John C. Maxwell - Law of Leadership!

I want a lecture today on the subject the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership the book I wrote the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership is a book to help you really become a better leader and the way that we become a better leader is by learning the laws in fact in the book I talk about the fact that if you follow the laws people will follow you there's an inference that if you don't follow the laws people won't follow you leadership is my love leadership is my life leadership is my passion and I suppose that the proverb writer in the message in the Old Testament says it may be better than I could ever say it and in your notes are these words when the country is in chaos everybody has a plan to fix it but it takes a leader of real understanding to straighten things out so let's talk about it let's talk about these laws let's talk about the subject of leadership well let me ask you a question first of all how many of you how many of you like to play golf how many golfers do I have you know oh you've got a lot of golfers ok and you know what I found about golfers I found because I like to play golf what I found out about golfers is that even if we're not any good it doesn't lessen our passion isn't that true I mean we just we still love to do it don't wait I mean we're not very good and we lose a lot of golf balls but but but but but we still have that passion to play golf so I love to play I love to play golf two golfers teeing it up on the very first tee not good at all first guy when he hits the ball much to his surprise must have his surprise the ball goes straight down the fairway now he's excited he is I mean he's estatic he's never been in the middle of the fairway I mean he's the kind of golfer that in his golf bag he has things like a weed eater hey he has a he has a he has a Johnson's power saw you know what I mean to go out and clear the brush for him okay he's got a beagle that can hunt out those golf balls I mean really really flush them out so so he's he's in the middle of fairies so excited they're walking up about 210 12 yards much to his surprise when they when they get up there he's not on in the middle he's not only the middle of the fairway but his ball has rolled up on about a four inch and he'll so now he's in middle the fairway and his ball is teed he Graham's history would he looks at his buddy and says this is of God he swings as hard as he can with that 3-wood he misses the whole ball and kills 5,000 ants miracle of miracles that anthill that was four inches just gets reduced to two inches and the ball stays on top of the anthill he's got a second opportunity he grabs a 3-wood swings as hard as he can misses the whole ball again and kills 4,998 and by the way this is a true story two ants are left one at looks of the other says I don't know about you but if we're going to survive we had better get on the ball if we're going if we're going to survive in the business world if we're going to survive in the church world if we're going to survive in the country what we're going to have to do is is we're going to have to get on the ball and when I wrote the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership I wrote these laws with a heart to really help people learn how to lead more effectively now let me let me just share with you somebody asked me recently he said how long did it take you to write this book well my answer to that one is it's taken about 20 years for over 20 years I've been teaching leadership and and what I've been watching is that when I teach leadership there are certain principles and certain thoughts about leadership that just rise to the top every time and in over 20 years I've kind of just skimmed the top and and I pulled off these principles I pulled off what now I know our laws and I've kind of set them aside and I've said to myself if you're going to learn how to lead you really got to get this under your belt and after a period of 20 years plus of teaching leadership what I found is that there are just certain laws that you can go to the bank on and so what I did is in forming the book and in writing the book and thinking through how can I best teach leadership I would sit down with other good leaders and I would say okay talk to me for a moment and I would throw out one of the laws and I'd say do you think that's a law do you think that's a law that you can either make it or be broken off of it I mean is this a do-or-die type of a situation and I bounce it off of other people for quite some time and it was so much fun recently to give birth to this book because as I teach you these laws you know what I know you're going to find out you're going to write down these laws you're going to listen to laws you're going to learn these laws and they're going to speak to your heart and you're going to say whoa this will make a difference in my leadership now there was a series of qualifying thoughts and tests that I kind of put these laws through a kind of a grid to make sure that they were the laws that I really needed to teach that would make a difference in your life and in your notebook I would like to walk you through four of those qualifying tests how did these laws really become laws number one these twenty-one laws are not based on culture gender or age what I mean by that is very simple the twenty-one laws that I'm going to teach you not only would work here but they would work in another culture they would work in another country the reason I know that is I've taught these laws in other countries the laws are the laws and regardless of your culture regardless of your gender regardless of whether you're young or old these laws will work in your life the second thing I want you to note about qualifying these laws was that the laws they relate and apply to all communities what I mean by that is they relate