From Unconscious Incompetent to Leader

Fair to say I'm a student rather than teacher.

In that, I'm fortunate to have learned of leadership from great books.

One such gem comes from John C. Maxwell's genus tome, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Especially telling is how to tell leadership from management, in the chapter, "The Law of the Lid." This predictable yardstick determines just how high any company will rise.

Over the years I've witnessed powerful people attempt to manage-- 'powerful' only in the sense that they 'command' with money or with sheer brute force, causing their employees to cower. I've been a party to factories filled with people too afraid for their jobs to speak their minds, as the wrath of their unpredictable payday god is too bitter to endure.

And then are The Others; those rare folk we would gladly follow into any pains of battle. When we know we're supported, justified, and placed above the temporalities of "just business," we have found a leader, and will give everything to a commonly-held goal.

On to become one of the Unconscious Competent in leadership.

Cheers!