Blow off your leadership lid and soar

The picture in my mind right now is an advert by a soda company where they have someone holding a bottle with the lid coming off. Very often this advert shows the gas that comes out of the bottle. Those of us who have ever experienced the taste of soda can fully relate to this scenario, and may even begin feeling your mouth release its juices in anticipation.

So far, we have established that we are all leaders given the fact that leadership is all about influence. We have also debunked some myths that we tend to hold about leadership. I believe that the next step is for us to begin the journey of growing in our influence. 
In his bestselling book the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell introduces us to the law of the lid which simply states that “leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness”. Leadership ability has both internal and external factors. 

As an example, if we are to consider leadership at an individual level, the external lids that limit one’s leadership may include, family background, someone may have grown up in a family where they were never affirmed in who they are as an individual. 
Instead, they were often told they will never amount to anything. On the other side, internal lids are numerous but let us focus on three for now. 
The first is fear. This limitation holds back most people irrespective of the fact that fear stands for ‘false evidence appearing real’. The other day, I read somewhere that “both fear and faith believe in the unknown” and yet given a choice between the two, we have all given in and let fear stop us in our tracks and limit our growth as leaders.
The second internal lid to leadership is self-doubt. I tend to battle with this one and it was until I invested in an executive coach that I began to do the work of blowing off this leadership lid. 

The final internal lid we will consider is lack of consistency. I was listening to the Leadership Podcast by Craig Crocheal and he mentioned a quote, “Successful people have a tendency to do consistently what unsuccessful people do occasionally”. The truth within this quote struck a nerve within me.
From our examples above of both external and internal lids which tend to limit our growth as leaders, you will agree with me that in order for us to fully occupy our leadership roles, we need to become lid lifters. 
This takes work and guess who is going to get their hands dirty? It is all of us. We need to avoid procrastinating and using excuses like when I get a promotion then I will work on xyz. 

This is simply because following this approach means we are doing things backwards. Maybe the promotion is eluding you because you are yet to lift the lid off your leadership ability.
Finally, this week’s homework is going to require deep reflection, awareness and finally acceptance as we begin the journey of blowing off our leadership lids so that we can soar.
1. What external and internal lids do you have to lift in your life?
2. Who do you want to help you to lift these lids?

Wamambe is a transformational leadership coach with the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team    [email protected]