# The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership



## TH15 (Oct 23, 2011)

I just finished reading this book. My football coach used preached this to us non-stop, so I finslly broke down and read it. It's amazing. I figured you guys would appreciate something like this but honestly I would recommend it to anyone.

Here's a summary:
*1. The Law of the lid.*
Your leadership is like a lid or a ceiling on your organisation. Your church or business will not rise beyond the level your leadership allows. That’s why when a corporation or team needs to be fixed, they fire the leader.
*2. The Law of Influence.*
Leadership is simply about influencing people. Nothing more, nothing less. The true test of a leader is to ask him to create positive change in an organisation. If you cannot create change, you cannot lead. Being a leader is not about being first, or being an entrepreneur, or being the most knowledgeable, or being a manager. Being a leader is not just holding a leadership position. (“It’s not the position that makes a leader, but the leader who makes a position.”) Positional leadership especially does not work in volunteer organisations. The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate. “He who thinks he leads , but has no followers, is only taking a walk.”
*3. The Law of Process.*
Leadership is learned over time. And it can be learned. People skills, emotional strength, vision, momentum, and timing are all areas that can and should be learned. Leaders are always learners.
*4. The Law of Navigation.*
Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Vision is defined as the ability to see the whole trip before leaving the dock. A leader will also see obstacles before others do. A leader sees more, sees farther, and sees before others. A navigator (leader) listens – he finds out about grassroots level reactions. Navigators balance optimism with realism. Preparation is the key to good navigation. “It’s not the size of the project, it’s the size of the leader that counts.”
*5. The Law of E.F. Hutton.*
Hutton was America’s most influential stock market analyst. When he spoke, everyone listened. When real leaders speak, people automatically listen. Conversely, in any group or church, you can identify the real leaders by looking for those who people listen to. According to Margaret Thatcher, “being in power is like being a lady – if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” (p45) Tips for a Positional leader – like a newly appointed minister – who wants to become a REAL leader… look for the existing real leaders and work to have influence there. Factors involved in being accepted as a new real leader include character, building key relationships, information, intuition, experience, past success. and ability.
*6. The Law of Solid Ground.*
Trust is the foundation for all effective leadership. When it comes to leadership, there are no shortcuts. Building trust requires competence, connection and character.
*7. The Law of Respect.*
People naturally follow people stronger than themselves. Even natural leaders tend to fall in behind those who they sense have a higher “leadership quotient” than themselves.
*8. The Law of Intuition.*
Leaders evaluate everything with a Leadership bias. Leaders see trends, resources and problems, and can read people.
*9. The Law of Magnetism.*
Leaders attract people like themselves. Who you are is who you attract. (Mmmm… I thought like poles were meant to repel!) Handy hint: “Staff” your weaknesses. If you only attract followers, your organisation will be weak. Work to attract leaders rather than followers if you want to build a truly strong organisation.
*10. The Law of Connection.*
You must touch the heart before you ask people to follow. Communicate on the level of emotion first to make a personal connection.
*11. The Law of the Inner Circle.*
A leader’s potential is determined by those closest to him. “The leader finds greatness in the group, and helps the members find it in themselves.” (p113)
*12. The Law of Empowerment.*
Only secure leaders give power to others. Mark Twain said, “Great things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit.” (p127). Another point to ponder… “Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”
*13. The Law of Reproduction.*
It takes a leader to raise up a leader. Followers can’t do it, and neither can institutional programs “It takes one to know one, to show one, to grow one.” The potential of an organisation depends on the growth of its leadership.
*14. The Law of Buy-In.*
People buy in to the leader first, then the vision. If they don’t like the leader but like the vision, they get a new leader. If they don’t like the leader or the vision, they get a new leader. If they don’t like the vison but like the leader, they get a new vision.
*15. The Law of Victory.*
Leaders find a way for the team to win. “You can’t win WITHOUT good athletes, but you CAN lose with them.” p162). Unity of vision, diversity of skills plus a leader are needed for a win.
*16. The Law of Momentum.*
You can’t steer a ship that isn’t moving forward. It takes a leader to create forward motion.
*17. The Law of Priorities.*
Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. We need to learn the difference. “A leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells “Wrong Jungle!”” (p176) If you are a leader, you must learn the three “Rs”... a) what’s Required b) what gives the greatest Return c) what brings the greatest Reward.
*18. The Law of Sacrifice.*
A leader must give up to go up. Successful leaders must maintain an attitude of sacrifice to turn around an organisation. One sacrifice seldom brings success. As he worked to turn around the Chrysler Corporation, Lee Iacocca slashed his own salary to $1 per year.”When you beome a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself.”
*19. The Law of Timing.*
When to lead is as important as what to do and where to go. Only the right action at the right time will bring success.
*20. The Law of Explosive Growth.*
To add growth, lead followers. To multiply growth, lead leaders. “It is my job to build the people who are going to build the company.”
*21. The Law of Legacy.*
A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession. “Leadership is the one thing you can’t delegate. You either exercise it – or abdicate it.”

