“For a president to select a political rival for a cabinet was not unprecedented; but deliberately to surround himself with all of his disappointed antagonists seemed to be courting disaster. It was a mark of his sincere intentions that Lincoln wanted the advice of men as strong as himself or stronger. That he entertained no fear of being crushed or overridden by such men revealed either surpassing naïveté or a tranquil confidence in his powers of leadership.”
This is what one biographer said of Lincoln’s leadership style. John Maxwell said that Lincoln lived the The Law of Empowerment. Lincoln’s security in himself enabled him to give his power away.
Traditionally, we are not taught to empower others, are we? What two leadership games do we play as kids? We played King of the Hill and Follow the Leader. What was the object of King of the Hill—knock people down so you can be the leader. And Follow the Leader—We do things we KNOW that followers can’t do to separate ourselves from them and make ourselves look more powerful. The problem with these games is that to win, somebody else has to lose. These games illustrate the opposite of raising up leaders.
To empower others, we have to have a strong sense of self-worth. Are we confident? Do we believe we have value? Are we willing to take risks? On a scale of 1-10—if we rate ourselves low—we must get busy on growing personally. Personal growth involves change. If you want to lead well, whether we like change or not, we must train ourselves to embrace change and to desire it.
“Effective leaders actually become change agents.”
We also need to have a strong belief in people. This is not difficult if we have grown enough to attract the best people to our organization. We can then identify the leaders, build them up and give them resources to achieve. Our belief in them creates the ability for them to trust and believe in themselves. This, in turn, causes them to be comfortable taking on more responsibility—and they do.
Theodore Roosevelt said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
Empowerment is powerful. It not only grows our people, but it enlarges us as leaders. It makes us better and helps us achieve more than we could ourselves. Empowering others not only grows our organization, but makes it more effective.
So go ahead, give some of your power and authority away to those that are able to take it. Give it to those that you are developing as leaders in your organization. Once you experience the joy and organizational effectiveness of empowering others, you will have a hard time NOT giving your power away.
Go and grow,
Jan
Jan McDonald
The John Maxwell Team
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