Good to Great

In Searching for Goodness, I'm reading Jim Collins business book "Good to Great". Maybe I will have to change the blog name to Searching for Greatness. The book starts with the sentence, "The enemy of great is good." Here is my initial problem. Sometimes good is great. Sometimes great isn't worth the sacrifice. It depends on who is defining great. I love my life. But many wouldn't call my career great.

But I read on and I've found the book pretty interesting so far. I wanted to record some quotes.

Speaking about Level 5 Leaders, page 25-26

Dave Maxwell, like Darwin Smith and Colman Mockler, exemplified a key trait of Level 5 leaders: ambition first and foremost for the company and concern for its success rather than for one's own riches and personal renown. Level 5 leaders want to see the company even more successful in the next generation, comfortable with the idea that most people won't even know that the roots of that success trace back to their efforts. As one Level 5 leader said, "I want to look out from my porch at one of the great companies in the world someday and be able to say, 'I used to work there.'

In contrast, the comparison leaders, concerned more with their own reputation for personal greatness, often failed to set the company up for success in the next generation. After all, what beter testament to your own personal greatness than that the place falls apart after you leave?

In over three quarters of the comparison companies, we found executives who set their successors up for failure of chose weak successors, or both.