21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
This chapter has so many good points about Learning and Leadership. If we really understood and believed the lessons in this chapter, we would be working hard on development plans for ourselves and those who work for us.
A few highlights:
- Development is like investing in the stock market. It takes time.
- It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.
- Leadership development is a process not an event.
- As long as people are stuck in the leadership phase of “They don’t know what they don’t know”, they will never grow.
- To lead tomorrow, you must learn today.
Leadership Development is not managing a store, a restaurant, or a business. It is learning how to get others to follow you to accomplish a goal. It is influence. It is pushing people to the top of their performance and developing them to be able to do more.
If all we do is get up everyday and work hard, then that is all we will do, work hard. With that, some successes will happen. But chances are we will burn ourselves out. I have seen many good people do just that.
We must work hard AND do actions that lead and develop others (as well as ourselves). Then we will be great leaders. Our success will come because we followed the process of developing people, who help us develop the business and make it a success.
A GM cannot run a store by him(her)self. A District Manager cannot run 3-4 stores. An owner cannot run all of the stores. We must develop people to run their specific responsibilities of the organization. When each person is developed and doing the job they are supposed to be, the organization runs smoother and more efficiently.
If we are true leaders, we should be developing others to be leaders also. It will not be an overnight process and we cannot quit when the going gets tough.
It is a process.
I am working with a group on developing their leadership skills. One of the activities I am having them do is to read through and provide their insights to each chapter of the book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. This series of post provides the basic summary of each of the Laws along with my thoughts.
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