It should be noted that he is/was a pastor. I don't know if that will be a problem for some people but just an FYI.
Great read.
http://www.amazon.com/21-Irrefutabl...8376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319396149&sr=8-1


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## Sendero (Oct 23, 2011)

Good read thanks for posting.


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## AKkeith (Oct 24, 2011)

I wish more of our leaders in my unit would read and understand at least some of those principals. Like just last night. We were returning from a week long training evolution and had been going non stop since 4 am. No one had eaten because we were trying to get back that night. We convoyed back to base and made it there around 2300. We start to carry all our gear up the hill to a staging area and guess who we see. SSGT just chilling up there stuffing his fat face with mcdonalds. If he had eaten in his car we never would have thought about it or assumed anything because we thought he was in the convoy with us the whole way. But I guess he peeled off and got mcd and thought the best thing to do would be to eat it in front of us and let us all know he didnt give a fuck about us. We had guys freaking raging about it because we were all staving and still working and we ended up getting off at 0200 when everywhere was closed.


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## AWP (Oct 24, 2011)

TH15 said:


> The true test of a leader is to ask him to create positive change in an organisation. If you cannot create change, you cannot lead.



Utter, complete, crap.

This is one of those concepts that sounds great, but the reality is that it is used as a measuring stick. This is one reason why you see The Good Idea Fairy popping up in organizations or "that guy" who is constantly changing something. I have no issues with change, I actually like a little chaos, but there's a time and place for it. The above statement is so simple it fails. It lacks....explanation or context.


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## fox1371 (Oct 24, 2011)

Freefalling said:


> Utter, complete, crap.
> 
> This is one of those concepts that sounds great, but the reality is that it is used as a measuring stick. This is one reason why you see The Good Idea Fairy popping up in organizations or "that guy" who is constantly changing something. I have no issues with change, I actually like a little chaos, but there's a time and place for it. The above statement is so simple it fails. It lacks....explanation or context.


I have to agree with you on this one.  That to me says that even though the wheel works, you must reinvent it in order to be an effective leader.


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## Sendero (Oct 24, 2011)

fox1371 said:


> I have to agree with you on this one. That to me says that even though the wheel works, you must reinvent it in order to be an effective leader.



-While I'm not a fan of how he worded it or saying that this is the only "leadership" principle across the board.  Knowing a little bit about where he's coming from business/church leadership background.  Momentum is a huge deal.  The idea being something must be new, improved or improving to keep and sustain momentum.  So change is always happening in essence.  The leader is the change agent in most of these situations.

Like I said early, I'm not a fan of this particular principle.  As "reinventing the wheel" is definitely a bad idea a lot of the time.


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## TH15 (Oct 24, 2011)

Yeah I guess I should've included that some wouldn't agree with some of the laws/points he has. But I do think there is some valuable lessons, or whatever you want to call them, in the book. This is just a summary I found of the laws. If you want to get a better idea of where he's coming from on some I would suggest finding a used book or something.


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## AWP (Oct 24, 2011)

I liked the majority of the points, don't get me wrong, but that one is a pet peeve of mine. I have seen far too many leaders/ managers, both in and out of uniform, who follow that tenent and it bites us in the ass everytime. Organizations and people need change at times, I totally understand that, but the concept of "If you aren't changing everything then you aren't leading." is nonsense. Well, you ARE leading, it is just destructive leadership.


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## x SF med (Oct 25, 2011)

the balance of change/evolution and continuity in an organization is the key...  the organization has to evolve, revolutionary change for the sake of showing that you are doing something is destructive, not constructive.  Set the goal and change the organization/processes to meet that goal while keeping your subordinates/team mates informed and involved is effective; just changing things to say you made a difference is counterproductive.


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## Warchief (Oct 31, 2011)

I think good leadership can be simplified into a concept I learned very early in my military career:   Mission. Men. Me.   This concept has always been my focus as my prime directive. It served me well on AD and out here in the corporate world.


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## QC (Oct 31, 2011)

SMEAC, its worked for me, and picking the right people


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## Headshot (Nov 1, 2011)

The problem with the whole change concept is that we have become conditioned as a society to expect immediate results without having the patience to give changes the proper time to work.  When you change something you are dealing with a culture issue, whether it be church or corporate.  The biggest obstacle is getting the change to the point where it replaces the old expectations and way of doing things where personnel are concerned.  Once the changes are engrained in the work habits and mindset of the people who it effects it is only then you will start to see the rapid progression of positive results.  Changes are concepts, it's people who make or break them.


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## digrar (Nov 1, 2011)

Change for change sake, frustrating, quite often pointless and many times obviously driven from the managers personal KPIs.


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