Level 5 leaders who have their taken their companies from Good to Great always believed in this:
“If we get the RIGHT PEOPLE on the bus , the RIGHT PEOPLE in right seats , and the wrong people off the bus , then we will figure out how to take it someplace great.”
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great
Listed below are some of key characteristics of level 5 infinite minded leaders who leave behind a legacy.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great
Level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation whereas egocentric yet very talented leaders often set up their successors for failure to prove their greatness.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled Good to Great
Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will.They are ambitious first and foremost for the company not themselves.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Good to Great”
The two components are 1) Professional Will and 2) Personal Humility
Personal Will – Looks in the mirror not out of the window to apportion responsibility for poor results never blaming other people , external factors or bad luck
Personal Humility – Looks out the window not in the mirror to apportion credit for the success of the company – to other people , external factors and good luck
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book Good To Great
Level 5 leaders look out of the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well , if they cannot find a specific person to give credit to , they credit good luck.
At the same time , they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book Good To Great
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great
Ten out of eleven good to great CEO’s cited in the book came from inside the company and took the company to great heights.The comparison companies who failed turned to outsiders with six times greater frequency yet failed to produce sustained great results.
This expodes an important myth on leadership
“Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven infected with an incurable need to produce results.They will sell the mills or fire their brother if that is what takes to make the company great”
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great
Al Dunlap hired as the CEO of Scott Paper loved to loudly beat his own chest boasting about personal accomplishment putting numbers over people
He personally accrued $100 million for 603 days of work by slashing the workforce , cutting R&D budget to half and putting company on growth steroids in preparation for sale
Presence of such a person with gargantuan personal ego contributes to personal demise or continued mediocrity of a company
Adopted from the book Good to Great
Companies where powerful executives set their successors up for failure or choose weak successors are doomed for failure
Stanley Gault the top executive in once iconic Rubbermaid did not want to leave behind a company that would be great without him
His chosen successor lasted just a year and eventually Rubbermaid was acquired by Newell
Adopted from Jim Collins book Good to Great