Sustaining leadership over the long haul requires understanding three powerful forces: momentum, priorities, and sacrifice. These laws separate leaders who flash brightly and burn out from those who build something that endures. Momentum makes everything easier, priorities keep you focused on what matters, and sacrifice is the price every leader must pay for growth.
“A leader must give up to go up.”
— John C. Maxwell
Law #16: The Law of Big Mo
Momentum is a leader’s best friend. When you have momentum, everything looks better. Problems seem smaller, morale is high, and forward progress feels almost effortless. When you lack momentum, everything is harder. The same obstacles that would be minor irritations with momentum become insurmountable barriers without it. Momentum is like a magnifying glass — it makes things look bigger. When momentum is positive, it amplifies success. When momentum is negative, it amplifies failure.
Understanding Momentum
- Creating momentum is hard. Starting from a standstill requires enormous energy. The first steps of any initiative are the most difficult — like pushing a boulder uphill.
- Sustaining momentum is easier than creating it. Once you have things moving, keeping them moving requires less effort. That is the beauty of momentum.
- Momentum makes leaders look better than they are. When an organization has strong momentum, everyone seems brilliant, every decision seems right, and outsiders think the leader is a genius. Remove the momentum, and the same leader looks ordinary.
- Momentum makes followers perform better than they are. In a high-momentum environment, average performers deliver above-average results. In a no-momentum environment, even excellent performers struggle.
- Momentum is easier to steer than to start. It is far easier to redirect something that is already moving than to get something moving from a dead stop.
How to Create Momentum
- Celebrate small wins. Do not wait for a major breakthrough. Find something positive to celebrate, and build on it. Small wins create energy.
- Remove demotivators. Identify the policies, people, or processes that drain energy from the team. Eliminate or fix them.
- Model enthusiasm. Momentum starts with the leader’s attitude. If you are not excited, no one else will be either.
- Focus resources on winnable battles. Do not spread your energy thin. Concentrate on a few high-impact priorities where you can generate visible progress.
- Tell the story of progress. People need to hear that things are moving forward. Communicate wins regularly and visibly.
Example: The Apple Turnaround
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was ninety days from bankruptcy. There was no momentum — only decline. Jobs did not try to fix everything at once. He killed most of Apple’s product lines, focusing resources on just a few. He created the “Think Different” campaign to rebuild the company’s identity. He launched the iMac — a single, bold product that generated a win. That win created momentum. The momentum led to the iPod. The iPod led to iTunes. iTunes led to the iPhone. Each success built on the last, creating a wave of momentum that transformed Apple into the most valuable company in the world. Jobs did not achieve this through genius alone. He achieved it through the Law of Big Mo.
Law #17: The Law of Priorities
Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Busy leaders are not necessarily effective leaders. The Law of Priorities requires leaders to have the discipline to think ahead, to see how things relate to the overall vision, and to continually re-evaluate what they are doing. Just because something is on your calendar does not mean it deserves your time.
“A leader who knows his priorities but lacks concentration knows what to do but never gets it done. If he has concentration but no priorities, he has excellence without progress.”
— John C. Maxwell
The Three Rs of Prioritization
Maxwell uses three questions to evaluate every activity:
- What is Required? What must you personally do that no one else can do for you? These are your non-negotiable responsibilities. Everything else is optional.
- What gives the greatest Return? Of all the things you could do, which ones produce the most significant results? Focus your best time and energy on high-return activities.
- What brings the greatest Reward? What activities bring you joy, energy, and fulfillment? When leaders operate in their sweet spot, their effectiveness multiplies.
The Pareto Principle in Leadership
The 80/20 rule applies powerfully to leadership priorities:
- 20% of your people will produce 80% of your results. Invest disproportionately in your top 20%.
- 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your impact. Identify and protect those activities fiercely.
- 20% of your priorities will deliver 80% of your progress. Focus on the vital few, not the trivial many.
- The discipline of prioritization means saying no to good things so you can say yes to the best things
- Leaders who try to do everything accomplish nothing of significance. Prioritization is not about doing more — it is about doing the right things.
Example: Jack Welch and GE
When Jack Welch became CEO of General Electric in 1981, the company had over 350 businesses. Welch made a ruthless prioritization decision: any GE business that was not number one or number two in its market would be fixed, sold, or closed. This was enormously painful — it meant eliminating hundreds of businesses and laying off over 100,000 people. But Welch understood the Law of Priorities. By concentrating GE’s resources on the businesses where it could dominate, he transformed the company from a $13 billion conglomerate into a $400 billion powerhouse. Welch’s willingness to prioritize — to say no to good businesses in order to invest in great ones — was the defining act of his leadership.
Warning: The Tyranny of the Urgent
- Most leaders spend their time responding to urgent but unimportant demands rather than pursuing important but non-urgent priorities
- Email, meetings, and interruptions consume the majority of a leader’s day — yet these rarely represent their highest-value contributions
- The leader who cannot say “no” to lower-priority demands will never have time for the work that truly matters
- Busyness is the enemy of effectiveness — it creates an illusion of productivity while preventing real progress
Law #18: The Law of Sacrifice
A leader must give up to go up. There is a common misconception that leadership is about gaining perks, privileges, and power. In reality, the opposite is true. The higher you go in leadership, the more you must sacrifice. Leadership requires giving up things that others hold on to — personal time, convenience, comfort, and sometimes even personal ambition — for the sake of the people and the mission.
The Truths About Sacrifice
- There is no success without sacrifice. Every leader who has achieved something significant has paid a price for it. The question is not whether you will sacrifice but what you will sacrifice.
- Leaders are often asked to give up more than others. The higher your position, the greater the sacrifice. This is the opposite of what most people expect from leadership.
- You must keep giving up to stay up. Sacrifice is not a one-time event. Leaders must continue to sacrifice as they grow. The cost of leadership increases with the scope of responsibility.
- The higher the level of leadership, the greater the sacrifice. A first-line supervisor sacrifices differently than a CEO. But both must sacrifice something to lead effectively.
Example: Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. sacrificed nearly everything for the civil rights movement. He gave up a comfortable career as a pastor. He gave up time with his family. He gave up his personal safety — his home was bombed, he was stabbed, he was arrested dozens of times, and he was constantly threatened with death. He gave up his privacy, his peace of mind, and ultimately his life. King understood the Law of Sacrifice at the deepest level. He wrote from a Birmingham jail: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle.” The impact of his leadership was directly proportional to the magnitude of his sacrifice.
The Sacrifice Assessment
Ask yourself honestly:
- What have I sacrificed recently for the sake of my team or organization?
- Am I willing to give up personal comfort for the growth of the people I lead?
- Is there something I am holding on to — a privilege, a habit, a position — that I need to release in order to grow?
- Do I understand that the cost of leadership will continue to increase as my influence grows?
- Am I leading for what I can gain, or for what I can give?
Reflection
What is the greatest sacrifice you have made as a leader? Looking ahead, what sacrifice might be required for you to reach the next level? Are you willing to pay that price?
Key Takeaways
- Momentum is a leader’s best friend — it makes everything easier, amplifies success, and makes leaders and followers perform above their baseline
- Creating momentum requires celebrating small wins, removing demotivators, modeling enthusiasm, and focusing on winnable battles
- Leaders must prioritize ruthlessly using the Three Rs: Required, Return, and Reward — activity is not accomplishment
- The Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) applies to people, activities, and priorities — focus on the vital few
- Leadership demands sacrifice — the higher you rise, the more you must give up, and the sacrifice never stops
- These three laws together ensure that leadership momentum is created, sustained through proper priorities, and fueled by ongoing sacrifice