John C. Maxwell :: 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, pt. 4

I’m going to skip a lot of the middle of 15 Laws in order to get to the end. This book comes out next week (October 2), and I want to finish my posts before that. Also, it is the final three chapters that spoke the most to me in this phase of my life.

If you haven’t read the previous posts about this book, you might want to do that. You can find the first post here.

In addition to reading this book, there has been a lot going on in my life that has me thinking about mentoring – both being mentored myself and mentoring others. This is what these last three chapters are about with the laws of Modeling, Expansion and Contribution.

The Law of Modeling discusses finding mentors. I’ve had two of what I consider “formal” mentors in the last ten years of my career. However, lately I’ve realized how much opportunity I have for informal mentoring. My current work environment allows me access to some incredible leaders, my own supervisor is only one of them. I’ve come to realize that I’ve been wasting valuable time and accessibility with these people, and that I need to be more intentional about learning from them. For this reason, I’ve started (1) scheduling time with them when it isn’t already scheduled and (2) planning for our time together including writing down questions and topics that I’d like to learn from them. As a result, I’ve had several valuable “coaching” sessions with people I consider excellent leaders.

The Law of Contribution elaborates on how you give back to others. In the mentoring program I’m involved in, we often hear from the mentors that they find the program as beneficial as the mentees do. I think that speaks to the heart of The Law of Contribution. Until I read this chapter, I didn’t think of myself as a ‘mentor.’ However, I realize that not unlike the informal mentoring opportunities I alluded to above, I often have informal opportunities to give back or develop other progressing leaders. That said, this is something I’d like to be more intentional about and perhaps seek to make myself available to someone as a formal mentor.

As I said in my first post about this book, this book is the perfect starting place for anyone who is wanting to grow but not sure how to go about it. If you don’t already have one, I would suggest buying a journal at the same time. Use the journal for completing the activities and as a place for reflecting on each law.

Good luck with The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. I’d love to hear from you if you decide to take this journey! Also, if you happen to live in the Atlanta area, John Maxwell will be speaking at 12Stone Church on Tuesday, October 9, to help launch the book plus an exciting companion opportunity. You can find learn more about the event here.

 

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