Leadership

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Book Review

Sandra Ortiz
University of St. Thomas
EDUC/COUN 6330
Virginia Leiker
January 30, 2016

Leadership

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell has been one of

the most compelling books I have encountered in my personal life as well as
professional life. The book cover says it all, Follow them and people will follow
you.
This books walks you through 21 irrefutable laws of leadership and provides specific
examples of common day leaders and the choices they have made that have helped
them survive in their corresponding positions. Maxwell includes the following four
ideas:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The laws can be learned.

The laws can stand alone.
The laws carry consequences with them
These laws are the foundation of leadership.

The 21 irrefutable laws are applicable to the business arena as well as our
personnel life. The first law listed is the Law of the Lid, Leadership ability is the
lid that determines a persons level of effectiveness (Maxwell 1). It is important to
evaluate and understand our level of effectiveness to understand the impact we are

Leadership

making. One significant point made is the need to change things in order to get
desired results. When a company is losing money, it hires a new CEO. When a
church is floundering, it searches for a new senior pastor. When a sports team
keeps losing it looks for a new head coach (Maxwell 8). When schools are not
performing principals get replaced. Understanding this tendency helps effective
leaders lead with a sense of urgency. This take us to the Law of Influence, The best
way to test whether a person can lead rather than just manage is to ask him to
create positive change (14). Principals and school administrators are responsible
for making positive changes on their campus regardless of their actual situation,
neighborhood, student population, lack of adequate resources or even sufficient
funds.
The third law involves the Law of Process, and speaks of the many aspects of
leadership, it has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people
skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing the list goes on (23). The effect
school principal must possess all and more to properly serve students, staff, parents
and the community.
The Law of Navigation is number four and details the journey of Norweigan
explorer Roald Amundsen on his trip to be the first man to reach the North Pole.

Leadership

Amundsen had carefully considered every possible aspect of the journey, thought it
through, and planned accordingly. And it paid off (34). As principals at difficult
campuses we will be embarking on journeys as complicated being the first person to
reach the north-pole, however, with careful planning and strategic organization we
can be the first to turn a campus around, to improve student performance and to
increase student success.
The Law of E. F. Hutton reveals seven key areas of leaders: character,
realtionships, knowledge, intuition, experience, past success, and ability. The law
explains what the difference between positional leaders and true leaders. Often
times when new management arrives its the person second in command that is
actually leading because of the experience with the entity and the tenure.
Character makes trust possible. And trust make leadership possible. That
is the Law of Solid Ground (59). This law speaks of the importance of trust, and we
know that in school leadership trust is essential. Parents entrust us with the
saftety and welfare of their children on a daily basis. Without trust in our ability to
lead we cannot influence others to follow our leadership and without their support
we cannot work towards our vision and will not be able to fulfill our mission.

Leadership

The greatest test of respect comes when a leader creates major changes in an
organization (76). This is the Law of Respect, we cannot change a school if we are
not respected as a leader. Respect is earned the decisions we make and the way we
lead and live.
The Law of intuition tells us, the reality is that leadership intuition is often
the factor that sepates the greatest leaders from the merely good ones (77). As the
leader of a school and even as the leader of our household we are expected to have
the answer for all questions and problems and even though many times we will not
know we must learn when to follow our intuition. As principals we will face far too
many circumstance in which we must make on the spot decisions, this too is a skill
we can learn to use effectively to lead our school during crisis and emergency
situations.
The previously listed encompasses the first eight laws which I found to be the
core basic of the 21 basic leadership laws. They are not in a specific order of priority
but are all equally important aspect of leading and highly applicable to the
leadership role of a school principal. I selected this book because it was a
recommendation and after reading several reviews understood why it was an
essential book missing from my personal collection. One of the best aspects of the

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book is the collection of real life leaders in different areas and how Maxwell explains
each law and applies it to everyday life makes it easy to understand and easy to
remember.
One of my aspirations as a leader is to motivate others to strive to excel and
to create a culture that is hungry for more knowledge for more challenges and is
proactive about gaining and growing and not afraid to go where others have not
been before. I want to serve my campus and want to inspire my staff and students
to believe that they can and will feel fulfilled when I see students seeking to learn
more, teachers going the extra mile, and parents and community members asking
how they can help us to reach our vision.