Minute with Maxwell Series on Problem Solving

John Maxwell is a prosperous leadership expert, speaker, and author of many books. He also offers a "Minute With Maxwell" daily series that is filled with leadership wisdom.

This week he has devoted his series to problem solving. I thought it would be helpful to save the videos here for his perspective on problem solving.

Here's the first.

Video#2

The first principle is: Face Reality.

Video #3
Ask for Help
"None of us are as smart as all of us."

NOTES:
People like to help us solve problems, so ask for help!
Sometimes we just need fresh eyes. Look for help and you will find it. "When I asked for help I didn't diminish myself in their eyes, but I did diminish the problem."


Video #4-A
Don't Add to the Problem

Video #4-B
"Reflection turns experience into insight."

NOTES:
"What did you love? What did you learn?"
"A sustained thinker looks for a better answer..."


Video #5
Growth Practices:

1. I read daily to grow my personal life
2. I listen daily to broaden my perspective
3. I think daily to apply what I've learned in my life
4. I file daily to preserve what I learn.

File Everything

NOTES:
"Ideas are like golden nuggets."
Keep material in your life -- keep learning -- file what you've learned.


Video #6
Believe that there is always an answer in every problem.

NOTES:
Perspective matters.
"There's nothing good about a problem if I think there's not an answer...but there is always an answer. There is always a way to solve the problem."

"Problems have a tendency to cause us to lose focus. Focus on the answer and not the problem and the cloud won't be so dark..."

"Become grateful that you know there is an answer...and anticipate finding that answer."

"There's an answer here...and that answer is going to reveal something about me that's going to make me a better me."

Video #7
Believe that there is always a lesson in every problem.

NOTES:
"The problem can truly make me better...it can lift me up."
"When we lose, we only lose if we didn't learn."
Always ask "What did you learn?"
"It's in my problems that I have learned the very most and grown the very most."

"Find out what that lesson is and apply it to your life...problems have a way of making you a better person."


Video #8
Believe there is always an opportunity in every problem.

NOTES:

"If you look at the problem correctly there's always and answer, there's always a lesson, and there's always an opportunity.

I enjoyed Mr. Maxwell's account of how a painful injury lead him to sit to deliver a seminar rather than stand and how he found that helped his performance by making him more conversational and less presentational and how he's been doing it that way ever since. Love it.