The 360 Degree Leader is a book about leadership for people who are firmly in the middle of their organisation chart – supervisors, assistant managers, managers and so on. Looking at the challenges of leadership and management, the lies people believe, and a whole lot of strategies for growth, it’s John Maxwell at his best.
I’ve read quite a bit of Maxwell, and this is typical of him: tonnes of clever acronyms and catchy phrases coupled with a lot of personal illustrations and a heavy dose of empathy (and cheese), but essentially the same message as all his other books: leadership is nothing more or less than influence, so if you’re nice to people, particularly those who already have influence, your leadership skills and opportunities will grow.
It’s not quite a career planning handbook, it’s more about developing the skill of leadership wherever your career has found you, but if you’re looking for something about career planning this is a pretty good start.
If you’ve read Maxwell and you didn’t like the experience, this book definitely isn’t for you. But if you’ve never read any of his stuff, this is a really good one to start with – it sums up a lot of his other books well so you may as well get this one. That said, the content is very much suited to those ‘in the middle’, so if you’re a CEO or a trainee it won’t be as helpful for you as it would be for an assistant manager.
I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.
