Good For Great By Jim Collins

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

Leadership is the elaboration of group inspiration. One person entrusted as leader can implore the aid, and support of supporters in the accomplishment of a common mission. According to Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane “Becoming a more effective leader often requires changing behavior. But although most companies recognize that this also means adjusting underlying mind-sets, too often these organizations are reluctant to address the root causes of why leaders act the way they do” (Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane, 2014) However, today abundant businesses engross importance on the improvement of leaders. Some of the ultimate leaders were formerly followers, such as in instructive businesses. One aspect as leaders many have to contemplate in striving

Management has changed significantly over the past 50 years. The role of leaders in an organization is an ever changing thing. At one point, a manager was also the owner of the company, and thus used a carrot and a stick to get his employees to work, just like a parent personally invested in the raising of their child. Not anymore. Nowadays, leaders are there to “serve” their employees. The focus is on motivating the individual, achieving organizational goals by integrating each and every individual into the system. We no longer rely on a one size fits all approach, and management theory is no longer focused on having a winning philosophy, or motivating large groups.

Leadership is the ability to inspire and focus members on a common goal, whether short term or long term and have the same vision. Leadership is more than telling or ordering, but having members believe and want to follow the same path as you. It’s a commitment to your people built on trust and respect. Many leaders shaped my personal leadership philosophy, to include several negative and positive experiences. Negative experiences from poor leaders and lessons learned on my part have uniquely shaped this vision. Difficult to be a good follower when your leader lacks competency, integrity, and your trust. If a leader takes credit for work other than their own, or forces and ideology onto others, but does not follow it themselves; these negative influences damage the trust and respect required by all leaders. However, positive experiences can also have a career lasting impact. A leader who inspires through personal actions and convictions can change how an entire unit operates without ever saying a word.

Leadership is defined as the ability to accomplish a set goal(s) due to the act of inspiring and motivating a group of your peers. Former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower made famous a quote that stated, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” (Notable-quotes.com). One of the most important aspects of the work area is leadership. Without leadership, there will be no guidance to for teamwork and the percentage of successful goal will be slim to none. Becoming a great leader is no easy feat however. An exceptional leader must lock in on specific attributes such as intellect, moral character, and human

This reflection paper is written after reading one of the number one best seller books, “Good to Great”, written by Jim Collins. This paper will attempt to give a high level overview of the book as well as personal reflection to the similarities to the course learning, key takeaways and any valuable information that will assist me in my career.

A level 5 leader also tacks on the attribute of duality of personal humility and professional will. This means that level 5 leaders are humble and are looking to benefit others instead of benefiting himself or herself. Level 5 leaders also are motivated to help their colleagues and their successors to achieve great success instead being self-centered and only wishing for what is best for them.

Jim Collins takes leadership and breaks it down into a hierarchy of levels of success. At the top of the hierarchy sits level 5. Per Jim Collins, level 1 leaders are talented and productive and level 2’s are team players and contribute their abilities to the success of a group. level 3’s are group leaders, organizing individuals and resources toward the goal, and level 4’s commit and pursue the goal, encouraging high-performance standards. But what makes a level 5 leader the best? According to Jim Collins, humility and will. Level 5’s use personal humility and professional will to achieve success. “Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company”.

Good leadership is also important to run a business. Usually, in companies, management stresses more on decision- making skills. They believe a timely and smart decision will help their company to succeed. They forget that implementation of those decisions are as important as making those decision. Without a proper implementation , there will be no results. Like there is a saying that, it’s easier to said than done. Similarly, making a decision will change nothing, its how to get things done in a timely and an effective way will help an organization to accomplish their goals. Leadership is crucial in implementing decisions correctly and successfully.

Rather they demonstrated personal humility and professional will revealing an aggressive resolve to do what was best for the company, he or she plays an important role in the success of their organization through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits. The lower levels included effective leader, competent manager, contributing team member, and highly capable individual. The traits of Level 5 leaders include, building “enduring greatness” into their organizations, setting their successors up for success, talking about the company and others, but declining to discuss themselves, ordinary people producing extraordinary results, most likely to come from within the company, not outside of it, quick to give credit outside themselves when there was success, while at the same time taking personal responsibility when things went badly and distinctive in their approach to the people they wanted in the company. Most companies would think the first step in becoming a great would be to create a vision and a strategy, but this has not been proven true. The first step a company should take is determining who the right employees are, and which position in the company is right for them. In chapter three is states” If executives get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.” Level 5 leaders wanted top players as well top effort.

An effective leader can be determined using a number of elements. Top companies tend to make key leadership talent accountable for their own development and strengthening the company’s leadership and its culture (Gandossy & Guarnieri, 2008). Areas such as how well a leader can deliver results through others, establish a “can-do” attitude, and how they go about achieving these results are key elements. Employment engagement is another important element of a good leader. Feedback from the leaders’ teams on their competency, style, commitment to the company and the team are important. If work climate issues surface, leaders are expected to address them with action plans, log their process throughout the year, and utilize best practices

In corporate America the term used to describe a person in a position of power is “Manager”. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. Leaders motivate, challenge, and influence others to achieve goals. Great leaders have the necessary skills and attributes which allow them to connect with the team and organization. Being a leader is not the same as managing an organization. Leader’s posses the interpersonal skills needed to influence others to achieve a goal willingly. Leading is a major part of a manager’s job. Leaders do not need to be a manager to lead people, but managers must know how to lead as well as manage.

Leadership is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the “action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Leadership is also the ability to set trends, inspire, motivate, and sway others to produce desired results. There are different styles and ways of performing leadership and a good leader has the ability to take ordinary people, put them all together, and hopefully yield successful results. For organizations to have sustained results from their performance there must be a good balance of business insight, technical and interpersonal skills, and good team dynamics. A leader must know how to use all these areas as well as trust and communicate with their people in

According to Yukl (Yukl, 2013) one of the many definitions of leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable other to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization”. Therefore it is of importance to have an effective leader in an organization to guide the company in the correct direction, in order to achieve the company’s’ main goal.

For every organization to succeed in today business world, good and effective Leadership plays a strategic role in driving an organization into the future.