The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential (12 page)

People who rely on position often mistakenly believe that it is the responsibility of the people to come to them for what they need and want. Good leaders understand that it is
their
responsibility to move toward their people. Leaders are initiators.

Greek philosopher Socrates said, “Let him that would move the world, first move himself.” If you want to move up to Level 2 in your leadership, you need to get out of your territory. You need to stop being king of the hill, get down from your high place, and find your people. You must move beyond your job description, both in terms of the work you do and the way you interact with your people. You must make it your responsibility to learn who they are, find out what they need, and help them and the team win.

In order to do anything new in life, we must be willing to leave our comfort zone. That involves taking risks, which can be frightening. However, each time we leave our comfort zone and conquer new territory, it not only expands our comfort zone but also enlarges us. If you want to grow as a leader, be prepared to be uncomfortable. But know this: the risks are well worth the rewards.

P
eople frequently want to know how the many concepts in my various books go together. As I’ve taught the 5 Levels of Leadership over the years, the book they’ve asked most about is
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
. “Which laws do you practice on Level 1?” people ask. The truth is that every law can be practiced on every level. However, it is also true that certain laws are best learned as a person grows and moves up the 5 Levels of Leadership. I’ve included an explanation of the Laws of Leadership that best apply to each level. They are certainly not necessary for one to learn the 5 Levels, but they are provided for reference in the event that it can serve you in your growth process.

Every person has a lid on his or her leadership potential. We are not all gifted equally. The challenge we all face is growing and developing to our full leadership potential, thereby raising the lid on our actual leadership ability.

The single greatest hindrance to a leader’s growth is becoming positional in thinking. Anytime you think you’ve arrived—whether your position is the lowest or the highest in the organization—you’ve
lowered your expectations for yourself, sold your leadership short, and fallen into a no-growth mind-set. People cannot reach their leadership potential by staying on Level 1.

If you are willing to forget about title and position, and instead focus on your potential, you will remove a great weight that would otherwise hold you down. If you want to break through your leadership lids and lift your leadership, you must move beyond Level 1.

A leadership position can be received in a day, but leadership development is a lifelong process. Those who have a Position mind-set often say things like “Today I became a leader.” What they need to think is,
Today I received a leadership position. I will endeavor every day to become a better leader.
That is embracing the Law of Process. Making that kind of statement emphasizes that the leadership appointment is only a starting point, and staying there means you would never actually begin your leadership journey.

When you receive a leadership position, it’s wise to recognize how early you are in the leadership journey and how much you still have to learn. The Law of Navigation is a good reminder of that.

My friend Bill Hybels loves to sail and is quite an accomplished sailor. A few years ago, he and I and our wives enjoyed a few days sailing in the British Virgin Islands along with two other couples. The boat we rented came with its own captain and crew, but we also got to participate in the sailing of the vessel. On the first day out, Bill had me
at the wheel and he gave me instructions as I attempted to sail the boat. It wasn’t easy, but after a few hours I began to get the hang of it.

Why do I mention this? Because as a novice sailor, I was able to steer the boat, but I certainly could not chart the course. It took an experienced leader to do that. Bill could have done it, but in our case, the boat’s captain did.

If you are on Level 1 as a leader, know your limitations. You can learn to chart the course, but to do that you must move up to higher levels of leadership.

T
o change from a Level 1 leader to a Level 2 leader, you must first change the way you think about leadership. No one has to remain a positional leader, though the longer you have relied on your position, the longer it may take you to change the way you lead and the way others see you. You will have to earn your way up from Level 1.

Here are four statements you must embrace internally before you will be able to change from a positional leader to a permissional one:

We live in a culture that values titles. We admire and respect people with titles such as doctor, CEO, chairman, PhD, Academy Award winner, director, Nobel Prize winner, salesman of the year, president, poet laureate. But what do those titles actually mean? Very little. The titles are ultimately empty, and you must learn to see them that way. People who make it their career goals to gain certain titles are not setting themselves up to be the best leaders they can be.

Who the person is and the work he does is what really matters. If the work is significant and adds value to people, then it doesn’t need to come with a title. Many times we don’t even have any control over whether we receive a title or an award. And for every person who has received recognition, there are thousands of others working without recognition who perhaps deserve even greater honor. Yet they continue
to work without credit because the work itself and the positive impact on others are reward enough.

