T H E F I V E L E V E L S O F L E A D E R S H I P

THERE ARE FEW THINGS MORE MEANINGFUL AND REWARDING THAN INVESTING IN THE LIFE OF ANOTHER.

Review the levels: Level 1 leadership is about Position. It reflects your right to lead. Level 2 leadership is about Permission. It reflects the quality of your relationships that allow you to lead. Level 3 leadership is about Production. It reflects your ability to deliver results. This is where your influence really begins to gain momentum.

Level 4 leadership is about People Development. It reflects your ability to develop and reproduce other leaders. This is the stage where your leadership gains depth, sustainability, and begins to extend your influence beyond what you can accomplish on your own. This is a result of investing into others and helping them become better people and leaders.

Leaders who are effective on Level 4 invest their time, energy, money and thinking into growing others as leaders. Start by looking at the people you believe have potential and try to assess their ability and willingness to grow. This doesn’t mean you develop everyone. You can’t. Part of the process is to discern whom you should invest in. It is important to consider the leadership capacity, and the desire to grow, of the person you might invest your time in.

Sometimes it’s difficult to become the coach instead of the star. Star performers get more attention than even the best developers. But in the long run, you will impact more people and make a far greater contribution to your organization. In many ways you are helping others to become empowered leaders. If they work directly for you this is done by sharing part of your authority. In this case, entrust people with part of your responsibility. This allows you to expand your leadership and do other things of greater priority.

Developing people is as much about heart as skill. In order to be a good developer it’s important to genuinely care about the person and not just about their

LEVEL FOUR — PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

B Y J O H N C . M A X W E L L

LEADERSHIP COACHINGThe Maxwell Leadership Center LEVEL FOUR 1

Take turns reading aloud the following paragraphs. As you read, underline the ideas that capture your attention.

THE FIVE LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP | LEVEL FOUR — PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

BENEFITS

If you seek to learn and develop Level 4 leadership you will experience these benefits:

1. Your influence is multiplied. When you invest in others who help you lead and make the organization better, your leadership is expanded.

2. New opportunities come your way. As you “rise up” by coaching others, your value increases and you are trusted with new responsibility.

3. You stay fresh and relevant. Nothing keeps you growing personally better than helping others develop! You can only pass on what you know! Developing others makes you stay on top of things and keeps you current.

4. You gain the personal fulfillment that comes from helping others become better leaders, and live better lives.

CHARACTERISTICS

Good leaders who grow and improve in Level 4 leadership demonstrate certain characteristics:

1. They have genuine belief in people. They see potential and believe the best. They do not try to make the person different; the goal is to help the person become better.

2. They are generous with their time. They will give their time because they are passionate about helping people grow.

3. They ask insightful questions. Each answer leads to the next question. The questions stir reflection and growth.

4. They are very good at what they do. Competence precedes coaching. Level 4 leaders don’t have to be good at everything, but really good at something.

5. They challenge those they coach. Level 4 leaders don’t hold back. They challenge/inspire those they develop to achieve their fullest potential.

LEADERSHIP COACHINGThe Maxwell Leadership Center

performance. Not just what they do but also who they are. This takes time, effort and energy.

Good developers challenge, inspire, correct, and guide in order to increase the skills and capacity of the one they coach. This is truly transformational, but don’t make it overly complicated. It can be as simple as meeting with someone and taking him or her through the content of a great leadership book. This is not merely an academic study. Make it practical; focus on what they are learning. Most importantly, focus on what they are applying to their work and life in general.

SPECIAL NOTE(At Level 5 – Pinnacle, people follow you because of the respect they have for you. This is essentially achieved by successfully leading at Level 4 for a very long time.)

LEVEL FOUR 2

As you read, continue to underline the ideas that capture your attention.

LEVEL FOUR 3

STEPS TO FOLLOW

1. Carefully select a few key people to develop. Start small if this is new to you. The goal isn’t how many, it’s how much growth. As you gain experience, you can increase the number of people.

2. Make a simple plan. Developing others requires a plan that is agreed on by both parties, and it must be extremely simple. It can literally have one thing to focus on, and no more than three. Know what you want to accomplish!

3. Concentrate on the person’s strengths. Invest the majority of your time and energy into discovering and developing what the person is naturally good at, and results in the highest productivity.

4. Focus on application. As you coach someone, academic study is good, but there is nothing quite like practical application! Make sure they practice what they are working on.

5. Insist on results. Perfection isn’t the goal, but progress is essential.

Choose something you underlined from any of the above material that is important to you. Take a minute to tell everyone what you chose and why it was important to you.

REFLECT AND RESPOND

Choose one of the questions below and share a brief answer with your group.

1. Have you been developed as a leader? Who coached you and what is one thing you learned? (How are you a better leader?)

2. Do you have experience in developing someone? Who? In what way was it successful? How do you know?

3. What strikes you as the most challenging thing about developing another leader?

EVALUATION AND ACTIONRate yourself compared to the Level 4 leadership principles in this week’s content.

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LEADERSHIP COACHINGThe Maxwell Leadership Center

The Five Levels of Leadership © 2011 John C. Maxwell and is used with permission.

THE FIVE LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP | LEVEL FOUR — PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

Why did you give yourself this rating?

Who do you know that demonstrates the characteristics of a good Level 4 leader? What do you admire about them?

What specific action can you take immediately that will improve your rating?

What did you do this past week to work on what you learned in the previous roundtable?

Take a minute to share your responses to the self-evaluation section, including the step you will take to improve.