The Three Levels of Leadership – Scouller Leadership Blog Leadership Psychology | The Three Levels of Leadership - Scouller Leadership Blog
The Leaders Growth Curve
The Leaders Growth Curve is a graphic model I use in coaching. Like all models, it’s a simplified depiction of a more complex reality, but it tells an important story. It maps nearly all leaders on to seven points on the curve and shows how most find themselves stuck on what I call the “leaders plateau”.
I use the Leaders Growth Curve with clients in two ways. First, to help them figure out where they stand in their growth as leaders. Second, to help them decide what position they want to reach.
Research
What did I base the Leaders Growth Curve on? I used five sources of data:
- Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” research in the late 1990s.
- The people I met during my 28 years in industry before becoming an executive coach.
- Clients I’ve worked with in my 16 years (5000+ hours) as a professional coach to leaders.
- The Center for Creative Leadership’s research into why successful executives derail.
- Gallup’s research into the connection between engagement and business results.
Measuring the Results of Executive Coaching
I posted an article on LinkedIn three days ago that’s getting a fair bit of attention. It’s titled, “Executive Coaching That Makes a Difference”.
It shows how I measure the before-and-after results of my coaching with leaders, using ideas and tools from The Three Levels of Leadership. I introduce what I call the Dual Perspectives analysis with a real-life example using two graphs.
I thought it might interest readers of this blog. So here’s a link to the article: Executive Coaching That Makes a Difference.
The author is James Scouller, an executive coach. The second edition of his book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published in September 2016. You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com. If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews. If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE. You can read more about his executive coaching services at The Scouller Partnership’s website.
How do I get rid of the False Self the fastest way possible?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the seventeenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q16. The question I was asked at a leadership workshop was: How do I get rid of the False Self the fastest way possible?
Answer:
“Consider this, how long have your False Self fears been inside your mind? I realise you won’t have an exact answer, but you can be pretty sure the answer is, “Most of my life.”
Now what’s the average age of the people on this programme? 40 years? So in other words, the chances are that your False Self has taken the best part of 40 years to develop.
So what do you regard as “the fastest way possible”? What is “fast”? Continue reading →
What Is Self-Mastery & Why Is It A Game-Changer?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the fifteenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q15. What exactly is self-mastery in the context of leadership and what makes it game-changing and beneficial for leaders? [This was asked by Joe Scherrer of the Leadership Crucible in the course of an interview in October 2013 for his website.]
“Well, self-mastery, in essence, is inside-out-based change… change from the inside out … where you become aware of what’s happening in your mind and gradually take command of it. This allows you to express your highest potential…not just for your benefit, but in the service of others. Continue reading →
Where Did My False Beliefs Come From?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the fourteenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q14. Where did my False Self beliefs come from, especially my negative self-image ?
“In a sense it doesn’t matter where they came from. What only matters is that you have a False Self self-image.
I say that not to dismiss the importance of the question, but to focus you on the practical challenge before you. You see, it’s interesting to understand the origins of your False Self beliefs, but it won’t necessarily help you move beyond them, to let them go. Continue reading →
The Language of Change (part 4)
Post 3 of 4 in a series of articles on the subject of leading large-scale change in organisations (part 4).
The first post looked at the power and dangers of metaphors in leading change and suggested replacing the “burning platform” with the idea of a “High Noon moment”. The second post discussed the dangers of underestimating how long it takes people to change and what you can do about it. This post – which is appearing in four parts (this is the fourth) – continues examining how leaders can frame their change language to best effect.
In The Language of Change part 1 we looked at the confirmation bias, critiqued the usual approach to change communication and introduced a new three-step process:
- Get your audience’s urgent attention
- Stimulate desire for a new future
- Then and only then… appeal to the intellect
In The Language of Change part 2, I offered practical tips on how to get your change audience’s urgent attention. In part 3, I offered advice on how to stimulate desire for the new future (the change idea). In this final part 4, I suggest ways of appealing to the intellect to make sure second thoughts don’t creep in and sabotage the will to change. Again, this will be in bullet-point form. Continue reading →
The Language of Change (part 3)
Post 3 of 4 in a series of articles on the subject of leading large-scale change in organisations (part 3).
The first post looked at the power and dangers of metaphors in leading change and suggested replacing the “burning platform” with the idea of a “High Noon moment”. The second post discussed the dangers of underestimating how long it takes people to change and what you can do about it. This post – which is appearing in four parts (this is the third) – continues examining how leaders can frame their change language to best effect.
In The Language of Change part 1 we looked at the confirmation bias, critiqued the usual approach to change communication and introduced a new three-step process:
- Get your audience’s urgent attention
- Stimulate desire for a new future
- Then and only then… appeal to the intellect
In The Language of Change part 2, I offered practical tips on how to get your change audience’s urgent attention. In this part 3, I offer advice on how to stimulate desire for the new future (the change idea). Again, this will be in bullet-point form. Continue reading →
The Language of Change (part 2)
Post 3 of 4 in a series of articles on the subject of leading large-scale change in organisations (part 2).
The first post looked at the power and dangers of metaphors in leading change and suggested replacing the “burning platform” with the idea of a “High Noon moment”. The second post discussed the dangers of underestimating how long it takes people to change and what you can do about it. This post – which is appearing in four parts (this is the second) – continues examining how leaders can frame their change language to best effect.
In the previous post (Language of Change part 1) we looked at the confirmation bias, critiqued the usual approach to change communication and introduced a new three-step process:
- Get your audience’s urgent attention
- Stimulate desire for a new future
- Then and only then… appeal to the intellect
This post zeroes in on step #1 and offers practical tips in bullet-point format on how to get your change audience’s urgent attention. Continue reading →
The Language of Change (part 1)
Post 3 of 4 in a series of articles on the subject of leading large-scale change in organisations (part 1).
The first post looked at the power and dangers of metaphors in leading change and suggested replacing the “burning platform” with the idea of a “High Noon moment”. The second post discussed the dangers of underestimating how long it takes people to change and what you can do about it. This post – which I’ll spread over four days – will suggest how leaders can frame their change language to best effect. Continue reading →
Why Do Organisational Change Initiatives Overrun?
Post 2 of 4 in a series of articles on the subject of leading large-scale change in organisations.
The first post looked at the power and dangers of metaphors in leading change and suggested replacing the “burning platform” with the idea of a “High Noon moment”. This post looks at the dangers of underestimating how long it takes people to change and what you can do about it. Continue reading →
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