John Maxwell's #11 Law of Leadership: The Law of the Inner Circle

📥 CLICK HERE to Download the free Leadership Workbook and submit your question for our Q&A with John and me. Your inner circle is either your greatest asset or your biggest liability. There's no neutral option. Welcome back to our series on John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Law #11 is the Law of the Inner Circle, and John says it as plainly as I've ever heard it: a leader's potential is determined by those closest to him. This one is personal for me. Every real breakthrough in my life traces back to the people I let in close. In this episode, John breaks down why the "self-made man" is a myth: if you made everything yourself, you haven't made much. He walks through what he calls the water bucket and the gasoline bucket, how the people around you either put out small fires or turn them into disasters, and why he's convinced there are only two kinds of people in this world: lifters and leaners. Then he hands you the exact grid he uses to evaluate everyone in his inner circle. I share a story of my assistant Linda, and the night she took an assignment I gave her and made it better than I ever could have on my own. That's what this law is really about. It's not about doing more. It's about who you let close enough to make you more. Here's what you'll gain from this episode: The Self-Made Myth: Why claiming you built it all alone isn't something to be proud of, and what it actually reveals about your team. Water Bucket or Gasoline Bucket: John's test for figuring out who calms the fire in your organization and who throws fuel on it. Lifters and Leaners: The two types of people in every inner circle, and how to tell which one you're becoming for the people around you. The Five-Value Grid: John's exact evaluation system for deciding who earns a seat closer to you: potential, positive, personal, production, and proven value. "You Just Make Me Better Than I Am": My story about Linda, and what it looks like when someone in your inner circle takes what you give them to a level you couldn't reach alone. I used to think being the hardest worker in the room was enough. It never is. The moment I stopped trying to carry everything myself and started building the right circle around me is the moment my life actually changed. Take a real look at the five or six people closest to you this week. Are they lifting you or leaning on you? 🗓️ New law dropping every Thursday so make sure you're subscribed so you never miss one. Click HERE to Subscribe to my email list to MAXOUT your life (all value, no fluff) Thank you for listening —Please Share it and get the word out! 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈 → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ➡️ INSTAGRAM ➡️ FACEBOOK ➡️ LINKEDIN ➡️ X ➡️ WEBSITE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:45Ed Mylett?

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• 1:08Speaker 01

  This is the Ed and Marlin Show.

• 1:11Ed Mylett?

  21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Series, Law 11, The Law of the Inner Circle. So you know what? No leader succeeds alone. And one of the biggest reasons leaders fail is because they try to carry the vision that was never meant to be carried by one person. Welcome back to this special leadership series on John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. You know, these laws have shaped business leaders in business, sports, organizations, families, and teams all around the world. In this series, John Maxwell teaches the law itself, the timeless principles. And my role is to help bring the principle into the real world because these principles have changed my life. Today's principle is the law of the inner circle. And this one is very personal for me

• 1:56Ed Mylett?

  because every significant breakthrough in my life has been connected to the people closest to me. You know, your inner circle is not just who you spend time with. Your inner circle is who shapes your thinking, who challenges your standards, and who holds you accountable. You know, I'd like to think that I can be part of your inner circle, although we may have never met before. You know, my inner circle in the early days were the books I was reading and those authors, the audios that I was listening to. They became, I literally didn't listen as a spectator or a distant participant. I listened as if they were coaching me personally. They became part of my inner circle, even if they didn't know it. And as a young leader, I have to tell you, I made so many mistakes trying to carry all of it myself, always thinking that I was the smartest person in the room

• 2:40Ed Mylett?

  or I must be the most committed because of X, Y, or Z. And when I learned that diversity of thought, diversity of ideas and perspectives was the key to winning and that there were far better ideas in the group. You know, Napoleon Hill talks about the mastermind is bigger than one mind. The collective mind of others is always wiser than the one mind you have. And so, you know, who is it that tells you the truth when it would be easier to flatter you? Who is it that helps carry the mission when the mission gets too big to carry alone? That's the inner circle, and I'm so excited to get into it. Who you allow close to you matters more than almost everybody realizes. The conversations you have matter. The standards around you matter. The people who you repeatedly expose yourself to eventually influence what you believe is normal.

• 3:25Ed Mylett?

  You know, I teach the law of the thermostat in that, you know, your identity is this thermostat setting on your life. And if you're set at 75 degrees, if you begin to produce 80 and 85 and 90 degrees worth of results, but you still believe you're a 75 degreeer, that eventually, subconsciously, unconsciously, you turn the air conditioner on of your life and you cool your life or your results back down to what you believe you're worth and you deserve. The key thing is changing what you believe you're worth and you deserve. And the easiest way to do that, if you're a 75 degreeer in a particular area, is to be around people who live at 90, 95, and 100 because through proximity, they heat you up to their standard of belief. So if you're around people who think small, eventually, small becomes normal.

