Smart Lemming Rundown: Leadership Agility
Background
Leadership Agility is a classic read for knowledge workers, managing their careers up the corporate ladder. Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) by Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs is a classic. It is destined to be a pre-requisite read for KWs who want to develop leadership skills, understand there are varying levels of leadership skills required for different work arenas, and how this journey leads to personal transformation over the course of your career.
I wish this book had been published in 1996, after I was done with graduate school. I had the book smarts, but not the understanding that leadership is attained in developmental stages. I found the five levels of mastery framework on target, the work arenas made sense, and the current trends in agility levels were interesting. Fortunately, I can still learn from Joiner and Josephs’ book, since I believe that I’m still working on my personal transformation.
Rundown
The Five Levels of Mastery
Joiner and Josephs’ framework has five levels of mastery: expert, achiever, catalyst, co-creator, and synergist. Below are the views of leadership for each level of mastery.
- Expert: tactical, problem-solving orientation. Believes that leaders are respected and followed by others because of their authority and expertise.
- Achiever: strategic outcome orientation. Believes that leaders motivate others by making it challenging and satisfying to contribute to larger objectives.
- Catalyst: visionary, facilitative orientation. Believes that leaders articulate an innovative, inspiring vision and bring together the right people to transform the vision into reality. Leaders empower others and actively facilitate their development.
- Co-Creator: oriented toward shared purpose and collaboration. Believes leadership is ultimately a service to others. Leaders collaborate with other leaders to develop a shared vision that each experiences as deeply purposeful.
- Synergist: holistic orientation. Experiences leadership as participation in a palpable life purpose that benefits others while serving as a vehicle for personal transformation.
While I learned some of these levels through “doing” my jobs, my personal development in career management would have been easier had I used this framework as a road map for my leadership development.
The Three Distinct Work Arenas
During my first year out of graduate school, I learned about the Herrmann Brain Dominance Model. Learning about the four quadrants of the brain and the strengths attributed to these quadrants help me understand my strengths and my weaknesses. I also learned that CEOs tended to be equally strong in all four quadrants. While I initially scored high in quadrants B and D. I needed to develop A and C. Fortunately, I was able to these areas because of my job responsibilities, over the course of my career. I proactive developed quadrants with every job.
However, I believe I would have greatly benefited from learning Joiner and Josephs’ three work arenas. I was reactive in learning how to have the tough conversations, working in cross-functionality teams aligned to corporate goals, and developing and executing organizational initiatives. Life would have been so much easier had I know that leadership agility falls into three major areas: pivotal conversations, team initiatives, and organizational initiatives. Below are Joiner and Josephs’ three work arenas where leadership agility takes place.
- Pivotal conversations: direct person-to-person discussions where important outcomes are at stake.
- Team initiatives: initiatives intended to improve a team and/or its relationship with its larger environment.
- Organizational initiatives: initiatives designed to change an organization and/or its relationship with its larger environment.
My path to developing leadership agility in these areas would have been shorter and more focused, giving me a better path to success with their book.
Current Trends in Agility Levels to Varying Levels of Job Responsibility
I found Joiner and Josephs’ trends interesting, see below for the agility percentages for managers.
- Experts: roughly 45% of all managers are experts
- Achievers: approximately 35% of managers have developed achiever level of agility.
- Catalysts: only 5% of managers are operating at this level of agility.
- Co-Creators: only 4% of managers are operating at this level of agility.
- Synergists: only 1% of managers are operating at this level of agility.
Perhaps what I found most insightful was Joiner and Josephs’ correlations between agility and responsibility levels. Below is a table from their research:
Understanding these current trends allows you to understand where you will most likely need leadership development. Looking back to my time as a junior manager, I would have concentrated on my expert leadership skills as an expert in the three work arenas while also plot a development course for the achiever agility level.
Recommendation & Smart Lemming Radar
But what does it all mean? It means you should go out and buy this book, so you can plot your course to leadership success. Why wouldn’t you? You should do anything to become more self-aware, understanding what it takes to be successful, at different points in your career. Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
More importantly, this book explains how to develop leadership agility, as part of your career management plan. It’s a classic business book for knowledge workers, middle managers, and C-levels, who are on their journey to personal transformation or just want to be highly effective leaders.
Smart Lemming Radar Rating & Rating Scale
Below is the Smart Lemming rating for Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change. SmartLemming.com rated this book a perfect 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read book for workers or women in business, who want to improved their career management and leadership skills.
This book rated a 3 out of 4 in business life, management, and sales, as a should-read book, for workers who want to use it as a resource to improve their career management and management skills or women who want to learn successful presentation skills. SmartLemming.com rated this book as an optional read for workers, who are interested in marketing. Below is also the rating scale used in the Smart Lemming Radar graph.
