The Five Levels Of Leadership

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Are you stuck in a position at your job that you don’t like?  Are you a member of a team that is lacking direction or focus?  Are you looking for a way to set yourself apart, both as an individual and as a team or organization?  John C. Maxwell may have some advice for you.

Maxwell’sThe 5 Levels of Leadership is a guide to identifying potential leaders, developing others as leaders, and growing, yourself, as a leader.  As inferred by the title, Maxwell identifies 5 possible levels of leadership that one can reach throughout his or her lifetime.  Additionally, Maxwell discusses both the positives and negatives of being at each level as well as ways to perform your best while at that level and ways to go about moving up to the next level.

According to Maxwell, the 5 Levels of Leadership are:

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1.  Position

He describes positional leadership as “people following you because they have to” (6).  He says people’s job title is what defines them as a leader and gives them authority over their subordinates at this level (7).  He considers these people to be exclusively bosses, not leaders (7).

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2.  Permission

At this second level, people start following you because of who you are and because they want to (8).  Unlike Level 1 where people had to follow due to the hierarchy that had been created, as a Level 2 leader people are following you by choice because of the relationships you have built with them (8).  Additionally, these feelings between you and those you lead cannot be exclusive.  Maxwell says, “You can like people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without liking them.” (8)

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3.  Production

The third level boils down to results.  It’s great that you have earned the respect of those you work with and they like you enough to follow you, but now you need to get things done (8).  A likable leader who doesn’t get results will only be able to do so much with their influence.  Eventually, people will need to see some type of accomplishment.  This is what makes a Level 3 leader so potent at creating change--they can take a following of people who fully believes in them and direct them towards pursuing and achieving a common goal (9).

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4.  People Development

A lot of leaders would be pretty satisfied with themselves after reaching Level 3, but that’s the issue--it’s about themselves.  A Level 4 leader is one who is able to take his or her previously established relationships and start to invest in those people and develop them into leaders themselves.  This takes someone who is not content with merely winning games, but rather is striving for the bigger picture of winning championships (9).  Maxwell says about this Level 4 leaders, “Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” (9) Reaching this level is being able to answer “No.” to the simple question of, “Is being good, good enough for you?” and then doing something about it that is outside of yourself.

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5.  Pinnacle

Level 5 leadership boils down to the quality of leaders you develop.  In order to reach the Pinnacle Level, you have to be able to develop others into Level 4 leaders (10).  In other words, you have to develop leaders who are able to develop leaders on their own.  You have to be willing to put a significant amount of time into developing your relationships with those whom you wish to develop as leaders in order to guide them to the point where they can teach others what you have taught them.  In essence, you have gone from only influencing those around you to being able to indirectly influence those around them, as well.  That is huge.  As Maxwell says, “Level 5 leaders develop Level 5 organizations,” (10) so, once again, are you alright with settling for “good”, or are you striving to achieve more?

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in developing their leadership skills, is already in a position or wanting to be in a position of leadership, or is wanting to maximize the potential of their team or organization.

Given these brief descriptions of the 5 levels, how would you rate yourself as a leader?  What do you do on a daily basis to improve your leadership skills?

Your body.  Your training.

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