My name is Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha,  a Nigerian-born writer, communicator, life coach and social entrepreneur. One of the things I love to do is to learn from the purple sagacity of men and women that are ahead of me in the journey of life, I use what I learn from them to better my life and that of others.

Dr. John C. Maxwell is a motivator, author and leader extraordinaire who has raised many leaders. I have followed him diligently, consuming what he dishes out from his golden sagacity and I must confess that my life is better for it. Below are some wisdom I caught from following him:

→ The true measure of leaders is not the number of people who serve them but the number of people they serve.
→ Vision begins with one person, but it is only accomplished by many people.
→ Leaders who tend only to business often end up losing the people and business.
→ You do not have to be the CEO to lead effectively.
→ While poor leaders demand respect, competent leaders command respect.
→ Think influence, not position.
→ Learn to develop your influence from wherever you are in the organization.
→ Leadership is more disposition than position.
→ If people disagree with the vision, it’s often because they have a problem with the person who cast it.
→ The more you invest in the vision, the more it becomes your own.
→ No matter what our circumstances, our greatest limitation isn’t the leader above us – it’s the spirit within us.
→ To connect with people, you travel at their speed.
→ A person can’t be realistic about his potential until he is realistic about his position.
→ All players have a place where they add the most value.
→ Vision can leak. It needs to be communicated clearly, creatively and continually.
→ Ninety-nine percent of all leadership occurs, not from the top but from the middle of an organization.
→ We can often become so focused on our dreams and goals that we lose sight of the responsibilities right in front of us.
→ Insecure leaders think everything is about them, and as a result, every action, every piece of information, every decision is put through their filter of self-centeredness.
→ First and foremost, leadership is a people business.
→ You cannot give what you do not have. In order to develop your staff, you need to keep growing yourself.
→ When you equip people, you teach them how to do a job. When you develop them, you are helping them to improve as individuals.
→ Experience alone isn’t a good enough teacher – evaluated experience is.
→ Leaders need to be what they want to see.
→ When preparing to cast a vision, ask: What do I want them to know, and what do I want them to do?
→ For teams to develop at every level, they need leaders at every level.
→ Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape.
→ Leaders can give up many things. They can delegate many things. The one thing that the top leaders can never let go is final responsibility.
→ A minute of thinking is often more valuable than an hour of talk or unplanned work.
→ Good leaders rarely think in terms of boundaries; instead, they think in terms of opportunities.
→ Vision tells people where they need to go, purpose tells them why they should go.
→ In leadership, maturity is putting the team before oneself.
→ The greatest enemy of good thinking is busyness.
→ The key to leading yourself well is to learn self-management.
→ If we focus on being some other place because we think its better, then we will neither enjoy where we are nor do what we must to succeed.
→ Wise leaders shape their people into a team.

I shared this few sagacity with you because I believe that there is something you can learn from them for it is my desire that you better your best. You can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter