“From Good to Great”… in a Christian context
Session 1: Level 5 Leadership
Who are the best – and worst! - workplace leaders you have known?
What are their particular qualities?
“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you
do not mind who gets the credit.” Harry S Truman
Personal
humility
Level 5
Leader
“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.”
“The show horse and the plow horse – he was more of a
show horse, whereas I was more of a plow horse.” A
workmanlike diligence.
Professional
will
What’s the blend of personal humility and professional
will that you have encountered at work?
PHILIPPIANS 2 vv1-4: Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort
from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy
complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own
interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
2 TIMOTHY 1 v7: For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
THE WINDOW AND THE MIRROR:
“Level 5 leaders look out of the window to
apportion credit factors outside themselves
when things go well (and if they cannot find a
specific person or event to give credit to, they
credit good luck). At the same time, they look
to the mirror to apportion responsibility,
never blaming bad luck when things go
poorly.”
How do I use the window and
the mirror at work?
What am I able and willing to change
at work to be more “like-minded”?
Philippians 2
Imitating Christ’s humility
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any
comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and
compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the
same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not
looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
6
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
9
2 Timothy
Appeal for loyalty to Paul and the gospel
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through
the laying on of my hands.
6
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love
and self-discipline.
7
So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather,
join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 9 He has saved us and
called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own
purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of
time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus,
who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel.
8