Today’s business literature is replete with models of leadership and an entire industry has grown up around

coaching leaders. Leadership is arguably one of the most valuable of human activities, yet despite the vast
literature on the topic, many people remain unable to identify the basic building blocks that define what
leadership is. As Elliot Jaques points out, intuitively we know that leaders are able to get people to work
together effectively; to align them around a common purpose, goals, and objectives; to get them to co-operate
with each other and to trust each other. We also know from the experience of observing leaders in action that
the genericattributes of leadership described in the literature, and the actual role that a leader plays do not occur
in a vacuum, but are embedded within specific historical contexts, business situations, and the organizational
structures, systems, and culture within which people lead.
The model used by the Breckenridge Institute contains four interdependent dimensions of leadership.
 Expertise, Experience, and Wisdom
 Problem Solving Ability
 Personality, Core Beliefs and Values
 Awareness of Self and Others
The first dimension of leadership (Expertise, Experience, and Wisdom) includes education, expertise,
experience in specific industries and markets, and a track record of effectively leading organizations with
various numbers of employees and managerial levels. Over time, managerial wisdom emerges as discernment
about how organizations and industries work, what motivates people, what customers and suppliers truly need
and desire, and how to work effectively at higher-levels of management (Elliot Jaques, Requisite Organization,
Baltimore, MD: 2006).
The second dimension of leadership (Problem Solving Ability) is about having the appropriate level of
“intellectual horsepower” to effectively perform the level of work and task complexity to which a person is
assigned. As Jaques points out, work and task complexity is defined as: a) the number of variables operating in a
situation, b) the ambiguity of these variables, c) their rate of change over time, d) the extent to which they are
interwoven so that they have to be unraveled in order to be seen, e) the person’s ability to identify and control
the salient variables once known, and f) the time horizon of the work in terms of days, months, and years.
The third dimension of leadership (Personality, Core Beliefs and Values) manifests itself as patterns of behavior
and interaction, tacit assumptions, intrinsic motivators, and underlying patterns of how leaders see themselves,
other people, and the world around them. There is no one “right” personality or set of core beliefs and values for
a given leadership position, but instead the question is: a) to what extent do they help a person work effectively,
or b) reveal decision-making biases, predictable errors in judgment, or patterns of inappropriate behaviors? A
key indicator that a person possesses a mature grasp on this dimension of leadership is the degree to which they
avoid using either-or-thinking and instead practice both-and-.
The fourth dimension of leadership (Awareness of Self and Others) is based on the timeless principles found in
Jim Collins best-selling book, Good to Great (Jim Collins, Good to Great, New York: Harper Business, 2001).
Collins began his research on Good to Great with a bias against leadership. He told his research team that the
fact that “great companies had great leaders” went without saying and was an uninteresting finding. But his
research showed that truly great companies had a fundamentally different kind of leader (what he called a Level-
5 Leader) and these people were characterized by professional will and fierce resolve combined with personal
humility. Level-5 Leaders put self-interest aside and instead focus on building a sustainable organization and
setting others up to succeed, not fail. Level-5 Leaders know how to introspectively look into the mirror of
personal responsibility when things go wrong, and they know how to ascribe credit to others when things go
right. The key question is, “How does one become the kind of leader that Collins describes in Good to Great?”
Collins argues that Level-5 Leaders exhibit a pattern of personal development in which the ego-centered drive
required to reach the top of corporate America is transformed into the paradoxical combination of professional
will, fierce resolve, and humility, but he offers no systematic approach to becoming a Level-5 leader – it’s
beyond the scope of his study. Our view is that the fourth dimension of leadership (Awareness of Self and
Others) is the key to becoming a Level-5 Leader.
The four dimensions of leadership are an interdependent set of competencies, skills, and characteristics that
enable leaders to bring people together; to get them to work together effectively; to align them around a
common purpose, goals, and objectives; to get them to co-operate and rely on each other; and to trust each other.
As mentioned previously, the generic attributes of leadership described in the literature, and the actualrole that
a leader plays day-to-day do not occur in a vacuum, but are embedded within specific historical contexts,
business situations, and the organizational structures, systems, and culture within which people lead.
Consequently, the four dimensions of leadership must always be contextualized and applied to the real life
situations and challenges that leaders face.
Bottom Line: Leadership development is a complex, interdependent process that involves a person’s natural
abilities, talents, personality, and level of awareness, working together within the specific historical context and
business situation in which people are embedded.