How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others - Becoming a Person of Influence

This book addresses impact, how to measure your potential contribution and how to plan your efforts to achieve those things that you are uniquely created to do. Here are few of my favorite quotes:

--In most cases, those who want power probably shouldn't have it, those who enjoy it probably do so for the wrong reasons, and those who want most to hold on to it don't understand that it's only temporary.

--Each day do what you should do before what you want to do.

--And like animals, people need to be cared for, not just physically, but emotionally. If you look around, you'll discover that there are people in your life who want to be fed--with encouragement, recognition, security, and hope. That process is called nurturing, and it's a need of every human being. If you desire to become an influencer in others' lives.

Start by nurturing them.

Reinforce what you already know to be true: seek to serve and stay focused on what you do best.

This book holds a wealth of practical knowledge for those who want to move up the corporate food chain. But even if you don't have professional ambitions and simply want to be a better human being, you've come to the right place. John C. Maxwell and Jim Dornan start with the basics, teaching that honesty, integrity, unselfishness, kindness and understanding are crucial components of any relationship, business or personal. They believe that as you strengthen your character, you will enjoy a more fulfilling and productive life, at home and at work. Since they reframed some concepts to fit chapter themes, the material is repetitive at times, but it is spiced with entertaining anecdotes and glimpses of business celebrities (such as Sam Walton). We think up-and-coming leaders will want this on their reading lists, along with Maxwell's other boosters.

Influence is an important element of leadership. In this book John C Maxwell talks about the principles that need to be practiced in order to develop influence and hence become a great leader.

Influence is not about position but really about behaviour. He also talks about how an important part of influence is building the members of your team.

For anybody in leadership this is a great tool to improve yourself and others.

First, I respect John as a fellow Christian and his morals are unquestioned.
I Just finished reading it and found it had several good points.
John takes you through the steps of modeling, connecting, influencing and regenerating in a logical sequence. I find John has a good grasp on influencing, and mentoring, but his writing style is not very riveting.
There were lots of great one liners from other authors and speakers, but the examples he uses fail to ignite. The study notes at the end of the chapters are useful. When I read John's books, it feels more like an assignment that I must struggle through than a journey that I enjoy. I think there are much better books on the subject and this one is a bit dated. Try "Tribal Leadership" also.

Phillip c. Neal DDSTribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

Great Book that Teaches the Correct and Timeless Principles of Influencing People! Not artificial like many books in the Self-Help books arena, this book is in the league of Power Principles and Principle-centered Leadership. The best way to influence others is by integrity and trust-based communication. This book gives the useful guidelines, useful common sense retold.

How To Win Friends and Influence People is great, if it is read together with this book, Power Principles and Principle-centered Leadership.

I order these types of books often for my friend. This is the second book that I have taken a peek at, and had to keep reading.

This book will help anyone who wants to prevail and be excellent in the career path that you have chosen. It will teach you how to inspire others toward personal development and achievement. It will show you how to endure excellent leadership qualities and be a "better you." Also, there are worksheets in this book for you to check yourself. If you want to move up the corporate ladder, this is the book for you.

This book was incredible and very insightful. It was written by two of today's premier leaders: John Maxwell, world renouned minister, and Jim Dornan, international business leader. These two authors not only provide an excellent model for bringing out the best in people around you and people that you hold dear to you in your life, but they also provide the individual reader with a great way for them to improve their life. They stress many principles that can not only help you influence people in a positive way, but also help you as a person to become a better citizen. If you would apply these basic principles to your every day life, you could not only improve your professional life, but your personal life as well. Both of the authors have been very successful in their professional lives, as well as their personal lives. They have chosen to share the knowledge they have acquired over the years of their successful careers with us, the readers. They have done a great job conveying their message to the readers. I would highly recommend purchasing this book because it lays out an excellent model for anyone who is looking to get an edge in the business world of today. It would also be a great book for anyone who is just starting a business and is learning how to manage their employees for the first time. It has some great pointers on how to treat your employees and how to get the most out of them. The book provides great tips on bringing the people around you to their highest potential. By getting the people around you to reach their highest potential, not only will they benefit from your knowledge, but they will become happier more productive people. So if you are interested in improving your life or business and taking the people around you with you, this is the book for you.

Please consider my suggestion before you decide to buy this book.
I recommend you consider buying his other two books instead of this one.
"The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership"
"The 21 Most Powerful Minutes In A Leader's Day"

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I can't say anything positive about this book, I was shocked to see this author repeat same information written in other Maxwell books.
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I read 5 of his books on leadership, and they all share very similar information. If you read his other books, you will not find any new ideas here. This book badly repeats what's in his other books, and its written by some guy Jim. The writing style of his other books are much better as well. I advice that you don't buy it, just look into his other books I mentioned above.

Maxwell's book is filled with many excellent suggestions, including how to:
1. Nurture others
2. Understand others
3. Reproduce leaders
4. Developing leaders
5. Become a person of integrity
6. Mentor others
7. Listen to others and actually increase your influence.
Maxwell clearly states that integrity is the key to leadership. He also spends time on how true leaders are to spend time positively impacting others instead of clamoring for attention and personal power over others (if you want to be a true leader, learn to serve others).
However, I must honestly say that I would have liked to have seen more examples of biblical characters in leadership roles mentioned. As a Christian, I like to see see how relevant the Bible is to everyday living (including leadership). Since Maxwell is a pastor, he is well qualified to share from the Bible and his own ministerial experiences on principles of leadership.
All in all, a good read with many good summaries of improving leadership qualities. However, if you are looking for a book with more mention of biblical examples (Moses, Noah, Abraham, David, etc.), I suggest Henry and Richard Blackaby's "Spiritual Leadership".

John Maxwell again provides a great work that helps the leader within you see what it takes to remain there. In short, do the work. While your doing the work, help others to do the work with you. Improve yourself and bring others along for the ride.
This is also a good book to review before an interview or any time when you have to sell yourself.