The Best Teams Have The Best Leaders

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned from John Maxwell is from his best-selling book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In it, he discusses The Law of the Lid. Its basic premise is that no leader can ever grow people beyond their own level of leadership. For example, let’s say that on a scale of 1 to 10, your leadership level is seven. That means that you are never going to be able to raise people to be eights, nines, or tens. Naturally, it follows that unless you grow your skills, you’ll never be able to grow the skills of the people you serve.

In coaching my Hall of Fame client, John Ellis of Create Socially, I tried to instill this lesson in him, since he is the successor for my own business. John has an awesome responsibility not only to grow his own business but also to expand Romeo Network. As we discussed, in order for him to grow his network, he needs to grow all the associate members of it. That’s why it’s so important for him to continuously grow as a leader for him to inspire growth in others.

So, what is your current level of leadership? It’s not only important that you know it, but that you are constantly looking to elevate it. In addition, you need to make sure that the other business owners that you work with know the leadership levels of their staff as well.

As you are evaluating the people in your organization, consider this: When one of them leaves, what level of leadership is leaving your organization? My point is this, if you have somebody who is a 10 and the person leaves your employ, are you replacing that person with a 10 or with a five? You have to be careful not to drain out all of the superior leadership qualities and talent from your organization or the level of service and leadership will diminish.

There is a saying that an average goaltender can make a great team average and a great goaltender can make an average team great. This premise holds true with leaders. The more committed you are to growing your leadership skills, the stronger you will be able to build your team.

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch 

Let me hear from you.

(This excerpt is taken from the Inspired Leadership III: The Ultimate Team Building and Empowerment Workshop.) I encourage you to click here to register for the Inspired Leadership III: The Ultimate Team Building and Empowerment Workshop. on Thursday, September 12, 2024, at Bellomo & Associates in York, PA from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon Eastern Standard Time.  This seminar is also available for live streaming.