The John Maxwell 5 Levels of Leadership training last week the the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta was a one day brain dump exercise of an entire book… and I liked it!
The levels idea was pretty simplistic, but in reality it does work that way. The levels are:
- Position
- Permission
- Production
- People Development
- Pinnacle
“Position” is the obvious one where a company gives you a role and people have to follow your direction because of the position… think supervisors, leads, shift manager, etc.
What follows after position is basically a natural progression of leadership, or at least that is what you would think. But most people don’t think about leadership so they really miss the boat in many relationships.
If you take the time to evaluate yourself and your relationships with others you will see some natural progressions and some that seem to have stalled. You know that some of those that have stalled could really benefit you and your company if you were able to take it to the next level. Recognize it. Work on it. It is worth it. This book gives you some pretty good tools to do just that.
Another aspect that I really like is the understanding that you can be at different levels of leadership with different people in different situations at different times… Wow, that was a lot. Pretty obvious when you stop to think about it, but that would require you to think and act differently… sorry, I couldn’t help myself!
I’ve known very few people I’ve even thought were close to level 5 leaders, but the discussion of John Wooden near the end of the book is a great read. Would have loved to have been coached by, led or even just known such a remarkable man.