15 law from Book -21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

 15 law from Book -21 Irrefutable

Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

LAW #1 THE LAW OF THE LID

Maxwell defines the Law of the Lid by saying “leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential.” This idea is troubling forsome people because it means that no matter how much you desire to be a 10 on the scale of leadership, thereis a cap to your abilities based on a number of factors. Some of these factors are your people skills, planningabilities, vision, dedication to success, and your past results.

The truth is, there are very few 10’s in the world; however, when you leverage the law of the lid and assess yourown leadership, then you will have a straightforward view of who your followers are, where they might land on the leadership scale, and areas in which you can grow in to raise your leadership lid. The reality is that if you are

a 7 on the leadership scale, in most cases you won’t be able to lead someone who is an 8, 9, or 10. Yet yourskills can still offer invaluable leadership to people who are at a level of a 5 or 6.

The good news is, the law of the lid has room for flexibility. It is unwise to think that where you are today as aleader is as good as you will ever be. Every leader can grow, but it takes dedication to do so and a willingness towork for it.

LAW #2 THE LAW OF INFLUENCE

Maxwell’s definition for the Law of Influence is that “the true measure of leadership is influence nothing more, nothing less.” This, of course, is one of John Maxwell’s most famous quotes heard around the world (andworld-wide web). It’s a great quote, but how often do you take time to ask yourself the big question: Who areyou influencing?

Maybe a bigger question for us to ask is, what type of influence are we offering those who follow us? Insecureleaders often influence people in such a way that it keeps others down in order to protect their own position of leadership in the group. This is a shame. The best leaders realize that leadership is always about raising peopleup to their highest potential, even if it means they one day become better leaders than themselves.

Leadership is not determined by having a title. It doesn’t matter if you are CEO, Director, Superintendent, orPrincipal; you are not a leader if people do not follow your lead. Maxwell says, “True leadership cannot beawarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned.” He goes on to say, “When it comes to identifying a real leader… don’t listen to the claims of the personprofessing to be the leader. Don’t examine his credentials. Don’t check his title. Check his influence. The proof ofleadership is found in the followers.” He ends the chapter with a famous leadership proverb, “He who thinks he

leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.”

LAW #3 – THE LAW OF PROCESS

The subtitle for this chapter is, “Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day.” This means that you can tell where aperson will end up by watching their daily habits and priorities. It means that as a leader, we must have a

personal plan for growth. Maxwell writes, “What can you see when you look at a person’s daily agenda?

Priorities, passion, abilities, relationships, attitude, personal disciplines, vision, and influence” All of those thingscontribute to the destination you will arrive at later on in your journey of life. Therefore, it doesn’t matter at all

where you hope to end up, if you do not first determine which road you ought to be traveling on to get there.

The law of process also comes into play as we set out to lead others. Maxwell says, “Just as you need a growthplan to improve, so do those who work for you.” This means that as we lead others, we have to set them on a

course for success as well.

LAW #4 – THE LAW OF NAVIGATION

This law follows closely after the law of process. Once you have determined the process to get where you aregoing personally, the next step is being able to navigate your business or organization through the challengesand obstacles to reach to success. Maxwell quotes Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, as saying, “Agood leader remains focused… Controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it.”

The Law of Navigation is where leadership differentiates itself from other voices wanting to be heard. Leaderslook back at past experiences, prior successes, and hurtful failures. They learn from those things and then lookahead to see where conflict and challenge may arise. With all of these in mind, leaders will preemptively respondaccording to those challenges as they move forward toward the goal. This is more than vision casting. This isdetermining what it will take to fulfill the vision. Maxwell says it this way: “Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.”

LAW #5 – THE LAW OF ADDITION

The Law of Addition simply says, “leaders add value by serving others.” Maxwell says that we add value toothers when we truly value them and intentionally make ourselves valuable to them. He says, “90 percent of allpeople who add value to others do so intentionally.” The most helpful way we do this is to actually get to knowthe people we are leading, find out their priorities, goals, hopes, and dreams, and then figure out what we can doto assist them in getting where they need to go. Maxwell says, “Inexperienced leaders are quick to lead beforeknowing anything about the people they intend to lead. But mature leaders listen, learn, and then lead.”

