Another Example of Why Leadership Can Be Learned: Level 5 Leadership

Are you that shy, awkward, and non-egotistical individual? Maybe you’re somebody who has great ideas, hidden leadership skills, a great vision but just isn't outspoken enough? Maybe you’re the type of person who believes that you have the leadership skills to be great leaders but it just hasn’t been revealed yet? Well here’s where my belief for the way everyone can be a leader is supported.

Level 5 Leadership is a concept developed in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. It was a study that began with 1,435 Fortune 500 companies from 1965 to 1995. There were 11 companies that had Level 5 Leaders as CEOs who guided their organizations from mediocrity to greatness and built these companies to succeed even after they were gone. These 11 companies averaged general stock returns 6.9 times greater than the general stock market after the Level 5 Leader was named CEO. Now Collins claims that this is an empirical study not an ideological one even though some of the qualities of Leader 5 Leaders are qualitative. He beats home that each one of the 11 Level 5 Leaders out of the 1,435 companies studied had identical qualities and passed every test.

Level 5 Leaders are the executives who blend genuine personal humility with intense professional will. The general assumption is that CEOS should be charismatic and larger than life figures, but Collins blew this idea out of the water. He uses various examples in the “Level 5 Leadership” chapter of Good to Great from Kimberly-Clark, Abbott Laboratories, Gillette, Upjohn, Scott Paper, Rubbermaid, and Walgreens. Now keep in mind that there are four other levels of the leadership hierarchy according to Collins. However, only the Level 5 Leaders are the executives who took their companies from good to great and helped their companies sustain greatness. Level 5 Leaders are at the top of the pyramid, which is the skinniest part, because it is the hardest type of leader to be – which means there is the least of them in this world. The other four levels of the hierarchy can produce high degrees of success but not enough to elevate companies from mediocrity to sustained excellence. Level 5 Leaders channel their egos away from themselves and put the greater needs of the company ahead of their personal needs and interests. Their ambition is first and foremost for the institution instead of themselves.

Collins explains that the personality traits of Level 5 Leaders are “counterintuitive” to what people would expect and in fact people like Darwin Smith of Kimberly-Clark was awkward, shy, modest, shunned attention, dressed unfashionably, and even described himself as eccentric. However, the most important quality that these Level 5 Leaders did have is that they all had this fierce outlook toward life and a fanatic drive to produce results. Abraham Lincoln shared these same qualities – shy and awkward yet he challenged the South because he envisioned greater possibilities for the United States. He could have easily sat back and enjoyed eight years as President but instead he was driven to pursue excellence.

The good to great Level 5 Leaders did not talk about themselves and were humble. Collins explained that this quality was “Looking out of the Window and in the Mirror.” When things were good the Level 5 Leaders praised the people who surrounded them and when things weren’t good they looked in the mirror and blamed themselves. Collins also discovered that Level 5 Leaders came from inside the company. Many boards of directors often choose the high profile, larger than life, and charismatic individual to become CEO of their company thinking that these qualities are what produce success. However, Collins explains that these qualities are not true.

Now what you’re all trying to run through your head is am I a Level 5 Leader? Some of you may share some of these same personal characteristics, but it is hard to be a Level 5 Leader. Collins discusses that some people naturally have this seed, but he also writes that some people have this quality and it just isn’t cultivated yet. “With self-reflection, conscious personal development, a mentor, a great teacher, loving parents, and/or a significant life experience people can develop it.” I think that Collins is right, because people can learn to be this way. People can learn to be humble and people can develop a strong work ethic. It’s a personal decision that can easily be made, but are you willing to be that way? You don’t necessarily need to be shy nor do you need to be aggressive, nor do you need to be outspoken or quiet, but everyone can be modest and hard working. It is undoubtedly difficult to achieve and that’s why there aren’t many Level 5 Leaders.

