Level 5 Leadership

The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve

By Jim Collins

Summary
Level 5 Leadership is the highest level of hierarchy of executive capabilities
necessary for good-to-great transformations of companies and portrays
personality traits which include among others, blends of genuine personal
humility with intense professional will, culture of discipline in thought, action
and morals, compelling modesty to channel ambition into the company and
not self-grandiose, an unwavering resolve to make hard and game changing
decisions and tendency to operate on window-mirror paradox.
Conventional wisdom and indeed modern management theories would have
us believe that great companies are built on the strength of larger-than life
egocentric chief executives who are charismatic, vocal, visible, and
visionary and who make headlines and become celebrities. However, Jim
Collins had a different idea; he argued in his article "Level 5 Leadership: The
Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve (2005) that Good-to-great
transformations don't happen without Level 5 leaders at the helm. They just
don't. According to a survey he conducted, all the "successful organizations
had a Level 5 leader at the time of transition".
Collins made a case for leadership traits that catapults companies from
merely good to truly great and placed their companies on a sustained
growth path, even beyond the stay of the CEOs at the helm. Collins
illustrated 11 organizations whose leadership bore similar personality traits
as catalyst for the operational effectiveness witnessed within those
organizations which is what he considered make some companies to the leap
while others don't.
Key among his findings were:
1. Having a Level 5 chief executive, driving the organizations agenda: a
person who blends genuine personal humility with intense professional will.
The other common characteristics he identified as central to achieving
enduring and sustainable organization growth, which he called the goodto-great-disciplines, include:
2. A culture of discipline in thought, action and personal morals; compelling
modesty to channel ambition into the company and not self-glory;
3. An unwavering resolve to make hard and game changing decisions;

4. Tendency to give credit to others for the success of the company while
assigning blame to themselves when things dont work out. This he called
the window-mirror paradox.
5. These leaders have duality traits which include:
A. They develop humility at a deep, emotional level and do not indulge in
self grandiose; they never are boastful and acts with quiet, calm
determination;
B. They are keen to finding the right people to help them reach their full
potential;
C. They set the standard of building an enduring great company and are
incredibly disciplined in their work;
D. They are passionate about what they do and channel their ambition into
the company;
E. they provide a clear catalyst in the transition from good to great and ask
for help when they need it.
Can Level 5 leadership traits be cultivated? Collins asserted that leaders can
discover the level 5 seed perhaps buried or ignored or simply nascent
within them and begin to nature the seed to develop by practicing the goodto-great-disciplines which he emphasized would turn the executives into
full-fledged Level 5 leader.
It interprets that the level 5 leadership is a satisfying, truthful idea, and
powerful idea, and, to make the move from good to great, very likely an
essential idea as it is a living reality. This is the highest level of hierarchy of
executive capabilities necessary to lift a mediocre or even good company to
a great one.
I will reiterate with that like all basic truths about what is best in human
beings, when we catch a glimpse of that truth, we know that our own lives
and all that we touch will be the better for making the effort to get there