Effective Principles For Leadership Development

Leadership Development is design to take you through various levels of growth and development in your organization, business and life as a leader. Your Leadership Development determines the degree of influence you have over your followers. 

As you go through this post you will discover the level you are as a leader and what you need for growth. As you go through these principles diligently, you will become more effective as a leader.

When a leader knows what level he is on his leadership journey, he is able to communicate and inspire his followers effectively and get the best out of them.

A leader knows that the people in his organization perceive his leadership differently, that is, he is not on the same level with everybody. In other for him to carry everybody along, he must have a good knowledge on his leadership development.

The levels of leadership are designed to give an understanding on how leaders develop and how you can grow and make progress as a leader.

Levels of Leadership Development

Here are the levels of leadership that will aid your leadership development.

• Level 1- position level

This is the lowest level of leadership development. It is the initial stage of every leader’s life. In this leadership, people follow you because they have to; positional leadership has to do with the rights granted by the position.

When a person lacks necessary skills and knowledge on leadership, he or she uses his position or authority to manipulating people to follow. This people rely on rules, regulation, policies to control people towards a common goal.

The followers will only do what they are required to do and in most cases they won’t make sacrifice or go the extra mile for you. If a person relies on positional leadership will have difficulty working with volunteers, young people or get our employees to go the extra mile.

• Level 2 - Permission level

 It is a leadership based on relationships; here people follow you because they want to. When you like people and treat them like individuals who have value, you begin to develop influence with them.

They trust you and the working environment becomes more fun and exciting. Here the leader gets to know his people and figure out how to get along with them, and the followers getting to know their leaders. You cannot truly lead people without truly liking them.

• Level 3 - Production

In this leadership position, people follow you based on what you have done for the organization, based on your achievement to the organization or company.

A leader don’t only create an exciting environment, he initiates the change and produce results. The leader becomes the agent of change; he solves problems which takes the followers to another level of effectiveness.

• Level 4 - People Development

Leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leaders use their position, relationship and productivity to invest in their followers and develop them until those followers become leaders.

If your followers are not equal to the vision of the organization, they will find it difficult to get to their goal. In this level, the leader’s relationship with people deepens and it helps people to know themselves better which streng

thens team work and loyalty.

People function on their highest level of strength and ability which increases productivity. Leaders become changers of life.

• Level 5-pinnacle

This is the highest level of leadership development. It's a level of leadership were people follow you for who you are and what you represent. Here you have trained and raised leaders that the people see you as their role model, a leader.

Here you don’t need to declare you’re in number five, people declare it for you. For you to get to number five you have got to do the first four levels well, the last level is automatic.

Essentials for climbing the steps of Leadership Development;

1) The higher you go, the longer it takes

It takes time to get to the highest level, you don’t begin with the first step today and expect to get to the last step in five days’ time, it takes months, sometimes years.

2) The higher you go, the higher the level of commitment.

The higher level of commitment is to your people and their commitment to you. For example when people follow you because they have to, they are not highly committed to you, but as you go up the level of influence they get committed to you. When you get to level four the commitment is there.

3) The higher you go, the easier it is to lead.

Every time you go up each level it gets easier, people that follow you because you developed them are quick to follow you and will always go the extra mile to even make improvements in their department. Here everyone is highly skilled and productive.

4) The higher you go, the greater your success.

The Better the leaders are in an organization, the better everyone in the organization becomes. When productivity is high, chemistry is good, morale is high and momentum is strong, then the payoffs increase.

5) You never leave a level below, you build on it.

You never leave a level after you have achieved it; instead you simply build on it. Here you don't abandon your previous relationship instead you add to it.

6) You are not on the same level with every person.

Someone the first day on the job will acknowledge only my position, while someone in whom i have invested and whom i have raised up to lead will likely put me on level 4. People will respond to you based on the level of leadership you are on with them.

7) Moving further up always requires further growth.

Each time a leader moves up to a higher level of leadership, greater skill is required. It requires further development of the leader. As a leader if our not growing, you will start dyeing, that’s why every leader has a passion for growth.

8) You can’t climb the levels alone.

 As you grow into more influence, more people follow you, that’s the reason, you must give time to empowering your followers if you must see growth

9) Every time you lead a new people you start the process all over again

10) Not climbing the levels of leadership limits you and your people

11) You must find your area of gifting, passion and strength.

If you want to develop your skill as leader go to Leadership Skills Development.

Conclusion

The higher you go on every level of leadership, the easier it is to lead and the greater the growth . 

Every leader is unique in his ability, style and gift. The pursuit of your gift and passion brings out your leadership skill. In other to fulfill your potential as a leader and influence your followers you must be passionate about your purpose.