Which leader in your life do you admire the most? What was it about him or her? Her communication style? Her ability to provide clear guidance? Her ability to inspire and accelerate? Her presence? The best leaders in my life had the uncanny ability to really “see me” and make me feel inspired to create and contribute. If you have a moment, I invite you to share what it was about a leader that you’ve loved working with in the comments ❤️
I’ve been spending a lot of time these past few couple of weeks studying leadership, as it’s become more clear that during times of uncertainty our world, communities, companies, and families need more people to lead. It’s been especially fun exploring The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership in a six-part mini-series on The Soul Excellence podcast – we’ve got one more to go this week!
This morning, I wanted to reacquaint myself with one of the godfathers of personal development and leadership – John Maxwell.
I was super-excited to learn that just last year he published his latest work on leader shifts, or the eleven changes every leader must make to operate in a faster, more connected world. Much like the commitments of conscious leadership, Maxwell’s shifts invite a leader to move from individual excellence to a broader ability to connect with others and create sustainable impact. I was especially grateful that Maxwell took to YouTube to briefly outline each of the 11 shifts.
I don’t have too much commentary to share on these ideas just yet, but I did want to share them with you so that you can start to think about them and see them in action in your own life right now. I will say that my favorite shifts outlined below are from goals to growth – that one has always made so much sense to me – and directing to connecting, specifically this concept of finding where your people are at in order to help lead them. This makes so much sense, but so often as a “leader” in a position of authority I did not exhibit “leadership” in the sense of really being present, listening to my people, and co-creating a path forward.
OK, because I love a good table in a Word Doc, here’s an overview of Maxwell’s shifts that I put together while watching the YouTube video. Which shift can you focus on to lead your family and your people during these uncertain times?
| Type of Shift | Description |
| Focus | Soloist to Conductor – Help other people get what they want so you get what you want |
| Personal Development | Goals to Growth – Focus on what fuels you within (ie the journey and growth) – Shift Q from: how long will it take? To how far can I go? – – – Internal growth to power external goals |
| Cost | Perks to Price – What you receive to what you give as a leader – Everything worthwhile is uphill/have to work for |
| Relational | Pleasing People to Challenging People – Letting go of the need of the affirmation of people I need so that I can accomplish things with and through people – “You’re not a clown in a circus!” |
| Abundance | Maintaining to Creating – Let go of comfortable limitations to embrace and go after creative possibilities – Maintain is about scarcity/worry/fear; Abundance is about realizing there is more out there – Creativity & Flexibility (there is an answer, and there might be many!) |
| Production | Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building – From how high can I go to how high can I help others go – Do well yourself before you can build someone else’s ladder |
| Communication | Directing to Connecting – Instead of telling people what you want….learning/asking questions and finding out where people are – If you FIND them, you can lead them |
| Improvement | Team Uniformity to Team Diversity – Need people to complete me, not compete with me – Different ages, backgrounds, ideas, perspectives, expertise – appreciate people, connect with people You can’t change/correct people without connecting with them first |
| Influence | Positional Authority to Moral Authority – “Leadership is influence.” – Nothing wrong with title, position – fine place to start, but not where you want to stay |
| Impact | Trained Leader to Transformational Leader – A shift in focus on the WHY from the HOW – Becoming a change agent |
| Passion | Career to Calling – A job is an instrument, a calling is the fulfillment of your why – It’s about purpose – it’s about advancing a purpose or an idea – You can never retire from a calling/it’s who you are |
Glad I kept this Maxwell goodie with me on my Soul Excellence Journey!