“Follow them and People Will Follow You”
Introduction
One of the most important truths I’ve learned over the years is this: Leadership is leadership, no matter where you go or what you do. Times change. Technology marches forward. Cultures vary from place to place. But the true principles of leadership are constant – whether you’re looking at the citizens of ancient Greece, the Hebrews in the Old Testament, the armies of the last two hundred years, the rulers of modern Europe, the pastors in local churches, or business people of today’s global economy. Leadership principles stand the test of time. They are irrefutable.
Four ideas:
Laws can be learned. Some are easier to understand and apply than others, but every one of them can be acquired.
The laws can stand alone. Each laws complements all the others, but you don’ need one in order to learn another.
The laws carry consequences with them. Apply the laws, and people will follow you. Violate or ignore them, and you will not be able to lead others.
These laws are the foundation of leadership. Once you learn the principles, you have to practice them and apply them into your life.
The 21 Laws of Leadership
The Law of the Lid
If you can get a handle on this law, you will see the incredible impact of leadership in every aspect of life. 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. The higher the leadership, the greater the effectiveness. To give you an example, if your leadership rates an 8, then your effectiveness can never be greater than 7. If your leadership is only a 4, then your effectiveness will be no higher than a 3. Your leadership ability – for better or worse – always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization.
By raising your leadership ability – without increasing your success dedication at all – you can increase your original effectiveness by 500 percent. If you were to raise your leadership to 8. where it matched your success dedication, you would increase your effectiveness by 700 percent. Leadership has a multiplying effect.
Leadership ability is always the lid on personal and organizational effectiveness. If the leadership is strong, the lid is high. But if it’s not, then the organization is limited. That’s why in times of trouble, organizations naturally look for new leadership. When the country is experiencing hard times, it elects a new president. When a company is losing money, it hires a new CEO. When a church is floundering, it searches for a new senior pastor. When a sports team keeps losing, it looks for a new head coach.
Wherever you look, you can find smart, talented, successful people who are able to go only so far because of the limitations of their leadership. For example, when Apple got started in the late 1970s, Steve Wozniak was the brains behind the Apply computer. His leadership lid was low, but that was not the case for his partner, Steve Jobs. His lid was so high that he built a world-class organization and gave it a nine-digit value. That’s the impact of the Law of the Lid.
A few years ago, I met Don Stephenson, the chairman of Global Hospitality Resources, Inc., of San Diego, California, an international hospitality advisory and consulting firm. Over lunch, I asked him about his organization. Today he primarily does consulting, but back then his company took over the management of hotels and resorts that weren’t doing well financially. They oversaw many excellent facilities such as La Costa in Southern California.
Don said that whenever they came into an organization to take it over, they always started by doing two things: First, they trained all the staff to improve their level of service to the customers; and second, they fired the leader. When he told me that, I was at first surprised.
“You always fire him?” I asked. “Every time?”
“That’s right. Every time,” he said.
“Don’t you talk to the person first – to check him out to see if he’s a good leader?” I said.
“No,” he answered. “If he’d been a good leader, the organization wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in.”
And I thought to myself, Of course. It’s the Law of the Lid. To reach the highest level of effectiveness, you have to raise the lid – one way or another.
The Law of Influence
The True Measure of Leadership is Influence – nothing more, nothing less.
People have so many misconceptions about leadership. When they heard that someone has an impressive title or an assigned leadership position, they assume that he is a leader. Sometimes that’s true. But titles don’t have much value when it comes to leading. True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that can’t be mandated. It must be earned. The only thing a title can buy is a little time – either to increase your level of influence with others or to erase it.
Five Myths about Leadership
There are plenty of misconceptions and myths that people embrace about leaders and leadership. Here are five common ones:
The management myth
A widespread misunderstanding is that leading and managing are one and the same. The main difference between the two is that leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes. The best way to test whether a person can lead rather than just manage is to ask him to create positive change. Managers can maintain direction, but they can’t change it. To move people in a new direction, you need influence.
