Critical Lessons Every Leader Needs
This year as part of ACTE’s Fellowship Program, we read John Maxwell’s, “The Leadership Handbook.” Each member of the Fellowship Program is a leader in their own way…some in the classroom, and some outside the classroom. Regardless, this is a great book in any aspect of life.
One of Maxwell’s key themes is, “I don’t have employees, I have teammates.” Wouldn’t we all like to always work for a leader like that? He stresses how his employees don’t work for him, they work with him. As I read this book, I reflected on the leaders I have worked for over the past 19 years. Some have taken this approach, but others haven’t. Maxwell says, “I never climb the mountain alone…my job is to make sure the team makes it to the top together.”
“The toughest person to lead is yourself,” well isn’t that true! A lot of times we have great advice for others, but how much of the time do we actually lead ourselves to success? Leading ourselves is a challenge. Maxwell reinforces this by saying, “Human nature seems to endow us with the ability to size up everybody in the world but ourselves.” It’s difficult to reflect on our own successes and failures. It’s much easier to tell others how to do what you think should be done.
One of Maxwell’s other principles that really stood out to me was, “Never work a day in your life. Find your passion to find your potential.” This is so true when it comes to work and our careers. If you are not passionate about what you do every day, it’s hard to be successful and it’s difficult to be motivated to achieve. As we work with our career-tech students, there’s a lot of passion and pride for what they do which leads them to great success as they move into life-long careers.
“Leadership and learning are indispensable of each other.” President John F. Kennedy was absolutely right and this is one of the quotes that Maxwell references. This quote is perfect for my time in ACTE’s Fellowship Program. I have learned so much over the last year, not only from all of the assignments we have completed as a group, but as well as from the other Fellows and all those I have met as part of the program. Learning has to be on-going…you don’t learn a skill or a trade or go to college and then just give-up on learning. Throughout your career and life, you are continuously required to learn new things and adapt to new responsibilities and tasks. This is something we can share and pass down to our students as we challenge them to be life-long learners.