Influence Should Be Loaned But Never Given

Lesson 21 from Leadership Gold

John Maxwell

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781400275540
• eBook ISBN: 9781400275540
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

mart leaders learn from their own mistakes. Smarter ones learn from others' mistakes—and successes.  

John C. Maxwell wants to help you become the smartest leader you can be by sharing Chapter 21,Influence Should Be Loaned But Never Given, of Leadership Gold with you. After nearly forty years of leading, Maxwell has mined the gold so you don't have to. Each chapter contains detailed application exercises and a "Mentoring Moment" for leaders who desire to mentor others using the book. 

Gaining leadership insight is a lot like mining for gold. You don't set out to look for the dirt. You look for the nuggets. You'll find them here.

INFLUENCE SHOULD BE
LOANED BUT NEVER GIVEN

I’ve met people who think I make too big a deal about leadership. When I say, “Everything rises and falls on leadership,” they are quick to start looking for exceptions. But I have yet to find one. I believe the proverb is true: “When good people run things, everyone is glad, but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans.”¹

For more than thirty years, I’ve worked to teach other people how to be better leaders. That means trying to help them become more influential. After all, leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. For example, several years ago, my friend Jim Dornan and I wrote a book entitled Becoming a Person of Influence. We created it to help people increase their influence potential. And for years I have given a lecture called “The Five Levels of Leadership.” I’ve delivered it hundreds of times. Why? Because it helps people to understand how influence works and shows them how to expand their influence with others.

Leadership really does make a difference. One person with a lot of influence can make a huge positive impact on society. That’s why Charles, Count Talleyrand, remarked, “I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep.” If you want to make an impact, then work on your influence. If you want to add value to others, help them work on theirs. That’s why I have identified my life purpose as adding value to leaders (influencers) who multiply value to others.

THE VALUE OF INFLUENCE

I believe the pursuit of influence isn’t meant to be selfish or negative. Influence has a purpose greater than that of bettering the life of the influencer. Boiled down to its essence, influence has value for three purposes:

1. Influence Exists to Speak Up for Those Who Don’t Have Influence

One of the greatest responsibilities of leaders is to speak up for those who don’t have influence. For many generations in America, people of African descent needed a voice to be heard on their behalf. In the twentieth century, Martin Luther King Jr. provided that voice. He was a person of both compassion and action who spoke for the suffering and poor and showed ...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INFLUENCE SHOULD BE LOANED BUT NEVER GIVEN
• NOTES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR