5 Levels of Leadership to Help Up Your Leadership Game

Battling through an under-the-weather day, I still managed to bring forth an enlightening discussion on leadership, a trait that transcends titles and positions. This episode isn't just about CEOs and executives; it's for anyone from lead technicians to those at the helm, showcasing that leadership is a skill within everyone's reach. Setting the stage with John Maxwell's "The Five Levels of Leadership," we dissect the qualities that elevate a good leader to greatness and explore if these are innate or can be nurtured with time and experience. And for a bit of fun, I've thrown in an acronym challenge for our audience—can you crack the code of "SOP"?

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Thursday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. That can only mean one thing Live after hours with your favorite RCDD. You know that's me, come on, admit it, your favorite RCDD ["RCDD"], ["rcdd"]. And I'm gonna apologize right now if I seem a little less enthusiastic than normal. Chuck is still not feeling good. Yes, my wife got really sick. She's been running at temperature for about three or four days, she, and with Tessar she's got COVID and evidently I'm catching it again. So there you go. So if I don't see him like my normal self, that's the reason why Hate, hate being sick I just do so. It is what it is. So tonight's show is a little bit different.

Speaker 1: 0:59

I normally talk about technical subjects or invite subject matter experts on. Today's subject is gonna be a soft skill. A soft skill. I'm talking about leadership, leadership. But I can hear you now, chuck. I'm not a director, I'm not a VP. You don't have to be an executive to have good leadership qualities. All you can do is just be in charge of somebody. You could be a lead technician with two people on each of you and be a good leader or be a bad leader. So we're gonna talk about leadership today. We're gonna talk about what is leadership. Are you born with it? We're gonna talk about what's in between leadership and management, and then I'm gonna dive into the five levels of leadership in a book that I recently read. So there we go. Oh, I forgot to put on the chat box. There we go. Kailin's in the house. Mr Kailin, how you doing my friend Showtime. It is Showtime it is.

Speaker 1: 2:06

So let's get into this right? Oh, forgot the acronym challenge. Oh gosh, I'm see. I told you I'm not feeling good, so let me flip over to my design. And oh, I forgot to upload my graphics. I'm gonna do this manually.

Speaker 1: 2:19

The acronym is SOPSOP. What does SOP stand for? I'll give you a few seconds to answer that. I'll give you a hint. It has something to do with leadership and management. It's not one of those technical acronyms like I like to do. Sop what does that mean? Can you tell me in the TikTok feed? Can you tell me in the YouTube feed, the Instagram feed, the LinkedIn feed? What does SOP stand for? Going once, going twice, three times, a winter? It stands for standard operating procedure. It's something that a written document that says hey, look, if these conditions happen, here's how you respond to it Only fibers in the house. Hey, only fiber. Good to see you, my friend. So that's what SOP is? It's standard operating procedure? That's the acronym challenge for today.

Speaker 1: 3:17

Now let's talk about did you catch last week's show? Oh, it was one of my favorite shows. We had four contestants from the Bixie Cabling Skills Challenge and we talked about what's it really like behind the scenes. What do you got to do to be the best? What events do you have to compete in? Do the guys help each other or is it cutthroat? We talked about all of those and wait till you hear who we had on the show. We had the current reigning three-time champion, tj Paite. We had Instagram and TikTok. Famous Sean Rep Nathan Lawville of Home Run Cabling again, social media fame and Doug Sherwood. Doug Sherwood is a very good, close friend of TJ Paite and he's also on the RSSC community, r-s-s-c community, r-c-r-s One of those committees at Bixie I can never remember the name of that stupid thing and we talked about all those things and it's out on social media. So make sure that you go and watch that, because you hear guys talking all the time I'm the best, I'm the best. I'm sorry, you're not the best unless you beat the best. And that's what we talked about on that show. It's a great show, great show.

Speaker 1: 4:33

This week's show, we're going to talk about what is an MPTL MPTL as seen through the eyes of an engineer, of a connectivity manufacturer Right, not what I think an MPTL is, not what you think an MPTL is through the eyes of an engineer. What is it? How is it being used? How do you test it? It's going to be another good show, another good subject, and this particular subject matter expert is a very good friend of mine, so I'm really excited to have him on, so that'll be good. So, anyways, like I said, this show is about leadership, right? Leadership, now, I can hear you now, but I'm not a director, I'm not a VP. Everybody is a leader of some sort and you really should start developing those skills now. So this whole show tonight is based on a book. The book is called the Five Levels of Leadership Proven Steps to Maximize your Potential, and that book is written by John Maxwell. Okay, I highly suggest you get that book and you read it Now, before I get into tonight's show.

Speaker 1: 5:46

And talking about, what is a leader? How is it different from a manager? And the five levels of leadership. Let me ask you this and put the answer in the chat box. When you think of an example in your professional life of somebody who is a great leader, either you have worked for them or have seen them leading people, put your answer in the chat box have you seen that person? Okay, have you seen that person? And if you did see that person, you know what were they like. So let's first cover what is a leader. Gotta cover that first.

Speaker 1: 6:20

So a leader what they do is they ignite passion and motivation amongst the people that they are in charge of. They possess a clear vision of what they have to get done. They have strategies to be able to get to that point and make it a reality. Right, they're also going to prioritize providing their team with all of the necessary support, whether it's uplifting or resources or documents, to help them accomplish their objectives. I'm in this industry 41 years. I'm gonna tell you now, we suck at that. We absolutely suck at it. Right, and the reason we do is because how many times have you worked for somebody? How many times have you seen somebody in our industry who's afraid to teach their people? Because, oh my God, if I teach them, they're gonna take over my job. That's a leader's job is to educate and train the next leaders of the company, the next leaders of the industry. That's your job as a leader. If you're doing your job right, you will work yourself out of a job. That's what a good leader does.

Speaker 1: 7:27

You know, I quite often get asked, chuck, are leaders born or are they just a result of education and people that they work with? So over the years, this has been an ongoing debate, like I've had with about a lot of people, about whether an exceptional leader has the inherent traits or if the leadership is something that they can cultivate. So I actually did some research on this and some recent scientific research indicates that, while genetics does place a role, the majority of leadership abilities roughly about 70% are acquired through learning and development. You heard me right. So inherently, you only have about 30% of good leadership skills. There are some basic skills as a leadership that you have to have to be able to build upon to become a good leader. Right Now, these insights what do they tell us? They tell us that leadership is predominantly a learned skill. So even if you don't think you're a good leader, you can become a good leader. All you gotta do is just find a way to grow in your effectiveness, either through experience or maybe even through education.

Speaker 1: 8:44

Right Now, another thing that I hear quite often is Chuck, what's the difference between a leader and a manager? Oh my gosh, it's like day and night, it's like summer and winter, it's like Milwaukee Packout versus Klein Modbox Totally different. I'll let you decide which one's the better of those last two. Hey, which do you prefer, milwaukee or Klein? Tell me in the chat box. So how is a leader different from a manager? So when you start talking, this whole conversation, trying to figure out what is a leader and what is a manager, it's important to note that the manager is gonna focus on overseeing and directing the group towards the predetermined goals. Okay, now, that kind of sounds a little bit like a leader, doesn't it?

Speaker 1: 9:35

But leadership revolves around the ability, the capacity of an individual to inspire, to guide them, to empower them so that they are actively contribute to the attainment of those goals that that leadership has set out. Right, you've gotta be able to inspire. Somebody will work a lot harder if they are inspired, as opposed to somebody who's just being told what to do. Somebody's being managed. Oh, you gotta get 25 jacks done today, right? Jim Parsons in the house. Hey, jim, good to see you, my friend. I haven't seen you in a long time. So Jim says a great leader is somebody who proactively teaches. I like that. I like that, jim, I like that right.

Speaker 1: 10:21

So let's go through the five levels of leadership. Look over to my design screen so I can put up my things here. I really need to talk my wife into doing this for me. I really do so. The first level, the first level of leadership this is the lowest level. This is the two door, econo box, four cylinder car with plastic hubcaps. This is the basic model, the basic model, and so what that means is the first level of leadership is somebody follows you just because you're positioned Right.

Speaker 1: 11:01

So at this level, leadership is more about having a title or a position than, rather than, influencing people. I want you to think about this, because our industry has this a lot. Think about, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way not all project managers are like this, but there are a lot of project managers in our industry who got the job because they have a degree in college. They didn't come up through the ranks, but, and yet the guys working out in the field don't have respect for that project manager because they haven't come up through the ranks. They only follow that project manager because that project manager has the position. Position. And I got news for you for those types of project managers or even those types of leaders Even if you have that fancy title, even if you have that fancy title, that doesn't guarantee people are going to follow you. They may tell you yes to your face, but then go around and do what they want to do anyway, or they might try to pull the wool over your eyes. Right Now, while we're talking about the dangers that are relying solely on your job title, it's all about getting people to listen to you.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Listen to you, and the best way to get people to listen to you this is gonna blow your mind. The best way to get people to listen to you is to listen to them. You can listen to hear or listen to comprehend. Listen to comprehend. When somebody says something to you, process it. Don't come back with an immediate response. Process it in your brain and then repeat back to the person what you think they just said. That way it's a clear understanding. That way A they know you're listening, they're you're listening, and then they're more likely to listen to you because they'll say, hey, you know that that project manager, chuck, he actually listens.

Speaker 1: 12:55

I used to tell people all the time on job sites look, even though I'm a project manager and I've got you know at the time I had like 25 years of experience you may come up with a better way to do something, and if you do, come talk to me, let's discuss it. And if it's a great idea, I might implement it. But we might be doing something this way because that's what the contract says, that's what the scope of work says, right, that's what I'm talking about. You gotta be able to listen, and that inspires respect, right? Why would you follow somebody who the only reason they're in charge is because they've got that fancy title? You know how many people I know in this industry that have the title of project manager, yet they don't track material budgets, they don't track labor budgets lots. That's what project managers do. They also do scheduling too. A lot of people on our industry get that title of project manager because that's just a way for them to make more money and all they're really doing is just leading a crew. I'm sorry, that's called a lead deck, that's called a project superintendent, it's not a project manager, right? So you know if you're following, all you're doing is just following orders. It's not because they truly believe in your vision.

Speaker 1: 14:15

So the level one, the position, is the like I said. That is the entry model, the entry model for leadership. Let's go to the second one. Okay, oh, I flip the chat box because some people posted some stuff in your gym, said all righty, youngsters can misconstrue leadership as dominating others. Being bossy does not condone respect. Respect is reflective. Oh my God, that's so true. If you care a lot, others will want to work underneath you. Excellent, great job. Perfect description, jim. Perfect description. Absolutely. I spot on. I agree with that. 100%, right, spot on, 100%.

Speaker 1: 14:56

I got an argument once with my son long, long time ago, one of my sons and we were talking about I just kind of give you some perspective here. My son was like 15 at the time, or maybe even 16. And we were talking about law enforcement officers and he said to me one day he goes well, dad, I'm not gonna give them any respect until they do something to earn that respect. Okay, that's the wrong way to do that. You give people respect until they prove you otherwise. I mean the mere fact that a person goes through the academy, puts his life online every single day for people he doesn't even know or she doesn't even know that, right, there should give you a little bit of respect. So give cops some respect until they do something to not deserve that respect. Like you know, go on YouTube. You can watch the videos where there's some great cops and there's the law enforcement community. Like any other community, it's a representative of other people surrounding it.

Speaker 1: 15:53

So the second level is permission, and here's where things get kind of interesting, because it's not about your title anymore, it's about how well you connect with others. Right, and Jim was just saying talking about this. Right, we're talking about building trust, we're talking about building rapport. So that way, people actually want to follow you. And how do you do that? You're empathetic, you listen, you actually care, you know people can tell when you say, yeah, yeah, I really care, as opposed to when you really do care. People know the difference and once they know that you care, you are now in the level two territory. Right, the level two territory? Because it's all about earning that permission to lead through that genuine relationship. That's one of those skill sets. It took me years to figure it out. And why is building trust so crucial? Because people want to follow people that they have relationships with willingly. It's about being authentic, it's about being empathetic, it's about being a good listener. Like I said, it's about having consistency and integrity, doing the right thing even when nobody is watching. That's a key one, even when nobody's watching.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Let's go to the third level. Switch back over to my design. That's in the captions. Level three, and this is leadership through what you've done, right, what you've done. And what does that mean? That means you've walked the walk, you've talked the talk, using our industry as an example. You've pulled cable, you've terminated cable, you've gotten down into those steam tunnels and sweat off like everybody else did. You've earned the respect because of what you've actually done. Right Now, this is not again. This is not walking the walk, talking, talk. Although you might do that, it's about again, you've done it. So people will look at that and they'll say, well, this person has done this, so maybe they've got some experience and they can help us set goals. They can help us be innovative and drive that process for the success of this project or the success of this organization. And why does this production thing matter, it's because it proves that your leadership has chopped. You've done it.