LAW #6 – THE LAW OF SOLID GROUND

Maxwell defines The Law of Solid Ground by saying, “trust is the foundation of leadership” This is perhaps thegreatest challenge leaders face in the 21st century. Too many people are disillusioned with leaders becauseself-serving leaders have too-often abused it. Trust, then, is the most important element in leadership. If you donot have trust, you have nothing to offer.

Maxwell says that we build trust “by consistently exemplifying competence, connection, and character,” and thatwe must “treat trust as our most precious asset.” He later writes, “How do leaders earn respect? By making

sound decisions, by admitting their mistakes, and by putting what’s best for their followers and the organizationahead of their personal agendas.” This is because, “no leader can break trust with his people and expect to keepinfluencing them,” and, as we already know, “leadership is influence, nothing more.”

LAW #7 – THE LAW OF RESPECT

Similar to the high necessity of trust, is the necessity of respect. The Law of Respect reminds us that “peoplenaturally follow leaders stronger than themselves.” Maxwell says, “One of the greatest potential pitfalls for naturalleaders is relying on talent alone… good leaders rely on respect. They understand that all leadership is voluntary.”

He says, “when people respect you as a person, they admire you. When they respect you as a friend, they loveyou. When they respect you as a leader, they follow you.” The opposite is true as well. As soon as people loserespect for you, your influence over them will disappear. do with your natural aptitude for seeing all of these factors at once and naturally discerning possibleactions and probable outcomes.

LAW #8 – THE LAW OF INTUITION

Maxwell says, “every person possesses intuition” and “people are intuitive in their area of strength.”Therefore this law says that using intuition, “leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias.” The Law ofIntuition is based on facts and instinct as well as other ever-changing factors such as “employee morale,organizational momentum, and relational dynamics.” Out of all of the leadership skills one can develop over

time, intuition may be the hardest because it relies on more than just leadership experience. It has a lot todo with your natural aptitude for seeing all of these factors at once and naturally discerning possible actions and probable outcomes. Maxwell says of intuitive leaders, “they ‘tune in’ to leadership dynamics.

Many leaders describe this as an ability to ‘smell’ things in their organization. They can sense people’sattitudes. They are able to detect the chemistry of a team… They don’t need to sift through stats, readreports, or examine a balance sheet. They know the situation before they have all the facts. That is the resultof their leadership intuition.” This ability is one that is either natural or must be nurtured, and for manypeople who refuse to grow as a leader, it means they will never have this ability. Developing this intuition

through experience and growth is invaluable because, as Maxwell says, “whenever leaders face a problem,they automatically measure it — and begin solving it — using the Law of Intuition.”

LAW #9 – THE LAW OF MAGNETISM

The Law of Magnetism states, “who you are is who you attract,” or more simply, you will attract peoplelike yourself. This can be a good thing in many cases, but is also a call to action to know your weaknessesand seek to grow out of them. Maxwell says, “Leaders help to shape the culture of their organizationsbased on who they are and what they do,” and “not only do people attract others with similar attitudes, buttheir attitudes tend to become alike.”

I have heard it said before that in five years, the things you won’t like about your organization is what youdon’t like about yourself today. Your personality, character traits, quirks, and mannerisms will both attractpeople like yourself to your organization as well as rub off on the existing people within. According toMaxwell, “Like attracts like. That may seem pretty obvious. Yet I’ve met many leaders who expect highly

talented people to follow them, even though they neither possess nor express value for those people’sgiftedness.” Therefore, “if you want to grow an organization, grow the leader” and “if you want to attractbetter people, become the kind of person you desire to attract.” Then, once you are attracting the peopleyou want to have following you, then its time to take yourself and those people to the next level together.

