Part 12 (1/2)
Dedicate yourself to a hobby, task, or physical activity outside of your expertise to keep you challenged, teachable, and humble.
2. Being on the Pinnacle Can Lead You to
Believe Your Own Press
Few things are more ridiculous than leaders who take themselves too seriously and begin to believe they are G.o.d's gift to others. Yet it happens continually. History is filled with stories of people who got carried away with their power and position.
Any time a leader begins to believe his own press, he's in trouble. When people excel to a high level in their profession, a type of mythology grows up around them. They become larger than life in other people's minds. A lot of the time it's hype. Level 5 leaders are rarely as good as people give them credit for. And no leaders-no matter how long or how well they've led-are above the laws of leaders.h.i.+p. The laws are like gravity. They apply to you whether or not you believe in them.
If you become a Level 5 leader, never forget that, like everyone else, you started at the bottom, as a positional leader. You had to work to build relations.h.i.+ps. You had to prove your productivity. And investing in the lives of others came about only with effort. Be confident, but also be humble. If you've become successful, it's only because a lot of other people helped you all along the way.
3. Being on the Pinnacle Can Make
You Lose Focus
When leaders reach Level 5, the number of opportunities they receive becomes extraordinary. Everyone wants to hear what such leaders have to say. But many of these opportunities are really little more than distractions. They won't help the leader's organization or cause.
If leaders who reach the Pinnacle want to make the most of their time there, they must remain focused on their vision and purpose and continue leading at the highest level. No matter where you are in your leaders.h.i.+p journey, never forget that what got you to where you are won't get you to the next level. Each step forward requires focus and a willingness to keep learning, adapting, strategizing, and working. You don't stay on top without focus, humility, and hard work.
Best Behaviors on Level 5
How to Use the Pinnacle as a Platform to Do
Something Greater Than Yourself
Leaders.h.i.+p should always be about others, not about the leader. That's true at every level, and it's especially important on Level 5, because having people follow out of deep respect is the height of leaders.h.i.+p. Pinnacle leaders have a lot of horsepower, and they need to make good use of it while they're on top to do more than help themselves. Here are my suggestions.
1. Make Room for Others at the Top Most leaders make it their goal to cultivate followers. But gathering followers doesn't create room for other leaders. As a Pinnacle leader, you must create that room and do so by developing leaders. If you do that continually and promote good leaders whenever you can, you create a cycle of positive change in the organization that creates room for leaders.
That may seem counterintuitive. Wouldn't having more leaders create less room? No. And here's why: when you develop a leader who develops other leaders, you create more room at the top because you increase the size and power of the entire organization. Every time you develop good leaders and help find a place for them to lead and make an impact, they gather more good people to them. As a result, the organization grows (along with its potential) and it needs more good leaders. This process creates a cycle of expansion and a kind of momentum toward the top for other leaders, which helps to propel the organization forward.
Take a look at your organizational chart. Are there places available for talented leaders who desire to move up? Take a look at the leaders who are near the top of the chart. Of what caliber are they? How long have they been with the organization? How long are they likely to stay? Are they so firmly entrenched that the talented leaders below them in the organization have little hope of advancing? If there are no openings and the leaders you have aren't going anywhere, then there is no room at the top for other potential leaders. How can you create some? What new challenges can you give your existing top leaders to open up their current positions to others? What kinds of expansion or types of initiatives could your organization tackle that would require additional leaders?
If you don't create room at the top for developing leaders, you will waste much of your potential horsepower, and you will eventually start to lose your up-and-coming talent.
2. Continually Mentor Potential
Level 5 Leaders
I've been teaching and writing on the subject of leaders.h.i.+p for three and a half decades, and in that time I've had the privilege of working with a lot of organizations. Each of them has been unique, with questions, needs, and conditions unlike any other. However, all of them have had one thing in common. They needed more and better leaders! Not once has anyone in an organization said, ”We have too many leaders. And the ones we have are better than we want. Can you help us get rid of some?”
No matter what your leaders.h.i.+p potential may be, you should strive to work your way up to Level 4 so that you can invest in others. But if you reach Level 5, you have a much greater responsibility. Leaders with high potential will only follow leaders who are ahead of them-in ability, experience, or both. For that reason, Pinnacle leaders cannot delegate the leaders.h.i.+p development process of potential leaders to others who are less talented than those being mentored. It simply doesn't work. If there are potential Level 4 or Level 5 leaders in your organization and you're a Level 5 leader, you must dedicate the time and effort to mentoring them. Otherwise they will go elsewhere to find a Level 5 leader who is willing to do it. The best potential leaders will not remain in the organization unless you go to them where they are, extend your hand, and help them to climb up to your level.
3. Create an Inner Circle That Will
Keep You Grounded
The Law of the Inner Circle says that those closest to leaders determine their potential. When leaders reach Level 4, their inner circle makes them better. Inner circle members help leaders take their organization to a higher level. That's still true on Level 5, but the inner circle must also fulfill another function: it must keep the leader grounded. A good inner circle can help leaders on the Pinnacle level to avoid the pitfall of believing their own press, which I mentioned earlier.
Inner circle members allow leaders to be themselves, but will also tell them the truth about themselves. Here is what I ask my inner circle to do: Love me unconditionally.
Represent me according to my values.
Watch my back.
Complement my weaknesses.
Continue to grow.