What Is the Law of Modeling in Personal Growth?

We had a machine in Westbury with warning labels that would not stay on. They curled and dropped on the floor. Every six weeks I ordered a new set and had somebody stick them back up. I tried a new adhesive. I tried a new vendor. I wrote it up as a supplier problem, because at least that was written down.

Four months in, somebody asked the technician who ran it. The wash-down hit that panel every night, and he had known all along.

The Law of Modeling was standing six feet from my problem in safety glasses, and I never once looked at the man as somebody to learn from.

The Law of Modeling is the thirteenth of John C. Maxwell's 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, and it says this: it's hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow. Nobody invents a skill they have never seen done. So if the only example you study is you, the ceiling on your growth is whatever you already know. Most people stuck on that ceiling are not lazy. They are self-taught by accident.

What the Law of Modeling Actually Says

One line: it's hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow.

That is the whole Law of Modeling. Maxwell is not saying you are weak and need rescuing. He is saying something closer to mechanical. Growth is copied before it is created. You watch somebody do a thing, you try a clumsy version of it, you get a little better, and eventually it is yours. Take away the watching and you are left trying to invent the thing from scratch, in public, on company time.

I spent my first ten years in plants doing exactly that. I thought asking was admitting. So I rebuilt, from nothing, skills that three men within shouting distance already had.

Notice what the Law of Modeling does not say. It does not say find a guru. It does not say pick one person and hand them your whole life. A model is somebody you study on one specific thing. That is a much smaller ask, and it is the version that actually works.

Try this today. Name one person whose work you have watched closely enough to describe what they do differently. If you cannot name one, you just found your growth problem, and it is a better problem than the one you thought you had.

What If Nobody Around Me Is Worth Following?

This is the question I get most, and it is usually honest. Somebody looks around their shop or their office and sees nobody they want to become.

Two things are usually going on.

The first is that you are shopping for one person to be good at everything. Nobody is. I have never met a single human being who was worth following on all of it. I have met plenty worth following on one thing. Split the person into skills and the shortage disappears. One man for how he handles a bad meeting. One woman for how she says no without making an enemy. One for how he keeps a promise he made on a Tuesday.

The second is that you are looking up the org chart instead of around the room. We are trained to scan for titles. The best model for a specific skill is frequently below you on the chart, or in another department, or running the machine you walk past twice a day. My label problem was solved by a technician. Four months of my expertise against twenty seconds of his.

And sometimes the place really is empty. That happens. Then you go outside it. A trade group. A professional association. The library, which is free and does not care about your title. A plant two towns over that will let you walk their floor if you ask nicely. One person on the internet whose work you read every week for a year. The Law of Modeling never said the person had to be in the building.

How Do I Pick Someone Worth Following?

Maxwell gives a short list of what to look for, and after forty years I would not change much in it.

They walk the talk. What they say and what they do are the same thing. You can check this in a week.

Their standards hold when nobody is watching. How they treat the parts cleaner tells you more than how they treat the plant manager.

They are available to you, at your stage. The most accomplished person in the industry is useless to you if they have no time and their problems are twelve years ahead of yours.

They have actually done it, for a long time. Years, not months. Scars, not slides.

They have wisdom, not just knowledge. Wisdom is knowing how to use what you know. I have worked with brilliant people who could not be followed anywhere useful.

They care about you and not just about being right. You can feel this one in about two conversations.

I would add one test of my own, from the floor. Watch them on a bad day. Anybody can be followed when the line is running. You learn who somebody is at 2 a.m. with a down machine and a customer on the phone.

One more warning, and it has cost people years. Do not confuse somebody who gives you advice with somebody worth following. Advice is free and everywhere. A model is a person whose results you can see with your own eyes. Plenty of men told me how to run a plant. Very few of them had ever run one well.

Can a Book Be My Model?

Maxwell says to look in books first, because for a lot of us the first mentor was an author who never knew our name. I agree, with one condition.

A book becomes a model the moment you do what it says and tell somebody you did it. Until then it is entertainment with a bookmark in it. I have a shelf of books I have read twice and applied zero times. That shelf is not growth. That shelf is a hobby.

