The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and They Will Follow You

If you haven't read the original, here's what you can expect. You're going to learn some of the basic principles of leadership, like trust, influence and effectiveness. You're also going to learn other leadership principles that aren't talked about as often.

Like the Law of Sacrifice. What are you willing to give up for the people you're leading? Or, the Law of Legacy. What do you want people to say about you when you're gone? The legacy you leave behind is determined by what you do today.

Each law in the book is supported by powerful stories that bring each lesson to life. You'll learn why Mother Theresa embodied the Law of Influence, and why Henry Ford almost went out of business because he didn't understand the Law of Empowerment.

You'll read about one respected CEO who works at a folding table and visits his employees as much as possible. He's criticized for being too good to his people, but he understands and lives by the Law of Addition. And his company is reaping the benefits.

The laws in this book will help you become a true leader, the type of person who lifts up the people around them and inspires them to be greater than they thought they could be. Because of this, everyone achieves more. Whether you're already running a company or just getting started in your career, this is a book that will teach you how to be a great leader, and a great person.

It's important to realize that you're not going to excel in every law covered in the book. Even Maxwell admits that he's weak in five of the laws. But the point is to recognize where you're weakest so you can work to improve. You can also look for people who excel in the areas you're weakest in, and add those people to your leadership team.

John C. Maxwell is a best-selling author, coach and speaker. He's sold more than 24 million books in 50 languages, and was chosen as the most popular leadership expert in the world by Inc. magazine in 2014.

So, keep listening to find out how your own leadership abilities may be limiting your effectiveness, why small acts of service will make you a better leader, and the three most common barriers to empowering other people.

Maxwell devotes a chapter to each of his 21 laws. There's a lot of information in this book, so we'll cover just a few of our favorite laws here – starting with the first one, the Law of the Lid. Maxwell opens up his book with this one for a good reason. He says once you grasp this law, you'll understand the importance of all the laws, and how they affect your life and your potential.

The Law of the Lid states that your leadership ability is what determines your level of effectiveness. Think of a saucepan with a lid. Your leadership ability is the lid that determines how much you'll achieve. If you don't lead, or don't lead well, your lid is low and your potential effectiveness will be limited. If you're a good leader, your lid is high and you'll have the potential to make a big difference.

So, imagine you're really great at what you do. You're an expert, and well respected in your organization. But you work on your own, so your effectiveness is limited. You can only achieve so much when you're working by yourself.

On the other hand, if you lead others, the sky's the limit. You can increase your effectiveness by several hundred percent just by learning how to lead.

Here's a good example. When Apple started in the 1970s, Steve Wozniak was the brains behind the Apple computer. He wasn't a strong leader, but his co-founder Steve Jobs was. Jobs' abilities as a leader enabled him to turn Apple into one of the most successful companies in history.

To figure out how your own Leadership Lid is affecting your life, make a list of significant goals you want to achieve. These should be things that will take a year or longer to complete.

Next, identify which of these goals will require the participation or cooperation of other people. Maxwell says that, for these activities, your leadership ability will greatly impact your effectiveness. Fortunately, the rest of the book teaches you how to build and strengthen the skills you need to be an effective leader.

The Law of Addition was one of our favorites. Maxwell opens this lesson with the powerful story of Jim Sinegal.

He's the co-founder and CEO of Costco, the fourth-largest retailer in the United States. But you'd never guess that by looking at his office. It's full of folding tables and chairs. Sinegal answers his own phone, and his salary is in the bottom 10 percent of CEO earnings.

He also stands out because of how he treats his employees. They earn 42 percent more than people working at Costco's top competitor, and they pay a fraction of the national average for health care. The company also has the lowest staff turnover rate in the retail sector.

Sinegal visits every Costco store at least once a year. And, he maintains an open-door policy. Every employee knows that they can come to him, at any time, if they need to.

Sinegal believes that when you treat your people and your customers right, profits will follow. He embodies the Law of Addition, serving others and adding value to their lives.

There's one simple question that will help you see if you're living by the Law of Addition. Are you making things better for the people who follow you? That's it. If you can't answer "yes" to that question, or if you don't have any evidence to back it up, then you might be a subtractor. This means you're having a negative impact on the people you lead.

There's a quote from Maxwell in this chapter that really stood out for us. He says, "The best place for a leader isn't always the top position. It isn't the most prominent or powerful place. It's the place where he or she can serve the best and add the most value to other people."

