The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential (19 page)

One day during the American Revolutionary War, George Washington rode up to a group of soldiers trying to raise a beam to a high position. The corporal who was overseeing the work kept shouting words of encouragement, but they couldn’t manage to do it. After watching their lack of success, Washington asked the corporal why he didn’t join in and help.

The corporal replied quickly, “Do you realize that I am the corporal?”

Washington very politely replied, “I beg your pardon, Mr. Corporal, I did.”

Washington dismounted his horse and went to work with the soldiers until the beam was put into place. Wiping the perspiration from his face, he said, “If you should need help again, call on Washington, your commander in chief, and I will come.”

Level 3 leaders help their people to see what productivity looks like. And with each day of productivity, the team gets one step closer to making the vision a reality. That encourages members of the team.
It validates their efforts. It makes the vision that much clearer. And clarity is compelling. Productivity also expands the vision, because with increased confidence and skill, the people doing the work recognize that they can actually accomplish more than they may have believed was possible.

Many people in leadership positions try to solve problems by using systems. Or they pay others to try to solve problems for them. But the truth is, leaders cannot delegate the solving of problems to someone else. They have to be active in breaking through obstacles, putting out fires, correcting mistakes, and directing people. Leaders on the Production level do that. And once their effectiveness becomes contagious and spreads throughout the team, productivity begins to solve many problems—many more than management or consultants ever will.

Historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle observed, “Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.” Productivity is inspiring. People who feel good about themselves often produce good results. And good results create positive momentum and high morale.

For years I wondered which comes first: high morale or high productivity. I have heard good arguments for both sides of this chicken-or-egg question. I have seen high morale stimulate production. I have also seen productivity create high morale. I can’t say that it always happens one way, but here is what I do know: remove production and high morale will fade fast. Keep producing, and high morale will continue for a long time.

Leaders who can produce positive results on Level 3 always have a
positive impact on their team. Leaders who can’t produce always hurt their team. In the War of 1812, the American general William Winder led his forces to defeat against the British—despite a four-to-one troop superiority. In the process, he was taken prisoner. However, realizing that Winder’s incompetence made him an ideal opponent, the British returned him to the American army. As a result, when the British later attacked the American capital, they were able to overcome defending forces led by Winder and burn much of it to the ground. If Winder had been able to advance to Level 3 in leadership prior to taking command as a general, perhaps his men could have stopped the British army’s advances in battle. As it was, he succeeded only in hurting the American cause.

Productive organizations led by Level 3 leaders are hard to beat. Their effectiveness is high, and so is their morale. Former general George C. Marshall said, “Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty…. It is staying power, the spirit which endures to the end—the will to win. With it all things are possible, without it everything else… is for naught.”

When well-led organizations sustain high morale and high productivity over time, they gain momentum, which is any leader’s best friend. Momentum helps a leader do anything and everything more easily. That’s why I call it the great exaggerator. Without momentum, everything is harder to do than it should be. With it, everything is easier.

My wife and I live in coastal Florida on a river that flows into the ocean about a mile from our house. So every day we witness the ebb and flow of the tide. I sometimes enjoy swimming in the river, and I’ve made a discovery. When I’m swimming with the tide, my progress has
little to do with the speed and strength of my strokes. It is determined by how fast the tide is moving. Swim with it and you make fast progress. Swim against it and you move very slowly, no matter how hard you work at it. When the tide is up, all the boats rise. When it is down, all the boats go down. It’s hard to fight the tide.

The same can be said of leadership momentum. Have it on your side, and your performance is actually better than your capability. For example, think about what happened with Apple when the company introduced the iPhone. It created a tidal wave of momentum and vastly increased their market share, not only in smartphones but also in computers. After years of being marginalized as a niche company with a relatively small but very loyal following, they are now mainstream again and going strong. That’s why I often advise leaders to spend less time trying to fix problems and more trying to create momentum.

Level 3 is a momentum-producing environment. Production-level leaders understand momentum and use it to the organization’s advantage. And they also understand that not everyone in an organization helps to create momentum. Here’s what I mean. There are three types of people when it comes to momentum. They are:

The vast majority of people don’t start anything, nor do they stop anything. They just go along for the ride. If momentum is moving, they move with it. If it has stopped, so do they. Their productivity and effectiveness are based almost entirely on what others do to make things happen in the organization. For that reason, they need good leaders who produce and create a productive environment. That is one of the reasons that I define morale as “faith in the leader.”

The second type of person actually hurts morale and momentum in an organization. Not only do they not produce, but they prevent others from producing. These types of people cause problems and, whether intentionally or not, hurt the organization.

The final type, momentum makers, are Level 3 leaders. They produce. They make things happen. They create momentum. Their behavior is consistent with the advice given by the legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, who said, “Don’t worry about making friends; don’t worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can’t hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can’t stand you.”

