Becoming a Top Level Leader: 5 Important Steps – Part 1

In 2004 I wrote a couple of articles about Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” in which he related that the top leaders of the companies that made his list of “great” companies “embodied a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will.” In light of the fallout from the recession, I think that his observation is even more relevant and important today. He called these leaders – “Level 5 leaders” based on a 1 to 5 scale he outlines in his book. In this briefing I will outline five preliminary steps you can take to become a Level 5 leader.

According to Collins there are five attributes that typify the Level 5 Leader:

• They are self-confident enough to set up their successors for success.
• They are humble and modest.
• They have “unwavering resolve.”
• They display a “workmanlike diligence – more plow horse than show horse.”
• They give credit to others for their success and take full responsibility for poor results. They “attribute much of their success to ‘good luck’ rather than personal greatness.

Humility as a personality characteristic in our corporate leaders has perennially been in short supply and I firmly believe that with a little more humility, many of the poor decisions leading up to the market crash might have been averted. I recall listening to Kerry Killinger, former CEO of Washington Mutual, speak at a Rotary Club of Seattle meeting where he bragged about how well WAMU was doing. I left that meeting saying to myself, “that guy is too full of himself.” In less than two years WAMU became the largest bank failure in history and vanished along with the jobs of hundreds of employees who had trusted his judgment.

The challenge that most senior executives face in becoming a Level 5 leader is that the key personality attribute that they embody, humility, is counter intuitive for most executives. As we grow up in our careers we have to prove our worth one way or another. Usually that is by producing results and…., judging from what executives tell us…, being sure that we are credited for those results. Most employees move into the managerial and executive ranks because they have demonstrated their smarts and have achieved results that can be clearly link to their efforts.

Furthermore, in many companies employees are often ranked for performance appraisal purposes and receive raises based on their ranking. The incentive is to outperform others and to be sure that your boss knows it. People generally do that for which they are rewarded and humility won’t get you far in those types of situations. Turning down the “I” volume is hard in companies where humility is not rewarded. Microsoft, for example used this system until recently after finding out it was counterproductive.

In addition, Boards of Directors are notoriously known for hiring “charismatic” leaders with the mistaken belief that those folks can perform miracles. It all adds up to making it very difficult for executives to turn down the “I” volume as they move up through the ranks.

So, if you are a senior executive and believe that you want to cultivate Level 5 leadership attributes in yourself and your employees, the first thing you have to do is embrace the concept yourself. You need to be sure that you put the brakes on the “I” speech and learn how to say “we” and “they.” You have to trust that if your team/company does well that those who count (not the media who love the Donald and Martha) will know that you helped shepherded the success.

Secondly, you have to be sure that you institutionalize teamwork, team credit and employee development by developing compensation systems that reward accordingly. I added employee development because Collins also found that all Level 5 leaders set up their successor for success by developing them and by delegating so that they learned how to be successful.

Thirdly, Level 5 Leaders hire highly competent people (“get the right people on the bus”), help develop and then set direction for their organization and then keep everyone focused “with unwavering resolve,” while resisting telling people “how” to do their jobs. If you’ve been a high performing individual contributor you will need to learn how to trust that others can do things just as well, maybe even better, although perhaps differently than you would have. That’s called exercising good self-control.

That leads to the fourth step. Level 5 leaders exercise good “self-control.” They know how to manage their emotions so that they have more control over their reactions. For example, they hold back from putting in their two cents worth too soon in problem solving and other tactical endeavors when they interact with their subordinates. Self-control means that your actions and reactions are more strategic.

Lastly, exercising good self-control requires self-awareness.   Read more about developing self-awareness in the next blog entry.