Leadership is classified into four levels: personal, interpersonal, functional unit and organizational. These four levels are like a concentric circle, from personal to interpersonal to functional unit and finally to the whole organizational level.

The execution is however from up to down and outside-in approach. From organizational perspective, it is to create corporate vision and to integrate systems. Inside is the functional unit, that is, each work unit. The goal is to build a team that is empowered. Further inside is the interpersonal level, that is, to establish a working environment with mutual trust among members. The innermost level is the personal level, that is, an individual shall be worthy of others’ trust.

Although business objectives and tasks assignments are often time from an outside-in approach, meaning, through the organizational level to the individual level, however, a truly a highly effective team is actually built from inside-out. If each individual can win others’ trust, then in the interpersonal level people trust each other. Only by gradually going up this way can a highly effective team be truly created.

Paul Hersey says that “leadership is influence”. The composition of influence has two mainstays, one being individual ability and the other individual character. The two build up influence and either is indispensable. Ability determines whether a person is able to lead his/her subordinates or an organization, while character determines whether a person is worthy of being followed by other people.