• 4:10Ed Mylett?

  If you're around people who make excuses, eventually, making excuses becomes normal. Remember this, most things in life are caught, not taught. And you catch what the people around you do, believe, and say. But if you're around people who stretch you, who challenge you and call you higher, your life starts to elevate. That's why the inner circle is so important. I cannot emphasize this enough. You know, you've heard the old saying that you become the sum total of the five people you hang around the most. It is so accurate. It's so true. I'm talking to you today because I've constantly added people to my inner circle and upgraded that group of people in the areas that matter to me. I have a faith inner circle. There's a different group of people that are in my business inner circle.

• 4:56Ed Mylett?

  I've got a financial inner circle. These are people that I just try to keep close to me because I know they're going to heat up that thermostat setting for me, and I hope I do the same for them. There's this great old Chinese proverb that says, "If you want to know the road ahead, ask those coming back." You ought to have a few people in your inner circle who have already been down the road you want to go to. They can show you the directions. They can warn you about the potholes. They can tell you the mistakes that might be made. They're on their way back. They know the road ahead. You ought to have at least a few of those people. And frankly, I apply for that position in your life three days a week on this show and through social media as well. I'd love to be a part of your inner circle. I'm blessed that you're focused on this law, and that's why this law matters so much. Leadership rises or falls on who you surround yourself with.

• 5:40Ed Mylett?

  So let's hear John Maxwell teach the foundation of this principle, the law of the inner circle.

• 5:47Ed Mylett?

  The law of the inner circle.

• 5:51Ed Mylett?

  Law number 11 is the law of the inner circle. And the law of the inner circle says, "A leader's potential is determined

• 6:00Ed Mylett?

  by those closest to him."

• 6:03Ed Mylett?

  Your potential to my potential is going to be determined by those closest to me. Teddy Roosevelt said in your notes, "The best executive is one who has the sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling while they do it."

• 6:20Ed Mylett?

  Lou Holtz is a good buddy. One time said, "John, here's the way it works in coaching football. If you've got a bad coach but a good players, you'll have a losing season." He said, "If you have a good coach and bad players, you'll have a losing season." But he said, "If you have a good coach and good players, you'll have a winning season." And said, "John, remember, it takes a good coach." In other words, it takes a good leader, and it takes good players. And a good leader is no substitute for a bunch of bad players. And a bunch of good players are no substitute for a bad leader. You've got to have them both. Now, the law of the inner circle is one that I'm very passionate about. And I want to do a good job sharing this law with you.

• 7:05Ed Mylett?

  You see, I was 40 years of age, kind of not having a midlife crisis. I didn't have one. I didn't really have time for one. But I was 40 years of age, and I began to ask myself this question. Why is it that I'm not achieving all that I want to achieve? I got in a couple of days of really kind of melancholy. I was a little bit frustrated. And the reason I was so frustrated was because because I just hadn't hit all of my goals. And when I began to ask myself, why didn't hit my goals? I looked at myself, and I knew I was very disciplined. I worked hard. I have some gifts in the areas that I'm working. And I thought, by now, I should be a lot better than I am. Then it hit me. The reason I wasn't hitting all my goals was because I didn't have a good team around me.

• 7:50Ed Mylett?

  That's when the law of inner circle really came to me. I formed this law at the age of 40 because all of a sudden, I realized that if I was going to really reach my potential, I was going to have to reach my potential with people. Now, when I wrote the book, The 17 Laws of Teamwork, the first law of the law of teamwork is the law of significance. And the law of significance says, "One is too small of a number to achieve greatness." It's a great law.

• 8:15Ed Mylett?

  In other words, you can't do anything significant by yourself.

• 8:19Ed Mylett?

  So therefore, if you're one of these kind of people that likes being a self-made man, you know, so once my people say, "You know, I'm a self-made man." You know, they want me to congratulate them. I always look at them and say, "Oh, that's too bad."

• 8:29Ed Mylett?

  I hate to hear that.

• 8:32Ed Mylett?

  Because if you've made everything yourself, you haven't made much. You see, the law of the inner circle says, "If you really want to, if you really want to achieve great things, you've got to bring people around you, this inner circle around you, these key players that really make a difference." And one of the things that's so exciting about team leadership, and one of the reasons I love teaching 21 laws is, as I've shared with you before, not everybody does all 21 laws well. And going back to an illustration I used on the law of navigating, if Chuck is a good navigator, and I'm not a good navigator, team leadership begins to be huge.

