Learning From a Different Place
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer
My life changed dramatically on September 16, 2011. A good friend and former boss gave me a copy of John Maxwell’s best-selling book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. At a time when I was struggling professionally and unsure of why the organization I was tasked with running was not successful, this book spoke truth and clarity into my life. I was living The Law of the Lid. Thankfully this is Law #1, and I could start improving after reading the first chapter. After reading the entire book and looking at other teachings of John Maxwell, I fell in love with leadership development and personal growth.
John just released the 25th anniversary edition of the book, with over 30% of it being new content. I was so excited to get my hands on the new edition and decided to share my thoughts on the 21 Laws after working to live them out daily for about a decade. Over the next several weeks, I will share how my perspective of each law has changed as I learn from a different place. So let’s jump into law number one, The Law of the Lid.
The subtitle of chapter one used to be Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. In the updated 25th anniversary edition, it reads How well you lead determines how well you succeed. The premise of The Law of the Lid is that your organization can’t rise above your leadership ability. If you are a four on a scale of one to 10, your organization will be stuck at a three. I noted earlier that I was living The Law of the Lid back in 2011. A decade later, I realized that I am still living The Law of the Lid. Truth be told, we are all living The Law of the Lid. I like how John simplified the subtitle for the chapter; our success is directly connected to how well we lead. The higher you want to climb, the more you want to achieve, the more you need leadership skills. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.
What started with a question of, “How long will this take?” has grown into a question of, “How far can I go?” This new realization energizes me to dig even deeper into these laws and glean new teachings from them so I can have an even greater impact on our community. My leadership lid isn’t a 10, and it might never be a 10, but I know that if I keep growing, I will have more that I can pass on to others, and together we can do great things for our community and beyond.
Next week, I’ll share more about law number two, The Law of Influence.