level 5 leadership case study

• Admissions & Aid
• Life at Lesley

Search form (GSE) 1

The fundamentals of level 5 leadership.

Explore Jim Collins’s classification of leaders and what differentiates a Level 5 leader from the rest of the pack.

What Is Level 5 Leadership?

Companies that seek an enduring presence in the marketplace require extraordinary individuals to lead the way. These people, who business researcher Jim Collins dubs “Level 5” leaders, represent a unique combination of executive capabilities, something that allows them to ensure their organizations become the best at what they do.

The concept of Level 5 leadership is unique because it is based on empirical evidence. Over a five-year period, Collins conducted a research project to discover what distinguished so-called “good” companies from “great” ones. “Great” companies, he explained, were defined as those that made at least three extraordinary jumps in stock returns over a period of 15 years, independent of their industries. By comparing data from more than 1,435 organizations, he found that only 11 companies fit these criteria. One of the key reasons was leadership. In the end, Collins realized that each of the 11 notable companies had leaders with a specific combination of what he dubbed “extreme personal humility” and “intense professional will.”

Classification of Leaders

Collins’s discovery was based on a hierarchy of capabilities and traits discovered during his study.

Highly capable individuals are regular workers who are talented, knowledgeable, and skilled. They are effective in the workplace.

Contributing team members are good at working with others and are notably proficient at helping their groups reach objectives.

Competent managers can effectively oversee people and resources, helping to achieve predetermined goals.

Effective leaders can steer their companies toward well-defined, compelling goals. They also keep their organizations functioning at high levels of performance.

Executives have the unique capability to develop a company’s greatness through what Collins identifies as “a paradoxical combination of personal humility plus professional will.”

The Hierarchy

An illustrated version of Collins's classification of leaders.

What Else Makes a Company Great?

Collins discovered that truly remarkable companies are defined by aspects other than leadership. However, it is the responsibility of Level 5 executives to understand these elements and master them effectively.

Level 5 leaders understand the importance of putting people first and strategy second. This means finding the right people for the organization, getting rid of the wrong ones, and putting employees in the appropriate positions, all before addressing business tactics.

Stockdale Paradox

This element is named after Admiral James Stockdale, a POW during the Vietnam War who expressed a notably contradictory belief system. To survive, he told himself, “Life couldn’t be worse at the moment, and his life would someday be better than ever.” In business, this translates to accepting difficult realities of a business’s current condition, while believing that the organization will one day rise above them.

Buildup-Breakthrough Flywheel

Collins refers to the building of a great company as a metaphorical “flywheel.” Truly great organizations gradually build up momentum until a “breakthrough” moment where overwhelming success clicks into place. This element is defined by a company’s commitment to a slow and steady build.

The Hedgehog Concept

Derived from an essay by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin , the “hedgehog concept” refers to a comparison between the abilities of a hedgehog and a fox. In the essay, foxes are characterized as knowing a little about a lot of subjects, while hedgehogs know a lot about a single thing. Collins believes businesses that act like hedgehogs are more likely to achieve greatness. Hedgehog behavior means understanding three things:

• What a company is capable of being best at
• How its economics can work most effectively
• What best makes its people passionate

Focusing on these three factors, Collins explains, eliminates unnecessary and unprofitable efforts elsewhere.

Technology Accelerators

Great companies have a particular relationship with technology. On the one hand, they refrain from using technology simply because it’s trendy or cutting edge. However, they do make investments in technologies that help contribute to its mission. These decisions are made with a careful and discerning eye.

A Culture of Discipline

Collins believes great companies exhibit remarkable discipline in three areas: people, thought and action. Disciplined people, he explains, eliminate the need for hierarchy. Disciplined thought removes bureaucracy. And disciplined action eliminates the need for excessive control. Together, all three result in extraordinary business performance.

Gaining mastery and understanding in these areas isn’t quite enough, however. Level 5 leaders must also be cautious of pitfalls.

When Things Go Wrong

Even when the factors of success fall into place, Level 5 leaders must remain constantly vigilant. No company is invulnerable. Circuit City is a prime example of what can happen when a successful business becomes lax. One of Collins’s original 11 “great” companies, the electronics giant went out of business in 2009, directly impacting more than 250,000 people. Documentarian Tom Wulf identifies three causes of Circuit City’s remarkable downfall.

Overconfidence and Complacency

Wulf describes how Circuit City’s leaders, steering a company with the No. 1 performing stock on the New York Stock Exchange, failed to watch the progress of their competitors. Before long, Circuit City’s annual revenue was surpassed by its rivals.

Poor Decision-Making Processes

When faced with the reality of becoming No. 2 in their industry, company leaders tried to compensate through several untested initiatives. Doing so resulted in poor changes to their store layouts, the elimination of their highly successful employee training program and outsourcing of many operational processes. All of these factors contributed to additional falling revenue.

Favoring Stakeholders Over Customers and Associates

As revenue declined, the value of the company’s stocks followed. This resulted in pressure from stockholders for the company to buy back $920 million worth of stock. Company leaders did so, thus disregarding an opportunity to use that money to reinvest in operations.

These failings illustrate a certain combination of hubris and timidity that Level 5 leaders notably lack. On Collins’s leadership scale, executives at Circuit City were perhaps at Level 4. To reach Level 5 would have meant innately having — or else acquiring — certain crucial personal characteristics, attitudes and decision-making processes.

Level 4 vs. Level 5

So how does one get from Level 4 to Level 5? Doing so isn’t easy. As mentioned previously, Level 5 leaders possess a certain distinct combination of professional will and personal humility.

Professional will means:

• Doing what must be done, no matter how difficult
• Giving credit for your company’s success to others, to external factors, and to good luck, instead of your own actions
• Generating excellence in a company’s outcomes
• Taking actions to ensure the company will endure beyond your tenure

Personal humility means:

• 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

Essentially, Collins explains , Level 4 and Level 5 leaders are distinguished by what they choose to do with their ambitions and talent. While Level 4 leaders may run successful companies, they tend to do so in an egotistical, self-fulfilling manner. On the other hand, Level 5 leaders run their companies in the spirit of service. While one fails to prepare the company for success after his or her departure, the other takes great care in doing so.

Although reaching Level 5 leadership is a challenge, it is not without reward. Individuals who reach Level 5 leadership in their careers are compensated with tremendous responsibility, respect, and perhaps best of all, a legacy of extraordinary influence on their companies.

Additional sources: Good to Great , Strategy + Business

Becoming Great

The path to great leadership begins with an exceptional degree. At Lesley University, our bachelor's degree programs in Business Management train students with a multidimensional approach to solving today’s business issues in a global economy. And, current Lesley undergraduate students in any major can continue their studies to earn an accelerated Master of Business Administration , all online.

Related Articles & Stories

Read more about our students, faculty and alumni.

The Power of Company Core Values

Startups in Boston

Cayton fitzgerald talks figure skating & olympics.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Watch the latest explainer videos, case study discussions, and whiteboard sessions, featuring ideas and practical advice for leaders.

Lorem ipsum test link amet consectetur a

Level 5 Leadership

In this article:

Level 5 Leadership is a concept developed by Jim Collins in his classic business book, Good to Great.

From the 1,435 companies, just eleven were found that had gone from good to great. The question the book tries to answer is what made these eleven companies successful?

Good to Great

In every Good to Great company that Collins studied, he found that they all had the same type of leader. He named this type of leadership Level 5 Leadership.

The concept is so fundamental to transforming a company from good to great that it is the first concept introduced in the book.

Let’s examine each level of leadership, starting with the lowest level of leadership, the Highly Capable Individual.

Level 1 Leadership: Highly Capable Individual

They are good at what they do and they contribute by doing a good job.

Level 2 Leadership: Contributing Team Member

The next level of leadership is Contributing Team Member. These are people who are able to use their skills and knowledge to help their team succeed.

Level 3 Leadership: Competent Manager

The third level of leadership is Competent Manager. These are managers capable of organizing their team to efficiently reach pre-determined objectives.

They contribute to the success of the organization by driving their team hard, but they do not determine the team’s objectives.

Level 4 Leadership: Effective Leader

They are able to create a commitment to pursue a clear and compelling vision. They’re also able to create a high-performing team.

They contribute by inspiring their team so that the team wants to achieve their vision of the future.

Level 5 Leadership: Great Leader

Note that you don’t need to move sequentially through the other four levels to become a Level 5 Leader. Level 5 Leaders have the abilities of the other four levels plus a unique combination of being strong-willed yet humble. It is this combination of will and humility that makes them great. It also sets them apart from all the other levels of leadership.

Level 5 Leadership Definition

How to become a level 5 leader, 1. develop your humility.

It’s good to be ambitious. But it’s better to be ambitious yet humble.

Tools which can help you understand the importance of humility include:

2. Develop Loyal Followers

3. recruit from within.

Level 5 Leaders recruit from within. It’s difficult to find Level 5 Leaders from outside the organization – they tend to be Level 4 Leaders – people who shout about their own successes. Level 5 Leaders typically reach their position through quiet, hard work.

4. Develop your Drive

Setting clear yet challenging and exciting goals can help develop your drive.

5. Lead with Passion

Level 5 Leadership is a term introduced by Jim Collins in the book Good to Great. Level 5 Leaders have two characteristics that set them apart from other types of leader. The two characteristics are those of being strong-willed yet humble.

These two characteristics might seem in contradiction to each other but they are not. Willpower allows Level 5 Leaders to push for consistent success. The success they aim for is the organization’s success and not their own. Because of this, it allows them to be humble about their own abilities and achievements.

Cite this article

Minute Tools Content Team, Level 5 Leadership, Minute Tools, May, 2018 https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2018/05/level-5-leadership/

Related Tools

The six leadership styles by daniel goleman, edgar schein’s organizational culture model, mintzberg’s managerial roles, trait theory of leadership, transactional leadership, the 5 levels of leadership: book summary, three levels of leadership model, blake mouton managerial grid, bureaucratic theory (max weber), path-goal theory of leadership, in our course you will learn how to:.

This 5-week course will teach you everything you need to know to set up and then scale a small, part-time business that will be profitable regardless of what’s happening in the economy.

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, understanding level 5 leaders: the ethical perspectives of leadership humility.

Journal of Management Development

ISSN : 0262-1711

Article publication date: 12 June 2017

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethical perspectives of leadership humility. Jim Collins, in his seminal work, Good to Great , noted that all great organizations are led by “Level 5 leaders (L5Ls).” These leaders exhibit fierce resolve, but incredible humility. This paper examines the nature of humility and its assumptions associated with 12 frequently cited ethical perspectives. Humility builds high follower trust and commitment so often lacking in the modern organization. The paper identifies four practical contributions for scholars and leaders who seek to understand the role of humility in leadership effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a conceptual paper which relies heavily on research from the current literature about leadership, trust, and humility.

This paper compares humility with 12 well-regarded ethical perspectives and presents humility as an ethically-relevant leadership construct that helps leaders to build trust, commitment, and followership.

Research limitations/implications

Because this paper is not an empirical study, it does not present research information, propositions, or hypotheses.

Practical implications

This paper suggests that leaders can be more effective if they come to understand the implicit ethical nature of leadership and the importance of humility in building trust.

Originality/value

Although Collins’ research about great organizations identified the importance of Level 5 leadership 15 years ago, very little has been written about the nature of humility as a leadership virtue. More importantly, this paper is among the first to identify the relationship between ethics and humility for L5Ls.

• Followership
• Servant leadership
• Ethical leadership
• Employee commitment
• Level 5 leaders

Caldwell, C. , Ichiho, R. and Anderson, V. (2017), "Understanding level 5 leaders: the ethical perspectives of leadership humility", Journal of Management Development , Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 724-732. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2016-0184

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles

All feedback is valuable.

Please share your general feedback

Report an issue or find answers to frequently asked questions

Contact Customer Support

Upcoming Webinar: April 16, 2022 - REGISTER HERE

• Schedule a call 604-313-2229
• Better Strategy
• Stronger Leaders
• Twice The CEO
• Meet The Team
• Media/Press
• Case Studies
• Your Oxygen Mask First

Podcast EP 130 | Jim Collins Level 5 Leaders

What are Jim Collins Level 5 leaders?

Level 5 leadership is a concept developed in the book Good to Great. Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They’re incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves. While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy.

This week we discuss what makes a level 5 leader, why level 5 leadership matters, and the challenge that comes with being a level 4 leader. Also we provide examples that we’ve seen where individuals and companies have successfully built level 5 leadership.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GROWTH WHISPERERS:

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Please note that this episode was transcribed using an AI application and may not be 100% grammatically correct – but it will still allow you to scan the episode for key content.

Kevin Lawrence  00:13

Hey, welcome to the growth whispers podcast where everything Brad Giles and Kevin Lawrence, that’s the two of us, everything we talked about is about building enduring great companies, because we get a kick out of that. And today, we’re gonna dig into a topic. That’s very interesting. And we’ll tell you more about that in just a second. But before we do, I support leadership and awesome leaders versus the ones who drive us crazy. And we’ve all had those bad bosses in our lives, who we just like, I never want to be like that. So this is the opposite of the bad bosses, but and more about that in a minute. But we always kind of got our, you know, something that’s on our mind. So like a word or a phrase of the day. And Brad, what is your word or your phrase?

Brad Giles  00:57

Hello, compounding. So compounding, I think it was Einstein said it’s the greatest force in the universe. And we’re using compounding every time we’re meeting, doing quarterly and annual off to sites, little tiny bits here and there that are compounding against and alongside each other to make overall things significantly better. So yeah, compounding has been on my mind of late, and how we use that in the work that we do.

Kevin Lawrence  01:25

Love that. Where he does build on it, and you build on it makes me think, because I’m working with a company that got a little off the rails. And we just had our second strat planning meeting last week. And like already, I saw an incredible amount of progress, more than you normally see. Now, they had to run the systems and tools in the past, they just kind of lost their way. But yeah, it compounds and it builds on itself, like a like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Awesome. Mine is retreat. And we’ve been doing planning for our team retreat, where we got a three day event for our team up in Whistler, we’re now up to get the number on always get the number wrong, but there’s around a dozen of us maybe even more. And we’re just going to spend a bunch of time coming together and creating our own version of compounding. But coming together time together to build relationships, share knowledge, and come away with an aligned focus of how we’re going to do better work for our clients. And it’s a lot of work planning these things. We do it for clients all the time, but we’re doing it for ourselves. It’s like it’s even more it seems. Usually we want to squeeze more out of it. I don’t know. Anyways, so compounding impact of retreats, good retreats for teams, bringing them together, coming away with better output. Awesome. So Brad, what did the heck are we going to talk about today? Today bad bosses. Boy, we could do such a great show on bad bosses. Oh, oh, we

Brad Giles  02:54

could do on a bad. Good bosses. Yeah, that’d be more fun. Yeah. All right. Well, yeah.

Kevin Lawrence  02:59

We’re more constructive, let’s say for sure.

Brad Giles  03:02

Yeah. So I think a few weeks ago, we saw Jim Collins speaking about his level five leaders concept. And that’s what’s prompted this episode is us reflecting on that thinking about some of our key takeaways. What it means, where it comes from, and how can you aspire or think to become more like a level five leader. So that’s really what we’re talking about today. So maybe we’ll kick off by saying what is a level five leader so this is from Jim’s website. Level five, leadership is a concept delivered in the book, Good to Great level five leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility, and indomitable will. They’re incredibly ambitious, but they’re ambitious. It’s their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, and for the organization and its purpose, not themselves. While level five leaders can come in many personality packages, they’re often self effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy, even Good to Great Transition. Every part of me every good to great transition in our research began with a level five leader who motivated the enterprise more with inspired standards than inspiring personality. They were amazing humans.

Kevin Lawrence  04:20

Yeah, those are the best that’s as good as it gets as a leader. And that’s the ones that we obviously want to work for, we want to work with. And so really the challenge we’ll talk about today is that like, you know, for our teams, that the challenge is to identify and develop those level five leaders and they can be developed, they need development often to get there. And for ourselves, this is the aspiration to get to that level and stay there. Sometimes a bunch of success and that gets to our head and people can draw from Level Five farther down. And recently I did a conversation with a bunch of CEOs in your great country, Australians to our friends that yes, Australia. Thanks to our friends at the Growth Faculty, we had a conversation with a bunch of CEOs about their experience around level five leadership. And, you know, it was really a great conversation. And I can share some more with that later. But, you know, there was a question that came up of what indicators of level five are. And there’s lots. You know, when Jim talks about this, and we’ll talk about some of these things here, too. But one of the ones I recall, that’s, and I don’t remember whether it was Jim Collins or Liz Wiseman, I believe it was one of the two. Liz Wiseman has a book called multipliers, her first book, and she talks about multipliers versus diminishers multipliers multiply people’s intelligence and capability diminishers, bring it down. And it’s it’s in harmony with level five leadership, although different. But one of the one of the questions they said is that, you know, if you want to figure out, truly, if they’re in that kind of level five category, just ask them about their team, say, hey, you know, and you’re going back, and I have been in talk reading as well, I’m not sure. But go back when you’re, when you’re asking them about their previous roles, or their current role. Tell me about your team. Well, you know, in Liz’s language, if they’re a multiplier in gyms, if they’re a level five leader, they’re going to go off and tell you how amazing their team is, like they’re bragging about their grandchildren, they’re gonna tell you all the great stuff and who and why and how, and by the way, they’re gonna have left a trail of amazing leaders who went on to do great things. And if they’re not, there, very quickly, within a very few seconds, you’re gonna bring the conversation back to me, me, me, because that’s their favourite topic, they’re gonna bring it back to talking about themselves very quickly, because they don’t really care about the team, they care about themselves. And it’s not about the cause. It’s about themselves. So it’s, it’s, it’s an indicator of really, a person’s focus on whether it’s helping to grow and develop others, or for their own benefit.

Brad Giles  07:10

I love the distinction between a level four leader and a level five leader, and that is, Jim calls it the genius with 1000 helpers. And it’s a trap that so many people can so easily fall into. All of the answers are coming from the leader. And, and the people are there to help. And really what’s happening is, the leader is is preventing the organization from truly becoming great, because all everything’s stopping with them. So the transition from level four to level five, is about saying, I want to build a business that’s bigger than myself, that will endure myself and I am responsible, Jim’s got this concept that helps to clarify that, which is are you looking in the mirror? Or are you looking in out the window? Yes. So if there was a problem, level five leaders would look in the mirror and say I was responsible. If there was success, they would look out the window and say, Ah, the team has been successful. This is fantastic. It’s all on them, they’ve done a great job. And that speaks to that humility that we’re talking about. Yeah. And so

Kevin Lawrence  08:27

These level five leaders have this incredible combination of will incredible drive to do hard things well and be successful, successful organization, and humility, that it’s not all about them. And they’re the opposite of what you see in the movies in the CD CEOs or leaders and movies. They’re not arrogant. They’re humble down to earth. And I think about this one client that I have here in Canada, and we were in a social gathering recently. And you know, he introduced himself, it was just a carpenter. And that’s his, and his demeanor is like, he has a carpenter, he is incredibly successful. You’d never know it. He’s focused on building a great organization, building opportunities for people and having an impact on his community. He’s like, he doesn’t, he doesn’t, he’s not doing it for the money. He’s doing it to do something great in the world and to leave a legacy. So it’s interesting on this, you know, recently I met what I believe is a level five exec had a conversation with him. And, you know, we, we were having a chat about leadership, and he’s going off about, you know, just give me a really driven leader in her early 30s, who’s really trying to do great stuff. And I just love to help groom them and shape them and prove them and help them to become more effective. Leaders like that’s yeah, he’s talking about this with joy. He’s done very well in the past. And he’s rejoined a business because he loves it. And he’s just lit up by it. But what’s interesting is that, you know, so he’s driven by this helping other people to thrive in his senior leadership role. He has been CEOs of organizations and such. But then, you know, at one point, when a meeting because it was his first meeting, he pulls me aside and asked me for feedback. Hey, how am I doing? How can I do better? I’m like, so I give him a couple ideas. Yeah, I was thinking about that. I was wondering, but Okay, cool. And then, you know, later that night, we’re going out, and I just observed something that he did. And were, you know, having a chat. I said, Hey, can I give you another little piece of feedback? Yeah, sure. Please tell me. And I said, Hey, you know, in the situation, when such and such happened, and you did such and such, you inadvertently, were disrespectful to somebody might go, Yeah, I think I go well, I think he made a comment as well, hey, if you noticed, they noticed because they were on the receiving end, he goes, Hey, give me a couple of minutes. He stops our conversation, grabs his phone, and communicates with the person to apologize and clean it up, like within seconds. So this is not a junior executive, this is a very senior executive. So thriving, and loving, developing leaders telling me about a bunch of he’d developed, asking for feedback, acting on the feedback, given extra feedback, going and cleaning it up immediately. I mean, that’s, that’s the kind of people you want to be with. Yeah, that’s the kind of people who make great things and pull the best out of you. So the level five leaders are absolutely amazing. I’ll share one more thing, Brian, and then you know, Brad, you got some more shirts here. But, you know, I, I was chatting with another CEO. And we had a breakfast meeting. And you know, this guy’s built and sold quite a few businesses. And we’re having this chat, and we got talking about activities, you know, I was talking to about how I like, you know, racing in motorsports because it challenges me was, that’s why I like golf. because I spent so much money trying to get good at golf. And I’m still mediocre. And I try practice, I play a lot. I practice a lot. And I can’t seem to get good because you know what I realized it was comedy. And I realized, it’s great for me, it keeps me humble. Right, because there’s people that can go and do things that they’re only good at all the time to go and do something and suck at it. It’s very humbling and allows you to have the beginner’s mind and compassion and understanding for other people that are in that place. And we’ve said that, so golf is his, one of his mechanisms for humility.

Brad Giles  12:49

It’s a trap. We’re all human. It’s a trap that anyone can fall into, we can look at people and say, Oh, that person isn’t humble, like they’ve been categorized. But I love the fact that this guy is trying to get himself to stay humble. Like it’s so important. One of the one of the stories that Jim Collins told was just fantastic. It I’d say it was a company called trek bicycles. Now, I spoke to another leader that I work with now, and he had said that he just bought a trek bicycle for 14,000 euros, a quite an expensive push bike, right? But so they do high end, good quality, right? Endurance, bicycles, trek bicycles, Waterloo, Wisconsin, John Burke is the president there. And he’d explained to Jim that they have 450 leaders in track bicycles, and 42 of them are level five. And then he said, there’s a lot of work to do. So they’ve built a level five University at track bicycles, how to get people and they measure them, they know where people are. And every leader in the organization, they’re trying to build the largest group of level five leaders on the planet. And I gotta tell you, you go to the trek bicycles website and look up their culture book. This thing is phenomenal. It’s about 270 pages of culture book, and it tells exactly who they are, what they value, everything. How could it possibly be 270 pages? I don’t know. But I gotta tell her, this is the best culture book I’ve ever seen in my life. And that is because they’re dedicated to building enduring and endearing right business. And they focused on this concept of level five leaders.

Kevin Lawrence  14:54

Yeah, another example like that as Patagonia. They’re known for being very different than their approach. But the founder of Patagonia just gave the business away. Right. And he and he wasn’t he was interested in building an amazing company, I’m sure and I don’t know him personally. But I’m sure there’s a lot of humility and will to build that kind of organization. And at the end, just give it away because he’s not interested in in the wealth and everything else. So let’s, let’s talk about the thing that by the way, if you want more on there’s an episode 49, how to become a level five leader, an earlier podcast we did. Also, there’s a bunch of both Brad’s in my books in my book, in particular, Chapter Six deal with your emotional junk, that’s what gets in the way of a lot of level five leaders, is they have internal stuff that doesn’t allow them to be humble and stay in their best place, getting tough feedback, chapter nine, and then make yourself useless, which is the ultimate accomplishment of any leader is building an incredible team that doesn’t need you as chapter 10. And Brian, your book overall covers this kind of stuff. So

Brad Giles  16:01

your book is called your oxygen mask first, right? And my book is, Yeah, gotta know what

Kevin Lawrence  16:08

it’s made and made to thrive is Brad’s Yes.

Brad Giles  16:10

Good, good, good call. So

Kevin Lawrence  16:13

a couple of principles. And we’re just gonna cover this at a high level. But, you know, there’s a two pieces, your will and humility and will, and they, they level five leaders have both and really, Will is like the internal motor and tie inside of a person. And based on people’s experiences throughout their life in their childhood, and everything else. Some people got a big motor, and some don’t. And at the end of the day, our job as leaders is to look for the people with the motor, try and create lots of different pathways for people to find their motor, because sometimes they gotta find it, you know, looking for what people are excited about, and what fires them up, but you’re looking for people that have that will. And I don’t know how it’s created. I do know that it’s obvious when people have it. And generally, if I look, I look at the CEOs that I get the chance to work with the executives I get a chance to work with, there’s patterns at a fairly young age that start to emerge, and they continue on that motor is, is that motor is there at some point it gets built. And so the main thing is just like with athletes, you can’t motivate a person to do this. And if you have to motivate people, that’s not fun for you or them, the thing we got to look for, so we look for the mortar, and just be careful, we don’t kill it. Right, the wrong leader can kill the motor and kill the motivation. And I’m sure there’s some other research there on how you could create it. But in the businesses that we’re in, we’re not in the motivation, creating business, we’re looking for people that already have that internal drive.

Brad Giles  17:53

I think one thing that’s important is what Jim Collins said is that great leaders aren’t born. Okay, that that rocked the lead, it’s a really important distinction that you have the ability to follow the bouncing ball over many, many years. And to get to this level five. Point. Yes, it was there’s one leader in particular that I worked with, who will remain nameless, many years ago, he was quite brash, quite arrogant, wanted to build a great company for sure he had the will. But we’ve tempered that, I would say, I would say consciously, he might say subconsciously, if he acknowledged it over time. And yeah, he’s, he’s now a lot more disciplined in his thinking and thinking more about the business in an endearing manner, and is a lot more humble in his approach to people broadly. So I think that yeah, I think it’s important to note, it’s not an easy job that you can do this,

Kevin Lawrence  19:01

just like that executive, I talked about the loves to take those driven 30 year old executives and groom them, I would say myself, I have worked a lot on on rounding off the corners, we’ll call it over the years, and I’ve learned basically, I’ve always had the will. It’s the humility, I had the drive, but there would always be a little too much carnage in a way I’d be more likely to get in arguments more likely to want to stand my ground. And just learning more skills and a lot of it’s tied into it’s just, it’s generally leadership skills and management skills that you can learn and there’s an element of humility in it and there’s an element of just chilling out for people like me in particular and lots of I work with Yeah, but but jelly. The wheel was already there. You can work on the other things and most people that have the will can learn to be highly effective leaders. Just work. Yeah. So let’s get again, just so we don’t get too long. We got another few minutes or we’ll cover off the highlights but I want to cover off humility a little bit. And the idea is that like, humility is basically the opposite of arrogance, arrogance, people are trying to overcompensate generally for the weaknesses. And I pulled this off a dictionary definition, exaggerating or disposed to exaggerate. Or one owns worth, or importance by an overbearing manner. Basically, you’re exaggerating stuff and you’re just trying hard to make yourself seem bigger, better than you might be or bigger or better than other people. We’re humility. Generally, people are very comfortable with themselves. They’re very confident. They’re confident with their, you know, confidence is defined as self assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities. And humility is not proud, or haughty, or not arrogant or assertive.

Brad Giles  21:01

I don’t know what that that haughty word. I don’t even know how that

Kevin Lawrence  21:05

I either did it but I looked it up. Thanks. Adi hottie religiously and disdainfully proud, having or showing an attitude of superiority and contempt for people or things perceived to be inferior. You know, one of my tests for humility, and if someone is really is how they treat people with notably less power, I absolutely judge people in normal interactions, how they treat waiters, servers, sorry people like even the bus people clearing tables, maids, people, no taxi, cab drivers, janitors, how they treat people have less power. And one of my most one of my clients who probably I learned the most from, and he might not even know it is an incredibly, incredibly successful entrepreneur. And I just remember one day the respect he showed someone a few might be one of the most powerful men where he is one of the least powerful person he saw in a situation that wasn’t right. And he stepped in and did something about it. He didn’t know this person, nothing, it had nothing to do with any of his businesses, another place he and I were going, and he stopped and did something and basically gave this guy a bottle of water, who was standing in incredible heat without an umbrella, you know, almost 50 degrees. And he stopped, gave got went back to his car, got a bottle of water out of his cooler, because he had a cooler in his car to keep things cold, and gave it to the guy and say it’s not right that you don’t have an unbelieving, but that’s me. So humility is this, this this, but we’re not just talking humility, like I’m thinking you’re no good. There’s this confidence that goes with it. But humility is, you know, the is there’s a confidence and the knowing of your strengths and your weaknesses, and then wanting obviously to be better. And that’s critical. So it’s, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s confidence in there, but it’s quiet confidence.

Brad Giles  23:15

Yeah. So I’ve always saying is, it’s this mix of will like this indomitable this drive and will like, Absolutely, no matter what must build a great enduring company that is bigger than myself. And then it’s this humbleness. It’s this, this other side, which is, it’s, then they’re humble about it. It’s just this great mix between the two. That is,

Kevin Lawrence  23:43

it’s a beautiful thing to watch. So a couple a couple of key things that you just noticed with them. One, they’ve, they they’ve got, they allow people in that respect people around them to tell them to truth. Andy Grove calls them Cassandra’s. They challenge their thinking. They genuinely want feedback in whatever way is comfortable for them. Right? They might not blatantly ask for it. But they’re always looking for it in different ways of how they could be better. And you notice because when you have ideas, they listen, they might not do it, but they’re there. They’re there. They’re taking it in. They’re absolutely learners and Collins found this in his research. They are avid learners. They’re reading books, taking courses, talking to more experienced people. And even thinking about how things can be better like after action reviews in their mind.

Brad Giles  24:40

There’s a sign that not all sorry, Kev, there’s a saying about that. Not all lead. Not all learners are leaders, but all leaders are learners.

Kevin Lawrence  24:50

Exactly. I love that. And they generally get coaching mentoring even will go and see a psychologist When they need to they they work with other people to help them be better than not doing it alone. So let’s basic stuff that we I just share a couple exercises that I’m that that can help with this with your teams now it’s how do you bring it to life like you can identify it. But, you know, Dean Ritchie, who was the first advisor who joined my team, almost seven years ago, awesome, awesome coach, facilitator, advisor, mentor, he just with our team tonight and our team meeting shared an awesome exercise for Level Five leadership. And he basically, basically is you you look at competencies and whether you’re assessing yourself or somewhere else, but you look at specific competencies, that related to arrogance versus humility. And with those to try and seeing get a sense of where you are, somebody is by by evaluating as he has a column of different numbers that he built out around arrogance and humility. And he has the same one around lazier when he you know, he was unmotivated and will write or uninspired or unmotivated and will so arrogance, humility, unmotivated will, and just to try and get a sense of where you are, someone else is on that. It’s a simple, beautiful way to get deeper on it, because there’s certain things that are related to all those factors. The other thing he said is, he creates a little assessment he does with teams, sometimes to get them to rate each other on aspects of humility, and aspects of wills. So they can see where they stand almost like a little mini 360 based on us, just simple things, because it’s about the awareness and the conversation, and looking for where you can grow the other one. And I’ll just share real quick as I you know, this conversation with the CEOs in Australia. We asked them, it was real simple. Like, what are three things you do that make you more of a level five leader and pull you up to level five? And what are the three things that pull you down? And then think about someone else on your team? And what’s the same for them? So it’s not rocket, it’s just it’s spending time thinking about this and acknowledging level fives as good as it gets, we all probably have things we need to do I know I do to get to that level, and awareness of what it looks like so that we can surround ourselves with more awesome people like that.

Brad Giles  27:27

Like track, like track 450 liters, for 42 of them, pardon me, for it. 450 liters, 42 of them a level five, there’s a lot of work to do. That is just cow I love it. This is gold. What a good chat about level five leaders today. If you’re a genius with 1000 helpers, or a level five and level four, there’s some work to do and it is worth the push to get to that level five level. So good chat, Kev. Hopefully we’ve all learned a bit today got some different perspectives. This has been the growth whispers podcast. My name is Brad Giles. And my co host here is Kevin Lawrence. You can find Kevin and his interesting newsletter at Lawrence and co.com. And myself, Brad Giles, evolution partners.com.au. We also have a newsletter that we put out each week as well. You can find us on video at YouTube if you prefer to see our smiling faces. And yeah, obviously we would love to have you join us next week for another interesting chat about how to build enduring great companies. Do have yourself a great week.

How the 5 Levels of Leadership Create Belonging With think2perform’s Ray Kelly

By ryan goulart.

Leaders today have the challenge of leading their teams through adverse conditions and across distance. With people not always in the same space or working the same schedules, how can leaders ensure that they’re creating a sense of belonging?

To answer that question and more, we’re joined by think2perform consultant and Senior Vice President Ray Kelly. He discusses his five levels of leadership and how leaders, regardless of their level, can overcome adversity, lead effectively and create belonging.  

What Are the 5 Levels of Leadership?

The concept of the five levels of leadership is time-honored, with “Good to Great” author Jim Collins and leadership author and coach John Maxwell each espousing the principle. Ray has developed his own version of the five levels of leadership at think2perform. And because everyone has a slightly different definition, Ray took the time to explain each of his five levels and what they mean for leaders operating in today’s environment. 

While each of these levels is distinct, each builds on and incorporates the qualities of the lower levels.

Level One 

These leaders complete the tasks given to them. They’re reliable. “A lot of people will go, ‘That doesn’t sound like leadership. It sounds like followership,’” Ray says. “But there’s an old adage that says, ‘Leading by example is one way of leading, but without it all, the rest don’t work.’ So a Level One leader leads by example.”

These leaders have advanced beyond simply doing tasks well to identifying problems or potential problems. The difference between a Level One and Level Two leader is rather small, Ray says.

Level Three

Level Three leaders perform well at tasks and spot problems — and they solve them without needing to go up the ladder.

These leaders get others involved, not just on a one-time basis but through ongoing improvements to results, systems and processes. “It’s Level Three, plus they can mobilize a group of people around a common cause to drive a result consistently,” Ray says. “We love Fours. Huge difference between a Three and a Four.”

Level Five leaders bring it all together. Not only can they solve problems and bring together teams to amplify that problem-solving ability, they can elevate that work to the highest levels of the organization. 

“They tie everything back to the bigger why — the vision, mission and values of the organization or the vision, mission, values of the individual,” Ray says. “And most importantly, what a Level Five does is they develop other Level Four-pluses.”

If your team or organization is struggling to find and develop Level Five leaders, you might not be intentional enough about it. “How do you become intentional about creating that type of culture?” Ray says.

How to Create An Environment of Belonging

The pandemic has moved many workers to rethink how they approach their lives, including the role work plays and its ranking in their priorities. But through it all, people still want to feel like they belong, whether that’s at work or anywhere else. 

To better understand the importance of belonging, Ray became a student of Vanessa Druskat , an associate professor of organizational behavior at the University of New Hampshire. What resonated with Ray was her section on how the brain is wired to be social and belong.

To explain this, Ray says to think of prehistoric tribes. People who didn’t belong to a group back then didn’t survive for long. Even today, feeling like you don’t belong is still harmful to people’s performance. 

“You cannot not feel good when you belong, and you cannot not feel bad when you’re not there,” Ray says. 

Creating a sense of belonging is vital to your workforce’s ecosystem — even if it’s not always the most efficient. “One of the things I say to my clients all this time, efficiency’s often the enemy of effectiveness,” Ray says. 

How to Lead Through Adversity

It’s easy to respond to adversity by letting fear and uncertainty seep into your work. Oftentimes, the best response is simply to reorient your mind on the basics. To illustrate this, Ray shared the story of a former co-worker who was a National Guard pilot.

“When people get in trouble, it’s because they start focusing on too many things and they stop flying the plane,” Ray says he learned. “And they’re flicking at too many monitors. They’re worried about all these different things you can’t control. Just fly the plane.”

What does “fly the plane” mean for us? The first task for leaders is demonstrating empathy. Emotions are already elevated. Listen deeply, ask deep questions, and make sure you have deep understanding. 

Second, overcommunication is the key to keeping everyone on the same page. And third, be clear about what’s at stake. “When people have clarity, even if they dislike it, it gives people hope and optimism,” Ray says. 

People in This Episode

Ray Kelly: LinkedIn

Ryan Goulart: LinkedIn

Your brain is wired to belong, first and foremost. If you didn’t belong back in the days — you weren’t part of a tribe, a group — you did not survive, so that brain’s need to belong is pretty strong. So think back to September 2020, when all the extra unemployment benefits ran out. They were expecting people to do what? Go back to work. What happened? An all-time record in the history of the world — more people left the workforce than ever, September, October, November. OK? Part of it is these brains, people weren’t feeling the same. OK? They weren’t feeling connected.

Ryan Goulart:

That’s Ray Kelly, senior vice president of think2perform. We’re talking about using leadership to create belonging. I’m Ryan Goulart, and you are Making the Ideal Real. 

I have with me today on Making the Ideal Real Ray Kelly, senior vice president of think2perform. Ray, welcome back to our podcast that we’re relaunching here in 2023, and you’re the first episode.

Wow. I didn’t realize I’m number one.

You’re number one.

You usually have me on the bottom of the list. If I’m top of the list, I’m honored.

It’s only because you give me homework afterwards.

Let’s see how many questions I give you and quiz here. I want to see if the audience is paying attention how often Ryan does not.

You’ll hear long pauses frequently throughout this program. Oh, one of the things that you’ve often talked about — many of your clients know this, many of our clients know this — is about the five levels of leadership. The context for today’s podcast topic is on the five levels of leadership. But as it pertains to uncertainty and how people all over the world are living different lives, working from their homes, I want to just start there and work our way down to what a leader can do to lead people that are in different locations then they had in 2019. 

So I guess the question here is, from your vantage point as a student of leadership, what does it entail to be able to lead effectively across distances?

I think it’d probably be helpful for the audience for me to go through the five levels of leadership again before I answer that question you had, and mainly because some people have not heard it before. And secondly, if they’ve heard it before, they may have forgotten it. And then there’s several five levels of leaderships out there, and mine’s probably the least known five levels of leadership. 

And what I mean by that is the first one I’m aware of is Jim Collins — wrote a book called “Good to Great,” late ‘80s, early ‘90s, one of the best leadership books I had read at that period of time. And he talked about the five levels of leadership, and his five levels is really about the characteristics and attributes of great leaders. John Maxwell is probably the foremost name in leadership development today, and he actually has a book called “The Five Levels of Leadership.” And his five levels of leadership is all about the relationship between the leader and the follower. OK?

The five levels of leadership I’m going to go through with you today is something I learned from one of my bosses 25, 30 years ago. It was a long time ago. And this is all about the core competencies necessary to be a great leader. And part of the funny thing about this was, I was talking to him recently. He runs his own business now, and his business is expanding and growing and did a couple acquisitions. And his wife said to me, “He’s working longer and harder than he ever has. And he’s, I want to say frustrated, but he’s looking for a little bit more peace and quiet in his life and a little bit more balance. Let’s just say.” 

I asked her the question, I said, “Has Brian ever taught you the five levels of leadership?”

And she looked at me like, “No, I’ve never heard that before.” And I go, “That’s interesting.” I said, “Hey, when we go back out to the fire” — and I was at a dinner with him at his place in Cabo — and, I said, “Bring that up. Bring up the five levels of leadership. There’s another couple there. Maybe I could weave it into the conversation.” And I said, “Make sure I talk about the caveat, because I think it’ll help him.” 

So my whole point of telling the story, the person who actually I came up with the five levels of leadership had stopped using it. And for some of you, this may have made a profound impact on you. So hearing again won’t hurt. So let me just go through it.

A Level One leader is a person when, told what to do, gets the job done. For a lot of people will go, “That doesn’t sound like leadership. It sounds like followership.” But there’s an old adage that says, “Leading by example is one way of leading, but without it all, the rest don’t work.” So a Level One leader leads by example. If you need them to do something, Hey, Ryan, go deal with the Smiths, he can go deal with the Smiths.

A Level Two leader does Level One, plus they can identify problems. Not a big difference between a One and a Two. Say it’s human nature to be able to identify problems. But this person, when they’re dealing with the Smiths, they come back to you and say, “Hey, I was dealing with the Smiths, and I ran into a problem.” Not a big difference between a One and a Two.

A Level Three does levels One and Two, but they also can come up with a solution, solves problems. We like Threes. So when they’re dealing with the Smiths, they run into the problem, but they come back to you and say, “This is how I solved it.” We love Threes.

A Level Four leader does Level Three consistently plus, and I’ll say this twice because it’s a mouthful. But they can mobilize a group of people around a common cost to drive a result consistently. They don’t do just once, consistently. So it’s Level Three, plus they can mobilize a group of people around a common cause to drive a result consistently. We love Fours. Huge difference between a Three and a Four. 

So when they’re dealing with the Smiths, they run into a problem, not only do they identify the problem, they come up with a solution. Not only do they come up with a solution, they put systems and processes in place so we don’t run into this problem again. They train and organize everyone in your organization, team, et cetera, around that. They don’t do it once, they do it consistently. Huge difference. We love Fours.

Level Five leader does the first four. And what they do on top of that is they tie everything back to the bigger why —  the vision, mission and values of the organization or the vision, mission, values of the individual. And most importantly, what a Level Five does is they develop other Level Four-pluses. Now freeze. So I was with Brian and his wife and this other couple, I played the freeze game. I said, “Freeze, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? What are you doing right at this moment?” 

And one by one, each of them said these three things and they go, “I’m wondering what number I am.” I said, “Very common.” Second person just goes, “I’m wondering what number the people on my team are.” This guy was the CEO of a business and goes, “I’m thinking about what number the people on my team are.” And finally, the third person said, “I’m wondering, how do I move me and the people around me up?” 

And this is what I found with the five levels of leadership that I just shared with you. It’s a form of a vision of creating a leadership culture that’s very purposeful. It’s self-awareness goes up, self-assessments, becomes part of the game, and it inspires people. They want to improve. As I was sharing this, my old boss who developed this was finishing my sentences. “Oh, a Level Four …” And he was just going through it and he was really happy and stuff. Then I asked the next question. 

I said — this is one of the questions I ask, and I’ll ask all of you listeners to ask yourself this question. How many Level Fours pluses do you have in your organization? People that can mobilize a group of people around a common cause to drive a result consistently, with one caveat. And the caveat is this: Without your involvement. You could literally be in Europe for six weeks, six months.

And this was the funny part of this conversation. His wife, when I said “In Europe for six weeks or six months,” she says, “Or in Cabo for six weeks or six months.” I mean, steam was coming out of his ears, because he was going, “This is a big part of the solution of why I feel overwhelmed, is like I haven’t been developing leaders like I know.” So he lost this, because I then asked the next question, which is, “Why do most organizations not have a Level Five culture where you’re developing leaders to develop leaders?”

And before I could even finish the question, he was looking straight ahead. He wasn’t looking at me, he was looking straight ahead because he was mad. He just said, “Intentionality.” And I think this is an important thing for everyone, especially in leading in adverse conditions, hybrid conditions and stuff for the future, the importance of having intentionality about creating leaders and a culture of leadership. So I think that’s one of the things I’d leave with the listeners is, “How do you become intentional about creating that type of culture?” And it’s not just in adversity, it works any time.

So — is common on these, and since we haven’t done this in that long of time — I’m still amazed that the amount of questions I have to ask you. And the part that’s very interesting to me as it relates to some of the things that you frequently talk about are things that relate to the word “belonging.” And I know you have become a student of Vanessa Druskat, who was a speaker at our conference a number of years ago. 

Talk about that component on the other side of when a culture is created, there isn’t an intentional development of leaders that it creates belonging, and what it looks like when it’s not there.

Dr. Druskat’s presentation, and I think it was in 2020 or 2021. It was 2021 because she was in-person. We had a hybrid audience. I remember that. And it was again, my learning of the year that year. It was so impactful. I was just overwhelmed with this thought. And she’s an expert in team effectiveness. So for most of the people in the audience, her message was very applicable, because almost all of us are part of a team or directly. But she talked about your wiring for your brain. OK? When God put you on this earth, one of the things he did was he wired your brain to be social. It needs to belong. So Ryan, this is my first question for you. So if you go back — 

I knew it was coming. I was, here it comes.

Go back to the caveman days, you’re a caveman. And if you didn’t belong, if you weren’t part of a tribe, what happened to you?

You died. This is one of the reasons why they had the hypothesis and said, “Your brain is wired to belong, first and foremost.” If you didn’t belong back in the days, you weren’t part of a tribe, a group, you did not survive. So you are wired naturally to belong. So they start to try to figure out, “How can you prove that your brain needs to be social, needs to be part of something?” So they did an experiment called cyber ball. 

So I want you to imagine this: You have artificial intelligence glasses on — virtual reality glasses, that’s what I’m talking about. And then you have some hat on monitoring your brain waves and what’s going on in your brain and three people are playing catch. So you, me and my wife, Amy. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And while we’re playing catch, again, the brain waves, all of these positive things are happening in the brain. Serotonin, dopamine. It’s just so cool. We’re all enjoying it. And it wasn’t just you, Ryan, it’s everyone doing the experiment. It’s having all these positive experiences from the brain because they’re blowing. Ding, ding. Then all of a sudden, we skip you. So ding, ding, ding, it goes, ding, ding, ding, ding. The split second, your brain gets skipped, it goes haywire.

The Kellys don’t like me anymore. What’s happening? I thought we were friends.

Well, this is the crazy thing about it. The split second, all of those positive things almost immediately stop, and your brain goes haywire. It goes into fight or flight, it goes into survival mode, which is absolutely the worst thing you want as a team. OK? All of a sudden, a person goes into survival mode. And it wasn’t just you, Ryan. When I got skipped in the experiment, the split second, my brain went haywire. Amy’s brain goes haywire. Everyone who did the experiment, they’re going, “Oh my goodness.” 100% of the people, all the positive things happen when they’re going ding, ding, ding. 

Well, when the ding, ding started, the brain went haywire. They go, “This is really fascinating.” They rerun their experiment, but this time they say, “Hey, Ryan, we’re going to play catch, cyber ball with the Kellys again, but a minute or two in, we’re going to skip you. Are you OK with that?” And you go, “Of course, not a problem.”

So not only are you expecting it, you OK’d it. Ding, ding, ding. Again, all the positive things are happening and we skip you. Ding, ding. You’re expecting it. You’re OK with it. Brain goes haywire. Not just you. Every single person in the experiment goes haywire. One of the conclusions from this is that brain’s need to belong is ‌involuntary. You cannot not feel good when you belong and you cannot not feel bad when you’re not there. 

So let’s take this to the hybrid world. This is one of the things I’m talking to my clients about all of the time is, there’s this “Hey, we can do our jobs from afar now.” We can do it virtually. We can do it from home. It’s cheaper. Next to labor costs, the number one cost for most businesses is the cost of real estate and stuff like that.

So a lot of these business owners are making decisions like, “Hey, we can reduce our space by 30%, 50%, 70%, all these other things. This is great.” Hold on a second. That brain’s need to belong is pretty strong. So think back to September 2020, when all the extra unemployment benefits ran out. They were expecting people to do what? Go back to work. What happened? An all time record in the history of the world — more people left the workforce ever in September, October, November. Part of it is, people weren’t feeling the same. They weren’t feeling connected. I’m an introvert. During the pandemic, I liked staying at home. I get energized by being in my own cave, doing my own appointments, not having to be around lots and lots of people, but my brain doesn’t. My brain needs to be involved, come into the office, see people and charge.

So this is the big thing I’m encouraging business owners and people who are running teams and whatever — maybe your family, getting together over the holidays and stuff like that — is realize you need to belong, and you will feel better when you’re connected with people. And if all of a sudden, you do it for efficiency — so one of the things I say to my clients all this time, efficiency’s often the enemy of effectiveness. And where efficiency is often the enemy of effectiveness is with people. You could be more efficient by staying at home. I don’t have to deal with a half-hour commute each way, and saving time, and we won’t have to have as much space. And it’s more efficient, costs less. Hey, we could have a hybrid Evolve conference and stuff like that. People could save on their plane tickets and all their travel and cost of hotel rooms and stuff like that. It’s not the same though.

I wouldn’t risk my best employees, my best clients in whatever business I’m in, with this thought process because people are feeling different. OK? Depression, alcoholism, suicides are all what? They’re all up significantly. And it’s back to one of the questions someone asked me recently: “Ray, did Dr. Druskat’s study look at the impacts based on the age of the brain?” And I said, “Not that I’m aware of, but I have a hypothesis:: Which brain do you think will have the most impact? A developing brain or a brain that’s mature?” And they said, “Probably a developing brain.” And I said, “That’s my thought, too.” 

Our children back to the hybrid model for learning or actually learning from home, we’re all seeing the impact that it had on test scores and stuff like that. They’re basically almost a year behind because they did schooling from home.

But also, the need for that brain to belong for these young children is so strong. Get them together. And I think this is so important as you think about if you’re leading in a hybrid, how do you stay connected? If you may remember this, Ryan, a question came from the audience to Dr. Druskat because we are all dealing with more and more virtual meetings, team meetings, client meetings. And one of the things that the person said, “Well, how can we get people feel like they belong and even virtually?” 

She said, “Well, that’s better than nothing.” So first, all cameras on. OK? Just to be able to see the other people, it’s better than just a phone call.” And she said, “You have to go out of your way as a leader to make sure you are actually including people, even in these virtual meetings.”

So let’s say you have the Hollywood Squares up, you’ve got nine people on the thing. You’re going, “Hey, I’d like to brainstorm some ideas for the holiday party this year.” And we start going around the thing, and you get to five or six people, and you run out of time, and you don’t get to a couple of the people. Everyone understands it. We ran out of time. OK? Everyone’s typically OK with it. I didn’t get a chance to share my ideas. But what did we learn from the experiment? Ding, ding. The brain doesn’t like that. It feels like it was rejected fight or flight. 

She said, “Make sure you go out of your way to include everyone you asked those questions. Open probe.” Even if it’s, “Hey, we ran out our time, Ryan and Amy, what I like to do is schedule a follow-up call with just the two of you and get your ideas. I’d love to make sure I get your ideas” — so that they feel like they belong.

Hey listeners, Ryan here. When Ray said “freeze,” were you assessing your own leader level? If you’re like most, you were. At think2perform, we support individuals in enhancing their leadership level. Reach out to us at think2perform.com to learn how we can better support you.

When I think about leading in times of adversity hybrid, I’ll go back to April 2020. You remember April 2020, we were all told to stay home. We were all home, and we were not even sure what’s happening out there. And what is COVID? And I was watching TV and whatever, the news reporter said something that was inflammatory in terms of just like they were just trying to scare the people. And I yelled at the TV, and my wife just looked at me and gave me this “only your spouse can do” look at you. And she goes, “Why don’t you practice what you preach? What can you really do about what they just said? Isn’t that bucket three?” You’re right. I turned off the TV. I said, “Let’s go for a walk.” 

One of the ways to handle stress is, I obviously blurted out, is to do some exercise. Let’s go for a walk.

And on the walk, we talked, and one of the things I decided to do — bucket one is what I can control is me. I’m going to actually build a class on how to lead through adversity, what a leader should be doing during these periods of time. And a safety tip, I’m going to go through some of this with you, Ryan. After I put together the class, taught dozens of times, I will — God, this works pretty much any time. Whether you’re leading through adversity, you’re leading through hybrid situations, you’re leading a new organization, this works all of the time. So let me, if you’re all right with that.

I’m already going one for one right now. So I mean, I might as well taste this test.

Well, it starts with a story. Years ago, a guy that was a legend at our company, Larry, he was a trained pilot in the National Guard. And one of the things he used to say, and this is why he was such an effective leader, was he focused on just the basics. And when he used to say is, when they’re practicing these emergency situations, you’re in adversity, Coast Guard, and you’re trying to do this rescue and all these different things. His instructor would just drill on them: “Just fly the plane.” He says, “When people get in trouble, it’s because they start focusing on too many things and they stop flying the plane. And they’re flicking at too many monitors. They’re worried about all these different things you can’t control. Just fly the plane.”

So my general theme for everyone, leading people through adversity, is remember to fly the plane. Fly the plane. Now how do you do that? First and foremost, as a leader, the first thing you need to do during these periods of time is show empathy. Truly listen, truly get into how people are feeling. Ask questions that are more specific, like, “How you doing? How you feeling?” 

Because what cognitive people often will say is, “What are you thinking?” Get to the emotional level because that’s the first thing, as you know, how the brain is activated is emotionally first. And when you’re highly emoted, and this sometimes happens in periods of time of adversity, you’re highly emoted. I’m screaming at the TV. The amygdala hijacks the cog on the part of your brain, and you want to be able to find out how they’re feeling, how they’re doing. Get to that level.

So that’s my first thing, as a leader, is really spend time understanding. And it’s not bad that people are feeling crappy, crazy, out of control, whatever it is. Because one of the things you don’t want to do is, “Hey, stop feeling crazy. She shouldn’t feel out of control, not have an emotion.” You have emotions. What you do with your emotions, you get to choose what you get to do with it. But you’re having these emotions and actually acknowledge that I understand why you’re feeling this way. Sometimes I feel that way. 

The second part of helping lead people through these times is you have to overcommunicate. And you’ve heard me say times a factor of 10. 10 times what?

Probably got that question right, but I hear there’s the second part of the question.

10 times what?

Oh, shoot, I just knew it was factor of 10.

Factor of 10. 10 times more than you think you need to communicate. So if you think you need to communicate 10 times, it’s actually you need to communicate 100 times. Now communication isn’t just, you say the same thing over and over again. You can have multiple ways of communicating. But in the absence of information, the absence of communication, people get a degree in “MSU” — they make stuff up. OK? 

Never in absence of communication do people go, “Hosh, I wonder if Ryan’s thinking about giving me a big bonus and a big raise. I haven’t heard from him in months.”

He probably is.

They’re thinking the worst off. “They’re going to be laying off people. I’m the next person to go.” You think back to the early part of the pandemic is a great example. Early part of it, we didn’t hear a lot from the White House. We didn’t hear a lot from our leaders at all. We heard things like, “Hey, you need to social distance.” Do you remember that? And we were, “What the heck does social distance mean?” OK. A big part of the overcommunication is, the next thing is you must give clarity. Even if the clarity is stay home, wear a mask, whatever it is — a lot of people were mad and all these different things. And it’s back to, even if it makes people upset, during times of adversity, times where you’re a hybrid type model, or your people are further away more often is, I have to be even better at communicating. 

And one of the things I need to communicate is give clarity in terms of what people need to go do. What’s the expectations? I’m not there every day to reinforce it if it’s a hybrid message in the adversity situation, the brain is hyperactivated emotionally. I have to go out of my way to give people clarity.

When people have clarity, even if they dislike it, it gives people hope and optimism. I know what I need to go do. In the final step I share with people, because I don’t want to overcomplicate this about “just fly the plane.” Anytime there’s radical change, adversity, we’re going to a new model, my thought process is opportunity. And the way I like to say it is, put your sails up. And sails, not S-A-L-E-S, S-A-I-L-S. Think about when it’s really windy out and the waves flowing and gone, that’s a great time to go sailing. You can get market share, you can pick up speed, but get your sails up. Look for the opportunity in the moment. Not everyone will do well in these periods of times.

So I think about, I now know how the brain works. I now know I need to get clarity, overcommunicate, but some of the organization teams, businesses who have poor leadership, are doing what? I remember having dinner with one of my wife’s college friends and her husband, and he worked for an engineering firm. And I said, “How’s work going for you guys?” And she was an accountant CPA, and they were able to do their work from home. And he’s describing his work as an engineer. 

And I said, “Well, tell me about how you guys are continuing to do.” “Oh, we have Zoom calls.” And I said, “Between the Zoom calls, there’s a lot of participation. How do you get people to participate and stuff like that?” He goes, “Ah, no, no one turns on their camera.” I said, “No one?” He goes, “Ah, no. Most guys are their jammies or something.” So I was like, “I would kill their company, just rob them of their people.” 

Because what they’re missing is, their people — and you could see he hated his job, he was bored. All these different things. There’s where the leader gets their sails up, you can take great market share. And actually by doing these types of things — showing empathy, overcommunicating, giving clarity, getting your sails up — you could do quite well.

So as we tie this all together, and we’ve talked about the five levels of leadership, we’ve talked about belonging, and we’ve talked about some tactics that one can do to lead or overcome adversity or uncertainty. As a leader, as someone who’s aspiring to be a leader, what would you suggest they do as they focus on the five levels of leadership? How does the five levels of leadership and some of the communication tactics that you talked about, how do they intersect?

Well, there’s another little model that I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about, and that’s the 70-20-10 of adult learning. And I call it adult growing. And 70% of adult learning comes from, you have to go out and do it. You got to go practice it. 20% of adult learning and growing comes from a culture. A mentor can help accelerate your growth. And 10% comes from books and classes, podcasts, et cetera. 

But notice the biggest part of this, the only way you get better and go from a Level One to a Level Two, Level Three, consistently becoming a Level Four, eventually becoming a Level Five, is you have to go do it, practice it. If I’m listening, one of the things I think about is, I got lucky early in my career. So my second job was located right next to the HR department, and there are really a lot of great people and HR people helping people with human resources, help people develop and grow and stuff like that. That’s the role.

And I’m this young guy over there, and I’m a go-getter, and few of these HR coaches, executives over there took a liking to me. And one of the things they had me do every year was put together an IDP, an individual development plan. So I became very intentional about getting better as a leader. 

And one year, it may be working on my communication skills and specifically on public speaking. Another year it was on my listening skills, another year was how to more effectively lead women. Another was how to actually get a high-performance team, how to work with — each year, I’d pick one or two things I was working on. And they’d help me put together a game plan where I wrote out with their assistants going, “Hey, here’s a good class to take. Here’s a good speaker to listen to. Here’s a book or two to read. Here’s three or four people to go visit who are really strong in this area.” And I did that year after year.

And it was back to the intentionality that I talked about earlier — why, if you don’t have a Level Five culture, is people don’t intentionally do this. You’ve heard this story about my son, where he was working as an intern for one of my old clients, and he had the summer job of scanning documents. That’s basically what he did all summer long. He’s 18 years old, scanning documents. And every day he comes home and, “Hey, how’s work, Braden?” 

And then one Friday came home. “How was work?” “It was great.” “Oh really? What? Why was it so great?” He said, “We had an offsite.” I said, “What’d you guys do?” And he said, “Well, we had this speaker on this, we learned about this product, we learned about this here, all these different things. It’s really cool. But the best part of the day is when Seth taught a class on the five levels of leadership.” 

He had no idea it’d come from me. And I said, “Oh really, man, I love to hear about it.” And he went through the five levels. And at the end of it, he said what a lot of people do say. He said, “You know what, Dad? I aspire to be a Level Five someday.” “Oh, that’s great, Braden.” 

This is the thing about being a Level Five leader it’s — leadership, being a leader is a profession. Just like being — she’s working as, say, a financial advisor. It’s a profession. You’re going to have to put 10,000-plus hours into it to actually get good at it. And leadership’s the same thing. And the cool thing is that’s what I do for a living. I help people develop their leadership skills. So maybe I can help you. “Yeah, that’d be cool, Dad. It’d be cool.”

Well, the next week, and this is back to self-awareness and intentionality. The next week, I returned home from a trip, walking up the driveway with my suitcase rolling up the driveway, and out of the house comes my 18-year-old son to meet me. Now, I know you have little kids, and it’s really cool when you have little ones, they come and they hug you and kiss you, you’ll cherish these days. But when they become teenagers, they stop meeting you in the driveway. When they meet you in the driveway, you know that there’s something wrong. So my self-talk is, my son comes out of the house to meet me, is “Oh shoot.” I’m looking for the car. “How much is this going to cost me? What’s wrong?” And it goes like this, “Hey, Braden, how you doing?” And he goes, “Great, Dad.”

And then he does a shake of the head and he goes, “The Kelly house is out of food.” So my self-talk immediately went, “Woosh.” The last thing I want to deal with is the Kelly house is out of food. So I asked Braden, the one who said he wanted to become a Five some day. I said, “Braden, what level of leadership is that?” He thinks about it for a second, and he goes, “Level two, I identified a problem.” I said, “You got it, man.” 

And I walked by, I said, “When you can get it to Level Four, come find me.” And I walked by him and walked into the house. Now, to his credit, he found the solution. He came back with a grocery list put together. He had his little brother in tow. He said, “Hey, I talked to Ryan,” his older brother. “I talked to Bridgette,” the younger sister. “We came up with a grocery list and really all I need is some cash, and I got a magnet for this. So we have a system, so this doesn’t happen again. I need cash or a credit card, and I’ll go to the grocery store, pick up the groceries.”

Now I shared that with you, not because I’m so smart because of that. It was because how often we stunt the growth of our people. And back to my old boss, intentionality, back to his Level Five culture, the person who taught me this thing is like, the answer to him actually getting peace and more time to himself is, he’s got to develop his leadership team so that it’s not relying on him. 

So if I’m a listener right now, one of the things I think about is how I could get an IDP for myself first and foremost and then for everyone on my team. Could I get them thinking about how they can improve their leadership skills?

And if I’m listening to this, one of the things I would get good at is the five levels of leadership model. When you share that model, 90% of the time, 90% of the people will be thinking one, if not all three of those things. What number am I? I’m self-assessing. What number are the people around me, and how do I move myself up? They’re inspired and motivated, but you have to be very intentional. And when you write down your plan, you’re twice as likely to achieve it. A written plan versus just one cup in your head. And when you tell other people about it — so part of the IDP may be actually sharing it with everyone on your team so they can help and assist you grow and develop your skills.

And when you do that, you go from twice as likely to achieve the goal to 10 times more likely to achieve the goal. So if I’m leading an organization, that becomes part of our system, OK? Remove discretion at the operating level. We’re going to have a system for everyone on our team, every single year, as part of their goals will be an individual development plan. And what are we going to work on in terms of developing our leadership skills? It could be communication, all those different things I talked about earlier in terms of I’d be very intentional and purposeful.

Awesome. Thank you, Ray.

You’re welcome.

As we wrap this episode, we’re committed to helping you make the ideal real. If you found this program helpful, share it and help someone else make their ideal real too. Until next time, for think2perform, I’m Ryan Goulart. Take care.

More Episodes

Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Make A Difference With think2perform’s Doug Lennick and Chuck Wachendorfer

Values based living, the two-bridge theory.

• Your cart is empty! Return to shop

• Join Mind Tools

Level 5 Leadership

Achieving "greatness" as a leader.

© Veer Xiaojiao

To become a great leader, you must build your skills.

What makes leaders great? Is it their courage? Their business acumen? Their expert knowledge? Their ability to organize?

Truly great leaders have a specific blend of skills. But they also possess something else; certain characteristics which are harder to define.

If you're in a leadership role, then you've likely wondered how you can move to that "next level," going from good to great leadership.

In this article, we'll examine "Level 5 Leadership" – a key idea that helps you do this. We'll explore what it takes to achieve greatness as a leader, and we'll discuss strategies that you can use to move up to this top level of leadership.

Introducing Level 5 Leadership

The concept of Level 5 Leadership was created by business consultant, Jim Collins. He wrote about it in a well-respected 2001 Harvard Business Review article , and published his research in his popular book, " Good to Great ."

The concept came about during a study that began in 1996, when Collins began researching what makes a great company. He started by looking at 1,435 companies, and ended up choosing 11 truly great ones. These 11 companies were all headed by what Collins called "Level 5 Leaders."

He found that these leaders have humility, and they don't seek success for their own glory; rather, success is necessary so that the team and organization can thrive. They share credit for success, and they're the first to accept blame for mistakes. Collins also says that they're often shy, but fearless when it comes to making decisions, especially ones that most other people consider risky.

Level 5 Leaders also possess qualities found in four other levels of leadership that Collins identified. Although you don't have to pass sequentially through each individual level before you become a Level 5 Leader, you must have the skills and capabilities found in each level of the hierarchy.

Let's look at each of the five levels in more detail:

Level 1: Highly Capable Individual

At this level , you make high quality contributions with your work. You possess useful levels of knowledge; and you have the talent and skills needed to do a good job.

Level 2: Contributing Team Member

At Level 2, you use your knowledge and skills to help your team succeed. You work effectively, productively and successfully with other people in your group.

Level 3: Competent Manager

Here, you're able to organize a group effectively to achieve specific goals and objectives.

Level 4: Effective Leader

Level 4 is the category that most top leaders fall into. Here, you're able to galvanize a department or organization to meet performance objectives and achieve a vision.

Level 5: Great Leader

At Level 5, you have all of the abilities needed for the other four levels, plus you have the unique blend of humility and will that's required for true greatness.

Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review . From " Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve " by Jim Collins, January 2001. Copyright © 2001 by the Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation; all rights reserved.

How to Become a Level 5 Leader

It takes time and effort to become a Level 5 Leader. But the good news is that it can be done, especially if you have the passion to try.

Again, it's important to realize that you don't have to progress through each level in turn in order to get to Level 5. But you do need the capabilities found in each level in order to achieve Level 5 status.

Here are some strategies that will help you grow emotionally and professionally, so that you can develop the qualities of a Level 5 Leader:

Develop Humility

Level 5 Leaders are humble people. So, learn why humility   is important, and make sure that you understand – at a deep, emotional level – why arrogance is so destructive. Then ensure that you behave in a humble way – for example, whenever your team has success, make sure that credit goes to them for their hard work.

Conversely, as a leader, you need to take responsibility for your team's efforts, even when things go wrong.

The 2007-2008 financial crisis showed many examples of how arrogant, self-glorifying, self-obsessed leaders led their organizations to ruin. Much of this chaos could have been averted if appointment committees had recruited Level 5 Leaders. Humility matters, including when it comes to recruitment.

Ask for Help

Level 5 Leaders are sometimes mistakenly thought of as "weak," because they ask for help when they need it.

Finding This Article Useful?

You can learn another 61 leadership skills, like this, by joining the Mind Tools Club.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Receive new career skills every week, plus get our latest offers and a free downloadable Personal Development Plan workbook.

However, learning how to ask for help   is a genuine strength, because it lets you call upon the expertise of someone stronger in an area than you are. The result? The entire team or organization wins; not just you.

Remember the Guy Kawasaki quote that "A players recruit A+ players, while B players recruit C players." If you're recruiting A+ players, why wouldn't you take full advantage of their skills? (The truth is that if you can recruit A+ people successfully and get the best from them, then you've become an A+ manager.)

Take Responsibility

A top attribute of Level 5 Leaders is that they take responsibility   for their team's mistakes or failings.

So make sure that you take responsibility for your (and your team's) actions. Our Book Insight " No Excuses! The Power of Self Discipline   " has more on this.

Develop Discipline

Level 5 Leaders are incredibly disciplined   in their work. When they commit to a course of action, no matter how difficult it is, they stick to their resolve.

If you know in your heart that you're right, then don't let naysayers dissuade you from a course of action. It's always important to listen to differing opinions, of course, but don't let fear be your driving motivator when you make, or change, a decision.

Find the Right People

Level 5 Leaders depend on the people around them. They spend time finding the right people   , and helping them reach their full potential.

If you're a leader or manager already, then you probably know without thinking who your best people are. However, you sometimes have to challenge these assumptions – our article on The Leader-Member Exchange Theory   shows you how to do this, so that you can get the best from everyone on your team.

Lead With Passion

Level 5 Leaders are passionate about what they do, and they're not afraid to show it.

When you demonstrate to your team members that you love and believe in what you're doing, they will too. If you're having a hard time finding passion in your work, then you need to search for the human benefit in what you're doing.

See our article on Working with Purpose   to explore how to find meaning in what you're doing. It's also important to create an inspiring vision for your people – our article on Transformational Leadership   shows you how to do this.

Use common sense in the way that you apply this idea.

In some environments – that is, in high-trust, properly-managed workplaces – Level 5 Leadership is something to aspire to, demonstrate and apply.

In low-trust or dysfunctional environments, however, you may need to use Level 5 Leadership more cautiously. Definitely apply the approach, but make sure that you're alert to the "corporate politics" going on around you.

Level 5 Leadership is a concept developed by Jim Collins. After several years of research, Collins discovered that all of the great organizations that he studied were headed by what he called "Level 5 Leaders."

These Leaders have a unique combination of fierce resolve and humility. They were the first to own up to mistakes, and the last to take credit for success.

You can work on developing the following skills and characteristics to become a Level 5 Leader:

• Develop humility.
• Ask for help.
• Take responsibility.
• Develop discipline.
• Find the right people.
• Lead with passion.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter , or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

Rate this resource

The Mind Tools Club gives you exclusive tips and tools to boost your career - plus a friendly community and support from our career coaches! 

Comments (14)

• Over a month ago Michele wrote Hi Saisi, When the concept of the Level 5 Leader was first introduced, it was viewed as a novel insight, although the importance of humility had a central role in other leadership styles, such as Servant Leadership. How many leaders do you know who have the attributes of a Level 5 Leader? I find them to be quite rare. Michele Mind Tools Team
• Over a month ago Saisi wrote Wow! great insight. Got my missing link sorted.
• Over a month ago Michele wrote Hi LoveUtolife, Welcome to the Club! It is great to see that you are finding your way around the site. What you say about self development is true. And before we develop ourselves, we also need to be self-aware, an attribute of emotional intelligence. Michele Mind Tools Team

Please wait...

• Level 5 Leadership case studies

Zabedha Ali

I came on the programme because it is really important for me to keep developing my skills and I wanted to develop my leadership techniques but in a guided and supported way. The ILM accreditation was really important as I would like to look into a Teaching Degree so I thought this was a good place to restart my learning journey.

I have gained so much from it, the course has introduced me to a world of skills and the theory underpinning them. I have enjoyed reading about the subject and the research side of the course. It has made me understand a little better why our colleagues behave in different ways to ourselves and why the reasons behind these behaviours may arise. 

It is helping me feel more confident, trying different leadership techniques because I can now understand why they are better suited to the situation. I have also become a much more reflective team member analysing my own behaviours and those of my colleagues. This has been good for my school because I am showing positive leadership skills that I have been able to put into practice developing an intervention for the benefit of the pupils.

One of the highlights has been researching Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, along with meeting like-minded inquisitive practitioners, whose passion and commitment to the job is highly infectious. Our course tutors have felt more like gentle guides who have shown us a path but allowed us to view it as it appears to us, they are knowledgeable but I feel they have encouraged me to look for the answers rather than having them presented to me.

• Organizational Behaviour
• Level 5 Leadership

We have always associated leadership with a very visible and popular role which gives you recognition and a larger than life status as a leader however the level 5 leadership proposes quite opposing characteristics of a successful leader.

Jim Collins and his research team were exploring the factors that made good companies great way back in the 1960s. It was then that they stumbled upon the Level 5 leaders who were invariably at the helm of affairs of all the companies which went on to become great in their respective fields.

Who exactly is a Level 5 leader? Collins describes Level 5 leader as Humility + Will = Level 5 . They are the nurturing leaders who do not want credit but want success to sustain over a longer period of time, long after they are gone.

Level 5 leaders are modest, shy and fearless and possess the capability to transform an organization from good to great without portraying themselves as wizards with magic wands . They prefer talking about the company and the contribution of other people but rarely about their role or achievements. Let us have a look at the hierarchical level of leadership identified:

The Level 5 leadership clearly reestablishes the facts about a simply living and high thinking with an emphasis on personal humility taught by the older generations. The financial breakthroughs achieved by level 5 leaders prove that these characteristics can achieve tangible results as well.

The most important example in this context can be cited of great world leaders like M.K. Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln , who always put their vision ahead of their egos. They came across as shy and defenseless people in their mannerism and speech but were hardly so when it came to actions.

The other example from the business leaders who fitted perfectly into this category was Darwin E Smith who was the CEO of the paper company Kimberly-Clark and turned it around to become the biggest consumer paper product company. He was a unique mix of personal humility and will; combined with risk taking ability which made him a role model for the business leaders of today.

There are certain actions performed by Level 5 leaders which separate them from the rest of the leaders and senior executives.

With the new concept of Level 5 leadership we come back to an age old question, can Level 5 leadership be learnt? , if yes then how.

According to Collins it is farfetched to suitably see whether it can be learnt or not but he surely identifies two categories of people, one who have the Level 5 Leadership in them, dormant, latent or unexpressed and others who do not have it.

So leaders who cannot look beyond their personal role, fame, achievements etc can hardly become Level 5 leaders . Only when they can put the larger good ahead of them, they transcend to the next level. This transition is not general but can be brought by some tragic accident, near death experiences or a life changing incident , as came across by Collins in his research.

It would be appropriate to mention the name of M.K. Gandhi to understand it better. For Gandhi who had lived a comfortable life with a law degree from England had no experience of being oppressed by the ruling class until he was thrown out of a train despite carrying a first class ticket. His transition began from there, which later made him actively participate in the Indian Freedom Struggle.

Level 5 leadership is difficult to find and leaders who display it are a cut above the rest .

  Related Articles

• Leadership Strategy
• Leadership Styles
• Personal Leadership Brand
• Situational Leadership
• Situational Leadership and Motivation

View All Articles

Authorship/Referencing - About the Author(s)

The article is Written and Reviewed by Management Study Guide Content Team . MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider . To Know more, click on About Us . The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.

• Leadership - Introduction
• Importance of Leadership
• Role of a Leader
• Qualities of a Leader
• Leadership and Management
• Leader versus Manager
• Authority vs Leadership
• Leadership and Motivation
• Emotional Intelligence for Leaders
• Organizational Leadership
• Leadership Ethics
• Leadership & Subordinate Development
• Leadership Development - Introduction
• Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
• Inside Leaders vs. Outside Leaders
• Transformational Leadership
• Leadership for the 21st Century
• The Transleader
• Three Traits of Effective Leadership
• Importance of Compassion in Leadership
• An Important Advice to Future Leaders
• Reinventing Management for 21st Century
• Ambidextrous Leadership
• Invest in Oneself
• Social Media Skills for Leaders
• Social Stratification and Hierarchy
• The Ethical Imperative
• Leadership in the Face of Adversity
• Emotional and Spiritual Intelligence
• Leadership Theories
• Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid
• House’s Path Goal Theory
• Great Man Theory
• Trait Theory
• Transactional Leadership
• Continuum of Leadership Behaviour
• Likert’s Management System
• Hersey Blanchard Model
• Fiedler’s Contingency Model
• Leadership and Trust
• How to be a Good Leader ?
• Effective Leadership Skills
• Leadership Vision
• Different Types of Power
• Women and Leadership
• What are the Challenges in Leadership ?
• Tips to Overcome Challenges in Leadership
• Role of Communication in Overcoming Leadership Challenges
• Role of Management/Organization in Overcoming Leadership Challenges
• Tips to Strengthen Bond Among Employees
• Vision of Leaders has to be Actualized by Middle Management for Organizational Success
• Leadership in the Time of Epic Changes and Struggles Over Ethics and Values
• Great Leadership is about Initiating, Sustaining, and Carrying through Ones Vision
• Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
• Scarcity vs. Abundant Mindsets in Leaders
• Different Folks, Different Strokes! The Many Leadership Styles in the Real World
• Persuasion and the Art of Changing Minds are Essential for Contemporary Leaders
• Managing in Chaos: A Necessary Skill for Managers and Leaders
• Leadership in the Contemporary World
• Need to Develop Network Thinking and Seventh Sense for Success in the 21st Century
• Why Do Some Business Leaders Attain Greatness Whereas Others Fail?
• Hands on Approach to Leadership: The Need for Leaders to be Good Administrators
• How Great Leaders Transform Organizations, Nations, Societies, and the World
• Why Business and Political Leaders Must be Institution Builders to Ensure Longevity
• Qualities of an Inspirational Leader and their Benefits
• Foundation Pillars of Successful Leaders
• Self Assessment for Leadership: Assessing the Strengths and Vulnerabilities for Improving Leadership Effectiveness
• Self Motivation for Leaders
• Techniques for Developing Self-Motivation
• Leadership Development Plan
• Writing a Leadership Development Plan
• When Hope Meets Reality: The Challenges for Leaders to Sustain the Momentum
• The Challenge for Contemporary Leaders is to Restore Trust and Faith in Institutions
• The Ever Shortening Business Cycles and What They Mean for Business Leaders
• Leadership Case Study: Steve Jobs - The Man Who Ushered in the Smartphone Revolution
• Why Leaders Must be in Control over the Direction and Pace of Organizational Change
• The 4Cs of Leadership Styles for Leadership in the Digital Age
• Lessons for Business Leaders from the Downfall of Charles Ghosn of Renault - Nissan
• Truly Great Leadership is All about Walking the Talk in All Aspects of Being Leaders
• Examining the Crisis of the Leader – Follower Relationship in the Present Times
• How Great Leaders use a Mix of Micromanagement and Hands off Approaches
• Leadership during Crises is what Distinguishes Great Leaders from Manager Leaders
• What the Dalai Lama can teach Corporate Honchos about Leadership and Management
• Why we Need more Emotionally Intelligent Leaders and Managers in Chaotic Times
• Why the Digital Age Calls for a New Approach to Leadership and Team Management
• Business Leadership in the Age of Nationalism and Populism and the Rocky Road Ahead
• Leadership in a Collapsing World When Faced with Insurmountable Problems
• The Importance of Thought Leaders and Influencers in the Age of Social Media
• Leadership by Optics Management: Taking the Howdy Modi Event as a Case Study
• What Should Leaders do in Low Growth and Recessionary Times
• The Tyranny of the Quarterly Results: Why Business Leaders must Avoid Short-Termism
• The Perils of Leaders and Their Personality Cults in Times of Authoritarian Rulers
• Leadership in the Digital Age and Why Contemporary Leaders Must Master These Skills
• Misdemeanours by Senior Leaders Must Be Handled Firmly and the Right Message Sent
• When Hope Meets Reality: Why Visionary Leaders Have to Balance Dreams with Realities
• Power as a Managerial Tool
• Why We Need More Self Aware and Less Self Centred Leaders, Who Can Self Evaluate

Product details

Business Case Studies, HRM / OB Case Study, Wipro’s Azim Premji, Leadership

Mba course case maps.

• Business Models
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• Competition & Strategy ⁄ Competitive Strategies
• Core Competency & Competitive Advantage
• Corporate Strategy
• Corporate Transformation
• Diversification Strategies
• Going Global & Managing Global Businesses
• Growth Strategies
• Industry Analysis
• Managing In Troubled Times⁄Managing a Crisis
• Market Entry Strategies
• Mergers, Acquisitions & Takeovers
• Restructuring / Turnaround Strategies
• Strategic Alliances, Collaboration & Joint Ventures
• Supply Chain Management
• Value Chain Analysis
• Vision, Mission & Goals
• Global Retailers
• Indian Retailing
• Brands & Branding and Private Labels
• Consumer Behaviour
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Marketing Research
• Marketing Strategies ⁄ Strategic Marketing
• Positioning, Repositioning, Reverse Positioning Strategies
• Sales & Distribution
• Services Marketing
• Economic Crisis
• Fiscal Policy
• Government & Business Environment
• Macroeconomics
• Micro ⁄ Business ⁄ Managerial Economics
• Monetary Policy
• Public-Private Partnership
• Financial Management & Corporate Finance
• Investment & Banking
• Leadership,Organizational Change & CEOs
• Succession Planning
• Corporate Governance & Business Ethics
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• International Trade & Finance
• Entrepreneurship
• Family Businesses
• Social Entrepreneurship
• HRM ⁄ Organizational Behaviour
• Innovation & New Product Development
• Business Research Methods
• Operations & Project Management
• Operations Management
• Quantitative Methods
• Social Networking
• China-related Cases
• India-related Cases
• Women Executives ⁄ CEO's
• Course Case Maps
• Effective Executive Interviews

Video Interviews

Executive brief.

• Case Catalogues
• Case studies in Other Languages
• Multimedia Case Studies
• Textbook Adoptions
• Customized Categories
• Free Case Studies
• Faculty Zone
• Student Zone
• By CaseCode
• By CaseTitle
• By Industry
• By Keywords

Case Categories

• Corporate Governance & Business Ethics
• Investment and Banking
• Human Resource Management (HRM)⁄Organizational Behaviour
• Leadership, Organizational Change and CEOs
• Brand⁄Marketing Communication Strategies and Advertising & Promotional Strategies
• China-related cases
• India-related cases
• Women Executives/CEO's
• Aircraft & Ship Building
• Automobiles
• Home Appliances & Personal Care Products
• Minerals, Metals & Mining
• Engineering, Electrical & Electronics
• Building Materials & Construction Equipment
• Food, Diary & Agriculture Products
• Oil & Natural Gas
• Office Equipment
• Banking, Insurance & Financial Services
• Telecommunications
• e-commerce & Internet
• Freight &l Courier
• Movies,Music, Theatre & Circus
• Video Games
• Broadcasting
• Accessories & Luxury Goods
• Accounting & Audit
• IT Consulting
• Corporate Consulting
• Advertising
• IT and ITES
• Hotels & Resorts
• Theme Parks
• Health Care
• Sports & Sports Related
• General Business
• Business Law, Corporate Governence & Ethics
• Conglomerates

Popular Searches

Useful links.

• How to buy case studies?
• Pricing Information

HRM / OB Case Study

Wipro’s azim premji: level 5 leadership style.

Publication Month and Year :  June 2009

Authors:  J. Shalom Jenifer & Lekha Ravi

Industry:  Not Applicable

Region: India

Case Code:  OB0021

Teaching Note:  Available

Structured Assignment:  Available

Length:  15 pages

Abstract: Wipro was a small insignificant vegetable oil company in 1947, which grew into a multinational conglomerate in the 21st century. Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India is headed by Azim Premji (Premji), whose attributes point towards level 5 leadership style. Sound values, integrity and professional will were identified as the impetus that drove Premji to churn Wipro from a $2 million company to a $1.76 billion one serving customers across the globe. Premji's sharp strategic vision and crisp communication skills led his team to strive for excellence. He has been known for his modesty, simplicity and non-extravagance.

The case study helps to perceive the concept of Level 5 leadership and further maps Azim Premji as Level 5 leader.

• Analyse various leadership styles and personality traits
• Study Azim Premji's personality traits and leadership styles that influenced Wipro's success
• Comprehend the role of Level 5 leadership in the growth of an organisation.

Keywords :  Leadership, Level 5 Leadership, Leadership Traits, Leadership Types, Are Leaders Born or Made?, Understanding Leadership, Leadership Theories, Behavioral Theories, Contingency Theories, Leadership Skills, Determinants of Leadership, Challenges to Leadership, Leader Vs Manager, WIPRO, Azim Premji, Indian Leaders, Corporate Leadership, Organizational Behavior, OB, Organizational Behavior case study, Motivation Case Study, MBA, MBA Program, Course Mapping

• Wipro's Growth under Azim Premji
• Azim Premji's leadership style
• Premji's interpretation of Leadership
• Premji's Level 5 leadership
• History of Wipro
• Wipro's Businesses

Related Case Studies

• » Peter F. Drucker: Business Management and Beyond
• » Differing Perceptions at Hi-Style Limited
• » Personality: Who is Responsible?
• » Leadership Conundrum: Nike After Knight
• » New Recruits’ Perfunctory Perceptions: The Manager’s Apathy

Recently Bought Case Studies

Case studies on.

• View all Casebooks »

Course Case Mapping For

• View All Course Casemaps »
• View all Video Interviews »
• Executive Briefs

Executive Interviews

• View all Executive Briefs »
• View All Executive Interviews »

Contact us: IBS Case Development Centre (IBSCDC), IFHE Campus, Donthanapally, Sankarapally Road, Hyderabad-501203, Telangana, INDIA. Mob: +91- 9640901313, E-mail: [email protected]

• Magazine Issues
• Magazine Articles
• Online Articles
• Training Day Blog
• Whitepapers
• L&D Provider Directory
• Artificial Intelligence
• Employee Engagement
• Handling Customer Complaints
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Leadership Development Case Studies
• Positive Relationships
• Teams and Teambuilding
• Awards Overview
• Training APEX Awards
• Emerging Training Leaders
• Training Magazine Network Choice Awards
• Online Courses
• Training Conference & Expo
• TechLearn Conference
• Email Newsletter
• Advertising

Leadership Case Studies

Here is a sample of three case studies from the book, Leadership Case Studies, that are most instructive and impactful to developing leadership skills.

