Here’s an interesting fact, and consistent with the theme in the first blog in this series - the leaders who have selected us to help them realize better results were running good companies when we started.
Each were good leaders, or good operators or both. All are good humans.
And each had a drive from within to be GREAT - both personally and professionally.
With appreciation to Erwin McManus, we humans are instinctively ambitious. We do not dream of mediocrity – we dream of scoring the winning goal & raising the Stanley Cup!
Here’s the second in a series from Jim Collins - enjoy :)
Good to GREAT - a Leadership Classic
Good is the enemy of great. Few people attain great lives or build great organizations, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for good.
This book does an exceptional job of highlighting the nuggets that “Good to GREAT” leaders used to build up and then breakthrough to become a GREAT organizations.
The BUILDUP - DISCIPLED People
The journey begins with Level 5 Leadership, or a blend of personal humility and professional will.
They are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results.
They display a workmanlike diligence - more plow horse than show horse.
The important distinction between level 4 and level 5 leadership is personal humility.
Their humility has them attributing success to factors other than themselves, yet when things go poorly, they look in the mirror and take full responsibility.
These most evolved leaders are ambitious for sure, but ambitious for the organization, not themselves.
Collins believes that potential Level 5 leaders exist all around us, if we just know what to look for, and that many people have the potential to evolve to Level 5.
Next, great leaders prioritized getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats, while getting the wrong people off the bus.
Then, they figured out where to drive the bus next. They did not start with a new vision and strategy - they started with the right people.
The key point is that “who” questions come before “what” decisions - before vision, before strategy, before org. structure, before tactics.
First who, then what, is the rigorous discipline that must be consistently applied.
Great management teams consist of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers, and then unify behind decisions and in the execution phase.
The great leaders were rigorous, not ruthless, in people decisions. Here’s three practical disciplines the book uncovered:
When in doubt, don’t hire - keep looking
When you know you need to make a people change - act. And be sure you don’t simply have someone in the wrong seat.
Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.
the buildup - discipled thought
A former prisoner-of-war helped us learn more about a path to greatness than our corporate strategy books.
Simply put, you must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of difficulties you will face, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.
the breakthrough - disciplined thought
The Hedgehog Concept (simplicity within three circles) is the premise that just because something is your core business - just because you’ve been doing it for some time - does not mean you can be the best in the world at it.
To find your company's Hedgehog Concept, you must find the overlap between three key questions: what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine (or what makes you profitable or sustainable).
If you can’t be the best in the world, or at least make the playoffs every year, then your core business absolutely cannot form the basis of a great company.
No matter the industry, or how bad, great companies figured out how to produce truly superior results.
The breakthrough - disciplined action
A culture of discipline will be necessary, because when you have disciplined, driven people, you don’t need hierarchy.
When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy.
When you have discipled action, you don’t need excessive controls.
Eg. “Stop doing” lists are more important than “to-do” lists.
Don not confuse a culture of discipline with a tyrant who disciplines - CEO’s who personally discipline through sheer force of personality usually fail to produce sustained results
Finally, these breakthrough companies thought differently about technology. They didn’t use technology as the primary means of igniting a transformation. Yet, paradoxically, they are pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies.
More specifically, the greats used technology as an accelerator of their core business.
Great companies react to technological change with thoughtful and creativity, driven to turn unrealized potential into results. Mediocre companies reach and lurch about, motivated by fear of being left behind.
In summary, the data suggests that all those who launch revolutions, dramatic change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the intended leap to great.
For those that broke through, there was no single defining action, no grand program, no fell swoop, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment.
Rather, their process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.
NexXT Steps
First, feel free to add this to your leadership toolbox for regular reference.
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