How to Coach Yourself and Others Influencing, Inter Personal and Leadership Skills | Page 135

2. The five levels of leadership
(John C Maxwell)
People follow you because
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Position
Permission
Production
People Development
Personhood

(rights)
(relationships)
(results)
(reproduction)
(respect)

They have to
They want to
What you’ve done for the company
What you’ve done for them
Who you are and what you represent

Here’s how it works. Influence is gained with people in five levels. 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 posi F