A review by bertwagner
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

3.0

There is some good information but it could have been summarized in less than 50 pages. Overall, the book struck me as a collection of common sense knowledge with fancy titles. A notable breakdown in the book is the lack of “how” to do the “what” that Maxwell recommends. I suppose for that, one has to sign up for one of the courses that the author brags about. Furthermore, the Notes section of the book does not provide research to support the book’s content. However, a strength of the book is the small section with questions at the end of each chapter where the readers can challenge themselves to reflect on how these concepts apply to their own situation. This is complemented by a survey tool towards the end of the book where the reader s can assess themselves on how well their leadership aligns with these 21 leadership laws. The book could have been more useful if these strengths had been used as a framework for the overall content. Apart from this, given the author’s background as a pastor, I was truly surprised that there were no Biblical leadership principles called out as such. For instance, Law No. 5, which the entire book more or less revolves around, is about servant leadership that Jesus specifically called out in the Book of Mark, Chapter 10, Verses 42-45. Read these 4 verses from the Bible and you can deduce much of Maxwell’s book.