Here is the fifteen minute version, because that is all I had when I was twenty-three with a mortgage, a baby and a full-time job. One chapter. One action small enough to do before lunch. One person who knows you said you would do it. Three parts, and the third part is the one everybody skips.

Written models count too. A good procedure is somebody's best thinking, frozen. So is a well-kept maintenance log. So is the way one supervisor words a tough email. Steal the wording. That is not cheating, that is the Law of Modeling doing its job.

What the Law of Modeling Looks Like on the Floor

Stripped of all the language, applying this Law is three questions and a walk.

Who in this building does this better than I do? Be specific about the this. Not "leadership." Running a five minute huddle. Writing a work order somebody can act on. Telling a customer no.

What exactly do they do differently? Not their personality. Their actions. Where they stand. What they ask first. What they refuse to do.

When can I watch them do it? Then go watch. Say the eight words out loud: "Can I watch you do that next time?" I have never once seen somebody turn that down. Not once in forty years. We think we are asking for a favor. The other person hears that their work is worth studying, which almost nobody has ever told them.

And here is the part that gets missed. While you are looking for somebody to follow, somebody newer is already following you. The kid on second shift is learning how to handle a bad call by watching how you handle one. He is building his model whether you volunteered or not. That is a little uncomfortable, and it should be.

Be Honest About What Following Somebody Costs

I do not want to sell this cheap, so here is the bill.

It costs pride. "Show me" is two syllables and it is the hardest sentence on the list. For ten years I would rather have been wrong by myself than corrected in front of somebody.

It costs the story you tell about yourself. Self-made is a good story. It is also usually false, and giving it up stings more than people admit.

It costs being the least able person in the room, on purpose, for a while. That is what learning looks like from the inside and it never stops feeling bad.

And sometimes the person lets you down. A man I learned a lot from turned out to be somebody I would not want my son to work for. That was a hard year. What I kept was the skill and what I put down was the man, and I am still not sure I did that gracefully. Maxwell says to expect your models to change as you grow, and he is right. Outgrowing somebody is not betraying them.

Common Questions About the Law of Modeling

Which of the 15 Laws of Growth is the Law of Modeling?

It is the thirteenth, and it reads: it's hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow. It sits late in the book on purpose. By then Maxwell has you being intentional, aware and honest with yourself, and the next question is who you are learning it from.

Is the Law of Modeling the same as having a mentor?

No, and the difference matters. A mentor is a relationship two people agreed to out loud. A model is somebody you study, and they do not have to know. That means you can start applying this Law this afternoon without one awkward conversation. Most people wait months for a yes they never needed.

Can I follow more than one person at the same time?

You should. One model for one skill is how this works in real life. I have had five going at once and none of them knew about the others. Where it goes wrong is copying two people on the same thing, because then you are not following anybody, you are picking whichever answer is easier that day.

What if the person I followed does something I cannot respect?

Keep the skill, put down the person. You can learn how somebody runs a meeting without taking on how they treat their wife. Be careful of the opposite move too, which is throwing out everything useful they ever taught you so the whole thing feels clean. It will not feel clean. That is the cost of learning from human beings, and the alternative is learning from nobody.

Reflection Questions

1. Name one skill you are currently trying to invent from scratch. Who already has it?
2. Who have you written off as a model because of their title, their age, or their shift?
3. When did you last say "show me" out loud to anybody at work?
4. Who is building their model by watching you, and what are they picking up?
5. Which book on your shelf have you read but never once acted on?

The Bottom Line

The Law of Modeling says it's hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow. It does not say find a hero. It says find one person, on one skill, and go watch them.

Here is the one thing for this week. Pick a single skill you are bad at and would like to be decent at. Name one person who is better at it than you are, and they are allowed to be anybody, including the person who reports to you. Then ask the eight words: can I watch you do that next time? Fifteen minutes. That is the whole assignment.

The labels on that machine were a four month problem and a twenty second answer, and the answer was standing right there the whole time.

So who is standing next to your problem, and when was the last time you asked them anything?

This ties back to The Law of Modeling — one of John C. Maxwell's 15 Laws of Growth.