Entry Level Of Leadership – Position

John Maxwell in his book “How Successful People Lead,” talks about leadership in detail. All the levels were mentioned in the previous post.

Position is the starting point for every level of leadership. When a person gets a leadership position, that means that someone in authority saw leadership potential in that person. This level of leadership is good to visit but it is not for staying for long. Efforts should be made to move to the next level.

The upsides of position:

• A leadership position shows that the person has the potential to be a leader. Leader get seat at the leadership table and get the opportunity to express opinions and make decisions
  • Ensure to express gratitude for this opportunity
• A leadership position means that the authority of the leader is recognized. Usually, there is limited authority and most leaders have to prove themselves before more authority is given.
  • If you use this authority wisely and help the people you lead and advance them, then they will start giving you more authority.
• A leadership position is an invitation to grow as a leader. Good leaders are lifelong learners. The leaders who stop growing after having leadership, as they think that they have arrived to where they wanted to be, cause great harm to their organization.
  • Ensure to use this invitation to grow and invest in growth and development. 
• A leadership position allows potential leaders to shape and define their leadership. It is time to reflect and decide your leadership style. Self-knowledge is fundamental to being a great leader, so that he can lead in a consistent way. Being consistent makes a leader attractive to their team members.
  • Instead of being reactive and developing your style by default, make a conscious effort to decide your style and be consistent with it. Good leadership begins with leaders knowing who they are. Spend some time to answer the following questions for yourself as a leader:
    • What kind of leader do you want to be? Tyrant or team builder, would you come down on people or would you lift them up, Would you give orders or ask questions, etc.?
    • What are your strengths and weaknesses?
    • What are your work habits?
    • What kind of people do you work well with?
    • What kind of people do you try harder to appreciate?
    • What are your goals and how will you achieve them?
    • What are your values and how would you live them?
    • What kinds of habits and systems will you practice consistently?
    • What are your values? Especially to clarify your ethics (what does it mean to do the right thing?) relational (how do you build an environment of trust and respond with others? ) and success (what goals are worth spending your life on?) values
    • What leadership practices do you want to put in place? What will you do to organize yourself? What spiritual practices will you maintain to keep yourself on track? How will you treat people and what will be your work ethics? Etc

Good leadership changes lives and has the potential to impact the world and the position is the starting point. 

The downsides of the position are as follows:

• Leadership is a verb (what you are doing) and not a noun (what you are). It is action and not position, which is why this level of leadership is very misleading.
• People who rely on position often devalue people, as they try to influence people through their position and have no connection with them. 
• When leaders try to value position over ability to influence others, the environment becomes political. They focus on control instead of contribution.