How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 454

I want to acquaint you with a way of looking at and teaching leadership that
I’ve used to train leaders for nearly 30 years. It’s called The Five Levels of
Leadership. It is by far the most requested topic people want me to speak
about—from small teams to huge corporations like Delta Airlines. And I’ve
finally written a book about it that teaches a potential leader how to move
from an entry-level position to the pinnacle of leadership.
Here’s how it works. Influence is gained with people in levels—five levels
to be exact. Every person who leads others has to start at the bottom level
with another person and work his or her way up to higher levels one at a
time.
Level 1—Position
Position is the lowest level of leadership—the entry level. The only
influence a positional leader has is that which comes with the job title.
People follow because they have to. Positional leadership is based on the
rights granted by the position and title. Nothing is wrong with having a
leadership position. Everything is wrong with using position to get people
to follow. Position is a poor substitute for influence.
People who make it only to Level 1 may be bosses, but they are never
leaders. They have subordinates, not team members. They rely on rules,
regulations, policies and organizational charts to control their people. Their
people will only follow them within the stated boundaries of their authority.
And their people will usually do only what is required of them. When
positional leaders ask for extra effort or time, they rarely get it.
Positional leaders usually have difficulty working with volunteers, younger
people and the highly educated. Why? Because positional leaders have no
influence, and these types of people tend to be more independent.
Position is the only level that does not require ability and effort to achieve.
Anyone can be appointed to a position.
Level 2—Permission
Level 2 is based entirely on relationships. On the permission level, people
follow because they want to. When you like people and treat them like
individuals who have value, you begin to develop influence with them. You
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