Today everybody talks about leadership. Just do a quick search on Medium. But is everybody talking about the same thing?
Is leadership about the position?
I recently finished my summary of 21 Laws of Leadership. The book by John C. Maxwell is one of the canonical books in the leadership field.
Maxwell, too uses an ambiguous meaning. Sometimes he says leadership is not positional. In other passages, he assumes someone found his way into a leadership position without knowing how to lead. Such a situation is only possible with positional leadership.
Maxwell already structured the book into 21 easily digestible chapters. Everybody has to see for himself which laws are most important for him. Maxwell offers a simple evaluation questionary, which for me, proved helpful.
Read on if you want to use four of the laws to build up your leadership on a platform like Medium.
In the future, we will all be influencers.
The law of influence provides the definition I would agree with: “The true measure of leadership is influence.” Having experienced many positional leaders, I agree with his. However, there certainly are people who have no position and whose wisdom I follow, and who I seek out for advice. Connected to this law is the importance of relationships. Influence requires successful relationships.
For the medium user or users of any other platform, it is essential to engage in discussions of other content. Through the comments, we build up relationships.
Strive to become better.
The second important law is the law of the process. Do every day some small steps to advance. Write and read every day. There is not much to add here, and the most challenging part about it is the execution.
Who you are is who you attract.
The other laws are connected to these two laws. They describe more how to build up the influence or apply a process.
For someone without followers, some laws address the creation of a follower base. I found the most striking the law of magnetism “Who you are is who you attract.”
Constructing fruitful relationships requires one critical thing: respect. Therefore, the law of respect is essential to building up those relationships.
And that’s it—four laws to start growing your follower base.