Everyone Communicates Few Connect by John Maxwell

John Maxwell’s book “Everyone Communicated Few Connect” focuses on the importance of communicators making connections with their audiences. His approach is applicable for one-on-one communication, small group communication or large audience communication. Maxwell gives very practical information on the importance and necessity of connecting with the audience. For me, the principles that he presented were things that I already know and practice. As a pastor, I speak to people all of the time and know and understand the importance of connection. This book would be really good for someone who is just getting into speaking or needs to build upon their speaking ability. One of the things that I found was that John has a tendency to share lots of personal experience. This is good, but there are times that it comes off a little arrogant and self-centered. Case in point is the book jacket. The largest print on the cover is his name. This is a little off-putting for me. There is also a bubble just off from his name that says, “The world’s most respected leadership expert.” Granted, Maxwell is very well known for his leadership abilities, but saying he is the “most respected” is a bit of a stretch for me. In the prologue he promises five principles and five practices. In true Maxwell style though, each of the principles and practices have anywhere from four to seven other things that you must do. So instead of ten simple principles and practices it’s more like 50. All of this is not to say that I did not gain any new knowledge, I did. More importantly, it reaffirmed the things I already knew.