to the business community they relate to the academic community they relate to the government community they relate to the religious community in fact in this auditorium here we have people from the business world we have people from the church world we have people from the academic world we have people from the government world we have all kinds here and what's wonderful about these laws no matter what world you live in right now no matter what your job no matter what your occupation no matter what kind of business or profession you have these laws will work number three these laws are recognized by other leaders as leadership laws as I share with you just a moment ago I kind of tested them I would talk to leaders and say what do you think and I would get their input and number for the 21 laws that we're going to learn these laws stand the test of time in other words they're not going to go out this is not a kind of a fattish type of a deal in other words 10 years from now these laws will not be kind of outdated in fact if you would go back a last century the 21 laws I'm teaching absolutely would have worked in the last century they're going to work as we are now getting ready to go into the 21st century these laws stand the test of time now let me give you three observations about the twenty-one laws number one these laws can be learned now I love teaching the twenty-one laws because they can be learned in other words as we get together in these next few hours I talk to you and I teach you these laws the reason I'm so excited is because every one of you can learn these laws now the reason I know that is because for over 20 years I've lived these laws I've taught these laws and I have raised up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of leaders I could put a name behind every law in other words as I teach the wall I could say I taught Joe that I taught I taught Stacey that in other words these laws are transferable now there are some that are more easily transferred than others I'm not saying that they're all the same as far as being easily taught there are some that'll be harder for you there'll be some that'll be very easy for you in fact when I give some up to you you'll say oh I've already got that one down and nobody others you'll say oh man I don't know if I'll ever get that one down for some it's going to be quick for some it's going to be slow but all 21 laws can be taught now one of the 21 laws is the most difficult to teach is a law that I'll teach you a little later called the law of intuition it's a tough law to teach but I've caught it there's a way that a person can have what I would call informed intuition until they can even be good in that area but all 21 laws can be taught so what excites me about teaching here for these next few hours with you is the fact that I want to give you something that you can truly learn in fact I want you to look at your neighbor right now and tell your neighbor even you can learn these laws go ahead and tell them that huh I love it I love watching you there are some of you that that I mean you're st. you're not only saying that to him you're kind of saying and I wish you would learn these laws too I mean I think I hope Lee hey please learn these laws so if you please learn these laws okay okay now what I love about these laws is that they're they're teachable they're transferable the second observation I would make about these laws is that they stand alone the loss time will give you the 21 laws they stand alone you say John what do you mean by then you don't have to learn law number one to be able to learn wrong number two and you don't have to learn law one and two to learn outlaw number three they don't stack that way you may do really good with wall number one you may not do good at all with all number one but but what what we'll find is that these 21 laws they all are laws but there is an independence about them now when I say they're independent one of the reasons that leadership is so difficult to teach is the fact that leadership is many-faceted one a person gets one law under the belt that doesn't make you leader it's just like a fella came to me the other day I love this at a conference bill he came to the other day he said to he was a young pastor kind of I'd say he's 25 26 and he said okay John he said okay I know I need to learn leadership okay I'm feeling good he needs to learn leadership and he knows this he says tell me the one thing I need to know to be a great leader and my response is the same reason I kind of checking out the one thing you need to know and he said give it to me but give it to me simple and give it to me in one shot so I can really yeah well the one shot I wanted to tell him was that there's no one shot it's going to take a long time because leadership is many-faceted and the 21 loss tells you that if you learn a couple laws that's good but that doesn't make you a leader in fact the way this really works since they stand alone and they're in dependency they're independent but they do interlock that's very key they stand alone but but they do relate to one another so if you know five of the 21 laws okay you're maybe a fair leader but if you learn seven or eight of those laws or get it for ten laws you're a better leader now than you were when you knew five in other words every time you put the law under your belt you become a better leader that's how you measure your progress so many times when I teach leadership people say well how do I know if I'm progressing how do I know if I'm really making the progress that I want to make it's very simple every time you put another law under your belt you're becoming just a little bit better leader the third thing I want you to know about the laws is that these laws carry consequences in fact that's why they are no one and kind of as laws in other words if you obey them you're going to receive good stuff