A Story About Leadership
Once upon a time, a group of tourists were visiting a scenic village. They were walking along the road when one of the tourists noticed an old man leaning by a fence. The tourist asked the man, “Were any great men born in the city?”
“No,” replied the elderly gentleman, “only babies.”
This is a story told in Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell, to help us remember that leadership is a quality that can be developed.
Since “the key to success in an endeavor is the ability to lead others successfully” and “everything rises and falls on leadership,” learning to improve our leadership seems like a worthwhile endeavor.
Leadership by Example
A careful man I want to be,
A little fellow follows me;
I do not dare to go astray
For fear he’ll go the self same way.
I cannot once escape his eyes.
Whate’er he sees me do, he tries.
Like me he says he’s going to be,
That little chap who follows me.
I must remember as I go
Through summer suns and winter snows,
I am building for the years to be,
That little chap who follows me.
This is a poem written on a plaque that sits on John Maxwell’s desk. The world’s top expert on leadership is telling us through his example that the first and foremost trait of a true leader is example.
According to John Maxwell, leadership is influence and the ability to obtain followers.
What is a True Leader?
Leadership can be sliced, diced, and categorized into an infinite number of buckets.
For my own sanity and memory, simplicity compels me to seek what I am calling the true leader category.
In this post, I’d like to outline some distinctions that can help point us in the right direction.
Looking to a government study on leadership for guidance on what constitutes true leadership, on its face, seems like the worst possible thing you could do.
Fortunately, the results of a study done by John W. Gardner, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, seem to align well with what reason and experience might stamp with approval.
Characteristics of True Leaders
- True leaders are long-term thinkers, who see far beyond the day-to-day.
- True leaders want to see the whole system and are interested in how everything works together. Their interest goes beyond their specific area of influence.
- True leaders put heavy emphasis on vision, values, and motivation.
- They have strong political skills to help them cope with conflicting requirements of multiple people and parties.
- They don’t accept the status quo.
The Power Triangle
In a book called Power and Influence that was written by the CEO of a worldwide public relations agency, a concept called the power triangle is introduced.
The author says that “the three components of this triangle are communication, recognition, and influence.”
How the Power Triangle Works
- Communication – True leaders start with effective communication, which means they not only know what words to use, but they also know the direction those words should point.
- Recognition – When you communicate effectively, people recognize you as someone worth listening to.
- Influence – And when they listen, and your words move them, influence takes place.
The key takeaway here is that good communication skills are an absolute nonnegotiable when it comes to leadership.
Two Types of Leaders
John Maxwell then goes on to define the five levels of leadership, which may be useful for instruction, but I don’t find them to be particularly useful for memory and application.
I think these five levels can be effectively chunked down into two: the positional leader versus the true leader.
The Positional Leader
The positional leader is by far the most common and therefore the one most people are familiar with.
This is essentially leadership that comes with the title.
The key point to remember here is that with positional leadership, people are following the title much more so than they are following the person.
The title gives them authority and therefore must be followed to a degree.
You may do what your boss tells you to do because your paycheck depends on it, but if you don’t respect your boss, you will only do the absolute minimum required.
And this is the major problem with positional leadership. Its influence only goes so far, and then it stops.
Positional Leader vs. True Leader
Here are some distinctions that John Maxwell points out that help to clarify differences between the positional leader and the true leader:
- Driving people versus coaching them
- Influence from authority versus goodwill
- Fear versus enthusiasm as the driving motivations for action
- Blaming versus fixing
- Knowing how versus showing how
- “Go” versus “let’s go”
People follow positional leaders because they have to.
People follow true leaders because they want to.
How to Become a True Leader
So how do you get people to want to follow you?
John Maxwell talks about leading from the heart and building meaningful relationships as a path.
In my experience, I would say love, service, relationships, and example are the key pillars propping up the leader whose followers are following because they choose to follow.
The true leader may have some positional leadership where some of the influence is derived from a title, but realizes that this influence is temporary and limited and is therefore constantly working to gain true leadership status with more and more people.
The Key Pillars
Love, service, and relationships are fun and foundational, but must be translated into results for the true leader and those he serves.
The true leader invests and translates influence into results, and is continually excited to report statistics and stories that demonstrate group progress.
Finally, the true leader is heavily invested in developing people.
“A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others.”
Where Loyalty Lies
John Maxwell points out that you win people’s hearts by helping them grow personally, and furthermore, this is where loyalty lies.
He says that:
- People love the leader that they choose to follow
- People admire the leader that produces results
- People are loyal to the leader that helps them to grow personally
The Five Levels of Leadership
I guess the true leader does walk a path that composes the different levels John Maxwell outlines in the first chapter of his book:
- Position
- Permission
- Production
- People Development
- Personhood
Applying the Levels in Home Business
In home business, people may initially follow you based on the results you have personally achieved, which could be equated to position level leadership.
This can get them in the door, but quickly falls flat on its face as you really do not have any authority associated with that position level leadership like you would in a job situation.
Here’s the progression:
- Move to Permission Level – You want to quickly move to permission level leadership, which is where people are following because they want to. This involves relationships and painting a beneficial vision that your followers can see on the other side of the actions you’re inviting them to take.
- Achieve Production Level – Then serve the community and help more and more people get results (this gets you into production—where people are following you based on what you’ve done for the community).
- Develop People – Help people grow (people development—where they follow based on what you’ve done for them)…
- Reach Personhood Level – Do these things for years and years with faithfulness, and eventually you can add personhood level leadership to your influence quiver, where people are following you because of who you are and what you represent.
Conclusion
This is the path of the true leader.
Thanks for reading, and whatever you do, always go for your dreams!
