Book Excerpts from Leadership Book - The Three Levels of Leadership

Look Inside

Here you can read sample pages from The Three Levels of Leadership, published by Management Books 2000, using the Look Inside tool below.  Once inside, you can view the first 33 pages, which include the Table of Contents, the Preface and the first chapter, Leadership & The Leader. 

Further down this page you can also read five excerpts from beyond the first 33 pages and view a YouTube video on leadership presence by James Scouller.  The video draws on material from The Three Levels of Leadership and is the first part of an eleven-part series.  The video – together with a link to the other ten parts in the series – is at the bottom of this page.

Browsing Inside The Book

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Additional Excerpts

Here are five brief extracts from the book, The Three Levels of Leadership, by James Scouller, published by Management Books 2000:

Unhelpful Ideas Around Leadership...

“It isn’t easy being a leader.  Unlike previous less senior roles, you can’t hide.  Everything you do is visible.  But how many leaders feel they were ready for the role when they first stepped into it?  Very few, judging by the conversations I’ve had with CEOs.  Every one I’ve spoken to said none of their previous roles prepared them for the increase in pressure and exposure they felt when they became leader.  But ready or not, others will expect you to make a difference.  However, if you don’t meet their expectations, criticism will rain down and if the organisation’s performance continues to disappoint, you will become the scapegoat.  Perhaps the biggest challenge you face is that your ego will be exposed as never before to the fear of failure or of feeling inadequate.  But don’t expect sympathy.  Your critics will say, ‘You wanted the job, you get the financial rewards – you have to take the pressure that goes with it.’

But leaders sometimes make it tougher for themselves.  They don’t always work as hard as they could on preparing themselves for leadership, nor on continued learning once they’re in position.  To make it worse, some who take on the number one role come to believe the idea that, ‘Now I’m the leader, I am the finished article – or at least I must pretend to be.’  Which is why many leaders don’t ask for help after they start.  This means the only way they learn is via the school of hard knocks – which can be a slow way to make progress.

The trouble is, leaders have a disproportionate effect – for good or ill – on the organisations they lead.  So the question is: given their importance to society, why do we stand by and let would-be leaders so often arrive in the CEO role under-prepared, lacking guidance on how to develop from there on?

I believe one of the chief but rarely talked about reasons is that we continue to hold vague, unhelpful ideas around leadership – most notably around:

1. The idea of leadership itself.
2. The fundamental purpose of a leader.
3. What leaders have to do.
4. What they need to work on to become more effective.

After all, if we can’t agree what ‘leadership’ means; if we’re not clear why the leader’s role exists; if we don’t know the key leadership behaviours and if we lack a framework for developing leaders… how can we expect anything other than hit and miss results?”

From Chapter 2: The Three Levels of Leadership Model

About The Three Levels of Leadership Model...

“Underlying the model is the earlier idea that the leader must ensure there is leadership in all four dimensions: (1) motivating purpose (2) task and results (3) upholding group spirit and (4) attention to individuals.  To achieve this, a leader has to work at three levels.  Two are outer or behavioural levels: public and private leadership.  The third – personal leadership – takes place at inner mental and emotional levels.  Here’s how I define them:

• Public leadership covers the actions leaders take in a group setting – for example, a meeting – or when trying to influence an organisation as a whole.  It includes the behaviours dealing with group purpose, group task work and group togetherness building.  “Togetherness building” means encouraging group-wide trust and respect and developing an atmosphere in which it’s natural to perform to your highest standard, share information and help colleagues.
  
• Private leadership refers to individual handling of group members.  It includes getting to know your people as individuals; agreeing individual goals to support the group task; reviewing their individual task performance; helping them maintain and improve their performance; helping them grow beyond their current roles; selection; disciplining and removing underperforming members of the group.
  
• Personal leadership is the inner counterpart to the outer levels of private and public leadership.  It concerns the leader’s psychological, moral and technical development and its effect on his presence and behaviour – and therefore on the people around him.  At its heart is the leader’s self-awareness, his progress toward self-mastery and technical competence, and his sense of connection with those around him.  It’s the inner core, the source, of a leader’s outer leadership effectiveness.
  

