On The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership

I recently finished reading John C. Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership – Follow Them and People Will Follow You. As the title indicates, John presents in this book 21 fundamental laws of leadership. The laws are prefaced by four core concepts:

“1) The laws can be learned

2) The laws can stand alone

3) The laws carry consequences with them

4) These laws are the foundation of leadership”

The author then goes on to present the 21 laws, in greater detail filled with examples from both his personal experience and experiences of other great leaders. The laws are summarized below:

“1- The law of the lid: leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness

2- The law of influence: the true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less

3- The law of process: leadership develops daily, not in a day

4- The law of navigation: anyone can steer the ship, but it take a leader to chart the course

5- The law of addition: leaders add value by serving others

6- The law of solid ground: trust is the foundation of leadership

7- The law of respect: people naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves

8- The law of intuition: leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias

9- The law of magnetism: who you are is who you attract

10- The law of connection: leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand

11- The law of the inner circle: a leader’s potential is determined by those closest to him

12- The law of empowerment: only secure leaders give power to others

13- The law of the picture: people do what people see

14- The law of buy-in: people buy into the leader, then the vision

15- The law of victory: leaders find a way for the team to win

16- The law of the big mo: momentum is a leader’s best friend

17- The law of priorities: leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishement

18- The law of sacrifice: a leader must give up to go up

19- The law of timing: when to lead is as important as what to do and where to go

20- The law of explosive growth: to add growth, lead followers – to multiply, lead leaders

21- The law of legacy: a leader’s lasting value is measured by succession”

A book filled with leadership wisdom and lessons. The examples provided help one grasp the concepts and understand how they can be applied in every day situations. A great complement to another great book by the same author – The 360 degree leader.  Both are highly recommended reads in the area of leadership/personal development.

Below are some excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1) “The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.”

2) “Personal and organizational effectiveness is proportionate to the strength of leadership.”

3) “If you don’t have influence, you will never be able to lead others.”

4) “Leadership is…Character – Who They Are, Relationships – Who They Know, Knowledge – What They Know, Intuition – What They Feel, Experience – Where They’ve Been, Past Success – What They’ve Done, Ability – What They Can Do.”

5) Bennis and Nanus: “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.”

6) “The bottom line in leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others.”

7) “When it comes to leadership, you just can’t take shortcuts, no matter how long you’ve been leading your people.”

8) “The more leadership ability a person has, the more quickly he recognizes leadership – or its lack – in others.”

9) “A leader has to read the situation and know instinctively what play to call.”

10) “You can’t move people to action unless you first move them with emotion…The heart comes before the head.”

11) “Theodore Roosevelt: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

12) “Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary and highly practical.”

13) “The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream.”

14) “When the pressure is on, great leaders are at their best. Whatever is inside them comes to the surface.”

15) “Three components of victory: 1) unity of vision 2) diversity of skills 3) a leader dedicate to victory and raising players to their potential”

16) “Leaders should get out of their comfort zone but stay in their strength zone.”

17) “Everything rises and falls on leadership: 1) Personnel determine the potential of the organization. 2) Relationships determine the morale of the organization. 3) Structure determines the size of the organization. 4) Vision determines the direction of the organization. 5) Leadership determines the success of the organization.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

On Drive

I recently finished the book Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – by Daniel H. Pink. As the title indicates, this book is about what motivates us to perform and the evolution of the underlying motivations as time progressed. The main concept introduced by Daniel is what he calls “the Motivational Operating Systems”. In his own words these are “the sets of assumptions and protocols about how the world works and how humans behave, that run beneath our laws, economic arrangements, and business practices.” The author then goes on to explain the progression of this operating system: “Motivation 1.0 presumed that humans were biological creatures, struggling for survival. Motivation 2.0 presumed that humans also responded to rewards and punishments in their environment. Motivation 3.0, the upgrade we now need, presumes that humans also have a third drive – to learn, to create, and to better the world.”

Despite the upgrade in the underlying motivational operating systems, Daniel argues that “most business haven’t caught up to this new understanding of what motivates us. Too many organizations…still operate from assumptions about human potential and individual performance that are outdated, unexamined, and rooted more in folklore than in science. They continue to pursue practices such as short-term incentive plans and pay-for-performance schemes in the face of mounting evidence that such measures usually don’t work and often do harm”

A very insightful read on human behavior/motivation backed by years of scientific research. The book not only presents the concepts but also presents to us what its implications are from a management and leadership standpoint. Another great feature of the book is the summary and glossary of terms at the end. They serve as a great reference/refresher. A recommended read!