For the past 30 years, I have conducted seminars and workshops and taught college classes on leadership.

I used a variety of teaching aids including books, articles, case studies, role-plays, and videos.

I recently created a book, Leadership Case Studies that includes some of the case studies and role-plays that I found to be most instructive and impactful.

Here is a sample of three case studies.

Peter Weaver Case Study

Peter Weaver doesn’t like to follow the crowd. He thinks groupthink is a common problem in many organizations. This former director of marketing for a consumer products company believes differences of opinion should be heard and appreciated. As Weaver states, “I have always believed I should speak for what I believe to be true.”

He demonstrated his belief in being direct and candid throughout his career. On one occasion, he was assigned to market Paul’s spaghetti-sauce products. During the brand review, the company president said, “Our spaghetti sauce is losing out to price-cutting competitors. We need to cut our prices!”

Peter found the courage to say he disagreed with the president. He then explained the product line needed more variety and a larger advertising budget. Prices should not be cut. The president accepted Weaver’s reasoning. Later, his supervisor approached him and said, “I wanted to say that, but I just didn’t have the courage to challenge the president.”

On another occasion, the president sent Weaver and 16 other executives to a weeklong seminar on strategic planning. Weaver soon concluded the consultants were off base and going down the wrong path. Between sessions, most of the other executives indicated they didn’t think the consultants were on the right path. The consultants heard about the dissent and dramatically asked participants whether they were in or out. Those who said “Out” had to leave immediately.

As the consultants went around the room, every executive who privately grumbled about the session said “In.” Weaver was fourth from last. When it was his turn, he said “Out” and left the room.

All leaders spend time in reflection and self-examination to identify what they truly believe and value. Their beliefs are tested and fine-tuned over time. True leaders can tell you, without hesitation, what they believe and why. They don’t need a teleprompter to remind them of their core beliefs. And, they find the courage to speak up even when they know others will disagree.

• What leadership traits did Weaver exhibit?
• If you were in Weaver’s shoes, what would you have done?
• Where does courage come from?
• List your three most important values.

Dealing with a Crisis Case Study

Assume you are the VP of Sales and Marketing for a large insurance company. Once a year your company rewards and recognizes the top 100 sales agents by taking them to a luxury resort for a four-day conference. Business presentation meetings are held during the morning. Afternoons are free time. Agents and spouses can choose from an assortment of activities including golf, tennis, boating, fishing, shopping, swimming, etc.

On day 2 at 3:00 p.m., you are at the gym working out on the treadmill, when you see Sue your administrative assistant rushing towards you. She says, “I need to talk to you immediately.”

You get off the treadmill and say, “What’s up?” Sue states, “We’ve had a tragedy. Several agents went boating and swimming at the lake. Randy, our agent from California died while swimming.”

(Background information – Randy is 28 years old. His wife did not come on the trip. She is home in California with their three children).

• Explain what you would communicate to the following people.
• Your Human Resources Department
• The local police
• The attendees at the conference (Would you continue the conference?)
• How will you notify Randy’s wife?
• If Randy’s wife and a few family members want to visit the location of Randy’s death, what would you do?
• What are some “guiding principles” that leaders need to follow in a crisis situation?

 Arsenic and Old Lace Case Study

Review the YouTube video, “ I’ll show them who is boss Arsenic and Old Lace.”   

Background Information

The Vernon Road Bleaching and Dyeing Company is a British lace dyeing business. It was purchased in bankruptcy by the father/son team of Henry and Richard Chaplin. Richard has been acting as “Managing Director” which is the same as a general manager or president of a company.

The company has had 50-to-150 employees with 35-to-100 being shop floor, production employees. The company produces and sells various dyed fabrics to the garment industry.

Gerry Robinson is a consultant who was asked to help transform methods of conducting business to save the company.

Jeff is the factory manager.

• What are Richard’s strengths and weaknesses as a leader?
• What could Richard have done to make the problems of quality and unhappy customers more visible to the workforce?
• What do you think Richard’s top three priorities should be for the next 12 months?
• What could Richard have done to motivate the workforce?
• Evaluate Jeff’s approach and effectiveness as a leader.

The book contains 16 case studies, four role-plays, and six articles. I hope you find some of the content useful and helpful in your efforts to teach leadership.

Click for additional leadership case studies and resources .

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

3 Tips for Managers to Reduce Burnout

Disparity in the Value of Training and Professional Development Initiatives

Training apex awards best practice: aaa northeast’s northeast nine: safety in action series, online partners.

2025 Training APEX Awards: Apply Today!

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List

How level 5 leadership escalates organizational citizenship behaviour in telecom sector of Pakistan? Exploring mediatory role of organizational dissent

Rafia sarfraz.

1 Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Kashif Rathore

Mukaram ali khan.

2 National School of Public Policy, Lahore, Pakistan

Syed Sohaib Zubair

3 Department of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Jhelum, Pakistan

Associated Data

Data has been uploaded as supporting file.

Role of leadership in managing organizational behaviour of employees is of key essence. However, at times unconventional behaviour of employees can pose a challenge for the leaders, which in this case is organizational dissent. This study has examined the relationship between level 5 leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour (individual level-OCB-I) in presence of organizational dissent at employing a quantitative approach and a survey design. All managerial cadre employees of telecommunication sector were chosen as a population of the study. Data from 450 respondents from all four telecom companies was analysed using PLS-SEM. The findings of the study revealed that there is direct significant relationship between level 5 leadership and OCB-I of employees i.e., L5L~ OCB-I. Furthermore, the results showed an indirect relationship between level 5 leadership and OCB-I of employees through organizational dissent i.e., L5L~OD~OCB-I is significant. Telecom is a rapidly growing sector that plays a significant role in the economic growth of Pakistan. The study shows that OCB-I in telecom sector of Pakistan can be leveraged through level 5 leadership.

1. Introduction

Leaders play a critical role in managing organizational performance and organizational behaviour in any sector. They work to keep employee behaviour as positive in order to ensure successful contribution to the organizational excellence. However, unconventional behaviour of employees such as organizational dissent can pose a challenge for the leaders in managing workplace. Therefore, this study focuses on the relationship between two traditional concepts i.e., Level 5 Leadership (L5L) and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour at individual level (OCB-I) in the presence of Organizational Dissent (OD). OCB plays an important role in effective functioning of an organization [ 1 ]. In today’s competitive world, the organizations that have employees’ carrying out duties beyond their formal work description shown growth [ 2 ]. OCB is the discretionary and voluntary behaviour displayed by the employees. It helps in the promotion of effective working of the organization [ 3 – 5 ]. By discretionary, it means that the behaviour is not imposed or is not formally the part of an individual’s employment contract with organization. The individuals who display such behaviours are also referred to as ‘extra milers’ [ 6 ].

The organizational citizenship behaviour is influenced by leadership behaviours [ 7 ]. The willingness of employees to make an extra effort and go beyond formal job requirement is significantly related to the relationship between a leader and follower. The high-quality relationship between leader and follower shows increased level of citizenship behaviours [ 8 ]. Leaders are expected to deliver the vision, mission and objectives of the organization to the subordinates in a clear and concise manner, thus, increasing the creativity and innovation of employees [ 9 ]. The increase in the employees’ innovation and creativity leads to sustainable competitive advantage in today’s global market benefitting the organization [ 10 ].

Hence, important predictors of OCB are traits, skills and behaviours of leaders. Research depicts that leadership styles such as transformational, transactional, servant and leader-member exchange have a positive impact on OCB [ 11 – 15 ]. Moreover, the studies have reported a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and employee OCB [ 16 – 21 ]. When leaders act with humility which is one of the important aspects of level 5 leader, they tend to build trust among employees and employees put an extra effort in their jobs. They go beyond their required job duties and the level of creativity and innovation is also enhanced among employees [ 22 , 23 ]. As discussed earlier, the idea of OCB has been widely studied in relation to traditional leadership styles, however, limited work has been conducted in the context of L5L and OCB in the telecom sector [ 24 ]. Furthermore, the said study has been conducted where OCB was analysed at organizational level and not at the individual level and that too in the presence of OD as a mediator, hence making the current research significant in terms of bridging the gap.

The next aspect of the study is to determine the influence of level 5 leadership style on the follower’s expression of dissent within organization, and “Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will, they are incredibly ambitious and their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, organisation and its purpose and not themselves” [ 25 ].

Employee dissent behaviour is considered to be synonymous with the employee voice behaviour, which is defined as proactively challenging the status quo and to make constructive suggestions [ 26 ]. Leaders play a critical role in the voice process. Motivation and support provided by supervisor promotes employee voice [ 27 ]. Research suggested that pro-social voice of employees can be enhanced by leadership styles such as openness of leader and leader’s positive emotions [ 27 – 29 ]. According to the reciprocity principle, when employees feel being valued by their leaders, they respond in return as paying back their leaders. Thus, voice behaviour of employees and similar concepts such as OCB may be considered as an important return from followers to their leaders in exchange behaviour [ 30 ]. Thus, the present study seeks to clarify the conceptual link between L5L and organizational dissent.

This study also examines the relationship between organizational dissent and OCB towards individuals. This area of research has not gained much attention of the researchers. Precisely, dissent can be referred to as an expression of contradictory views or disagreement regarding the policies and practices of an organisation [ 31 – 33 ]. The word ‘dissent’ is interchangeably used with whistleblowing and employee voice [ 34 ]. Therefore, relationship is established between voice behaviour of employees’ and OCB. When the employees are more involved in the work-related issues then it positively influences their attitude towards organization [ 35 ]. Precisely, this study aims to find out when employees are free to speak out their views regarding work-related issues and are valued by the leaders then employees make an extra effort and goes beyond their job requirement.

2. Literature review

2.1 organizational citizenship behaviour.

The five generally used dimensions of OCB are altruism, civic virtue, conscientiousness, sportsmanship and courtesy [ 36 ]. These dimensions represent most valid categorization of the components of OCB [ 37 ].

The five dimensions of OCB as discussed in Table 1 are further divided into two categories. The OCB’s were differentiated on the basis of the fact that who might be benefited from them [ 43 ]. OCB-O is directed towards the organization and it benefits the organization in general, whereas, OCB-I is directed at individuals and it immediately provides benefits to the individuals [ 43 ] OCB-I is defined as the workplace behaviours that are directed at certain individuals. It directly gives advantage to the individuals and also increases the organizational success indirectly [ 43 ]. OCB-O is directed towards the organization, for example, the employees agree to be a part of the organization’s work groups. They also obey organizations procedures and policies voluntarily [ 43 ]. The OCB-O demands the employees to familiarize themselves with the organization’s rules and regulations [ 44 ]. The present study is focused on the OCB-I dimension of OCB.

2.2 Level 5 leadership & OCB-I

Level 5 Leaders are individuals who have a blend of extreme personal humility and intense professional will [ 45 ]. Level-5 leaders are overly ‘ambitious’ towards organizational success rather than themselves [ 46 ]. The level 5 leadership is based on two distinct dimensions i.e., personal humility (PH) and professional will (PW). The first dimension of L5L is ‘personal humility’. This concept is based on humble servant leadership. Collins described level 5 leaders as modest, humble, quiet, understated and self-effacing. Despite Collins research, his team rejected that servant leadership represent the whole concept of L5L. They believed that it may present a reasonable explanation of the first characteristic of level 5 leaders [ 47 ]. According to Collins, key characteristic of successful leadership is humility. If humility aspect is missing, the leader will impose his views on the encountered situation [ 48 ].

Level 5 leaders are also ambitious. There ambition is solely focused on the success of an organization [ 49 ]. Therefore, the second dimension of ‘professional will’ was included in the concept of L5L. Professional will is a fierce and unwavering resolve [ 47 ]. The leaders put their organizations first. They have an obsessing compulsive desire to make organization a success [ 49 ]. Furthermore, a leader with strong will would do anything to produce long term optimal outcomes for the organization, despite of any personal cost linked to it [ 47 ]. Hence, L5L has equal parts of humility and intense resolve [ 47 ].

Level 5 Leaders are highly capable individuals who can shape the behavior of employees and thus make them contribute extra to achieve organizational success [ 24 ]. L5L may facilitate workplace behaviours, support employees and play their role to increase the organizational success. Further, L5L helps to create citizenship behaviour inclined towards individuals that may include offering provision in the form of giving suggestions to other employees. Thus, L5L try to incorporate such culture within organization that help employees with relevant knowledge and skills to perform their job functions effectively. The following is hypothesized in the light of the above discussion.

H 1 : L5L positively affects OCB-I

2.3 Level 5 leadership & organizational dissent

Dissent can be defined as expression of contradictory views or disagreement regarding the policies and practices of an organisation [ 31 , 32 ]. The dissent is expressed by members of the organizations who are more engaged in work-related issues [ 50 ]. Dissent plays a vital role in organizations. It results in improved decision-making processes and has a positive impact on organizational performance [ 51 ] and it also is seen to increase employee satisfaction [ 52 ]. Organizational dissent is described as a two-step process [ 53 ]. First, incongruence between actual and desired state is recognised by employees. This recognition of disparity by employees distances them from others that either fails to acknowledge or chooses not to see the incongruence in the organization. Dissent is only felt at this stage, but it is not expressed by the employees yet. The realization that dissent must be expressed depends on the individual level of tolerance. Once the issue at hand exceeds that level dissent is expressed [ 31 , 53 ]. It must exceed the threshold level of employees which they have set regarding situations that are considered grave by them. They warrant speaking out knowing the risk associated with it [ 54 , 55 ].

There are various factors that promote employee voice. One of them is the direct supervision, motivation and support for the employees [ 27 ]. Moreover, the research depicts various leadership styles such as openness of the leader and leader’s positive emotions can enhance the employee pro-social voice [ 28 , 29 ]. Although there is theorising on how leadership behaviour influences the employees’ expression of contradictory opinions, but few empirical studies have been conducted to test the relationship [ 56 ].

The research conducted on authentic leadership and employee voice depicts a positive relationship [ 56 ]. Research literature reports a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice [ 57 ]. Additionally, the literature on the employee voice mainly derives from the social exchange theory [ 29 ] which focuses on the fact that employees reciprocate leader’s kindness and openness to take constructive criticism with voice behaviour intended towards organisations success.

There is little research on the concept of leader’s humility which is one of the major constructs of Level 5 Leadership [ 58 ]. With the continuous development of the research literature in the management, some researchers have shed light on the concept of humble leadership in the management research field. Humble leaders have the characteristic of humility and they have a bottom-up style of leadership. Moreover, the humble leaders are modest and open to the learning of their followers and are more receptive to the new ideas proposed by employees [ 59 ]. They seek to improve the leadership effectiveness and manage staff effectively and contribute effectively towards organisations’ success [ 60 ].

There is a gap in literature and both dimensions of L5L i.e., personal humility and professional will, need to be researched in relation with dissent or similar constructs such as employee voice. The leaders’ humility is the willingness of the leader to view him accurately and the ability to appreciate the employee’s strengths and their contributions in the success of the organization. It also includes openness towards new ideas proposed by the employees and feedback [ 61 ].

Moreover, the literature suggests that employees’ constructive voice behaviour and leader humility has not been explored much [ 62 ]. The current literature indicates several desirable characteristics such as job satisfaction, work engagement and team performance are positively related to leaders’ humility [ 63 , 64 ]. Leaders who are humble, acknowledge their faults and highlight the contributions of their followers promote various positive work-related outcomes such as performance and engagement. Such leaders also promote the voice behaviour of their followers. They give them support and in return the employees give constructive suggestions which enhance organizational effectiveness [ 58 ]. In literature, there exists a positive relationship between leader’s humility and employee’s constructive voice behaviour. Thus, it can be predicted that a positive relationship may exist between L5L and the acceptance of contradictory opinions regarding policies and practices of employees by the leaders such as promotion of employee’s voice behaviour or dissent.

H 2 : L5L positively affects OD

2.4 Organizational dissent & OCB-I

Dissent is the expression of contradictory views or disagreement with the regarding policies and practices of organisation [ 31 , 32 , 52 , 65 ]. Some studies suggest that dissent can be considered as a constructive form of deviance [ 66 ]. The current study is considering acceptance of the constructive form of employee’s voice i.e., giving helpful suggestions and participating in the work-related issues benefitting the organization. In comparison, OCB is the discretionary and voluntary behaviour displayed by the employees. This behaviour is not a part of the formal job requirement. It helps in the promotion of effective functioning of the organization [ 3 – 5 ].

When employees are encouraged by the management to express their ideas related to the organizational affairs e.g., decision making, the employees get a sense of belongingness and they consider themselves as an important part of the organization [ 67 ]. The involvement of employees in affairs related to the organization positively influences their attitude towards organisation [ 35 ].

The research studies reveal that the involvement of employees and letting them voice out their opinions relating to important aspects of work-related issues such a decision making can lead to extra-role behavior by the employees. The employees took more ownership of their work and were more responsible, hence, exhibit extra role behaviour [ 68 , 69 ].

