Some of the most effective leaders I have worked with were not the loudest people in the room.
Jim Collins described this in Good to Great as Level 5 leadership: personal humility combined with fierce professional will. Modest about themselves. Relentless about results.
In a country role, I see it in eight habits.
- Humility:
- Credit goes to the team when results are good.
- The mirror first when results miss: what did I get wrong?
- Quiet in the room, so others speak before you do.
- Successors ready, because you built people who could do your job.
- Will:
- Standards never bend. Compliance and quality are not traded for a number.
- The hard decision gets made when the facts say so, even when it is uncomfortable.
- Resolve through setbacks. A bad quarter changes the plan, not the ambition.
- And success is judged by how the team does after you have moved on.
The two halves need each other. Humility without will becomes a pleasant team that drifts. Will without humility becomes a leader nobody tells the truth to.
“The best leaders are ambitious for the organisation, not for themselves.”
Lesson 3 of 15 in Step 7: Leading the leadership team, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.