Name: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Rating: 4 (264 reviews)
Author: John C. Maxwell

What’s in it for me? Turn yourself into a great leader.

Do you consider yourself a born leader? Few people do – and for good reason. Even if you’re a naturally imposing person and have headed up every single group you’ve been in since entering kindergarten, this only means that you’re more dominant than others. Fact is, no one is born a leader.

Leadership is a skill and it’s completely up to you to develop it.

It’s all about getting others to follow you – and these blinks will show you how. They lay out the most important of the 21 laws of leadership, from which you’ll glean the traits and skills that will boost your ability to lead, even if you focus on just a few of them.

And you’ll also find out

how an employer’s age affects whether he’ll hire you or not;
why Ray Kroc, and not the McDonald brothers, turned McDonald’s into a global player; and
how a woman who escaped slavery became a heroic leader.

The biggest factor in business success is quality leadership, which makes the boss the most accountable.

There’s a McDonald’s on just about every corner these days. But do you know how this behemoth got started?

It began in 1937, in Pasadena, California, when brothers Dick and Maurice McDonald opened a small drive-in restaurant that actually specialized in hot dogs, not hamburgers. A few years later, they relocated to San Bernardino, California, where they reorganized their kitchen into a fast-moving assembly line and included hamburgers on the menu.

In 1952, the brothers decided to franchise their fast-food concept, but immediately ran into problems.

This was due to the Law of the Lid, one of the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. It states that the potential success of you and your company is limited by one single quality: your ability to lead.

And that’s why the brothers had trouble franchising their business. Despite being great with customers and having innovative ideas, they were horribly inept leaders, which meant that very few franchisees were willing to put their faith in the concept.

This became even more apparent after they struck a deal with Ray Kroc to expand the business. A great leader in his own right, Kroc got to work fixing the apparent problems by recruiting other leaders for all the critical positions. And even though he couldn’t really afford to pay them, he took out personal bank loans, cashed out his life insurance policy and sacrificed his own salary for years in order to get things running smoothly.

The results speak for themselves. While the McDonald brothers only made 15 franchise deals on their own, Ray Kroc closed 100 in his first four years with the company and nearly 400 additional ones in the four years that followed.

The vast importance of the leader also means that when an organization is hurting, it’s typically the leader who’s going to take the fall. For instance, when the consultants at the advisory firm Global Hospitality Resources are called in to rescue a struggling hotel, one of their first solutions is to fire the boss. For them, it’s obvious that, if the hotel had a good leader, it wouldn’t be asking for help in the first place.

Leaders must be trustworthy, and they can lose that trust by breaking the rules they are supposed to enforce.

To see what happens when leadership comes crumbling down, let’s take a quick look at the Watergate scandal. In the early 1970s, members of President Nixon’s administration were found guilty of illegal activities, including a burglary at the offices of the Democratic National Committee.

As a result, Nixon lost the trust of the American people and was forced to resign.

Leaders earn respect by being strong, courageous and loyal.

Influence and trust are two important qualities for any leader, but it’s also crucial that a leader enjoys the respect of her followers.

The Law of Respect goes into effect when people encounter someone with strength, a leader who’s more skilled, determined and courageous than they are – the exact kind of qualities that followers look for in a leader.

Key ideas in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

What is The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership about?

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (1998) explains what it takes to become a great leader. These blinks highlight many of the traits, skills and characteristics that have given leaders around the world the power to attract loyal followers and lead them toward success. Find out what Ray Kroc, Winston Churchill and Mother Theresa all have in common – and what you can do to become a better leader yourself.