Those Who Start the Journey with You Seldom Finish with You

John Maxwell

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781400275564
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Liderazgo

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 23,Those Who Start The Journey With You Seldom Finish With You, 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.

THOSE WHO START THE
JOURNEY WITH YOU SELDOM
FINISH WITH YOU

Whenever I walk through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and pass a particular bank of pay phones, my mind races back to an incident that happened there in 1980. By then I had been leading for eleven years. In the first several years of my leadership, the organization I led was so small that Margaret and I did everything. But by this time, I had begun to gather and build a team. That was something I had longed and planned for. From the time I began my career, I had envisioned what my team would be like. We would be of one mind and spirit. We would do great things. We would stay together forever.

One of the first team members that I selected was my assistant, “Sue.” She was a close friend of Margaret’s and mine, and she was extremely capable. The first few years were just as I hoped and dreamed. Sue did a great job for me, and Margaret and I did many things together with Sue and her husband. A job doesn’t feel like work when you’re doing it with good people you love.

When an opportunity for advancement in my career came, I naturally wanted Sue to come with me. This would entail moving to another city, but she and her husband agreed that they wanted to keep working alongside us. Margaret and I were elated. Before long, the four of us traveled together to what would be our new city and went house hunting together. Everything was moving along, we were making plans, and we were excited about what the future held.

A couple of weeks later, while I was traveling, I called Sue back at the office from the Chicago airport. Usually she was very cheery. That wasn’t the case this day. We talked business for a few minutes, but she soon interrupted the conversation.

“John, I have to tell you something,” she blurted. “We’re not moving. My husband and I have decided ...