The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

Author:John C. Maxwell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

BARRIERS TO EMPOWERMENT

Leading well is not about enriching yourself—it’s about empowering others. Leadership analysts Lynne McFarland, Larry Senn, and John Childress say that the “empowerment leadership model shifts away from ‘position power’ to ‘people power,’ within which all people are given leadership roles so they can contribute to their fullest capacity.”3 Only empowered people can reach their potential. When a leader can’t or won’t empower others, he creates barriers within the organization that followers cannot overcome. If the barriers remain long enough, then the people give up and stop trying, or they go away to another organization where they can maximize their potential.

When leaders fail to empower others, it is usually due to three main reasons:

THE #1 BARRIER TO EMPOWERMENT: DESIRE FOR JOB SECURITY

The number one enemy of empowerment is the fear of losing what we have. Weak leaders worry that if they help subordinates, they themselves will become dispensable. But the truth is that the only way to make your-self indispensable is to make yourself dispensable. In other words, if you are able to continually empower others and help them develop so that they become capable of taking over your job, you will become so valuable to the organization that you become indispensable. That’s a paradox of the Law of Empowerment.

The number one enemy of empowerment is the fear of losing what we have.

What if I work myself out of a job by empowering others, you may ask, and my superiors don’t recognize my contribution? That can happen in the short term. But if you keep raising up leaders and empowering them, you will develop a pattern of achievement, excellence, and leadership that will be recognized and rewarded. If the teams you lead always seem to succeed, people will figure out that you are leading them well.

THE #2 BARRIER TO EMPOWERMENT: RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck asserted, “It is the nature of man as he grows older to protest against change, particularly change for the better.” By its very nature, empowerment brings constant change because it encourages people to grow and innovate. Change is the price of progress. That’s not always easy to live with.

Most people don’t like change. That’s a fact. Yet one of the most important responsibilities of leaders is to continually improve their organizations. As a leader, you must train yourself to embrace change, to desire it, to make a way for it. Effective leaders are not only willing to change; they become change agents.

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