The following contains excerpts from the book, From Good to Great (Jim Collins).
In our music school in Odessa, Texas, we believe that incremental daily progress, regardless how small that progress is, will ultimately lead to success. Focusing on daily results, over time, will compound into significant progress, and we encourage students to take a disciplined mindset towards their assessment of this growth each day.
This book shows how to take the steps from being an average company to being a great one. The principles in this book can also be indirectly applied to one’s own life. Asking tough questions to discern what to do in life or business is important, but asking what not to do is shown to be equally as important.
The author begins his first chapter with the familiar colloquial proverb, ‘Good is the enemy of great.’
In determining what to look for, the author writes, “The crucial question in our study is not, What did the good-to-great companies share in common? Rather, the crucial question is, What did the good-to-great companies share in common that distinguished them from the comparison companies?”
At the outset of the book, the author shows that the right kind of leadership was at the helm of every good-to-great company.
We teach students in our music school in Odessa, Texas that the first rule of understanding leadership is lead one’s self well. This equates to self-discipline.
“In our study, what we didn’t find…larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside…Ten of eleven good-to-great CEOs came from inside the company…The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great…paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment…were not, by and large, in great industries.”
Level 5 leaders were always at the top of good-to-great companies, seen with the following common personal character traits. “Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy- these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.”
“The good-to-great executives were all cut from the same cloth. It didn’t matter whether the company was consumer or industrial, in crisis or steady state, offered services or products. It didn’t matter when the transition took place or how big the company. All the good-to-great companies had Level 5 leadership at the time of transition…are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.”
These are characteristics we endeavor to instill in students in our music school in Odessa, Texas.
We believe these qualities, especially when instilled early, can be attained through careful training and discipline of thought and action.
The comparison leaders of unsuccessful companies were “more concerned with their own reputation for personal greatness…Some had the ‘biggest dog’ syndrome- they didn’t mind other dogs in the kennel, as long as they remained the biggest one.”
“In contrast to the very I-centric style of the comparison leaders, we were struck by how the good-to-great leaders didn’t talk about themselves…It wasn’t just false modesty. Those who worked with or wrote about the good-to-great leaders continually used words like quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe his own clippings.”
“The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.”
“I believe…potential Level 5 leaders are highly prevalent in our society…They exist all around us, if we just know what to look for…Look for situations where extraordinary results exist but where no individual steps forth to claim excess credit. You will likely find a potential Level 5 leader at work.”
The overarching concepts explored in the book are as follows:
- First Who…Then What. “We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats- and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage “People are your most important asset” turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”
“The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, ‘Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we 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.’”
“The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great…if you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction; you still won’t have a great company.”
“Those that build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.”
Practically speaking, “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. The best people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led- yes. But not managed.”
The expectation we have our students in our music school in Odessa, Texas is that they are self-motivated, self-starting, and self-directing. Our goal, even if they do not start there, is to help each student arrive at a place of autonomy.
“Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people…waiting too long before acting is equally unfair to the people who need to get off the bus.”
“Instead of firing honest and able people who are not performing well, it is important to try to move them once or even two or three times to other positions where they might blossom.”
Always make sure to, “Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.”
“What’s the difference between a Level 5 executive team member and just being a good soldier? A Level 5 executive team member does not blindly acquiesce to authority and is a strong leader in her own right, so driven and talented that she builds her arena into one of the very best in the world. Yet each team member must also have the ability to meld that strength into doing whatever it takes to make the company great…you need executives, on the one hand, who argue and debate- sometimes violently- in pursuit of the best answers, yet, on the other hand, who unify fully behind a decision.”
In our music school in Odessa, Texas, we encourage independent thought. We believe that students who have, and are free to express, their own artistic decisions will ultimately grow to become successful artists and leaders in the communities they serve.
Good-to-great company employees develop strong personal ties to the people of the company. One such testimony was from an interview with Dick Appert of Kimberly-Clark, “I never had anyone in Kimberly-Clark in all my forty-one years say anything unkind to me. I thank God the day I was hired because I’ve been associated with wonderful people. Good, good people who respected and admired one another.”
“Members of the good-to-great teams tended to become and remain friends for life. In many cases, they are still in close contact with each other years or decades after working together…if we don’t spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life…people we interviewed clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.”
One of the foundational tenets we hold in our music school in Odessa, Texas is that music is much more than sound, rather, it is relationships. The value of making music together in community cannot be overstated. This activity extends beyond music, as well, to learning how to work alongside others in successful community.