[...]... understand and apply than others, but every one of them can be acquired 2 The laws can stand alone Each law complements all the others, but you don’t need one in order to learn another 3 The laws carry consequences with them Apply the laws, and people will follow you Violate or ignore them, and you will not be able to lead others 4 These laws are the foundation of leadership Once you learn the principles, you... let’s open the toolbox together 1 THE LAW OF THE LID Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness I often open my leadership conferences by explaining the Law of the Lid because it helps people understand the value of leadership If you can get a handle on this law, you will see the incredible impact of leadership on every aspect of life So here it is: leadership ability is the lid... wrote the book Working on this tenth anniversary edition has allowed me to make those improvements By far the biggest change I wanted to make to the original book centered on two of the laws What? you may ask How can you change one of your irrefutable laws? First of all, while teaching them I soon discovered that two of the laws were really just subsets of other laws The Law of E F Hutton (When the Real... edition of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: The Law of Addition: Leaders Add Value by Serving Others The Law of the Picture: People Do What People See From today’s perspective I ask myself, How could I have missed them? But I did The good news is that you won’t! I feel certain that these two laws will add immeasurably to the book and to your ability to lead Serving others and showing others the way... leader, the organization wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in.” And I thought to myself, Of course It’s the Law of the Lid To reach the highest level of effectiveness, you have to raise the lid—one way or another The good news is that getting rid of the leader isn’t the only way Just as I teach in conferences that there is a lid, I also teach that you can raise it—but that’s the subject of another law of leadership. .. say, is history, right? Wrong The McDonalds never went any further because their weak leadership put a lid on their ability to succeed THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY It’s true that the McDonald brothers were financially secure Theirs was one of the most profitable restaurant enterprises in the country, and they felt that they had a hard time spending all the money they made Their genius was in customer... listen to the claims of the person professing to be the leader Don’t examine his credentials Don’t check his title Check his influence The proof of leadership is found in the followers I personally learned the Law of Influence when I accepted my first job out of college I went in with all the right credentials I had the proper college degree I had a great deal of insight into the work because of the training... while, their entrepreneurial spirit and interest in the entertainment industry prompted them to open a theater in Glendale, a town about five miles northeast of Hollywood But despite all their efforts, the brothers just couldn’t make the business profitable In the four years they ran the theater, they weren’t able to consistently generate enough money to pay the one hundred dollars a month rent that their... about leadership! ” To lead well, we must do 21 things well 2 NO ONE DOES ALL 21 LAWS WELL Despite the fact that we must do 21 things well to be excellent leaders, it is reality that none of us does all of them well For example, I am average or below average in five of the laws —and I wrote the book! So what is a leader to do? Ignore those laws? No, develop a leadership team At the end of this book there... looking at the citizens of ancient Greece, the Hebrews in the Old Testament, the armies of the modern world, the leaders in the international community, the pastors in local churches, or the businesspeople of today’s global economy Leadership principles are unchanging and stand the test of time As you read the following chapters, I’d like you to keep in mind four ideas: 1 The laws can be learned Some . with modeling leadership and impacting the culture of an organization. The result is the inclusion of two new laws in this tenth anniversary edition of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: The Law of. two of the laws were really just subsets of other laws. The Law of E. F. Hutton (When the Real Leader Speaks, People Listen) was really just an aspect of the Law of Influence (The True Measure of. stopping the Allies’ advance. They were able to do it because their leaders embraced the Law of the Picture. 14. THE LAW OF BUY-IN People Buy into the Leader,Then the Vision They freed their nation