Your inner circle is made up of those closest to you. And these people determine how much of your potential will be realized. These people can either accelerate your performance and that of your organization, or they will be a drag on your progress. We can’t achieve much if we have to do everything ourselves. (As John’s 1st law of teamwork states “One is too small a number to achieve anything great.” And this is even more true for leaders.) We need the support of those around us. And those people will either raise us up or bring us down.
We should surround ourselves with those people who can help us accomplish our goals. That means we can’t just put the people we like on our team. We shouldn’t leave the formation of our inner circle open to chance. We should find proven leaders who extend our influence and boost morale, delegate responsibility to them, and never stop investing in their growth and development.
John tells the golf story/joke about playing golf with a poor golfer that was slowing the group down. He says “You’d hit the ball, and drag Charlie. Hit the ball, drag Charlie. Hit the ball…and drag Charlie. Pretty soon you want to forget the ball and just hit Charlie!” While a silly joke, it makes a good point. If we surround ourselves with people that bring us down, or slow us down, rather than lift us up, we’re not going to achieve what we could have accomplished.
And this doesn’t just apply to leaders. It applies to all of us. When I ask leaders in my leadership mastermind groups, I find that very few have an intentionally designed inner circle that includes people that can help them achieve what they want to achieve.
So let’s all pause and take some time to think about what we really desire to accomplish. Then think about the people that we need around us to help us accomplish those things. Finally, we should all invest the time to find those people and get them onboard with us.
