The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential (3 page)

If you possess a natural gift for leadership, you probably have a passion for growth. You like to see things build. It’s part of your wiring. Go with it. If you have a more modest amount of talent, don’t lose hope. You can make up for a lot by becoming a highly intentional student of leadership, thereby making the most of every opportunity. Either way, remember that success at any level helps you to be successful at every level. So work hard to win the level you’re on now. It will prepare you for the future.

The Law of the Lid in
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
states, “Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.” In short, your effectiveness in getting things done and your ability to work through others is always limited by your leadership. If your leadership is a 4 out of 10, then your effectiveness will be no higher than a 4. Additionally, the Law of Respect says, “People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves.” That means that if you remain a 4, then you will never attract and keep any leaders better than a 3!
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One of the burdens of leadership is that as we go, so go the people we lead. Reaching our potential sets an environment for others to reach theirs. When leaders stop climbing, two questions need to be asked: “Can they improve?” and “Will they improve?” Some people can’t; they’ve reached their limit. Others won’t. Capacity is not the problem: choice and attitude are. If people are willing to choose improvement and change their attitude, the sky is the limit.

Your leadership ability today is whatever it is. You can’t change the past. However, you can change the future. You have a choice concerning your leadership ability from this day forward. If you learn to climb the Levels of Leadership, your leadership ability will improve. And that will positively impact your overall leadership capacity. However, if you choose not to grow as a leader, you better get used to being wherever you currently are, because your situation isn’t likely to improve.

What happens when leaders make a job change and begin leading a new group of people? If you assumed that they stay on the same Level of Leadership, you are mistaken. Every time you lead different people you start the process over again. People don’t recognize you as a Level 4 People Developer when you haven’t worked with them. You have to earn that. The same goes for Levels 3 and 2. You start over at Level 1. However, there is good news. If you reached Level 4 with some other group of people, you already know how to get there. And because you’ve done it before, you can move up the levels much more quickly than the previous time.

Each time you go through the process with a new group of people, you become even more skilled at it. And after you’ve done it enough times, you won’t be discouraged by the prospect of having to repeat it with others. For example, for twenty-five years I led in the religious world. In that time I worked in four different organizations, and in each I had to climb the levels of leadership with the people there. Fortunately, in that world I was able to reach Level 4 with many people, even many who were outside of those particular organizations. However, when I started teaching leadership in the business world, everything changed. I started back at Level 1 with many people. I didn’t let that intimidate or discourage me. I was willing to prove myself and work my way up through the levels again. And now, fifteen years later, I’m enjoying the credibility I’ve earned by developing relationships, being productive in that world, and developing leaders.

Positional leaders are reluctant to have to start over. Because they think of leadership as a destination instead of a process—a noun instead of a verb—they want to hold onto what they have. Their hope is to do it once and be done. Good leaders are willing to re-earn their way back into leadership because they understand that the leadership life will almost always require them to start again at the bottom more than once.

One of my favorite sayings is, “If you think you’re leading but no one is following, then you are only taking a walk.” That thought captures the true nature of leadership and also expresses the most important insight about the 5 Levels of Leadership. To succeed as a leader, you must help others follow you up the levels. If people aren’t following you, you’re not moving up from Level 1 to Levels 2 and 3. If other people following you up the levels
aren’t becoming leaders themselves, then you haven’t reached Level 4. And if the people you’re developing aren’t on Level 4 developing generations of leaders, then you will not achieve Level 5. The entire process includes other people and focuses on helping them. As Quaker leader C. W. Perry said, “Leadership is accepting people where they are, then taking them somewhere.” That’s what the 5 Levels of Leadership is all about!

I trust that you now have a basic understanding of the 5 Levels of Leadership and how it works. But I’m guessing that by now you’re asking yourself,
What level am I on with most of my people?
I make this assertion because every time I teach the 5 Levels, that is a question people want answered.

I’ll help you to do that in a moment, but first let me say this: understanding the 5 Levels of Leadership and knowing what level you are on with each person will determine how you lead them. Good leaders do not lead everyone the same way. Why? Because every person is different, and you’re not on the same level of leadership with every person. Effective leaders interact with followers based on:

• Where they are with that specific follower,
  
• Where the follower perceives the leader to be, and
  
• Where the followers are in their own leadership development.
  

Each of these factors comes into play as you evaluate your leadership and work to develop it.

I believe every person has the ability to improve in leadership. Becoming a leader isn’t a mystical subject. It can be approached very practically, and everyone has the potential to move up to a higher level of leadership.

What is your potential? Do you have the capacity and the desire to become a Level 3, 4, or 5 leader? There’s only one way to find out. Accept the leadership challenge, give growth your best effort, and dive into leadership. If you’re willing to pick up the gauntlet, you’ll never regret it, because there is no better way to increase your positive impact on the world and add value to others than to increase your leadership ability.

I believe this book, with its guides for growth at each level, will help you to navigate the process and help you climb. So good reading, good growing, and as my friend Zig Ziglar says, “I’ll see you at the top.”

T
his is a four-part questionnaire to help you understand where you are in the leadership journey related to the 5 Levels. I want to encourage you to stop moving forward in the book and immediately spend the time required to assess your current level. Completing parts 1 and 2 should not require a large investment of your time. Part 3 may take a bit longer, since it involves other people, but please get that started, too. Its main purpose is to verify whether your instincts and self-perception are correct in Part 2. Part 4 will give you insight into where you stand overall with your team and should be done after you’ve completed parts 1, 2, and 3.

If you do this groundwork, you will be in a much better position to grow in your leadership as you read and work through the remainder of the book.

T
his first section applies to your leadership in general. Please read the following ten statements. Place a check mark next to each one that you agree is true for you. Answer using your first instinct. Please do not skip any questions, and do not go back and change any of your responses.

   I don’t have to remind the people who work for me that I am the leader.

   I think of each person who works for me as an individual person, not just in terms of his or her function or role.

   Most days I look forward to going to work.

   I recognize that the position I’ve been given is an opportunity to learn, not turf to be guarded.