“Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.”
—John Maxwell
Have you agreed with any of these statements lately?
I’m frustrated with the people on my team.
I’m weary of getting my employees trained and then they leave.
There seems to never be enough time in my day.
I’ve taken my team/job/organization as far as I can.
I am just flat out of ideas.
You may just be bumping up against the lid of your leadership. Personal success without leadership ability brings only limited effectiveness. When it comes right down to it, the top level leader (the lid) is always responsible for what is going on within the business, community, family, team, etc. If you want to get better results, you need to know that the organization cannot outperform the lid of their leader. There’s a natural leveling that takes place just below the leader’s level of effectiveness. If on a scale of 1 to 10, if the leader (lid) is a 6, the organization can only grow to a 5.
You probably already have seen this law at work whether it was personally or through observation. What does it look like? If the lid is a 6 and there are leaders below the lid that have a higher leadership potential than the lid, they will do one of two things.
1. They will either become frustrated when they begin to “bump” against the lid and stay with the organization because they haven’t developed other options. This makes for a very frustrated employee.
2. Or, if they have options, they will become frustrated and leave the organization to grow someplace else. Either way, the organization does not grow beyond the level of the lid.
Stanford, Harvard, Gallup and Daniel Goldman (another important leadership guru) did studies on the importance of leadership skills. These four reports in all say that less than 20 percent of your career success comes from your job skills–your technical skills and vocational knowledge. Less than 20 percent of your career success comes from this area.
Greater than 80 percent, and Goldman says 90 percent, comes from your leadership qualities, and specifically the way it’s broken down, it says it comes from your character, your values, and your people skills. So greater than 80 percent of your career success comes from this area.
One of the scariest consequences of not growing in the area of leadership is not being prepared for the big opportunities that come our way.
Let me give you a couple of examples where higher levels of leadership ability would have resulted in better results: Chip Kelly did an amazing job as coach of the Oregon Ducks. When he entered the NFL arena, he didn’t have the leadership skills to lead those teams to a higher level. Recently, and this could just be my opinion, the Seahawks traded away some of their best leaders leaving leadership voids. I believe that’s why the team is struggling right now. Lastly, look at Apple. What happened when they squeezed out Steve Jobs and left Steve Wozniak in his place? Apple barely maintained their success. Steve Jobs came back into the leadership and the success of the company was astronomical.
How do we raise our leadership lids? Here are a few ideas. The easiest way is to read or listen to podcasts on leadership. Since leadership is about relationships, it would be good to increase your interpersonal communication skills. Pursue goals that take you outside of your comfort zone and into your growth zone. Good leaders increase their influence with their followers by adding value to them. Invest in your followers.
The great thing about leadership is that it is a learnable skill, but like all complex skills, it takes time and commitment. It also takes creating a plan to grow your leadership skills. I can tell you from experience that raising your lid is one of the best investments you can make for yourself, your organization and your relationships. Your growth also prepares you well for the big opportunities that come your way.
Still growing,
Jan
Jan McDonald
The John Maxwell Team
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