An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you.
By definition, it is not possible for everyone to be above the average.
A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.
Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.
Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious-but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.
It’s what you do before you are in trouble, so that you can be strong when people most need you.
Indeed, the real question is not, “Why greatness?” but “What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?” if you have to ask the question, “Why should we try to make it great? Isn’t success enough?” then you’re probably int he wrong line of work.
If your company disappeared, would it leave a gaping hole that could not easily be filled by any other enterprise on the planet?
The drive for progress doesn’t wait for the external world to say “It’s time to change.”
Not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth.
Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.
Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.
For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.
Change your practices without abandoning your core values.
The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.
Not all time in life is equal. How many opportunities do you get to talk about what your life is going to add up to with people thinking about the same question?
Good is the enemy of great. That’s why so few things become great.
Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.
The only way to remain great is to keep on applying the fundamental principles that made you great.
In a world of constant change, the fundamentals are more important than ever.