Think about your attitude in general. Is it one of assisting others? Consider circumstances where you must meet the needs of others. Do you ever get frustrated, resentful, or angry? If so, consider what needs to be modified. Consider how you can consistently help your followers in tiny ways without expecting praise or harboring animosity.
For Martin Luther King Jr., a comparatively calm existence existed in Montgomery, Alabama. He obtained his first pastorate in 1954. He and his wife Coretta Scott then brought their first kid into the world a year later.
But before the peace was broken, they could only enjoy their newly formed family life for another month. Rosa Parks was detained in December 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. King and other Black leaders came together right away to protest Parks’s arrest and the racist practices of the subway system. What initially began as a one-day boycott swiftly evolved into a sustained boycott managed by their recently established group. King was overwhelmingly chosen as its head and the organization was known as the Montgomery Improvement Association, or MIA.
For the following year, he served as the MIA’s head, negotiating with local authorities and promoting the fair treatment of Black Americans. When the regulations allowing segregated sitting on buses were overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1956, the movement won a significant triumph.
King did not, however, get away without incurring a heavy personal price. Soon after the boycott started, King was detained by the police for a relatively minor driving infraction. After that, a bomb was dropped on his property, he was falsely accused of a crime, and King and his wife began to get death threats and vile phone calls every day and night.
King’s valiant efforts in the US civil rights movement ultimately earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. However, he paid a high price for that triumph. He was imprisoned, detained, stoned, stabbed, bombarded, and jailed. In the end, he perished when he was murdered in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
King is a perfect example of the Law of Sacrifice. For a leader to succeed, they must be prepared to make significant sacrifices. They must prioritize the needs of others and act in the group’s best interests.
A leader must make sacrifices at all points in their career, not just at the start. Too frequently, people assume their sacrifice is complete when they move to a new area or accept a pay decrease in order to pursue a better job. However, making sacrifices is a continuing expense; it is not a one-time fee. Additionally, salary increases as leadership level does.
Even after MLK was killed, his supporters continued to pursue his vision. And the reason for that is because King was also an expert in the Law of Buy-In. People must “buy in” to the leader first, then to their goal, according to this notion. In other words, people first follow leaders and then support their causes.
So as a leader, you must persuade others to follow you. Take into account how well your current followers are on board. Make a list of your most important supporters and assign each one a buy-in score between one and 10. After that, consider how you might win their further support. Could you possibly be more sincere and genuine? Could you provide them with more effective tools for their work? Could you aid them in achieving their individual objectives? Create a special approach for every person, put it into practice, and watch your credibility grow.
Europe was on the verge of disintegrating during World War II. Invading nations like Poland, France, and Belgium with the Nazi army, Hitler pledged to reshape them in his image. Some leaders, though, weren’t going to go along with Hitler’s schemes without a fight. One of them was Winston Churchill, a master of the Law of Victory and the British prime minister.
Churchill nearly made his name synonymous with the word “victory,” which served as his rallying cry. You ask, what is our goal? He responded in his first speech as prime minister, “You ask, what is our aim? I have one term to describe the situation: “Victory at all costs.” Churchill was not just a talker. Despite his loathing of communism, he partnered with Soviet leader Stalin and sent soldiers into the Mediterranean. He also carefully nurtured his connection with another great leader and American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
There are three elements to successfully performing under extreme pressure, according to the Law of Victory. The first is having a shared vision. For a group to succeed, there needs to be a shared vision. The British troops and people were devoted to Churchill’s cause throughout the conflict.
Diversity of skills is another aspect of success. For instance, you cannot have a football team with just quarterbacks, just as you cannot have a general-only army. Make sure your team, group, or organization has the variety it requires to succeed.
Finally, a leader who is committed to helping their followers reach their greatest potential is necessary for effective performance. A team needs support, empowerment, and encouragement from its leaders in order to succeed. Churchill accomplished this by using his well-known speeches that were broadcast on the radio to uplift the general mood and keep morale from sinking. Are you as committed to the success of your team as Churchill was? is an excellent question to ask yourself. If the response is no, you can experience difficulties along the route. Remember to visualize success so that you can motivate your team to succeed.
The Law of Timing, which states that even doing the right thing at the wrong time can result in calamity, was the final rule that Churchill adhered to religiously. Churchill was not only an expert in the Law of Victory, but also in the Law of Timing. In fact, it was essential to his success. The war might have been lost if Churchill had made a timing mistake, delivered the incorrect speech, or moved hastily when he should have been careful.
It’s crucial to consider the timeliness and propriety of your decisions when you’re in a position of leadership. Reviewing your recent achievements and disappointments and examining the impact of timing on each can be helpful. Did the incorrect course of action or improper timing lead to the failures? If your projects had been started sooner or later, would they have been more successful? What drawbacks existed for them? What were the circumstances in the market or the sector at the time? You can better understand your own connection to timing by investigating these issues.
No leader can adhere to or exemplify every single rule of leadership properly. But in order to successfully manage a group of people, expand a business, or have an impact on the globe, you must possess strong leadership abilities. You’ll make significant progress in developing your people skills, acquiring followers, and turning your vision into reality by pushing yourself to get better in each of the essential areas of leadership.
Consider your priorities again. In reality, setting priorities forces leaders to plan ahead and consider how each of their decisions fits into the overall picture. Therefore, be sure that every step you take to achieve your goal is something you alone can do. Delegate if someone else can complete your task more effectively than you can, on average, by 80%! Additionally, be careful to always pursue your highest reward. Never forgo your passions, whether it’s golfing or spending time with your kids.
Check out my related post: What leadership lessons can we learn from New Amsterdam?
Interesting reads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815716.The_21_Irrefutable_Laws_of_Leadership
https://leaders.com/articles/leadership/21-irrefutable-laws-of-leadership/
A Better Man 