• 9:12John Maxwell

  And what I need to do is I need to understand each one of my players and what their strengths are. And if this truly is my team, if this is my team, I'm going to tell you right now, this team is going to make me or they're going to break me. Isn't that true? Think about, think about the people closest to you right now.

• 9:30John Maxwell

  They're either your greatest asset.

• 9:33John Maxwell

  Or your biggest liability. And every once in a while, one of the leaders will say, man, I'm telling you right now, I can't get my team to come along and they're not doing this. I mean, it's, by the way, it's not any fun. Is it any fun to hit the ball and drag Charlie? Hit the ball and drag Charlie. Hit the ball and drag Charlie. Hit the ball and drag. After a while, don't you just want to hit Charlie?

• 9:53Ed Mylett?

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• 10:36Ed Mylett?

  Go to row.co/milet to see if you qualify. That's R-O dot C-O slash Mylett to get started on Row. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to R-O dot C-O forward slash safety. R-O dot C-O slash safety. So when I, when I ended up buying the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place. And I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff. And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system.

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• 11:58John Maxwell

  Again, in the laws of teamwork, in the 17 laws of teamwork, one of the laws is the law of the chain. And the law of the chain says that the weakest link determines the strength of your team.

• 12:09John Maxwell

  You've, you've got to, you've got to have a team around you. You've got to have an inner circle. And the question I would ask you is a very simple question. Look at the five or seven, I'm not talking about everybody in your organization. I'm talking about everybody in your department. But look at the five or six key people.

• 12:23John Maxwell

  And ask yourself a very valid question. Are these people adding value to me?

• 12:30John Maxwell

  Or are they pulling me down?

• 12:33John Maxwell

  This is huge.

• 12:36John Maxwell

  Are they an asset? Or are they a liability? I've often said to your inner circle, they carry around the company, they carry around two buckets. One has water and one has gasoline.

• 12:49John Maxwell

  And a little fire problem, a spark of contention breaks out in your organization, your department or something. And they run over and they got these two buckets, one with water, one with gasoline. And how they use those buckets determine what kind of a problem you have when they're done with it.

• 13:04John Maxwell

  I mean, a lot of them will take that fire, that water and put it on that fire and it all smoulders out and it's a little puff of smoke and it's nothing. And you get down, you say, oh my goodness, that was no big deal.

• 13:13John Maxwell

  Or haven't you had people in your inner circle? They took that bucket of gasoline. And they saw this little spark of fire. And they threw that bucket of gasoline on it. And when they got done, the city fire department was out.

• 13:29John Maxwell

  I've seen it happen many, many times.

• 13:33John Maxwell

  I would say this about your success as a leader. Your ability to have a good inner circle around you and your ability to train them and develop them is absolutely essential to your success. So let me share with you some inner circle commitments that you need to make. Let me share with you some commitments that you need to make as a leader to get your inner circle to where it needs to be.

• 14:07John Maxwell

  First of all, I would make an, I would make this inner circle commitment to team leadership.

• 14:14John Maxwell

  No longer become or be the Lone Ranger. Say, I'm going to lead, but I'm going to lead, I'm going to lead with people. I'm not going to just lead people. I'm going to lead with people. I'm going to, I'm going to develop me a leadership team. And remember, as you develop your leadership team, as you develop your, your inner circle, they're not there to compete with you. They're there to complete you. They're here to make you better. And, and by the way, you're there to make them better. You should be adding value and completing them, just as they're adding value to you and they're completing you. Make a commitment, an inner circle commitment to team leadership. Secondly,

• 14:54John Maxwell

  evaluate your leadership team.

• 14:58John Maxwell

  Since the inner circle makes or breaks you,

• 15:02John Maxwell

  be honest in your evaluation of them. Look at them realistically.

• 15:08John Maxwell

  Assess them. Hold them accountable. You cannot afford to have people in your inner circle that aren't performing with excellence, that aren't giving it their best shot, that are kind of slacking on you. You can't afford that. You can't afford that to do your inner circle. You can't afford to let them do that to you. So you've got to evaluate those people that are closest to you. And I've, for years, I've used a grid in evaluation. It's, it's a simple one. It doesn't need to be yours, but I'll just share it with you. It's in your notebooks. When I'm evaluating people to either come into my inner circle who are in my inner circle, I evaluate first of all, what I call potential value.

• 15:52John Maxwell

  What is their potential?

• 15:55John Maxwell

  Many times, these are people who have been able to raise themselves up and they show great potential. Because if you can raise yourself up, you probably can raise others up also. I look secondly at positive value. Those who just lift and raise up the organization, the morale of the organization. Is it not true? Do you not know some people, do you not know some people? That they just come into the company and they just suck air out of everybody?

