How to Be a Leader

John Maxwell is the authority on leadership. He has written numerous books and traveled the world studying and teaching others how to be great leaders. In his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell covers 21 useful, achievable laws of leadership. They are not complex. They do not cost lots of money. They are there for the taking. Every one of us can implement them…today.

While I’m not going to recite all 21 (I’d recommend you purchase and read the book to aid in your own leadership journey. See it here), I will cover 3 that have stood out the most:

• The Law of Influence – “The true measure of leadership is influence.”
  • Do you have the ability to influence others? Are you worthy of someone else’s time, consideration and trust? I post a great deal of content on social media. Some of it gets lots of traffic while other posts remain relatively stagnant. It’s frustrating. “I put so much into this, and I don’t see a big return,” I’ve said to myself over and over (notice the “I” disease). Then, while recently listening to Gary Vaynerchuck, I heard him say, almost as if he were talking directly to me, say, “Stop complaining. Create better content. If it were that awesome, people would respond.” Aha! My ability to influence others is not where it needs to be. Is yours?

• The Law of Priorities – “Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment.”
  • For the past two years, I’ve focused heavily on learning and listening to people. I have had many small group and one-on-one conversations with people who are not content in one area or another. It’s not necessarily drastic, only that they are self-aware and seek improvement. Quite possibly the biggest barrier to their happiness is prioritization, or lack thereof. STOP! Stop taking on more and more responsibilities. Prioritize what’s most important to you, and eliminate the rest. My buddy recently told me that I’m an “old man.” Yes, I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, but my priorities are in order (and come to think of it, my brother said the same thing. Maybe I am an old man?). Prioritize and execute!

• The Law of Buy-In – “People buy into the leader, then the vision.”
  • This was possibly my favorite law. Have you ever seen someone and said to yourself, “I want to be part of whatever he/she is doing.”? Cael Sanderson, Peyton Manning, Steve Jobs, etc. These people are leaders. They don’t talk about it, they ARE about it. People will buy more into who you are than what you offer. BE something. Stand for something. Outwork the competition. Position yourself in a spot where people would be doing themselves a disservice by not following you! Define yourself first, and then figure out the rest.

Lead yourself: Tune into AM Excellence every morning at 6:30 EST here, and subscribe to A Fighter’s Mindset – The Spaniard Podcast here.

Life’s a fight. Carpe Diem. Fight well.

Spaniard