John Maxwell in his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” describes 21 fundamental laws of leadership, the first law of leadership, The Law of the Lid.
“Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness…. the higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be. What ever you will accomplish is restricted by your ability to lead others…. Leadership ability is always the lid on personal and organizational effectiveness.”
I see this law in operation everyday, on occasion I see leaders taking organisations and team to the next level, however I often see leaders who have reached the lid of their leadership capability and as a result they’re ineffective, limiting their teams and organisations.
Our personal lid of leadership contains us, preventing us from being effective. This law happens as a result of leadership capacity to lead, our leadership ability determines our effectiveness, like it or not! The greater your leadership ability the greater your effectiveness. The more responsibility you have, the higher you climb the more you need leadership to succeed. Talent will only take you so far, the higher you go the greater the need for leadership. The good news is that leaders are made, not born. We can therefore, all develop and increase our leadership capability. To be effective we need to raise our “leadership lid” through continuous learning and development. In growing the leadership lid in my personal life I focus my personal development on the following three ways that leaders learn, which are essential components of a leaders personal growth plan.
Leaders learn from books
One source of learning is books, tapes and formal training. Personally I gain a lot of leadership insight and knowledge from reading and digesting great books. The most important point to remember when reading for personal development is to focus on digesting and applying what we read. It’s not about the quantity of books we read, but how much of what we read that is applied to our lives. Reading great books provides a solid foundation for action. If you’re new to leadership I suggest you start by reading the following “leadership essentials“:
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
- The Leadership Challenge, 3rd Edition
- On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic–Updated And Expanded
Once you’ve read these books I suggest you read these blogs, they often highlight new and interesting books that can assist us in our journey of continuous learning:
- Subscribe to the 800-CEO-Read Blog to stay up-to-date with new and interesting books.
- Read this blog for regular book reviews.
- Tom Peter’s refers to interesting books he stumbles upon in What Tom’s Reading.
Selecting books for personal and leadership development is important so take the time necessary to select the right book and then focus on extracting as much as you can from it’s pages. Then find someone and teach them what you have learnt. Teaching others what we have learnt is one on the best ways to develop.
The key is to read and digest great books, apply them to your life, teach what you have learnt to someone else and grow….
Leaders learn from relationships and mentors
Leaders learn from others. We learn from discussions and feedback we receive from relationships with other leaders. The feedback and insights we gain from these relationships is another source of learning and development for leaders. Leaders cultivate relationships with other leaders and use these relationships to discuss challenges they face and receive feedback on their behavior.
Developing relationships with mentors is important. We all need mentors in our lives, usually we will need to find more than one mentor. Leaders develop wisdom by seeking mentors who are older than us, specifically those who have experienced the journey of life and have a good understanding of human nature.
Leaders learn from life experiences
Leaders learn by taking time to reflect and learn from life experiences. Our experiences shape us and if we learn from our life experience we grow and develop. One of the keys to learning from life experience is to develop a regular practice of reflection. Reflection is simply a quiet time, purposefully set aside, to cast our minds back and think about the events of the day, week or a specific situation, with the intention of learning. By asking questions such as “what happened?”, “how we reacted?” and “what should we do differently next time”, we learn valuable lessons. Leaders can also reflect in groups, helping our teams to learn. The US Army improves group learning using “After Action Reviews“, we can do the same.
The most powerful learning in my life has been when I consciously take a concept or principle I’ve discovered in a book, apply it in my life and then reflect on the results.
By combining these three types of learning we are able to accelerate our growth and development as leaders. Continuous learning and development is key to lifting the lid of leadership in our lives, increasing our effectiveness, growing our teams and organisations.
Technorati Tags: Personal Leadership, Leadership, Book, Learning, Development, Growth, Mentor, Experience
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