Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Humility + Will
Muhammad Umair
z
z The highest level in a hierarchy of leadership capabilities
z
z Leaders at the other four levels in the hierarchy can produce
high levels of success but not enough to elevate
organizations from mediocrity to sustained excellence
z
z Good-to-great transformations don’t happen without Level 5
leadership
z
z Level 5 is not the only requirement for transforming a good
organization into a great one
z
z Other factors include getting the right people on the bus (and
the wrong people off the bus) and creating a culture of
discipline
The Level 5 Hierarchy
z
z Sits on top of a hierarchy of capabilities
z
z Four other layers lie beneath it
z
z Each one is appropriate in its own right,
but none with the power of Level 5
z
z We do not need to move sequentially
through each level of the hierarchy to
reach the top
z
z But to be a fully-fledged Level 5, we
need the capabilities of all the lower
levels, plus the special characteristics of
level 5
Level55
Level
Executive
Executive
Level44
Level
EffectiveLeader
Effective Leader
Level33
Level
CompetentManager
Competent Manager
Level22
Level
ContributingTeam
Contributing TeamMember
Member
Level11
Level
HighlyCapable
Highly CapableIndividual
Individual
z Counterintuitive
z Countercultural – people generally assume
that transforming from good to great
organizations requires charismatic, larger-
than-life leaders
Not by Level 5 Alone
z
z Level 5 leadership is an essential factor
for taking an organization from good to
great, but it’s not the only one
z
z There are other “drivers”, combined
with Level 5 - the combined package
which takes the organization beyond
unremarkable
z
z The drivers are – First Who, Stockdale
Paradox, the Flywheel, The Hedgehog
Concept and A Culture of Discipline
First Who
z Good-to-great leaders start with people
first and then deal with vision and
strategy second
z They get the right people on the bus,
z Move the wrong people off,
z Usher the right people to the right
seats, and
z Determine where to drive it
Stockdale Paradox
z
z Named after Admiral James Stockdale, winner of
the Medal of Honour who survived for 7 years in a
Viet Cong POW camp by hanging on to two
contradictory beliefs
z
z His life couldn’t be worse at the moment, and his
life would someday be better than ever
z
z Good-to-great leaders confront the most brutal
facts of their current reality, yet simultaneously
maintained absolute faith that they will prevail in
the end
z
z They held both disciplines – faith and facts – at the
same time, all the time
Buildup-Breakthrough
Flywheel
z
z Good-to-great transformations do not happen
overnight or in one big leap
z
z Rather, it starts one movement at a time, gradually
building up momentum, till there is a breakthrough
z
z Mediocre organizations never sustained the
breakthrough momentum but instead lurch back and
forth with radical change programmes, reactionary
moves and restructuring
The Hedgehog Concept
z
z A hedgehog
knows only one
big thing very
well
z The fox knows a
little about many z
z The hedgehog is
simple
things
z A fox is complex
What best
ignites the
passions of its
people
What an
organization
How its
can be best
economics
in the world
work best
at
Technology Accelerators
z
z Good-to-great organizations have a
paradoxical relationship with technology
z
z On the one hand they avoid jumping on new
technology bandwagons
z
z On the other they pioneer the application of
carefully selected technologies, making bold
farsighted investments directly linked to
their hedgehog concept
z
z Like turbochargers, these technology
accelerators create an explosion in flywheel
momentum
A Culture of Discipline
z
z Good-to-great organizations have
three forms of discipline
1.
1. Disciplined people – you don’t need
hierarchy,
2.
2. Disciplined thought – you don’t need
bureaucracy, and
3.
3. Disciplined action – you don’t need
excessive controls
z
z Combining a culture of discipline with
an ethic of entrepreneurship results
in great performance
Level 5 Leaders
zA study in duality
z Modest and wilful,
z Shy and fearless
A Compelling Modesty
z
z Level 5 leaders are extremely
modest
z
z They don’t talk about themselves
z
z They would talk about the
organization, about the
contribution of others and
instinctively deflect discussion
about their own role
z
z Unlike big personalities like Lee
Iacocca, Jack Welch
The Yin and Yang of Level 5
The Yin and Yang of
Level 5
z
z Level
Level 55 leaders,
leaders, inherently
inherently humble,
humble,
look
look out
out the
the window
window to to apportion
apportion
credit
credit –– even
even undue
undue credit
credit –– to
to
factors
factors outside
outside themselves
themselves
z
z If
If they
they cannot
cannot find
find aa specific
specific event
event
or
or person
person toto give
give credit
credit to,
to, they
they
credit
credit good
good luck
luck
z
z At
At the
the same
same time,
time, they
they look
look in
in
the
the mirror
mirror to
to assign
assign
responsibility,
responsibility, never
never citing
citing bad
bad
luck
luck for
for external
external factors
factors when
when
things
things go
go poorly
poorly
z
z Compare
Compare this
this with
with leaders
leaders who
who look
look out
out the
the
window
window forfor factors
factors to
to blame
blame but
but preened
preened
in
in the
the mirror
mirror toto credit
credit themselves
themselves when
when
things
things go
go well
well
Born or Bred? : Can Level 5
be developed?
z
z Could evolve to level 5
z
z Capability resides in them, perhaps buried or ignored
or simply nascent
z
z Under the right circumstances – with self-reflection,
a mentor, a significant life experience, loving
parents, or other factors – the seed can begin to
develop
Level 5
z
z A key component inside the
black box of what it takes to shift
an organization from good to
great
z
z Inside this black box is another –
the inner development of a
person to Level 5 leadership
z
z A very satisfying idea, a truthful
idea, a powerful idea, and to
make the move from good to
great, very likely an essential
idea
“For like all basic truths
about what is best in
human beings,