Recently, I (Erick) have been reading books about leadership. “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John C. Maxwell, “Leadership as an Identity” by Crawford Loritts, and currently I am reading “Axiom” by Bill Hybels. I must confess to you that my natural tendency is not to read books about leadership.

There are a lot of leadership books out there — a lot of good ones I’ve been told — but I don’t rush to amazon.com to load up my digital cart with the latest literary documents on leadership development. I prefer to download sermons/books from Christian leaders I admire (Tim Keller, Francis Chan, etc.), and that’s usually what dictates the book I carry around with me.

My wife, however, could talk leadership “go-to” principles, development, organizational leadership, etc. all day long. Let’s just say I appreciate and value her natural crave to learn more, and it’s only inspired me in my personal development. We’re a good team like that.

In the past I’ve shared how “Leadership as an Identity” affected not only my perception of leadership, but also the application of it in my life. I’ve grown to value leadership at a higher level than I ever did before. This is probably why I’m reading all these books. 🙂

But it wasn’t until Maxwell’s book, that I realized how much of an influential leader I really am. We are all leaders of varying degrees. This is a vital truth to understand and realize about yourself.

For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to read “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” let me say, that the information in this book should be read by everyone — whether you think you are a leader or not. It’s applicable to all of us.

I haven’t found myself in many positions of leadership. But as I read each law, I learned that I’ve held the title of “leader” more often than I thought. You don’t need a title to be a leader.

Some of the laws I completely understood. I get them. I do them. But others I’d read and think to myself, “wow, I never realized that those instances were so influential.”

Things like the law of legacy — a leaders lasting value is measured by succession. The law of process — leaders develop daily, not in a day. The law of the lid — leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. These are things I understood, but never grasped as leadership concepts. As my Campus Director Ryan Naidl told me, when he strongly recommended I read “21 Irrefutable Laws,” after I said the book wasn’t really for me, he said, “well, they’re all true you know.”

Not only did I learn that they’re true, but I learned that they are essential, every-day concepts (or laws) that once understood, and implemented well, will make you a better leader of the people you lead, as well as in your own life.

I challenge you to read “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.” And if you have, take a few moments this week to examine the 21 laws and see how you are developing in each area. We can all become better leaders.