The 3 Ascending Levels of Leadership Success
“Success comes in cans—I can, you can, we can.” Anonymous
Level 1 leadership: Individual performance – I can.
Meeting expectation earns a paycheck. Exceeding expectation earns opportunity.
Don’t seek favors. Earn opportunities.
Earn opportunity:
- Do things you aren’t paid to do. But avoid jumping into other people’s turf.
- Do more than you are paid to do. You aren’t qualified for leadership if you always need credit and compensation to excel.
- Volunteer for tough assignments.
- Think more about contributing than complaining.
“Procrastination is the assassin of opportunity.” Anonymous
Level 2 leadership: Help others perform – you can.
Climbing the mountain is competence. Enabling others to climb the mountain is leadership.
Shift:
New leaders end up exhausted and burned out. They retain old responsibilities, take on new responsibilites, and struggle to enable others.
Leadership incudes telling. A neophyte-leader can tell. Exceptional leaders enable.
Rise above telling – become an enabler.
It’s easy to tell. It’s exponential to enable.
When they shine, you shine. You aren’t qualified to lead if you need to out-perform everyone on your team.
Enable others:
- Know and maximize strengths.
- Navigate the relationship between support and challenge. Some leaders support too much. Others challenge too much.
- Honor effort and celebrate progress.
Mentoring:
Some leaders I coach aspire to ask better questions. Their desire springs from watching me ask questions.
Mentoring opportunity: What do you do that others want to emulate?
Level 3 leadership: Enable others to enable others – we can.
Exceptional leaders enable others to enable others.
Room to fail:
The drive for quick results cancels your ability to enable others to enable others.
Profound learning includes failure. Learning and growth stop when failure isn’t an option.
Find quick inexpensive ways for people to learn how to enable others to enable others.
What suggestions do you have for leaders who want to enable performance in others?
How might leaders enable others to enable others?
Bonus material:
6 Mistakes New Leaders Make and How to Avoid Them | Inc.com
How to Set Your First-Time Managers Up for Success | CCL
Dan, I love these quotes.
–“Meeting expectation earns a paycheck. Exceeding expectation earns opportunity.”
–“Climbing the mountain is competence. Enabling others to climb the mountain is leadership.”
But I do think when you tell an inexperienced person what to do and how to do it, you are taking the proper step towards enabling him/her to learn and become more capable.
Thanks Paul. Glad you enjoyed those quotes.
Dealing with novices is different from dealing with experience. So glad you pointed it out. When a new person askes where the restroom is, don’t ask, where do you think it is. Or, how would you like to solve this problem. Just tell them.
And be sure to answer the question they asked: If they ask for time, don’t tell them how to build a watch.
In education, we call this gradual release. I do, we do, you do…
Thanks for your timely blog posts! As a leader, I wake up each morning and somehow, your posts reiterate or inspire or alter my thoughts and challenge me to push forward.
Keep on keepin’ on!
Dan, they are all good, but this one is really wonderful. I had never heard the phrase “enable others to enable others.” I love it.
-Larry
There is no greater feeling knowing that you enabled someone to better themselves when we turn their “cant’s into cans”. Good guidance becomes good leadership.
I ABSOLUTELY love this……wow….powerful!!!
How might leaders enable others to enable others? Encourage new ways/ideas and announce that failure is ok.. learning is key?
I love this, it’s really great concept that I, You, and We,
“Climbing the mountain is competence. Enabling others to climb the mountain is leadership.” Loved this quote reminds me of when I read the 100x Leader book and the metaphor of the Sherpas being the best example of multiplying leadership because their sole job is to help others climb Mount Everest