Board of Directors Training Courses: The Key to Unlocking the 5 Levels of Leadership

That model was followed by author and researcher Jim Collins, who called his model “Level 5 leadership.”  These two models are comparatively similar, both serving as a blueprint for Board of Directors Training Courses.  Maxwell’s model is articulated in terms of influence and why people follow a particular leader; Collins’ model is articulated in terms of a description of the leader.  But side-by-side the models compare.  A level 5 leader for Collins is one who builds enduring greatness through a blend of personal humility and professional will.  While a level 5 leader for Maxwell is one whom people follow because of their influence – because of who they are – they are people of character, humility, and vision.  When these models are studied side-by-side both authors are describing the same things in terms of leadership.

And both, like Maslow, Kohlberg, and Burns before them, view the progression of their model as levels leaders can—and should—move up through, inspiring some of the best board of directors training courses.

Level 1 in the Maxwell and Collins models is about the position.  This is the lowest level of leadership—the entry-level.  The only influence a positional leader has is that which comes with the job title.

At Level 2, people do more than merely comply with orders.  They start to follow this leader because they want to.  They want to because the leader begins to influence people through relationships, not just position.

At Level 3, the emphasis is on personal and corporate productivity.  Not only is the leader productive individually, but they also are able to help the team produce.

By level 4, leaders are investing their time, energy, money, and thinking into growing others as leaders. They look at every person and try to gauge his or her potential to grow and lead—and work to bring out the best in them.

And finally, at Level 5, we find the rare leader.  This leader is a culmination of leading well on the other four levels.  Too, they also have a high degree of skill and natural leadership ability.  These are leaders who are able to develop other leaders so that they reach Level 4 or 5.

Beyond board of directors training courses: How to Recognize a Transformational Leader

Transformational leaders use their raw leadership abilities and they build on them.  You will recognize these leaders because they:

• grow and mature intellectually, emotionally, and in their moral reasoning
• relate well with people, giving them individualized attention
• know how to bring the best out of themselves and others
• build character, skill, experience, and competence in themselves and others
• challenge assumptions and take risks – see unexpected situations as opportunities to learn
• solicit the ideas of followers
• stimulate creativity in others
• articulate a vision that is appealing and inspiring to followers
• set high standards, communicate optimism about future goals, and provide meaning for the task at hand
• make the vision understandable, precise, powerful, and engaging
• use all of who they are in their leadership positions to bring positive change and transformation – the transformation that creates something better than existed before
• redeem situations that others see as lost
• create new solutions that others have not thought of
• bring transformation to people, relationships, products and services, organizations, and communities
• are good role models (in both character and performance)
• invest and infuse meaning into organizational life.

In a Nutshell

In a nutshell, a transformational leader can be recognized by their ability to engage with individuals at the highest levels of moral reasoning, to stimulate their minds, to touch and inspire their hearts, and then to lead by example toward the accomplishment of purpose, all the while experiencing the transformation of the leader and the one being led.

So What?  That’s a Lot of Theory! 

What does this mean for you in terms of your own leadership and your role in the boardroom? 

John Maxwell is famous for saying “your organization will rise and fall based on the level of its leadership.”  The long and short of it is this:  If you or the collective leadership capacity of your board is operating at level 1, then it is virtually impossible for you to lift your management team beyond that.  In fact, if they are beyond level 1, you will bring them down to where you are.  And, if the CEO and management team are operating at level 1, the organization will not thrive – it will remain a level 1 organization in terms of its capacity for growth.

This should prompt questions for you like: 

1. What level am I at?
2. Am I a level 5 leader? Or, do I get by on something less? 
3. What level would I like to be at?
4. Do I have the capacity to be a transformational leader?
5. Do I manage by transaction and quid pro quo, or do I lead transformatively?  
6. Have I become an expert in the behaviours of a level 5, transformational leader?
7. How might I achieve that?
8. Do I have high levels of self-awareness, personal accountability, and Inspiration?

You might also want to ask:

1. What’s stopping me?
2. What’s stopping our board?
3. How might I (or we for that matter) move toward being more transformational?

In your journey to becoming a transformational leader or board here are some pieces of advice from Burns himself (that inspired some of the best board of directors training courses available right now): 

1. Personalize your leadership style to give individualized consideration. This means willfully adapting your leadership style to the different personalities, needs, and skills of your team.  Act as a mentor or a coach more so than a boss.  Assign and delegate work based on talents and interests, but also challenge comfort zones.  Support their career development and show concern for their well-being as people not just as workers.
2. Encourage creativity by providing intellectual stimulation. Challenge assumptions about what can and cannot be done.  React to mistakes and failures in a way that shows that you condone risk-taking.  Give your support, provide resources, and remove barriers to change.  Approach problems as learning opportunities.  Think twice when people agree with you; show you value independent thinking and reward people who challenge you. 
3. Guide, motivate, and inspire. Guide your team in the direction you want the group to go by setting a vision, strategy, and goals.  Motivate them to bring their best by expressing their passion.  Communicate with confidence and optimism.  Connect tasks to a greater purpose.  Inspire them to act by continuously engaging their talents, re-recruiting their spirit, and celebrating their successes. 
4. Be a role model. Act with integrity, with both your behaviors and your words – in word and deed. Just as children mimic and emulate their parents, your team will take note of what you do and use it as a template for how they act and behave.  It happens automatically and subconsciously, whether the behavior is positive or negative—people will follow your example.

As you serve in the boardroom – do not be a leadership lid.  Rise to the occasion and raise others with you.  Learn to recognize where others put a lid on the organization, and take active steps to raise the leadership lid.  Create and foster a culture of learning and growth – don’t settle for the status quo – when we stop learning and growing we need to recognize that even though we may think we have stopped, everything else around us is moving on.  The truth is – we do not stay the same.  If we are not growing we are in effect moving backward.  Nothing stays the same. 

The so-what for the boardroom is that boards should target and seek out level 5 leaders.  

Be an inspiration to those you lead and take one of those board of directors training courses inspired by these great minds.  Inspire your peers, lift them up, build their confidence, and lead by example.  A critical mass of transformational, level 5 leaders, in the boardroom, and in the C-suite, will create organizations that are also transformational.   

Remember – great leadership begins inside you.  Be the leader you would choose to follow.

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