Less Than 1% of Leaders Reach Level 5
Leadership isn’t a position you hold; it’s a journey and a process. Just because you have the word “supervisor”, “manager”, “director”, or “VP” in your job title, you’re not automatically a great leader. Lucky for you Jeff has reached Pinnacle Level 5 – People follow him because of who he is and what he represents. You get to this level when you develop new leaders that are themselves able to build leaders.
WHAT Leadership could be
Are Your Leaders Growing?
See if you can identify the leadership category you, or the leaders around you, would fall. Imagine what it would be like for all the leaders in your organization, including you, to move up a level. A management title is not the goal. It is a starting point.
Level 1: Position
Position is always the beginning of the leadership journey. Leadership is granted because you were given or won the job title, but you aren’t yet able to command respect from colleagues, either inside of or outside of your team. However, a good leader may have recognized this in you and promoted you because of it.
You have authority over your team but is hard to get the most out of them because influence is not yet there. Your team does what you tell them because they have to.
You might be the boss, but you aren’t yet a leader.
Level 2: Permission
On this level your team follows you because they want to. You listen to your people and they listen to you.
Leaders on this level make people know that they matter. They make each member of their team feel important. They start making people outside of their team feel the same.
People want to work for you because they feel valued, trusted and part of the team. Because of your strong relationships, people permit you to lead them.
Level 3: Production
Level 3 separates the real leaders from those who simply hold a position. True leaders get results. When your team and others see you achieving fantastic results, they have a reason to follow you. The more exceptional your results, the more your leadership intensifies.
This is the level where a leader can start to effect change in an organization. Level 3 leaders take on big projects and they handle complex or troublesome issues. Most importantly, they take their team members to the next level.
Level 4: People Development
At level 4 leaders change from focusing on delivering results to developing people. You probably will have a difficult time identifying any managers in your organization that have this focus. They are out there, but are they in your company?
Leaders at this level are making copies of themselves, growing their influence as they transform followers into leaders in their own right. Unleashing the unique strengths of every new leader under you transforms your entire company.
Level 5: Pinnacle
Not many people make it to this level and those that do tend to be naturally gifted. This level is to identify, because Level 5 leaders develop other people into level 4 leaders, who are themselves quite rare.
Developing leaders who do not just follow, but who actually lead is very difficult and time consuming. It takes commitment, judgment, and skill. If you succeed, your team, department, and company will be functioning at an extraordinarily high level.