The audiobook was a good commute companion and the tape is filled with good anecdotes and examples (reminded me of Paul Harvey) which made it more interesting. Don't expect to walk away with any working knowledge of developing your leadership abilities though.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:


A bit simplistic but valuable all the same  Feb 24, 2000 By Bhanu Dhir "bnu3358@aol.com"
OK if you are an experienced manager you probably know this already - but it is always nice to be reminded. Easy to follow with an anecdote or two for each of the 'laws' - some from Maxwell's own experience, some from history and some from contempories.

What distinguishes this from the trite are his views on the relationship between sacrifice and leadership, his PLAN AHEAD acronym and the law of explosive growth.

A good reminder of what we need to aspire to and why.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


GREAT OVERVIEW OF LEADERSHIP FOR GROWTH  Sep 13, 2004 By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!"
There are many books written every year on leadership, and they all tend to have the same weakness: They focus on just part of the problem. THE 21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP is a valuable exception because it looks at leadership in both companies and nonprofits at the same time, drawing on appropriate lessons from both. What I particularly liked was how he provided examples of how to overcome bad sistuations as well as how to grow faster from good ones. This clearly is the most encyclopedic approach to the subject of leadership that I have had the pleasure to read. The lessons seemed right to me based on my many years of studying what makes the most successful leaders have the best results. For anyone who is a leader or aspires to be one, THE 21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP will be very valuable. Then you can expand your reading to get more detail in the areas where you need the most help. If you follow the principles of this book, you will avoid most of the problems that stall progress in organizations. Good luck to you!

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


I'm having all my VPs read it!  Mar 14, 2000 By KSD
What an excellent book! I couldn't put it down. I've witnessed some of these Laws being used by different Leaders over the years, but never really thought about them as a whole until reading this book. I can't begin to list all the many ways this book has helped me as a young Leader, striving to be a GREAT LEADER. If Executives haven't read this book, they are really missing out on the keys to being a Great Leader. Spread the word!

8 of 11 found the following review helpful:


Very refutable  May 16, 2002
This hugely popular leadership guru has an ego to match, telling stories about how great he is at creating new leaders and inspiring people at his conferences. And when he's not telling stories about himself, he's telling stories that have very little to do with the laws they are supposedly propping up. During the second and third listen through the tapes, I kept thinking, "That has almost nothing to do with what he's saying."
Perhaps he deals with it in other books, but Maxwell never lets on to what leadership really is. He claims it's "influence," but why not just talk about influence then? And what are the goals of leadership? By not addressing the goals of leadership, Maxwell merely feeds on the narcisicism of his readers, who long to be "leaders" themselves because being a leader is cool.
Stick to Max De Pree's Leadership in an Art for some truly thoughtful and humble reflections from a man who really was a great leader.

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