How Successful People Lead Part 13

2. Look for Unexpected Crucible Moments

Leaders Can Learn From

People don't learn things just because we want them to. Level 5 leaders understand that teachable moments often come as the result of "levers" in their lives. Change occurs in people's lives when they...

Hurt enough that they have to (Pain and Adversity), Learn enough that they want to (Education and Experience), or Receive enough that they are able to (Support and Equipping).

Wise leaders look for moments that fall into those three categories. Some moments can be created, but many simply occur. Good leaders help the people they are mentoring to learn from them and make the most of them by explaining the experience and asking the right questions. All of us experience far more than we understand. Your job as a Level 5 leader is to help the high-level people you are developing to make sense out of what they experience and find value in it.

3. Use Your Own Crucible Moments as

Guidelines to Teach Leaders

Every leader needs to draw upon his or her own crucible experiences and breakthroughs as material to help the next generation of leaders lead. To do that, you must have examined those experiences and identified the lessons you've learned from them. It's very likely that the experiences and lessons that allowed you to break through the leadership lids in your life will help others break through theirs.

My recommendation is that you set aside time with pen and paper (or computer) to identify your own crucible moments. Figure out how they might be able to help the people you're developing. Then tell your breakthrough experiences as stories to the leaders you desire to develop.

I have to warn you: some people will call you arrogant or egocentric when you tell them. Don't let that deter you. I know of no better way to communicate important truths to others. People have been using stories to teach life's lessons for as long as human beings have been walking the earth. Tell yours and help the next generation to take its place as leaders.

4. Expose Leaders to Other People and

Organizations That Will Impact Them

One of the best ways I found to instill leadership qualities and skills into my developing leaders is to ask them to interview good leaders. Asking questions and looking for ways to develop a certain quality is a wonderful way for a person to grow. First, your developing leaders have to keep their eyes open for good leaders and well-led organizations, which begins to develop a leadership awareness in them. Second, they have to take the initiative (and sometimes be persuasive) to get the interview. Third, they have to prepare for the interview, which causes them to go deeper in their thinking about leadership. Fourth, the experience of the interview itself puts them in another leader's world and exposes them to another culture, which helps them to grow. And finally, a.n.a.lyzing the interview and talking about it with the person who gave them the a.s.signment helps to make the lessons concrete-especially if they are required to implement and teach what they've learned. Many a time after I asked my developing leaders to do an interview, they came back and said, "I thought that this leadership quality was strong in my life until I witnessed it in another leader's life. I've got a long way to go."

Leaders on Level 5 have access to leadership, organizations, opportunities, and experiences that your emerging leaders don't. Make the most of them for their benefit. Even if you are not yet on the Pinnacle level, you still have access that your leaders don't. Share it. You can give your leaders experiences that will impact them for the rest of their lives and that may continue to create leadership ripples in future generations. Don't squander that opportunity.

Every time you develop a leader, you make a difference in the world. And if you develop leaders who take what they've learned and use it to develop other leaders, there's no telling what kind of an impact you'll have or how long that impact will last.

Conclusion

The leadership journey has the potential to take individuals through a lifelong process in three phases: learn, earn, return. People at the start of the journey who are given a position of leadership are faced with a decision. Are they going to learn now to lead better, or are they going to rely on their position, guard their turf, and play king of the hill to maintain what they've got? Those who choose to learn enter the learning phase and start to slowly climb up the levels of leadership. Typically, when they reach the Production level, they begin to receive recognition and the rewards of leadership. That's when most leaders enter the earning phase. Many are content to stay there. They climb the ladder in the organization, they have the respect of their peers, and they earn a good living. Only those leaders who decide to give back to others and develop other leaders enter the returning phase. Leaders who dedicate themselves to developing more leaders and pour themselves into the task, giving their best energies and resources to raise up other leaders, are the only ones who have the chance to move up to the Pinnacle.

No matter where you are in your own leadership journey, I encourage you to learn all you can and keep learning. And when you reach the earning phase, don't stop there. Don't lead others solely for your own benefit. Start giving to others and teaching them to lead so that you can enter the returning phase. Do that long enough and well enough, and you give yourself an opportunity to reach Level 5 and experience and share all the benefits of all five levels of leadership.

Books by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Can Teach You How to Be a REAL Success

Relationships

25 Ways to Win with People Becoming a Person of Influence Encouragement Changes

Everything

Ethics 101 Everyone Communicates,

Few Connect

The Power of Partnership Relationships 101 Winning with People

Att.i.tude

Att.i.tude 101 The Difference Maker Failing Forward How Successful People Think Success 101 Thinking for a Change The Winning Att.i.tude

Equipping

The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth The 17 Essential Qualities of a

Team Player

The 17 Indisputable Laws of

Teamwork

Developing the Leaders Around You Equipping 101 Make Today Count Mentoring 101 My Dream Map Partners in Prayer Put Your Dream to the Test Running with the Giants Talent Is Never Enough Today Matters Your Road Map for Success

Leadership

The 10th Anniversary Edition

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Leadership

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of

a Leader