The opportunity provided by the management to employees to effectively provide suggestions, opinions and criticism on the procedures and methods of the organisation implies that the management has acceptability towards the certain criticism and suggestions coming from employees and they respect the rights of the employees. The cooperative environment provided by the organization leads to increased OCB of employees [ 70 ]. The research also reveals the high-quality relationships between supervisor and the subordinates have a positive influence on the extra-role behaviour of employees [ 8 , 71 ].

Moreover, dissent is also used interchangeably in literature with whistle blowing [ 34 ]. By definition, whistleblowing means to report any illegal or non-ethical action that can have a negative effect on the organisation [ 72 ]. In literature, low level and positive relationship between whistle blowing and organizational citizenship behaviour is reported [ 73 ]. There is no significant relationship between whistle blowing and OCB, but this study also reported that there was a significant relationship between two of the dimensions of these concepts, i.e., external whistle blowing and civic virtue. Although, there is less research on these concepts but as research shows certain dimension of both concepts shows significant relationships, it might create a possibility that dissent and organizational citizenship behaviour might depict a significant relationship.

It is assumed from the above discussion that the acceptance of dissent by leaders within the organization can significantly affect the employee’s citizenship behaviour by making an extra effort and helping other employees and supervisors.

H 3 : OD positively affects OCB-I Based on the concepts of social exchange theory, when leader puts the followers’ needs and interests first and provides assistance to the followers, help them in the work-related issues and also empower them, employees form a perception that they have been treated fairly and sincerely by the leaders. As a result, a trust is built between the leader and follower and they start viewing their relationship more in terms of a social exchange rather than an economic exchange. When the employees receive such supportive treatment by their supervisors, they engage in constructive voice behaviour and also engage in citizenship behavior [ 57 , 74 ]. Following this reasoning, the current study proposes that Level 5 Leadership leads to OCB-I by the employees through the organizational dissent.

H 4 : OD mediates the relationship between L5L and OCB-I

Fig 1 shows the conceptual framework having level 5 leadership as independent variable and OCB-I as dependent variable and organizational dissent is taken as mediator, which has been influenced partially by social exchange theory.

3. Research methodology

Telecom sector is an important part of the service sector in Pakistan with a rapidly increasing sharing in the GDP and the Covid-19 pandemic has furthered its importance owing to the need for working from home and long-distance education. Apart from this, the telecommunication industry is chosen for the present research because of several reasons. It has emerged as an active service industry in the past three decades. The telecom sector of Pakistan plays a significant role in the growth of the economy [ 75 ]. The research is based on deductive reasoning and a survey research design is chosen. All managerial cadre employees of telecommunication sector of Pakistan are chosen as a population of the study. There are four major telecom companies that are operating all over Pakistan, i.e., Ufone, Telenor, Zong and Jazz/Warid which makes the total population of interest of the study. Since the sampling frame is available, therefore, the data is randomly collected from all of the above-mentioned companies in Lahore. The managerial level employees of telecom sector were selected from each office of the respective organization. Lahore is considered to be one of the largest cities of Pakistan, therefore, the sample has a fair chance of being representative of the population.

The sample size in the present research is calculated on the basis of item to respondent ratio, which states that the items in the scale should be multiplied with 10 in order to calculate the sample size [ 76 ]. This gives the approximate value of sample size for the present research study i.e., 32*10 = 320. For the purpose of this study, a total of 550 questionnaires were distributed in the four above mentioned telecom companies. Out of 550 questionnaires, 485 questionnaires were returned by the respondents which give us a response rate of 88%. 35 questionnaires were discarded because they were incomplete and filled incorrectly. Therefore, the sample size of 450 is taken for the purpose of this research which is more than the approximate value calculated by the item to respondent ratio. For data collection, already developed measures are used. For the measurement of Level 5 Leadership, a 10-item scale “1 being least and 10 being highest” developed by Reid III, Bud West, Winston & Wood has been used [ 77 ]. Organisational dissent is measured using a five-point Likert scale [strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), strongly agree (5)] developed by Kassing and has 15 items [ 34 ]. Organisational dissent is measured on three different dimensions which are articulated or upward dissent (AD), latent or lateral dissent (LD) and displaced outward dissent (DD). OCB-I, is measured using a 5-point Likert scale developed by Williams & Anderson [ 43 ]. OCB-I is measured by seven items. It is imperative to mention that verbal informed consent was taken from the respondents and all details regarding the purpose of data collection and the research work were shared in a cover letter attached with the instrument. The study is a non-funded independent in nature and does not in any way affect any participant or any institution. Moreover, this research also did not require any observation or any experimental intervention towards the participant. Therefore, owing to these reasons, in the regulatory framework or scope of this country, the authors/researchers do not need any approval or permission from any authority apart from getting informed consent from the individuals who provide data in the form of questionnaires., hence no prior board or committee’s approval was required in the said case.

4. Data analysis

The data shows that 57.80% participants are male and 42.20% are female respondents in the sample. The age of the respondents is categorized into eight (08) categories which shows that data is collected from all age groups. Level of employment is categorized into three groups i.e., senior, middle and junior management as shown in Table 2 along other descriptives.

4.1 Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM)

In order to develop and test the model or test the hypothesis, PLS-SEM has been used. As compared to CB-SEM, PLS-SEM provides less rigid sample size and model fitness restrictions. “PLS-SEM works efficiently with relatively small sample sizes and complex models and makes practically no assumptions about the underlying data [distributions]” [ 78 ].

Data in PLS-SEM method is analysed in two steps, firstly, path model or measurement model is analysed and after meeting certain criteria of measurement model the structural model parameters are assessed.

To deal with the potential common method bias (CMB) issue, researchers have used a full collinearity assessment approach [ 79 ]. If all the constructs VIF values are less than 3.3, then it can be concluded that the data is free from CMB, as is the case in this study.

4.1.1 Estimation of measurement model

The value of the composite reliability and Cronbach Alpha should be 0.7 or higher for an adequate model for confirmatory research purpose [ 80 ]. Table 3 shows that all the items are reporting higher values according to the required benchmark that is considered to be a good fit for the confirmatory research purposes as referred above, satisfying the internal consistency reliability criteria.

The convergent validity is supported when the values of outer loadings are above 0.70 and the value of AVE is 0.50 or higher [ 81 ]. All outer loadings of the variables are more than 0.70 as shown in Fig 2 . Moreover, the value of 0.50 of AVE indicates that the construct explains more than half of the variance of its indicators. Table 3 shows that all the indicators have AVE greater than 0.50 [ 81 ] which is the required level, it means the construct explains more than half of the variance of its indicators and it also satisfies the required benchmark of convergent validity.

From Table 4 , it can be assessed that all the constructs of the study have values of square root of AVE that are higher than the latent variable correlations and fulfills the criteria of discriminant validity. Moreover, cross loadings of the indicators of the constructs of the study to their latent variable. All the values are higher than any another constructs and it is in accordance with the given criteria of discriminant validity.

Degree of redundancy is measured with the help of Variance Inflation Factors (VIF) and all values are less than 5 which fulfil the criteria [ 82 ].

Fig 2 shows the factor loadings of the model and it shows that all the factor loadings are more than the defined threshold value as discussed above.

4.2 Assessment of structural model

Before examining the structural model, the level of collinearity needs to be determined in the structural model under study [ 78 ]. VIF values (AD = 2.88, DD = 1.54, LD = 2.02, PH = 1.68, PW = 1.07) indicates that there are no problems of multi-collinearity in the inner model, as the values of VIF (variance inflation factor) are below the threshold of 5 [ 82 ].

4.2.1 Direct effects of the model

The Table 5 shows direct effects of the model. It reveals that L5L has positive significant influence on OCB-I i.e., b = 0.351, t = 6.774, p < 0.001. L5L has positive significant influence on organizational dissent i.e., b = 0.324, t = 4.991, p < 0.001. Organizational dissent has positive significant influence on OCB-I i.e., b = 0.433, t = 5.040, p < 0.001.

Fig 3 shows the path coefficients of the model which are added in Table 5 and discussed above. It shows that all the path coefficients are significant.

Fig 4 shows the t statistic of the model which are added in Table 5 and discussed above. All the t values are higher than the threshold values of 1.96 showing significant path coefficients.

4.2.2 Indirect effect and total effect calculations

I n d i r e c t e f f e c t = 0.324 * . 433 = 0.140

4.2.3 Indirect path L5L -> OD -> OCB, t value

Thus, the above calculation reveals that 28.5% of the effect of L5L on OCB-I is explained through organisational dissent. VAF demonstrates partial mediation when threshold level is exceeded by 0.2 and it demonstrates full mediation when threshold level of 0.8 is exceeded [ 82 ]. Since, the value of VAF is between 20% and 80% organisational dissent partially mediates the relationship between L5L and OCB-I. Thus, these findings lead us to support Hypothesis 4.

5. Discussion

Since the early 2000s, Pakistan’s telecom sector has experienced fast growth and has been essential to the country’s economic expansion. A nation’s economy, culture, and social development are said to be determined by its level of telecommunication sector’s development. Pakistan, a middle-income nation, has seen political strife but has nonetheless managed to build its telecommunications industry quickly, maintaining its position as Asia’s fastest-growing telecom market. Cellular mobile telecommunication services were established in the early 1990s, and today Pakistan’s telecom sector is one of the biggest providers of low-cost calling rates in the region [ 83 ]. In Pakistan’s mobile telecommunications sector, the five major carriers are now engaged in a fierce battle. These carriers are developing strategies focused on providing the most affordable calling rates, comprehensive coverage, connection, and cutting-edge value-added services. More than 25,000 experts work in Pakistan’s mobile telecommunications sector. Due to the ongoing importance, the results of this study are useful in number of ways as discussed below.

The current study has examined the helping behaviour of employees’ (OCB-I) influence by level 5 leaders’ through organizational dissent in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. The study makes a significant contribution to existing literature on L5L and its relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour towards employees as there is only one study conducted previously [ 19 ]. The L5Ls’ are very ambitious [ 46 ], supportive, motivational and empower their employees. Such leaders provide a supportive environment to their followers and give them credit of the organizational success. The Level 5 Leaders are humble leaders and are ambitious towards achieving organisational goals. They are modest and at the same time are fierce when it comes to achieving organisational objectives. Rather they lead by example and prepare successors which will prove successful for the organisation in future [ 84 ]. The present study shows that when the leader provides such a supportive environment to employees’ and make them feel valued in the organization, the employees also show a positive response by making an extra effort. As a result, their helping behaviour enhances and they tend to help their supervisors and colleagues, share their burden and help them understand certain aspects of work by making an extra effort apart from their formal job requirement. The analysis of L5L with the OCB-I reveals L5L positively affects OCB-I , accepting first hypothesis (H 1 ) of the study. Literature on Level 5 leadership also confirms the current findings. The literature corroborates with our findings as it stated that the level 5 leaders are capable of moulding the behaviours of their followers and thus can make the employees to contribute extra effort in order to achieve organisational effectiveness [ 24 ].

Moving on, this study also examined the relationship between organisational dissent and L5L. Dissent and voice are alternatively used in the literature [ 34 ]. Voice is a broader concept as compared to dissent. Voice is distinguished by dissent relating to the audience it addresses and the nature of arguments. Voice is related to challenging the supervisor or when there is internal communication. Arguments can be related to any sort of agreement, disagreement or providing support or engaging employees related to work-place issues increasing organisation’s effectiveness. In contrast, in organizational dissent communication takes place in all directions and the employees’ express disagreements only that are related to work-place policies or practices to achieve organisational efficiency [ 34 , 85 , 86 ]. Hence, both the concepts promote organisational efficiency. The employee voice is promoted by various factors [ 87 ]. One of the factors to promote such behaviour of employees’ is the motivation and support provided by the supervisor [ 27 ]. Moreover, L5Ls dimension humility is taken up instead of L5L, as no direct article is there in literature which provides evidence on relating dissent and L5L. The concept of L5L is based on two dimensions; personal humility and professional [ 47 ]. The leaders’ having the characteristic of humility are open to learning and receptive to new ideas. They are humble and modest leaders [ 59 ].

The research also validated various leadership styles such as leaders’ openness and leaders’ positive emotions enhances employee pro-social voice [ 27 – 29 ]. The present study has made use of the concept of employee voice and leaders’ humility in order to build up the theoretical argument which can justify the current study.

The current literature indicates various desirable characteristics such as job satisfaction, work engagement and team performance to have a positive relationship with the leaders’ humility [ 63 , 64 ]. Leaders who are humble and acknowledge their faults and highlight the contributions of their followers promote various positive work-related outcomes such as performance and engagement. Such leaders also promote the voice behaviour of their followers. They give them support and in return the employees give constructive suggestions which may enhance organisational effectiveness [ 58 ]. The literature showed a positive relationship between the constructive voice behaviour of employees’ and leaders’ humility [ 62 ]. The results of the study indicate that when the leaders are supportive towards employees’ learning and have an acceptance to new ideas and suggestions the employees’ voice out their opinions more frequently. Thus, the result confirms that L5L positively affects OD , which accepts the second hypothesis (H 2 ) of the study.

Moreover, the research study has examined the relationship between organizational dissent and OCB-I of employees. The previous theorising on OCB-I and organisational dissent reveals that both are considered to be extra-role behaviours, not a part of formal job requirement. There is a distinction in both the concepts in literature. The OCB-I is concerned with the helping behaviour of employees [ 43 ]. In contrast, the employees expressing disagreement towards certain policies and practices related to organisation is known as dissent [ 31 , 32 ]. Dissent and voice are interchangeably used in literature as explained in earlier sections of the study. The concept of voice is incorporated to build a relationship between OCB-I and organisational dissent. Voice behaviour of employees was said to be one of the dimensions of classification of OCB known as challenge-oriented citizenship behaviour (COCB) [ 88 ] and is also related to organisational citizenship behaviour towards organisation (OCB-O) [ 89 ]. Hence, there is a clear distinction between OCB-I and organisational dissent in literature. The present study strives to find out the relationship between the extra role behaviour related to helping behaviour of employees’ and the expression of contradictory opinions relating to organisations policies and practices by employees. The results of the study reveal a significant relationship between OCB-I and organisational dissent. When the employees were given an opportunity to voice out their opinions and suggestions, made part of decision-making process they felt more involved [ 67 ]. The previous research findings corroborate with the present study and hence, endorse the third hypothesis (H 3 ).

The structural model examined through PLS-SEM shows that L5L is significantly correlated with OCB-I of the employees mediated by organizational dissent that supports H 4 . It can be argued that those leaders who act with modesty and humility, show firm determination in achieving organisational objectives, welcome employees to express contradictory views relating to work-related issues. As a result of this leadership behaviour, the employees’ feel valued in the organisation as they are considered a part of organisations well-being, a feeling of belongingness is generated, the employees’ in return makes an extra effort to help their fellow workers and supervisors in work-related tasks. This overall increases the organisational efficiency. Previous literature has explained similar relationships with the help of social exchange theory [ 57 , 74 ]. Thus, the findings of the study are supported by the previous literature and demonstrate a significant relationship between L5L, organisational dissent and organisational citizenship behaviour towards employees. Summary of the results has been given below in Table 6 .

5.1 Conclusion

The findings of the research study indicate that organizational citizenship behaviour of employees’ can be enhanced by level 5 leaders. The level 5 leaders act with humility and modesty towards their employees. They also depict firm determination in achieving organisational objects. They use participative mode of leadership, promote teamwork, assist and motivate their employees’ and are open to criticism and suggestions for the improvement of organisational effectiveness. Such constructive and supportive behaviour by the leaders promotes citizenship behaviour among employees. The employees make an extra effort and go beyond their job role and requirement and share the burden of their supervisor and colleagues. The level 5 leaders are directed to turn good organisations into great ones and this require moulding the behaviours of employees in achieving organisational efficiency as employees are an important part of an organisation. As today’s business environment is competitive and challenging and with various social and psychological pressures on employees owing to the pandemic, the leadership style needs to be democratic and employee oriented. The present study favours such leadership style and also states its benefits for organisational effectiveness and success.

5.2 Managerial and theoretical implications

As the fundamental concept under review i.e. Level 5 Leadership is a relatively new concept, this research definitely adds to the theoretical and conceptual understanding of this idea by contributing to the fundamental literature and social exchange theory. Moreover, as for the managerial aspect, it suggests managers to explore a new technique or genre of leadership that can positively contribute in the much-needed organization citizenship behaviour, however in the presence of dissenting behaviors or attitudes, the said relationship is reversed, hence generating negative vibes in the organizational environment. Therefore, the study advises managers to be vigilant in identifying and engaging dissenting ideas or behaviours in order to manage them in a better way.

5.3 Limitations & future research directions

The data collected in this study is primarily from service industry, i.e., telecom sector which restricts its application to other sectors and different industries. Moreover, the study involved the data collection from only one city of Pakistan, Lahore. Therefore, it limits the generalizability all over Pakistan and across different sectors.

