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You can change the world.
As a leader, you can change the world.
A leader can influence what, alone, no individual can. A leader can move mountains, free a nation of slaves, defeat an international villainous regime.
But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, let's start small: maybe leading a flight of cadets.
Welcome to the first edition of The Laws of Leadership; if you want to change the world, read on.
The content in this series is mainly drawn from the book 'The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership' by John C. Maxwell, a leadership expert (who knows his stuff).
Today, we are going to discuss the first law noted within the book, The Law of The Lid.
The law, put simply, states: ‘Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness.
Essentially, the better a leader you are, the more effectively you can complete any task. Therefore, it is beneficial to be a good leader. It may seem like common sense, but it's an undervalued truth.
It doesn't matter how dedicated you are, if you are not educated in leadership, whether that is on a large scale (of other people), or a small scale (of your own actions), you are doomed to fail - your leadership is a lid on your potential.
Lets use an example: there were two brothers from New Hampshire, USA. In 1930, they moved from their home to Los Angeles, California in search of 'The American Dream'. They began working menial, low paying jobs for any spare cash. But they wanted more. So more is what they set out to find: they tried to open a theatre, but couldn't make it profitable; in 1937 they opened a small drive-in restaurant where they served food on china plates in an increasingly timely manner. They raked in about $100,000 annually. To cut cost they scrapped the china plates and began to use paper and plastic products, doubling down on profits. Business was booming and so I hear you ask: "But Sergeant Bardsley, I don't get it, how are they failures?".
The truth is they weren't.
200,000 United States Dollars in 1930 is equivalent to about $3,693,617(£2,884,548)now.
They were loaded to be quite frank. And yet the law of the lid still applied to them.
In the modern day, the average McDonalds restaurant only makes about 1.5 million pounds a year, but the key difference is that back then Dick and Maurice (McDonald) had 1 restaurant. Current McDonalds CEO, Chris Kempczinski now has over 40,000.
Dick and Maurice were not good leaders, they were quick chefs. They never successfully opened up another location because enterprise was not their strong suit. You can see therefore how they were capped by their lack of leadership expertise.
Don't be a Dick (or a Maurice) and instead be like Chris, he knows what's up.
Thank you for getting this far. I hope you have enjoyed the first edition of The Laws of Leadership. If you have any questions: feel free to ask.
Otherwise, have an incredible day, and why not teach someone else what you have learned here?