The Law of Sacrifice (18)

A Leader Must Give Up To Go Up

To be great at anything, you have to be willing to make sacrifices.  Greatness as a leader is no different.  As a leader, you have to often sacrifice many of your individual wants and needs for what's important for the group.  You have to learn how to put others in front of yourself.  That sacrifice often means giving up your time, your resources, or doing some of the things you like to do for entertainment such as TV and social media, but the higher you move up, the more you have to devote your time to growth, the more time you have to be willing to sacrifice.

The heart of a good leadership is sacrifice.

If you desire to become the best leader you can be, then you need to be willing to make sacrifices in order to lead well.  If that is your desire, then here are some things you need to know about the Law of Sacrifice.

There Is No Success Without Sacrifice
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.  Life is a series of trades, one thing for another.

A leader must give up to go up.

Leaders Are Often Asked To Give Up More Than Others
Putting others ahead of yourself.  It's doing what is best for the team.  

When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself.

When you have no responsibilities, you can do pretty much anything you want.  Once you take on responsibility, you start to experience limitations in wha you can do.  The more responsibility you accept, the fewer options you have.

Leaders must be willing to give up more than the people they lead.

For every person, the nature of the sacrifice may be different.  Everyone who leads gives up other opportunities.  Leadership means sacrifice.

You Must Keep Give Up To Stay Up
In leadership, sacrifice is an ongoing process, not a one-time payment.  Once you have tasted success, you can't become relunctant to make additional sacrifices in the offseason to prepare for what is often a greater challenge the next year.  But today's success is the greatest threat to tomorrow's success.  And what gets a team to the top isn't what keeps it there.  The only way to stay up is to give up even more.  Leadership success requires continual change, constant improvement, and ongoing sacrifice.

If I do the job well, I believe the salary will take care of itself.

Anytime the step is right, a leader shouldn't hesitate to make a sacrifice.

The Higher The Level Of Leadership, The Greater The Sacrifice
Growth and sacrifice as a leader is similar to being part of an auction.  When an item comes up for a bid, everyone gets excited and lots of people jump in and take part.  But as the price goes higher and higher, there are fewer and fewer bidders.  When the price is low, everybody bids.  In the end, only one person is willing to pay the high price that the item costs.  It's the same in leadership: the higher you go, the more it's going to cost you.  And it doesn't matter what kind of leadership career you pick.  You will have to make sacrifices.  You will have to give up to go up.

Applying The Law Of Sacrifice
1 - Identify two things: (1) The things You are willing to give up in order to go up, and (2) the things you are not willing to sacrifice to advance.

2 - You must be willing to trade something of value that you possess to gain something more valuable that you don't.  What do you have to offer?  And what are you currently willing to trade your time, energy, and resources for that may give you greater personal worth?

3 - Destination disease - the idea that they can sacrifice for a season and then 'arrive' is one of the most harmful mind-sets of leaders.  Don't stop sacrificing and don't stop gaining higher ground in leadership.