Do you want to be a better leader or have a better, happier, and more successful life? John Maxwell’s Law of the Lid was designed to help you!
Maxwell says our leadership ability is the lid that determines our level of effectiveness. The higher your leadership lid and your ability to lead, the higher the lid of your potential and the potential of the people around you.
If your leadership lid is a 5, your effectiveness can never be greater than a 4. If your leadership lid is a 10, then your effectiveness can be as high as a 9.
Your leadership ability always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact you have on the people you lead. Some of the factors that affect your leadership lid are people skills, planning and organization, vision, dedication to success, discipline, emotional intelligence, and your past results.
The key to finding joy, happiness, and success is lifting your leadership lid, and the most important person that you lead is yourself.
Maxwell wrote, “For better or for worse, your leadership ability will always determine your impact – on your own life, on your organization, on the world. And the world needs more leadership, more of you, more of the potential you have to inspire, empower, and grow others.”
Your leadership lid is flexible and can grow with the right effort, so start by inspiring, empowering, and growing yourself. Maxwell also wrote, “If you can take steps to improve your leadership ability, you can start to break through the barriers to your success and see the inspiring impact of leadership on every aspect of not only your life but also the lives of those around you.”
The Rule of 5
One way to lift your leadership lid is The Rule of 5. The Rule of 5 states if you can commit to doing five things every day, you can achieve any goal. The key is identifying the goal and then identifying the 5 things you need to commit to. Maxwell says if you want to chop down a tree with an ax, you can take just 5 swings at that tree every day, and eventually, the tree will fall. If the tree is small, it might take a few days or weeks, and if the tree is big, it might take months or years, but if you commit to taking just 5 swings every day, eventually that tree will fall.
The same goes for leadership. If you can identify 5 things to do daily to grow your leadership, you will grow your leadership lid.
This is Maxwell’s Rule of 5: every day he reads, every day he files, every day he thinks, every day he asks questions, and every day he writes.
My current rule of 5 is: pray and meditate, exercise, grateful walks, positive affirmations, and read and write. I do my prayers, meditations, and positive affirmations during my morning grateful walks and continue them throughout the day.
My major goal is to have joy and enjoy everyday life. To do that, I need to have the discipline to get everything done on my list so I can live and rest with a clear mind, then I need to focus on the good things I have in life. Finding and seeing the good can be difficult because we are wired to see and feel the negative much more often, and deeper than we see the positive. But we can rewire our brains to be more positive through the things I have listed in my Rule of 5.
The key, as my leader of myself, is being disciplined, focused, and staying committed. We often try to influence and lead people to have a goal, a purpose, a plan, and the discipline to stick to the plan, and we have to be able to influence and lead ourselves to do the same.
Win the Day
I’ve also started doing a daily Rule of 5. My daily goal is to win the day, and I’ve learned that if I write down and follow through on 5 things every day, it’s usually a productive and fulfilling day and enough to win the day. Every morning, I write in my journal or in the notes app on my phone 5 things I’m grateful for that day, 5 things I am praying for, and the 5 things I need to accomplish to win the day. Some days, my list consists of work stuff, some days my Daily Rule of 5 consists of relationship stuff, and others it consists of personal stuff. The Daily Rule of 5 is flexible so that you can focus on what you need today to win THIS day.
If you want to improve or change your life, start with leading yourself better; lift your leadership lid. Use The Rule of 5 to do so. Identify 5 things you can commit to doing every day, then stick to it. Every day, write down 5 things you are grateful for, and 5 things you want to accomplish that day, then get it done.
It’s not easy, but it is simple. Try this for 30 days, and see what happens!
SOMETHING(s) TO THINK ABOUT
1 - On a scale of 1-10, what is your leadership lid? How well do you lead others? Most importantly, how well do you lead yourself?
2 - What are 5 things you can do to improve your leadership today?
3 - What is one goal you have or one thing you want to get better at?
4 - What are 5 things you can do every day to achieve that goal?
My goal is to live with love, joy, and peace every day no matter what is going on around me. Big 5 are prayer and meditation, exercise, grateful walks, positive affirmations, and reading and writing (including but not limited to the 5 things I need to do today to win the day).
For a PDF version of the post, click here: The Rule of 5 for Lifting Your Lid To watch John Maxwell talk more about The Law of the Lid and The Rule of 5, click here: The Rule of 5 for Lifting Your Lid