and if you don't obey them you're going to be in trouble again in the book the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership the little subheading says follow these and people will follow you if you don't follow these laws people will follow you you say well John you start teaching these laws or I read your book and I can tell you right now there are a couple walls in your book I don't like do you think I care do you think that bothers me there's probably a couple walls I don't like but it doesn't matter it's still a wall and if you don't learn it and if you don't follow it it's gonna mess you up it's good it's kind of like Isis well I'll tell you right now I disagree with the law of gravity jump out of the building I promise you you go about two or three stories down and you'll very quickly believe that there is a law of gravity there's consequences and I love it when people say well I don't think I like that law I don't care whether you like it or not you can either learn it and have people follow you or you can hang over there in the corner all by yourself and say I don't like the law and have nobody following you and nobody carrying it's alone those laws have consequences the reason that I have such a passion to teach leadership is because here's what I know every time you put a law under your belt you're going to be a better leader and every time you do that you're going to be able to lead more people but the laws do have consequences in fact in the table contents in the book I'm just going to give you one classic one okay this was under the law solid ground but in the table of contents of the book as you read each chapter there'll be just a couple of lines that will kind of describe that chapter and under the law of solid ground notice what I have in your notes if only Robert McNamara had known the law of solid ground the wall the war in Vietnam and everything that happened at home because of it might have turned out differently wow that's a pretty big consequence to pay just because you don't understand the law of solid ground but they all have consequences the fourth thing I want you to know about the laws is that these laws are the foundation of leadership in other words you build your leadership off of these laws they're the foundation they're the groundwork it's off of them that you really build them now what I want to do in order to give you the right kind of a foundation for leadership is I want to work you through a process here for a second one of the things it's my desire in teaching these laws is to give you a strata G so that you can be a better leader so I have I have developed in the 21 laws an intentional process to develop you as a leader let me walk you through it first of all this is the book again the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership and the book is a picture of the laws and in that little blank beside that put the word understanding the book is to give you an understanding of those laws you read it and all of a sudden you say oh I understand what that law means that's all the book is it's a picture of the laws right behind the book though we have developed a series of audio cassette tapes which are personal application of the laws and beside that put the phrase or the two words personal growth the audio tape series are twenty two tapes one tape of an introduction and twenty one tapes which describes the law but now here's the difference the book the book gives you a picture so you understand the law the audio cassette tapes are for your own personal growth and development and they are they help you do three things they help you assess your personal how well you do that law there's an assessment section with the twenty-one tapes is a workbook about a 150 page workbook they help you assess how well you do that law then there's an application section which I sit down and I teach you how to apply the law in your life and the last part of the workbook is an action section where you take action on the laws so to flesh them out now I'm so excited about this this is called living the twenty-one laws of leadership I'm so excited because what this is going to do is this is going to provide for you a personal growth plan for your own leadership development with the 22 tapes and the workbook they go side by side and it's for you you can take it and you can go on your own pace what I'm going to suggest on this wonderful resource of living the 21 laws of leadership what I'm going suggest is that you take 21 months you take one month per each long now I know what you're saying oh here's an old John that's an awful long time well I know it is but a lot of us are awfully slow and I want us to take a long time you know why a subject like leadership is so important we want to get it done well we don't want to take shortcuts does that make sense you really want to put it under your belt now you don't have to take 21 months you may say I want to do two tapes a month that's your business but what I love about the living the laws resource section is that it has the workbook and has the 21 tapes then there's one other process here and that is the videotapes and this is and this helps your organization apply these laws and let me tell you what that is beside that put leadership training what I mean by that is these laws are on video so that you can take them back to your business or to your church and you can have a leadership weekend or you can if you want to take each law for 21 weeks and show each law because they last about 25 minutes each and you can show the law and people can see it what I would do is this I would put the 21 irrefutable laws book into every one of my leaders hands then I would show them the video so that it would further enhance their understanding of the laws and then I would put them all on the living the laws personal growth application plan what would happen in your