Online Reporter
Hunt For Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
GREATNESS is movement. Movement has limits. An organisation or institution rarely rises above the leadership capacity of those guiding it. The leader’s level becomes the lid of the system.
Your first movement should not be outwards, but upwards. Move up your leadership lid.
John C. Maxwell popularised what he called the Law of the Lid. It states that leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. If your leadership lid is low, your impact will be limited, no matter how sincere, busy, gifted or well-intentioned you may be.
If your leadership lid rises, your influence, effectiveness and capacity to serve others can rise with it.
A low leadership lid does not only limit the leader. It limits everyone connected to the leader.
It limits the team’s imagination, speed, courage, execution, standards and growth. When the leader stops growing, the system begins to strain. People may still be active, but they will not move far.
To move up your leadership lid, raise the ceiling of what is possible through you.
Your lid is your capacity limit
Every leader has a lid. The lid may be the mindset, character, knowledge, discipline, emotional maturity, communication, courage, relationships, systems thinking, spiritual depth or execution capacity. Some lids are visible. Everyone can see that the leader does not communicate clearly, does not plan well or does not follow through. Other lids are hidden. They sit quietly in the inner life. These could be insecurity, fear, pride, resentment, impatience, poor listening, weak discipline or unwillingness to learn.
A leadership lid is anything that restricts your ability to move yourself and others forward.
Sometimes the problem is not the people. It is the lid. Sometimes the problem is not the opportunity. It is the lid.
Sometimes the problem is not the resources. It is the lid. A leader may be praying for bigger doors while still carrying a small capacity. Bigger doors require bigger capacity.Many leaders want larger influence without larger growth. They want bigger platforms without deeper formation. They want more people without better systems. They want greater authority without greater responsibility. Leadership growth demands upward movement. If you want the work to rise, you must rise.
Move up your thinking
The first lid to raise is your thinking. Small thinking creates small leadership. Defensive thinking creates defensive leadership. Crisis thinking creates reactive leadership. Scarcity thinking creates fearful leadership.
Your leadership cannot consistently outperform your thought life.
Move up your thinking by asking bigger and better questions. What is possible here? What would excellence look like? What are we not seeing? What capacity must we build? What would this look like at 10 times the current scale? What must change in me for this assignment to move forward?
Do not let your mind live in yesterday’s limitations. The fact that something has never been done before does not mean it cannot be done.
The fact that you failed before does not mean you must fail again. The fact that resources are limited does not mean imagination must be limited.
Read. Reflect. Listen. Expose yourself to better models. Spend time with people who stretch your thinking.
Study leaders who have built what you are trying to create. Learn from a variety of sources using different systems.
A leader who does not feed the mind eventually leads from an empty pantry.
Move up your character
Character is a leadership lid. Talent may attract people but character keeps trust. Charisma may open doors but character sustains influence. Skill may produce results but character determines whether those results can be trusted.
If your character lid is low, your leadership will eventually leak.
Move up your character by strengthening integrity, humility, patience, courage, truthfulness, self-control and consistency. Do what you said you would do. Tell the truth even when it is inconvenient. Apologise when you are wrong.
Honour people even when they cannot benefit you. Keep private discipline aligned with public expectation.
A leader’s character is tested most when pressure rises. Pressure does not create character; it reveals it. Move your character upwards before greater pressure comes. Build the inner structure that can carry external growth.
Move up your emotional maturity
Many leaders are limited by emotional immaturity. They cannot handle criticism. They overreact to small issues. They avoid difficult conversations. They personalise disagreement. They lead through mood swings. They make permanent decisions from temporary emotions. Emotional immaturity lowers the leadership lid.
Move up by learning to pause before responding. Listen before judging. Ask before assuming. Separate facts from feelings. Do not make your insecurity the team’s burden. Do not punish people because you are tired, offended, anxious or under pressure.
A mature leader creates psychological safety without removing accountability. People can speak the truth, ask questions, admit mistakes and still be held to high standards. The higher you rise in leadership, the more emotional discipline you need. Your words carry weight. Your tone shapes atmosphere. Your reactions teach culture. Your unresolved emotions can become institutional weather.
Move up your emotional lid and people around you will breathe better.
Move up your competence
Greatness requires competence, not just intention. You must know how to move work, build systems, read numbers, develop people, communicate vision, execute strategy, manage meetings, resolve conflict and review performance. When you refuse to improve competence, you become a bottleneck.
Move up your competence through deliberate learning. Read technical material. Study your sector. Learn the tools of your trade. Understand finance, strategy, operations, governance, communication and people development.
Competence builds confidence. When you know what you are doing, you move with clarity. When you do not know, but pretend to know, you create confusion.
There is no shame in not knowing. The shame is in refusing to learn. A teachable leader can grow. An unteachable leader has already placed a lid on the future.
Move up your relationships
Leadership moves through relationships. Your relational lid determines how far and how well you can influence others. If people do not trust you, they may comply for a season, but they will not fully commit.
Move up your relational capacity. Learn to listen. Learn to appreciate. Learn to connect. Learn to confront with grace. Learn to forgive. Learn to build networks. Learn to ask for help. Learn to mentor and be mentored.
Some leaders are lonely not because leadership is lonely, but because their relational style pushes people away. They are harsh, dismissive, unavailable, suspicious or transactional. They only contact people when they need something.
Raise your relational lid by valuing people beyond their function. People are not tools for your vision.
People are human beings with dignity, dreams, fears, gifts and burdens.
When relationships are strong, movement becomes easier.
Committed to your greatness.
Move up your systems
A leader’s systems lid is often the reason growth stalls. At one level, passion can carry the work. At another level, systems must carry the work.
If there is no planning system, work becomes reactive. If there is no financial system, resources leak. If there is no people-development system, talent stagnates. If there is no accountability system, execution weakens. If there is no communication system, confusion spreads.Move up your systems. Build rhythms, dashboards, scorecards, review meetings, feedback loops, documentation, processes and clear decision rights.
Systems do not kill movement. Good systems protect movement. They reduce dependence on memory and personality. They make excellence repeatable. They allow growth to be sustained.
A leader who dislikes systems will eventually be overwhelmed by complexity.
Move up by releasing others
Raise your leadership lid by lifting other leaders. If everything depends on you, your lid is already limiting the movement. Develop people. Delegate responsibly. Coach emerging leaders. create space for others to lead.
Allow people to make decisions, carry responsibility, learn from mistakes and grow in confidence.
Insecure leaders suppress other leaders. Secure leaders multiply them.
The higher your assignment, the less you can afford to be the only capable person in the room. Raise your lid by increasing the capacity around you.
Keep moving upwards.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and accomplished workshop facilitator. He can be reached at: [email protected], WhatsApp: +263772422634.
