The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential (10 page)

Leaders who rely on their title or position to influence others just do not seem to work well with people. Some don’t even
like
people! Why? It’s a chicken-or-egg question, really. Do they not work well with people and as a result they rely on position? Or is it that because they rely on their position, they never take the time and effort to work well with people? I don’t know. Maybe both kinds of positional leaders exist. But here’s what I do know: They neglect many of the human aspects of leading others. They ignore the fact that all people have hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of their own. They don’t recognize that as leaders they must bring together their vision and the aspirations of their people in a way that benefits everyone. In short, they do not lead well because they fail to acknowledge and take into account that leadership—of any kind, in any location, for any purpose—is about working with people.

When leaders value position over the ability to influence others, the environment of the organization usually becomes very political. There is a lot
of maneuvering. Positional leaders focus on control instead of contribution. They work to gain titles. They do what they can to get the largest staff and the biggest budget they can—not for the sake of the organization’s mission, but for the sake of expanding and defending their turf. And when a positional leader is able to do this, it often incites others to do the same because they worry that others’ gains will be their loss. Not only does it create a vicious cycle of gamesmanship, posturing, and maneuvering, but it also creates departmental rivalries and silos.

For a very short time as a young leader I worked in a highly political environment like the one I described. It was like working in a minefield. There were many unwritten rules and hidden protocols for setting up appointments with superiors or selecting who you ate with at lunch. There was great emphasis placed on using proper titles to address people. And much of how you were treated depended on your background. Needless to say, I did not do well in that environment. I immediately looked for a better place to develop my leadership skills. When I found it and left, I was so happy. And so were they!

I have yet to find a highly political organization that runs at top efficiency and possesses high morale. Just look at most of our government institutions and think about the leaders and workers in them. Most people could certainly use improvement, and moving away from positional leadership would do a lot to help them.

One of my all-time favorite TV characters is Barney Fife, the deputy in the little town of Mayberry on
The Andy Griffith Show
. Don Knotts played Barney, and along with Andy Griffith, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor, he gave America one of its most successful TV series. I have watched every episode, some many times.

Barney Fife was your typical positional leader. His desire to feel important and have authority created many humorous story lines. Armed with one bullet and a badge, he took every opportunity to let people know he was in charge. He had rights as a lawman, and he wanted people to acknowledge them. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for us in the audience), no one else took him seriously. The result was comic chaos, which seemed to follow him everywhere he went.

In contrast, Sheriff Andy, who seemed to spend all of his time being a calming influence on his misguided deputy, had the real authority and power. But he rarely used his position to get things done. He didn’t carry a gun, either. Everyone knew he was the real leader and could handle any situation. Andy’s focus was on his responsibility to the people he served, not on demanding respect or receiving the rights due to him because of his position.
The Andy Griffith Show
was lighthearted fun, but it was also a study in leadership.

Poet T. S. Eliot asserted, “Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important…. They don’t mean to do harm…. They are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” That’s what positional leaders do: they do things to make themselves look and feel important.

Inevitably, positional leaders who rely on their rights develop a sense of entitlement. They expect their people to serve them, rather than looking for ways to serve their people. Their job description is more important to them than job development. They value territory over teamwork. As a result, they usually emphasize rules and regulations that are to their advantage, and they ignore relationships. This does nothing to promote teamwork and create a positive working environment.

Just because you have the right to do something as a leader doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do. Changing your focus from rights to responsibilities is often a sign of maturity in a leader. Many of us were excited in early leadership years by the authority we had and what we could do with it. That power can be exhilarating, if not downright intoxicating. It’s the reason President Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Each of us as leaders must strive to grow up and grow into a leadership role without relying on our rights. If we can mature in that way, we will start to change our focus from enjoying authority for its own sake to using authority to serve others.

The phrase “it’s lonely at the top” must have been uttered by a positional leader—either that or by someone with a personality disorder! Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely. People make it that way.

Positional leaders can become lonely if they misunderstand the functions and purpose of leadership. Being a good leader doesn’t mean trying to be king of the hill and standing above (and set apart from) others. Good leadership is about walking beside people and helping them to climb up the hill with you. If you’re atop the hill alone, you may get lonely. If you have others alongside you, it’s hard to be that way.

King-of-the-hill leaders create a negative work environment because they are insecure and easily threatened. Whenever they see people with potential starting to climb, it worries them. They
fear that their place on top is being threatened. As a result, they undermine the people who show talent, trying to guard their position and keep themselves clearly above and ahead of anyone else. What is the usual result? The best people, feeling undermined and put down, leave the department or organization and look for another hill to climb. Only average or unmotivated people stay. And they know their place is at the bottom. That develops an us-versus-them culture, with the positional leader standing alone on top. Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely. People who feel lonely have created a situation that makes them feel that way.

