Dear friend,
As we discussed over the past two weeks about how you create your game plan to reach your goals, you have probably realized by now that you will need the help of others to reach those goals. The Law of Significance says that “One is too low of a number to achieve significance”. You can only go so far alone. You may go faster sometimes by going alone, but you will certainly go further with a team of people you lead.
If you are an experienced leader, this is not new to you. But I have found that it has a lot of value for leaders at different stages of their careers to have a simple model that allows them to clearly understand where they are with their people on the leadership relationship.
John Maxwell developed the “5 Levels of Leadership” model, that I have been successfully using personally and with my clients over the last years. The interesting thing about the model is that you can very easily assess where you are with each person in your team, use it for them to assess where they are among them, and define from there the best strategy to move the team up.
Let’s have a close look at the different stages and how to move from one to the other:
Level 1 – Positional leadership. At a personal level, people follow you only because of your title. Being at this level with someone means that you have very little real influence with that person. People follow you because they have to, not because they want to. At an organisational level, a Level 1 group is characterized by people not going the extra mile or making any extra effort when required by the leader. While this is a starting point, you want to quickly move up to the next level.
Level 2 – Relationship. At this level, there is a personal link that gets established. As a leader, you have a to like people to be able to lead them well. Your genuine interest in the people you intend to lead will start building trust, which is a key component for a successful leadership relationship and a successful organisation. This step is often overlooked and as leaders and organisations we try to get to the next level without paying attention to the relationship aspect. While achieving results can be done without mastering this level, doing it for the long term and building an organisation that consistently achieves and over delivers needs this level to be taken seriously.
Level 3 – Production. At this level, you start creating results with the people you lead. You start creating momentum and this allows you to increase your influence with them. People succeed in the present thanks to the work they do with you and your trust bucket gets fuller and fuller. As an organisation, the results are there and it’s easy to keep the motivation and incentive high as long as people feel excited by the job they do.
Level 4 – People Development. In order to keep the momentum growing and lasting, you need to pay attention also to how you help people grow. Great results will only go so far and may start declining if people start feeling like they are stagnating. Remember the 60%30%-10% principle we discussed for your own development plan in our previous challenge ? At this level, you want to start thinking of it for each person you lead. This will allow you to reach this level with them. At an organisational level, the employees become the best ambassadors of a level 4 organisation. Your employer branding shines and people start wanting to come to work for your organisation proactively.
Level 5 – Pinnacle. You’re at this level when you have mastered the four levels below and you start helping leaders move up to level 4 themselves. The “multiplier effect” of your leadership is at its best here. At an organisational level, Level 4 leadership becomes the norm and you start shining also with your ecosystem. Not only by the results you generate with and for them, but also because of the quality of the people you are able to “export”. Your influence goes then outside of your own organisation and expands your market segment.
Of course, in order to move up the leadership levels model, you need to know where you are with every person you look at influencing and leading. As you keep building and implementing your plan, you need to include on it those that are critical for your success.
Whether it is your professional success or your success as a parent, family member or member of a community. Whatever the aspect is that you’re looking at in your plan, you can apply this model. This will help you develop intentionality.
So my challenge for you this week is the following:
For every aspect of your personal plan, identify the 5 key people on that environment that you will need to lead for your plan to be successful.
Take a few moments to think about your relationship with each of those people, and rate it from level 1 to 5 for each of them.
Think now about what would be needed on your side, to make a step into the next level with every person. Ideally, if you’re interested in a long term leadership relationship with that person, you want to move up to level 4 over time.
Think about what is going to be your first quick, easy action with each person to make the change you are targeting, so you get the ball rolling. Identify a time-frame to implement that action. Start this week.
So here we go. As usual, you can contact me if you want me to help you in any way. Like having a look to your plan and challenging it with you, for example.
Let me know how it goes. And don't hesitate to forward this message to anyone around you who may need it. They are very much welcome in our community!
Create an awesome week for you and those around you!
Ezequiel
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