Quote of the Day: John C. Maxwell on Leadership

Late January has a particular mood: the calendar is still clean enough to promise reinvention, but the work has already begun to ask for proof. It’s the season when intentions either become routines or fade into polite wishes. That’s why “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way” lands so sharply, it turns the soft glow of aspiration into a concrete job description.

“Knows the way” isn’t about having the loudest opinion in the room; it’s about doing the unglamorous thinking before the moment demands it. If people rely on you, your first responsibility is clarity: define the destination, name the constraints, and choose the next right step. Start small, write the one-sentence aim for your team, your family, or your own week. Direction reduces anxiety because it replaces ambiguity with a path.

“Goes the way” is where leadership stops being a title and becomes a cost. You can’t ask for standards you won’t embody, or courage you won’t practice first. And “shows the way” is the final, often-missed move: make the path visible. Explain your reasoning, demonstrate the process, and leave breadcrumbs others can follow without you. That’s how trust compounds, and how leadership becomes a teachable skill instead of a personality trait.

As a prolific author and sought-after speaker, John C. Maxwell has spent decades translating leadership into practical principles that ordinary people can apply in real organizations, not just in theory.

January 27 also carries the moral weight of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual reminder that choices, examples, and silence all teach. Today, pick one “way” you want others to follow and make it tangible: draft a simple checklist, model the hardest step first, and invite one person to walk alongside you. Go first, make it clear, and let your courage be contagious, may you lead with steady hands and a clean heart.