The big question left unanswered during class was whether Level 5 Leadership is only pertinent to business. Collins used stock to evaluate success, but how do we measure success in politics? How do we measure success in sports...wins? How do Presidents of colleges measure success...endowment size, graduation rate, percent of students who get jobs the first year out of college, the percent of graduates who get into graduate schools? Can the Pope be a Level 5 Leader? Can the CEOs of investment banks be Level 5 Leaders when the financial industry is so volatile?

Level 5 Leadership is all around us. People just can’t identify it because there are extraordinary results being produced at this moment, but nobody knows about it since nobody is taking credit for it – the person behind that success is looking out through the window.

Good stuff,

Joey

The Big Believer

We were lucky enough to have Wesleyan’s new head football coach Mike Whalen in to speak to the class. When I ask these guest speakers to come in I tell them that it’s an open forum; to come in and speak on whatever you’d like, whatever you view leadership is. It’s amazing how people define it differently and the varying methods they employ. Everyone is different and people have their own values, morals, and convictions, but most importantly they’ve been influenced by leaders in their own lives. Where did they learn their mode of leadership from and how did they become the leaders they are today?

This is what Coach Whalen offered to class when he spoke before Spring break. He talked about where he came from, how he got into coaching, and the way he fell in love with the profession. What was so inspiring about the talk was his love for coaching in the NESCAC. As he moved through the college coaching carousel from Wesleyan to Springfield to UPenn to Lafayette to Colgate, he thought he would eventually be the head football coach at a Division I institution. Things diverge and plans change, families develop and the light speeds at which changes happen now slow down for what is more important in life. This is what makes Coach Whalen such a great person, not just a football coach. He’s down to earth and loves the fact that he is able to have the opportunity to coach at the Division III level in the NESCAC where he is viewed not only as a coach but also a faculty member. In fact, speaking to a group of students is a perfect example of that. Coach stated that some of the best teaching goes on between 4:30 and 6:30 PM out on the practice field. Sports allow people to be in the moment during overwhelming victories and succumb to a knee during crushing defeats. He quoted former Williams football coach Dick Farley and how Farley put this idea in perspective after a loss: “If something today is one of the worst things in your life, you’re going to live a very long life.” Sports teaches people that defeats are not the end of the world, how these negative experiences can become a positive in a person’s life, and how being a student-athlete is such a unique experience. Coaching in Division III has allowed Coach Whalen to be around his family while influencing the lives of thousands of student-athletes. He didn’t chase the millions of dollars to be the head coach at Notre Dame and instead put what is more important ahead of his personal goals. Many times in life you don’t hear about these types of people, because everybody wants to hear about the larger than life stories out there. Luckily, as a member of the football team I did have the chance.

Coach Whalen brought in an article from Jeff Janssen, a guest speaker who came to Williams a few years ago. Coach Whalen mentioned various anecdotes from his experiences as a coach that touched on what Janssen wrote about in The Team Captain's Leadership Manuel. Coach explained that leadership is a responsibility. Leadership isn’t about you the individual but instead the group. What Coach Whalen said drives him as a coach and teacher is the satisfaction from helping others succeed – and that goes for the All-Conference player and the person who sat the bench but who he helped get his first job.

Coach mentioned that there is risk in being a team leader. This means that leaders are constantly watched and that it’s a 24 hour job. He talked about a former player who was selected as a captain, was a great player on the field, but not necessarily the best individual off of it. Coach could not let this person be a captain unless he cleaned up his act. The player in fact did not take on the responsibility of captainship at first because he did not even believe in himself. However, the person did end up cleaning himself up because of the way Coach influenced him when the opportunity to lead the team arose.