church what would happen in your business if we would put together that kind of process and that kind of strategy I was on the plane recently and I was going from from the United States to Australia it was just a few months ago I was doing a conference in Australia in fact I was doing two conferences there was a lady right beside me her name was Colette bottom foot and she was in charge of leadership training for EDS in the Pacific Rim and she was a very pleasant lady and we're just talking a little bit on the plane and and after a while she wanted to what I did and so I began to share with her kind of my background and what I did and that I taught leadership and as soon as I told her I taught leadership her you know her eyes kind of began to sparkle and she kind of set up in the plane and she said talk to me for a moment she said how do you teach leadership and so I began to share with her a little bit and I walked her through this process as I walked her walked you through that if you're going to learn how to be a leader it takes a long time and if you're going to learn to be a leader you have to have a strategy to really put leadership under your belt so I told her I said I've written this book that the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership to help people with understanding and then we're going to do these individual cassette tapes for personal application so the person can literally keep it with them for the next year to a year and a half two years probably to really put those laws under the bill and then we're going to do a video series called learning the laws of leadership so that you could show them to your business now while I'm teaching her and talk to her about all this stuff she's taken note she's okay I want your address how she said I want to get this stuff and then she said because my greatest challenge as a leader is teaching leadership to other people I knew exactly what she meant what she was really saying to me is John leadership has a tendency to be mystical leadership has a tendency to you try to put your put your arms around and it's kind of it's kind of an elusive and she said I'm just looking for tangible ways to not only grow myself as a leader but I'm learning for tangible ways to grow other people as leaders also we are beginning today in your life and in my life a process that will truly make a difference if what I have already said you have not only been taking notes but in your mind in your heart you're settling in on some of these issues I promise you your life is about to be changed because listen carefully we want to raise up men and women who are great Christian leaders that's our goal that's my goal and it's going to take some time and what we have got to quit doing we have got to quit trying to microwave leaders we've got to quit trying to grab a leader and put them in a microwave and push a couple buttons and a minute and a half later or bring them out say whoo I got one we've got to quit microwaving leaders and we need to start crock potty leaders we want to put them in the crock-pot we don't want to let them simmer we want to let it marinate because we know that's the way to develop leaders I have never known anything great or anyone great that did it quickly does this make sense so let's dive in and let's study learn and grow as a leader as we study the 21 laws of leadership the first wall of leadership is what I call the law of the lid Li D the law of the lid and the law of the lid says that leadership determines the level of effectiveness the law of the lid basically says that our leadership level determines our organization's level that our leadership level determines our churches size in other words our leadership is a lid and that lid keeps everything under it from going any higher this is an incredible law in fact the reason I put it first it's not because it's the most important law remember all the laws stand alone the reason I put it first is not because it's most important I put it first because this is where I get the passion to learn elite to learn to be a leader this is this this law gives me passion and let me explain to you why here's the way this works if this hand represents my ability to lead and this hand represents my organization my church my business my company whatever but this is how well John Maxwell leaves if this hand represents my leadership this hand represents my organization here's what I know today about my church or my business if this is how while I lead my organization my church will always stay underneath the lid of my leadership my leadership determines the size of my company my leadership determines the size of my church it's the lid it keeps us from growing it keeps us from reaching our potential our leadership lid is what we are today nothing more nothing less in the history of mankind you have never seen an organization grow beyond the lid of the leadership that's in it an organization doesn't keep growing in the leadership stays the same leadership determines the size of the organization so if from a 1 to a 10 my leadership is a four then my church my youth group my company whatever if my leadership is a four then my my congregation size wise is a three and kind of taste something if I'm a four as a leader my church isn't going to be a seven and an eight and a nine you don't have four leaders leading seven organizations just doesn't happen so you say who John I now I see why you're so passionate about this in other words my leadership will determine the size of organization that's it now here's the good news what I love about to the 21 laws of leadership is the twenty-one laws of leadership can be taught you can learn the law so here you are you're let's say you're here as a as a leader and this so therefore here's my organization and I start learning these laws and I put another law under my belt might grow a little bit morning and then