In Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, John Maxwell introduces the reader to five principles and five practices of connecting as we communicate. He links the ability to create change in an organization to the ability to the application of these principles and practices. I have to admit I am late to the Maxwell train. I am familiar with some of his work, but have never been particular drawn to anything in his seemingly endless catalog of books. That being said, as a pastor I often serve in a role of "communicator", so I jumped on the opportunity to read and review this book when it became available through www.booksneeze.com. The strength of the book is that Maxwell's thesis is clear form the very beginning… illustrated simply in the title. The frustration I had with the book, however, was that it read almost like a PowerPoint presentation. It was basically 10 bullet points with a stories and examples (sometimes too many… we get the point John!) to fill in the gaps. If I'm being honest, I think just about anyone could get the point of the book (and even learn to apply the practices and principles) by simply reading the chapter summaries. This book would have (IMHO) been a better as a 10-part blog series.
The principles and practices in Everyone Communicates are sound and if applied would be helpful in strengthening the communication/connection of anyone who leads. It just felt like Maxwell did not need an entire book to make his points.
*note: I received a review copy of this book for free from www.booksneeze.com. If you have a blog, you can get free books to review too!
Thanks for the review Brian. Sounds like the rest of his books too.