The research revealed an unexpected finding: the leaders who presided over the good-to-great transformations were not the high-profile, celebrity executives typically celebrated in the business press. Instead, they exhibited a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional willâwhat Collins calls Level 5 Leadership.
When the research began, Collins explicitly told his team to downplay the role of leadership. He didnât want another book about charismatic leaders. But the data forced an unexpected conclusion: leadership mattered enormouslyâjust not the kind of leadership they expected.
âLevel 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. Itâs not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitiousâbut their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.â â Jim Collins
Collins developed a hierarchy of leadership capabilities, with Level 5 at the apex:
Level 5: Level 5 Executive â Builds enduring greatness through personal humility + professional will
Level 4: Effective Leader â Catalyzes commitment to a compelling vision; stimulates high performance
Level 3: Competent Manager â Organizes people and resources toward effective pursuit of objectives
Level 2: Contributing Team Member â Contributes individual capabilities; works well in groups
Level 1: Highly Capable Individual â Productive through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits
Level 5 is not simply an addition to the other four levelsâit represents a qualitative shift. Level 5 leaders possess all the capabilities of the lower levels but channel them in a unique way.
Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical combination of seemingly contradictory traits:
Personal Humility:
Professional Will:
Collins observed a distinctive pattern in how Level 5 leaders attributed success and failure:
When things go well: Level 5 leaders look out the window to find and give credit to factors outside themselvesâother people, good fortune, or external circumstances.
When things go poorly: They look in the mirror and take responsibility, never blaming bad luck or other people.
Comparison company executives did the oppositeâthey looked in the mirror to take credit for success and out the window to assign blame for failure.
Darwin Smith, CEO of Kimberly-Clark from 1971 to 1991, exemplifies Level 5 leadership. When he took over, Kimberly-Clark was a stodgy paper company. He made the bold decision to sell the mills and compete directly against Procter & Gamble in consumer paper products.
Collins addresses whether Level 5 leadership can be learned or if itâs an innate trait. While the research canât definitively answer this, it suggests that some combination of nature and nurture is at work.
Two categories of people might develop Level 5 capabilities:
Those with the seed: People who have the capability latent within them, which can be cultivated under the right circumstances
Those shaped by experience: People who develop humility through significant life experiencesânear-death experiences, crises, mentors, or great teachers
In contrast, many comparison company leaders displayed the opposite traits: personal ego-driven ambition, blame-shifting when things went wrong, and a focus on their own reputation over company success. Some were genuinely talented, but their focus on themselves rather than the institution prevented sustained greatness.