Finally, what I was most interested in was the method Coach Whalen employed with the rest of the coaching staff to revolutionize the Wesleyan football program. Wesleyan has a long standing tradition of football, but in recent years the program has fell behind the rest. Coach Whalen and President Roth’s ultimate goal is to take the football program from mediocre to great. It’s this Pursuit of Excellence idea that both Whalen and Roth had in mind. Whalen emphasized that Wesleyan can’t expect to have excellence in the sciences but then get their butts beat on Saturdays. There needs to be excellence in everything Wesleyan does. This is their vision and the man to carry that out is Coach Whalen. It means finding the right people and surrounding the football program with individuals who share the same values and beliefs as you do. It also means having 75 players where football and school is important to them – almost equally.

Coach Whalen left a pretty good situation at Williams to revive a moribund program in Middletown. He even acknowledges the people who call him crazy, but a few of the characteristics that make great leaders are the people who are willing to take risk and who aren’t afraid of failure. Coach has done just that.

Beautiful things for the Tech.

Wesleyan Argus Feature Article

Great feature in the Wesleyan Argus before Spring Break by Isabel Rouse '14. Loved the positive press:
(http://wesleyanargus.com/2011/03/01/cciv-420-02-leading-the-way/)

There are some who believe that leaders are born, not made, but Joseph Giaimo ’11 would argue otherwise. One of Giaimo’s goals in his student forum “CCIV420-02: Leadership, Mentoring, and Coaching” is to help his 14 fellow students start that journey to finding their inner leader.
“I kind of call the course ‘Strategies of Leadership’ as well,” Giaimo said. “My preliminary, rough thesis is that some of the best leaders are the people who are willing to learn certain traits and learn from positive and negative experiences, but be themselves while doing that. I wanted it to be an inspiring journey for my students to find their inner leader, whether you have or do not have it already. A lot of the kids haven’t already experienced it. Some of these kids have been leaders already, but they still can’t define it.”
The forum isn’t meant to be a self-help course. On the contrary, Giaimo has formulated a syllabus with scholarly articles, guest speakers, and a general goal to learn about leadership in an academic format.

“I started thinking about it last year during the spring,” Giaimo said. “It was originally inspired by some negative experience that I’ve had with coaches, and I started thinking about what I envisioned as leadership. I read some John Wooden [former coach of UCLA basketball and motivational speaker] books over the summer, and he became kind of an inspiration. Over the fall I really started developing ideas for it, and started a syllabus. I was also a little inspired by [Professor of Government] Elvin Lim, for the way he taught and inspired his own students. One thing I took from him is to dress up for class, because that’s what he did, and he looked so sharp and professional.”
The format of Giaimo’s forum is much like many other humanities classes. He lectures for the first part of it, with slides and prepared questions, and then has his students ask their own questions. Todd Keats ’11 described the class as very open and dynamic.
It's always exciting Keats said. We’ll go over the reading we had for homework and then move on to some new material that Joe or one of the students wanted to show. Class is very open and Joe doesn’t mind talking about current events or something a student wants to bring up. He is extremely professional, yet willing to share his own experiences, which really help direct class discussions. We use a lot of personal anecdotes to discuss the idea of leadership and how we can better implement our own leadership tactics in real life.
Giaimo believes that everyone has something to add to the idea of being a leader.
“I try to relate different people’s experiences and intertwine them into the lecture – which is beautiful in its own way,” Giaimo said.
Originally, Giaimo had planned to make his forum a more practical, applied class, but his first proposal got denied.
“I had to revise it. It was deemed too much of a business management class, and I had to make it more ‘liberal artsy.’ I got more journal articles—something that you’d read in other classes— and what I’ve tried to explain is that there’s no real formula to leadership. It’s not a perfect science, and what makes this class more theoretical is that you’re probing for answers, raising questions. For example, the big questions that came up last class were based on the article “Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership” by Kouzes and Posner. They argue leadership isn’t innate. It’s a learnable and observable set of practices, incorporating things into your own life, but you have to be yourself. That’s the tricky part—which is why there are more followers in this world than leaders.”
Giaimo and his forum have already tried to define leadership, and interpret it in different contexts. They have studied diverse leadership figures—from politicians like Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, to coaches like Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan.
“Last class, we talked about how a leader is a renegade, because you aren’t afraid of taking risks, of failing, of going above and beyond,” Giaimo said. “However, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no right or wrong answer, and that’s what I’ve pulled from a lot of my classes here.”
Many of his students agreed with Giaimo. There was a consensus that one of the most important lessons they’ve learned so far is both the diversity of leadership styles, and also the appearance of similar qualities among different types of leaders.

