Level 5 Leadership - what does it mean for non-profits?
"...enterprises that prevail in turbulence self-impose a rigorous performance mark to hit with great consistency—like hiking across the United States by marching at least 20 miles a day, every day...The 20 Mile March works only if you actually hit your march year after year." [https://www.jimcollins.com/]
This blog is my 20 Mile March: by writing and reading every week I hope to find solutions to problems in my day-to-day work. The focus of recent posts has been Theory of Change, which led me to re-visit the work of business thought leader and prolific writer Jim Collins - he of the quote above.
In this post I will focus on the second of his challenges to those working in the Social Sectors: what does Level 5 Leadership look like in a diffuse power structure?
Before we get into the detail, it is worth outlining what Collins means by Level 5 Leadership. Level 5 leaders are those Collins and his team found more often than not at the helm of the top companies that went from 'Good to Great' in his seminal work of the same name. By trawling through interviews of these CEOs, Founders and Directors, he unearthed common threads of two intertwined characteristics: personal humility and professional will. Such leaders were not in it for themselves, but for the greater mission: they often appeared humble, perhaps surprisingly introverted and thoughtful, but they pursued their mission with an unusual will and tenacity.
"...true leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to."
This Level 5 leader stands in opposition to the extroverted, charismatic leader who leads a company through the sheer strength of their own character. Such leaders may provide vision and motivate through charisma, but often towards short term 'wins' and accolades, rather than the over-arching mission or long term goal. In the research, it was those companies led by Level 5 leaders that endured well beyond the tenure of the leader. These leaders were obsessed with creating companies that were built to last - making much more impact on their 'BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goal'.
For those aspiring to Senior Leadership in schools, Collins' hierarchy provides a useful framework - think of the ECT striving to be a highly capable practitioner, then increasingly contributing to the department, through to those taking on middle management roles and upwards to Senior Roles providing the vision and motivation for a large team. Level 5 Leadership sits at the top of the pyramid, pointing to a longer term mission, or what Simon Sinek has called an 'Infinite Game': https://youtu.be/Rh6XLrMK-hg . The infinite game in schools is towards upholding those 'persistent characteristics' of the institution to pass on to future custodians.
So what are the differences between non-profits and business?: in particular, Collins describes a diffuse power structure as a more prevalent feature in the third sector:
"When you add in... any number of internal factors, most non-business leaders simply do not have the concentrated decision power of a business CEO...this is why some business executives fail when they move into the social sectors."
This is where we recognise a school or charity leader as a navigator of a more legislative power system than that of a traditional executive. Collins makes the following distinction between executive and legislative leadership skills:
"Legislative leadership relies more on persuasion, political currency, and shared interests to create the conditions for the right decisions to happen."
Crucially,
"Level 5 Leadership is not about being soft or nice or purely inclusive or consensus building. The whole point is to make sure the right decisions happen - no matter how difficult it painful - for the long term greatness of the institution and the achievement of its mission, independent of consensus or popularity."
Furthermore, there is evidence that the old-style executive leader is a dying breed in business. As external factors increasingly necessitate a more holistic, outward-looking approach, even billionaire leaders of the world's biggest tech companies are beginning to feel the squeeze of their duties to the wider community. Collins notes this drift away from businesses exercising the pure power they once did. They must now operate within a broader context of environmental concerns, cost of living pressures of employees / customers, a move towards hybrid-working, and so the list goes on... It is within this broader context that the Level 5 leader will emerge, inspiring their teams to remain true to their mission and leaving an institution that will outlast all working within it. No easy task.
Book
Collins, J. Good to Great and the Social Sectors. 2006. Random House
Podcasts
Jim Collins on the Tim Ferriss podcast, 'a rare interview with a reclusive polymath':
https://tim.blog/2019/02/18/jim-collins/
Juliet Corbett on Service and Leadership
https://www.consultjuliet.co.uk/post/111-service-and-leadership
Links
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