The Five Levels of Leadership, now a book!

October 1, 2010
Delivering the completed manuscript for
The Five Levels of Leadership
to Rolf Zettersten,
Sr Vice President & Publisher,
FaithWords/Center Street

Last week I had the privilege of turning in the manuscript for what I believe is my most important book to date:

The Five Levels of Leadership.

Now, if you know me well, you might be thinking, “But John, you say that EVERY new book or lesson is the best/most important thing you’ve ever done.”

I do say that, don’t I? Well, I can’t really deny it. But in this case, I really do believe that this concept is the best idea I’ve ever had. Why? Because

1. It’s a concept that I developed over 30 years ago, yet it’s stood the test of time and application by a wide variety of organizations – small businesses, giant corporations, and nonprofits of any size.
2. The five levels define leadership as a process, not a position.
3. This means that anyone – even one with little natural gifting – can grow as a leader by learning this concept.
4. Everywhere I go, it is the one thing I get asked to teach over and over again.
5. And it’s never been taught at this depth before. In fact, only as we prepared this book did we discover how many layers the concept has.

I know that leadership has been divided into levels before, by communicators from Jim Collins to Bill Joiner. I didn’t create my concept because of a lack of material on the subject, but more because it explained levels in the way that was clearest TO ME. That enabled me to teach it with confidence and authenticity.

The Five Levels of Leadership will be published in Fall, 2011.

But we won’t wait until then to talk more about it here. To start with, here’s the concept in graphical form:

I’m excited about the coming year, as my new publishers take what I already consider a great concept and turn it into an even greater book.