Maxwell's First Law - The Law Of The Lid!

Business leadership failures are often, upon reflection, simple to identify and may have easily been avoided. The failures of Lehman Brothers, Blockbuster, and Borders can be attributed to excessive greed, lack of vision, and distribution failure. We won’t miss these companies as we go forward and I suspect we will not experience the executives who ran these brands into the ground either. However, there are failures in business that happen every day and don’t get any press or attention, except by the employees who experience them and work in a dead-end job to just “pay the bills”. These failures come from ineffective leadership which can translate into poor results and even poorer working conditions.

The first of Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is the “Law of the Lid.” We should all pay attention to the implications of this law. In short, it says a person has a lid on his or her effectiveness based on his leadership lid. If the lid is high, he can be highly effective, if the leadership lid is low then he will be limited in his effectiveness. If an executive has a low lid and is the head of your division or running your company, you can expect the results of your division or company to be disappointing. Said another way, if your boss is a junior varsity leader, he will be less effective and therefore you will never get to play varsity unless he is replaced with a leader with a higher lid. It is a glass ceiling on effectiveness for you if you are in a situation like this.

Personally, I like to be around “A players” and exceptional leaders who want to accomplish great things. They have the need and desire to be great and have Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goals or what you might know as BHAGs. I have made my career by working with these people and consider them to be leaders who are effective because of their lofty goals. They are smart, realize their strengths and weaknesses, and surround themselves with other leaders who fill in skill sets they don’t have themselves. Confident and sure, these men and women assess and take risks only after diligent research and will purposely delay a key decision to gather critical information. It is not surprising that they get the key decisions right a very high percentage of the time, and rarely miss opportunities.

There are not many options if you find yourself in a leaderless situation, so I focus on how to find good leadership and effectiveness. I described some of the qualities above, but finding people with these skills and desires is hard and takes focused time. My experience is that these men and women are in a few key places: Small startups, turnaround situations and in the venture capital/private equity areas of business. Sure, you will find them elsewhere like General Electric, IBM or other large, successful corporate brands, but they are less accessible to most people. You can’t just walk in and say you want to work for an effective executive with a high leadership lid. (To do that would require a lot of prior success on your part and your own high leadership lid.)

Many large companies spawn effective leaders who over time venture out of into the small company game. They have BHAGs and may join a small startup company with a promising idea. It is here where you can find access to an effective executive with a high leadership lid. Networking into the startup game isn’t as hard as you might think. Use LinkedIn and sort through your network to gain access to those who can help you to gain access to the startup company directly.

Turnaround situations are similar to startups in that often times experienced executives with high lids take the risk to help a fledgling unit of a company or a company which has lost its way. These opportunities are identifiable and can be researched through networking and exploring companies in your industry you know are doing poorly. After you have identified the company, watch their press releases. Over time you will see new management talent join the company. After researching the executive, make your move to be introduced to him.

The VC and PE industry is teeming with a network of talented executives. Successful people travel in the same circles and invariably find some connection to an investor who is looking to bring a new executive into a company. VC’s are happy to meet with you if you have some success behind you and will introduce you to their companies (and an effective leader with a high lid).

Effective leaders with high leadership lids are out there seeking opportunities to do something great. Some are hidden in large companies and hard to approach. However, networking through startups, turnarounds and investors can uncover them and provide you with what may be the opportunity of a lifetime.

My best, Chris