The Law Of The Lid

Law #1 of John Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is:

The Law of the Lid: Leadership Ability Determines a Person's Level of Effectiveness.

This law tells us that, in order to be able to influence and affect others, you have to have the ability to lead them. For example, if your current level of leadership ability [on a scale from 1-10] was a 4, then you would not be able to be effective above a 3. This is because your ability to lead will put a lid on or limit your potential effectiveness. He gives the example of the McDonald's fast food chain. Dick and Maurice McDonald worked very hard to build a very successful single fast food restaurant. They even had inquiries from others in the country on how to improve their own restaurants. They were great managers. But, when it came time to expand and start a franchise operation, they were not very successful, opening just 10 more restaurants. They were great managers, but not great leaders. Their level of leadership allowed them to succeed up to a point. Sure, they still attained success, but it was limited, there was a lid put on it by their thinking and ability to lead. When they partnered with Ray Kroc, who had a much higher ability to lead, he eventually bought the rights to the franchise and opened 100 McDonald's in the first 4 years [and 400 more in the following 4 years].

This concept is reflected in Maxwell's following statements:

-"The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. the greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be."

- "To change the direction of the organization, change the leader...Personal and organizational effectiveness is proportionate to the strength of Leadership."

Applying the Law of the Lid to Your Life

1. List some major goals [that will take at least a year to accomplish]. Identify those that will require other people to accomplish. For those, your leadership ability will greatly impact your effectiveness.

2. Assess your leadership ability to get an idea of your baseline leadership ability. [There is a leadership evaluation in Appendix A of the book].

3. Ask others to rate your leadership skills: your boss, spouse, 2 colleagues at your level and 3 people you lead. Ask them to rate you from 1-10 on: (a) people skills, (b) planning and strategic thinking, (c) vision and (d) results. Average the scores and compare to your assessment.

-Is your leadership skill better or worse than you thought?

-If there is a gap, why do think that is?

-How willing are you to grow in the area of leadership?

Reference:

Maxwell, John. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Chapter 1- The Law of The Lid. Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN; 2007

Operation: Egg-REACH

I’m egg-cited to tell you about an egg-strordinary and egg-cellent idea that was hatched at our last Connection Team meeting called Operation: Egg-REACH.

We want all Connect Group members to eggs-pose their communities to Flamingo Road Church Easter Services by egg-stending them a Flamingo Egg-vite. An Egg-vite is a plastic egg containing 3 Flamingo invite cards with the times of our Easter services. There will be no egg-spense for your members. Flamingo will shell out the eggs to the Connect Group leaders. Leaders will give each member egg-sactly 1 dozen plastic eggs containing the invite cards. Members will scramble around their community and leave their eggs in public places. For egg-sample, you can leave our Egg-Vites in banks, restaurants, beauty shops, doctor’s offices, egg-cetra. They should be fairly well eggs-hibited so they are easy to find. Who can resist opening an Easter egg?

Easter is a HUGE ministry opportunity for us, and we are egg-specting egg-splovive and eggs-ponential growth following this Easter season. As a church, our goal is 25,000 in attendance this Easter weekend! Therefore, it is egg-stremely important that all members participate. No one should be egg-cluded, and since the eggs are free, there should be no eggs-cuses!
Egg-Vites should be available at all campuses in the next week or so. If you need further egg-spanation, visit your campus Connection Center for more details. Sorry, I know all egg-puns are eggs-asperating and eggs-crutiating. Quite frankly, omlette’ll tired of the puns too, so I’ll beat it and make a hasty egg-sit. That’s All Yolks!

Tell Us Your Life Changing Easter Stories

Resurrection draws near!! [YES!!]

We would like to feature some of the life changes that have occurred as a result of anyone attending FRC for previous Easter services [especially last year]. Examples include accepting Christ, baptism, marriage saved, breaking strongholds, volunteering, etc.

Please ask your connect group members for any stories to share.

Stories can be added to this post as a 'comment' or can be emailed to Barby or Melissa.
barby.ward@flamingoroad.org
melissa.nadlman@flamingoroad.org

Looking forward to hearing about past life changes and seeing future ones come to pass!
Hallelujah!!

Controlling Our Minds

"If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one." — Carter G Woodson.

Carter G Woodson published this in 1933, concerning the ongoing oppression and slave mentality of many African Americans at that time. Even though Slavery had been abolished and African Americans were free, many did not behave so because for so long, their thinking had been [and was still being] controlled, so they still felt inferior on many levels.

In some ways, we can apply this idea to Satan's ongoing oppression of many Christians. We believe in Jesus and accept Him into our hearts, yet we still let Satan attack us, scare us, confuse us, control us. The TRUTH is that he has NO authority over us. We were bought, paid for with the BLOOD of Christ. We belong to Him! The only way Satan can have his way with us is if we let him! But, if we truly embrace what Christ did for us, we will understand that we have POWER...the power of the Holy Spirit, against which Satan is nothing!

Let us know who we are in Christ! It is He who should be controlling our minds.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. - James 5:7-8

iLEAD Comes to Pensacola!

Members of Flamingo's Global iLEAD Team visited Pensacola this past weekend, and our team was blown away by the dedication, heart, and spirit of our PCola family! God has called us all to this awesome ministry of connecting people so they can reach their God-Potential. Flamingo's iLEAD (Investing in Leadership Education and Development) was created to equip our Flamingo Connect Leaders so they could reach their God-Potential and become the effective leaders God intended them to be!

iLEAD will be conducted quarterly on all our campuses (iLEAD 2.0 is coming). If you are a Connect Group Leader, Co-Leader, or Connect Group future leader and you missed iLEAD 1.0, please check with your campus Connections Director to see when the next iLEAD Academy is being scheduled. Remember, to "complete" iLEAD 1.0, you must have attended the training session, served at least once at your campus Connection Center, and "Followed" your iLEAD instructor(s) on Twitter!

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Let's take a journey together.

In 2007, John C. Maxwell released the 10th Anniversary Edition of his: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. It presents 21 life-changing principles that can develop and enhance our leadership skills. "Everything rises and falls on leadership," notes Maxwell.

Each week, we will review one of the laws and travel together along the path of leadership.

Some introductory points Maxwell makes:

1. Leadership requires the ability to do more than one thing well. [The more of the laws we can master, the more effective leaders we will be.]
2. No one does all 21 laws well. [...BUT they are all important for great leadership. Thus, we should recognize those laws where we fall short and develop a leadership team of others who are strong where we are weak.]
3. The laws can be learned/acquired.
4. The laws can stand alone [...although they compliment one another and together produce a better result].
5. The laws carry consequences with them: apply them and people will follow; violate them and we will not be able to lead others.
6. These laws are the foundation of leadership [...we will have to practice and apply them to our lives].

Where there is no guidance [leadership], a nation falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14

Looking forward to growing together.

In Christ.

Ref: Maxwell, John. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Thomas Nelson, USA, 2007.

Trust

I've had "trust" on my mind alot these days...its not easily earned, nor easily given. Takes alot of work yet once earned, solidifies & strengthens your relationships to the point that anything is possible. I define trust as allowing someone to get so close to you, you take off all your masks...& allow them the privilege to see ALL your imperfections, flaws & quirks, yet they still accept, believe, love & guard your heart regardless.

I am so grateful for God who I can trust with all that I am for He has created me & defined purpose for me. I am also grateful for those I can confide & trust in as we do this journey we call Life. My prayer is each one of us as Connect Leaders will earn the trust of those we lead, love, & encourage. Trust is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone. Invest in your relationships whole-heartedly, or don't invest at all. Give people & those around you a reason to trust in you.