I put another law under my belt and I grow a little bit more and I put another leadership law under my belt and I grow a little bit more and I put another leadership law but I don't grew a little bit more now now what am i doing I'm growing as a leader now what happens when I grow as a leader the moment I grow as a leader my organization gets to grow too in fact a growing organization is the result and reflection of a growing leader that's why that's why I don't need to come to your church I don't need to come to your business all I need to do is grow you because your leaders in this room if I can grow you I can grow your church I'm in the growing people business I'm not in the growing church business although I want to see them grow I'm not in the growing business business I'm in the growing people business because if I can grow you because you're the lid let's get that lit up does this make sense somebody asked me the other day said John what do you do now my wife asked me that all the time too John what do you do what's kind of hard to describe what I do I mean it takes a long while so basically I said well I write tonight I teach that basically that's what I do I'm kind of a motivational teacher I write and I teach but they said well what do you do and then all of a sudden it hit me and it hit me probably because I've been working on this wall all of a sudden hit me bill I'll tell you what I am I'm a lid lifter that's what I do what I walk through people's lives and I I lift limbs I take people like my buddy bill and I say bill let's lift the lid a little bit huh you're a young man let's lift the lid and his wife is vouching for that okay I said let's lift the lid on you and I go over and say hey come on Israel let's lift the lid that's let's get you up and down let's put some laws under your belt all I do is you know I just lift lids and let people out of boxes it's kind of a wonderful job it had value to people and the law of the lid is such an important law because what that law tells you what that law tells me is that whatever our leadership ability is at this moment that's going to be the size of our organization that's why I put the chart in your nose do you see the chart on the left hand side we have success without leadership now look at that let's say you're really committed and dedicated success and so you just get up to almost uh well you're up there above an age you're about an 8.5 on the scale of 10 in success dedication but as a leader you're only a 1 now look at the very small shade of effectiveness you're going to hand but let's say you learn to lead let's say you keep the same work dedication you put in the same hours you do everything the same but let's say you just start learning to lead look what happens when you start going up through the skill and you get to about a six and a half all of a sudden look how much more effective you've multiplied your effectiveness why because you have learned how to lead the proverb writer was weren't right look what he said in Proverbs 29 when good people run things everyone is glad but when the ruler is bad everyone groans boy not the truth haven't we groaned before in the Old Testament when Israel had a good King what do they do they prospered when Israel had a bad King what did they do right down the tubes they win when I lived in San Diego I had a friend by the name of Don Stevenson who was kind of a mentor to me I would meet with him every couple of months and we'd have a couple of our lunch which basically he would eat the food and I would ask the questions as I'd have my legal pad there and he was a very successful businessman he was the president of global hospitality okay now global hospitality was a company that bought out other resorts basically that we're going bankrupt for example they bought out La Costa when La Costa was going down what they do is they kind of took over they would take over a resort that was not making it and they would turn it around and and then make a profit with it and sell it that's basically what they did they they bought resorts that were going down and so Don Stephenson a wonderful friend wonderful Christian was kind of mentoring me through this whole process I still remember the day that that I sat down with him and and I got out my legal pad and and I got out my PIN and I started asking questions and I asked him I said let me ask you this Don I said when you buy a resort or when you take over a resort that's about to go under are there some things that you always do when you take over that resort and Don Stephenson looked at me and through all the wisdom of all the years of him doing this he looked at me said yes Johnny said there are two things we always do when we buy a resort that's going down now as soon as had said there are two things that we always do gang I've got my pin ready I knew I'm about to get some gravy okay and I'm ready to listen I said what are they he said the first thing we do when we buy out a resort that's going under he said the first thing we do is we do a lot of in-depth training to all of the people in that organization that are what we call the up-front people this is what do you mean with that he said well he said you know when you when you when you check in at a resort you got the guys out there that are handling the bags and you got the you know you got the tellers behind the but behind the desk that are checking you in he said anybody in the resort that comes face-to-face with the customer he said we trained them he said we trained them relationship training we trained him how to remember names we trained him courtesy servanthood he's we trained it we trained them how to treat people well I'm going to okay got that one down train the people who meet people pretty good in it see I was pastoring at the time so I said okay that means John you need to train the ushers trust me trust me I go to a lot of churches