One of the key points in the Launching a Leadership Revolution book is that there are different levels of influence in a leader’s journey.  The five levels are:

1. Learning

2. Performing

3. Leading

4. Developing Other Leaders

5. Developing Leaders that Develop Other Leaders

Every leader must start at the first level of becoming a student.  Since leadership is driven by a leader’s hunger to change the status quo, that hunger naturally results in a leader’s desire to learn all he or she can about the endeavor.  Learning becomes a hunger in itself and one of a leader’s greatest joys.  As a leader learns, this knowledge isn’t simply to be had for the sake of intelligence, or for the sake of theory or mighty thoughts, although these are fine in and of themselves, but this knowledge is supposed to lead to action.  There are those who never leave the first level, and therefore their influence in the lives of others is limited to the relatively small reach that knowledge for the sake of knowledge alone brings. 

Most people move on to the second level, however, where their learning leads to performance.  It should be noted that the first level of learning never ends, but continues on while the leader is performing at level two.  Performing means that the leader actually demonstrates the habits of initiative and activation.  At this level the leader becomes the player on the field, scoring and winning. This performance, over time, becomes attractive to others.  This is what leads to the third level of influence.  Some people, however, never get beyond this level.  They don’t develop the skills to deal with other people, or they have character issues that keep others away.  Even though their performance is attractive and impressive, people don’t volunteer to be influenced by them.  Many, however, do move on to begin influencing others through the credibility of their own performance. 

At the level of leading, others are attracted to the obvious competence of the leader’s performance at level two.  The leader’s results speak for themselves, so people readily want to know what the leader knows and how to do what the leader does.  In effect, people are now allowing the leader to have influence in their lives because of his or her results as a performer.  The impact of the leader is really growing now.  Whereas the first level of influence impacted predominantly the individual doing the learning, only, and the second level of performing demonstrated the competence as a result of that learning, now others are enabled, encouraged, and led to have an impact themselves.  There is a process of addition going on where the leader is not the only one making a difference, but others are added to the equation and the overall impact is beyond what any one person could accomplish.  Many, many leaders never grow beyond this level.  They continue to learn, they continue to perform, and they lead people effectively, but they never realize that they should take the next step, or they never develop the abilities to do so. 

The next step is developing other leaders that can do everything the leader does, this is the fourth level of influence.  At this point, multiplication is going on because a leader reproduces his or her leadership abilities in others.  This level is where mentoring and leadership development come into play.  My friend, business partner, and co-author Orrin Woodward and I like to call mentorship the Lost Art of Leadership.  Purposeful mentoring is not done in very many organizations.  It’s as if leaders don’t realize that their job is to fill the "leadership pipeline" with people who can replace them.  But systematic mentoring and developing of other leaders is the difference between good and great organizations.  It is the art that separates the greatest leaders from the decent leaders.  Perhaps one reason mentoring is not more heavily utilized is that it takes an exceptional person to develop leaders that are potentially better than one’s self.  It requires humility! Leaders who are trying to build a kingdom for themselves will never make it to this level.  But those who truly hunger for significance and maximum impact will strive with full effort to learn how to operate at this level.

The fifth and final level is almost beyond scope for most of us.  It is the pinnacle of leadership influence, when a leader can develop leaders that develop other leaders.  The impact of this level is exponential in scope.  The work of the leader in developing other leaders of leaders usually goes down through the generations.  In fact, the cause for which the leader stood usually becomes associated with his or her name.  The fifth level of influence is only open to the most humble, serving, cause-driven leaders.  And it takes a significant amount of time and consistency to reach this level. 

Why is it important to understand the five levels of influence?  Firstly, because it is a road map for self-assessment.  A leader can look at the levels and quickly deduce where he or she stands, and therefore know exactly where to begin growing and developing.  Secondly, it is extremely useful for determining where the leaders in one’s organization are in their leadership journey, and it pinpoints what steps they need to take to advance.  Thirdly, it lets one know where each part of their organization is in its leadership.  Are the leaders in that area performing at level two, three, four? 

The five levels of influence are an exciting map of each of our leadership journeys.  Find out where you are in yours, seek out the materials and mentorship you need to move on, and enjoy the ascent as you make a greater and greater impact in the world!  God bless you on your journey!