You've probably heard the phrase "All men are created equal" a thousand times since you were in grade school. It's one of the principles that our country was built upon: that we all have a common bond in our humanity, and that, all in all, none of us are inherently better than the other. It's a principle that we as a country believe and that God claims to be true as well. Paul touches on the subject in Romans 3:23 when he says that we all fall short of God's standard, and that as a result we are all in the same boat because of our sin. In the end, whatever our talents, our upbringing, our education, and no matter how hard we work, we are all equals in regards to our humanity.
But the same can't be said for leadership.
You might think me un-American for daring to say that all leaders aren't created equal. But the truth is that they're not. Some people are just going to be better leaders than others. It's just the nature of how leadership works. We weren't all created with the same leadership abilities. And while we need to be ok with that, that doesn't mean we sit back and stop our growth as a leader, because, as we discussed in the previous post, our effectiveness in our field of service is directly related to our level of leadership. So we need to keep growing as a leader to be more effective as a person and as a team.
In his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell describes this phenomenon as the Law of the Lid. It's the first of the 21 laws and a foundation that we have to take to heart if we want to grow in leadership. Essentially, we all have a leadership "lid", a number that describes our leadership abilities. This number describes how effective we can be as a leader. It's a number that is not fixed; it can be raised or lowered, and it's determined by several factors, including natural talent, drive, experience, and others. And it's an important concept to remember as we move forward in studying leadership.
So why is your "lid" so important? Let me explain a little further. Let's say these leadership "lids" can be measured on a scale from 1-10 (10 being the most ability, 1 the least). If my current leadership lid is a 5, I will only be able to be an effective leader to those whose leadership lids are considered to be below a 5. And that means I'll find it almost impossible to effectively lead those who have leadership lids of 5 or higher. It's a tough concept to embrace, but it's true 99 times out of 100. So what's my solution? I've got to raise my lid. I've got to work at getting to a 6 so I can lead more people effectively.
Now, in real life, we don't have a 1-10 scale telling us how good of a leader we are. And there is no perfect 10 leader among mankind. But the concept still remains: we need to strive to get better at leading others so that we can positively influence people that we may not have been able to influence before. And we have to do that one step at a time. We may never be a 10, and honestly, some of us will start to peak out at around a 7. But that's doesn't excuse us from growing.
We see this principle in God's Word with The Parable Of The 3 Servants. I won't cover the whole story, but the main idea is that a master leaves varying amounts of money to 3 of his servants while he is away on a trip, expecting them to do something productive with it. 2 of them go out and put the money to good use, investing it in hopes that it would grow. But the third buries his money, hoping that his master would be happy that he merely held on to what he was given. When the master returns, he was happy with the first 2 because, regardless of the amount of money they were given, they sought to grow the money for their master. But he was furious with the servant who merely buried the money, because he had not "used well what he had been given". In the master's eyes, it wasn't about how much they had been given, but what they did to grow what they had been given.
I wholeheartedly believe that this parable is applicable when we talk about our leadership ability. You may be a 6 on the scale, and there is a 7 that God wants you to lead and influence, but it can only happen if you grow as a leader. That's why the Law of the Lid is so crucial to understand an apply.
So, yeah, all leaders aren't created equal. Not all of us will be 10s, or 9s, or even 8s. But the point of leadership is not about us and how awesome a leader we can become so we can brag about it and make ourselves feel better; it's about helping others advance to reach their God-given potential, and being faithful to build upon the God-given foundation of leadership we've been given. And the first step of that process is committing to raising your "lid". You've really already started because you're reading this blog, which means you are seeking to be a better leader. As we go forward, we'll see how we can all raise our lids and be more effective leaders of what God has given us.
Source: John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, 2007, Thomas Nelson.
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