John C Maxwell has always been my respected reference for Leadership resources ever since I have read his other books (360 degree Leader and Thinking for a Change). This book that I want to talk about is the 10th anniversary edition which includes two new laws called the ‘The Law of Addition’ and ‘The Law of Picture’.
I am not going to talk about all 21 laws in this post but just 3 laws that makes me think hard after I read the book =)
The Law of Intuition
John admits that this is the hardest law to teach when compared to all the others and frankly, I am not sure if I get it right even after reading the chapter.. But there is this thing that was mentioned in the book that got me into thinking:
Leaders’ focus is on mobilizing people and leveraging resources to achieve their goals rather than using their own individual efforts.
I think intuition is very subjective but having a sharp eye to think in terms of resources is very important for Leaders to prevent burnout and most importantly, achieving greater results with lesser individual effort.
The Law of Buy-In
My biggest surprise comes from reading this chapter when it says that “People don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote causes they can believe in.” I have always been thinking if we started off with the right vision, the support from the followers will never be shaken even with different Leaders but it seems that I was wrong again.
In order to lead successfully, the leader must get the buy-in from his / her followers first then the vision. If the followers believe in the leader but not the vision, change the vision. If the followers believe in the vision but not the leader, change the leader.
I strongly believe that there are no shortcuts in getting people to your side. People believe what they see and only time will tell from a leader’s behavior from how he / she carries himself / herself. There are also two other Laws that illustrates these concepts – Law of Progress and Law of Picture.
The Law of Empowerment
For me, I find it difficult to empower someone unless I have been working with the person for a while but even if that is the case, I often still have worries. And this law actually has something to say about this –
Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others
In this chapter, it talks about 3 barriers to empowerment:
- Desire for job security
- Resistance to change
- Lack of self-worth
I think this is the chapter that gives me the biggest wake-up call and make me shift some of my focuses towards empowerment.
Some of the laws in this book are easy to understand while some takes time to digest and reflect. I would recommend this book to everyone especially if you are working in teams. Seriously, this is a good book as it makes me think really hard =)