Do the analysis of the given data and write an essay on it.

Insights from the Book

1. The Law of the Lid

Personal and organizational effectiveness go only as far as leadership ability. So, no matter the functional expertise I have, if my leadership does not match the same level then I will be unable to achieve the results I want to. Personal success does not impact organizational success in the same magnitude unless we develop leadership ability.

If I want to add value to the organization then I need to understand my personal targets as well as the goal that my function is trying to achieve. I shouldn’t be limiting myself only to tasks assigned to me but find ways and ideas to contribute more towards the bigger goal.

Example: McDonald brothers teamed up with Ray Kroc who had a vision and understood McDonalds potential. He could visualize the restaurant going global in hundreds of markets and the rest as they say is history.

2. The Law of Influence

Titles can only help us buy some time, but true leadership can’t be awarded, appointed, or assigned. Management focuses on maintaining systems and processes while leadership influences people to follow. Managers can help maintain a direction, but we need a leader to change the direction. Hence, managers are not leaders.

Entrepreneurs can persuade us to buy their products/ services, but they are leaders only if they are able to maintain that influence for a long period of time.

IQ also does not necessarily equate to leadership. Being a first-mover in something also does not necessarily make you a leader unless people follow the lead.

The very essence of all power is to influence and get the other person to participate even when you do not have any leverage on them. Hence, to be a true leader I need to be able to find ways to connect with people before I can influence them.

Example: Kodak and Blackberry lacked vision and adaptability for change and hence could not influence their customers for long.

3. The Law of Process

Leadership is a process that requires consistency over a long period of time. The ability to lead is a collection of skills. It requires experience, respect, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing, etc., and building all of these requires time and effort.

True leaders are life-long learners and they work on the principle that little by little a little becomes a lot. Learning can come in many forms, reading books, listening to podcasts, or attending seminars. Constant learning is important because it prepares us before an opportunity strikes so that when it's execution time, we are all set and ready to perform and execute. In times of challenges, we are only down to our reflexes, hence the goal is to practice hard and convert our best response into our reflexes. Hence, I can’t run away from hard work and discipline as these two traits displayed over a lifetime would enable me to become an effective leader.

Example: Amazon showcases the law of process by constantly evolving and learning as an organization, identifying mega trends and then venturing into the same well in time to achieve success.

4. The Law of Navigation

Leaders need to plan-ahead. They need to chart the course of the ship. They need to identify obstacles in advance and prepare for them. A leader sees more than others see, farther than others see and they do it before others do. The larger the number of people following you, the more time it would take to change directions and make corrections, hence a leader needs to learn from their past mistakes, gather information from many sources, and find the balance between faith and facts.

Navigation Strategy that can come in handy for leaders: Plan-Ahead:

Predetermine a Course of Action. Allow Time for Acceptance.

Lay Out Your Goals. Head into Action.

Adjust Your Priorities. Expect Problems.

Notify Key Personnel. Always Point to the Successes.

Daily Review Your Planning

Example: General Electric chairman Jack Welch had a vision for their destination, he understood what it would take to get there, he knew who he would need on his team to be successful and recognized the obstacles long before they appeared on the horizon.

5. The Law of E.F. Hutton

The way to identifying a true leader is by asking questions. The person people look up to and expect an answer from is the one they believe has the ability to lead. People listen to those who have built credibility and that requires consistency over time. Positional leaders have transitory power and need the influence of real leaders to get things done. Real leaders always speak later and have the power to influence everyone in the room.

Authentic leadership takes time, so when starting a new position, focus on where you end up. Work towards earning an incredible amount of respect so that people listen to you no matter where or when you speak. Leaders become influential because of multiple factors such as:

• Who they are - Character

People have the sense to identify the depths of the character.

• Who they know - Relationships

Stronger relationships result in a stronger potential for leadership

• What they know - Knowledge

Information is vital, and a clear understanding of facts and factors is necessary to chalk out a path for the future.

