Level 1: You lead yourself.
Before you lead anyone else, you must be able to lead yourself. No matter where you are in life, at any moment you have the ability to decide what matters most to you and the power to turn your vision into reality. When you do so, you can create a life of passion, fulfillment and contribution—the kind of life every leader wishes for those he or she inspires.
Level 2: You lead one other person.
It's one thing to transform your own life, but it's quite a different matter to help someone else to transform. It requires skill, training, commitment, but above all, caring for the other person. It also requires that you have an expanded vision of what is possible for the soul you are interacting with. When you seek to lead another, you must see this person's greatness and then help them to discover and embody that greatness for themselves.
Level 3: You lead groups.
This is the level where most people start thinking of leadership—yet if you can't first lead yourself and another person, you will never succeed with a group. However, leading a group isn't just getting them to do what you want. As General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the victorious coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf War, said, "Leaders inspire people to do more than they ever thought they could." A leader gets people to do what they wouldn't normally do, with the goal of increasing the quality of their lives and their sense of what is possible.
Level 4: Your leadership influences communities beyond yourself and those you know.
Level 4 leadership is about influencing others to do and be more even without you being there. You create a legacy of leadership that can last beyond your lifetime. Think of great leaders like Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela: their influence continues to be a force for good around the world. Level 4 leaders must always keep the primary goal of leadership in mind: to influence people's thoughts, behaviors, emotions and most importantly, their actions, to produce a result that improves the quality of their lives.
