Leaders Distinguish Themselves During Tough Times

Lesson 15 from Leadership Gold

John Maxwell

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781400275489
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400275489
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Smart 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 15, Leaders Distinguish Themselves During Tough Times, 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. 

LEADERS DISTINGUISH
THEMSELVES DURING
TOUGH TIMES

What is your current goal as a leader? During the first year of my leadership career, my goal was simple: at the end of the year, I wanted to receive a unanimous vote of support at the annual business meeting of my small congregation.

I’m a third-generation minister. I grew up in a denomination where people believed that the job of a pastor was to make everybody happy. The leaders who were given the most respect in the denomination were those who never rocked the boat and who managed to keep everything calm in their organization. The more things stayed the same, the happier the people were. And they confirmed their happiness at the annual business meeting where one of the things they voted on was whether to let the pastor keep his job. To me in that first year, the greatest possible sign of my success would be a unanimous vote of approval for my leadership. That’s why it was my goal.

As that first congregational meeting approached, I was quite confident that I would receive a unanimous vote. After all, I had spent an entire year doing everything in my power to please everybody at the church. At the end of the meeting when we had finished all the business and the votes had been counted, the secretary stood and read the tally: 31 yeses, 1 no, and 1 abstention. Though I tried to hide it, I was shocked, confused, and deeply hurt.

Immediately after adjourning the meeting, I hurried home and called my father who was a leader in our denomination. I told him the whole story, and numbly recounted the results of the vote.

“Dad, should I resign because of this bad vote?” I asked.

To my horror, I heard him laugh.

“No, son,” he replied, “you’d better stay. I ...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• LEADERS DISTINGUISH THEMSELVES DURING TOUGH TIMES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR