What does it mean to lead?
When put into a leadership position, far too many people immediately think it means special privileges. They seek out to take advantage of the the additional benefits of a title. This is not leadership; leadership is about putting your people first. It is about taking on more responsibilities and holding yourself to a higher standard. Leaders feel the weight of responsibility for those they lead. The decisions they make and the actions they take will directly affect the people under their lead, in more ways than one. Be prepared for some long nights, carrying those families on your shoulders as you pace the floor. One of the greatest leaders I have had always spoke of how he ate a lot of crow, because it paid well. He would always take the blame in any misunderstanding with one of his people, so they could quickly get the issue behind them and work on moving forward. He also made it very clear that while you often try to find solutions to situations that were win-win for you and your team, if ever it came down to only you or your team could win, make sure that you got the win for your team.
Sometimes being a leader is the loneliest place on the planet. Sometimes you have to fight battles that your team will never even know we're happening. One of my mentors had a battle that he took upon his shoulders and never let his people know what he was facing. Only his wife and family and a select few of his most inside circle ever knew. The company in which he had built a worldwide distribution business wanted to go public. Their attorney said that they needed to break the exclusive contract they had with their distributor franchises, and he was their test case. They quit paying him and withheld his contracted commissions and bonuses. He fought them in court, kept paying his people, and kept helping his organization build their businesses without knowing the burden he faced. He never told anyone, but he sold his house, his jet, his vacation home, and more. In the end he won. The company that tried to break him eventually apologized. They even thanked him for saving them from potentially ruining the business. That is one of the calls of leadership.
You may or may not, be so challenged, but understanding the consequences of taking on the responsibility of leadership might help you be prepared just in case.
There are five levels of leadership, each have a different relationship with those you lead.
1. Position: This level is by appointment, by title. This is the lowest level of leadership. This would include most people who carry the term manager in any field. In this level, your people follow you because they have to. They follow you because their position says they have to. Here is the lowest commitment to follow, they will follow you as long as they can see you. They follow you just as far as they are required to in order to keep their jobs.
2. Permission: At this level people follow you because they like you. They like working with you, they enjoy the relationship, and they trust you. This is the first level of earned leadership. I might even go so far as to say this is the true first level of leadership, because this honor had to be earned. It will begin opening doors to growth.
3. Production: Now your people are starting to see results, starting to see the benefits of following your lead. They now follow you because they are seeing the results of your leadership in the organization, but, more importantly, in their own work and lives.
4. People Development: At this level your people follow you because of what you have done for them and the growth they see in themselves. This is the level of reproduction, where you are replacing yourself by developing leaders around you. Here, you are starting to see your people hitting some of the growth that they may have first not seen in themselves. They are reaching the goals and dreams you helped them to set and achieve.
5. Pinnacle: This level is a rarity that few rise to. It is where your people follow you because of how much they respect you. They follow you because of who you are and what you represent. This level will have many Level Four leaders following them. A great example would be the late Dean Smith. The NBA and NCAA is full of top-level coaches who played and coached under Smith's leadership. What you might not know is every year all of them would meet with Coach Smith at a weekend retreat to council and refine their thoughts; none of them would take a job or make other major decisions without bouncing it off Coach Smith. They were the top minds in their industry, but they held so much respect for their coach, they wanted to know his thoughts..
If you choose to follow the call of leadership, there is something you should keep top of mind. In any growing organization no matter what level of leadership you have earned, even if you are at that lofty level five, you will always have people who you must earn their trust and respect. This never changes. It would be a huge mistake to try to relate to someone brand new to your team as a level five when they still are trying to figure out if they really like you, can trust you, will see results, or advance their own careers under your leadership.
If you should so choose this call, there is nothing like seeing people's lives change. To help them see themselves as more than they would have, or could have alone.
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