Comments on: CEO Leadership Skills: What Does It Take to Be Level 5?

By: Level 5 Leaders Need Level 5 Employees | Spin Sucks

Level 5 Leaders Need Level 5 Employees | Spin Sucks — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:56:50 +0000

[...] year, Gini wrote an article on CEO Leadership Skills: What Does It Take To Be Level 5? Level 5 leadership, coined by business consultant Jim Collins, refers to the peak of a hierarchy of [...]

By: Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:35:04 +0000

Makes total sense – and it’s what you talk about in your book. I’m in the process, right now, of creating structure so we can grow beyond my capabilities. My biggest growth area is not being competitive with the really smart people I’ve hired. I am learning to work toward one vision that I constantly communicate instead of trying to be better than everyone else. I’m not going to lie – it’s hard. But I’m working on it!

By: George Rosenberg

George Rosenberg — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:34:33 +0000

Often, commitments take leaders out of their comfort zones and few like to be “uncomfortable” about decisions or actions.

I’m often dismayed by how often agency owners fail to follow through on what they they say they will do.

Great leaders are not afraid to get out of their comfort zones. In fact, that’s one of the ways they grow into leaders.

By: Les McKeown

Les McKeown — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:27:28 +0000

[...oops...that Submit button jumped out at me...]

…five years later you make an identical decision, but it doesn’t work out this time, because your gut hasn’t worked out that you’re way too busy to provide the personal mentoring and coaching you used to, to bridge the skills gap.

Or your gut doesn’t know that the profile of your ideal target client has changed because it’s nine months since you had a really detailed interaction with a broad spectrum of your client base…

…or whatever. It’s not that your power of snap decision making has disappeared, it’s just that a CEO (much as they rail and say ‘It isn’t so’) is farther from the front line of where the data is than the single-point-of-authority entrepreneur – and so it becomes equally important (if not more so) to have trusted systems, trusted deputies and trusted feedback loops.

By: Les McKeown

Les McKeown — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:20:19 +0000

I think it becomes more about knowing *when* to listen toy your gut – and when not. In the Fun years, the gut is pretty ubiquitous in decision-making, and rightly so. As the business grows and becomes more complex, and the leader’s role shifts more to being a CEO, the quality and relevance of the data that the gut is running on degrades, and the us the quality of the decisions does, too.

So for example, in the early days your gut tells you this interviewee has all the right attitudes and you should hire her even though she doesn’t have all the right qualifications on paper. And your gut is right.

Five years later

By: Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:30:53 +0000

Isn’t it sad that few CEOs carry out their commitments? That makes me really sad. I hope no one ever says that about me.

By: Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:30:12 +0000

So you’re saying that, as you transition, you should listen to your gut less? How do you transition away from that…because I definitely obey my gut.

By: George Rosenberg

George Rosenberg — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:51:00 +0000

Excellent list Gini. As an advisor to agency CEO’s, I would add “commitment” to the traits of a level 5 CEO. For me, commitment means I’ll do not I’ll try. Few owners/CE0′s truly carry out their commitment.

Knowing what to do is important. Actually doing it is the mark of a true leader.

By: Les McKeown

Les McKeown — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:31:26 +0000

Super post, Gini.

The biggest problem I’ve seen people consistently struggle with in transitioning from entrepreneur to CEO-leader is to do with trusting their gut.

A finely tuned gut is the single-point-of-authority entrepreneur’s biggest asset, and the CEO-leader’s biggest liability.

Some people find it really hard to get this, and end up trying to run their larger company the same way they ran their small team, and it just doesn’t work.

You. of course, are too brilliant to make any such mistake.

- Les

By: What It Takes to Lead a Social Media Program » Media Emerging | Scott Hepburn

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:21:16 +0000

[...] job is to provide strategic direction. You’ll need to think like a CEO. You’ll need to know where the company is headed and where social media fits in that picture. [...]