The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential (11 page)
Read The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential Online
Authors: John C. Maxwell
When the people who work with you can hardly wait to quit working with you, something is not working.
Because positional leaders at Level 1 rely on their rights to lead and use their leadership position as leverage, the people who work for them often rely on their rights as employees and use the limits of their job descriptions as leverage to do only what’s required of them. If they do that often and long enough, they can become just-enough people. They do just enough—to get by, to get paid, and to keep their job. For them, the big question is not, “What can I do to be a valuable employee?” Instead they ask, “How much must I do to be an employee?” They don’t ask, “How can I advance and get promoted?” They only ask, “How can I keep from getting fired?”
When people follow a leader because they have to, they will do only what they have to. People don’t give their best to leaders they like least. They give reluctant compliance, not commitment. They may give their hands but certainly not their heads or hearts. They are like the character in the cartoon here by Randy Glasbergen.
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People don’t give their best to leaders they like least.
Just-enough people have a hard time
showing up. The only commitment they show is to taking off the maximum days allowed for any reason. Some spend a lot of mental energy finding creative ways of eliminating work. If only they used that commitment in positive ways!
In a Level 1 environment, there are always individuals who may be physically present but mentally absent. They do not engage mentally and show up merely to collect a paycheck. This attitude is highly damaging to an organization because it seems to spread. When one person checks out mentally and doesn’t receive any consequences for it, others often follow them. Mental turnover and sloppiness are contagious.
Evidently being mentally disengaged is also pretty common. The Gallup organization has tracked it for years and seen it bounce between 15 and 20 percent in the United States in recent years. In 2006, Gallup published a survey in the
Gallup Management Journal
showing stats through the second quarter of 2006. At that time they found that
among workers eighteen or older in the United States, 15 percent (about 20.6 million people) were actively disengaged. Gallup estimated that it cost employers $328 billion.
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And in a more recent survey, Gallup found that more than half of all German employees were disengaged from their work.
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Clarence Francis, former chairman of General Foods, said, “You can buy a man’s time; you can buy his physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of his skilled muscular motions per hour. But you cannot buy enthusiasm… you cannot buy loyalty… you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.” People who rely on their position at Level 1 rarely earn more than “just enough” from their people. And that means they cannot achieve any great level of success, because accomplishment requires more than that. Success demands more than most people are willing to offer, but not more than they are capable of giving. The thing that often makes the difference is good leadership. That is not found on Level 1.
Success demands more than most people are willing to offer, but not more than they are capable of giving. The thing that often makes the difference is good leadership.
When the people who work for a team, a department, or an organization give little of themselves, the results are mediocre at best. And morale is abysmal. Dick Vermeil, former Super Bowl–winning coach, remarked, “If you don’t invest very much, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much and winning is not very exciting.” That is a pretty good description of a Level 1 leadership environment.
The greatest downside about Level 1 leadership is that it is neither creative nor innovative. It’s leadership that just gets by. And if a leader stays on the
downside
of Level 1 long enough, he may find himself on the
outside
. If a leader fails on Level 1, there’s nowhere to go but U-Haul territory. He’ll be moving out and looking for another job.
How to Make the Most of Your Position
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f you have been leading on Level 1 and relying on your position or title to keep things going, are you destined to stay there forever? Absolutely not! All leaders can learn to lead differently and move up the levels of leadership if they’re willing to change the way they lead on Level 1. How do you make the most of your leadership position while shifting from positional to permissional leadership? By doing three things:
There is nothing wrong with having a leadership position. That’s the starting place for most leadership. However, there is everything wrong with having a positional mind-set. To become an effective leader on Level 1, you must stop relying on Position to push people.
The best leaders don’t use their position at all to get things done. They use other skills. To help new leaders learn this lesson, Linda Sasser sometimes asks potential leaders to start leading
before
receiving a leadership position, just so she can see how they respond and to prepare them to move up the levels of leadership. She described it this way:
When I have a person whom I feel is ready to lead, I assign them a challenge that involves sacrifice, courage, and humbleness.
I need to make sure before a title is given that this person experiences what it is like to be a leader. The choice to lead needs to be theirs and I need them to see that it is not always as glamorous as it appears. So I give them responsibility without the title and I do not tell others that this person will be leading them. The new leader has to figure out how to improve the performance of his or her teammates without having a title or positional authority.
At first it is very difficult for them. They often come back to me with frustrations, asking, “How can I tell them what to do when they don’t have to follow me?” This creates perfect teaching moments. It allows me to question their approach. I say, “Why are you telling them what to do? A leader finds ways to influence action. Have you asked them how you can help them? Ask them about the challenges they have in their position. Maybe there is a way you can work together as a team and make things more efficient for one another. Form a relationship with this person and show interest in them.”
