The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader | John Maxwell | Thomas Nelson Publishers

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John C. Maxwell, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers in 1999, is described as a “complementary companion to The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”.  The book is half an A4-sized paper, which makes it easy to pull out of a bag to read while in commute. 

I have never heard of John C. Maxwell, but his books are displaying prominently in the Buchhandlung, with titles such as The 5 Levels of Leadership, Leadership Gold: Lessons I've Learned from a Lifetime of Leading, Laws of Leadership and Developing the Leader Within You staring down at me.  Autobiographies and memoirs of famous and successful people often top bestsellers list.  I figured it would be an accelerated path to learning how successful people are who they are from nifty books from Maxwell, who had compiled stories and provided signposts on self-improvement.  Self-improvement books are big businesses in USA, and I have been missing things out not having read a single self-improvement book.

Maxwell asked three questions in the first paragraph of the Introduction chapter of The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: What makes people want to follow a leader?  Why do people reluctantly comply with one leader while passionately following another to the ends of the earth?  What separates leadership theorists from successful leaders who lead effectively in the real world?  Maxwell declared that “the answer lies in the character qualities of the individual person.”

References were constantly made throughout The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader to The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, so much so that it seems to be a not-so-subtle product placement technique for readers to pick up The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership as well.  It does make me wonder though, as I read the book.  If a story is already recounted in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, how is The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader a “complementary companion to The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, if the story is repeated in The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader?  Won’t The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader seem like a revised edition of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership?  That is for me to hunt for The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and find out.

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader contains 21 chapters, one leadership quality per chapter.  Each chapter starts off with two quotes on the title page of the chapter, followed by a story of a person exemplifying the quality discussed, a Fleshing It Out, a Reflecting On It, a Bringing It Home and a Daily Take-away section which wrapped up the chapter.  Maxwell encouraged readers to ruminate over a chapter and “cementing (sic) each trait into your character”.  I found this advice useful, after I had finish the book in one reading, but found that I could not retain much information after devouring 21 indispensable qualities of leaders.  Hence, I’ve re-read the book slowly, taking notes, checking Webster (afterall, Maxwell IS American, so Webster seems like a more appropriate dictionary to use than Oxford) and adding my thoughts to each quality listed by Maxwell.

I have no idea if I could “cement” the traits into my character, but I certainly have not read a book in such great detail and with so much energy since the Shakespeare texts during Literature classes.