they need to train the ushers I'm running into a lot of Usher's who can't hush are you getting the picture train the upfront people okay I said what's the second thing done what's the second thing that you always do when you buy out a company that's going under and he looked at me said he said we always fire the president is it excuse me going excuse me did I hear you say that you always fire the president he said yeah he said we always fire the president in fact he was saying that so matter-of-factly he's still eating his food he's yeah we always far fire the present okay I said you always fire is it yeah I said we always fire I said you you don't you don't go see him first sit down and put a fire in the fireplace and hold hands and sing Kumbaya no he said we were doing that stuff we just firing you firing so we fire and he could tell I was struggling over that whole issue and he said John listen to me he said if he would have been any good as a leader the company wouldn't have been in the shape that it was he he said the very fact that the company's going down the tubes tells me we got the wrong leader hello anybody home that's the day I learned the law of the lid that's the day I understood that as the leader is so shall the organization be that's the day I learned that if the organization isn't growing it's because you have a non growing leader if the organization is going down is because you got a decline leader that's the day I realized that everything rises and falls on leadership and you're saying John do you mean everything read my lips I mean everything if your church isn't growing you got a leadership problem if your business isn't growing you've got a leadership problem if your denomination is stagnant and plateaued you have a leadership problem it's the law of the lid Wow let me give you my own experience as a young pastor our church really grew pretty fast in fact when I was about 25 or 26 I we had a church of a thousand and so people are coming to me and they're saying John how do you grow this church well I didn't know how you grow the church you have to understand I grew up in a leaders home I had a lot of leadership training just basically by almost osmosis I mean and so therefore I was doing a lot of things right but I didn't know how to really do them I was just doing them right and so when people started asking me how the church was growing I started getting embarrassed because I couldn't tell him in fact what I said this is getting this is getting ridiculous I said I'm gonna figure out how this churches know I remember one day I told my assistant I said don't lie me buddy see me I'm gonna block the whole day I got my legal pad out and I wrote down everything I thought that was adding to the growth of the church and at the end of the day I had written out 88 things I looked at Dennison I don't think I can do a lesson on the 88 keys to church growth there's something kind of discouraging about that title don't you think yeah the guy gets up says I'm gonna talk to you about the 88 keys to Church Road you can't sit well Mabel this is gonna be a long lesson today so I tried to reduce it and bring it down and finally I thought you know why my church is growing it's because I work hard so I went around doing conferences and I would tell all these pastors to work hard I had this whole message on laziness and I mean I just I just kicked I just kicked in an awful lot I mean I just said come on you guys get quit being so lazy get up early work late ohoho and then you know what happened I I saw these these these wonderful people who really did work hard in fact some of them who worked harder than me and their church wasn't growing at all I said oh that's not how the church is growing it's not the early bird getting the worm stuff so then I said okay since I'm in the ministry and it's a church I got to get spiritual here so then I started saying I know what you got to do if you really want to grow church you got to get godly in spirit field you got to get spirit field you can really grow a church so I had all these people coming down to get spirit field you know what I'm saying and they're praying and crying him asking God and man I'm praying I'm feeling real good I'm saying wonderful was it good good okay now I got him spirit for you you know what I found out they went back to their church and I still didn't grow that's when I root realize that there's not a relationship don't don't don't get mad at me now there's not a relationship between godliness and growth some of the most godly people I know in the world can't grow we are they going to heaven yep they love God yep can they grow anything new and then I discovered it in 1977 I discovered it what I discovered is that everything rises and falls on leadership that if you know how to lead you can grow an organization and if you don't know how to lead you can be sincere you can work hard and you still can't grow the organization I've seen to happen so many times a non leader leaves the church and a leader goes into it and it starts growing a non leader leaves a business and a leader goes into it and the business starts growing everything rises and falls on leadership it's called the law of the lid so we've got to ask ourselves some questions in fact in this workbook I have designed some questions for us to ask let's look at it what is the lid number on my leadership from a 1 to a 10 one being poor and 10 being perfect what what kind of a number would you put on your leadership head today you see there are some of you in the room that you're a 2 or 3 there's some of your than a 9 or 10 and I don't care what the number is today because here's the good news no matter what the number is today you can grow as a leader so the good news is wherever you are you want to begin to move up a notch or two but what is the number on your leadership and then the second question would though this