Leadershift Workbook

Making the Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace

John C. Maxwell

• Publisher: HarperChristian Resources
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780310109891
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Leadership

Lead-er-shift [verb]: The act of nimbly adapting one’s leadership in the midst of rapid change.

The term leadershift may be new to you, but the climate of change that demands it is not. As a leader, you already know that it takes more than staying the course to be successful. The key to not just surviving but to continual innovation, improvement, and influence is to learn how to leadershift.

In the Leadershift Workbook, based on the bestselling book of the same name, author John C. Maxwell helps leaders make the changes the current fast-paced environment demands. He begins by helping leaders embrace seven principles to face every situation with flexibility and confidence:

1. Continually learn, unlearn, and relearn
2. Value yesterday, but live in today
3. Rely on speed, but thrive on timing
4. See the big picture as the picture keeps getting bigger
5. Live in today, but think about tomorrow
6. Move forward courageously in the midst of uncertainty
7. Realize today’s best will not meet tomorrow’s challenges

In each of the lessons in this workbook, John shares the critical shifts he has personally made over the course of his long and successful leadership career, including the Adaptive Shift from Plan A to Option A, the Production Shift from Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building, and the Influence Shift from Positional Authority to Moral Authority. These leadershifts will change the way you think, act, and ultimately lead so you can be proactive and successful in an ever-changing world.

Designed for use with the Leadershift book (9780718098506).

LESSON ONE

WHY EVERY LEADER NEEDS TO
LEADER SHIFT

Change or die.

THOMAS EDGLEY

I’ve been wanting to write a book on the idea of leadershifts for a long time because a lot has changed in the decades I’ve been studying and practicing leadership. In the 1970s when I was new to my career, I could find very few books on leadership. Back then, management ruled the business world and Peter Drucker was the king. That started to change toward the end of the 1980s, as a few authors were starting to write leadership books. People eagerly bought and read them. Why? Because they could feel that life was moving faster, change was becoming normal, and they needed a way to navigate the world’s complexities, which were becoming more challenging.

People need to learn leadership to be successful. The principles of management, which had been taught for years, depended on stability and known factors. As expressed by Eric J. McNulty, director of research at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative:

Management systems and processes tend to be linear. They assume that similar inputs will result in similar outputs. In many situations, this holds true. Leadership, however, requires a more nuanced view of the world because it involves people: what motivates them, what their interests are, and how engaged they become. Mechanical systems may be linear but as soon as the human element becomes involved the system becomes both complex and adaptive.¹

Where management took stability for granted, leadership provides principles that work in the face of the unknown. Back in the eighties, people were looking for leaders to guide them, and people running organizations recognized the need to become leaders themselves. As they began to apply leadership principles to their world, they thrived. That’s why for the last thirty years, leadership has ruled the business world.

FAST IS FASTER—FORWARD IS SHORTER

As fast as the pace was in the 1980s, when I look back it seems slow by today’s standards. Life moves much faster now. The rate at which we must deal with change and uncertainty can seem insane.

For several years one of my organizations, the John Maxwell Team, has asked me to do short videos they post daily called Minute with Maxwell. My team will set me up in front of a camera and then give me a word or phrase, asking me to react to it or teach on it for a minute or so. It’s fun and the video gets posted online as a kind of mentoring moment. Recently, for one of these sessions, the phrase they gave me was fast forward. What immediately came to my mind were the words faster and shorter. Here’s what I mean.

The future seems to be coming at us faster than ever. It is not going to slow down. Would anybody seriously consider the idea that tomorrow will be at a slower pace than today? Technology, social media, and the rate of change will never allow that to happen. To go forward, we need to move faster. And as leaders, we need to stay ahead, we need to see more than others, and we need to see before others.

Traditionally, in athletic races, the first three finishers are recognized, and all three receive prizes. Today, outside of sports, it seems as though only winners get recognized and rewarded. As the saying goes, coming in second means you’re the first loser. That’s why speed and agility are so important.

Forward is also shorter. As a young leader, I was taught that to be effective in leading my organization, I should create a long-range plan of ten years, a medium-range plan of five years, and a short-range plan of two years. That seems absurd now. Today a long-range plan may be two years. Technology and innovation move so quickly that everything is going forward in a shorter time frame. As leaders, we can’t drag our feet or take too long making assessments. We have to change, reread our situation, and change again. And continue changing.

CONSIDER

In what ways do you feel the speed of life? How does it challenge you or negatively impact you?

[Your Response Here]

How does a leader do more than just hang on and survive in such an environment? The key is to learn how to continually make leadershifts. What is a leadershift? It is an ability and willingness to make a leadership change that will positively enhance organizational and personal growth.

Educator and author Bruna Martinuzzi cited a study conducted by an organization called the Economist Intelligence Unit. It identified the top three leadership qualities that will be important in the years ahead: “the ability to motivate staff (35 percent); the ability to work well across cultures (34 percent); and the ability to facilitate change (32 percent).” All three of these qualities require adaptability. Martinuzzi likened this to the Chinese proverb that says that the wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher. Perhaps at no other time in recent history has adaptability been more important than it is now. “Adaptability—the ability to change (or to be changed) to fit new circumstances—is a crucial skill for leaders.”²

A more recent study conducted by Right Management and published in The Flux Report made it clear that the need for adaptability is only increasing. They asserted that 91 percent of future recruiting in the workplace will be based on people’s ability to deal with change and uncertainty.³

LEADERSHIFTING IS THE ABILITY AND WILLINGNESS TO MAKE A LEADERSHIP CHANGE THAT WILL POSITIVELY ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL AND PERSONAL GROWTH.

Good leaders adapt. They shift. They don’t remain static because they know the world around them does not remain static. This has always been true, but it’s never been more obvious than today, nor has the ability to change quickly been more important. Adaptable leaders who make leadershifts lean into uncertainty and deal with it head on. I like what Paul Karofsky, executive director emeritus of Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business, said about this, though he used the w...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Ebook Instructions
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Lesson 1: Why Every Leader Needs to Leadershift
• Lesson 2: Soloist to Conductor
• Lesson 3: Goals to Growth
• Lesson 4: Perks to Price
• Lesson 5: Pleasing People to Challenging People
• Lesson 6: Maintaining to Creating
• Lesson 7: Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building
• Lesson 8: Directing to Connecting
• Lesson 9: Team Uniformity to Team Diversity
• Lesson 10: Positional Authority to Moral Authority
• Lesson 11: Trained Leaders to Transformational Leaders
• Lesson 12: Career to Calling
• About the Author
• Endnotes