If you build solid permissional relationships on top of a foundation of positional rights and add the results of productivity, you will gain momentum. And when you do, you’ll find that your work comes to fruition more quickly. That is a benefit of Level 3.

Who wants to leave a championship team? No one! Who wants to leave the cellar dweller? Everyone! People simply love being on a winning team.

Winners attract people—some good, some bad, some average. The key to building a winning team is recognizing, selecting, and
retaining the best people from the ones you attract. The good news is that if you reach Level 3, you know what productivity looks like because you live it. The bad news is that having talented people on the team doesn’t automatically guarantee success. You can still lose with good players, but you cannot win without them. The difference comes from building them into a team, which I’ll discuss later in the chapter. But remember this: if you aren’t a proven producer, you won’t attract and keep other proven producers. That’s why you need to win Level 3.

L
ike everything else in life, the Production level of leadership has its downsides as well as its upsides. With Level 3 leadership, achievement within the organization becomes easier. However, the leadership itself doesn’t become easy. Here are the four main downsides I’ve discovered on Level 3:

All great leaders are productive. However, it is possible to be a producer and not a leader. Personal success does not always translate into team success. Leadership is defined by what a person does with and for others. It is established by making the team better and more productive. It’s measured by what the entire group accomplishes, not by the individual efforts of the person in charge. Good leadership is never based on what someone does by and for himself.

I know many individual producers who have no desire or ability to lead others. Some don’t have the people skills. Others don’t have the desire to be responsible for others or take the time to help them become productive. For example, Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters in baseball. He is the last player to have a batting average over .400
during a season. Yet he was not a successful hitting coach. When his players were not hitting well, he would say, “Keep your eye on the ball.” That advice was given by a man with extraordinary coordination, who was successful because he was able to look at a ball and tell what kind of pitch it was by how the stitching moved. In his mind, it was all simple. All he did was keep his eye on the ball. His players, who were less talented, needed more instruction. Ted Williams was a great player, but he never made it as a leader in baseball.

Organizations all over the world make the mistake of putting high producers into leadership positions only to watch them fail to lead well. I’ve done that. I’ve seen someone make things happen, and I thought,
Wow, this person is going to be a fantastic leader,
only to have that person continue to make things happen for himself but ignore and demoralize his team. That’s not leadership.

Why is this mistake made so often? Because a prerequisite for being an effective leader is the ability to be effective yourself. That is one of the qualifying marks of a leader, but it is not the only qualification. Good leaders must establish themselves in their position on Level 1, gain people’s permission on Level 2, be productive on Level 3,
and
possess the desire to take the entire team to a higher level.

I once saw a cartoon depicting a sales meeting in which the speaker said, “We run our business like a game show—produce and you come back, don’t produce and we have some lovely parting gifts for you.” That’s humorous, but that’s also the way it is for leaders. If a football team doesn’t win, the coach gets fired. If a corporation doesn’t make profits, the CEO gets the ax. If a politician doesn’t do a good job for his constituents, he doesn’t get reelected. In any organization, the
responsibility for results rests with the leaders. What the World War II British field marshal Bernard Law Montgomery said was true: “No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins victories.”

Productivity is measurable. Organizational growth is tangible. Profitability is quantifiable. Leaders who fail to increase them are held accountable. Leaders who add to them are rewarded—and then asked to achieve even more the next time. High performance requires high commitment.

Honestly, many leaders who reach Level 3 tire of leading because of the weight of responsibility they feel. Most leaders experience days when they wish no one was watching their performance, looking to them for direction, or wanting them to make something happen. However, effective leaders understand that the cost of leadership is carrying the responsibility of their team’s success on their shoulders. That is a weight every leader feels starting on Level 3. You will have to decide whether you are willing to carry it.

A large corporation recently made a stray dog a senior vice-president. When asked why they would do such a thing, the board of directors replied, “His ability to get along with anyone, his prompt response to a pat on the back, his interest in watching others work, and his great knack for looking wise while saying nothing made him a natural for the position.” If only leadership were that easy!

Whenever you see a thriving organization, you can be sure that its leaders made some very tough decisions—and are continuing to make them. Success is an uphill journey. People don’t coast their way to effective leadership. As billionaire oilman and environmental advocate
T. Boone Pickens says, “Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.”

If you want to lead at a higher level, be ready to make difficult decisions. On Level 2, leaders often have to start making difficult people decisions. On Level 3, leaders continue to make those but also add difficult production decisions. That makes leadership even more difficult. I’ve already told you about how difficult I found it to make decisions early in my career. You may find it helpful to know that today as I look back, I regret the decisions I failed to make more than I do the wrong decisions I did make. Don’t fall into the same trap I did of postponing decisions when I should have made them.