New Year - Same Old Lessons

It's a new year and I'm looking forward to learning new things about leadership. I have so much to learn and I continue to try to find new voices and perspectives to teach me. Lately, I've been reminded of old lessons and laws of leadership that I learned a long time ago. They continue to be inexorably true. For instance, the Law of the Lid. First described by John Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, it says that "An organization will never surpass the capabilities of it's leaders."
It also means that the individuals in the organization cannot grow as leaders if those above them are not stronger leaders than themselves. I cannot lead those who follow me where I have never been. I cannot develop anyone to be a better leader than I am. As those who I lead grow in their own leadership I must grow or they will have to move on to other stronger leaders. I will become a "lid" to their growth as a leader.

For somone under the lid, this is a painful experience. He becomes increasingly confused and frustrated by the lack of good leadership. No one is stretching him, developing him, into more than what he thought he could be. No one is casting a compelling vision for him or teaching him new skills. Instead, the follower hears his own voice rise above his leader. This can create tension when the follower doesn't feel safe to lead out or the leader shows indifference or resistance to the followers ideas.

For the leader, it can also be painful and confusing - particularly if he has lost his will or his skill to lead. He may not have a clue what to do or he may feel threatened by a follower who is simply doing what growing leaders do - pushing boundaries, testing waters, experimenting with new concepts and leading.
It is fascinating to me how unyielding this law of leadership really is. There is no exception to the rule. No matter the org chart. If the gal at the top is a lid, those under her leadership also become lids. If any leader in the organization becomes a lid, that department or team suffers/ dies. One leader in an organization can become a lifter instead of a lid and make a difference to those who follow that leader...but only for a short time. Eventually, the lid rule - the unbendable, unbreakable Law of the Lid - will eventually stifle the growth of the entire organization.
Maybe this sounds like so much theory. But it's as real as the people you work and serve with every day.
The obvious assigment for me is to always be working on myself. My own personal leadership. Not accidentally, but intentionally and strategically, so that I can be a lifter instead of a lid for others.
The harder challenge is to learn when to get out from under the lid when I know I have hit it.

Resolved: Grow in Christ-likeness

I rarely make the typical resolutions like exercise more or lose weight, but began a practice some years ago of setting some spiritual goals for myself each January and making a commitment to the Lord to do my part to reach them. I think to myself "What goal does the Lord have for me this year?" and the answer is always "Be more like Him" So I set out to do a few things that I know will require me to trust Him more....things like forgiving a specific person I had been holding a grudge against, giving generously and joyfully to two additional charities, or sharing the gospel with at least two people each month. Hopefully at the end of every year as I stretch my faith in these specific ways, I look more like Christ than I did before. What higher goal is there?
Ultimately, holiness is the only Biblical personal goal for each of us. Truly holiness is what we must aspire to daily or else we're soon in a spiritual slouch that gives the enemy an easy opening to wreak havoc in and through our lives.
There's a terrific article in Leadership Journal by Gordon MacDonald on this topic. He says becoming a holy person doesn't just happen. It's an intentional thing that we must work at. The word holiness is not in style these days, but it's not gone out of the Lord's vocabulary. The article goes on to describe some people Gordon has known whom he considers "holy." I've met few people in my life that I would call "holy." And in my best moments I have never been close to reaching their level of piety. But it's a goal.
There is a great quote in the article by C.S. Lewis where he describes those who are rich in this underneath life - the life behind the outward performance that most of us are engaged in - the life that is directly connected to God and pleasing Him only. Holiness is not about a performance at all. It's the work in our inner life that cannot happen except in close communion with the Father.
Lewis writes "Nothing could be more foreign to the tone of Scripture than the language of those who describe a saint as a 'moral genius' or a 'spiritual genius' thus insinuating that his virtue or spirituality is 'creative' or 'original.' If I have read the New Testament aright, it leaves no room for 'creativeness' even in a modified or metaphorical sense. Our whole destiny seems to lie in the opposite direction, in being as little as possible ourselves, in acquiring a fragrance that is not our own but borrowed, in becoming clean mirrors filled with the image of a face that is not ours."
My goal this year is to be as little as possible so that He might be all that anyone sees when they look at me.