The Five Levels Of Leadership
By Nick Pollice
Jun 30, 2011
Becoming an effective leader is a lot like being in the stock market. You don 't make your fortune in a day; you make it daily, a little bit at a time. What matters most is what you do day after day, over the long haul. The secret to leadership success is investing in your leadership development, much like letting your assets compound. The final result is "Leadership Growth" over time.
Leaders aren 't born; their made. The process of leadership is long, complicated and has made elements. Respect, dignity, discipline, people skills, vision, emotional strength, opportunity, preparedness and experience are just some of the intangible elements which come into play when talking leadership.
We can, over a period of time, increase our leadership potential if we can understand and accept the five levels of leadership. They are:
Level One - Leadership From Position
This is the basic level of leadership. At this level people follow you because they have to. Your ability to lead people is totally geared to your position and does not exceed beyond the lines of your job description or the authority granted to you by the company and your boss. Your security with the company is based on title and position, not talent.
To be an effective leader at this level know your job, be prepared to accept responsibility, exercise authority with caution, assess the strengths and short comings of your people, do more than what is
As a leader a person would need to have a good understanding of the job at hand, able to communicate and to make sure everyone is on one page, to make sure everyone understand their job performance and work assignments and to have good delegation
A leader must be able to lead others, build trust, extend influence beyond the Chain of Command, lead by example, and communicate effectively. The ability to develop creates a positive environment, fosters Espirit de Corps, prepares self, develops others, and are stewards of the profession. Last but not least, effective leadership must achieve results.
Leadership is a personal skill that has to be developed and improved upon daily, just like an athlete works on his craft. We all come from different walks of life and that is often a factor in the way our leadership styles are shaped. Our differences of race, gender, religion, home environment, and lifestyle all have an effect on the way we are led growing up. It is a skill that is mastered over time, while never being perfected. Like anything else in life, leadership skills are often developed from who we are, where we come from and the people in our life who have taught us their knowledge.
There are numerous theories about leadership. Some of the theories suggest that leaders are born while others suggest that leaders are made through training.
To be a leader, you need a variety of skills. Providing one of them being, intelligence; if you desire to be a leader, you must be intelligent in what you are leading. For example, you can't go out and lead a group of hikers if you have no idea where you're going, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll get them lost. There are many forms of leadership, those including: leading through something, being in charge with responsibility, or even helping someone through a hard time. Each one of these requires some leadership.
Being a good leader is done by making the correct choices and inspiring people to complete their tasks and work together as a team. In order to be a great leader you need to think outside the box and travel the road that is seldom or never traveled. A great leader will use their inspiration and determination to complete the tasks no matter what hurdles or problems they
Leadership is defined as the ability to accomplish a set goal(s) due to the act of inspiring and motivating a group of your peers. Former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower made famous a quote that stated, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” (Notable-quotes.com). One of the most important aspects of the work area is leadership. Without leadership, there will be no guidance to for teamwork and the percentage of successful goal will be slim to none. Becoming a great leader is no easy feat however. An exceptional leader must lock in on specific attributes such as intellect, moral character, and human
My idea of leadership is being able to inspire others, motivate, set a vision, communicate, respect others, and of course, lead by example. A leader must have an honest understanding of who they are, what they know, and what they are capable of. To be a successful leader, you have to be able to convince your followers, not just yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed. In my opinion, this can build confidence in their followers to have faith in you, in order to be able to lead. I strongly believe that good leaders are made rather, and not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders are developed through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and
Leadership is something that we are all born with because we are all born. Therefore, who is a leader and who is not depends on who really wants to be a leader and who does not. Leadership is a skill and so it can be learned. As anything that is learned it demands practice and practice to be the best. It would not be something that will happen in a matter of a day. There are multiple elements that make a leader. Collaboration is a key element for successful teamwork. Therefore, a leader must always be in the look for ways to foster collaboration. Creating trust within the team, support face-to-face collaboration, transfer responsibilities when making decisions, and ultimately teach other how to be leaders. All of this is not done if it is not done from the bottom of your own heart.
In order for a leader to be a leader he/she must begin with the assumption that you are the one who matters most. As a leader you have to possess that level of confidence in yourself that you are capable of leading yourself “before you can lead others”. And when you develop this belief then you are better able of affirmative influence “on others”.
The word ‘leadership’ often times triggers a preconceived image of an ideal leader—typically accompanied by the aura that the effective leader should be at the top of the hierarchy, ready to produce the solutions to complex problems. However, this is not true of leadership, given that effective leadership is not achieved by position but rather through style and situational awareness. Examining leadership requires the consideration of the catalysts for different types of leaders. Popular leader development theories tend to focus on the natural servitude of the leader, his or her capability to manage, and leader behavior.
Leadership comes from various aspects of resources. Some of these resources are based on scholarly articles. Each individual that is interested in becoming a leader should be able to pick up on various traits and characteristics so they can develop into strong
Influence with others is the second growth area a leader should undertake. Brady and Woodward offer The Five Levels of Influence to assist leaders to chart their progress. After conveying the levels of leadership of various leadership experts, Brady and Woodward propose their own levels of leadership: learning, performing, leading, developing leaders, and developing developers of leaders (2005, p. 115). Furthermore, the authors use the image of a staircase to highlight the ascending order of each level of influence. Thus, as a leader grows from one level to the next, he ascends in influence. Brady and Woodward (2005) emphasize, “As the leader ascends the Levels of Influence, each of the previous levels stays with him” (p. 116). In other words, a leader does not discard the lessons learned from previous levels. For example, the first Level of Influence is learning. According to the authors, even a Level Five leader is still learning. Therefore, mastery of a level must persist with the leader in proceeding levels.
Leadership is an approach for a leader to guide, motivate, supervise, manage, and influence others in different situation to reach a goal. According to the Pettinger (2007), the leadership can be explained in several situations. First, the leaders have the responsible to provide vision and direction to the followers. Second, the leaders shall energise and motivate the followers. Third, the leaders shall set and enforce absolute standards of behaviour, attitude, presentation and performance.
So if a leader needs a combination of characteristics that makes them successful is a leader born or made? The answer is both. Some people already possess the traits that they need to be leaders and are often leaders from an early age. Some people observe and eventually become leaders. Leadership can be taught. Over the years many theories about leadership have been developed. These theories include but are not limited to trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and functional theories.