The eleventh law of the The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is The Law of the Inner Circle:

“A Leader’s Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him”

A leader does not achieve success alone – on his own merits. A leader depends on his core team to achieve great things together. Without a good team, the opportunity to perform at high-levels and produce consistently does not exist. The Law of the Inner Circle dictates that a leader’s potential comes from those that are closest to him – the team.

Members of the inner circle need to exhibit excellence, maturity, and good character in all aspects of their lives. Leaders often focus much of their effort working to improve the lowest performing people. Under-performers tend to display poor attitudes and unwillingness to pursue new challenges or or an unwillingness embrace change. A leader that focuses on changing these traits expends an inordinate amount of time often producing little in the way of  positive results. Investing in your best performers returns a much higher return on your investment.

Every organization has an inner circle. Think of any highly effective leader, and you will find someone who surrounded himself with a strong inner circle. Look at an organization in just about any profession and you can see the Law of the Inner Circle at work.

Building the inner circle takes time and effort. Many fail to make the investment and pay the price of mediocrity. Your leadership potential relies on your inner circle, so developing your team deserves your attention and effort.

Every leader’s potential is determined by the people closest to him. If those people are strong, then the leader can make a huge impact. If they are weak, he can’t. That is the Law of the Inner Circle.

Summing-up: Nobody does anything great alone, nor do leaders succeed alone. What makes the difference is the leader’s inner circle.