Leadership is influence.
That must have been the greatest thing I’ve learned from reading John C. Maxwell’s, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. This is one of the first principles Maxwell introduces in this book, which many people frequently misconceive as positional, management, entrepreneurship and knowledge leadership. But truly, leadership down to its skin, is influence.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is written as one whole book, but I like to think of it as two parts. The first half I would title “Self Leadership”, and the second half, I would title “Growing Beyond”. I would say that “Self Leadership” is more focused on how the reader can build him/herself first in order to start the company/organization on the right foot. The “Growing Beyond” section is more focused on how to continue a legacy and how to grow the company/organization once it has been started.
The greatest–and probably most applicable–law that I read in the “Self Leadership” half, is the Law of Magnetism, or you attract who you are. Therefore, the law states that one would have to develop characteristics he/she would like the people working around him/her to possess. Maxwell uses his personal example of working at Skyline church. His predecessor was a man named Dr. Orval Butcher, who was a very talented pianist and was blessed with a resonant Irish tenor voice. When Maxwell arrived at the church, he states that it had “a solid reputation for fine music. It was nationally known for its outstanding musical productions” (91), primarily because Butcher’s enjoyment for musical had attracted others with similar interests to Skyline. Yet when Butcher left, Maxwell found that many of the musicians followed him out. I suppose in a way, the Law of Magnetism works not only in that it attracts people of similar interests, but it also binds them together.
My example of this in real life action is during the high school admissions process at my old school. I no longer attend Belmont Day School, but I know I originally chose to attend the school because I was attracted the teaching style and the students at the school. Currently, the students at BDS are in the process of applying for high school and after talking to a few of them, I found the common interest was in Concord Academy. This is an example of people with common interests being attracted together in one community, but also travelling together as they moved forth.
In the second half of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, or the “Growing Beyond” section, I couldn’t decide whether the Law of Empowerment of the Law of Explosive Growth was more striking to me. Yet the similarity between these two laws is that both of them focus on growing and raising up other people, leaders specifically.
The Law of Empowerment states that only secure leaders give power away. Giving power away is important because it’s quite impossible to do everything forever. Empowering the leaders around you will ensure that a legacy is left. What Maxwell does a fantastic job doing in this chapter is explaining the three biggest barriers against Empowerment. One of them is job security.
I remember that I was someone who felt this insecurity in the classroom. I felt that if I gave too much power to the other kids and let them do whatever they wanted, they would eventually “overpower” me. Yet Maxwell shares ways to overcome this feeling from a different angle. He says that “the only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable…if you are able to continually empower others and help them develop so that they become capable to taking over your job, you will become so valuable to the organization that you become indispensable” (126-127). So beautifully stated.
The Law of Explosive Growth illustrates a different take on empowering others and leverages the importance of developing leaders. Maxwell refers to something called “Leader’s Math.” As I talked about above, leadership is influence and the ability to move a company or an organization in the desired direction. In order to do this, leaders need to develop leaders, not just followers. By developing leaders, one will be able to influence the leader, and those who follow the leader. This will create a stronger organization. Here’s an illustration:
| Figure 1: "Adding" growth |
OR
| Figure 2: "Multiplying" growth |
The second method illustrates "Leader's Math" since one would be "multiplying" the number of people and the effectiveness of the company/organization. Figure 1 illustrates an "addition" method.
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So I’ve reached the end of this book. It took me months to read and absorb, but I would 100% recommend this book. It has changed my outlook on leadership and I’m anxious to put these new principles into action at school when I focus on the progression of an initiative I started last year.
For those of you curious, I plan on reading You Can Negotiate Anything by the World’s #1 Negotiator, Herb Cohen, next.
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