Free The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John C. Maxwell Page A

use the following guidelines to help you plan your growth.
Thank the People Who Invited You into Leadership: If you’ve ever been asked to take a leadership position, it’s an indication that someone believed in you. Whether you were invited to lead a week or a decade ago, it’s never too late to express gratitude to the person who invited you to the leadership table. Take the time to write a note or an e-mail to thank that person and express the positive impact leading has had on your life.
Dedicate Yourself to Leadership Growth: You will not grow as a leader unless you commit to getting out of your comfort zone and trying to be a better leader than you are today. Write a declaration of commitment to growth that describes what you will do to grow and how you will approach it. Then sign and date it. Put it someplace where you can reference it in the future. This marks the day you committed to becoming the leader you have the potential to be and to working your way up the 5 Levels of Leadership.
Define Your Leadership: Level 1 is the best place to spend time defining your leadership and deciding what shape you want it to take. Use the three questions contained in the Level 1 section of the book to describe the kind of leader you desire to be:
    • Who am I?
    • What are my values?
    • What leadership practices do I want to put into place?
Shift from Position to Potential: In the past, how have you expressed your career goals? Have you thought in terms of destinations, such as specific positions and titles, or have you thought in terms of the journey, meaning the work you will do while trying to achieve the greater vision? If you’ve thought in terms of position, change your focus. Instead, think about your leadership potential. What kind of leader do you have the potential to become? What kind of positive effect can you have on the people you lead? What kind of impact can you make on the world? Rewrite your goals to embrace a non-positional mind-set. It will make a difference in your teachability and the way you treat your team members.
Focus on the Vision: One of the ways to reduce an emphasis on title or position is to focus more on the vision of the organization and to think of yourself more as someone who helps clear the way for your people to fulfill that vision. To help you do that, take some time to rewrite your job description in those terms. Write down the vision of the organization and how your team or department helps to contribute to that vision. Then write down specific ways you can make it easier for your team members to do their part to fulfill the vision.
Shift from Rules to Relationships: If you have in the past relied on rules, regulations, and procedures to guide the peopleyou lead, then you need to make a shift to a more relational approach to leadership. Begin by looking for value in every person you lead. Then go out of your way to communicate how much you value each person. People are the most appreciable asset of any organization. You must be certain to treat them that way.
Initiate Contact with Your Team Members: If you have waited for people on your team to come to you for leadership, you need to change your approach to connecting with them. Get out of your office or cubicle and initiate contact with them. Make it your goal to get to know them, express your appreciation to them, encourage them, and offer your support to them.
Don’t Mention Your Title or Position: If you are in the habit of pulling rank or reminding people about your title or position, commit yourself to stop doing those things. I would even recommend going as far as not mentioning your title anytime you introduce yourself. Do whatever you have to do to identify less with your title and position and more with how you contribute to the team or organization.
Learn to Say, “I Don’t Know”: If you have led thinking that you had to have all the answers, then change your approach to leadership. Good leaders don’t have all the