For leaders – Summary of Jim Collins presentation on 8/5/10 at the Global Leadership Summit
By John Ruh
I heard Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, Built to Last and How the Mighty Fall speak at the Global Leadership Summit. He was outstanding. He discussed some of his business beliefs including the 5 stages of a company’s decline and the characteristics of teams on the way up. Here is a brief summary (my interpretation) and additional resources if you are interested.
Theme
Never, ever give up.
My observations of him
He is a great public speaker, very passionate and analytical. He deeply understands the importance of vision, commitment and responsibility and how one’s mission and core values are a key to long term success.
Highlights
- Greatness is a conscious choice and you need discipline to get there.
- Greatness is a process not an event.
- Don’t confuse faith and facts (face the truth).
- Leaders…it not about them.
- A 5 star leader’s #1 characteristic is humility.
- He believes leaders never give up (This can be confusing because he also believes in continuous improvement and changing tactics as necessary.)
- He described the 5 stages of self inflicted decline that a company can go through.
- You may look to outsiders as if your company is very healthy while being in denial that internally, things are not right. (He gave a great analogy on this.)
- In his book, Build to Last…all 18 companies he studied in 1989 are still here and are solid. Why? They have a reason to endure. They know why they are doing things beyond just making money. They are driven by purpose and mission and are rooted in core values.
Teams on way up (6 characteristics)
The key is that all 6 characteristics involved the team (vs. the individual), candor (including bringing forth unpleasant facts) and the importance of team unity once a decision is made. He suggests the leader use a Socratic style (questioning rather than making declaratives), push people for penetrating insights and do “autopsies without blame,” which is gaining wisdom from painful experiences.
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