What’s Your Leadership Level?

Leadership is not one-size-fits-all, as each leader will bring varying personalities to the role. Great leaders aren't simply born; leadership is like a muscle that can strengthen over time.

Part of being an effective leader is continuously expanding your knowledge and understanding of the world around you, which will increase your subject matter expertise.

Leadership can take us through different levels of learning and growth. This blog will briefly discuss the three levels of leadership for the road ahead.

A level one leader can be task-focused, just trying to figure things out. The what's and how things are to be done, focusing on budget and meeting deadlines.

A level two leader will show signs of becoming more comfortable in the role and transitioning from task-focused to people-focused. They direct their energies toward understanding their people's skills, maximizing their strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. They focus on communicating the overall picture of what they are trying to accomplish. At this stage, the level two leader ensures that their team is clear on goals, objectives, and decision-making.

A level three leader is interested in knowing how their today's decisions will impact the future by consistently asking, "where is the business going? How to align their efforts with business objectives?" Level three leaders are also concerned with anticipating customer needs and implementing continuous improvements.

There can be challenges moving through the different levels to get to Level three, and it will take an understanding of what it takes to be successful. Having the right people in the right roles will allow you to move from the coaching phase to strive for a higher leadership vision.

It takes work to pin down and understand any level of leadership. However, it is essential to remember that leadership is not rocket science, and leaders can improve on it. We must focus on what we can control, seeking to continually improve how we do things and empower those around us to succeed. Level three leaders speak to people's hearts and can engage employees profoundly, recognizing that employees seek creative and meaningful work, which will lead to heartfelt commitments. This leader is effective enough because they seek to understand the basic assumptions and values of employees and match them with appropriate work to ensure harmony with goals, strategic direction, and vision for their organization's future sustainability and growth.