Trapped by a Lid?

In his best-selling book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C. Maxwell coined the term, “The Law of the Lid”, which beautifully illustrates how our level of leadership determines our results.

Lids are limits, and at times, they can be used for good.

Some lids prevent spoilage and protect us from incidents like hot coffee spills. Lids are protective, just as principles are protective. We need standards, order, and some degree of structure to protect civilization.

But lids can also be a trap – when they limit our ability to be, do, have, or serve more.

Consider the lid on a pressure cooker. If a tightly sealed pressure cooker lid is capped and the heat is turned up high, the pressure cooker will explode. This is exactly why each pressure cooker lid has a cap that rises – to allow the steam to escape and equalize the pressure. That little cap makes the difference between an explosive situation and a pleasant experience. As leaders, we must always have that pressure valve that regulates the level of steam within our organization. The steam can be the tool that drives the organization, or it can create an explosion, depending on whether or not we as leaders regulate the pressure on the lid.

Lids can also trap us into small container thinking. They can limit our exposure to fresh air and new ways of doing things. They can limit our growth. We all have seen the cartoons where a character opens a manhole cover on the street, tries to lift the lid, and then gets run over by a truck every time. We laugh at the memories of those childhood cartoons; but the fact is, we are conditioned to believe that every time we lift the lid, we are going to get run over by a truck. And so we just stop trying.

Here’s the thing, I spent years in corporate senior management. I was able to climb to a certain level of achievement, but then I hit the lid. I could not go higher. I could not expand my strengths in new directions. I was trapped beneath the corporate lid. I needed to grow.

The day I raised the lid and dared to peer above street level, I began to see more possibilities than I ever could have imagined, more chances to make a real difference in the world. And though I did get run over by the proverbial truck a few times, I learned the value of persistence and of looking both ways! The exciting advantage is that as I raised the lid to let myself escape the confines, I also led the way for others to escape theirs.

As a coach, speaker and mentor, it is my absolute joy to lift lids every day – to inspire others to do more, go higher, and go farther than they ever thought possible through discovering, leveraging, and leading with their strengths.

Consider the lids in your life. Are they offering healthy limits, or are they trapping you and keeping you from reaching your potential?

About the Author

As a Coach, Speaker and Mentor, Deb Ingino’s  Strength Leader business is infiltrating the lives of emerging and established leaders and their teams, equipping them to reach higher levels of performance by leveraging and leading with their strengths. You may contact her at http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/debingino for more information.