Part 12 (2/2)
Fulfill their responsibilities with excellence.
Be honest with me.
Tell me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear.
Help carry the weight, not be an extra weight.
Work together as a team.
Add value to me.
Enjoy the journey with me.
The people in my inner circle give me these things, and in return I give them my loyalty, love, and protection; I reward them financially; I develop them in leaders.h.i.+p; I give them opportunities; and I share my blessings.
Having a strong inner circle will keep the journey enjoyable, prevent loneliness, and keep leaders from developing hubris. And here's the good news. The people in your inner circle can become your favorite people-like family.
4. Do Things for the Organization That Only
Level 5 Leaders Can Do
Being on Level 5 allows a leader to see and do things that cannot be done from any other place in leaders.h.i.+p. Some of those things are obvious. If you're the top leader in your organization, you need to guide it. You need to be a good model to everyone in the organization by valuing people, continuing to grow, practicing the golden rule, being authentic, exhibiting good values, and living out the right priorities.
Other things may be less obvious and very specific to your situation and organization. You may be able to create a groundbreaking product or service. You may be able to champion a value or cause that no one else could as effectively. You may be able to help people improve their lives. You may be able to impact your community in a unique way. You may have relations.h.i.+ps with people who can help you to do something important. All the work you've done and all the influence you've gained over the years just might be in your hands so that you can do something bigger with it. You have to keep your eyes, ears, and heart open to the possibilities. The success you have hasn't been given to you for only yourself. Level 5 leaders have a platform from which they can lead and persuade. Whenever possible, use it to pa.s.s on those things that have helped you. Leaders.h.i.+p is influence. Leverage it to add value to others.
5. Plan for Your Succession Leaving a successor is the last great gift a leader can give an organization. Leaders.h.i.+p transition difficulties are far too common, and, like the pa.s.sing of the baton in a relay race, a leaders.h.i.+p transition must be planned and executed well. Success is dependent upon the leader with the baton handing it off to the next leader when both of them are running at maximum speed. True leaders put ego aside and strive to create successors who go beyond them. And they plan to hand off the baton of leaders.h.i.+p when they are still running at their peak. If a leader has already begun to slow down, the baton is being handed off too late. No leader should hurt the organization's momentum by staying too long just for his or her own gratification. The number one problem in organizations led by Level 5 leaders is that they stay too long. So if you're a Level 5 leader who runs an organization, plan your succession and leave before you feel you have to.
6. Leave a Positive Legacy One of the keys to arriving at the end of our lives without regret is doing the work of creating a lasting legacy. If you are a Level 5 leader, I want to encourage you to use the influence you have now to create a better world. How? First, recognize that what you do daily, over time, becomes your legacy. Whether it's spending quality time with your family every day, saving money and investing every month, or speaking kind and encouraging words to others each day-these actions result in a legacy of positive impact.
Second, decide now what you want your legacy to be. How do you want to be remembered? What would you like people to say about you at your funeral? Do you have a vision for the positive impact you want to leave behind you? Do you know what you can invest in potential leaders who will want to help you build it?
Finally, understand that a legacy is the sum of your whole life, not just snippets. If you have failed, that's okay. Has your life taken a path that is less than ideal? Put it behind you. Set off in the right direction and begin to change the way you live starting today. Fulfill your mission and vision for your life. Do it now before it is too late to change.
Don't let yourself get to the final days of your life wondering what could have been. Decide today what your life will be, and then take action each and every day to live your dreams and leave your legacy!
Help Others Move Up to
Levels 4 and 5
Create Crucible Moments for the Leaders
You Develop
At this point in previous sections of the book, I discussed the beliefs that will help you to move up to the next level of leaders.h.i.+p. However, when you're on the Pinnacle level, there is no higher place in leaders.h.i.+p. So in this section I am going teach you how to help others to move up to the higher levels of leaders.h.i.+p. Besides, once you reach Level 5, your focus shouldn't be on advancing yourself; it should be on helping others move up as high as they can go.
What is the secret of learning to lead? Leading. That's like saying that you learn to drive a car by driving a car. Or that you learn to cook by cooking. A little experience goes a lot further than a lot of theory. As a mentor, you can give the inexperienced leaders leaders.h.i.+p experiences that make them better. As an experienced leader, you can identify potential leaders, you can figure out what kinds of experiences they need, and you can help to provide them in a controlled environment where their failures and fumbles won't completely take them out of the game of leaders.h.i.+p. I call these experiences crucible moments. The key incidents in your life-the crucible moments-have shaped you. They've created breakthroughs for you. And the leaders.h.i.+p experiences you've had-both good and bad-have made you the leader you are today. The same will be true for those you lead and develop.
If you want to make the most of your influence on Level 5, then you need to create crucible moments that will enable your best leaders to reach their leaders.h.i.+p potential. Here's how I suggest you go about doing it.
1. Identify and Create the Crucial Lessons
Leaders Must Learn
Begin by identifying the essential qualities and skills any good leader must possess. This will be your blueprint for introducing key experiences and testing potential leaders as they become ready. Here is a list I developed after my fortieth birthday, when I realized I needed to dedicate myself to developing my inner circle of leaders: Integrity Problem-Solving Vision Communication Influence Creativity Pa.s.sion Teamwork Servanthood Att.i.tude Confidence Self-Discipline Once I had settled on the list, I began to look for opportunities to put leaders in situations where they could learn experience-based lessons in those areas. For example, whenever there was a problem in the organization, I didn't solve it myself. Instead, I sent one of the leaders I was developing to try to figure it out. Afterward, we'd discuss how he or she solved the problem and what he or she learned. To help their communication, when leaders were ready, I'd give them an opportunity to speak: to various groups, to the organization's leaders, or to the entire organization. Afterward we'd talk about what went wrong and what went right, and what they could do the next time to improve. If I wanted to help them develop their influence and improve their teamwork, I'd ask them to recruit a team of volunteers for an event or a program and work with that team to follow through. You get the idea. When you lead an organization, you can't be focused on just fulfilling the vision or getting work done. Every challenge, problem, opportunity, or initiative is a chance for you to pair potential leaders to a leaders.h.i.+p development experience that will change who they are. Try to think in those terms every day.
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