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August 27 - September 19, 2021
leadership is influence; nothing more, nothing less.
leadership is influence. If people can increase their influence with others, they can lead more effectively.
Leadership is a process, not a position.
Good leadership isn’t about advancing yourself. It’s about advancing your team.
Level 1—Position
People who make it only to Level 1 may be bosses, but they are never leaders. They have subordinates, not team members. They rely on rules, regulations, policies, and organization charts to control their people. Their people will only follow them within the stated boundaries of their authority. And their people will usually do only what is required of them.
Level 2—Permission
Level 2 is based entirely on relationships.
On the Permission level, people follow because they want to. When you like people and treat them like individuals who have value, you begin to develo...
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Leaders find out who their people are. Followers find out who their leaders are. People build solid, lasting relationships.
Level 3—Production
based on results. On the Production level leaders gain influence and credibility, and people begin to follow them because of what they have done for the organization.
On Level 3, leaders can become change agents.
Level 4—People Development
Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.
That is what leaders do on Level 4. They use their position, relationships, and productivity to invest in their followers and develop them until those followers become leaders in their own right. The resul...
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Level 5—Pinnacle
developing leaders to the point where they are able and willing to develop other leaders is the most difficult leadership task of all.
People will respond to you based on the level of leadership you’re on with them.
The better the leaders are in an organization, the better everyone in the organization becomes.
When You Change Positions or Organizations, You Seldom Stay at the Same Level
C. W. Perry said, “Leadership is accepting people where they are, then taking them somewhere.”
The only way to improve an organization is to grow and improve the leaders.
Successful leaders work hard to know themselves. They know their own strengths and weaknesses.
Before you can grow and mature as a leader, you must have a clear understanding of your values and commit to living consistently with them—since they will shape your behavior and influence the way you lead.
If you want to become a better leader, you must not only know yourself and define your values. You must also live them out.
Positional leaders focus on control instead of contribution.
a leader’s job is not to know everything but to attract people who know things that he or she does not.
When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other.
when I really open up the channels of communication on Level 2 and really listen, here is what I must give others: Ears—I hear what you say. Eyes—I see what you say. Heart—I feel what you say. Undivided attention—I value who you are and what you say.
Sociologist Amitai Etzioni observed, “When the term community is used, the notion that typically comes to mind is a place in which people know and care for one another—the kind of place in which people do not merely ask ‘How are you?’ as a formality, but care about the answer.”
You can care for people without leading them, but you cannot lead them effectively beyond Level 1 without caring for them.
Nelson Mandela.
He observed, “You see, when there is danger, a good leader takes the front line. But when there is celebration, a good leader stays in the back room. If you want the cooperation of human beings around you, make them feel that they are important. And you do that by being humble.”
Nothing lifts a person like being respected and valued by others.
Retired admiral James Stockdale said, “When the crunch comes, people cling to those they know they can trust—those who are not detached, but involved.”
good leaders never take people out of the equation in anything they do. They always take people into account—where they are, what they believe, what they’re feeling.
Caring Defines the Relationship While Candor Directs the Relationship
Caring Should Never Suppress Candor, While Candor Should Never Displace Caring
spend less time trying to fix problems and more trying to create momentum.
If you build solid permissional relationships on top of a foundation of positional rights and add the results of productivity, you will gain momentum.
Author Stephen Covey asserted, “The job of a leader is to build a complementary team, where every strength is made effective and each weakness is made irrelevant.”
Gerald Brooks says, “When you become a leader you give up the right to think about yourself.”
Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust, says that trust produces speed because it feeds collaboration, loyalty, and, ultimately, results.
