Attaining Leadership & Savant-hood

Jim Collins in his book Good to Great argues that the journey from capable individuals to managers and finally to leaders is a lengthy one that involves development of multiple new skills at each stage. He argues that there are 5 levels in the hierarchy of skills. I’ve paraphrased these levels as:

• Highly capable individuals: They make productive contribution by applying their talent, knowledge, skills and abilities.
• Contributing team member: He works effectively with others and is productive by collaborating with colleagues and other team members.
• Organizer: Organises people and resources towards pursuit of pre-determined objectives. He can coordinate people and resources and leverage on the strengths and competencies of staff to achieve organizational objectives.
• Leader: Catalyses commitment to and pursuit of a clear compelling vision. He stimulates high performance by enlisting the heads and hearts of followers in pursuit of a worth cause.
• Savant: (yeah, Thats the spelling!) Builds enduring greatness through a combo of personal humility and professional will. His life, experience and achievements speak for him. This is analogous to statesmanship in the realm of politics.

It’s important to identify where you currently are on this ladder. This isn’t some formal classification where you can jump or skip some stages. Transition from a level to another is characterized by development of visible competencies that unequivocally make clear that one is ready to progress through to the next level. As for me, I think I’m basically playing around the 2nd and 3rd levels, though I’m working tirelessly to develop key characteristics and dominant features obtainable at the 4th level.

It was Steven Covey that theorized from dependence to independence and finally inter-dependence. (You can consult 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for more on this life-transforming postulation by Covey). In similar fashion, we must progress sequentially through these levels as the preceding serves as a prerequisite for the succeeding.
Guys, keep in mind at all times that we are 99.9% responsible for wherever we’ve found ourselves in life. The pace is also up to you. Like I read in one strategy presentation, slow and steady is good, but fast (pace) and consistent is always better!

Have to sign out at this point. Its a few minutes to the first working day of the week and your guess is as good as mine. I ought to get some quality sleep, to forestall any dozing gymnastic on my desk tomorrow, especially given the ‘open office’ strategy my company adopts. Have a great purposeful week ahead folks.