The entrepreneur myth
Frequently, people assume that all salespeople and entrepreneurs are leaders. But that’s not always the case. Ron Popeil is certainly enterprising, innovative, and successful, especially if you measure him by the $300 million in sales his products have earned. But that doesn’t make him a leader. People may be buying what he has to sell, but they’re not following him. At best, he is able to persuade people for a moment, but he holds no long-term influence with them.
The knowledge myth
Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.” Most people, believing power is the essence of leadership, naturally assume that those who possess knowledge and intelligence are leaders. But that isn’t automatically true. IQ doesn’t necessarily equate to leadership.
The pioneer myth
Another misconception is that anyone who is out in front of the crowd is a leader. But being first isn’t always the same as leading. To be a leader, a person has to not only be out front, but also have people intentionally coming behind him, following his lead, and acting on his vision.
The position myth
As mentioned earlier, the greatest misunderstanding about leadership is that people think it is based on position, but it’s not. Stanley Huffty affirmed, “It’s not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position.”
Who’s the Real Leader?
I recognized that hard work was required to gain influence in any organization and to earn the right to become the leader.
Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. “The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate.” – Harry A. Overstreet
Followers in voluntary organizations cannot be forced to get on board. If the leader has no influence with them, then they won’t follow.
If you are a businessperson and you really want to find out whether your people are capable of leading, send them out to volunteer their time in the community. If they can get people to follow them while they’re serving at the Red Cross, a United Way shelter, or their local church, then you know that they really do have influence – and leadership ability.
“He who thinks he leads but has no followers is only taking a walk.”
The Law of Process
Leadership develops daily, not in a day.
Becoming a leader is a lot like investing successfully in the stock market. If your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you’re not going to be successful. What matters most is what you do day by day over the long haul.
“The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda.”
If you continually invest in your leadership development, letting your “assets” compound, the inevitable result is growth over time.
The four phases of leadership growth:
Phase 1 – I don’t know what I don’t know
As long as a person doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, he doesn’t grow.
Phase 2 – I know what I don’t know
English Prime Minister Disraeli wisely commented, “To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.”
Phase 3 – I grow and know and it starts to show
When you recognize your lack of skill and begin the daily discipline of personal growth in leadership, exciting things start to happen.
Phase 4 – I simply go because of what I know
When you’re in Phase 3, you can be pretty effective as a leader, but you have to think about every move you make. However, when you get to phase 4, your ability to lead becomes almost automatic. And that’s when the payoff is larger than life. But the only way to get there is to obey the Law of Process and pay the price.
The Law of Navigation
Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.
General Electric chairman Jack Welch asserts, “A good leader remains focused. Controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it.” Welch is right, but leaders who navigate do even more than controlling the direction in which they and their people travel. They see the whole trip in their minds before they leave the dock. They have a vision for their destination, they understand what it will take to get there, they know who they’ll need on the team to be successful, and they recognize the obstacles long before they see the horizon. Leroy Eims, author of Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, writes, “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do.”
Navigators draw on past experience
Navigators listen to what others have to say
Navigators examine the conditions before making commitments
Navigators make sure their conclusions represent both faith and fact
It’s difficult balancing optimism and realism, intuition and planning, faith and fact. But that’s what it takes to be effective as a navigating leader.
If the leader can’t navigate the people through rough waters, he is liable to sink the ship.
The secret to the Law of Navigation is preparation. Lack of preparation has the opposite effect. Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere.
The Law of E.F. Hutton
The real leader holds the power, not just the position.
You’ve probably heard of E.F. Hutton, the financial services company. Years ago, their motto was, “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen.”
“Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” – Margaret Thatcher
If you see a disparity between who’s leading the meeting and who are leading the people, then the person running the meeting is not the real leader.
Once you learn this law, you’ll never have trouble figuring out who the real leader is in just about any situation. The real test of leadership isn’t where you start out. It’s where you end up. The proof of leadership is found in the followers.
People listen not necessarily because of the truth being communicated in the message, but because of their respect for the speaker.
