Article from:

The Stepping Stone

April 2004 Issue No. 14
 MANAGEMENTPeople Management

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:

Follow Them and People Will Follow You
by Faisal Siddiqi

that is capping your effectiveness. An excellent

T
he following is a review of John C.
Maxwells book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of example is provided with respect to
Leadership. I was introduced to this book McDonalds restaurants.
only in December 2003, though it has been
available since 1998. Mr. Maxwell has written The second law is the Law of Influence.
an excellent summary of the characteristics that The style in which this chapter is set up is very
are found in many leaders. He has also fol- good and I will go into some detail here.
lowed up this text with supplementary texts, Maxwell quickly sums up leadership as having
such as Developing The Leaders Around the ability to influence people, and to influence
Faisal Siddiqi,
You, amongst many others that create a people you have to earn their respect. In this FSA, FCIA is a
process for developing a set of leadership skills. chapter, he also reviews some common myths consultant at
This review provides a general outline of the about leadership. The myths he discusses are Towers Perrin in
as follows: Toronto, Ontario.
approach used and illustrates some of the key
laws. faisal.siddiqi@
The Management Myth: This myth is the towersperrin.com
General Approach misunderstanding that managing and leading
His approach to the 21 Laws makes his book are one and the same. Leading people involves
easy to read and easy to understand. He influencing them while managing people
approaches each law through an explanation of involves maintaining systems and processes.
the law. He then cites an example from his per- A test of this myth is to ask someone to
sonal experiences and generally cites an exam- affect change which can only be done through
ple of famous or infamous individuals who have leadership.
followed the law and succeeded, or not followed
the particular law and found their achievement The Entrepreneur Myth: This myth is the
was less than expected or had terrible conse- belief that all salespeople and entrepreneurs are
quences. In some chapters, he elaborates on the leaders. An example is given about how a
law and again provides examples to illustrate salesperson can convince you to purchase an
his point. He ends each chapter summarizing item but that same person cannot really change
the particular law and stating the law again. you for the long term.

Illustrative Laws The Knowledge Myth: This myth is the be-

The first law is the Law of the Lid. I thought lief that those who possess the most knowledge
it was a strange law to begin with, but, after have the most power and are therefore leaders.
reading it, I realized the power and why Mr. This myth may be particularly true in actuarial
Maxwell started off with this law. In essence, circles, but the problem cited here is that know-
this law shows that many people are dedicated ing a lot does not necessarily equate into being
to being successful but they may not be devel- a good leader who can convince people to fol-
oping their leadership ability. As a conse- low. Other skills besides knowledge are re-
quence, some people work very hard, yet are quired.
not thought of as being very effective. By devel-
oping leadership skills and characteristics, The Pioneer Myth: This myth is the obser-
Maxwell graphically illustrates, on pages six vation that the person who does something first
and seven, that hard work combined with is a leader. Though this may be true in some
developing leadership skills will remove the lid
(continued on page 7)

4 The Stepping Stone April 2004

 MANAGEMENTBusiness Management

Six Sigma, Black Belts and Actuaries continued from prior page

service and administration), increase efficiency A Black Belt must be technically competent,
and reduce errors to minimum. There is a lot of bottom-line driven, customer-focused, a good
room for improvement in the existing process. project manager and be able to train and devel-
Besides having a product committee develop- op people. Above all, he/she must take owner- A Black Belt
ing and managing those excellent new products ship of the projects. Does it sound like a GOOD must be technically
and spending the money, how about adding a actuary at work? If your company has adopted competent,
process improvement committee? For every Six Sigma, try to become a Black Belt. It will be bottom-line driven,
dollar spent, make it well spent; for every cus- an invaluable career booster. If your company
customer-focused,
tomer, keep and make him/her a satisfied cus- has not implemented the Six Sigma, try to
tomer! adopt the Six Sigma Black Belt work attitude a good project
and method for yourself; you will find you are manager and be
Actuaries can be good investing for a bright future. able to train and
Black Belts! develop people.
I think actuaries are well suited for the roles of I am very interested in hearing from people
Black Belts. By default, we have excellent statis- involved in Six Sigma projects in the insurance
tical/quantitative and problem-solving skills, industry, to see how Six Sigma works in the in-
which is an essential requirement of the Six surance companies and the roles of actuaries in
Sigma process. the Six Sigma projects. q

MANAGEMENTPeople Management

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership continued from page 4

cases, it is not always so. An example is given of the second team did not plan anything and de-
that Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to climb cided to use all the wrong resources for this trip.
Mt. Everest, yet the leader of that expedition The result? The first team reached the South Pole
was John Hunt. and came back safely, while everyone on the sec-
ond team endured a difficult trip and all died as a
The Position Myth: This myth is the belief result of trying to return from the South Pole. I
that those in leadership positions are leaders. liked this chapter in that the examples given
Many counter examples are given, along with were good reading and the idea that planning
the reasons why some people without leader- pays off.
ship positions are actually leaders and those If you have any interest in becoming
with leadership positions are not necessarily a leader, I recommend Maxwells book. It pro-
leaders. vided important insight into the qualities of
In general, the second law gives a lot of food leaders. A lot of it came across as common
for thought and explains why certain people sense, but its only common sense that
are perceived as leaders while others are not. comes from experience. q
The last law I will discuss is the Law of
Navigation. This law expands on the manage- Bibliography:
ment myth mentioned before. The important John C. Maxell. 1998. The 21
point discussed in this chapter is that anyone can Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
steer a ship, but it takes a leader to chart the Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
course. Maxwell brings the point home with a Inc.
comparison of the two teams who were trying to
be first to reach the South Pole. The leader of the
first team carefully chartered his course, studied
the ways of experienced travelers in these re-
gions, recruited the best people and set up sup-
ply points to ensure a successful trip. The leader

April 2004 The Stepping Stone 7