Finally, I’ve embarked on my reading regime – the one I mentioned in my post Exploring the inner game of leadership. I’m starting with a book which continues to attract warm recommendations, Jim Collins’ Good to Great. In it, Collins shares findings from research into those companies who have gone from showing solid performance to showing outstanding performance in the marketplace.
Early on, Collins lays out a neat hierarchy of work levels. It’s not rocket science or even entirely new and still, it serves to remind us of levels of work with which we are familiar and also to highlight an additional level, the Level 5 leader, which is the subject of Collins’ book. I highlight it for another reason – but first, let me share Collins definitions:
Level 5 Executive: Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
Level 4 Effective Leader: Catalyzes a commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards.
Level 3 Competent Manager: Organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of pre-determined objectives.
Level 2 Contributing Team Member: Contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of group objectives and works effectively with others in a group setting.
Level 1 Highly Capable individual: Makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits.
What does this hierarchy evoke for me? I want to highlight the role that adaptability plays in success. The more strategies you have to meet your goals the more likely you are to succeed (and yes, I’ve been there, too – using a strategy that didn’t work last time either and hoping that by trying harder, it will work this time).
As you move through the hierarchy of work levels to which Collins refers, it helps to know clearly which level of work you are employed to do and to develop strategies that work at that level. It also helps to know how the level to which you aspire differs from your current work level. Oftentimes poor performance stems from applying habits from the level of work below the level at which you are employed to contribute. Oftentimes the promotion you feel frustrated you have not have yet achieved is withheld because you do not yet show you understand at what level you will be required to contribute in the job to which you aspire.
I wonder, what comes up for you as you read Collins’ Level 5 Hierarchy above?