Speaker 1: 18:20

You know, when I did a project once for a very large communications company if I told you the name you'd recognize it immediately although they're not around anymore and we were pulling cables and some cable tray in one of the facilities, we just got there, we were on the job, you know, maybe like a couple of days, and these cable trays were up at 22 feet high, so we had some some scissor lifts and a lot of the techs were kind of afraid of it. So I immediately get on one of them, go all the way to the top and I helped them pull cable for half a day. Now, as a project manager, that wasn't my job. My job wasn't to pull cable. My job was to track the project. My job was to meet with the customer, manage the schedule, manage the people. But you know what, when they saw that I did that, they're like oh well, chuck is not one of those kind of people that just says do it this way, because you know I'm the project manager. He actually did. And when you do that, what it does is it fosters a culture of excellence, and that's going to be important, fostering that culture of excellence.

Speaker 1: 19:23

All right, let's go up to level number three. Boom, let's check the chat box. Nope, nobody has answered anything here. A little bit, level three. Again, I apologize, I'm under the weather Level. My own.

Speaker 1: 19:34

Level three, level four, I lost track. I lost track. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. It's a production. So we are on level four. Yes, we're on level four. Boom, because one was positioned. Two was you've walked a walk and and they gave you permission to walk, walk. So we're on level four. Now, right, level four.

Speaker 1: 19:58

So what does level four leadership look like? Now you're starting to really develop some good leadership skills, some good leadership skills, because being a leader is not about you. If you think being a leader is about you, you're not a leader, okay, you're doing yourself more damage. It's about developing others as well. Yes, you want to develop yourself, but again, I said it earlier, a good leader will be developing, will be training, will be mentoring their future replacements. They invest in their team's growth and their development because they know a good leader knows that if my people become better, that means we're going to be more successful. That means we're going to meet the budget, we're going to meet the schedule, we'll get this project done, the customer will be happy and everybody can celebrate in that success. A good leader would know that. You know.

Speaker 1: 20:50

I want you to think about mentorship and coaching and creating some kind of opportunities for advancement, right? I remember I did a project once in Ohio and I had a guy come out for the job. He came out mid-project and I had to talk with him and I realized that even though he'd only had a few years of experience, the guy had a really good head on his shoulders. So I didn't immediately promote him, but I kind of started mentoring him and eventually he ended up becoming a lead technician and then a project foreman all because I invested the time. Now, of course you know it was on my time, but that's what the level four leadership does. They are developing their people and why would you want to focus on this development? Again, I said it earlier, if your team succeeds, you succeed, right? You know I got another story for you One of the people who mentored me I mentioned them several times the person who really taught me the difference between a job and a career.

Speaker 1: 21:56

We had unfortunately had a falling out, but I watched that man and he mentored me and one day we were talking and his boss, I found out with somebody that he used to manage. He used to manage his boss before his boss became his boss. He did such a good job that the person that he mentored, the person that he trained, became his boss. Now you might be thinking a person with a shallow personality might be thinking well, I should have had that position. I was the next one on line. It's, companies don't think that way. Companies think about results. They think about results and think about this If you are the person who trained, who managed your boss, what kind of relationship do you think you're gonna have with that person? That person's gonna look out for you through thick and thin because they realize they got to their position because you invested in them. That's the best thing to do, right? You really a good leadership who's in level four? They wanna make sure that they understand that people will thrive under their guidance.

Speaker 1: 23:06

And here's the last thing that a lot of people don't know. That is one of the most rewarding things that you can do as a good leader. You know somebody mentioned in the TikTok feed a good leader is being a mentor. That's part of it. That's not all of it, that's part of it. But as a good leader, you will. When you see the people that you are leading, you are inspiring and mentoring, when you see them succeed and hit their goals and become, you know, rcdds, or become, you know, project managers or area managers, and you know that you had a small part because remember, you gotta give them credit too you had a small part in that success. There's some great, great feelings in that. That's one of the best things about being a good leader.

