The Upside:
1. They Have Leadership Potential
Most of the time when people enter a leadership position, they do so because it was granted or appointed by some other person in authority. It usually means that the person in authority believes that the new leader has some degree of potential for leading.
2. Authority Is Recognized
When an individual receives a position and title, some level
of authority or power usually comes with them. Often in the beginning that
power is very limited, because most leaders need to prove themselves. As the
Infantryman’s Journal (1954) says, “No man is a leader until his appointment is
ratified in the minds and the hearts of his men.”
3. An Invitation to Grow as a Leader
There should always be a relationship between receiving a
leadership position and fulfilling the requirements demanded by it. One of the
main requirements is personal growth, we all have a responsibility to learn and
grow so that we could make the most of it.
4. Shape and Define Their Leadership
The greatest upside potential for people invited to take a
leadership position is that it affords them the opportunity to decide what kind
of leader they want to be. However, the
position they receive may be defined, but they are not.
The Downside:
1. Having a Leadership Position Is Often Misleading
The easiest way to define leadership is by position. Once
you have a position or title, people will identify you with it. However,
positions and titles are very misleading. A position always promises more than
it can deliver.
2. Devaluation of
People
People who rely on position for their leadership almost
always place a very high value on holding onto their position—often above
everything else they do. Their position is more important to them than the work
they do, the value they add to their subordinates, or their contribution to the
organization. As a result, departments, teams, or organizations that have
positional leaders suffer terrible morale.
3. Feed on Politics
When leaders value position over the ability to influence
others, the environment of the organization usually becomes very political.
Positional leaders focus on control instead of contribution. They do what they
can to get the largest staff and the biggest budget they can—not for the sake
of the organization’s mission, but for the sake of expanding and defending
their turf.
4. Placing Rights Over Responsibilities
Poet T.S. Eliot asserted, “Half of the harm that is done in
this world is due to people who want to feel important…they do not mean to do
harm…they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
That’s what positional leaders do: they do things to make themselves look and
feel important. Inevitably, positional leaders who rely on their rights develop
a sense of entitlement.
5. Often Lonely
Positional leaders can become lonely if they misunderstand
the functions and purpose of leadership. Good leadership is about walking
beside people and helping them to climb up the hill with you. If you’re atop
the hill alone, you get lonely.
6. Branded and Stranded
Whenever people use their position to lead others for a long
time and fail to develop genuine influence, they become branded as positional
leaders, and they rarely get further opportunities for advancement in that
organization. They usually move laterally, but rarely move up.
7. High Turnover
When people rely on their positions for leadership, the
result is almost always high turnover. Remember that . . . . People Quit
People, Not Companies.
8. People’s Least, Not Their Best
People who rely on their positions and titles are the
weakest of all leaders. They give their least. They expect their position to do
the hard work for them in leadership. As a result, their people also give their
least.
From: The Five Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell
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