Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Bad attitude
You don’t have to tell me I have a bad attitude. I know I have a bad attitude. I’m the one at the seminar pointing out that Dr. Expert really isn’t curing that many people (that, deviously, he has defined cure so as to make it look like he’s curing lots of people). Or telling the admin-trainer that the diagram on the slide she just put up might resemble a mathematical function, but has as much in common with a function as plastic grapes do with a nice Bordeaux. Or suggesting, however unsubtly, that this same admin-trainer’s Theory of Everything makes no sense in the real world.
The blather in question: John C. Maxwell’s Five Levels of Leadership. If you follow the link, you can find out for yourself what these five levels are, but it should suffice that each level starts with the letter P. That shit doesn’t happen by accident. That happens because someone wants to write a book, teach a seminar, get quoted by other self-help gurus, who knows what else.
Our admin-trainer was trying to make the point that you can’t get from level 1 to level 3 without going through level 2. I argued that the fact that you can, in fact, get to level 3 without going through level 2 is proof positive that there are serious flaws in the construct.
For sake of furthering this discussion, level 1 — the lowest level — is where people follow you because of your title. “People follow you because they have to.” At level 2, people follow you because they want to (AKA, they follow you because they like you), and at level 3, people follow you because they respect the results you’ve achieved — you’re a proven leader.
In my residency, I had six attending physicians. I had to follow all of them because I had to, so they were all at least level 1. But one of them I truly respected — when he was running the show in the OR, I always felt safe because I knew he had my patient’s best interests at heart. My patient was number one for me, as he was for this particular doc. But I didn’t like this doc. He was too weird to like. He had an off-putting mixture of arrogance and vulnerability that made him difficult to like. But I’d have followed him anywhere.
Three of my attending physicians were likable. They had good senses of humor, they were fun to hang out with when we were outside of our usual roles. Did I want to please them because I liked them? Sure, to some degree. But I didn’t respect them. They would refuse to come in to help on difficult cases, or they’d leave me in the middle of a difficult case because they had concerns more pressing than the patient on the table (heavy sarcasm intended).
Doc #1 skipped over level 2 entirely, see? And he wasn’t the only one. I can think of other chief residents and attendings whom I respected but didn’t like. Liking someone, wanting to follow their lead, really has little to do with the process. I would argue that position, too (the lowest rung) is irrelevant — to give one example, I can think of a foreign medical graduate who, while lacking position, was clearly the most qualified surgeon in the room. Others knew it too and deferred to his knowledge.
This self-help thing is just so much religion. If you don’t believe me, go to that link and watch the adoring fanboys and fangirls fall over one another singing the praises of Maxwell.
Christy Moosa says:
October 4, 2010 at 2:22 amYou mean the best idea God has ever given you, and you are honored to be his vessel. To Him be all glory, honor and power forever, Amen!
Michael Lotfy says:
October 4, 2010 at 2:46 amTo Christy Moosa: Oh you religious people, be quite and learn. It’s John’s potential that he was born to the world with it. No doubt that God is the one who planted it to him, and he does not deny it. He does not require you to remind him of it. He always mention this all over his life. Show us Christy what are you going to do in your life. John’s life speaks for him.
John, your integrity speaks for you.
Be blessed more.
Don’t mean to digress but I’m fascinated by this construction, “Be blessed more.” Is it some variant of the Wiccan “blessed be”? Theological one-upsmanship? Or a back-handed insult (“you clearly aren’t blessed enough — be blessed more“)?
Will the rest of these leadership meetings be similarly proselytic? Will we be obliged to adopt the seven traits of effective whatevers, the twelve steps of fill-in-the-blank? Must my life be purpose-driven?
Because if they are, and if we will be, and if it must, then first I suspect I’ll have to follow the 10 Steps to a Better Attitude.
D.
All this HR shit is like that – if you look at it rationally, it is all full of holes.
I’ve been doing leadership since I was a kid – the best training I got was in Air Cadets. There are two levels, that’s all. First you get people to do things because they have to. And then you get people to do things because they want to. That’s all, really, but that doesn’t make much of a book. The first level is easy. The second level is really hard.
This guy’s 5 levels are, as you pointed out, seriously flawed. ‘Liking’ is not part of leadership. It’s great if it happens, but it is actually outside of the structure of leadership. Great leaders do not have to be likable, and indeed many of them weren’t.
I agree with you — the two levels are sufficient. I see no reason why a leader should somehow be considered more evolved because he spawns little leaders. Look at North Korea.
I keep wondering if I’m mischaracterizing Maxwell’s level 2. But he says that “relationships” are important at this level, which is the level where people follow “because they want to.” How else can we interpret this? It sure sounds to me like “they follow because they think you care about them,” or “because they like you.” They like you because you have invested in the relationship. Which isn’t that tough, really — all it requires is a modicum of effort.
I’ve been through a fair amount of these things. I think they are a lot like horoscopes. General enough to be applicable, sort of, to almost everything, providing the illusion of a master plan, but not so specific to conflict with reality.
I can see the first level is heirarchy. I agree the third level is respect. I see the fourth level as loyalty.
The second level is relationships – maybe he means doing people a favor? Or doing something for someone because you’ll be working with them for years and it’s easier to do something than have the hassle of the conflict? We see that a lot here. Since there’s so little turnover, people are unwilling to put the task over the relationship, since after all they’ll be sitting across the hall from each other for the next ten years.
The fifth level is “who you are and what you represent”? WTF? Is this some sort of personality cult thing?
I’m glad I’m doing this type of training again. Not until I get another promotion and that’s years off…
Hi Kira. “Cult of personality” — yeah, that was my impression, too. Worshipers, not followers. What’s that word for when the Romans would elevate someone to the godhood? Apotheosis? In any case, I doubt it starts with a “P.”
Yes, “People follow because they want to” is vague, purposefully vague I think. And I can see where your interpretation could apply.
Is loyalty any better than respect, I wonder? Either could be lost in an instant.
At the core of it, the led follow a leader because it is better for them than not following the leader. A poor leader does this by fear, by making the consequences of not following more horrible than the consequences of following, whereas a good leader induces people to see the benefits of following. It is the difference, really, between saying ‘do what I say or you will be fired and homeless’ and saying ‘do what I say and you will enjoy the comforts of a secure and supportive company’.
There’s much more to it of course: a good leader is a good example (for example) and even good leaders have to resort to the lash at times. But these qualities, these skills, apply at all levels of leadership, from the team lead to company president. To President.
Makes a hell of a lot more sense than that guy’s five steps. Hey, maybe you should write a book? But you’ll have to farf it up with a lot more nonsense first 😉