Over time it is so exhilarating to see this process take place. What amazes me is what happens
after
I give these new leaders their title. Their teammates whom they were leading are usually thrilled when the person receives a leadership position. And their attitude of excitement is felt throughout the department. All this happens because the new leader has begun to learn that leadership isn’t about the title or having an office. It’s about influence and the fact that you can make an impact on others.
It’s easy to fall back on position to push people, though it isn’t always effective. Christian Herter, formerly the governor of Massachusetts, learned that the hard way when he was running for a second term of office. One day after a busy morning of campaigning without
any time to stop for lunch, Herter arrived at a church barbecue. He was famished. As he moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put one piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.
“Excuse me,” Governor Herter said. “You mind if I have another piece of chicken?”
“Sorry,” said the woman. “I’m only supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”
“But I’m starved,” the governor said.
“Sorry, only one to a customer,” said the woman.
The governor was a modest man, but he was also hungry, so he decided to throw a little weight around. “Lady, do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.”
“Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Now, move along, mister!”
Nobody likes to be bossed around or to have someone else pull rank. Most people respond very poorly to positional leadership. How do you know if you possess a positional approach to leadership? Review the following concepts, which represent a positional mind-set. Level 1 leaders think:
Top-down—“I’m over you.”
Separation—“Don’t let people get close to you.”
Image—“Fake it till you make it.”
Strength—“Never let ’em see you sweat.”
Selfishness—“You’re here to help me.”
Power—“I determine your future.”
Intimidation—“Do this or else!”
Rules—“The manual says…”
In contrast, higher-level leaders think differently. The following captures how Level 2 leaders think:
Side by Side—“Let’s work together.”
Initiation—“I’ll come to you.”
Inclusion—“What do you think?”
Cooperation—“Together we can win.”
Servanthood—“I’m here to help you.”
Development—“I want to add value to you.”
Encouragement—“I believe you can do this!”
Innovation—“Let’s think outside the box.”
Level 2 relies on people skills, not power, to get things done. It treats the individuals being led as people, not mere subordinates.
Whistler’s Law says, “You never know who’s right, but you always know who is in charge.” Well, I think Whistler must have known some Level 1 leaders. The truth is that if you have to tell people that you’re the leader, you’re not. If you continue to rely on your position to move people, you may never develop influence with them, and your success will always be limited. If you want to become a better leader, let go of control and start fostering cooperation. Good leaders stop bossing people around and start encouraging them. That is the secret to being a people-oriented leader, because much of leadership is encouragement.
“You never know who’s right, but you always know who is in charge.”
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Whistler’s Law
Political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, “It is not the titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.” He understood the nature of leadership and the true weakness of titles. If you want to make the most of your position at Level 1 and to honor whatever titles you possess, then do not rely on them to lead others. Don’t exercise your rights. Don’t become possessive about your perks. And never believe that you
deserve your position. Leadership isn’t a right. It’s a privilege. It must be continually earned. If you possess any sense of entitlement, that will work against you.
If you followed the presidential primaries in 2008, you may have noticed two telling examples of how a sense of entitlement can impact leadership. On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani was the early favorite in the polls and many people believed he would receive the nomination of his party. He must have made a similar assumption, because when the primaries began, he decided not to enter the first few. Instead, he waited until the primary held in Florida. That state had a lot of delegates and he thought he would win it easily, then use that momentum to carry him forward and take the nomination for president. What happened? John McCain, who political experts gave little chance of winning the nomination, worked hard from the beginning and picked up a couple of wins, and the momentum began to shift. By the time the Florida primary came into play, the country was moving toward John McCain and away from Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani’s sense of entitlement probably lost him the nomination.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton was the early favorite in the polls and many people believed she would receive the nomination of her party. Unlike Giuliani, she worked hard from the beginning. However, she seemed to assume that she would have the nomination sewn up by Super Tuesday and didn’t seem to have a strategy beyond that date. Meanwhile, Barack Obama waged his disciplined campaign, gained incredible momentum, and received the nomination. The rest, as they say, is history.
Good leaders don’t take anything for granted. They keep working and keep leading. They understand that leadership must be earned and established. They remain dissatisfied in a way, because dissatisfaction is a good one-word definition for motivation. Good leaders strive to keep the people and the organization moving forward toward its vision. They recognize that organizations can sometimes be filled with appointments, but teams can be built only by good leadership.
You may have been appointed to a Level 1 position, but you will have to lead yourself and others above it. You must be willing to give up what is in order to reach for what could be. Let a vision for making a difference lift you and your people above the confines of job descriptions and petty rules. Forget about your leadership rights. Focus on your responsibility to make a difference in the lives of the people you lead. When you receive a position or title, you haven’t arrived. It’s time to start moving—and taking others along with you.