Leadership

5 Levels of Leadership: To Maximize Your Influence on People

Having leadership skills lets you improve certain professional qualities, build and strengthen relationships and boost your earning potential. John Maxwell’s “5 Levels of Leadership is one of the most compelling theories that involve position, Permission, Production, People Development, and Pinnacle. So, let’s look at them one by one.

The 5 Levels of Leadership

1. Position

When people have a managerial job, they have an authoritative position, so they have to showcase certain qualities to become strong leaders. They trust company practices, policies, regulations, and organization charts to influence their employees. Although, a more open-minded, welcoming attitude can improve your team’s motivation to deliver better work and enhance workplace satisfaction. To enhance your leadership skills at this level, you should:

Empathize with employees to show them you care.
Appreciate their work to boost motivation.
Deliver and accept constructive feedback to continually improve practices.
Regularly interact with your team to make sure that they receive the required information to perform tasks successfully.

2. Permission

When you assign any task to your team, they will give their best. Your employees assist you because they feel respected, involved in decisions, cared for, authorized, and valued. To have this level of leadership, make sure you:

Consider how your decisions will impact all the people around you.
Treat all your employees equally.
Always support your team members.
Ensure that all of your employees can work well with other teams.
Always hold people responsible for mistakes.
Bond with your team well.
Meet or exceed your goals.
Receive positive reviews from your team members, managers, and clients.

Try to learn more about your employees as it gives everyone a sense of integrity and encourages them to give their best.

3. Production

Production leaders generate results and leave a significant impact on their organizations. They give you useful advice, help you resolve conflicts, and encourage people. Since they have amazing relationships with all of their employees, they rely on them to do an outstanding job. Leaders at this level can enhance their skills by making their communication more consistent, further improving their team skills. You can do the following:

Think of the best ways to make the connections required for employees to feel involved and empowered.
Listen and guide them.
Welcome workers’ input on decisions.
Adapt new technologies or transitions in the industry.
Ensure that all employees are well-trained.
Admire people for their qualities, charisma, and technical skills.

Production leaders can build a high-productivity team, department, or company. Their leadership skills are better than most other people, but there is also a scope of learning if they improve themselves.

4. People development

To reach the leadership level at a large organization, you should understand how to support other people and help them become leaders. People Development leaders use their time, energy, and money to improve others’ leadership skills. Individuals who go from Production to People Development successfully are:

Consistent, sincere, inclusive, and easy to talk to
Hard workers who lead by example
Skilled at expressing expectations for employees’ roles clearly
Honest decision-makers
Mentors to employees
Ready to recommend employees for promotions
Keen to help former employees develop their careers
Willing to talk to the people in their team about any issue
Promoted for their excellent management skills

You must think of the future and consider the way teams across your company perform together to attain their goals. Make sure that you improve your interpersonal and communication skills to encourage others. That way, you can define your team’s goals in a way that encourages your employees and gets them enthusiastic about your company’s future endeavors.

5. Pinnacle

Apart from mentoring employees, Pinnacle leaders should be skilled enough to support others in reaching the People Development stage and become outstanding leaders themselves. As a result, they enhance their organizations’ prestige, facilitating the most talented, innovative people to work there. Pinnacle leaders:

Boost productivity and make almost any team or department successful.
Build an environment that lets everyone contribute to their successes.
Influence people outside of their organizations or the industries they work in.
Treat everyone fairly and with respect.
Demonstrate integrity, keep their promises, and act in an honest, ethical way.
Let people supervise to make independent decisions whenever possible.
Surround themselves with intelligent, talented people who want to do their best.
Lead people who create innovative products and get excellent business results.
Communicate well with other teams.

Pinnacle leaders usually speak or conduct workshops about leadership. They also have employees who believe that they always prioritize their interests. To become a Pinnacle leader, you have to be a hard worker who guides by example.

So, these are the 5 levels of leadership that you must follow to succeed.

Conclusion

After reading this post, you may have understood the 5 levels of leadership that everyone should follow to become a great leader. However, to earn respect, you need to first hone your skills.

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