Each one of us is at our own level of leadership, however we all strive to get to the next level.  Today I want to discuss the 5 Levels of Leadership to help you:
1.  Know where you are
2.  Know what is the next level
3.  To set your sites on the Top

Level 1,  POSITION:  Built on the principal of Rights. This is the first level of Leadership and the basic level.  This is also the level where most leaders practice leadership.  The position level of leadership depends on people following the leader because they have to, not because they want to.
This level of leadership only extends to the job description and is only based on your title – nothing more.  If you are a position level leader, you will have high turnover and low morale of your staff.  Very simply – people see you as their “boss” not a leader.

Level 2, PERMISSION:  Built on the principal of Relationships. People follow you because they want to.  Many times this type of leadership is developed on common interests or friendships.  Now, this leadership is a very good during times of fruit or success, however does not do well when there becomes a disagreement or non-success.  Permission level leaders will not keep highly motivated employees because they will become restless.

Level 3, PRODUCTION:   Built on the principal of Results. People follow you because of what you have done and what you are doing for the organization.  People follow you because of success sensed by most people.  The problem is that people follow you as a leader under “good times,” but not in bad.

Level 4, PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT:  Built on the principal of Reproduction. People follow you because of what you have done for them.  This is now getting to “sustainable leadership” and where long-range growth occurs.  Your commitment as the leader to developing leaders will insure ongoing growth to the organization and to the individuals.  As Dr. Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.”  In this level of leadership, you have people rising to a Hole Nuther Level (teaching in a couple of weeks) or greater development for themselves.

Level 5, PERSONHOOD:  Built on the principal of Respect. People follow you because of who you are and what you represent.  This is the level of leadership we should all strive for, but unfortunately few ever obtain.  This step is reserved for leaders who have spent years growing people and organizations.  If your leadership is built on respect, people will follow you and “trust” you in good times and bad.  Remember, trust is something that can not be asked for, it is earned from respect built over time.

As we discussed in our meeting, these levels of leadership are set as a pyramid, with level 1 at the bottom with the widest base/area.  Then level 2 on top of it, and so on until you get to Level 5 which is the top and smallest in base/area.  These sizes respresent number of leaders at each level.  Most leaders are positional or rights (Level 1) level leaders.

Lastly, we discussed that as a leader, you will be leading different people that see you as their leader at different levels.  For instance, you can not expect the person that just joined your team to look at you as a Level 5 Leader based on respect.  They just joined your team and they only look at you as their “Boss” and see you only as a Level 1 or Positional Leader based on rights.  So, understand moving people up from Level 1 to Level 5 is a continual process and never stops if you are on a team where their is turnover.  Now you see another negative effect of turnover – when you lose a follower that sees you as a Level 5 leader and you replace it with someone who sees you as a Level 1 leader (only natural) how much does this cost your team or company?

Lead on!

Sutton

Hello Khidmah Team and Supports,

We have created a blog upon your request to publish and help document our weekly Leadership Meetings, especially for people who miss the meeting – hopefully for a good reason :).

First, as Dr. John C. Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.”  Which, as a follower of Dr. Maxwell, I firmly agree with and it has become my passion.  Over the past 19 weeks, the Khidmah Team has met for about an hour to learn about Leadership and for everyone to develop the leader in them.  No matter what your position is with Khidmah, you are called to be a leader, and mature as a leader.  Our future success lies in this simple thought – we must grow leaders as fast as we grow Khidmah.  It is the fuel we must have for this tremendous growth opportunity in Services Management.

So with this stated, let’s begin.  I will start posting to this website our lessons from Harvard & Dr. Maxwell, and leadership that I am learning here as one of the leaders at Khidmah.  This should be fun, so let’s have fun with it.

If you would like to comment about something that is written, please send me an email at Blog@Khidmah.com.

Sutton
CEO of Khidmah, LLC