Level 5 Leadership

 

What do you think is the #1 characteristic of great leaders with a proven track record of sustainable success? #Level5Leadership #GoodToGreat

In this book "Good to Great", author Jim Collins and his team embark on a research to study what they identified as eleven “Good-to-great companies” and studied in detail what they did differently to achieve the sustainable change that made them arrive at their greatness, when compared to other “pretty good” companies.

All good-to-great companies had the presence of what the author coins as “Level-5 leadership” – the presence of awesome leaders that drove the team towards greatness.

Pop quiz: what do you think is the number one most prominent distinguishing characteristic of Level-5 Leaders?

Is it: Visionary? Charismatic? Empathy? Resilience? Confidence? Accountability?

Brace yourselves: The number one characteristic of Level-5 leaders is that they are HUMBLE.

Wait, what? Humility? Good-to-great CEOs? Who would have thought? 🤔

Quoting from the book:
“Those who worked with or wrote about the good-to-great leaders continually used words like quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe his own clippings and so forth.
The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extra-ordinary results.”

But here’s my favorite part: the difference in attitude of good-to-great leaders versus comparison leaders, with respect to “who gets the credit” for success and failures.
“(Good-to-great leaders) refuse to take credit for their company’s success, instead attributing good fortune to having great colleagues, successors and predecessors.
Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors OUTSIDE themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion RESPONSIBILITY: never blaming bad luck when things go poorly”

Wow. Amazing. What’s more amazing is how familiar it sounds to the phrase, “Everything good is from Allah, and everything wrong I may have said or done is from my own shortcomings”.

What is interesting is that the opposite was true for the comparison leaders i.e. of the non good-to-great companies: whom, I quote, “were typically egocentric rock star CEO’s, did just the opposite: They’d look out the inward for something or someone outside themselves to blame for poor results, but would preen in front of the mirror and credit themselves when things went well.
In contrast to the very “i”-centric style of the comparison leaders, we were struck by how the good-to-great leaders didn’t talk about themselves. During interviews with the good-to-great leaders, they’d talk about the company and the contributions of other executives as long as we’d like, but would deflect discussion about their own contributions”.

Last but not least, an important disclaimer:
“It is very important to grasp that Level 5 Leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.
Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results. They will sell the mills or fire their brother, if that’s what it takes to make the company great. They are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.

Conclusion:
Humility + Will = Level 5”

Now, interesting when we reflect that, with respect to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He said:

وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلاَّ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ
“The one who shows humility, Allah will elevate him” (Muslim)

الْحَيَاءُ لاَ يَأْتِي إِلاَّ بِخَيْرٍ
“Al-Haya (modesty, shyness, humbleness) does not bring in anything except good” (Al-Bukhari)

وَمَا كَانَ الْحَيَاءُ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلاَّ زَانَهُ
“Whenever modesty is present in something, it beautifies it” (At-Tirmidzi)

إنَّ لِكُلِّ دينٍ خُلُقًا، وخُلُقُ الإسلامِ الحياءُ
“Verily, in every religion, there is a (primary) characteristic: and the characteristic of Islam is that of modesty” (Narrated by Ibn Majah, Muwatta Malik)

In fact, the Prophet ﷺ was an exemplar of Level-5 Leadership. You see, on one hand, as the companion Abu Said Al-Khudri narrated, the Prophet ﷺ had even more shyness and modesty than a veiled virgin girl. (Al-Bukhari).

But when the occasion calls for it, he would show ferocious resolve to be at the front lines in defense of his people.
قَالَ الْبَرَاءُ كُنَّا وَاللَّهِ إِذَا احْمَرَّ الْبَأْسُ نَتَّقِي بِهِ وَإِنَّ الشُّجَاعَ مِنَّا لَلَّذِي يُحَاذِي بِهِ ‏.‏ يَعْنِي النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم
Anas reported: the 'Prophet was the best, and most generous, and the most brave amongst the people. Once the people of Madinah got terrified at night, so they went in the direction of the noise (that terrified them). Before they could find out what it was, they saw the Prophet (ﷺ) as he was coming back from the source. He was riding an unsaddled horse belonging to Abu Talha with a sword was hanging by his neck, and he was saying, "Do not fear! Do not fear!” (Al-Bukhari, Muslim)

And when it comes to justice, he will not hesitate to act with justice, even if it against his own daughter if she was caught:
فَإِنَّمَا أَهْلَكَ النَّاسَ قَبْلَكُمْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا إِذَا سَرَقَ فِيهِمُ الشَّرِيفُ تَرَكُوهُ، وَإِذَا سَرَقَ فِيهِمِ الضَّعِيفُ أَقَامُوا عَلَيْهِ الْحَدَّ، وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ، لَوْ أَنَّ فَاطِمَةَ بِنْتَ مُحَمَّدٍ سَرَقَتْ لَقَطَعْتُ يَدَهَا
“The nations prior to you were destroyed because if a noble amongst them stole, they used to excuse him, and if a poor person amongst them stole, they would apply (Allah's) Legal Punishment to him.
I Swear, by Him in Whose Hand Muhammad's soul is, if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad was guilty of theft, I would cut her hand!” (Al-Bukhari, Muslim)

Food for thought in cultivating our future leaders..

#TheBarakahEffect