is to keep you honest would those around me agree with my assessment oh that is nasty in it in the nasty to have a question like ask your spouse well maybe you shouldn't ask your spouse wait a couple of days until you're psychologically and emotionally strong then ask your spouse that's the people around you what number would you put on my head as far as a leader I love the story that you've heard the story having about the the pastor who once anyone he preached a great message I mean he really hit it hit the ball out of the park and he's feeling pretty good about it because people are filing outside gold great message pastor great message and so he's driving home and his wife and they're going to go to Sunday dinner and in he just real food it really feels good about what he did this morning in church and he looked at his wife and says honey he said let me ask you a question he said how many great preachers do you think there really are in this world I mean how many great preachers do you think there really are and she said one less than you think ask the people around you how good of a leader am i come on talk to me what am i from a 1 to a 10 and then number 3 what is my plan to increase my lid number okay what plan do I have to get up to another level and then what are the lid numbers of those that work with me now this is a great question now this is going to take time you can't do it obviously today not in this setting but I do want to encourage you to write down the names of four or five people that are the closest people to you in other words it's very important that they are good because they are working right besides you and I want you to put their names and then I want you to put the numbers on their heads and then I want to it would ask this question it's question number five what is my plan to increase their lid numbers you see what amazes me let me just talk to you for a second there are a couple things well there are a lot of things that amaze me but there are a couple things that amaze me about this subject right here the moment that a person understands that leadership is key to their success I'm amazed when I look at him and say what is your plan to develop as a leader yourself and many people I run into the most people are ready to they look at me say well I don't have a plan something so important and we don't have a plan and then I'll ask him do you believe those closest to you're going to determine the level of your success we'll say we sure do then I say okay then watch your plan to develop them what's your plan dick to encourage them to grow as a leader I mean what what are you doing to help them to go to another level I know again look at me say John what do you mean now don't get discouraged because I'm going to give you a plan before this conference is over because here's what I know when you learn to grow yourself and when you learn to grow others it's that day that your life will be incredibly unbelievably changed I received a letter the other day I think I'll take a moment and read it it's from a pastor up in Grand Rapids and he said I wanted to make sure that I told you that one law in particular has changed my life the most and that's the law of the lid he said I heard you talk about it for the first time in Anderson Indiana in 1993 he said that's the day I understood that my leadership would determine my success and then he goes on and says John that's the day I decided to become a leader that's what I'm hoping for you I wasn't going to do this but I got a letter just just the other day too from a fellow by the name of dr. Gary Ashley and Gary is talking to me and he's talking about leadership and his development as a person and he said that he came to a conference of ours and he said when I left the conference he said I had a whole new perspective of leadership and he said a few months later he said God moved me to a new church and it was a church about half the size of the one by left and it had been dead in the water for a number of years but he said I knew it was God's will he said in 1992 the average worship attendance was 200 people now okay you get the picture that's in 1992 average worship attendance is 200 people he said last Sunday 1034 people attended our to worship services in 1992 our churches income was four hundred and fourteen thousand he said last year our income was past 1.5 million he said on Easter we're going to rent our City's convention hall and we are expecting 818 hundred people to be present now this is what I live for right here I want to lift the lid in your life let me ask you a question this is an IQ test how many of you if you're in the business world would like to grow your business how many of you fear in the church world like to grow your church how many of you are in the academic world would like to be a better leader just raise your head how many of you would like to grow would you raise your I believe that the good news is we're going to learn to take the lid and go higher now at the end of each one of these laws you're going to find a resource section I'll have four or five things that will help you really learn the law that you have just learned and the reason I have that is some of them you're going to be strong in some are going to be weakened for example the five levels of leadership is a two-hour video kit that will help you understand the five levels of leadership in every organization then there's a maximum impact Club tape called leadership limitations another one in the enjoy life club called lifting people to a higher level than my book that I wrote a few years ago developing the leader within you resources to help take you to a new level

Channel: Team Success Group

Views: 259,445

Rating: 4.7170806 out of 5

Keywords: John, Maxwell, Into, Law, of, Lid

Id: 70skQqbGtPs

Length: 49min 56sec (2996 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 13 2012