{"id":13843,"date":"2017-09-06T22:59:12","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T05:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13843"},"modified":"2017-09-06T22:59:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T05:59:12","slug":"coveting-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/coveting-greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"Coveting Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Greatness\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Confession. My covetousness in reading Collins’ book, Good to Great was at an all-time high. I found myself coveting: the humility and skills of a Level 5 leader, the wisdom to take good businesses to great businesses by getting the right people on or off the bus, the ability to operate the Hedgehog concept, the thrilling experience of building momentum by turning the Flywheel and building the brand, and the discipline to hold the integrity of the vision throughout the dynamic environment. What would it be like to operate with such precision, accuracy, and efficiency in leadership? Numerous examples were given, but I found myself longing to work for\u00a0or lead with a level 5 leader as they implemented the principles in moving companies to greatness. The commitment for some companies to achieve greatness took a few years and others a decade or more, but the magic of movement to greatness was exciting to discover.<\/p>\n

Living greatness and inspiring others to live their greatness is my personal mission statement and has been a long-time passion of mine, but I am often improving and wrestling with the how<\/em>. So, I was thrilled to have several models and principles clearly researched and laid out as to the how<\/em> to move into greatness. The simple posed question I found myself often pondering was: “I don’t have to be the best but rather what do I want to be the best at?” In wondering this, it gave me a freedom to pursue the Hedgehog concept by identifying “what I was most passionate about, what I can be the best at, and the engine needed to get there” and using “time, money, and brand” as the engine to get to where I want to go.[1]<\/a> In all my professional, personal, and community work, the resounding theme for me is relationships, and I found myself wondering how it would look to be the best<\/em> at<\/em> relationships, as a therapist, minister, community agent, wife, and mother?<\/p>\n

In learning from Hunter’s book, Change Your World, he suggested we need to change the culture if we want to change our world. “If we want to transform culture, what we actually have to do is get into the midst of the human cultural project and create some new cultural goods that reshape the way people imagine and experience their world…” [2]<\/a>. I found myself again questioning, “nice concept, but how <\/em>does one do this?” Collins’ book answered this beautifully and succinctly as he went through basic principles and research based information that clearly instructs the leader as to how <\/em>to change a culture from good to great. It was admirable and inspiring how he and his team worked tirelessly and passionately to research the journey of leaders and companies committed to achieving greatness, as well as compared to those companies and leaders who were unsuccessful. Once you know the how<\/em>, Collins poses the following challenge: “The real question is, once you know the right thing, do you have the discipline to do the right thing and, equally important, to stop doing the wrong things?”[3]<\/a> Knowing what to do to change your world is only half the solution. Doing it is the hard part.<\/p>\n

Many of the stories presented, particularly the journey of Walgreens moving into greatness, read like a dramatic novel and I found myself cheering for them and their leader like the underdog, urging them on to reach their mile markers for greatness achievements. I have a whole new appreciation for Walgreens, as they lived out their concrete vision to be “Simply this: the best, most convenient drugstores, with high profit per customer visit.”[4]<\/a> Through good leadership, disciplined focus, and integrity to their vision, they moved consistently and powerfully from a good to great company. And as predictable of level 5 leaders, they credited their success to luck and took fault for the failures as they guided their employees with a servant’s heart to greatness. Humble leaders who inspire followers through their service and passion echoed Depree’s words in Leadership is an Art, <\/em>“Thus, the leader is the ‘servant’ of his followers in that he removes the obstacles that prevent them from doing their jobs.”[5]<\/a> A great leader serves his employees and leads them to greatness, which emulates the spirit and words of Jesus, \u201cAnyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the\u00a0servant\u00a0of\u00a0all.\u201d[6]<\/a> Great leaders lead companies to greatness.<\/p>\n

If covetousness moves one from good to greatness, I would have been oozing with greatness two chapters in. Drat. Out of luck there, but looking forward to practicing and applying these hearty and well-researched principles in my work, personally and professionally and moving from good to great.<\/p>\n

\"Greatness\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] Jim Collins, Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don’t <\/em>(Boulder, CO: J., 2011), 19.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Hunter, James Davison.\u00a0To Change the World the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World<\/em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 28.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3] James Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don’t<\/em> (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2011) 141-142.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [4] Collins, Good to Great<\/em>, 92.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [5] Max Depree, Leadership Is an Art<\/em> (New York: The Crown Publishing Group, 2004) Kindle, 161.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [6] Mark 9:35, NIV.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Confession. My covetousness in reading Collins’ book, Good to Great was at an all-time high. I found myself coveting: the humility and skills of a Level 5 leader, the wisdom to take good businesses to great businesses by getting the right people on or off the bus, the ability to operate the Hedgehog concept, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[882],"class_list":["post-13843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jim-collins","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13844,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13843\/revisions\/13844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}