The Law of Solid Ground
Trust is the foundation of Leadership. You can’t take shortcuts, no matter how long you’ve been leading your people. To build trust, a leader must exemplify these qualities: competence, connection, and character. People will forgive occasional mistakes based on ability, especially if they can see that you’re just still growing as a leader. But they won’t trust someone who has slips in character. That is one reason that you need to treat Trust as your most precious asset.
General H.Norman Schwarzkopf points to the significance of character: “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”
Character makes trust possible. It communicates consistency. Leaders without inner strength can’t be counted on day after day because of their ability to perform changes constantly. NBA great Jerry West commented, “You can’t get too much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”
Character communicates potential. John Morley observed, “No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.” That’s especially true when it comes to leadership.
Character communicates respect. When you don’t have the strength within, you can’t earn respect without. How do leaders earn respect? By making sound decisions, admitting their mistakes, and putting what’s best for their followers and organizations ahead of their personal agendas.
The Law of Respect
People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves. When people respect someone as a person, they admire her. When they respect her as a friend, they love her. When they respect her as a leader, they follow her.
People don’t follow others by accident. They follow individuals whose leadership they respect. The less skilled follow the more highly skilled and gifted. The more leadership ability a person has, the more quickly he recognizes leadership – or its lack – in others. In time, people in the group get on board and follow the strongest leaders. The greatest test of respect comes when a leader creates major change in an organization.
The Law of Intuition
Leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias. Of all the laws of leadership, the Law of Intuition is probably the most difficult to understand. Because it depends so much more than just the facts. It is based on facts plus instinct and other intangible factors. And the reality is that leadership intuition is often the factor that separates the greatest leaders from the merely good ones.
The best leaders lead and respond. A leader has to read the situation and know instinctively what play to call. They are readers of their situation, trends, resources, people, and themselves.
Levels of Leadership Intuition
Those who naturally see it
Those who are nurtured to see it
Those who will never see it
Whenever leaders find themselves facing a problem, they automatically measure it – and begin solving it – using the Law of Intuition.
Steve Jobs did something that really shows the Law of Intuition in action. he made a leadership decision that went absolutely against the grain of Apple’s previous thinking. It was an incredible intuitive leadership leap. Jobs created a strategic alliance with the man who applies employees considered to be their archenemy – Bill Gates. Jobs explained, “I called Bill and said Microsoft and Apple should work more closely together, but we have this issue to resolve, this intellectual-property dispute. Let’s resolve it.”
They negotiated a deal quickly, which settled Apple’s lawsuit against Microsoft. Gates promised to pay off Apply and invest $150 million in nonvoting stock. That cleared the way for future partnership and brought much-needed capital to the company. It was something only an intuitive leader would have done. When Jobs announced the new alliance to a meeting of the Apple faithful, they booed. But on Wall Street, Apple stock value immediately soared 3.3. percent to $26.31.
The Law of Magnetism
Who you are is who you attract. Effective leaders are always on the lookout for good people. Now, what will determine whether the people you want are the people you get, whether they will possess the qualities you desire? Believe it or not, who you get is not determined by what you want. It’s determined by who you are.
People like you will seek you out. It is possible for a leader to go out and recruit people unlike himself. Good leaders know that one secret to success is to staff their weaknesses. But it’s crucial to recognize that people who are different will not naturally be attracted to you. Leaders draw people who are like themselves.
You and the people who follow you share common ground in several of these key areas:
a. Attitude – People who view their life as a series of opportunities and exciting challenges don’t want to head others talk about how bad things are all the time.
b. Generation – People tend to attract others of roughly the same age.
c. Background
d. Values – People are attracted to leaders whose values are similar to their own. Whatever character you possess you will likely find in the people who follow you.
e. Life Experience
f. Leadership Ability – People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves. And who you are is who you attract. The leaders you attract will be similar in style and ability to you.
The Law of Connection
Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. All great communicators recognize this truth and act on it almost instinctively. You can’t move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart comes before the head.
Connecting with people isn’t something that needs to happen only when a leader is a communication to groups of people. It needs to happen with individuals. The stronger the relationship and connection between individuals, the more likely the follower will want to help the leader.