Developing an awareness that titles have little real value and that Position is the lowest level of leadership brings a healthy sense of dissatisfaction with Level 1 as well as a desire to grow. A Position is not a worthy destination for any person’s life. Security does not give purpose. Leadership is meant to be active and dynamic. Its purpose is to create positive change.

If you want to become a better leader, you can’t focus on rules and procedures to get things done or keep things going. You must develop relationships. Why? Because the reality is that
people
get things done, not the playbook they use. And because people are the power behind any organization, they are its most valuable—and appreciable—asset.

Learning this lesson made a huge difference in my leadership life. During the first few years of my career, I was a Level 1 leader. I focused way too much on position and became position-driven. I was constantly wondering,
What are my rights? Is my authority clear? Where am I on the organizational chart? How do I compare to other leaders? How can I climb the ladder? Who do I need to know? What’s the next step in my career path?
My preoccupation with position created frustration within me; if your focus is on position, you’re never satisfied if you’re not at the top. (Ironically, if you’re focused on position and you do get to the top, you won’t be satisfied with that either.)

I’m sorry to say that back then I was willing to use people to improve my position instead of using my position to improve people. That wasn’t right. And it didn’t work. When I finally realized that relying
on Position and bossing over people wasn’t the best way to get the best out of people, my attitude and actions started to change. I began to put people ahead of position. Instead of powering down, I started peopling up. Immediately, people noticed that my attitude had changed toward them.

It took some time to develop the people skills I needed to become a better leader, but it took no time at all to let others know that I valued them, expressing appreciation for them and taking interest in them personally. So that’s a change you can make quickly, too. And here’s the immediate benefit: The moment people noticed the shift in my attitude, I noticed a positive shift in their response to me. They began to help me, which allowed me to help them.

Positional leaders often believe that they need to have all the answers. After all, if they admit that they don’t know something, it shows weakness. And if they show weakness, how are they going to stay on top of the hill and maintain their precious position? To get off of Level 1, a leader has to think differently.

When I started my career right out of college, I naïvely thought I had all the answers. Within a few months I realized I didn’t, but I was afraid to admit it. My insecurity and immaturity caused me to act like Mr. Answer Man. It didn’t matter how far outside of my expertise the question was. For a few years, I tried the “fake it ’til you make it” approach to leadership. However, I didn’t fake it well, and others could tell. And, of course, that kind of approach doesn’t help you to actually make it!

I began to realize that a leader’s job is not to know everything but to attract people who know things that he or she does not. Once I recognized that one of us is not as smart as all of us, I stopped bringing people together to give them the answers and started calling on them
to help me find the answers. That transformed my leadership, not only because I could be myself and stop pretending that I knew more than I did, but also because it harnessed the power of shared thinking.

Because positional leaders often work alone, standing atop the hill of leadership while their subordinates work together at the bottom, their teams work far under their capabilities. Why? Stand-alone leadership doesn’t lead to teamwork, creativity, collaboration, or high achievement. What a shame, and what a waste of potential.

My father’s generation possessed a lot of lonely leaders whose motto was “My way or the highway.” As a result, they missed out on a lot. Moving up in the 5 Levels of Leadership is all about others. It means relating well to other people. It requires leaders to be examples for other people. It challenges them to develop and equip people. The higher you go up the levels of leadership, the more you realize that good leadership is about leading
with
others, not just leading others. It requires collaboration. It requires inclusion. It requires sacrifice of selfish personal ambition for the sake of the team and the vision of the organization. It means being part of something greater than yourself. It means putting others ahead of yourself and being willing to go only as fast as the people you lead.

A friend told me that when a group of Marines go into combat, they don’t wear their insignia of rank. One reason is that they don’t want officers and noncommissioned officers to be targeted by the enemy. But there’s also another reason—when Marines go into battle, they know who’s in charge. The chain of command has already been clearly established. Nobody needs a reminder of it. But not wearing
symbols of rank also sends a clear message from leaders to followers: we are all in this together. We live or die together, regardless of rank.

