Are you a leader or not? 5 questions–5 levels–5 rules

Are you a leader or not? Yes or no.

Are you a leader or not?
Yes or No.

Have you ever wondered just what kind of leader you are? How good are you at leading?
By now we’ve all pretty much accepted that leadership has nothing to do with role or title. Leadership is much deeper.
It’s not so much whether you are a leader or not, you are. The question is about your leadership skills, knowledge and attitudes.
Trevor, a senior manager at a high tech company, and I met at a business mixer. Trevor’s company is going through growth spurts with flat growth for awhile then high growth. He has several direct reports now.
Trevor is worried that his “learn as you go” approach to becoming skilled at leadership is not going to cut it for very long. He’s starting to ask himself the right questions.
These 5 questions Trevor asked are good. They are not the only questions you might ask, but a good place to start.

1. What level of leader am I?
2. What affect does my style and attitudes have on others?
3. How can I become more effective?
4. How can I learn to delegate effectively?
5. What does “to be effective” really mean?

We talked for about 20 minutes. I realized he was ahead of a lot of people in that he was asking questions about his own skills and knowledge. The perfect place to start.
Here are some quick guidelines to get Trevor and you started down the right path.
There are 5 levels of leadership as defined by John Maxwell.

• Level 1: It’s all about position, title and authority.
• Level 2:Now people start to follow you because of the relationship you’ve developed.
• Level 3:People follow because of what you’ve done for the organization.
• Level 4:They follow because of what you’ve done for them.
• Level 5:They follow you because of who you are and what you represent.

5 rules that exist with leadership

1. You always start at a low level with each new person, each new project, each new organization.
2. People respond to you based on the level they see you, not the level you think you are.
3. You always have to prove yourself in each level with each person.
4. You cannot skip ahead levels.
5. You can fall down levels in an instant. It takes time and energy to climb levels.

Your return gposts as you gpost your leadership skills and pay attention to gposting your team. As you move up the levels your leverage gposts.
Are you a leader or not?
Working with a mentor, a coach, an advisor is what the best of the best do to get better.
What are you going to do?

“Dominate your life with Focus, Decision and Execution.”