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.
Live with Passion & Purpose 
32 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.
June 1, 2010 at 10:38 am
Carmine Salazar
Heh I am honestly the first reply to this incredible read!
August 9, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Jason
I agree that the law of the lid is a very accurate description of a person’s success potential. If an organization is struggling to achieve its objectives, the leadership ability of the person charged with directing the team toward the goal must be questioned first. In the example of the McDonald brothers, they had decided to franchise, that was part of their plan, and it was the brothers that realized they did not possess the leadership ability to take the burger joint to that next level successfully. When they brought in an experienced leader they enjoyed great success. A leader must not only be able to determine course of action when circumstances change, the leader must also be able to successfully lead his team down that course, and a strong leader (one with a higher lid) will be more successful than a weak leader (one with a lower lid).
August 31, 2010 at 10:26 am
cynthiazhai
Hi Jason, thank you for your great input and insights.
June 4, 2011 at 11:44 am
leher
Thanks for the discussion Cynthia. I am currently reading the book and just finished the first chapter. I felt it was a bit vague and so I came online to check for more details. I really liked your explanation above “..So if a leader’s current ability couldn’t help the company succeed anymore, they need to improve themselves and raise their limitation…”
What i really would like to know is how can we translate this into action? What are some WAYS to increase leadership ability. One way is learning. What are other practical ways to employ this law? I felt this was a very general, theoretical law..perhaps it was was meant to be such. Thanks in advance.
August 8, 2011 at 9:39 pm
Cynthia Zhai
Hi leher, so glad you found it helpful. The other way to enhance your leadership ability, which is more important, is through practicing. You can have all the knowledge but if you never put it into practice, you won’t make fundamental improvement. Give yourself more opportunities to practice leadership ability, it could be volunteering in non-profit organizations as leaders.
July 3, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Diane
One of the ways to translate this law into action is to determine your lid blockers. Ask your boss and some peers what the perceive your lid blockers to be. To me the law is saying that we have to grow as leaders in order to grow leaders. Keep learning. Identify what your personal challenges are and work on them to the best of your ability. Seek the advice from leaders you admire.
August 8, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Cynthia Zhai
Thank you, Diane, for your in-put.
October 22, 2011 at 4:08 am
carlo
Have you also read the 21 most powerful minutes of a leader by John Maxwell. He explains the law of the lid further. He’s definition of “lid” is something that blocks or hinder your effectiveness and the idea is that every leader should be able to lift this lid…
November 19, 2011 at 6:51 pm
cynthiazhai
Thank you, Carlo, for mentioning that. I haven’t read that book. Will check it out.
March 29, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Funke
I think I agree with the points in this post. I would love to read often from you.
Thanks
March 29, 2012 at 10:59 pm
cynthiazhai
Hi Funke, come and visit often. 🙂
May 30, 2012 at 9:38 am
Jonathan
Hello everyone! I’m blessed that i have come here, well looking for further explanation of the “Law of Lid”. Actually i have read recently some of the books of John Maxwell and I’m looking forward reading more, I’m happy to read all your insights because it helps me a lot to better and clearly understand what does this law means for me to be able to explain it also to my leaders.
I hope I can read more discussions about leadership here…
Thanks and God Bless everyone!
June 2, 2012 at 10:00 am
olubayo fikayo
That’s a perfect understanding of law of lid john maxwell.I was make to understand that leadership is the ability to lid and influence people to follower of what you are doing.And he make know that your effectiveness base on your ablilty of your lid.your Leadership ability can not more than the level of your effectiveness. thanks for enlight me on leadership potential.
June 4, 2012 at 5:37 pm
cynthiazhai
So happy to see the ongoing discussions here! Keep it going~~~
July 11, 2012 at 4:00 am
Anonymous
yeah right
September 21, 2012 at 10:00 am
Ferdinand
…Law of the lid…Leadership as aptly identified rises and falls on influence. Leadership has among its core attributes dynamism and durability. For a leader to display the two foregoing attributes needed to remain relevant in the changing times of competition and values, he must possess an extensive skill and knowledge sets. A discerning leader should err on the side of caution by acknowledging that yesterday’s solutions might not necessarily solve today’s problems. A proactive leader would hardly be caught unawares. An excellent performance in scorecard of effectiveness presupposes that the leadership should be relevant in all seasons by recreating himself. No excuses.
September 27, 2012 at 11:31 pm
cynthiazhai
Ferdinand,
Thank you for your sharing!
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July 23, 2013 at 3:18 pm
Rev Dr Ajala Josian
Low lid means leaders require to improve on their leadership ability. New situation requires new ability to be acquired by the existing leaders in order to coop with the new challenges otherwise they are not needed. New learning raises leadership Lid. Maxwell law of lid is okay.
June 5, 2017 at 5:25 pm
Amen Michael
Waooo. Am soo glad to have stumbled in here.
Such insight about the law of lid.
Thank you Cynthia.and everyone who meaningfully has contributed in one way or the other
January 13, 2018 at 9:39 pm
Cosmas Kanguya
Reading about of the Law of the Lid creates more questions than answers it is expected to provide. In my opinion, the law of the lid is more of theoretical than practical. I have just finished reading chapter 1 of the 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership. And my conclusion is that if I will ever understand what John is talking about I will have to read this chapter more than 10 times. This is because he does not come out clear what he means by the Law of the Lid. In my view, all the illustrations he gives do not reveal the meaning of the Law. As I have said, he creates more questions than answers. Let me read the chapter again and see if I will get anywhere near what John means.