Moving up from Level 1 to Level 2 requires the greatest personal change from a leader. It requires a change of beliefs and attitudes toward other people and leadership. But here’s the truth: once you decide to include others in the leadership journey, you are well on your way to achieving success at the other levels.

A
s you reflect on the upsides, downsides, beliefs, and best behaviors of the Position level of leadership, use the following guidelines to help you plan your growth.

1. Thank the People Who Invited You into Leadership:
   If you’ve ever been asked to take a leadership position, it’s an indication that someone believed in you. Whether you were invited to lead a week or a decade ago, it’s never too late to express gratitude to the person who invited you to the leadership table. Take the time to write a note or an e-mail to thank that person and express the positive impact leading has had on your life.
   

2. Dedicate Yourself to Leadership Growth:
   You will not grow as a leader unless you commit to getting out of your comfort zone and trying to be a better leader than you are today. Write a declaration of commitment to growth that describes what you will do to grow and how you will approach it. Then sign and date it. Put it someplace where you can reference it in the future. This marks the day you committed to becoming the leader you have the potential to be and to working your way up the 5 Levels of Leadership.
   

3. Define Your Leadership:
   Level 1 is the best place to spend time defining your leadership and deciding what shape you want it to take. Use the three questions contained in the Level 1 section of the book to describe the kind of leader you desire to be:
   

   • Who am I?
   

   • What are my values?
   

   • What leadership practices do I want to put into place?
   

4. Shift from Position to Potential:
   In the past, how have you expressed your career goals? Have you thought in terms of destinations, such as specific positions and titles, or have you thought in terms of the journey, meaning the work you will do while trying to achieve the greater vision? If you’ve thought in terms of position, change your focus. Instead, think about your leadership potential. What kind of leader do you have the potential to become? What kind of positive effect can you have on the people you lead? What kind of impact can you make on the world? Rewrite your goals to embrace a non-positional mind-set. It will make a difference in your teachability and the way you treat your team members.
   

5. Focus on the Vision:
   One of the ways to reduce an emphasis on title or position is to focus more on the vision of the organization and to think of yourself more as someone who helps clear the way for your people to fulfill that vision. To help you do that, take some time to rewrite your job description in those terms. Write down the vision of the organization and how your team or department helps to contribute to that vision. Then write down specific ways you can make it easier for your team members to do their part to fulfill the vision.
   

6. Shift from Rules to Relationships:
   If you have in the past relied on rules, regulations, and procedures to guide the people
   you lead, then you need to make a shift to a more relational approach to leadership. Begin by looking for value in every person you lead. Then go out of your way to communicate how much you value each person. People are the most appreciable asset of any organization. You must be certain to treat them that way.
   

7. Initiate Contact with Your Team Members:
   If you have waited for people on your team to come to you for leadership, you need to change your approach to connecting with them. Get out of your office or cubicle and initiate contact with them. Make it your goal to get to know them, express your appreciation to them, encourage them, and offer your support to them.
   

8. Don’t Mention Your Title or Position:
   If you are in the habit of pulling rank or reminding people about your title or position, commit yourself to stop doing those things. I would even recommend going as far as not mentioning your title anytime you introduce yourself. Do whatever you have to do to identify less with your title and position and more with how you contribute to the team or organization.
   

9. Learn to Say, “I Don’t Know”:
   If you have led thinking that you had to have all the answers, then change your approach to leadership. Good leaders don’t have all the answers, but do enlist and empower people who will find the answers needed. Begin taking this approach immediately. For the next month, when someone asks for an answer that you don’t know, admit it. Then ask for the opinions of the people on your team. If they don’t have the answers to questions, ask them if they know people who do. Make problem solving collaborative.
   

10. Find a Leadership Coach:
    Most people find it very difficult to grow in leadership without the help of someone who’s ahead of them in the journey. Think about the best leaders you know personally, and ask one of them to coach or mentor you. Ask if
    you can meet with the person four to twelve times a year. Always prepare diligently before you meet by planning what questions you will ask and what problems you will ask for advice in solving. If you aren’t prepared or don’t have questions, don’t ask for a meeting. Don’t ever waste your mentor’s time.