. Once you start, don't stop.

Momentum is the only thing that makes the difference between losing & winning.

Momentum is like a magnifying glass, it makes things look bigger than they really are.

Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.

If you focus your attention on the activities that rank in the top 20% in trns of importance, you will have an 80% return on your effort.

The heart of good leadership is sacrifice.

Leaders are often asked to give up more than others.

If leaders have to give up to go up, they have to give up even more to stay up.

The higher the level of leadership, the greater the sacrifice.

When to lead is as important as what to do & where to go.

When the right leader & the right timing come together, incredible things happen.

7 things great leaders need: Understanding, maturity, confidence, decisiveness, experience, intuition, preparation.

To add growth, lead followers, to multiply, lead leaders.

Becoming a leader who develops leaders requires an entirely different focus & attitude from simply attracting & leading followers.

When you're leading a group of people, who typically asks for the most time & attention? The weakest ones in the group.

Leaders who attract followers need to be needed. Leaders who develop leaders want to be succeeded.

The more you invest in people & the longer you do it, the greater the growth & the higher the return.

A leader's lasting value is measured by succession. A legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him.