• What they feel - Intuition

Only data does not suffice for decision making, it demands an ability to deal with multiple intangibles

• Where they have been - Experience

Having experience makes it easier for people to give you chance to prove yourself.

• What they’ve done - Past Success

A good track record helps in building credibility and encourages others to listen to what you have to say.

• What they can do - Ability

The most important skill required from a leader is execution and getting things done.

Example: Tesla’s vision inspires people and they not only relate but also get inspired by Elon Musk’s vision.

6. The Law of Solid Ground

Leadership is a combination of character and strategy where character is indispensable. Character helps in building trust and trust makes leadership possible. So, if your character is good then the longer time you spend with people the better the relationship gets but if your character is flawed then the longer time you spend with others the worse your leadership gets.

You can’t get too much done in life if you only work on days you feel good. Leaders must have the inner strength to perform even when they are not at their best because only then can people start counting on you. Leaders earn respect by making sound decisions, admitting their mistakes when they are wrong, and putting the good of their followers and organization ahead of their own.

Example: Tata is a company that has built its legacy on trust and character.

7. The Law of Respect

People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves. The more leadership qualities a person has, the more quickly they identify leadership or the lack of it in others. The stronger your leadership ability the easier it gets to lead stronger leaders.

Example: Microsoft through its consistency in serving its customers has earned respect.

8. The Law of Intuition

Some people are born with great leadership intuition while others must work hard to develop and hone it. Intuition requires an ability to understand the impact of intangible factors. Leaders are readers of trends, they can identify not only where their people have gone but also where they are headed in the future. Leaders are readers of their situation and can capture details that others miss. Leaders are readers of their available resources like money, raw materials, technology, and most importantly, people. Leaders are readers of people. They can almost instantly identify the hopes, fears and concerns of people. Leaders are also readers of themselves. They have clarity about their strengths, skills, weaknesses, and current state of mind.

For example: Steve Jobs reinvented Apple through his belief in what the company was meant to do.

9. The Law of Magnetism

Effective leaders are always on the lookout for good people. People who follow you generally share common ground in several of these areas: attitude, generation, background, values, life experiences, and leadership ability. The better you are, the better people you will attract and the greater impact it will have on everything else you do.

Example: Google being a world class company attracts world class talent.

10. The Law of Connection

It is difficult to move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart always comes before the head. People usually don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care. As a leader you must connect with people individually even when addressing a group. Connecting with others helps in building loyalty and a strong work ethic in people. Hence, always work towards touching a person’s heart before asking for a hand.

Example: Mama Earth is an example of a company where people connected with its purpose before they connected with its products.

11. The Law of the Inner Circle

A Leader's potential is determined by people who are closest to him, then the leaders can make a huge impact. The winner is almost always the person who is racing with the strongest team. The 5 types of people that should be in your inner circle are:

• Those who raise up themselves
• Those who raise morale in the organization
• Those who raise up the leader
• Those who raise up others
• Those who raise up people who raise other people

Example: Mckinsey gives utmost importance to its culture and only those who fit it well can make it into the organization.

12. The Law of Empowerment

When leaders do not empower others, they create barriers within the organization. If these barriers remain long enough, then people give up or take up opportunities in other organizations where they can maximize their potential. One thing that people often don’t realize is that if you are able to continually empower others and help them develop to take over your job then you become valuable and indispensable to the organization. Often resistance to change, desire for job security, and lack of self-worth become the barriers to empowerment.

Example: Reliance builds its leaders and gives them the opportunity to lead and grow, because when they grow, the organization grows as well.

13. The Law of Reproduction

Only leaders can develop other leaders. When leaders try to push others down, the lower they want to push, the more they must bend down to do it. Hence to keep others down they must go down with them.

We teach what we know, and we reproduce what we are. Leaders who create other leaders see the bigger picture, they know that the potential of their organization depends on the growth of its leadership. They attract potential leaders and create an eagle environment where leaders cast a vision, offer incentives, encourage creativity, allow risks, and prove accountability.