Speaker 1: 23:54

Now let's move to level five. This is the pinnacle of leaders. The pinnacle of leaders Sounds like James. James who I don't know who. You're talking about, james who? So let's go to level five. Boom, there it goes the pinnacle of leadership. This is the best of the best. This is the highest level of leadership that you can attain. This is where your character speaks volumes louder than your words ever will. People will know, just based on your reputation, based on what you do.

Speaker 1: 24:35

We talked about this earlier, about integrity, doing the right thing even when nobody's watching. You do that enough times, you will get a good reputation and people will know. I've seen this happen before. I've seen where somebody attacked somebody else and because of that person's reputation within the industry, people came to that person's side and said look, you're wrong here about this guy. This guy's better than that. That's the pinnacle of leadership. When you're at that level I'm still striving to get to that level I consider myself maybe level four, maybe high level three.

Speaker 1: 25:14

When you get to that level five, it's all about being the kind of leader that other people would admire and respect. Nobody goes all the way through their career all on their own. There's somebody who inspired you that you admire, and probably more than one. Just take the traits from each of those leaders that you really like and mimic them and then develop the ones that you have. When you start talking about authenticity, you really also got to talk about humility and leading by example. I talked about that earlier, how I got on that cable track, that scissor lift the pull cable on that cable track 22 feet in ceiling, even though I was the project manager.

Speaker 1: 25:57

I heard another story once, and this is a story from one of the most well-known preachers in the country. I can't remember who it was by all the time I had, but so after service they were tearing down the chairs and they were all sweeping up, including this well-known, very famous preacher. They just hired this new assistant pastor and they told the assistant pastor hey, go grab a broom. The assistant pastor said that's not my job. Here is the senior pastor pushing the broom, telling the junior pastor, telling him that he's not his job. What do you think happened? The guy didn't stick around very long, did he?

Speaker 1: 26:42

There's this concept here in the world of churches and stuff. It's called servant leadership. Servant leadership that's where you put others first. An easy way to explain servant leadership that most people can understand is being a dad for me, maybe being a mom for you. If you're a mom, because you always put your kids first the good moms and dads do you will go without eating to make sure that they have food. You will go without any kind of hobbies or whatever because your kids want to do soccer or cheerleading or whatever. You're putting others in front of you. What happens is people pay attention to, not your words, your actions. They pay attention to your actions. You can say one thing and your actions can say totally something else. People pay attention to what you do. They hear you too, but they pay more attention to the things that you've actually done All right. Word 628.

Speaker 1: 28:03

At the beginning of this session, I told you to think of a person, of a great leader that you have worked for or has been in your sphere of influence. We talked about that in the very beginning. I want you to think of somebody. I want you to think of somebody. I want you to tell me now in the chat box what level of leadership were they? What level of leadership are you? I already told you I feel like I'm at a three, maybe a high level, three, maybe scratching on the level four, because there's always room, always room to grow as a leader. Truly is.

Speaker 1: 28:47

Being a leader is a journey, not a destination. You don't just all of a sudden arrive. You're always working at your skills. Same thing with being an instructor. Those of you who know me know I'm an instructor. I don't rest on my laurels. I'm always looking for ways to become a better instructor, whether it's teaching virtually or teaching a face-to-face. Speaking of face-to-face, I should put this in the beginning Podcast meetups.

Speaker 1: 29:19

I'm doing a podcast meetup in Raleigh, a podcast meetup in Charlotte, a podcast meetup in Nashville, a podcast meetup in Chicago, all within the next few months, if you live in one of those areas and you want to come to a podcast meetup and get to meet me. Hang out with me for an hour. I might even have stickers. I might even have stickers. I would love to have you. I'd love to take a picture with you because I love interacting with people with whom I'm making a difference in their life. I hope you enjoyed this. Five levels of leadership. Let me know Chicago. Are you in Chicago? Only fiber? I will be there in May and in July I'll be in downtown somewhere. There you go. I hope you enjoyed this. Remember nothing else. Knowledge is power.