How Successful People Lead Part 12

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 leadership. 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 relationships. 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 leadership 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

Leadership 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 leadership. 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 leadership 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 leadership 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 leadership 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.

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 leadership; 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 leadership. 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 relationships 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. Leadership 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. Leadership transition difficulties are far too common, and, like the pa.s.sing of the baton in a relay race, a leadership 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 leadership 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 leadership. However, when you're on the Pinnacle level, there is no higher place in leadership. So in this section I am going teach you how to help others to move up to the higher levels of leadership. 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 leadership 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 leadership. 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 leadership 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 leadership 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 leadership development experience that will change who they are. Try to think in those terms every day.