The Laws of Leadership

After more than thirty years of serving in leadership positions and speaking on leadership, author John C. Maxwell is often asked, “If you were to take everything you’ve learned about leadership over the years and boil it down into a short list, what would it be?

Simply and briefly, Maxwell outlines the essentials of leadership that transcend time, place, culture, and situation. These basic laws of success can be applied to business and private life, helping anyone reach their full potential.

1. The Law of the Lid ; Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness

2. The Law of Influence; The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence–Nothing More, Nothing Less

3. The Law of Process; Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day

4. The Law of Navigation; Anyone Can Steer the Ship, But It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course

5. The Law of E.F. Hutton; When the Real Leader Speaks, People Listen

6. The Law of Solid Ground; Trust Is the Foundation of Leadership

7. The Law of Respect; People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves

8. The Law of Intuition; Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias

9. The Law of Magnetism; Who You Are Is Who You Attract

10. The Law of Connection; Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand

11. The Law of the Inner Circle; A Leader’s Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him

12. The Law of Empowerment; Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others

13. The Law of Reproduction; It Takes a Leader to Raise Up a Leader

14. The Law of Buy-InP; eople Buy Into the Leader, Then the Vision

15. The Law of Victory; Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win

16. The Law of the Big Mo; Momentum Is a Leader’s Best Friend

17. The Law of Priorities; Leaders Understand That Activity Is Not Necessarily Accomplishment

18. The Law of Sacrifice; A Leader Must Give Up to Go Up

19. The Law of Timing; When to Lead Is As Important As What to Do and Where to Go

20. The Law of Explosive Growth; To Add Growth, Lead Followers–To Multiply Growth, Lead Leaders

21. The Law of Legacy; A Leader’s Lasting Value Is Measured by Succession

Sep 17 2007

Smoke-free

This day, a law banning smoking in enclosed public places comes into effect across England. This ban has been met by all sorts of reactions from the public. Those with a distaste for second-hand smoke have welcomed the ban. Ministers say that billions of pounds spent on treating smoking-related illnesses will be saved. Sceptics argue that the collapse of the pension system becomes even more inevitable as life expectancy goes up as a result. A client I spoke to the other day commented that the ‘English people have been losing their freedom’. He is seriously contemplating moving to the Far East.

While I am a non-smoker, I am not really fussed. Yes, smoking may make the air more ‘breath-able’. Yes, it may mean riding a cab becomes a little bit more pleasant. However, I don’t think the ban would stop people from smoking completely. Smokers have known cigarettes to be addictive and contain carcinogenic substances. That has not discouraged them from the ‘pleasures of the puff’. What the ban may effectively do is to change ‘methods’ but not necessarily the ‘habit’. One should not underestimate human nature’s propensity towards the slightly mischievous.

Jul 01 2007

Three Names and the Millenium Bug

The past week or so, whatever time off work I had left was spent on watching The West Wing on DVD. In one of the episodes, the Special Prosecutor on the Josh Bartlet MS inquiry recited the names in the list of individuals that will be subpoenaed in the investigation. It hit me as odd that all ten (10) people on the list had three names - two first names and a surname.

Then something occurred to me. In this day and age when there are nearly 6 billion people on the planet, there is a need to increase the ‘uniqueness’ of names of people for identification purposes. George Washington would not have been easily confused with someone else because there are probably just one or two George Washingtons in his time. However, these days who knows many Ariel Sagums are in the world- or worse John Smiths?

The issue can be remedied by using uncommon names It is not probably a bad idea that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes named their daughter Suri or that Brad and Angelina named theirs Shiloh.

Another way to make names unique is to increase the number of elements in it (i.e. lengthen the name). I’m sure my future sons and daughters would have more difficulty writing their names in 1st grade but it is a price to worth paying. Think Millenium Bug.

Apr 15 2007

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