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. You develop credibility with people when you connect with them and show that you genuinely want to help them. A key to connecting with others is recognizing that even in a group you have to relate to people as individuals. When you have over 60-70,000 audiences in a stadium, don’t try to talk to the thousands. Focus on talking one person. That’s the only way to connect with people.
It’s the leader’s job to initiate a connection with the people. They take the first step with others and then make the effort to continue building relationships. That’s not always easy, but it’s important to the success of the organization.
When a leader has done the work to connect with his people, you can see it in the way the organization function. Among employees, there are incredible loyalty and a strong work ethic. The vision of the leader becomes the aspiration of the people. To lead yourself, use your head. To lead others, use your heart. Always touch a person’s heart before you ask him for a hand.
The Law of the Inner Circle
Every leader’s potential is determined by the people closest to him. No matter what I did with that staff, they would never be able to take the organization to the place we needed to go. Every leader’s potential is determined by those closest to him. If those people are strong, then the leader can make a huge impact. If they are weak, he can’t. This is the Law of the Inner Circle. When you have the right staff, potential skyrockets.
“The leader finds greatness in the group, and he or she helps the members find it in themselves.” – Warren Bennis
The five types of people to bring in your inner circle:
- Potential Value – those who raise up themselves
- Positive Value – those who raise morale in the organization
- Personal Value – those who raise up the leader
- Production Value – those who raise up others
- Proven Value – those who raise up people who raise up other people
Hire the best staff you can find, develop them as much as you can, and hand off everything you possibly can to them. Never stop improving your inner circle.
The Law of Empowerment
Only secure leaders give power to others. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants to be done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
The empowerment leadership model shifts away from ‘position power’ where all people are given leadership roles so they can contribute to their fullest capacity. Only empowered people can reach their potential. When a leader can’t or won’t empower others, he creates barriers within the organization that people cannot overcome. If the barrier remains long enough, then the people give up, or they move to another organization where they can maximize their potential.
Barriers to empowerment:
- The desire for job security
- Resistance to change
- Lack of self-worth
Only secure leaders are able to give themselves away. Mark Twain once remarked that great things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit. But you can take that step farther. I believe the greatest things happen only when you give others the credit.
“Leadership must be based on goodwill. It means an obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. What we need for leaders are men of heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need for their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders, gain authority by giving it away.” – Admiral James B. Stockdale
To push people down, you have to go down with them.
The Law of Reproduction
It takes a leader to raise up a leader. More than four out of five of all the leaders that you ever will meet have emerged as leaders because of the impact made on them by established leaders who mentored them. Only leaders are capable of developing other leaders. People cannot give to others what they themselves do not possess. Followers simply cannot develop leaders. We teach what we know. We reproduce what we are.
The only way you will be able to develop other leaders is to become a better leader yourself. As you get started, keep in mind that leaders who develop leaders see the big picture, attract potential leaders, create an eagle environment.
The Law of Buy-in
People buy into the leader, then the vision. The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream. If you have not built your credibility with your people, it really does not matter how great a vision you have. People don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote worthwhile causes.
Many investors in the computer industry aren’t even interested in finding out what the entrepreneur’s vision is. If they’ve bought into the person. then they readily accept the ideas. People want to go along with people they get along with.
Here’s how people react to a leader and his vision under different circumstances:
Leader + Vision = Result
Don’t buy in + Don’t buy in = Get another leader
Don’t buy in + Buy in = Get another leader
Buy in + Don’t buy in = Get another vision
Buy in + Buy in = Get behind the leader
The Law of Victory
Leaders find a way for the team to win.
Victorious leaders share an inability to accept defeat. The alternative to winning seems totally unacceptable to them, so they figure out what must be done to achieve victory, and then they go after it with everything at their disposal.
When the pressure is on, great leaders are at their best. Whatever is inside them comes to the surface.
Three components of victory:
Unity of vision. A team doesn’t win the championship if its players have different agendas.
Diversity of skills. Organizations require diverse talents to succeed, each player taking his part.
