People Buy into the Leader, Then the Vision
The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream. That’s how the Law of Buy-In works.
People don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote worthy causes they can believe in. People buy into the leader first, then the leader’s vision.
As a leader, having a great vision and a worthy cause is not enough to get people to follow you. You have to become a better leader; you must get your people to buy into you. That is the price you have to pay if you want your vision to have a chance of becoming reality. You cannot ignore the Law of Buy-In and remain successful as a leader.
The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream. That’s how the Law of Buy-In works.
People don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote worthy causes they can believe in. People buy into the leader first, then the leader’s vision.
As a leader, having a great vision and a worthy cause is not enough to get people to follow you. You have to become a better leader; you must get your people to buy into you. That is the price you have to pay if you want your vision to have a chance of becoming reality. You cannot ignore the Law of Buy-In and remain successful as a leader.
How people react to different combinations of leadership and vision and they do or do not buy into:
1) People don't like the leader or the vision They don't follow - they look for a new leader!
2) People like the vision, but not the leader In this case people still tend to look for a new leader. One sees this in sports teams: the vision is usually the same (win the championship), but lack of credible leadership leads to a search for a new leader.
3) People like the leader, but not the vision In this case people will often continue to follow the leader. Maxwell cites the example of the National Organization of Women (NOW) who backed Bill Clinton strongly.
Even when he was accused of sexual harassment they continued to support him, not because their views on sexual harassment had changed, but because they still believed in him as a leader who could achieve other goals that they wanted to pursue. Faced with this scenario, people may convince the leader to change his/her vision, or abandon their own goals, or seek to find some compromise. But they will often refuse to abandon the leader.
4) People like the leader and the vision This is obviously the optimal position, where the people get behind the vision and the leader whole-heartedly. This is why people supported Gandhi in the face of massive fatalities at the hands of the British troops. It's why the American people rallied behind Kennedy's vision and
put men on the moon.
"As a leader, having a great vision and a worthy cause is not enough to get people to follow you. First you have to become a better leader; you must get your people to buy into _you_".
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