The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

by John C. Maxwell

What is required of me? What gives the greatest return? What brings the greatest reward?

Successful leaders help their organization, department, or team live according to the Law of Priorities.

The heart of good leadership is sacrifice.

If you desire to become the best leader you can be, then you need to be willing to make sacrifices in order to lead well.

1. THERE IS NO SUCCESS WITHOUT SACRIFICE

Effective leaders sacrifice much that is good in order to dedicate themselves to what is best.

2. LEADERS ARE OFTEN ASKED TO GIVE UP MORE THAN OTHERS

When you have no responsibilities, you can do pretty much anything you want. Once you take on responsibility, you start to experience limitations in what you can do. The more responsibility you accept, the fewer options you have.

3. YOU MUST KEEP GIVING UP TO STAY UP

Sacrifice is an ongoing process, not a one-time payment.

If leaders have to give up to go up, then they have to give up even more to stay up.

4. THE HIGHER THE LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP, THE GREATER THE SACRIFICE

1. To become a more influential leader, are you willing to make sacrifices? Are you willing to give up your rights for the sake of the people you lead?

2. Living by the Law of Sacrifice usually means being willing to trade something of value that you possess to gain something more valuable that you don’t.

3. One of the most harmful mind-sets of leaders is what I call destination disease—the idea that they can sacrifice for a season and then “arrive.” Leaders who think this way stop sacrificing and stop gaining higher ground in leadership.

1. THE WRONG ACTION AT THE WRONG TIME LEADS TO DISASTER

2. THE RIGHT ACTION AT THE WRONG TIME BRINGS RESISTANCE

Good leadership timing requires many things: Understanding—leaders must have a firm grasp on the situation. Maturity—if leaders’ motives aren’t right, their timing will be off. Confidence—people follow leaders who know what must be done. Decisiveness—wishy-washy leaders create wishy-washy followers. Experience—if leaders don’t possess experience, then they need to gain wisdom from others who do possess it. Intuition—timing often depends on intangibles, such as momentum and morale. Preparation—if the conditions aren’t right, leaders must create those conditions.

If a leader repeatedly shows poor judgment, even in little things, people start to think that having him as the leader is the real mistake.

3. THE WRONG ACTION AT THE RIGHT TIME IS A MISTAKE

4. THE RIGHT ACTION AT THE RIGHT TIME RESULTS IN SUCCESS

When the right leader and the right timing come together, incredible things happen.

1. It has been said that managers do things right while leaders do the right things.

2. Spend some time analyzing recent failed initiatives for your organization, department, or team to determine whether they were caused by the wrong action or the wrong timing.

To help you, answer the following questions: What was the goal of the initiative? Who was the individual responsible for leading it? What factors were taken into account while the strategy was planned? Whose experience did the strategy draw upon? What was the condition or temperature of the organization at the time of the launch? What were the market or industry conditions? What “leverage” was available and being used to aid in the initiative? What factors were clearly working against it? Might the initiative have been more successful had it been launched either earlier or later? Why did the initiative ultimately fail?

3. As you prepare to engage in future plans, use the list of factors from the chapter to prepare for the timing of your actions: Understanding: Do you have a firm grasp on the situation? Maturity: Are your motives right? Confidence: Do you believe in what you are doing? Decisiveness: Can you initiate action with confidence and win people’s trust? Experience: Have you drawn upon wisdom from others to inform your strategy? Intuition: Have you taken into account intangibles such as momentum and morale? Preparation: Have you done everything you must to set up your team for success?

only the right action at the right time will bring success to your team, department, or organization.

Becoming a leader who develops leaders requires an entirely different focus and attitude from simply attracting and leading followers. It takes a different mind-set.

Law of Explosive Growth: If you develop yourself, you can experience personal success. If you develop a team, your organization can experience growth. If you develop leaders, your organization can achieve explosive growth.

You can grow by leading followers. But if you want to maximize your leadership and help your organization reach its potential, you need to develop leaders. There is no other way to experience explosive growth.

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Need to Be Needed Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Want to Be Succeeded

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Develop the Bottom 20 Percent Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Develop the Top 20 Percent

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Focus on Weaknesses Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Focus on Strengths

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Treat Everyone the Same Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Treat Individuals Differently

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Spend Time with Others Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Invest Time in Others

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Grow by Addition Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Grow by Multiplication

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Impact Only People They Touch Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Impact People Beyond Their Reach

1. LEADERS ARE HARD TO FIND

2. LEADERS ARE HARD TO GATHER

3. LEADERS ARE HARD TO KEEP

Natural gifting 10 percent Result of crisis 5 percent Influence of another leader 85 percent

Connect with key influential leaders in organizations already working with people locally and enlist their assistance. Ask those key leaders to identify the cities in their country in which to do the training and to host the training events. Rely on those key leaders to recruit leaders to attend the training. Recruit leaders in the United States willing to travel overseas to train leaders and support the effort financially. Receive a commitment from local attendees to find and train leaders for three years while we trained them.

you will be able to reach your potential and help your organization reach its loftiest goals only if you begin developing leaders instead of merely attracting followers. Leaders who develop leaders experience an incredible multiplication effect in their organizations that can be achieved in no other way—not by increasing resources, reducing costs, increasing profit margins, improving systems, implementing quality procedures, or doing anything else.

Leadership development compounds. The more you invest in people and the longer you do it, the greater the growth and the higher the return.

1. In which stage of the leadership development process do you currently find yourself? Stage 1: Developing yourself Stage 2: Developing your team Stage 3: Developing leaders

2. What are you currently doing to find and gather leaders? Are there places you go, events you attend, and networks you plug into to look for potential leaders? If not, start looking for some.

3. What are you doing to gather and hold leaders? Are you becoming a better leader so that leaders will want to follow you? Are you trying to create an environment where leaders can thrive and succeed?

My life sentence is, “I want to add value to leaders who will multiply value to others.”

Most people simply accept their lives—they don’t lead them.

1. KNOW THE LEGACY YOU WANT TO LEAVE