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Sam's Club™ had John Maxwell's three books, The Winning Attitude, Developing the Leaders around You, and Becoming a Person of Influence available in one volume, so I read them in order. The focus of The Winning Attitude is on our attitudes and the need for them to be based on Jesus' attitudes (Philippians 2:5). Maxwell gives some good advice for dealing with bad attitudes when life gets challenging, including making the right decisions before the storms of life hit. He also provides helpful suggestions for dealing with failure and criticism, and for handling fear.
Developing the Leaders around You is a great book for mentors. Maxwell asserts that it is each leader's responsibility to raise up other leaders, and lays out steps for creating a climate for potential leaders, identifying them, then nurturing, equipping, and developing them. Maxwell then discusses forming and coaching a "dream team" of leaders. He closes with the responsibility for reproducing the next generation of leaders, which he calls "the leader's lasting contribution." In recent years I have become very aware of my personal responsibility for mentoring the next generation of leaders, and found Maxwell's spirit resonating with my own in this regard.
Becoming a Person of Influence focuses on positively impacting the lives of other people. The book is build around an anagram of the word INFLUENCE. According to Maxwell, a person of influence has Integrity with people; Nutures people; has Faith in people; Listens, Understands, and Enlarges them; Navigates for other people; Connects with them; Empowers them; and Reproduces other influencers. In a manner similar to Covey, Maxwell talks about our differing levels of influence on people. The book has an excellent section on moving from maintenance to multiplication in our interactions with people.
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