13L

The Leader Within You

By Scott Derrick - Washington, DC

In this column, I would like to highlight an excellent book by John C. Maxwell entitled Developing the Leader Within You. In this book, Maxwell does a truly admirable job of covering the basics of the subject of leadership. The book, which is easy to read because of Maxwell's casual and accessible writing style, includes an enlightening discussion of how we can improve our leadership potential by thinking in terms of levels or steps.

Before introducing these levels, Maxwell first provides his definition of leadership:

Leadership is influence. That's it. Nothing more; nothing less.

After quickly dispensing with definitional issues, Maxwell moves to what he refers to as the five "levels of leadership." Maxwell states that he developed this five-level approach as a way to assist others in increasing their degrees of influence. He then summarizes each level:

Level 1: Position -- On this basic level of leadership, the influence that you have is that which comes with your job title. You are "in control" because you have been appointed to the position. In that position, you may indeed have authority, but real leadership is more than having authority. As Maxwell notes, people will not generally follow a positional leader beyond his or her stated authority.

Level 2: Permission -- Under this level of leadership, you lead by developing collegial relationships with those around you. Your time and energy is focused on learning about the needs and goals of each employee. Maxwell points out that people who are unable to build solid relationships will soon find out that they are unable to sustain effective leadership over the long term.

Level 3: Production -- On this level of leadership, people follow you because of what you have done for the organization. Success is sensed by most employees, and they like you and what you are doing. Maxwell states that problems are often fixed with very little effort because of the "big mo" -- momentum.

Level 4: People Development -- With this level of leadership, people follow you because of what you have done for them. This level recognizes that a leader's main responsibility is developing others to accomplish goals -- both their personal and organizational goals. Maxwell notes that loyalty to the leader reaches its highest point when the follower has personally grown through the mentorship of the leader.

Level 5: Personhood -- On this level of leadership, people follow because of who you are and what you represent. This level is reserved for leaders who have generally spent years growing people and organizations. Maxwell observes: "Few make it. Those who do are bigger than life."

In sum, I found Maxwell's discussion of these five levels of leadership to be quite compelling. I must say that I agree with his premise that as you move up in the levels, the stronger your leadership will be with others.