Brian Johnson explores Jim Collins' Level 5 leadership: leaders with personal humility and indomitable will who put ego aside for a larger cause. Collins found these quiet, determined leaders outperformed charismatic ones. Johnson calls it heroic leadership and urges you to combine humility with relentless commitment.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. Jim Collins is my all time favorite business thinker. He's written a bunch of great books including Good to Great, Built to Last and Great by Choice. But my all time favorite business book is beyond entrepreneurship 2.0 turning your business into an enduring great company. Thanks again for the wreck on that Gibson. Now I still need to do a note on all those books and create a series of notes for all the business books I've read but have yet to distill. For now, I want to talk about one of Jim Collins big ideas on what he calls Level 5 leadership. Here's how he puts it. I quote our research showed that having charismatic leadership doesn't explain why some companies become great and others don't. In fact, some of the most disastrous comparison cases had very strong charismatic leadership in the very era that that the companies fell or failed. Rather, our research found that the critical ingredient is Level five leadership. The essence of Level five leadership is a paradoxical combination of personal humility and indomitable will. The humility expressed at level 5 isn't a false humbleness. It's a subjugation of personal ego in service to a cause beyond oneself. This humility, combined with the fierce resolve to do whatever it takes, no matter how difficult, to best serve that cause. Level 5 leaders are incredibly ambitious, but they channel their ambition into building a great team or organization and accomplishing a shared mission that's ultimately not about them. First, personal humility. We subjugate our personal egos in service to something bigger than ourselves. Second, indomitable will. As in indomitable will, we have a fierce resolve to do whatever it takes, no matter how difficult, to best serve the cause. Combine personal humility and indomitable will and we have what Collins calls Level five leadership only. You know what I thought of when I read that passage? I thought, if, as Joseph Campbell says, a hero is someone who has dedicated his or her life to something bigger than oneself, then I say, Jim Collins just described heroic leadership and that's today's plus one. Let's fiercely resolve to stepping up and into our heroic leadership potential, combining personal humility and indomitable will to do whatever it takes for however long it takes to fulfill our missions. And let's do that today. Day one. All in. Let's go. P.S. check out a plus one on heroically fierce ambition for another take on the subject linked from this plus one inspired by Doris Kearns Goodwin and her brilliant book Leadership in Turbulent Times.
