Marc Estes

Many leaders live in maintenance mode, it is shown by their fruit. The main goal is keep from losing ground rather than trying to make progress. That is the lowest level of leadership when it comes to the development of people and fulfillment of vision. Here are the five stages that exist from maintenance and multiplication:

1.    Stage 1: The Scramble Stage

About 20 percent of all leaders live on the lowest level of the development process. They are not doing anything to develop people in their organization, and as a result, their attrition rate is off the charts. They can’t seem to keep anyone they recruit. That’s why we say they’re in the scramble stage – they spend most of their time scrambling to find people to replace the ones they lose.

2.    Stage 2: The Survival Stage

The next stage in the development ladder is survival mode. In it, leaders do nothing to develop their people, but they do manage to keep the people they have. About 50 percent of all leaders function this way. Their organization is average, the leaders are dissatisfied, and no one is developing personal potential. No one really benefits from this approach to leadership. Everyone merely survives from day to day without much promise or hope for the future.

3.    Stage 3: The Siphon Stage

About 10 percent of all leaders work at developing their people into better leaders, but they neglect to build their relationship with their people. As a result, their potential leaders leave the organization to pursue other opportunities. In other words, they are siphoned off from the organization. That often leads to frustration on the part of the leader because other people benefit from their effort, and they must devote a lot of time to looking for replacements.

4.    Stage 4: The Synergy Stage

When leaders build strong relationships, develop people to become good leaders, empower them to reach their potential and are able to keep them in the organization, something wonderful happens. It is often called synergy, meaning that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts because the parts interact well together and create energy, progress, and momentum. A church on the synergy level has great morale and high leadership satisfaction. Everyone benefits. Only about 19 percent of all leaders reach this level, but those who do are often considered the very best there are.

5.    Stage 5: The Significance Stage

Many people who reach the synergy level never try to go any farther because they don’t realize they can take one more step in the development process and that is to the significance level. Leaders on that level develop and reproduce leaders who stay in the organization, work to reach their potential, and in turn reproduce themselves in other leaders. And this is where influence really multiplies. Only about 1 percent of all leaders make it to this level, but the ones who do are able to tap into almost limitless growth and influences potential. A handful of leaders continually functioning on the significance level can make an impact on the world for generations to come!