This struck a chord because it means that no matter what your position is, you can make a difference in other people's lives in a positive way. You can be a powerful leader. So how do you do this? You first have to truly value others. Demonstrate that you care about the people around you.

You also have to make yourself more valuable to others. What can you give to the people around you? Can you teach skills? Offer opportunities? Share insights and lessons? The more you grow personally and professionally, the more you'll have to share with other people.

You also need to care about what other people value. To do this, you need to listen. Listen to people's stories and dreams. Pay attention to their emotions. This enables you to learn about them on a deep level. Then, you can lead based on what you've learned.

One way to get better at the Law of Addition is to do small acts of service every day. Find little ways to make things better for the people around you. Perform these acts without asking for recognition or credit.

Another way to get better at the Law of Addition is to look at the people closest to you. Think about what they value. How could you add value to their lives based on what they care about most? Write down your ideas, and start acting on them.

Now let's take a look at Henry Ford, arguably one of the most recognized names in the business world. Maxwell uses Ford's story to illustrate what can happen when leaders don't live by the Law of Empowerment, which is about helping other people reach their potential. It means giving some of your power away, so they can grow and succeed.

Ford's vision was to make a car that the average worker could afford. And he did this with the Model T. By 1914, Ford was producing 50 percent of all the cars sold in the United States.

The problem was that, once he'd developed the Model T, he didn't want to change it or improve it. At all. One day, his designers surprised him with a prototype of a new car. Ford was so furious he ripped it apart with his bare hands.

Ford finally realized he had to offer something new, and in 1927 he produced the Model A. But the car was incredibly far behind its competitors in technology and innovation. The company kept shrinking, and a few years later it was selling a fraction of what it used to.

Henry Ford had a great vision. But he didn't trust or believe in the people around him. If he noticed a young leader rising in the organization, he tore him down. He monitored the private lives of his workers, and constantly undermined his leadership team – even his son and grandson, who were working hard to keep the company together.

When his grandson, Henry Ford II, took over, he ultimately saved the company by bringing in scores of new leaders. But he didn't live by the Law of Empowerment either. He felt threatened by these other leaders, and he began to pit one against the other to make himself feel more secure. He got rid of his strongest leaders, and, of course, the company suffered.

This is why the Law of Empowerment is so important. When you live by this law, you help the people around you realize their potential. When you lift them up, you lift yourself up in the process.

Maxwell says there are three main reasons why many leaders avoid this law. First, weak leaders believe that when they help their subordinates, it will make them dispensable. They're afraid of losing what they have. But the opposite is true. When you constantly empower others and help them develop so that they're skilled enough to take over your job, you become even more valuable to your organization. You become indispensable.

Maxwell does temper this a bit. He says that, occasionally, superiors might not recognize your contribution. So you might work yourself out of a job. But over time, if you stay focused on empowering others, you'll develop a pattern for achievement, excellence and leadership. You'll be recognized and rewarded for your efforts.

Another barrier to empowerment is resistance to change. As a leader, you have to embrace change and make way for it.

The third barrier to empowerment is a lack of self-worth. Maxwell says that you can't give away power if you feel you don't have any yourself.

When you empower others, you do much more than just help someone else become better. You help yourself as well. To get better at empowering others, make a list of the people who work under you or are closest to you. Next to their names, rate their potential on a scale of one to 10.

If most of the numbers are low, you might have a hard time believing in people. To change that, look for people's greatest strengths, and think about how they could use those strengths to achieve something significant. Imagine what they might accomplish, and then go help them do it.

It's easy to see why "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" is a classic. Maxwell's writing is friendly and approachable, and every lesson in the book is insightful and important.

The two appendices also give readers a lot of value. One is a leadership evaluation that measures which laws you're strongest in, and which you need to work on. We found this to be really useful. You might want to consider taking this quiz before you dive into the book. That way you could start with the laws you're weakest in, and go from there.

The second appendix is a guide to getting stronger in each of the 21 laws. Maxwell has listed resources, including chapters in this book, that will help you work on each area. You'll notice his past books are among the resources he recommends. But many of these are also bestsellers, so they're probably worth your time.

We couldn't find anything to criticize in the book. It's a true classic that should be in every leader's library. Even if you're not in an official leadership role, the lessons you learn here will help you better lead your colleagues, family and community.

All in all, we have no trouble recommending this book.

"The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership," by John C. Maxwell, is published by Thomas Nelson.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.