Welcome to week 6 of Taking Liberty. It is hard to believe that is has already been 6 weeks!
How many of you are familiar with the song in the clip below?
In the song the forgotten boys are singing that "they are off to fight the injuns because Pan told them so." Following because their leader told them so. John Maxwell lists 5 levels of leadership:
- Level 1, Position - people follow you because they have to.
- This is the lowest level of leadership
- Your influence is because of your job title
- You are not a leader at this level, you are a boss
- You have subordinates, not team members
- It doesn’t take much effort or ability to reach this level
- Level 2, Permission - people follow you because they want to.
- This level is based on relationships
- People want to follow you
- You are interested in getting to know people, not just get the job done
- You begin to develop influence and trust
- You begin building lasting relationships
Level 3,
Production - people follow you because of what you have done for the
organization.
- Plenty of problem solving is done at this level
- You can be an agent of change
- You make tough decisions that will make a difference
- You address tough issues and problems
- You work at helping people get to the next level of effectiveness
- Level 4, People Development - people follow you because of what you have done for them.
- You are here because of your ability to empower others
- You invest in your followers and use your position, relationships and productivity to help them achieve
- Teamwork is very important at this level
- Performance increases at this level
- Relationships at this level will last a long time
- Level 5, Pinnacle - people follow you because of who you are and what you represent.
- This is the highest level of leadership
- This level requires effort, skill, and talent
- Levels 1 – 4 can be learned
- Naturally gifted leaders reach this level
- Many do not make it to this level because it takes a significant amount of work
A very interesting aspect about Maxwell's levels of
leadership is that a person is on different leadership levels with different
people. John Maxwell has also made the statement that leadership is influence.What level of leader would you say Peter Pan was? What type of followers were the forgotten boys?
Going hand in hand with leadership is followership. What?
Never heard of followership? I am not surprised. Prior to this past week, I was
not familiar with the concept of followership being researched in the same way
leadership has been. There are plenty of
books and seminars devoted to leadership and leadership development, but I
cannot not recall ever hearing about a fellowship seminar.
Stop and think about it, how can someone be a leader if no
one follows? To quote John Maxwell "If you think you're leading, but no
one is following, then you are only taking a walk."
So, what is followership?
What makes one person follow another person? What constitutes a good, or
better yet, a great follower?
The followership theory looks at followership and leadership
as a shared process. You cannot have one without the other.
Followers accept the influence of others to accomplish a
common goal. Followers influence leaders. The relationship of followership can
be negative or positive depending on the situation. Followership is in its
early days of research and there are many questions to be answered.
Simply by discussing the concept of followership, people are
elevating the importance and value of followers. Followership is just as important as
leadership.
I would like to say a very special thank you to Craig LaBorde for giving me permission to use his photograph of the leaves and moon at the beginning of this blog.
Kathy
References
CurlySVT (2013, July 5).
Peter Pan – Following the Leader.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4azOi4-xdHY
Maxwell, John (2016, August 30). The 5 Levels of Leadership.
Retrieved from http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/5-levels-of-leadership
