The Law of the Inner Circle: Without the right

team, it's just a dream.

3 de dic. de 2014
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In this 21 part series based on John Maxwell's best-selling book, The

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I'll be quoting each law from John
followed by my own related thoughts based on my personal
experiences. As a John Maxwell Team member, I'm happy to
discuss complimentary on-site training on The 21 Irrefutable Laws
of Leadership.
Part 11 of 21: Law #11
The Law of the Inner Circle: Without the right
team, it's just a dream.
"The Law of the Inner Circle : A leaders potential is
determined by those closest to him." ~ John C.
Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
As a leader, your inner circle will make you or break you! You need a
great team around you to help turn your dream into reality.
I love the analogy that John Maxwell often uses, Those on your
team carry two buckets with them at all times. One has water and
the other has gasoline. Whenever there is a fire down below, they
will either pour the water on it, and youll never have to worry about
it. Or, they will pour the gasoline on it, and it will blow up in your
face.
In order to show how the 21 Laws have a synergistic effect on your
influence, let's consider the effect the first 10 laws have on the Law
of the Inner Circle. The next 10 will also have a major impact on the
quality of the inner circle that you can assemble around you. Ill list
the previous 10 laws and some thoughts on how they support the
Law of the Inner Circle.

1. The Law of the Lid: Leadership ability determines a

persons level of effectiveness.
There are three things a leader is always doing: making it happen,
allowing it to happen, or preventing it from happening. The leader is
always responsible. As a leader, you are the lid on your inner circle.
Everything rises and falls on your ability to lead the team. They
cannot and will not perform consistently at a higher level than your
leadership ability, no matter how much you may want them to. Your
inner circle is a reflection of who you are.

If you want them to be more, you first have to be

more.
2. The Law of Influence: The true measure of
leadership is influence. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Your ability to grow and stretch those on your inner circle is based
on your ability to influence them to move out of their comfort
zone. If you cant influence your inner circle to move in the direction
you want, its not their fault. Its your fault.The Law of the Lid is
always in effect. If you want to increase your influence, you have to
increase your leadership ability.

"The more decisions a leader makes, the further he or she

is away from leading a high performance team. Make too
many command decisions and you'll doom yourself and
your team to mediocrity." ~ Mark Miller
3. The Law of Process: Leadership develops daily, not
in a day.
If you want to develop your inner circle. It starts in the center with
you. You have to develop yourself along with your team. Most
leaders arent dealing with competency issues daily. Theyre dealing
with people issues. But, where do they focus the organizations
resources when it comes to training and development? Character
(people): leadership development? Or, competency (the work):
technical training?
"An education, as part of the ongoing learning process, is
at best a foundation and at worst a naive form of
arrogance."~ Mark McCormack
4. The Law of Navigation: Anyone can steer the ship,
but it takes a leader to chart the course.
Your inner circle can only synergize and focus their cumulative
efforts if they know where theyre going. As the Lid, its your
responsibility to define and refine the vision. If someone else is
doing this for your inner circle, then youre not the leader. Someone
else is. Sure, you can listen, learn, and involve them in helping you
navigate. But, only you make the final decision about where the ship
is going. The inner circle makes sure you arrive.

"Leaders can afford to be uncertain, but they cannot

afford to be unclear. People will not follow fuzzy
leadership." ~ Andy Stanley
5. The Law of Addition: Leaders add value by serving
others.
If you want your inner circle to serve you, you must serve them. Your
role is to help them accomplish the mission once you have clearly
defined the mission. Who will have more influence, a leader that
walks in the door every day with a self-serving attitude of What can
you all do to make me look good? Or, a leader that walks in with a
serving attitude of What can I do to help you look good and help
you accomplish the mission?

"Do your excuses serve your dream?" ~ Scott M Fay

6. The Law of Solid Ground: Trust is the foundation of
leadership.
If your inner circle cant trust you, they are not likely to want to help
you. Sure, they will do what they have to do. But, theres a huge gap
between what they have to do and what they can do. This is the
trust gap. The more they trust you, the smaller the gap will be. If
they dont or cant trust you, its not their fault. Its your fault.

With trust, everything is possible. Without trust,

everything is questioned.
7. The Law of Respect: People naturally follow leaders
stronger than themselves.
You want your inner circle to follow you because they want to not
because they have to. But, if youre truly going to be effective, you
need others to want to follow your inner circle also. They need to
help you extend your influence beyond your reach. The leadership
within the entire team begins with you, trickles down to and through
your inner circle, and then makes its way out to the rest of the team.
Another reason, you must consistently grow and develop yourself
and your inner circle. It all starts with you.

"Being kind doesn't mean being soft or a wuss. Kindness

is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of confidence." ~
Gen. Colin Powell
8. The Law of Intuition: Leaders evaluate everything
with a leadership bias.
Are you intuitive? What would your inner circle say? When you get it
right, you build trust (Law of Solid Ground). When you get it wrong,
you create distrust. Intuition is not just a simple guess of what may
happen. Real intuition is based on experiences and knowledge
developed in similar situations. However, all of the variables will
never be the same. The more broad your experience in a specific
area, the more on target your intuition will be. The best intuition you
may have is to trust the intuition of an inner circle team member
ahead of your own.

