John Maxwell talks about 5 levels of leadership. Where does your “authority” as a leader come from?

Your title or position?  Your ability to connect with others? Or from your ability to solve problems, produce results and build momentum? From your ability to form a learning organization (Senge), developing people and form effective teams who lead and perform well like you? Or from the deep respect that you have earned by performing on all these levels for a long period of time. By “modeling the way” (Kouzes and Posner) for others?

To find out where you are….what level of leader you are…..you need to take some time. Get quiet. If you know meditation or are practicing a form of mindfulness then get settled and calm. Make a list of the people you work with and ask which level of leadership you are at with each person. As John says, you will be at a different level with different people. Then make an action plan for each person to raise your level with each of them. More info go here.