THE 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP: PROVEN STEPS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR POTENTIAL

 

By John C. Maxwell; New York, NY: Center Street, Hachette Book Group (2011); Reviewed by CHRISTIANE E. THEISS

Is leadership a process or a position? Looking at the book’s title, The 5 Levels of Leadership, you might think that Maxwell sees leadership as a position. But it does not take him long to underscore that he does see leadership as a process, not as a position (p. 4). So how does he resolve the apparent contradiction? Since leadership situations are never static, but dynamic and changing, leaders also have to be willing to stay on the growing edge. This insight led Maxwell to conceive of the five levels of leadership that are different stages of a leader’s development. Now an internationally recognized leadership expert who has sold more than 19 million books, Maxwell says it took him about five years to expand his concept of the five levels of leadership already found in Developing the Leader Within You (1993) into a publication on its own.

So, what are the levels of leadership? Instead of defining the term and elaborating on the meaning of leadership, Maxwell discusses five different types of leadership he calls levels:

1. Position—people follow you because they have to.
   
2. Permission—people follow you because they want to.
   
3. Production—people follow you because of what you have done for the organization.
   
4. People Development—people follow you because of what you have done for them personally.
   
5. Pinnacle—People follow you because of who you are and what you represent.
   

The core of the book is the in-depth description of those five levels, the unwritten common-sense laws, rules, and behaviors characterizing them, and the downsides of each level keeping leaders from advancing to the next level. A most helpful feature is Maxwell’s explanation of how one gets to the next level.

But that also brings out one of the ever-present tensions in the book. Statements like “you can move up a level but you will never leave the previous one behind” (p. 11) and “you are not on the same level with every person” (p. 12), show that the described levels are in fact leadership dimensions rather than steps on a leadership ladder. However, there are other statements that breathe a hierarchical view of leadership: “The higher you go, the easier it is to lead”; “The higher you go, the more time and commitment is required to win a level”; “Moving up levels occurs slowly, but going down can happen quickly”; “The higher you go, the greater the return”; “Moving farther up always requires further growth”; “Not climbing the levels limits you and your people” (pp. 13– 16). Maxwell argues that “when you change positions or organizations, you seldom stay at the same level” (p. 17), and speaks of climbing (p. 18). He seems to be aware of the dependency between leaders, followers and the situation, a common interactional framework used by classic leadership scholars like Fiedler (1967) and Hollander (1978). His assumption that the level of permission (relationships) precedes the level of production (tasks) actually contradicts Hersey & Blanchard’s (1969) well-known Situational Leadership model where tasks and relationship-oriented behavior vary according to the maturity of followers.

Thus, even though the book does not acknowledge recognized leadership concepts or theories, Maxwell’s practical approach to assessing a current leadership situation can be an asset for a leader’s personal day- to-day journey as a leader. He provides a three-part questionnaire about the leader, her specific situation, and her direct reports and their perceptions of her. Taken together, they give a sense of the level where a leader currently stands, according to Maxwell’s five leadership levels. Caution is required in regard to the variables Maxwell uses in the assessment questionnaire, because characteristics linked to the variables’ behavior, values, and perception are often jumbled with each other.

Even though Maxwell does not give an explanation as to what he understands as growing, his orientation towards developing others to grow and to lead is another enriching aspect of the book. He describes good leaders as investing “their time, energy, money, and thinking into growing others to leaders” (p. 181). This used to be called empowering people.

Although Maxwell links the development of people to only two of his leadership levels, developing and empowering people today are the most crucial leadership skills and competencies (Hernez-Broome & Hughes, 2004). Though some of Maxwell’s arguments for people development sound more like common sense, they still are food for thought. According to Maxwell, “people development sets you apart from most leaders” (p. 183) and “provides great personal fulfillment”  (p.192).

Because it is easy to digest and does not claim any scientific approach, The 5 Levels of Leadership allows for fast reading. Maxwell’s statements are framed with a lot of good stories and are peppered with anecdotes from his own life. While he tends to overpromise, Maxwell provides plenty of motivational energy as he sends readers on to find their own answers and create their own roadmap to advance along the five levels.

In an interview with CBN on January 9, 2012, Maxwell stated that Jesus Christ is his ultimate leader, and is the motivator who helps others to achieve leadership success. “I put the cookies on the lower shelf, so everybody could have some. And I think when they read [the book] they’re going to say, ‘Hey, I think I can go to the next level as a leader.’” If Jesus Christ is his leadership model, why does Maxwell not mention the servant leadership approach of Jesus? One is left to wonder if Maxwell sees hierarchical leadership as inevitable.

References

1. Fiedler, F. E. (1967). A theory of leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
2. Hernez-Broome, G., & Hughes, R. L. (2004). Leadership development: Past, present, and future. Human Resource Planning, 27(1), 24–32.
3. Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Life cycle theory of leadership. Training & Development Journal, 23, 26–34.
4. Hollander, E. P. (1978). Leadership dynamics: A practical guide to effective relationships. New York, NY: Free Press.
5. Martin, M. (2012). John Maxwell unveils “five levels of leadership.” CBN. Retrieved from http:// www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2012/ January/John-Maxwell-Unveils-Five-Levels-of- Leadership/
6. Maxwell, J. C. (1993). Developing the leader within you. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Christiane Theiss is the Chief Human Resources Officer at AZ Medien AG, a multi-media company in Aarau, Switzerland. She is also a Ph.D. student at Andrews University.