Dr John C. MaxwellOn 8th December, The Core Concept together with ZN Consulting and YourOwnLab as partners, are hosting a leadership seminar in Brussels. L2 Learn Lead is an initiative by one of the most popular and experienced leadership experts in the world – John C. Maxwell, who has been teaching about this subject for over 30 years, and has written more than 70 books.

When you start the grasp the power of leadership, in what it represents and what it can facilitate in your life, your business, your organisation or community, I would be surprised if it wouldn’t awaken a desire to explore your boundaries and develop your potential to increase your effectiveness as a leader.

Leadership is often misunderstood. In his most famous book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, John Maxwell briefly sets out what leadership is not, tackling 5 leadership myths:

Management Myth: leading people is not the same as managing people. The main difference is that leading is about influencing people to follow, while management focusses on maintaining systems and processes. A manager can maintain direction but often cannot change it.

Entrepreneur Myth: we often assume that all entrepreneurs are leaders. Entrepreneurs are skilled at seeing opportunities and going after them; they see needs and understand how to meet them in a way that produces a profit. But not all of them are good with people.

Knowledge Myth: if you believe knowledge to be the essence of leadership, you might naturally assume that those who possess power and intelligence are therefore leaders. That isn’t necessarily true. Neither IQ not education necessarily equates to leadership.

Pioneer Myth: Being first is not always the same as leading. To be a leader, a person has not only be out in front, but also have people intentionally coming behind him, following his lead and acting on his vision.

Position Myth. The greatest misconception about leadership is that it is based on position. On the contrary, “it is not the position that makes the leader, it is the leader makes the position.”

So what is leadership then, if it is not management, position, knowledge, being an entrepreneur or a pioneer? John Maxwell says “the true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less”. What factors make that some people emerge as leaders and others don’t?

Character – who you are.
Relationships – who you know.
knowledge – what you know.
Intuition – what you feel.
Experience – where you have been.
past success – what you have done.
Ability – what you can do.

Let me leave you with some questions to assess where you stand today:

Which of the myths above have you bought into in the past? Why have you been susceptible to that myth? What does it say about your perception of leadership up till now? What must you change in your current thinking to make you more open to improving your leadership in the future?

What do you usually rely upon the most to persuade people to follow you? Rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 for each of the seven factors named above. How can you optimise or better utilise the ones with the low scores?

Source: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.

Interested in exploring more? Enroll in one of the free Master Mind Groups on “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, facilitated by Amina Langedijk, John Maxwell Certified Coach.

And/or attend the broadcast leadership seminar L2 Learn Lead with John Maxwell on 8 December in Brussels. Link to “L2 Learn Lead Brussels”: https://l2brussels.eventbrite.com

For more information: contact amina@thecoreconcept.eu