Every leader wants to have an effective, efficient team that works well together. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. People may have negative attitudes or live with values that continuously cause them to make poor decisions. Maxwell suggests that over time this will be naturally corrected depending on the quality of each individual leader's attitude and values.
The "Law of Magnetism" suggests that people are naturally attracted to leaders who are like themselves or reflect who they want to be. People want to follow leaders that share a common attitude, age, background, values and leadership ability. Therefore if it seems the people we are attracting could be better, then it is time to take a good look at ourselves and work to improve those very attributes in our own character. Who we are is who we will attract...
The next law states something that I think is very obvious, but often overlooked by many leaders in today's culture. Leaders who are able to establish a strong connection with others will be more successful at convincing them to follow their direction. However, the connection needs to be sincere and heart felt to achieve results. Using the "Law of Connection", effective leaders know that you have to first touch people's hearts before you can ask them for a hand. It will take time and effort, but people need to know their leader cares and genuinely wants to help them in all areas of life. By connecting with people on an individual level, leaders will gain trust and therefore followers.
Leaders are mistaken if they believe they can handle everything themselves. It will take a core of solid reliable people to drive results in any type of organization. In the "Law of the Inner Circle", a leader's potential is determined directly by those closest to him or her. Leadership expert Warren Bennis was quoted, "The leader finds greatness in the group, and he or she helps the members find it in themselves." Every leader needs to be focused on continually developing the 'Inner Circle' and hire the best people that can be found. It will ultimately be this group of people that allow an organization to reach it's full potential.
The next law is the "Law of Empowerment. Theodore Roosevelt once said, "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." Leaders must be secure enough to give power to others and let them use it to the best of their ability.
Discouraging and undermining the best people in an organization will lead to failure. This happens all the time due to resistance of change, lack of self-worth and fear of job security. Leaders simply do not want to risk helping subordinates because of their own insecurity. However, great leaders believe in their people and lift them up with every opportunity. In fact, the best leaders often give all the credit to their people... and know thats where it belongs.
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The following is a recap of the first eight laws. A more in-depth explanation of each can be found in the first two entries under the title "Laws of Leadership".
- Law of the Lid
- Law of Influence
- Law of Process
- Law of Navigation
- Law of E.F. Hutton
- Law of Solid Ground
- Law of Respect
- Law of Intuition
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