Below are some excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- “Carrots and Sticks: The Seven Deadly Flaws – 1) They can extinguish intrinsic motivation. 2) They can diminish performance. 3) They can crush creativity. 4) They can crowd out good behavior. 5) They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior. 6) They can become addictive. 7) They can foster short-term thinking.”

2- “…For creative, right-brain, heuristic tasks, you’re on shaky ground offering “if-then” rewards. You’re better off using “now that” rewards. And you’re best off if your “now that” rewards provide praise, feedback, and useful information.”

3- “…Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over the four T’s: their task, their time, their technique, and their team.”

4- “The first two legs of the Type I tripod, autonomy and mastery, are essential. But for proper balance we need a third leg – purpose, which provides a context for its two mates. Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more. The most deeply motivated people – not to mention those are most productive and satisfied – hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves.”

5- “Motivation 2.0 centered on profit maximization. Motivation 3.0 doesn’t reject profits, but it places equal emphasis on purpose maximization.”

6- “So, in the end, repairing the mismatch and bringing our understanding of motivation into the twenty-first century is more than an essential move for business. It’s an affirmation of our humanity.”

7- “When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system – which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators – doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: (1) Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives; (2) Mastery – the urge to get better and better at something that matters; and (3) Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”

8- “Type I behavior: A way of thinking and an approach to life built around intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, motivators. IT is powered by our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Type X behavior: Behavior that is fueled more by extrinsic  desires than intrinsic ones that concerns itself less with the inherent satisfaction of an activity and more with the external rewards to which that activity leads.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Drive

Productivity vs. Motivation

A few months ago, I read an article on Economist.com that contrasted the increases in productivity in Europe and the USA and I began to wonder what the big deal was with measuring productivity across industrialized nations.  Does productivity measure the progress of people  achieving their everyday tasks or does it relate to some sort of competitive advantage that helps society? I can understand the baseline measure that the more you produce in a capitalistic society the more people may be buying thus the more money may flow which might then leave you with a greater distribution of wealth. Is that really the point of the productivity chart and analysis? Are there not greater factors in the bigger picture that hold more weight and meaning?

A few weeks after reading that article I learned about the concept of Gross National Happiness while listening to NPR on my drive home. The host was discussing the many factors that nations look at to gauge the current status of their economy and this concept was mentioned. Usually nations look at GDP, productivity, unemployment, etc…but this was something different.  This was something that every man regardless of their work experiences or personal struggles could relate to. A King had decided that the prosperity of his nation would not be measured in money or productivity but the overall happiness of the people in his Kingdom. Sounds way too good to be true right?

And now it’s July 7. These two concepts were meshing and mingling in my brain and I began to wonder what they both ultimately meant. One concept focuses on phsyical/monetary growth while the other includes culture, health, and the overall quality of life. It seems to me that productivity and GDP are great measurements for money…money….and money… but what about the people who are working those jobs day and day out. The productivity of a nation and it’s people are left to industrialized figures and numbers which never consider the actual people working those jobs. Couldn’t we raise productivity if people were happier? Couldn’t we raise productivity if people were motivated? In this struggling economy, productivity has increased over the year but the unemployment rate has gone up and the quality of life for most people living in the US has degraded.

Productivity and happiness combined ultimately lead to motivation. A person’s motivation to do their job well and also receive satisfaction for a hard days work and a steady paycheck as a reward. If we could take a stab at analyzing the motivation rate of our country during the last year vs the productivity, I believe we would see a sharp contradiction of the two. Productivity increased over the year as those with jobs worked harder and tirelessly not to be laid off like the millions of others. Motivation on the other hand probably fell down the drain as people were forced to work longer hours and put in more overtime to get the same jobs done as before. If we could combine a rise in productivity as well as a raise in motivation then I believe we would have the start of a very different culture. A culture were people wanted to work hard for their paycheck and self-worth rather than out of fear and mistrust of others.

Here’s to hoping one day people are both productive and motivated to work. To work for their self-reward as well as their monetary reward.

On Grad School

A few days ago, I was asked to participate in nominating my graduate supervisor at the University of Waterloo for an award on excellence in graduate supervision. This event, together with a few conversations with some of my colleagues, lead me to reflect on my graduate school years. Particularly, I have been contemplating about how graduate school has contributed to my professional career development.

If I had to summarize my findings I would say that the most valuable skill acquired during that experience is that of working independently.  What I mean by that is given some very high level objectives, it’s the ability to define concrete steps and deliver on them to successfully complete the objectives . More importantly, working independently also requires the ability to be self-driven and self-motivated over longer period of times despite the ups and downs along the journey. In the corporate world, individuals who have this skill require very little management and build a very trustful relationship with their manager. Over time, they will attract more and more challenging tasks that will further accelerate their development.

Regards,

Omar Halabieh