Good to Great

Key takeaways

• Level 5 leaders combine deep personal humility with fierce will for the company
• Get the right people on the bus before deciding where the bus should go
• Face the brutal facts of your situation while never losing faith in the outcome
• Focus on the one thing you can be best at, are passionate about, and that pays
• Greatness comes from a flywheel of consistent pushes, not one dramatic breakthrough

Inside this bit

1. Why good is the enemy of great

   Most companies never become great, and Jim Collins argues that the reason is simple: they are already good, and good is comfortable. He and his research team spent 5 years studying companies that had been average for a long time and then produced stock returns far above the market for at least 15 years.

2. Level 5 leadership

   Collins expected the great companies to be led by larger-than-life figures. Instead he found quiet, even shy leaders who rarely appeared in the press.

3. First who, then what

   Conventional wisdom says a leader should set a vision and then recruit people to deliver it. Collins found the great companies did the opposite.

4. Confront the brutal facts

   Every great company Collins studied had a culture where the truth could be heard. Leaders led with questions rather than answers, encouraged debate and disagreement, and conducted post-mortems without assigning blame.

5. The hedgehog concept and the flywheel

   The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Collins found the great companies behaved like hedgehogs: they found the single idea where 3 circles overlap.

6. Put it to work

   This week, notice how you respond to a win and to a setback, and try crediting others for the first and taking responsibility for the second. Look at your team and ask honestly whether the right people are in the right seats, and start one conversation you have been avoiding.