“The most interesting thing has been that all of our readings have, in some way, hit on the same themes,” said Jonathan Sheehan ’11, a student in the forum. “Treating those under you with respect, getting those you lead on board, and leading by example.”
Peter Taylor ’12 agreed with Sheehan, adding that, even though this class was based in the theoretical, he has found a lot of practical applications for it as well.
“I signed up for the forum because this class teaches you material that you can directly use in the future,” wrote Taylor in an email to The Argus. “Understanding leadership and how to exhibit those skills is an important asset to have in life both during and after school.”
So far, Giaimo has indeed tried to combine both the academic side of leadership with applied, real-life experiences. Sometimes Giaimo will bring in media clips to supplement the diverse readings that range from “Reflections From On and Off the Court,” by former NCAA Basketball Coach John Wooden, and "Good to Great” by Jim Collins, a book on business leadership. Giaimo has had baseball coach and Wesleyan Alum Mark Woodworth guest lecture, and next up is football coach Mike Whalen. He has also booked President Michael Roth in the upcoming weeks, and Lim for future classes, now that they are moving into historical discussions of dictators as leaders.
“Joe is incredibly prepared,” Sheehan said. He always has links ready on his power point. Everything we talk about is relevant, and he is great at keeping everyone engaged.
Taylor explained how the forum’s open discussions have created a great class dynamic.
“This class has more than met my expectations,” wrote Taylor. “I’ve had a great time and learned a lot thus far. What has surprised me is Joey’s ability to lecture and keep all of us engaged. It’s very difficult to do this, especially without prior experience, and I’ve been very impressed. Overall the class is one of those rare classes that you look forward to going to.”
Giaimo hasn’t limited his work to the classroom, however. He also keeps a blog called “Strategies of Leadership” (which can be found at www.leadershipatwesleyanu.blogspot.com). He posts at least once a week, on either things he’s found on the internet that relate to the class, or simply relaying what they went over in class that day.
“I’ve been getting a lot of viewership on my blog,” Giaimo said. “I’ve sent it to some teachers, and it’s on Facebook as well. With my blog I’ve been able to reach even more people.”
His latest post was entitled “Learning to Lead,” and although it touched on much of what they covered in their last class, Giaimo also brought in some personal experiences. He demonstrated how what he has learned in class can be applied in real life, and often mentioned one anecdote or another to merge the theoretical with the practical. Sometimes he will post videos, such as President Barack Obama’s speech, or a clip of a coach. He’s had guest posters, as well, such as Tom Salah ’12, who is not enrolled in the class but has taken much of Giaimo’s lessons to heart.
“This world is full of personalities, and great leaders are the ones who can adopt those different ways to make their players perform at the highest level,” Salah wrote on Feb. 7.
It hasn’t been an easy road, but Giaimo believes he is having the experience of a lifetime. Although he thinks he is learning just as much as his students, it is clear that Giaimo himself is one of the leaders that he lectures about. He has managed to inspire an entire class to pay attention to his lectures and engage in weekly three-hour discussions—no mean feat for a student the same age as his peers.
“I have a newfound appreciation for what teachers and professors do when I think about how hard it is to get through to kids and really inspire them,” Giaimo said. “Now when I’m in class, I speak up more often than I ever have. I’ve been surprised about how hard teaching is. But I love connecting with my students, and even if a lot of them are my friends, they kind of respect me when I’m up there. It’s been an awesome experience having Wesleyan award me this opportunity. I was so honored, and then to be able to lead a class and try to inspire others. It’s what a teacher does, and that’s what I’m doing.”