“Leadership 101” by John C. Maxwell is a short novel written to assist individuals who are seeking to become better leaders. Maxwell has created his career by writing books that help individuals to become leaders. Such as this novel which is the starting point for individuals to understand leadership. This novel is broken down into three parts: The Development of a leader, The Traits of a Leader, and The Impact of a Leader. Part one: The Development of a Leader is broken down into two chapters. Chapter one “Why Should I Grow as a Leader”, to grow as a leader, a person can grow as a leader by following the theory “Law of the Lid”. This law states that a person’s leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness, if a person has high leadership ability they will in turn have a high level of effectiveness. Chapter two, “How Can I Grow as a Leader”, starts off by stating great leadership does not happen in a day, one must work constantly for it. Maxwell states there are four phases in leadership growth. “I don’t know what I don’t know” is the first phase, which means that people do not take the opportunities to become leaders because they do not see their self as being a good leader. The next phase states “I know what I don’t know”, means at this point a person is appointed to a leader, but finds out that no one is following them so the process of becoming a better leader starts. Next, phase three, “I grow and know and it starts to show”, states a person begins to realize they are developing leadership skills and people are starting to follow. Finally the last phase states “I simply go because of what I know”, which explains that leadership is automatic, the person does not have to think about everyday moves and people are willing to follow them.

Part two: “The Traits of a Leader” is broken down into chapters three through six. Chapter three, “How Can I Become Disciplined”, which occurs within three steps. First a leader must challenge their excuses. One must not make a habit of creating excuses because a person will never reach their full potential. Next step is to remove rewards until the job is completed, by removing rewards this will eliminate slackers and make people work harder. This leads into the third step, stay focused on the results. By removing the rewards in step two, now the leader has something to work towards. Chapter four, “How Should I Prioritize My Life”, deals with the Pareto Principle or the 20/80 principle. This principle states that leaders should spend most of their time, energy, money, and personnel on the top 20 percent of their priorities because it will give them 80 percent of their production. Priorities change constantly so every month a leader must evaluate, and estimate their priorities to stay on top. Chapter five, “How do I Develop Trust”, one of the most important lessons a leader needs to learn. To build trust a leader must have character and good communication. A leader’s history of success helps build trust with his followers as well as the leader’s ability to admit their mistakes. Chapter six, “How Can I Effectively Cast Vision”, talks about how vision is everything to a leader and their followers because it gives them a target to reach. Vision comes from within a leader; to improve vision a leader must do two things. A leader must measure them self to see how well they carry goals and how hard they work towards achieving those goals. Furthermore, a leader must do a gut check, and spend time thinking about their vision and see what it is they need to change. Part three: “The Impact of a Leader”, is broken down into the final four chapters. Chapter seven, “Why is Influence Important”, states that the true measure of leadership is influence. True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned; it can only come from influence. A true leader cannot force people to follow them; they have to gain followers through influence. Chapter eight, “How