Maxwell’s Levels of Leadership

Maxwell’s Levels of Leadership

Khai Minthang

Beaumont, TX

Introduction: Leadership type, capacity, level and style differ from person to person, organization to organization, location to location, and people to people. However, the one thing that is common to all is the individual leader’s development from a positional leadership to that of a respected leadership. Maxwell has defined leadership into five levels or categories.

Level One: The lowest level of leadership for any person is based on a title or a job description. All leadership begins on the position level. But leadership that stays on this level for long becomes weaker, not stronger. The longer you stay on this level, the higher the turnover will be in your organization, and the lower the morale.

Level Two: On this level, people begin following you beyond your stated authority. As followers grow to like and trust a leader, they begin to follow because they want to. However, staying too long on this level without moving up to the production level causes highly motivated people to become restless.

Level Three: At the production level, influence is cemented and respect is increased because of what the leader and the people accomplish together. People begin to follow because of what the leader has done for the team or organization. On this level, people like you and what you are doing. It is at this level that most feel successful. Because of momentum, problems are often easily solved with little effort.

Level Four: On this level, people follow because of what you’ve done for them. This is where long-range growth occurs. Commitment to developing leaders ensures ongoing growth of individuals and the organization. When you become a people developer, you strive to reproduce your leadership in others and help people reach their potential. The time you spend with people is an investment. As a result, they respect you not only for what you’ve done for the team, but also for what you’ve done for them personally. Strive to stay on this level.

Level Five: The fifth and highest level of leadership is personhood. On this level, people follow because of who you are and what you represent. Only leaders who have spent years developing leaders and growing organizations achieve this level. It is the true respect level. A leader who spends his life developing people and organizations makes such an incredible impact for so long that people follow him because of who he is and what he represents. He is the best of the best.

Conclusion: Leadership is not much about the people being led, but it is more about the personalities of a leader. There are some self imposed leaders on the one hand and some popular choice leaders on the other hand. Maxwell’s levels of leadership are very helpful steps to becoming a positional leadership to that of a respected leadership.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Maxwell, John C. The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leaders's Day (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2000)