As I began to lead people early in my career, I learned a valuable lesson. I always tried to set up new leaders for success, and I often gave them everything I could to help them become established leaders. A leadership position. My time. My influence. Modeling. Resources. Leadership opportunities. And here’s what I found: if I gave the good potential leaders little or nothing, they still succeeded and became good leaders. In contrast, when I gave mediocre leaders everything I had, they still didn’t succeed and couldn’t establish themselves as good leaders. The position does not make the leader—the leader makes the position.

Whenever people use their position to lead others for a long time and fail to develop genuine influence, they become branded as positional leaders, and they rarely get further opportunities for advancement in that organization. They may move laterally, but they rarely move up.

If you have been a positional leader, you can change, and this book will help you. However, you need to recognize that the longer you have
relied on your position, the more difficult it will be for you to change others’ perception about your leadership style. You may even need to change positions in order to restart the process of developing influence with others.

When people rely on their positions for leadership, the result is almost always high turnover. One of the chapters in my book
Leadership Gold
is titled, “People Quit People, Not Companies.” In it I explain how people often take a job because they want to be part of a particular company, but when they quit it’s almost always because they want to get away from particular people. Good leaders leave an organization when they have to follow bad leaders. Good workers leave an organization when the work environment is poor. Interview a person who has left and the odds are high that they did not leave their job. They left the people they had to work with.
⁵

Every company has turnover. It is inevitable. The question every leader must ask is, “Who is leaving?” Are the 8s, 9s, and 10s leaving? Or the 1s, 2s, and 3s? If 8s are leaving and 3s are coming in, there’s trouble ahead. Organizations with Level 1 leadership tend to lose their best people and attract average or below-average people. The more Level 1 leaders an organization has, the more the door swings out with high-level people and in with low-level ones.

About a year ago, my friend Linda Sasser wrote me a note in which she talked about the dynamics that occur when higher-level employees find themselves working for a positional leader. She says that these people often become Lost Leaders. Here’s what Linda wrote:

What a waste of time and talent. Every time a productive worker or potential leader is driven away by a positional leader, the organization suffers. It’s a fact that an organization will not function on a level higher than its leader. It just doesn’t happen. If a Level 1 leader is in charge, the organization will eventually be a Level 1 organization. If the leader is on Level 4, then the organization will never get to Level 5—unless the leader grows to that level.

Can you name one organization that gets the least from its people and is the best at what it does? Can you name one coach who gets the least from team members and has won a championship? Can you name one teacher who gets the least from students yet ranks highest among peers? Can you name one country that gets the least from its citizens and is respected by the world? Can you name one marriage that gets the least from each spouse that yields a great long-term relationship? No, I bet you can’t. Why? Because it is impossible to be successful with people who give the least.

People who rely on their positions and titles are the weakest of all
leaders. They give their least. They expect their position to do the hard work for them in leadership. As a result, their people also give their least. Some people who work for a positional leader may start out strong, ambitious, innovative, and motivated, but they rarely stay that way. Typically they become one of three types of people:

Followers who thrive in Level 1 leadership environments love clocks and they want them visible at all times throughout the building. Why? Because every moment at work is evaluated according to the clock. Before noon, whenever they look at the time, they think in terms of how long they’ve been there. “I’ve been here two hours.” After lunch, it’s how much time they have left. “Only two more hours until I go home.” The clock also makes them aware of the more important times of the day: break time and lunchtime.

In Level 1 leadership environments, the morale of the employees begins to pick up after the afternoon break because it begins the countdown to the highlight of their day: quitting time. Around 4:30, the energy in the place really begins to increase. People are moving about the office putting things away. They clear their desks so that nothing can hinder them from leaving work at exactly 5:00 p.m.

At 4:45 they are walking around visiting and saying their good-byes to fellow employees. After all, they wouldn’t want to seem rude by not saying good-bye when they go flying out of the door.

At 4:50 they go to the restroom one last time, no matter how much of their day they may have spent there. They wouldn’t want to waste valuable personal time in the bathroom when they can do it on company time.

At 4:55 they replace their work shoes for track shoes. This ensures a quick getaway.

At 4:58 they get into starting position and wait for the clock to sound.

At 5:00 p.m. everyone is gone. Their exits have been coordinated, practiced, and timed to perfection.

At 5:02, not a single car is left in the parking lot, each one having been carefully backed into place that morning, ready for a quick escape.

Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit. But that description is not that far from the truth. Clock watchers always know how much time is left before they get to go home, and they never want to work a moment beyond quitting time. But think about it: when the people who work with you can hardly wait to quit working with you, something is not working!