LAW #10 – THE LAW OF CONNECTION

Maxwell summarizes The Law of Connection by saying, “leaders touch a heart before they ask for ahand.” Another way to say this is that people will not follow you until they are emotionally bought into thevision you are casting. There is also some tie in here with the famous quote, “people don’t care how muchyou know, until they know how much you care.” Maxwell says, “you develop credibility with people whenyou connect with them and show that you genuinely care and want to help them.”

To truly connect with people you have to value them, learn about them, and then adapt to who they are. Donot expect people to change themselves in order to follow you. You must change yourself in order to invitethem in.

The law of connection means that we understand people’s self-identity, meet them where they are, andbuild connection with them first before we try to get them to follow us or buy into the vision of where wewant to go.

LAW #11 – THE LAW OF THE INNER CIRCLE

The Law of the Inner Circle states “a leader’s potential is determined by those closest to him.” This issimilar in effect to the law of magnetism, which says your followers will look like you, except that this saysyou will begin to look like those with whom you surround yourself. When I was in high school, the guidancecounselor would say, “you show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.” I hated that quote at the

time since I wanted to be in control of my own destiny, yet because this law is universal, time has proventhat statement true every time.

To leverage the law of the inner circle then, we must surround ourselves continually with people we admireand respect; people we want to become like as we grow. Unfortunately this is counter-intuitive to theLeadership style of most. Insecure leaders feel threatened when they are not the smartest and mosttalented people in the room, so they surround themselves with people weaker than themselves. This,however, means that their potential for growth themselves is stunted by the capacity of those they keep

near.

LAW #12 – THE LAW OF EMPOWERMENT

Following closely behind the law of the inner circle is the Law of Empowerment. This law states, “onlysecure leaders give power to others.” This means that secure leaders spend their time “identifying leaders;building them up; giving them resources, authority, and responsibility; and then turning them loose to

achieve…” Insecure leaders, on the other hand, spend their time suspicious of those around them, and doeverything they can to undermine people’s potential and growth.

Former U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough topick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with themwhile they do it.” Maxwell says this is because, “to keep others down, you have to go down with them. And

when you do that, you lose any power to lift others up.”

Maxwell says, “The truth is that empowerment is powerful-not only for the person being developed but alsofor the mentor. Enlarging others makes you larger.” Therefore, to take advantage of this law in our lives, wemust come to understand that as we develop the leaders around us we not only inadvertently raise our ownvalue as a leader, but our organizations are benefitted in the process as well.

LAW #13 – THE LAW OF THE PICTURE

The Law of the Picture says, “people do what people see.” This may be one of the highest laws inunderstanding that everything rises and falls on leadership. Character matters. Maxwell says, “When theleaders show the way with the right actions, their followers copy them and succeed.” Corrupt leaders willturn every leader around them into corrupt leaders because their own lives demonstrate that it is good andacceptable.

LAW #14– THE LAW OF SACRIFICE

The Law of Sacrifice gives us a glimpse into the heart of a leader: “a leader must give up to go up.”Maxwell says, “There is a common misperception among people who aren’t leaders that leadership is allabout the position, perks, and power that come from rising in an organization… The life of a leader can look

glamorous to people on the outside. But the reality is that leadership requires sacrifice.”

Maxwell says, “There is no success without sacrifice. Every person who has achieved any success in lifehas made sacrifices to do so.” He adds, “the heart of leadership is putting others ahead of yourself. It’sdoing what is best for the team.” If you are pursuing leadership for personal gain or recognition, then youare not, in reality, a quality leader.

LAW #15 – THE LAW OF TIMING

For natural leaders, many of the principles discussed up to this point can be fairly easy to live by. Eventhose who may not be born-leaders, but who have invested time and effort to grow in this area, may have alot of success with them. Yet, when we come to the Law of Timing, I believe this is where many leaderscan begin to struggle. This law teaches us that “when to lead is as important as what to do and where to

go.”

Maxwell gives a few summary statements. He says, “the wrong action at the wrong time leads to disaster.”“The right action at the wrong time brings resistance.” “The wrong action at the right time is a mistake.”However, “the right action at the right time results in success.”As we develop our leadership abilities, we have to go beyond simply knowing how to lead. We must also learn to discern when it is the right time to do so.