People who ascend to leadership positions with the goal of furthering their own ambitions and self interests are rarely effective. Leaders have to be willing to, and frankly will have to, sacrifice their own self interests for the sake of the people they are leading.
John C. Maxwell calls this the Law of Sacrifice. In his landmark book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell states:
“There is a common misperception among people who aren’t leaders that leadership is all about the position, perks, and power that come from rising in an organization. Many people today want to climb up the corporate ladder because they believe that freedom, power, and wealth are the prizes waiting at the top. The life of a leader can look glamorous to people on the outside. But the reality is that Leadership requires sacrifice. A leader must give up to go up. In recent years, we’ve observed more than our share of leaders who used and abused their organizations for their personal benefit—and the resulting corporate scandals that came because of their greed and selfishness. The heart of good Leadership is sacrifice.”
Effective leaders know this and are willing to make sacrifices for the people they lead.
The effective leader is more interested in the advancement of their people than they are in their own upward mobility and will willingly make sacrifices to see that their people are cared for and that the shared vision is made a reality.
Excerpt From: John C. Maxwell. “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-21-irrefutable-laws-of-leadership/id614683879
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