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John C. Maxwell is a global leadership coach who has been training and equipping leaders for decades. He has also authored numerous leadership books, many of which have become international bestsellers. Years of research and careful study taught John Maxwell that there are five levels to leadership. He taught these concepts all over the world before he decided to put them in written form. The levels of leadership are:
- Position
- Permission
- Productivity
- People development
- Pinnacle
You will learn what they are in this summary, as well as strategies to help you maximize your potential as you journey through the levels.
Who is this summary for?
It's suited for both new and established leaders across all spheres of life. Because the principles here cover the whole spectrum of leadership, you'll benefit from it, no matter where you are in your leadership.
“The challenge of leadership is to create change and facilitate growth.” ~ John C. Maxwell
Key points
1
Everyone begins as a positional leader; it's up to you to move up the ladder
How do you define good leadership? Most people have a vague idea. When you take a poll, you will get responses like, “A good leader is anyone who occupies a leadership position and has followers they're leading,” or “I don't know, but when you see a leader, you just know it.”
Those responses are good but not enough to define true leadership. There are people in leadership positions who fail as leaders. But for some reason, remain there. And some good leaders don’t even have titles. So seeing leaders as positional isn't good enough.
The result of having vague ideas of leadership is that people will resort to leading with gut feelings ― doing what feels right for them — and that's not a profitable path. Not following tested principles can have terrible consequences. At best, you'll learn from experience. But before you learn, fail, and gain mastery from personal experience, you'd have wasted time and a lot of potential.
The smart way is by learning from proven experts. It will shorten your journey and help you achieve much in record time.
Those responses are good but not enough to define true leadership. There are people in leadership positions who fail as leaders. But for some reason, remain there. And some good leaders don’t even have titles. So seeing leaders as positional isn't good enough.
The result of having vague ideas of leadership is that people will resort to leading with gut feelings ― doing what feels right for them — and that's not a profitable path. Not following tested principles can have terrible consequences. At best, you'll learn from experience. But before you learn, fail, and gain mastery from personal experience, you'd have wasted time and a lot of potential.
The smart way is by learning from proven experts. It will shorten your journey and help you achieve much in record time.
The best way to learn isn't from your experience but from the experiences of others who have gone ahead of you.
Gladly, John Maxwell, who has been studying leadership for decades, has done the groundwork. After years of study, he discovered the five levels of leadership we will be considering in this summary. The five levels are:
Level 1 — Position
Level 2 — Permission
Level 3 — Production
Level 4 — People Development
Level 5 — The Pinnacle
Leaders move up the levels in serial order, with level 1 being the most basic. All leaders start at Level 1. It takes little to no effort to be on this level, but moving up the levels takes intentionality. We will consider the meanings of each level and the mindsets you need to advance through them in the following chapters.
Did you know? Former U. S. President Barack Obama launched his Twitter account on March 5, 2007. He was the first president to have a Twitter account.
Level 1 — Position
Level 2 — Permission
Level 3 — Production
Level 4 — People Development
Level 5 — The Pinnacle
Leaders move up the levels in serial order, with level 1 being the most basic. All leaders start at Level 1. It takes little to no effort to be on this level, but moving up the levels takes intentionality. We will consider the meanings of each level and the mindsets you need to advance through them in the following chapters.
Did you know? Former U. S. President Barack Obama launched his Twitter account on March 5, 2007. He was the first president to have a Twitter account.
2
Level 1 — Position Leadership
Position leadership is the first level of the leadership journey. People follow leaders in this category simply because they have to.
Other chapters are waiting for you in the app
3
Level 2 — Permission leadership
4
Level 3 — Production
5
Level 4 — People Development
6
Level 5 — The Pinnacle
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