Of the three levels, personal leadership is the most powerful.  Imagine dropping a pebble into a pond and seeing the ripples spreading out from the centre.  The pebble represents inner, personal leadership and the ripples the two outer levels.  Helpful inner change and growth will affect outer leadership positively.  Negative inner change will cause the opposite.”

From Chapter 2: The Three Levels of Leadership Model

Leaders & Stewards...

“If you aren’t giving direction and communicating progress, you aren’t leading and you won’t be credible as a leader.  People who carry the title of leader, but don’t offer direction are not leaders – they are stewards.  They look after the organisation’s procedures, assets and results, they solve problems and they make the best of current circumstances, but they are not leading.  Remember, the first dimension of leadership is agreeing a purpose and direction that people support.  So if the organisation isn’t going anywhere, if there’s no shared purpose, no sense of destination; leadership is missing...

... this may be uncomfortable news for those who’d rather act as a steward than a leader – who’d rather work with ‘what is’ instead of ‘what could be.’  But the need for direction setting at some point is inescapable, even if there are people at the top who don’t want to admit it.  To repeat an earlier point, how can there be real leadership if there’s no direction, no destination?  A capable steward may cut costs, improve efficiency and solve problems, but he or she doesn’t move an organisation forward.  I’m not criticising those who wish to act as stewards, merely pointing out that what they offer isn’t leadership.”

From Chapter 7: Working on Element 2 – Attitude Towards Others

Being a Servant-Leader in Action...

“The idea of leadership as service is no reason to dodge hard-edged decisions for the good of the group.  Nor does it exclude an unshakeable resolve to make things happen, insist on high performance standards and take tough action with people who don’t perform well and show no sign of improving. 

Remember, you as the leader are responsible for making sure there is leadership.  But, to repeat, this doesn’t excuse an “ends justify the means” attitude and the harm it can cause.  So being a servant-leader will influence how you deal with below-par performers.  It may mean, for example, firing someone, but firing them the way you would like to be fired.  This is the balance I am describing.  Thus, the effective leader balances power and decisiveness with love for others.  We call that wisdom.”

From Chapter 7: Working on Element 2 – Attitude Towards Others

On Self-Mastery...

“How does self-mastery help you as a leader?  The answer is scattered among the previous chapters, but it’s time to pull the threads together.  It enables you to:

• Dissolve your limiting beliefs, shift your self-image and raise your self-esteem.  This will let you: (1) Recognise your weaknesses, take action and grow beyond them. (2) Control your mind’s reactions to outer events, enabling you to choose your response, including your behaviour – not blindly react the same way every time. (3) Connect with and appreciate others more, thus shifting your motive from personal ambition to service and balancing others’ needs with the demands of the task. (4) Know what is important to you and assert yourself confidently and skilfully. (5) Admit your mistakes and not take yourself too seriously – even laugh at yourself.
  
• Sense and express your unique presence; the presence that makes others want to follow you.
  
• Focus and direct your energies better, enabling you to achieve more in less time.
  
• Handle pressure, to be ‘in the flow’ as you lead, giving you a sense of ease and enjoyment.
  

How this happens will become clear as this chapter unfolds.  In writing it, my aim has been to keep technical justifications and detours to a minimum to avoid losing the thread or obscuring the key points.  It has enough detail for you to understand and apply the model in your work as a leader, but if you want to know more you will find extra commentary in the endnotes.”

From Chapter 8: Working on Element 3 – Self-Mastery: A Leader’s Map of the Psyche

YouTube Videos

If you click the video on the left, you can see and listen to James Scouller in the first of an eleven-part series of videos on leadership presence.  It draws on material from the fifth chapter of The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill. 

In the series, James Scouller explains what leadership presence is, compares presence to charisma and describes its seven qualities.  He goes on to outline how you can work on your own leadership presence.

To watch the other ten episodes, click this link to go to James Scouller’s Three Levels of Leadership channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/3LevelsofLeadership

Copyright © James Scouller 2011.  Published by Management Books 2000.