• 16:21John Maxwell

  You know what I'm talking about? You, you know, don't you, are there just some people, you just see them coming? They just open the door and you see them and they're saying, oh, they're coming to me.

• 16:31John Maxwell

  I'm about to give up energy.

• 16:36John Maxwell

  I'm about to feel what it's like when you're dying.

• 16:43John Maxwell

  And aren't there other people? They just walk in the room and your energy automatically goes up?

• 16:50John Maxwell

  Wow. I found out a long time ago, there are two kinds of people in life. Lifters and leaners.

• 16:59John Maxwell

  Wow. Lifters have the ability to just lift me up and help me to go to another level. And leaners, oh my goodness, you know, the leaning in the beginning isn't bad. But when it's, after, throughout three years,

• 17:13John Maxwell

  you say it's a lot of weight to carry.

• 17:17John Maxwell

  So I look at their potential value. I look at their positive value. I look at their personal value. I'm talking about myself now. I'm looking at what personal value are they to me? Can I look at their life and say, here has how my leadership is enriched because they are part of my life? I look fourthly at production value. Do they have the ability to raise up others? Do they have the ability to produce?

• 17:39John Maxwell

  And then the final evaluation for me is what I call proven value.

• 17:45John Maxwell

  Have they done it for so long that there is a trust element here now that they just always come through?

• 17:55John Maxwell

  I'm getting ready for a big assignment. And so yesterday I sat down with my assistant, Linda Eggers, and I kind of shared with her what I needed her to do. In fact, she's doing it right now in her office because I, it's a large assignment for a group of business people that I'm going to meet with for the next two days. Last night, I don't know, probably 9:30, she's over at my home office and we're going through it one more time. And she says, John, I not only have done what you've shown me and she gives it to me, but then she said, I realized what you wanted to have accomplished with it. So she said, I did it this way. And she just took what I had given her to a whole new level. And I said, Linda, one more time. You just make me better than I am.

• 18:35John Maxwell

  One more time, Linda. One more time, as so many times. You've taken what I've given you and you've just made it better. And you're going to make me look so good and you're going to allow me to help so many people because you are a key player on my inner circle. And you have proven value to me. Make inner circle commitments. Inner circle commitments such as, I'm going to have team leadership. And then I'm going to evaluate my team. Another inner circle commitment I want you to make is that you're going to develop your leadership team.

• 19:08John Maxwell

  Make that commitment. I'm going to develop the people around me. I'm going to make sure that my leadership team grows. And here's why. If you grow your inner circle, you'll grow your business. Grow your people, grow your company. It always works that way. That's the law of the inner circle.

• 19:29Ed Mylett?

  So everybody, John and I get asked often where you could see the two of us speak actually together. And very often we do that for Life Surge, which is a Christian business event where you can come in looking for the spirit and you also learn a bunch of things about business. And John and I are at many of those events actually at the same time and we love speaking for them.

• 19:45John Maxwell

  Oh, we love doing it together. It's just if you come to Life Surge, you just get, I started to say double trouble, but hopefully you also, hopefully you also get some double help. And Ed and I would love to see you at one of our events.

• 19:57Ed Mylett?

  Absolutely. We'll see you there. Hey, if you haven't done it yet, click the link below or click the link in the show notes. You need the 21-page workbook in your hands to track the rep for every law. It's totally free. Plus, that's the only way to get your questions in front of John and I for the Q and A session coming in a few weeks. Get the guide, join the list and let's get back to the teaching. This law reminds us that leadership potential is never just personal, it's relational. Your leadership capacity is connected to the people closest to you. Your next level may require a stronger team, a wiser mentor, a more honest friend, a more capable partner, a better standard around you, because you don't always just get your goals. In fact, you don't get them all the time. You will eventually get your standards though.

• 20:41Ed Mylett?

  And having the right people elevate those standards is a game changer. Because you don't build great things alone. You build great things with great people. Here's the rep. This week, ask yourself, are the people closest to me helping me grow? Protecting my blind spots and strengthening my mission, showing me the way ahead? Take a serious look at your inner circle. Think about the people with the most access to your mind, your emotions and your decisions. Identify what each of them contributes, each one of them. Some may bring strategy, some may bring encouragement, some may be taking more than they give. Then act on one improvement this week. Maybe you need to deepen one key relationship. Maybe you need to bring someone stronger into your inner circle.

• 21:23Ed Mylett?

  Maybe you need to create some boundaries and some distance from a few who are harming you. Someone who constantly drains your energy or clouds your judgment, they shouldn't be in that inner circle. Your life will move in the direction of your closest influences. Trust me. So be intentional. Great leaders build their inner circle with purpose.

• 21:44Speaker 01

  This is the Ed and Mylan Show.

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