The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John C. Maxwell Read Free Book Online Page A

in this world is due to people who want to feel important…. They do not mean to do harm…. They are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
    —
T. S. Eliot
    Inevitably, positional leaders who rely on their rights develop a sense of entitlement. They expect their people to serve them, rather than looking for ways to serve their people. Their job description is more important to them than job development. They value territory over teamwork. As a result, they usually emphasize rules and regulations that are to their advantage, and they ignore relationships. This does nothing to promote teamwork and create a positive working environment.
    Just because you have the right to do something as a leader doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do. Changing your focus from rights to responsibilities is often a sign of maturity in a leader. Many of us were excited in early leadership years by the authority we had and what we could do with it. That power can be exhilarating, if not downright intoxicating. It’s the reason President Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Each of us as leaders must strive to grow up and grow into a leadership role without relying on our rights. If we can mature in that way, we will start to change our focus from enjoying authority for its own sake to using authority to serve others.
    Just because you have the right to do something as a leader doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do.
5. Positional Leadership Is Often Lonely
    The phrase “it’s lonely at the top” must have been uttered by a positional leader—either that or by someone with a personality disorder! Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely. People make it that way.
    Positional leaders can become lonely if they misunderstand the functions and purpose of leadership. Being a good leader doesn’t mean trying to be king of the hill and standing above (and set apart from) others. Good leadership is about walking beside people and helping them to climb up the hill with you. If you’re atop the hill alone, you may get lonely. If you have others alongside you, it’s hard to be that way.
    If you have others alongside you, it’s hard to be lonely.
    King-of-the-hill leaders create a negative work environment because they are insecure and easily threatened. Whenever they see people with potential starting to climb, it worries them. Theyfear that their place on top is being threatened. As a result, they undermine the people who show talent, trying to guard their position and keep themselves clearly above and ahead of anyone else. What is the usual result? The best people, feeling undermined and put down, leave the department or organization and look for another hill to climb. Only average or unmotivated people stay. And they know their place is at the bottom. That develops an us-versus-them culture, with the positional leader standing alone on top. Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely. People who feel lonely have created a situation that makes them feel that way.
6. Leaders Who Remain Positional Get Branded and Stranded
    As I began to lead people early in my career, I learned a valuable lesson. I always tried to set up new leaders for success, and I often gave them everything I could to help them become established leaders. A leadership position. My time. My influence. Modeling. Resources. Leadership opportunities. And here’s what I found: if I gave the good potential leaders little or nothing, they still succeeded and became good leaders. In contrast, when I gave mediocre leaders everything I had, they still didn’t succeed and couldn’t establish themselves as good leaders. The position does not make the leader—the leader makes the position.
    Whenever people use their position to lead others for a long time and fail to develop genuine influence, they become branded as positional leaders, and they rarely get further