Leadership Level 2: Permission or Relationship

Most of the times, this level is being skipped out. After getting the "position" as the leader, most of the aspiring starters jump straight through Level 3. They start to give out orders and commands, not being aware that they are dealing with humans (and not robots).

As a recap, we learned that in the First Level, your title or your position is the only influence you have. Furthermore, climbing in this level, the "relationship" level, you are trying to get people to work for you even if they are not obliged. 

Does it sound as if this only exists on a "perfect" or "ideal" system? Isn't it? How can you make someone work for you beyond his work schedule, that is, it's like working for charity? This might sound weird, but yes, if you excel in this level people naturally allow themselves to follow you, even if it might cause "some inconveniences" on their part.

John C. Maxwell gave an illustration from the story of Henry Ford (in Amitai Etzioni's book "Modern Organizations"):

He made a perfect car, the Model T, that ended the need for any other car. He was totally product-oriented. He wanted to fill the world with Model T cars. But when people started coming to him and saying, "Mr. Ford, we'd like a different color car," he remarked, "You can have any color you want as long as it's black." And that's when the decline started.

The "permission" level is where you work out your inter-relationship skills. You need to build solid and lasting foundation of relationship with your followers in order to sustain a long and effective kind of leadership.

As John C. Maxwell puts it in words:

"You can love people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without loving them."

To excel in the "relationship" level of leadership, most of the times, you would need to invest your time, your patience, and your finances - it is more of investing "yourself" for them. There would come a time when it seems you are not seeing the results yet, but still, be persistent on building up on this level. Remember, one of the most difficult tasks in constructing a skyscraper is laying out its foundations. But once the foundations are all set up, it is not impossible to erect a giant building, even if it is the mighty Burj Khalifa - the tallest man-made structure in the world!

If you aim to proceed to the next level, these are the qualities John Maxwell listed in his book "Developing the Leader Within You" that you must exhibit first, with excellence.

Leadership Level 2: PERMISSION or RELATIONSHIP

• Possess a genuine love for people.
• Make those who work with you more successful.
• See through other people's eyes.
• Love people more than procedures.
• Do "win-win" or don't do it.
• Include others in your journey.
• Deal wisely with difficult people.

Now, if you see yourself excelling in this level, you need to climb to the next level of leadership.

And we will be talking about that on the next post about Leadership.

© 2014 Erickson Ibana

Image can be found http://greatleadersserve.org/servant-leadership-works/

Second image can be found in John Maxwell's book "Developing the Leader Within You"

Leadership Level 1: Position or Rights

If you would be given the chance to choose who to follow among the two, who would that be. Would you choose to follow a boss or a leader?

This question might seem to be tricky to some. They would ask, "Wait, aren't these two, a boss and a leader, just the same?" Are they?

John C. Maxwell differentiated these two in his book "Developing the Leader Within You".

• The boss drives his workers; the leader coaches them.
• The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will.
• The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
• The boss says "I"; the leader, "we".
• The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
• The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
• The boss says, "Go"; the leader says, "Let's go!"

Clearly, the boss has not gotten into the next level of leadership, yet. He remained in the first level, the entry level of leadership, called "Position". This level is also named as the "Rights" stage.

In this level, your title or your position is the only influence you have. Your security is based on your title, and not on your talent. In contrast with the other levels of leadership which are gained by ability, this level is often gained by appointment.

The negative part if you remain in this position and not thrive into the next level is that people only follow you because of your stated authority, and will not do so beyond that. Oftentimes, they will just do what they are required to do, and nothing more than that. They are usually characterized by an attitude of low morale. As John Maxwell said,

"When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment."

I remember a supervisor I had before. He was stuck in this level, and as a typical employee sensing his positional insecurity, I did what I had to do as his subordinate, his slave - and I did that only because I was needed to. It felt like I was just dragging my feet to work.


A real leader, however, is the person whom others would gladly and confidently follow. His mere presence gives inspiration and enthusiasm to his fellow workers. They enjoy working with him, which in turn, results to a more satisfied set of employees.

If you aim to proceed to the next level, these are the qualities John Maxwell listed that you must exhibit first, with excellence.

Leadership Level 1: POSITION or RIGHTS

• Know your job description thoroughly.
• Be aware of the history of the organization.
• Relate the organization's history to the people of the organization (or be a team player)
• Accept responsibility.
• Do your job with consistent excellence.
• Do more than expected.
• Offer creative ideas for change and improvement.

Leadership is not just about position after all. It is a good thing if you already are in this level, but it is entirely a different thing to be considered as an effective leader. You really need to climb to the next level of leadership.

And we will be talking about that on the next post.

© 2014 Erickson Ibana

Image can be found at http://blog.lamercanti.com/2013/11/07/sell-an-idea-to-your-boss/

Second image can be found in John Maxwell's book "Developing the Leader Within You"

5 Segmented Levels of Leadership

In my previous post, we have learned that there are 4 distinctive Categories of Leadership. The main point that we could get from that is that everyone has equal opportunity to be a leader. The only needed ingredients are the desire to be one, exposure to leader models, and constant leadership training. The good news is that all three are attainable!

In connection with the former topic, I would like to clearly describe Leadership as how John Maxwell has defined it.

“Leadership is influence. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less. My favorite leadership proverb is: He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.”

He further defined leadership as the “ability to get followers”, and it is not to “achieve a position.” With this straightforward definition of leadership, we now ask, “How can I be a great leader? What do I need to know to gain more followers? How can I make people trust me to become their leader?”

What we are going to discuss now are the Levels of Leadership. Leadership is just like in any building, if you wish to go to the upper floors, you need to access either the staircase, the escalator, or the elevator. In Leadership, if you wish to proceed to the upper “floors” of leadership, you must first know what “level” you are currently at. 

As one saying goes, 

“Knowledge is power.”

5 Levels of Leadership

  Level 1: Position

The entry level of leadership. Your title or your position is the only reason why you are being followed.

  Level 2: Permission

John Maxwell describes this as, “If level 1, Position, is the door to leadership, then level 2, Permission, is the foundation.”

  Level 3: Production

The Permission level is more of what is called as the “Relationship” level. Climbing up another level to the Production level, this is what is called as the “Results” level.

  Level 4: People Development

In this level, your ability to empower others, makes them loyal to you as their leader.

  Level 5: Personhood

The highest level of leadership where people follow you because of who you are as a person.

We will be dealing with each of the Levels above in more details in my next posts, starting from the entry level: Position.

In the meantime, we will be keeping these reminders in mind. These are straight from John Maxwell himself.

• The higher you go, the longer it takes.
• The higher you go, the higher the level of commitment.
• The higher you go, the easier it is to lead.
• The higher you go, the greater the growth.
• You never leave the base level.

I found this as true (based on my personal experience), that not all people respond in the same way to how I lead them. To some, I might be just a leader with the “position”. To some, I might be touching their lives already, the reason to make them follow me. I learned that the key to deal with different kinds of people is to take each person as a unique individual and deal with him in a personal way.

The last reminder John Maxwell was gave was to take other people, especially those with great influence, from within your group to the higher levels with you. This would help you create leaders as well, making your group an association of leaders helping each other out grow.

We will be talking about the first level of leadership next time.

For now, I hope you too would aim to get to the highest level of leadership!

© 2014 Erickson Ibana

First image can be found at http://www.amazon.com/The-Levels-Leadership-Maximize-Potential/dp/1599953633

Second image can be found in John Maxwell's book "Developing the Leader Within You"