"Intuition is what we know for sure without knowing for

certain." ~ Weston H. Agor
9. The Law of Magnetism: Who you are is who you
attract.
Ive often seen leaders that are unhappy with some, if not all, of
those that they have in their inner circle. I sometimes hear them say
they wish those in their inner circle were higher performers, more
energetic, more dedicated, more people focused, ultimately more of
a lot of things that theyre not. For instance, if you want a member
of your inner circle to have high energy, guess what you must
possess. You got it. High energy! You wont find an enthusiastic high
energy person following someone that can barely make it through
the day. This applies to every character trait you want those in your
inner circle to have. If you want those on your team to have a
particular character trait, you must model it in order to attract it.

"Men do not attract that which they want, but that which
they are." ~ James Allen
10. The Law of Connection: Leaders touch a heart
before they ask for a hand.
Positional level leaders always have weak (Law of the Lid) inner
circles. They dont value connection. They dont connect. Therefore,
the only people on their inner circle are low level leaders (of
themselves) that have to be there. If they had a choice, they
wouldn't be there. The higher level the leader, the stronger the inner
circle (Law of Magnetism). High level leaders know that to get the
most out of anyone, especially their inner circle, they have to stay
connected with them. Do you have more influence with those youre
strongly connected to or those you have little or no connection to?

"The main problem with communication is the illusion

that it has actually taken place." ~ John C. Maxwell
Conclusion:
As you learn and consider how all of the other 20 Laws of Leadership
impact this one extremely important law, understand one thing for
certain: they all start and end with you as the leader. You are
responsible for attracting, growing, developing, and unleashing your
inner circle's potential.
When is the last time you sit through a leadership class with them?
Its an automatic way to connect. Growing together is powerful!
Humility is the foundation for learning.

"One sees great things from the valley, only small things
from the peak." ~ G. K. Chesterton
FREE downloads available:
 Click here to access Chapter 11 Get Out of the Way and Lead from
my book, Defining Influence.
Click here to access the first 5 chapters of Blue-Collar Leadership:
Leading from the Front Lines.
Note: I encourage you to be a river, not a reservoir. Please share my
blogs with others if you find value in them. I believe in abundance
and write them to help others become more effective, successful,
and significant.
Make an impact!
Mack Story

My passion is to help you live with abundance,

achieve success, choose significance, and leave a
legacy. In other words, I want to help you make
a High Impact !
The rest of The 21 Irrefutable Law of Leadership Series:
Law #1: The Law of the Lid: It's all about the leader.
Law #2: The Law of Influence: It's all about who we are and
what we know.
Law #3: The Law of Process: It's all about continuous
improvement (kaizen).
Law #4: The Law of Navigation: It's all about knowing where
you're going.
Law #5: The Law of Addition: Its all about serving not being
served.
Law #6: The Law of Solid Ground: It's all about building trust.
 Law #7: The Law of Respect: It's all about being respectable.
Law #8: The Law of Intuition: It's all about being certain but
not for sure.
Law #9: The Law of Magnetism: You decide when you go and
where you go.
Law #10: The Law of Connection: It's not about you, but it
begins with you.
Law #12: The Law of Empowerment: It's all about releasing,
not controlling.
Law #13: The Law of the Picture: Who's watching you?
Law #14: The Law of Buy-In: 5 Keys that allow you to lead with
speed!
Law #15: The Law of Victory: 10 proven tips to help your team
win!
Law #16: The Law of the Big Mo: Momentum doesn't show up
at the party alone!
Law #17: The Law of Priorities: 3 things that reveal our
priorities.
Law #18: The Law of Sacrifice: Without sacrifice, there is no
improvement.
Law #19: The Law of Timing: Have you considered the effect of
timing on your...
Law #20: The Law of Explosive Growth: 7 keys to high impact
leadership.
Law #21: The Law of Legacy: Are you going to settle for
success?
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Macks story is an amazing journey of personal and professional
growth. He began his career in manufacturing on the front lines of a
machine shop. He grew himself into upper management and found
his niche in lean manufacturing and along with it, developed his
passion for leadership. He understands that everything rises and
falls on leadership.

Mack is the author of Blue-Collar Leadership Series, Defining

Influence, & 10 Values of High Impact Leaders. He's an inspiration
for people everywhere as an example of achievement, growth, and
personal development. His passion inspires people all over the
world! Order signed copies here.
Macks experience as a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Coach,
Trainer, and Speaker includes an international training event in
Guatemala with John as part of the Cultural Transformation in
Guatemala where more than 20,000 Guatemalan leaders were
trained.
Contact Mack at 334-728-4143 or mack@mackstory.com for Keynote
Speaking, Corporate Training, Professional Leadership Development,
Cultural Enhancement/Transformation, and Process Improvement.