'Level 5 Leadership? takes companies from good to great

Tired of leading just a "good" company? You know, a C+, middle-of-the-road, "good enough for the Ozarks," "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" type of organization.

"Great" drifts through your mind during hallucinogenic Monday morning moments, but you know you will die convincing yourself and others that good was good enough.

How pathetic! It is pathetic because you and I live in an economic and cultural environment where "great" is still a possibility. Approximately 80 percent of the world's population will get up today with no option other than to find a meal. You and I have been given a gift of po-tential.

"Great" is not about getting Enron rich; great is about brushing up against and then pushing out our limits.

I have a book for you. Jim Collins, co-author of "Built to Last," the best-selling book three years ago, has just written a new work, titled "Good to Great."

This book is a study, conducted at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, on the characteristics of med-iocre organizations that made the leap to great and continue to maintain that status year after year.

What I do not want, as a small business owner, is more opinion, supposition, feel-goodism or nauseatingly sentimental stories ("you can transform yourself from a turkey buzzard to soar with the eagles"). I need to know the facts of how to lead a good, little company to kick-out-the-walls greatness.

Collins' findings may surprise you.

The research painted a picture of leadership in great organizations that is far different from the Gecko-like Hollywood character actor we often assume. Collins places this type of leader in what he calls "Level 5 Leadership." According to Col-lins' findings, these are the marks of the good-to-great leader:

First, without exception, people who lead great organizations were not ego-maniacs. They proved to be self-effacing people who, at the same time, had a junk-yard-dog tenacity to do what ever needed to be done to unearth the greatness of their companies.

Darwin Smith, the past chief executive officer of Kimberly-Clark, was a nerdy lawyer who could not believe he was named to the top position of this failing company. Wearing his JC Penney double-knit suit, this quiet giant went about the task of unloading unprofitable assets and centering the company on what added to the bottom line.

Second, every one of these leaders put on heirs. Immediately upon assuming leadership, good-to-great leaders started choosing and grooming their successors. In other words, when they got the power, they started to give it away. Obviously, this is a far different image than the narcissist who grabs and holds on to control for dear life.

Third, the press releases about good-to-great companies rarely, if ever, mentioned the senior leadership. There ap-pears to be a concerted effort by these great companies to redirect the attention and energy to the advances made by the company and not the leadership that made it all happen.

Lee Iacocca is a well-known pitch man for Chrysler. He appeared in more than 80 different commercials, Larry King Live and countless Today Show tapings. But while his star was shooting from one galaxy to another, Chrysler's stock was tanking by 31 percent below the new car market. Both Iacocca and "cab forward" had had their day.

Finally, Collins discovered that "Level 5" Leaders never wavered. Intransigence can be a liability in any leader. But, this was not stubbornness; rather, this trait is a commitment to long-term, well-de-signed goals.

When the pressure came to be "sexy" about major shifts away from a strategic plan, the Level 5 leader quietly reminded everyone in the boardroom that the original plan was solid and would be followed. Colman Mockler of Gillette, George Cain of Abbott Laboratories and Charles Walgreen of Walgreens are all examples of quiet but thundering leaders who held on to the plan.

Just like you, I'm learning. I'm learning that greatness is not a huge company, millions in the bank and a little mansion on Grand Cayman.

I'm learning that greatness is pushing back the limits and finding out what my company can be. I don't know about you, but at the end of my life I am not interested in a C+.

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, Execu-tive Enrichment Inc., can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj @sbj.net.)