Example: General Electric spent more than $500 million a year on training and develops leaders at its own institute in Crotonville, often called “the Harvard of corporate America

14. The Law of Buy-in

People don’t follow worthy causes, they follow worthy leaders who promote worthwhile causes. If the followers believe in the leader then no matter how bad the conditions get, they will support their leader. Leaders don’t get credit for being “right.” Their success is measured by their ability to take the people where they need to go. But they can do that only if the people first buy into them as a leader.

Example: Even when Tesla was about to go bankrupt, its employees stayed because they supported the leader and they supported the company's vision.

15. The Law of Victory

Victorious leaders share an inability to accept defeat. They figure out what must be done to achieve victory, and then they go after it with everything at their disposal. When pressure is on, great leaders are at their best, whatever is inside them, comes to the surface and works for them. The tenacity and passion for victory is evident in every part of their life. The three components of victory are unity in vision, diversity of skills, and upliftment of people to their full potential.

Example: Southwest Airlines has a warrior mentality and the fight to survive created its culture.

16. The Law of Big Mo

Creating momentum requires someone who can motivate others and not one who needs to be motivated. When you have no momentum, even the simplest tasks can seem to be insurmountable; when you have momentum on your side, the future looks bright, obstacles appear small, and trouble seems temporary. Getting started is a struggle, but once you’re moving forward, it is relatively easier to start doing amazing things. When leadership is strong and there is momentum in an organization, people are motivated and inspired to perform at higher levels.

Example: Paytm brought in the fintech revolution in India through the momentum it developed through its work and services.

17. The Law of Priorities

If you focus your attention on the activities that rank in the top 20 percent in terms of importance, you will have an 80 percent return on your effort. Effective leaders must order their lives according to three questions:

• What is required
• What gives the greatest return
• What brings the greatest reward

Example: What made GE one of the best companies in the world was Jack Welch’s ability to use the Law of Priorities in his leadership. He never mistook activity for accomplishment. He knew that the greatest success comes only when you focus your people on what really matters.

18. The Law of Sacrifices

Sacrifice is constant in leadership. Leaders who want to rise must do more than take an occasional cut in pay. They sometimes must give up their rights because when you become a leader you lose the right to think about yourself. Leaders must accept the accountability and responsibility that comes with it. It is important to understand that for everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something. The higher the level of leadership you want to reach, the greater the sacrifices you will have to make. To go up, you must give up.

Example: Amazon has a very aggressive culture because of which its employees sometimes need to sacrifice on a few things to achieve the big results that matters to the organization and makes it great.

19. The Law of Timing

Every action can have only four outcomes that can result in:

• The wrong action at the wrong time leads to disaster
• The right action at the wrong time brings resistance
• The wrong action at the right time is a mistake
• The right action at the right time results in success

There comes a special moment in everyone’s life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when the leader seizes, he/she can identify the mission for which he/she is uniquely qualified. That is the moment of greatness or finest hour.

Example: Sixdegrees.com was the original social media site but the world was not ready for it.

20. The Law of explosive growth

Leaders who develop other leaders multiply their growth, because for every leader they develop, they also receive all of that leader’s followers. It is equivalent to growing your organization by the teams instead of by individuals. The better leaders you develop, the greater the quality and quantity of followers. Developing leaders is difficult because potential leaders are harder to find and attract and takes time, energy, and resources. They’re also harder to hold on to once you find them because unlike followers, they are energetic and entrepreneurial, and they tend to want to go their own way.

Example: Mckinsey has helped produce leaders in various industries and domains.

21. The Law of Legacy

Leadership is one of the things you can’t delegate. You can either exercise it or abdicate it or you pass it on to your successor. Legacy leadership requires leading the organization with its best interest in mind, creating a leadership culture, paying the price today to assure tomorrow’s success, valuing team leadership above individual leadership, and walking away from the organization with integrity. Success is not measured by what you’re leaving to, but by what you are leaving behind.

Example: Mercedes has demonstrated how to gracefully carry a legacy with time.