It is not an easy task to create an organization from nothing and prove its urgency and worth in the world full of competitions, demands, and expectations. People can make numerous attempts, offer captivating ideas, and challenge everything around in order to achieve the goals set. Still, they cannot be sure of the success of their work’s results. Nowadays, there are many ideas on how to improve the development of an organization, and one of them is to demonstrate successful leadership and follow the laws defined by the experts.
The current paper aims at discussing the story of the company named Lawry’s Restaurants and its connection to Maxwell’s laws of leadership. John C. Maxwell is a famous American author and speaker whose ideas are reflected in his books. He introduces a list of hints on how the relations between leaders and workers may be developed, and his real-life examples and explanations prove the correctness of the chosen direction. Lawry’s Restaurants’ story is a good choice to understand how each law may be considered and implemented.
Richard Frank has already proved that it is possible to create a company as an institution and turn it into a powerful organization with a number of certain rules and personal ethical issues that can define a properly chosen leadership style as one of the most crucial points; in addition, the connection between Frank’s experience and Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of leadership serve as evidence that each person has a chance to repeat Frank’s story and achieve the desired success.
In this world, there are many different types of leaders and the characteristics of a leader; this is why it seems to be a challenging task to comprehend what can actually make a good leader. John C. Maxwell defines 21 leader’s qualities and explains the impact of each of them.
These qualities touch upon the leader’s charisma, competence, passion, attitude to workers, abilities to listen, analyze, and solve problems, etc. Each law offered by Maxwell has its purpose, character, and explanation. It is easy to understand what the author wants to tell and underline in a good leader. There is no extra information in each law, and it is interesting and educative to discuss how Maxwell’s laws may be identified within specific stories, for example, in the story shared by Richard N. Frank about his Lawry’s Restaurant line.
Though Frank’s article offered is not too long and does not contain too many facts, it is still possible to find many interesting facts and clear up how to 21 irrefutable laws may be observed in Lawry’s Restaurants. A choice of a good leader is one of the most important steps that have to be done at the beginning. A company cannot exist without a leader, and people should realize that they have a person to take an example from and to follow any time. Frank admits that his company was created by two people, his father, and uncle, in 1915.
They have a dream and a good plan to be followed. And this is one of the laws, developed by Maxwell and called the “Law of Buy-In” when a leader gets a dream and then the people, and people, in their turn, can find a leader and then get a dream (Maxwell 149).
Another important detail of the story mentioned by Frank is that Lawry’s Restaurants is the company that was created in the right place and at the right point in time. This detail corresponds to the law of Big Mo, according to which momentum is considered to be the leader’s best friend.
Frank also says that their company has undergone considerable changes with a certain period of time.
It proves the other three laws: first, the law of the process within the frames of which it is clear that successful leadership develops over time (it is daily, not in a day) (Maxwell 23); second, the law of lid by means of which it is possible to comprehend the value of leadership and realize how the leader’s strengths define the effectiveness of the company; and, finally, the law of timing that helps the leaders define when and how something should be done in order to avoid or correct the mistakes.
A good leader should know that each step has to be taken logically with a clear understanding of its outcomes and a possible impact on the general state of affairs. The results of Lawry’s Restaurants Company show that its leaders always knew and know or were lucky enough to make the correct decisions. Such an assumption may be evidence of another Maxwell’s law, the law of intuition, according to which Lawry’s Restaurants’ leaders demonstrate the “naturally see” type of intuition.
In his story, Frank underlines that he knows a few families, who can demonstrate the ability to span business through several generations of management. His family business is one of the examples. He can use it. This fact helps to learn how several other laws by Maxwell can work. First, the law of the inner circle explains how leaders should work in a team and choose the closest to their people in order to share his personal knowledge and experience.
Frank’s father and uncle demonstrate their readiness to determine appropriate family members and create the necessary circle of trust. Second, Lawry’s Restaurants’ leaders make use of the law of explosive growth and the law of reproduction by means of which leaders should consider the role of their potential followers and teach them accordingly. Lawry’s Restaurants’ leaders choose their followers from their families. It saves their time and effort on searching and choice.
Finally, the law of legacy seems to be important in the family business under analysis. Each member of the developers’ families (the Van de Kamp and the Franks) thinks about the future of their family and the legacy they want to create. Their business is the collection of their values that cannot be neglected even with time.
Lawry’s Restaurants line’s creation may be called successful due to the business culture that is deeply described by Frank. He calls it co-worker culture, and it depicts a number of laws defined by Maxwell in his book. In the law of influence, Maxwell explains that to be a leader does not mean to be the first. It means to be a supporter or a kind of an entrepreneur, who knows how to explain, improve, and become an example.
Frank’s father did not treat his workers as the people who work on him. He believed all of them were co-workers. This is why the idea of magnetism and connection with the workers turned out to be the integral parts of Lawry’s Restaurants’ work. These are also two examples of Maxwell’s laws of leadership. The chosen culture also explains how Maxwell’s laws of E. F. Hutton, navigation, and solid ground may be implied in real-life practice.
For example, Frank’s father and his uncle did not want to demonstrate their leading positions and equally treated their workers. Still, they never forgot to chart the course, speak to their people, make workers listen to them, follow their suggestions, and use trust as the method to rely on. The results of such a leadership style make people believe in their leaders and respect these leaders even more than themselves.
It is another of Maxwell’s laws that tell about ordinary workers’ predisposition to follow strong and confident leaders neglecting personal needs and demands. The self-importance of each worker is a key secret of Lawry’s Restaurants Company. This detail makes the chosen organization unique and interesting for discussions.
Not all leaders are eager to allow their workers to develop a sense of pride and loyalty. Lawry’s Restaurants’ leaders made an exception and benefited from it considerably. It is a good example of how the chosen business culture may be approved.
Unfortunately, the case under analysis does not tell a lot about several laws offered by Maxwell. For example, the law of priorities cannot be clearly understood as Frank does not mention how the leaders of the company follow the rule of the three Rs (what is required, what gives a return, and what brings a reward). Still, it is possible to believe that this rule is properly followed as the leaders succeeded in setting the priorities.
The law of sacrifice presupposes the idea that good leaders should be ready to sacrifice if necessary in order to achieve the required portion of the results. Frank’s story does not have examples of any sacrifice. Of course, it is hard to believe that the creation of such a huge organization was free from any kind of sacrifice or mistake. This is why it is possible to believe that all sacrifices were approved and explained in accordance with leaders’ and workers’ expectations.
Finally, Maxwell’s law of victory tells that a good leader is able to find a way and win. The example offered by Lawry’s Restaurants and its leaders shows that all their actions, plans, and ideas have been properly implemented as they achieved the desired goal and created a powerful organization with a number of people, who were ready to follow them any time.
It is one of the most amazing stories of victory. Mr. Richard Frank should be proud of his business and think about more interesting ways to promote the development and win again. Of course, it is not easy, and it is a new challenge. Still, Frank, as a leader and any of his followers, may take Maxwell’s laws into consideration and try to demonstrate good results.
In general, Frank’s story about the development of his family’s company serves as a good example of how Maxwell’s laws may be implemented. The choice of an appropriate leadership style is not easy. People have to be ready to make some decisions and consider some sacrifices but never forget about respect, personal cognition, and understanding.
These traits are crucial for good leaders, and Lawry’s Restaurants Company proves that it is possible to create something from nothing. It is just necessary to use imagination, mind the importance of respect to everything and everyone around, and believe in personal skills, knowledge, and powers.
Work Cited
Maxwell, John, C. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook, Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Neison, 2007. Print.