The current research is based on cross-sectional design and a quantitative approach. Similar research can be conducted by taking the same variables ‘L5L, organisational dissent and OCB-I’ with qualitative approach and longitudinal design. A study on L5L at the levels of CEOs is recommended to further explore the concept of L5L following Jim Collins methodology [ 90 ]. The variables used in this study have contributed in the literature of L5L and OCB; still several other variables such as OCB-O can be further explored. The future research may also include industry wise analysis. By this, differences across different industries can be captured and analysed.

Supporting information

Funding statement.

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Data Availability

• Liberty University
• Jerry Falwell Library
• Special Collections
• < Previous

Home > ETD > Doctoral > 5970

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Executive leader perspectives of rural school district organizational resilience: a qualitative multiple-case study inquiry.

Todd S. Burke , Liberty University Follow

School of Education

Doctor of Philosophy

Meredith Park

Organizational Resilience, Organizational Grit, Grit, Rural Executive School District Leadership, Adversity, Student Achievement

Disciplines

Educational Leadership

Recommended Citation

Burke, Todd S., "Executive Leader Perspectives of Rural School District Organizational Resilience: A Qualitative Multiple-Case Study Inquiry" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 5970. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5970

The purpose of this qualitative embedded multiple-case study was to explore and describe how rural executive school district leaders overcome significant organizational adversity (low-income student factors) and sustain high student achievement outcomes. Organizational resilience theory provided the basis for the qualitative embedded multiple-case study. The multiple-case study design explored the perspectives of rural school district executive leaders at three levels of qualitative meaning: a) individual-level executive leader perspectives, b) organization function-level (program and department) perspectives, and c) district-wide organizational perspectives. Three small Utah rural school districts with higher-than-average student achievement trends, all of which have student populations experiencing low-income factors, were the sites for the study. The analysis included data from 11 executive leader participants, and evidence was collected through interviews, surveys, organizational documents, and artifactual evidence. Precoding, deductive, exploratory, and pattern coding techniques were used to analyze the data. Two broad thematic patterns emerged with professional learning communities (PLC) and human resource management (HR) constructs. Executive leaders were highly committed to three entrenched sub-thematic core values and beliefs: 1) a continual improvement and a goal mindset, 2) collaboration, and 3) effective teachers who place a high priority on student achievement outcomes. Five essential sub-thematic strategies also emerged in the analysis: 1) instructional coaches, mentors, and support networks; 2) data-driven decisions; 3) training and professional development; 4) consistent and effective leadership meetings; and 5) employee compensation and hiring the right people.

Since August 29, 2024

Included in

Educational Leadership Commons

• Collections
• Faculty Expert Gallery
• Theses and Dissertations
• Conferences and Events
• Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Explore Disciplines

Advanced Search

• Notify me via email or RSS .

Faculty Authors

• Submit Research
• Expert Gallery Login

Student Authors

• Undergraduate Submissions
• Graduate Submissions
• Honors Submissions

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright

The differentiated adoption of green planting technology by farmers and its influencing factors: the case from Juxian County, China

• Published: 04 September 2024

Cite this article

• Xiao Lyu 1 , 2 ,
• Wenlong Peng 1 ,
• Mengzhen Li 2 ,
• Qin Wang 1 ,
• Sergey Yu. Solodovnikov 3 &
• Tatsiana V. Serhiyevich 3  

The application of the green planting technology (GPT) is the critical aspect of agricultural production mode transformation. The recognition and adoption of GPT by farmers are the keys to promoting GPT. The objectives are to understand the process law of adoption of GPT by farmers from the aspects of behavioral differences and influencing factors, and provide a reference for promoting GPT according to local conditions and farmers. This study took 202 farmer questionnaires in Juxian County, China as samples, (1) used statistical analysis to analyze the farmer’s cognition and adoption behavior of different GPT, and (2) used multivariate ordered Logistic model to explore the influencing factors of GPT adoption behavior. The main findings are shown as follows: (1) The farmers’ cognition and adoption of GPT are not ideal in Juxian County. The surveyed farmers lack of in-depth understanding on the whole. 70.79% of farmers adopted the number of GPT less than 5 and with the lower adoption score. (2) The shorter the number of years of farming, the clearer the cognition of chemical input pollution, the more awareness of GPT, the larger the scale of cultivated land operation, the higher the level of regional economic development, and the higher the level of GPT adoption by farmers. (3) The scope of technological cognition and the operation scale have a prominent impact on the adoption of GPT by farmers with different livelihood types and various cultivated terrain conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Afshar, R. K., Cabot, P., Ippolito, J. A., Dekamin, M., Reed, B., Doyle, H., & Fry, J. (2022). Corn productivity and soil characteristic alterations following transition from conventional to conservation tillage. Soil and Tillage Research , 220 , 105351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2022.105351

Article   Google Scholar  

Ajayi, O. C., Akinnifesi, F. K., Sileshi, G., & Chakeredza, S. (2007). Adoption of renewable soil fertility replenishment technologies in the southern African region: Lessons learnt and the way forward. Natural Resources Forum , 31 (4), 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2007.00163.x

Asfaw, A., & Admassie, A. (2004). The role of education on the adoption of chemical fertiliser under different socioeconomic environments in Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics , 30 (3), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agecon.2002.12.002

Bhattarai, S. M., Dangol, D. R., Srivastav, S. B., & Shrestha, P. K. (2015). Factors influencing local innovation in ecological agriculture in the Central Development Region of Nepal. Nepalese Journal of Agricultural Sciences , 13 , 69–84.

Google Scholar  

Caffaro, F., Cremasco, M. M., Roccato, M., & Cavallo, E. (2020). Drivers of Farmers’ intention to adopt Technological innovations in Italy: The role of information sources, perceived usefulness, and Perceived Ease of Use. Journal of Rural Studies , 76 , 264–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.028

Ehiakpor, D. S., Danso-Abbeam, G., & Mubashiru, Y. (2021). Adoption of interrelated sustainable agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Ghana. Land Use Policy , 101 , 105142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105142

Feng, Y. F., Dong, Y. X., Liu, Y. H., & Wang, F. (2010). A study on farmland circulation characteristic and its influencing factors based on a household surveyin metropolitan suburbs: A case on Panyu district, Guangzhou city. Resources Science , 32 (7), 1379–1386. (in Chinese).

Foster, A. D., & Rosenzweig, M. R. (2010). Microeconomics of technology adoption. Annual Review of Economics , 2 , 395–424. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.economics.102308.124433

Gao, Y., Zhao, D. Y., Yu, L. L., & Yang, H. R. (2020). Influence of a new agricultural technology extension mode on farmers’ technology adoption behavior in China. Journal of Rural Studies , 76 , 173–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.016

Gao, J., Song, G., & Liu, S. (2022a). Factors influencing farmers’ willingness and behavior choices to withdraw from rural homesteads in China. Growth and Change 2022 , 53 , 112– 131. https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.12574

Gao, J., Zhao, R., & Zhan, Y. (2022b). Land Comprehensive carrying capacity of Major Grain-Producing areas in Northeast China: Spatial–temporal evolution, obstacle factors and Regulatory policies. Sustainability , 14 , 11322. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811322

Gao, J., Zhu, Y., Zhao, R., & Sui, H. (2022c). The Use of Cultivated Land for multiple functions in Major Grain-Producing areas in Northeast China: Spatial-temporal pattern and driving forces. Land , 11 , 1476. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11091476

He, Z. W., Hu, L., & Lu, Q. (2018). Influence of farmer’s risk preference and risk perception on water-saving irrigation technology adoption. Resources Science , 40 (4), 797–808. (in Chinese).

Hussain, A., Shah, H., Iqbal, M. N., & Sultan, T. (2023). Economic viability of selected soil fertility and Soil Health Improving Technologies in Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research , 36 (1), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.17582/journal.pjar/2023/36.1.89.99

J Zhu, Y. (2016). Adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations from a social network perspective. China Rural Economy , 9 , 58–71. (in Chinese).

Jin, S. Q., Niu, K. Y., & Han, D. M. (2020). The path of Agricultural Green Development and its orientation in the 14th five- year plan period. Reform , (2):30–39. (in Chinese).

Kaur, M., & Misra, A. (2019). Adoption of drip Irrigation Technology by Sugarcane growers of Rajasthan. Indian Journal of Extension Education , 55 (2), 74–79.

Klonglan, G. E., & Coward, E. W. (1970). Concept of symbolic adoption: A suggested interpretation. Rural Sociology , 35 (3), 77–83.

Li, Q. (2018). Analysis of the promotion path of rice chemical fertilizer and pesticide reduction and efficiency technology . Zhejiang University. (in Chinese).

Li, Z. H., Ding, Y., Chen, J., & Zhao, M. Y. (2023). How far are green products from the Chinese dinner table? -- Chinese farmers’ acceptance of green planting technology. Journal of Cleaner Production , 410 , 137141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137141

Li, C. M., Deng, H. Y., Yu, G. X., Kong, R., & Liu, J. (2024). Impact effects of Cooperative Participation on the adoption behavior of Green Production technologies by Cotton Farmers and the driving mechanisms. Agriculture , 14 (2), 213. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14020213

Lin, S. L., & Wang, J. (2010). Analysis of the impact of household life cycle on rural labor migration. China Rural Survey , (1):25–33. (in Chinese).

Liu, D., Sun, J., Huang, M. S., & Hu, W. W. (2019a). Research on cooperative effect of market and government on farmers’ adoption of integrated pest management technology. Resources and Environment in the Yangtze Basin , 28 (5), 1154–1163. (in Chinese).

Liu, Y., Ruiz-Menjiva, R. J., Zhang, L., Zhang, J., & Swisher, M. E. (2019b). Technical training and rice farmers’ adoption of low-carbon management practices: The case of soil testing and formulated fertilization technologies in Hubei, China. Journal of Cleaner Production , 226 , 454–462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.026

Liu, L., Chu, L. Q., & Jiang, Z. D. (2020). Influence of technology cognition and risk perception on the willingness to adopt soil and water conservation tillage technologies and its intergenerational differences. Resources Science , 42 (4), 763–775. (in Chinese).

Liu, S., Dong, Y., McConkey, K. R., Tran, L. S. P., Wang, F. F., Liu, H., & Wu, G. (2023). Scientific concept and practices of life community of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts in China. Ambio , 52 , 1939–1951. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01898-1

Lu, X., Qu, Y., Sun, P. L., Yu, W., & Peng, W. L. (2020). Green transition of cultivated land use in the Yellow River Basin: A perspective of green utilization efficiency evaluation. Land , 9 (12), 475. https://doi.org/10.3390/land9120475

Luo, X. J., Feng, S. Y., Shi, X. P., & Qu, F. T. (2013). Farm households’ adoption behavior of environment friendly technology and the evaluation of their environmental and economic effects in Taihu basin—taking formula fertilization by soil testing technology as an example. Journal of Natural Resource , 28 (11), 1891–1902. (in Chinese).

Lyu, X., Peng, W. L., Niu, S. D., Qu, Y., & Xin, Z. F. (2022a). Evaluation of sustainable intensification of cultivated land use according to farming households’ livelihood types. Ecological Indicators , 138 , 108848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108848

Lyu, X., Wang, Y. A., Niu, S. D., & Peng, W. L. (2022b). Spatio-temporal pattern and influence mechanism of Cultivated Land System Resilience: Case from China. Land , 11 (1), 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010011

Lyu, X., Liu, Y., & Peng, W. (2024). The association of farmers’ cognition, intention and behaviour towards sustainable intensification of cultivated land use in Shandong Province. China International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability , 22 (1), 2318930. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2024.2318930

Mu, R., & Walle, D. V. D. (2011). Left behind to farm? Women’s labor re-allocation in rural China. Labour Economics , 18 , 83–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2011.01.009

Musafiri, C. M., Kiboi, M., Macharia, J., Ng’etich, O. K., Kosgei, D. K., Mulianga, B., Okoti, M., & Ngetich, F. K. (2022). Adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Western Kenya: Do socioeconomic, institutional, and biophysical factors matter? Heliyon , e08677 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08677

Niu, S. D., Lyu, X., & Gu, G. Z. (2022). A new framework of green transition of cultivated land-use for the coordination among the water- land-food-carbon nexus in China. Land , 11 (6), 933. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060933

Onu, D. O. (2006). Socioeconomic factors influencing farmers’ adoption of alley farming technology under intensified agriculture in Imo State, Nigeria. Philippine Agricultural Scientist , 89 (2), 172–179.

Rakhimov, G. N., Shodiev, S. B., & Rakhimov, P. G. (2022). Technology of high-yield cultivation by planting a new variety of mung bean to improve land reclamation condition, increase its productivity, and ensure ecological stability. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 012122. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1112/1/012122

Rezvanfar, A., Eraktan, G., & Olhan, E. (2011). Determine of factors associated with the adoption of organic agriculture among small farmers in Iran. African Journal of Agricultural Research , 6 (13), 2950–2956.

Rogers, E. M., & Shoemaker, F. F. (1971). Communication of innovations: A cross-cultural Approach . Free.

Spence, W. R. (1994). Innovation: The communication of change in ideas, practices and products . Chapman Hall.

Sun, F. S., Ma, W. S., Li, H. J., & Wang, S. H. (2018). Research on Water-Fertilizer Integrated Technology based on neural network prediction and fuzzy control. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science , 170 (3), 032168. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/170/3/032168

Wang, S. Y., Jin, Y., & Han, H. P. (2017). Economic analysis of environmentally friendly technology adoption decision—a re-examination based on soil testing and fertilizer application technology. Journal of Agrotechnical Economics , (8):15–26. (in Chinese).

Wang, Y. J., Wang, N. H., & Huang, G. Q. (2022). How do rural households accept straw returning in Northeast China? Resources Conservation and Recycling , 182 , 106287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106287

Wu, Q., Wang, Y. H., Ding, Y. F., Tao, W. K., Gao, S., Li, Q. X., Li, W. W., Liu, Z. H., & Li, G. H. (2021). Effects of different types of slow- and controlled-release fertilizers on rice yield. Journal of Integrative Agriculture , 20 (6), 1503–1514. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2095-3119(20)63406-2

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Yitayew, A., Abdulai, A., Yigezu, Y. A., Deneke, T. T., & Kassie, G. T. (2021). Impact of agricultural extension services on the adoption of improved wheat variety in Ethiopia: A cluster randomized controlled trial. World Development , 146105605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105605

Yu, F. W. (2016). Xi Jinping’s New Thought on Green Development and the Green Transformation Development of Agriculture. China Rural Survey , (5):2–9. (in Chinese).

Zhang, H. L., Li, J. Y., & Teng, H. Q. (2020). Cognition, external environment and green agricultural technology adoption behavior for small—scale farmers. Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment , 34 (6), 8–13. (in Chinese).

CAS   Google Scholar  

Zhao, D., Zhou, H., & Livelihoods (2021). Technological constraints, and Low-Carbon Agricultural Technology Preferences of Farmers: Analytical frameworks of Technology Adoption and Farmer livelihoods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 18 (24), 13364. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413364 .

Zhao, W. W., Zhou, A., & Yin, C. C. (2023). Unraveling the research trend of ecological civilization and sustainable development: A bibliometric analysis. Ambio , 52 , 1928–1938. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-023-01947-9

Zheng, H. W., Ma, J., Yao, Z. Y., & Hu, F. (2022). How does Social Embeddedness affect Farmers’ Adoption Behavior of Low-Carbon Agricultural Technology? Evidence from Jiangsu Province, China. Frontiers in Environmental Science , 10 , 909803. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.909803

Zhou, L., & Wang, Y. R. (2019). The impact of new round farmland right verification on the behavior of land quality protection. China Population Resources and Environment , 29 (2), 63–71. (in Chinese).

Zhou, L., M. Feng, J., & Q. Cao, G. (2020). A study on the adoption behavior of green agricultural technology by farmers–a survey of farmers in Hunan, Jiangxi and Jiangsu. Rural Economy , 3 , 93–101. (in Chinese).

Download references

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42071226, 42371292, 42261144750), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (N2314001), the State Scholarship Fund of China Scholarship Council (202306080113), and the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research (G23KI–ECO–005 01.02.2023).

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Humanities and Law, Northeastern University, No.195 innovation road, Hunnan District, Shenyang City, 110169, Liaoning Province, China

Xiao Lyu, Wenlong Peng & Qin Wang

School of Geography and Tourism, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao, 276826, China

Xiao Lyu, Yi Qu & Mengzhen Li

Department of Economics and Law, Belarusian National Technical University, Minsk, 220030, Belarus

Sergey Yu. Solodovnikov & Tatsiana V. Serhiyevich

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Xiao Lyu: Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Wenlong Peng: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Yi Qu: Software, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Mengzhen Li: Project administration, Validation, Investigation. Qin Wang: Data Curation, Investigation, Visualization. Sergey Yu. Solodovnikov: Validation. Tatsiana V. Serhiyevich: Validation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao Lyu .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Lyu, X., Peng, W., Qu, Y. et al. The differentiated adoption of green planting technology by farmers and its influencing factors: the case from Juxian County, China. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05370-2

Download citation

Received : 12 June 2023

Accepted : 26 August 2024

Published : 04 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05370-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Green planting technology
• Adoption behavior
• Juxian county
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research