Making the Jump to Level 5

The Level 5 framework can feel discouraging. Most successful leaders display the opposite of what Collins describes. The path to Level 5 is real but not common. What is involved in actually getting there, and what the journey looks like for a school principal who decides to try, is the substance of the rest of this piece.

The honest difficulty

The handout names the central problem directly:

The great irony is that the attitude and personal ambition that often drive people to positions of power stand at odds with the humility required for Level 5 leadership.

People who become school principals usually got there partly through ambition. They wanted the role. They worked for it. They beat out other candidates. By the time they have the position, ego is part of why they are there.

Level 5 leadership requires letting much of that ego go. The ambition is preserved, but pointed at the institution rather than at the self. This is a hard turn for someone whose career has been built on personal achievement.

Therefore, you can see why Level 5 leaders rarely appear at the top of our institutions.

The selection process itself filters against Level 5. Boards hire people with strong CVs and strong public profiles. Owners hire people who present well in interviews. Both criteria favour ego over humility. The Level 5 candidate is often the quieter, less obviously impressive person who would have been overlooked.

Recognition is the bigger problem

The problem is not with the availability of Level 5 leaders. The problem is recognising that what they have is important.

Collins’s point is sharp. Level 5 leaders are not rare in the world. They are rare in senior positions because the people doing the hiring do not recognise them. A board interviewing candidates sees the charismatic Level 4 candidate and not the quieter Level 5 candidate. The Level 5 candidate is passed over. The institution gets a Level 4 leader and stays good.

For Pakistani schools, this is worth taking seriously. A school owner choosing a new principal often picks the most impressive personality. The owner does not realise she has just selected against Level 5. A school owner who learns to recognise the quieter pattern, the team-focused ambition, the modest style with fierce results-focus, can make better choices.

Can a person learn Level 5?

The honest answer is: maybe, with work.

Level 5 leadership may come naturally to some people, but there will always be growth and practice needed for all of them.

Collins’s research did not find Level 5 leaders who had not worked for it. Even those who came to it naturally had developed further. The capability is not innate; it is grown.

The further claim:

Not everyone will be a Level 5 leader, but all of us can benefit from the practice and study of personal humility and professional will.

The aspiration matters even if the destination is not reached. A leader who works on the Level 5 capabilities, who tries to develop humility and will together, becomes a better leader. She may end up at Level 4 with strong Level 5 tendencies. That is a useful place to be.

Six practical steps

The handout names six practical actions for someone trying to develop towards Level 5.

1. Work on your personal humility

Humility is the harder side for most leaders to develop. Three places to practise:

1. Stop telling stories about yourself. Notice how often you talk about your own achievements. Cut it.
2. Notice and name others’ contributions. In every meeting, find something to credit a team member for.
3. Resist taking credit. When someone praises you, deflect to the team. Sincerely.

2. Give the team the credit

Be sure to learn about giving your team the credit. When you understand that giving back is a part of success, you can understand humility on a deeper level.

Credit is a finite resource. Every bit of credit a leader takes for herself is credit not given to her team. A team that does not get credit eventually leaves. A team that does keeps producing.

A school principal who develops the habit of crediting her staff publicly, in front of parents, in front of the board, in front of other staff, builds loyalty and engagement. The principal who keeps the credit builds resentment.

3. Take responsibility

Take responsibility for your actions.

This is the mirror side of the window-and-mirror test. When things go wrong, the Level 5 leader looks in the mirror. She does not blame circumstances, bad luck, or other people. She takes ownership.

A school principal practising this stops blaming her staff for failures and starts asking what she did or did not do that allowed the failure. The shift is uncomfortable. It is also growth.

4. Stand by your team

Show your team that you are there for them when they need you, and are there to have their backs covered when problems occur.

A Level 5 leader does not throw her team under the bus when things go wrong. When a parent complains about a teacher, the principal supports the teacher publicly while addressing the issue privately. When the board pressures her to fire someone, she defends the person if the firing is unjust.

This is not the same as protecting bad performance. A Level 5 leader confronts bad performance directly. But she does it inside the team, with care. She does not damage the team’s trust to please outsiders.

5. Develop discipline

Develop discipline and understand that if you make a decision for the company, stick to it, no matter how difficult it may become.

A Level 5 leader holds to a decision once made. She does not flip when pressure rises. She does not abandon the plan when the going gets tough. The discipline to stick is part of what builds the flywheel.

This does not mean stubbornness. If a decision proves wrong, a Level 5 leader changes it openly. But “wrong” is not the same as “uncomfortable”. Many leaders abandon hard decisions because the discomfort is high, not because the decision was wrong.

6. Seek help

Level 5 leaders seek help when they need it. They are not afraid to ask questions.

This sounds simple. It is rare in practice. Many leaders, especially in their first senior role, will not admit they do not know something. They guess instead of asking. They make worse decisions as a result.

A Level 5 leader is comfortable asking. She admits when she does not understand. She seeks advice from her board, her staff, her peers, and her mentors. The asking is a sign of strength, not weakness.

What the journey looks like

For a school principal who decides to work towards Level 5, the journey is years long, not months. Some milestones along the way:

1. Year one. Awareness. The principal recognises her own ego patterns and starts naming them.
2. Years two to three. Habit changes. She stops taking credit, starts giving it, takes responsibility, asks for help.
3. Years three to five. Team development. She has built a stronger team that owns more of the work.
4. Years five to ten. Succession. She has developed potential successors who could run the school as well as she does.
5. Year ten and beyond. Legacy. The school operates at high level, the next generation of leaders is in place, and her exit is a graceful handoff.

Not every principal will make this full journey. Most will not. The ones who do leave schools that are still great a decade after they have gone. That is the Level 5 outcome.

Flashcard

What are the six practical steps towards developing Level 5 leadership?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Humility, credit, responsibility, support, discipline, asking.

1. Work on your personal humility. Notice and cut self-promotion; name others’ contributions.

2. Give the team the credit. Public credit to staff builds loyalty and engagement.

3. Take responsibility. When things go wrong, look in the mirror, not out the window.

4. Stand by your team. Support staff publicly while addressing issues privately.

5. Develop discipline. Stick with decisions; do not flip under pressure.

6. Seek help. Ask when you do not know. Asking is strength, not weakness.

The journey is years long, not months. Most leaders do not make it. The ones who do leave schools that remain great a decade after their exit.