The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John C. Maxwell Page A
Authors: John C. Maxwell
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without thunder and lightning. Leaders who build relationships understand that conflict is a part of progress. Often it is even constructive.
The bottom line on Level 2 is that most of the downsides of leadership come from dealing with people. If you care about people and understand them, then you expect things not to go smoothly. If you go intoleadership on the Permission level with that expectation, it frees you to lead with a positive attitude and an open mind. You know that as long as people still have a pulse, you will be dealing with messy and difficult situations.
Best Behaviors on Level 2
How to Gain People’s Permission
I f you find yourself in a place where you need to start working to win people’s permission on Level 2, what should you do? How can you make the most of the opportunity to develop as a relational leader? Do the following:
1. Connect with Yourself Before Trying to Connect with Others
One of the secrets of connecting with people and building relationships is knowing and liking yourself. In my book
Winning With People
, I call it the Mirror Principle, which says, “The first person we must examine is ourselves.” The work in relationship building always has to start with yourself. What does that mean?
The First Person I Must Know Is Myself—Self-Awareness
Human nature seems to endow people with the ability to size up everybody in the world but themselves. Very few people are gifted with natural self-awareness. So what is a person to do? Become a student of yourself. Learn your strengths and weaknesses. Ask others to evaluate you. Understand the way you think, feel, and act in every kind of situation. Then once you know who you are, forget about yourselfand place your focus on others. You will relate to other people from a place of strength.
The First Person I Must Get Along With Is Myself—Self-Image
I know people who’ve never gotten along with themselves a single day in their lives. They don’t like how they look. Or they wish they had been endowed with different gifting or a different personality type. They don’t like where they came from or where they’re going. There are a lot of things you can change about yourself. Work hard at those. But there are also many you can’t. Accept them. Take the advice of Thomas Jefferson: in matters of conscience, stand like a rock; in matters of fashion, go with the flow.
The First Person to Cause Me Problems Is Myself—Self-Honesty
Comedian Jack Paar quipped, “Looking back, my life seems like one big obstacle race, with me being the chief obstacle.” Most people who don’t get anywhere in life have themselves to blame. They don’t believe in themselves. They create problems and then pretend they are someone else’s fault. They want change but won’t grow. It’s very difficult to be self-deluded and successful at the same time. Even the few who manage to pull it off can never sustain it. If you want to build relationships, you need to be honest—starting with yourself.
It’s very difficult to be self-deluded and successful at the same time.
The First Person I Must Change Is Myself—Self-Improvement
If you want to change your life for the better, then the first thing you must do is change yourself for the better. Author Samuel Johnson advised that “he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief which he purposes to remove.” Too often we look outside of ourselves for thesource of our problems. The reality is that many come from inside of us.
The First Person Who Can Make a Difference Is Myself—Self-Responsibility
Every significant accomplishment begins with one person stepping up and committing to make a difference. That person then takes responsibility to pass it on to others. If you don’t take responsibility for yourself, then don’t expect your life to become any different from what it is right
The bottom line on Level 2 is that most of the downsides of leadership come from dealing with people. If you care about people and understand them, then you expect things not to go smoothly. If you go intoleadership on the Permission level with that expectation, it frees you to lead with a positive attitude and an open mind. You know that as long as people still have a pulse, you will be dealing with messy and difficult situations.
Best Behaviors on Level 2
How to Gain People’s Permission
I f you find yourself in a place where you need to start working to win people’s permission on Level 2, what should you do? How can you make the most of the opportunity to develop as a relational leader? Do the following:
1. Connect with Yourself Before Trying to Connect with Others
One of the secrets of connecting with people and building relationships is knowing and liking yourself. In my book
Winning With People
, I call it the Mirror Principle, which says, “The first person we must examine is ourselves.” The work in relationship building always has to start with yourself. What does that mean?
The First Person I Must Know Is Myself—Self-Awareness
Human nature seems to endow people with the ability to size up everybody in the world but themselves. Very few people are gifted with natural self-awareness. So what is a person to do? Become a student of yourself. Learn your strengths and weaknesses. Ask others to evaluate you. Understand the way you think, feel, and act in every kind of situation. Then once you know who you are, forget about yourselfand place your focus on others. You will relate to other people from a place of strength.
The First Person I Must Get Along With Is Myself—Self-Image
I know people who’ve never gotten along with themselves a single day in their lives. They don’t like how they look. Or they wish they had been endowed with different gifting or a different personality type. They don’t like where they came from or where they’re going. There are a lot of things you can change about yourself. Work hard at those. But there are also many you can’t. Accept them. Take the advice of Thomas Jefferson: in matters of conscience, stand like a rock; in matters of fashion, go with the flow.
The First Person to Cause Me Problems Is Myself—Self-Honesty
Comedian Jack Paar quipped, “Looking back, my life seems like one big obstacle race, with me being the chief obstacle.” Most people who don’t get anywhere in life have themselves to blame. They don’t believe in themselves. They create problems and then pretend they are someone else’s fault. They want change but won’t grow. It’s very difficult to be self-deluded and successful at the same time. Even the few who manage to pull it off can never sustain it. If you want to build relationships, you need to be honest—starting with yourself.
It’s very difficult to be self-deluded and successful at the same time.
The First Person I Must Change Is Myself—Self-Improvement
If you want to change your life for the better, then the first thing you must do is change yourself for the better. Author Samuel Johnson advised that “he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief which he purposes to remove.” Too often we look outside of ourselves for thesource of our problems. The reality is that many come from inside of us.
The First Person Who Can Make a Difference Is Myself—Self-Responsibility
Every significant accomplishment begins with one person stepping up and committing to make a difference. That person then takes responsibility to pass it on to others. If you don’t take responsibility for yourself, then don’t expect your life to become any different from what it is right
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