Leadership Makes A Difference By John C. Maxwell

John C. Maxwell is spot on when he says “Leadership makes a difference.” Not only does leadership make a difference, it is the difference between success and failure, especially when it comes to a school. Granted Maxwell is more of business person, his knowledge, wisdom, and experience can easily translate into any setting, especially the education field. After reading Maxwell’s book, I sat down with my mentor and discussed a few of these nuggets of Leadership Gold. The very first chapter really struck a chord with me. Maxwell says that if it’s lonely at the top, you’re not doing something right. I cannot agree more with this statement. A great leader is not alone. A great leader surrounds themselves with the right people to help make them an effective leader. As Maxwell said, taking people to the top is what good leaders do. One of the main goals of leadership is to have those you lead be the best they can be. This includes fostering new leaders who will eventually, either take your place or go out and lead elsewhere. This may sound odd, but as a great leader, you should want to develop leaders to take your place. To do this you have to, as

Maxwell says that experience teaches nothing, but evaluated experience teaches everything. I think he is mostly right on this. You need that experience and to have had situations arise in your leadership life. The real learning comes from evaluating those experience. I think of the words of one of the greatest leaders of all time, Vince Lombardi as he said, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” That is what Maxwell is saying. Experience is practice but evaluating that experience is perfect practice. Again, my mentor agreed with Maxwell. He said he constantly evaluates the experiences he has had throughout his career. The things that he learns from these evaluations allow him to handle similar situations