A leader dedicated to victory and raising players to their potential.
Leaders who practice the Law of Victory have no plan B. That keeps them fighting.
The Law of Big Mo
Momentum is the leader’s best friend. All leaders face the challenge of creating change in an organization. You can’t steer a ship that isn’t moving forward, strong leaders understand that to change direction, you first have to create forward progress – and that takes the Law of Big Mo.
It takes a leader to get things started. They always find a way to make things happen. They create momentum. Followers catch it. And managers are able to continue it once it has begun. But creating it requires someone who can motivate others, not who needs to be motivated. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” – Harry Truman
With enough momentum, nearly any kind of change is possible. Followers perform better than they are. Momentum is easier to steer than to start. It is the most powerful change agent.
The Law of Priorities
Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Leaders never grow to a point where they no longer need to prioritize.
“There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few things that will catch my heart.” – Tim Redmond
Pareto Principle
If you focus your attention on the activities that rank in the top 20 percent in terms of importance, you will have an 80 percent return on your effort. For example, if you have ten employees, you should give 80 percent of your time and attention to your best two people. If you have one hundred customers, the top twenty will provide you with 80 percent of your business. If your to-do list has ten items on it, the two most important ones will give you an 80 percent return on your time.
To be effective, leaders must order their lives according to these three questions:
If we continue to be effective, we have to work according to the Law of Priorities.
The Law of Sacrifice
A leader must give up to go up. When all else fails, make another sacrifice. One sacrifice seldom brings success.
“Leadership means setting an example. When you find yourself in a position of leadership, people follow your every move.” – Lee Iacocca
What was true for Lee Iacocca is true for any leader. You have to give up to go up. Many people today want to climb up the corporate ladder because they believe that freedom and power are the prizes waiting at the top. They don’t realize that the true nature of leadership is really sacrifice.
Most people will acknowledge that sacrifices are necessary fairly early in a leadership career. People give up many things in order to gain potential opportunities.
“When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself.” – Gerald Brooks
The Law of Timing
When to lead is as important as what to do and where to go. Great leaders recognize that when to lead is as important as what to do and where to go. Every time a leader makes a move, there are really only four outcomes that can result:
The wrong action at the wrong time leads to disaster.
The right action at the wrong time brings resistance – It’s one thing to figure out what needs to be done; it’s another to understand when to make a move.
The wrong action at the right time is a mistake
The right action at the right time results in success
When the right leader and the right timing come together, incredible things happen. Reading a situation and knowing what to do are not enough to make you succeed in leadership. Only the right action at the right time will bring success.
The Law of Explosive Growth
To add growth, lead followers. To multiply, lead leaders.
“It’s my job to build the people who we are going to build the company.” – John Schnatter
The key to growth is leadership. Any leader who practices the Law of Explosive Growth makes the shift from follower’s math to the leader’s math. The key is to develop leaders. You do that by building up people.
Leaders who develop followers grow their organization only one person at a time. But leaders who develop leaders multiply their growth because, for every leader they develop, they also receive all of that leader’s followers. Add ten followers to your organization, and you have the power of ten people. Add ten leaders to your organization, and you have the power of ten leaders times all the followers and leaders they influence. That’s the difference between addition and multiplication. It’s like growing your organization by teams instead of individuals. The better the leaders you develop, the greater the quality and quantity of followers.
The Law of Legacy
A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.
Robert Goizueta once said, “Leadership is one of the things you cannot delegate. You either exercise it, or you abdicate it.” There is a third choice: You pass it on to your successor.
Just as in sports a coach needs a team of good players to win, an organization needs a team of good leaders to succeed.
How to leave a legacy of succession:
a. Lead the organization with a long view. Lead with tomorrow as well as today in mind.
b. Create a leadership culture. The only way to develop such widespread leadership is to make developing leaders a part of your culture.
c. Pay the price today to assure success tomorrow. There is no success without sacrifice.
d. Value team leadership above individual leadership. No matter how good he is, no leader can do it all alone.
e. Walk away from the organization with integrity.
A legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him.
