When you look around at the people who gravitate toward you, do you ever wonder what attracted them to you in the first place? Have you given much thought to why those individuals continue to come around you? John C. Maxwell says, “Who you are is who you attract.” This is the law of magnetism. Leaders who understand this concept will be well on their way to being a magnet for attracting great leaders. Although it is important for us to remember that it’s not about what we want in our followers. It’s really about who we are as people and as a leader.

One way this law works is that a leader who is interested in making the law of magnetism work for them must consider this: internalizing the mission, vision statement and core values of your organization will cause you, the leader, to instinctively live them daily. This will in turn, result in a fusion into the fabric of your organization. Once that begins to happen, you should seek out others within the organization who share the same values but may think a little differently than you.

The key to the growth of an organization is in fact, the leader. However, the leader cannot do it alone. There is no such thing as a great leader who stands solo without a great team serving as the support network that ensures all core values, missions and goals of the organization are being appropriately executed. Conversely, the leader has the responsibility of ensuring that the proper example is being set at all times. Therefore, we cannot be blinded by what our ideal followers look like. We must be honest with ourselves. If we are not attracting the kind of people that we want to be around us, we must take a good look at ourselves in the mirror. Another truth concerning the concept of magnetism is that if we want to really get a good picture of who we are, all we need to do is take a look at the people that are around us.

Having a good understanding of how magnetism can work will set any leader up to build a winning team that grows and thrives together. If leaders continue to implement this concept into their everyday lives, they will ultimately see that they are the hubs of their organization. Their followers are the cogs in the wheels that will drive the whole team to success. Remember, if you do an assessment of your leadership qualities and notice there are some weaknesses that need some improvement, don’t worry about it. All of us have things we need to work and improve on. The point is that we all need to continuously identify weaknesses so we can work on them. The benefit will be that our growth as leaders will result in the attraction of better leaders who will help us achieve our organizational goals and objectives.