Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

This article reports on the author's research into how good companies can become great ones. "We looked for companies that had shifted from good performance to great performance - and sustained it." Eventually, the research identified 11 good-to-great examples who on average outperformed the general stock market by 6.9 times for 15 years. (There is a sidebar explaining the research method.) According to the author and his research team all great companies had one thing in common: Level 5 leaders. "Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, shy and fearless." Level 5 leadership requires personal humility and personal will. But the author notes that it is not just level 5 leadership that catapults these companies into greatness, it also requires vision and strategy, faiths and facts, breakthrough momentum, focus, technology, and discipline. The weakest point in this article is that Collins admits to not being able to answer the question, "Can you learn to become Level 5?" He advises to practice the other good-to-great disciplines which will help you move in the right direction.

This is certainly a great article, which is based on Collins' latest bestseller 'Good to Great' (2001). It provides great insights, based on a five-year research study, on how companies can outperform the market. The only thing that is missing is a 10-step guide to level 5 leadership. I highly recommend this article to managers and MBA-students. I also recommend Daniel Goleman's articles into emotional intelligence, 'What Makes a Leader' (1998) and 'Leadership that Gets Results' (2000). The authors uses simple US-English.


Leadership to outperform the market   July 10, 2001
Gerard Kroese (The Netherlands)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

Jim Collins is a management research from Boulder, California. He is the co-author of 'Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies' and has written several other Harvard Business Review articles. Just like many Harvard Business Review articles, this article takes the idea from a book. In this instance, Jim Collins' latest book 'Good to Great'.

This article is based on a five-year research project to answer the questions: What catapults a company from merely good to truly great? According to this research one of the main drivers of good-to-great transformations is Level 5 leadership. "Level 5" refers to the highest level in hierarchy of executive capabilities identified during the research. "The Level 5 executive builds an enduring greatness through a paradoxical combination of personal humility plus professional will." Although Level 5 leadership is not the only requirement for transforming a good company into a great one - other factors include getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and creating a culture of discipline - the research shows it to be essential. According to the author good-to-great transformation do not happen without Level 5 leaders at the helm. The author does not have a "ten-step guide to Level 5", but advises companies to practice the other good-to-great disciplines since a tight symbiotic relationship between each other exists.

Although I did enjoy the subject and the introduction of the article, the greatest complaint I have about this article is that the author uses excellent examples of great leadership/success - companies that catapult from merely good to truly great - but does not provide a guide, framework or model to get there. Now, the road-map to greatness remains an unanswered question. Perhaps his book will answer the question? The article is written in simple US-English.