Every Thursday is Leadership Day.
I’m reading The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. From today on, I will share and would like to discuss some of my thoughts with you.
In the first law–the law of the lid, John Maxwell intended to tell us that there is a lid on a person’s leadership ability and this lid determines his level of effectiveness. The lower a person’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his leadership ability, and the lower his effectiveness. On the contrary, the higher the leadership ability, the greater the effectiveness. Your leadership ability always determines your effectiveness.
Thus, for a leader, his leadership ability determines the effectiveness of his organization. If his leadership is strong, his lid is high and his organization functions well. But if his leadership is weak, then the organization is limited. That’s why when in time of troubles the organization naturally looks for new leadership.
John Maxwell mentioned his talk with the chairman of a global hospitality advisory and consulting firm as an illustration. Whenever this firm came into a client and took over, they always started to do two things. First, they trained all the staff to improve their level of service. Second, they fired the leader. It is the leader who determines the potential impact on the organization.
The greater impact you want to make, the higher your lid needs to be. Fortunately, you can raise the lid by learning.
I can’t agree more that when in time of troubles, organizations need to find the problems of the leaders!
But I’m not quite agree with some of his lid theory. John Maxwell illustrated the McDonald’s brothers. He owed their failure in growing the franchise business to their lack of leadership ability, the low lid. While in fact, in his illustration, the McDonald’s brothers did make great success in the very beginning of their business. The reason why they failed later, in my opinion, was that they were better at customer service and kitchen organization than at franchising. It was not necessarily a problem of leadership ability, but a problem of match between their advantages and the requirements of the new business development. When the business was small, their advantages made them success. While they wanted to grow into franchising business, it was not their advantages, so they failed. But that does not necessarily mean they lacked leadership ability.
It’s the same to many of the other organizations. When a country begins experiencing a hard but new situation, the current president who did well in the past may not be good at handling the new situation, so the country needs a new president, but can we simply say the current president is lack of leadership ability or has a low lid? When a company is losing money because of changes of the competition, the current CEO who once made profits may not be good at handling the new situation, so the company seeks new CEO, but can we simply say the current CEO is lack of leadership ability or has a low lid?
No man is perfect and no man could own all the leadership abilities at the same time. If the highest lid means such a perfect leader, it’s not practical.
In summary, my point is we can’t simply say a person who fails in the new situation has a low lid. It may be that the new situation does not match with his advantages.
To conclude, we did learn from the first law, that if an organization has troubles, check the leaders.
What’s your opinon? I’d be glad to hear from you.
10 comments
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November 16, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Jansen Azarias
I think the law of the lid in John Maxwell’s theory is irrefutable. I disagree with your rebuttal about the McDonald brothers. They did have a low lid on their leadership because a good leader should be able to adapt to ANY new situation and changes. That’s why he is a leader, not a manager. For example, if you are a good leader, but your skills and knowledge are limited to adapt to the change your action would have been surrounding yourself with people who can help you or manage it for you.
In the law of the lid, the goal is not to be the perfect leader, but rather, to constantly raise the lid of the leader, thus constantly enabling him to lead regardless of the situation or the changes. If the situation does not match his advantages, then a good leader would raise his lid by recognizing this and surrouding himself with people who will help him with it. That’s why a leader has to be a visionary, not a manager.
November 16, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Jansen Azarias
The whole point of the law of the lid is this, as leaders we have to constantly be the best at what we are doing for the followers who look up to us. Therefore, as leaders, we have to be adaptable, imaginary, out-of-the box, “out of our comfort zone” type of people. Just as John Maxwell said, the McDonald brothers weren’t and that’s why they were failing when their business took a different level, because their lid was only up to customer service and kitchen management. They failed to raise it to the next level which was francising.
I hope my opinion clarifies the law of the lid.
November 16, 2008 at 9:12 pm
cynthiazhai
Hi Jansen,
Thank you very much for your insights!
January 6, 2009 at 1:52 pm
anbc
thank you for your insights, it can help me explain further the concept.
March 7, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Peter
I disagree with your disagreements on the Law of the Lid about the leader’s ability on handling new situations. An effective leader should be one of all times and conditions; concerning a new situation all that is needed is raising the level of the lid of our leadership ability if it means that we manage it.In short, if you can’t manage a new situation it’s just a challenge that you need to raise the level of the lid and one way to do it is by learning.
Thanks for your worthy opinions
May 9, 2009 at 10:21 pm
amange.
hello leaders, i thank you for your lctures on line,but there is what i do not still understand abut the law of the lid. what is the concept lid, what does it mean? please reply me via my email
May 9, 2009 at 10:28 pm
amange.
piease sir, i want to know more about the concept of the lid… what does it mean by the lid of a leader?
June 2, 2009 at 5:16 am
dendoggy
A lid is the top of a container, such as a soda bottle lid. It determines how much the container can hold. If the lid is higher, then the container can hold more. So Maxwell’s idea is that a person should work to raise his or her leadership lid and gain more influence and impact by doing so. We raise our lid by learning how to lead others.
May 10, 2009 at 12:55 pm
cynthiazhai
Hi amange,
In my standpoint, the lid means the limitation of a leader’s ability; or the height that they can achieve based on their current ability. So if a leader’s current ability couldn’t help the company succeed anymore, they need to improve themselves and raise their limitation, or else the company will employ other capable leaders who can help the company succeed.
May 20, 2009 at 1:02 am
gracin
Better late than never. it shows that these topics live on. I would agree with the views espoused. When I read this law I thought of a cauldron pot. When what is being cooked starts to boil the lid lifts because of the pressure. I would, therefore, add that this law relates more to oppressive leaders who never notice that people are ready to be delegated to and hence always imposes his or her views. Keep on imposing as a leader and the whole pot crumbles if you become a sealed lid.