Level 2 is all about relationships. It's called the Permission level because, at this stage, people follow you not because they have to, but because they genuinely want to. It's about liking and valuing individuals, treating them well. When you do this, you start to gain influence and build trust. This positive environment extends to various aspects of life—whether you're at home, work, playing, or volunteering.

So you got promoted and you are now the team lead. Congratulations. You now just stepped into the journey of leadership. And the first level is called "Position". That's the beginner's stage of leadership. If you are not careful, your influence on the team will pretty much be tied to your job title. People will follow you because they have to.

When you are in a complex environment, you have to deal with lots of uncertainties/insecurities (This is inherent to a complex environment/system). Since you are in a complex environment, you cannot get rid of these insecurities/uncertainties by implementing workflows, processes, rules, ... Each situation is different and requires a different approach, even if the differences are minimal, the approach can be completely different.

A few weeks back, I was at a wedding, and during the service in church, I started looking around. Merely to keep my emotions under control. (Yes, these events tend to move me into tears). I noticed quite a few paintings about people being stoned, crucified, lynched, roasted, burned, etc. I remembered that in the early years of Christianity, people were tortured to death because of their believe and faith in Jesus and God. Anyway...

I once worked for a company where people were complaining about to many meetings (sounds familiar, doesn't it). So management decided to introduce 'Meetingless Fridays'.

If you hear the word 'responsibility', what's the first thing that comes to mind? You will be the one to blame when things go wrong? Hmm, I feel you. In many companies people are only responsible for the end result. And if they do not deliver, they are held accountable. How can you expect people to take responsibility if they are not allowed to choose when to work, what tools to use, how to organize their work or set their own workflow? That's why people don't like to take responsibility.

In the numerous projects I've been involved in, I've discovered that many managers still hold on to there 'Command And Control'-principle in some way of form. When you hold on to 'Command and Control', the people you delegate the work to, will not feel any responsibility for the work. Why should they? They are just 'following orders'. They only perform the work when you say them to, and only the way you tell them to. As long as you treat people like this, you will not be able to create any engagement or commitment. Without engagement or commitment, people will not share their creativity with you or your company. And without that, you will have very little innovation.

When I was in my late 20, I got an interim job at an IT company. They were in the process of implementing new software for the Y2K. But being young and not familiar with 'responsibility' yet, I spent some of my time - actually more than I should - browsing the internet. As to be expected, management caught up to it. Both the CFO and the CTO addressed the issue to me, but in completely different ways.

When Covid-19 broke out in Europe, many restaurants had to close their doors. This would have meant a serious loss for those small businesses. So, many of them got the idea of Take Out. People could order their meals from a menu for a specific date and hour and drive up to the restaurant to pick it up.

I've had a small coaching business helping men to become more successful with women. Many coaches in this field will provide you with lots of 'pick-up lines'. Although these things seem to bring you some initial success, women will soon find out you are just good at bringing pick-up lines. Meaning, your character and personality have not changed. You probably still are the insecure, validation and approval seeking wussy on the inside as you were before you knew these pick-up lines.