Bring others to the summit

Leaders shouldn’t be alone at the top of the mountain, but they must be intentional to bring others with them.

There’s a common saying, “It’s lonely at the top.” When a leader strives to become the best he can often fail to take anyone else with him, leaving him standing on the peak with himself and a few weak thanks for the people who helped him get there. Maxwell pokes a hole in this saying by urging us that “it’s lonely at the top, so you’d better take someone with you (Maxwell, pg. 134).”

This can inspire some to invest in others, but there’s a reciprocity to the saying. While a good leader may lift many people, if he doesn’t choose the right folks to climb the mountain with, none of them will make it to the summit. Therefore a leader must be wise about who he takes with him, and who he, therefore, commits to invest in. Maxwell lists six characteristics for a solid inner circle:

  1. Do they have high influence with others?
  2. Do they bring a complimentary gift to the table?
  3. Do they hold a strategic position in the organization?
  4. Do they add value to me and to the organization?
  5. Do they positively impact other inner circle members?
  6. Do they display excellence, maturity, and good character in everything they do?
(Maxwell, pg. 131-135)

A business has at least one goal in mind or, in the case of those we are considering, at least four. The individuals who make up the “inner circle” of the entrepreneur’s leadership team will determine whether one or more of those goals are met. Therefore it’s not enough to choose anyone that you might get along with; in order for the business to thrive the decision must be more strategic than personal preference. Therefore it might be wise to add a seventh category to Maxwell’s list to round it off, “Do they value each of our bottom lines?”

Recently I was speaking about leadership with my manager. I asked him if he thought that he’d be a manager at this point in his life. He laughed, said no, but then told me a story about the decision to go to college at a large university. He said that he could have been a big fish in a small pond if he hadn’t left his hometown to go to college, but if he was a small fish in a big pond, he figured even the scraps that fell from the big fish would be better than what he could glean from a small pond.

This philosophy compares with the insight in that, if I am alone, I didn’t choose a large enough mountain to climb. In order to keep developing as a leader I must always be somewhere towards the middle of the mountain, working with others and learning from those who’ve made it closer to the summit than I. While there’s no room for two at the peak, there are lots at the base, and that’s where I need to be.

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