I am a fan of John Maxwell's work - Just not this book. I have read/listened to John's books "Today Matters" & "Thinking for a Change" and really enjoyed both very much.
Although, "Becoming a Person of Influence" had many real life examples the content overall was just lukewarm.
Not bad, it just suffers by comparison to his other works.

This is the first book I ever read of the author. Therefore, my comment might look more positive than other reviewers who had read the authors' other books. In fact, when I bought it, I took it as a book of communications. Of course I was wrong and it is a book about "leadership". As a middle aged mid-tier manager who had read many books about leadership, I am obliged to say that this is not outstanding. However, I must give my praise to the part devoted to the importance and practice of "listening". The author gave interesting messages about it and presented even more interesting sayings, such as:-

""
No man would listen to you talk if he didn't know it was his next turn. - Edgar Watson Howe

You aint learning nothing when you're doing all the talking. - Lyndon Johnson

Big people monopolize the listening. Small people monopolize the talking. - David Schwartz

After watching the novice take several swings at the tennis ball, the pro stopped him and suggested ways he could improve his stroke. But each time he did, the student interrupted him and gave his opinion of the problem,...and the coach began to nod his head in agreement. When the lesson ended, a woman who had been watching said to the pro, "why did you go along with that arrogant man's stupid suggestions?" The pro smiled and replied, "I learned a long time ago that it's a waste of time to try to sell real answers to anyone who just wants to buy echoes."

Beware of putting yourself into a position where you think you know all the answers. Anytime you do, you'll be putting yourself in danger. It's almost impossible to think of yourself as "the expert" and continue growing and learning at the same time. All great learners are great listeners.

A funny thing happens when you don't make a practice of listening to people. They find others who will. Sometimes the consequences can be disastrous.

The friends who listen to us are the ones we move towards, and we want to sit in their radius. - Karl Menninger
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To me, the 20 pages in Chapter 4 "Listens to people" already pays back the price of the book. Of course, if you deem the above copy and paste "uninteresting", you'd better get another book. Otherwise, this book is not a bad choice.

I've read at least six other Maxwell books, and this is the least memorable of all. It's not that there is a lack of content here...looking back through the book, there is a lot of good advice that would be valuable in developing your sphere of influence. It just seems to be an awkward assembly of borrowed wisdom that didn't stick once I closed the cover.

Maybe it's because the majority of the content is repeated from Maxwell's other books. It's not unusual to find two or three quotes or excerpts from other books on each page, which limits the amount of "original" material and seriously hampers the flow. It almost appears that Maxwell and Dornan wrote separately, then did their best to cut-and-paste the two scripts later.

The book considers four levels of influence: model, motivate, mentor and multiply. It does its best to weave those levels into ten chapters whose titles combine to spell "influencer" -- Integrity with people, Nurtures other people, Faith in people, Listens to people, Understands people, Enlarges people, Navigates for other people, Connects with people, Empowers people and Reproduces other influencers.

Perhaps this book would be more effective if you hadn't read any Maxwell books before. It would definitely be best to search through the book for individual nuggets of wisdom rather than try to pull one clear, solid message from these pages. Sadly, the nuggets that you pull are more likely to come from the quotes and excerpts than the original content. This isn't a bad book, but it's definitely not Maxwell's best.

Larry Hehn, author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory

Please consider my suggestion before you decide to buy this book.
I recommend you consider buying his other two books instead of this one.
"The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership"
"The 21 Most Powerful Minutes In A Leader's Day"

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I can't say anything positive about this book, I was shocked to see this author repeat same information written in other Maxwell books.

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I read 5 of his books on leadership, and they all share very similar information. If you read his other books, you will not find any new ideas here. This book badly repeats what's in his other books, and its written by some guy Jim. The writing style of his other books are much better as well. I advice that you don't buy it, just look into his other books I mentioned above.