Triple Threat (Good to Great: The leader, the People, and the Situation)

Looking at the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, his level 5 leader theory is essentially consistent with the notion that leadership is about the leader, the follower, and the situation.

He begins first with the leader. A true leader that will lead a company from good to great is what he identifies as a level 5 leader. This leader blends “extreme personal humility with intense professional will.” If you remember from my blog post “Are you a Plow Horse or a Show horse” I touched upon his theory. But to recap, level 5 leaders are more of a plow horse, they have the extreme ambition to do whatever needs to be done for the good for the company and does not need to be recognized for their efforts. They are the leaders who credits the company’s successes to its people and take responsibility for the failures.

These level five leaders then will find the people they need to be on their team. Before they figure out what direction they want to go in “they first get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it.” The theory behind this is that if they find the right people who want to be there because of the people they are with rather than the vision, then when a change in direction needs to be had, then they will not up and leave. Also, the right people do not need to be motivated nor tightly managed, for these people will be self-motivated to get results and to be part of making their company great. When a level five leader finds the rights people less time will be spent trying to manage the wrong people and to motivate them to do well. Having the wrong people on the bus causes bureaucratic rules. These rules are made to manage the wrong people, which frustrates the right people and causes them to leave causing more of the wrong people to replace them, which leads to more rules. How these leaders lead their team is by being rigorous, but not ruthless. Meaning that motivation is not through the threat of being laid-off or fired. Instead, the leader sets rigorous standards, where their people do not have to be worried about losing their job and focus their full attention to their work. He believes in creating a culture of discipline, which means creating a frame work that requires the people to adhere within a system but allowing them the freedom and the responsibility to work within those lines. The idea behind this is that you manage the system, not the people, because you already have the right people who are self-disciplined who take disciplined action that do not need to be managed. The kind of people a level five leader needs to find are ones “who argue and debate-sometimes violently- in pursuit of the best answers, yet on the other hand, who will unify fully behind a decision regardless of parochial interests.”

Next , he links the situation. Once you have the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right spots, it is time to focus on where you are going and the reality of the situation, aka “confronting the brutal facts.” The brutal facts are important because if you pretend they are not there, you cannot grow and become great. Those brutal facts that you are avoiding will hold you back. To create a culture where facts are heard, a leader leads with questions, engages in discussions and debates, conducts autopsies of situations, and builds a system where information cannot be ignored.

However, in conjunction with is, when looking at the brutal facts it is important to never lose faith. Collins references the Stockdale Paradox that states “retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” AKA have unwavering faith but be realistic. All in all, Collin does not really touch upon adapting leadership behavior to the situation of the followers because it all starts with finding the right followers. Yes, he does consider the leader, the follower, and the situation, but by starting off with a level five leader who finds the right people where they can as a team handle any situation thrown at them. All the other situational leadership theories take into consideration of how to lead the people who are not as motivated or knowledgeable whereas Collins considers those people the wrong people and should be thrown off the bus.