Leadership Levels
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on July 16, 2012
I recently read The Five Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell. I thought it was a great book. You can read my Amazon review of it here. I also recently blogged about how much I’ve grown as a result of my volunteer leadership position at my church. After reading Maxwell’s book I took steps to apply its lessons to my volunteer position.
Maxwell’s 5 leadership levels are basically this:
Level 1 – Having a leadership position
Level 2 – Personally knowing those you lead
Level 3 – Your leadership is causing successful work to be accomplished
Level 4 – You are developing other leaders from among those you lead
Level 5 – Your reputation from the other levels gives you a reputation of greatness
Level five requires a long history of successful leadership and relies more on how others perceive you. So really the first four levels are the ones where we can directly and immediately make an impact. Also, as followers come and go a leader will always be at different levels with different people. Realizing this, I made an application sheet for how I could be growing in each of the first four levels with the volunteers I lead. Here are the four questions I make myself answer each month.
Level 1:
How can I assert myself in my position this month and use that position to benefit others?
Level 2:
What do I need to learn about those I lead & how can I show interest in each of them personally?
Level 3:
What can I do this month that will improve our team’s performance?
Level 4:
What would I like to teach or add to the lives of some of those I lead this month?
By forcing myself to give a different answer each month I am continuing to grow as a leader and employ new approaches to my leadership.
Feel free to use these questions as you grow through the five levels of leadership.
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