Put Simply:
Business Management principles can work great in the home if you apply them in tune with your family needs and a bit of common sense. Beware though, your family members are not your employees.
Level 5 Leadership as a Concept
In the classic business and management volume “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t” By Jim Collins, Jim discusses the concept of Level 5 Leadership as the first step towards creating a GREAT company. “Greatness" is defined by Collins as a company that achieves financial performance several multiples better than the market average, over a sustained period 1 Not only is Level 5 Leaders the first item in his model for a great company but it’s arguably the most universal principle in the book. So, what is a Level 5 Leader and how can it be applied in your home?
Good to Great Model for Success
Attributes of a Level 5 Leader:
Level 5 Leaders are people with a specific combination of what Collins dubbed “extreme personal humility” and “intense professional will.” These people are a study in duality and contradictions. They are both modest and willful. They are humble and confident. They're incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves. It’s this point; I think which is most overlooked and undervalued at home for Dads today but before diving into home life, let’s look in more detail at some of the attributes Collins describes for being a Level 5 Leader
A Level 5 Leader has Personal Humility:
Never being boastful or welcoming of public praise
Working with calm determination
Emphasizing a standard of excellence over your ability to inspire through charisma
Using your personal ambition to make the company greater, rather than making yourself successful
Looking to yourself when things go wrong instead of to others, external factors, or bad luck
self effacing, reserved, shy
A Level 5 Leader shows Professional Will:
Ferocious resolve, stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done for long term success
Setting Successors up for Success
Cuts against the grain of conventional leadership
Looks to others, good luck or external factors and not in the mirror, when giving credit for success and progress
A Level 5 Dad
Ok, so now we know what the basics of Level 5 Leadership entails. It’s the cornerstone of Jim Collin’s larger model for accelerating an organization from mediocre to elite status. Ok, that’s nice. Bully for Kimberly Clark and Paper Towel manufacturers everywhere but so what? How does this apply at home? Surely, one is not going to start corporatizing home life, right? KPIs for the wife are not a smart idea, I can tell you that. Firing the bottom 10% performing kids from the family is probably not going to work out well either. (There’s an argument it’s not effective in the office either but that’s for another post).
“Greatness" is defined by Collins here, as a company family that achieves financial performance several multiples better than the market average, a happy, loving, stable home life over a sustained period.
Let’s take some of the points mentioned earlier and mark up some real world home life equivalents. Everyone will have different examples and use cases but the core idea will become clear.
A Level 5 Dad has Personal Humility:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together— African Proverb
Never being
boastfularrogant orwelcoming of public praiseflirty outside your home or with other womenWorking with calm determination
Emphasizing a standard of excellence over your ability to inspire through charisma.
Using your personal ambition to make the
companyfamily greater, rather than making yourself successfulI want to eat right, exercise more and balance my time wisely….to set a trend and good example for the family without lecturing or creating strict rules.
Looking to yourself when things go wrong instead of to others, external factors, or bad luck
I forgot X at the grocery store. I should write it down next time and I should go back and grab it if I promised it.
Self effacing, reserved, shy
In years where I make more money, I never raise that point when arguing with my wife.
In years where my wife makes more money, I am nothing but supportive and a cheerleader for her hard work.
A Level 5 Dad shows Professional Family Will:
Ferocious resolve, stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done for long term success
Choosing your kid’s dance recital to show support over going out for drinks with the professional contact in town
Setting Successors up for Success
The kids are ready and on time for school even if it makes me 10 minutes late for the next thing
Cuts against the grain of conventional
leadershipmasculinityBeing Don Draper leaving the kids for Mom to deal with is not a thing.
Looks to others, good luck or external factors and not in the mirror, when giving credit for success and progress
I think you can see the point. These are the type of attitudes and approaches I think really makes a difference in the long run and lead to great family life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_to_Great