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Book: Great by Choice • by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen
Why It’ s a Must-Read: This latest book by Good to Great best-selling author Jim Collins, co-authored with UC Berkeley School of Information professor Morten Hansen, looks at the key behaviors or traits of leaders and companies that excel in tumultuous times, such as economic instability.
This book, a follow up of Collin’ s global bestseller Good to Great, is without question one new title that should be in every CEO’ s and leader’ s bookshelf. It offers thought-provoking leadership concepts backed by years of research on multiple companies with varying success results in the business arena.
They compared what they called“ 10Xers”— a set of major companies like Intel, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft and Biomet— that achieved spectacular results over 15 or more years while operating in unstable environments to those with less successful reputations.
According to the authors, what separate 10Xers is how they behave amidst chaos— they didn’ t survive on chaos, they survived in chaos. All 10Xers have common behavioral traits— fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia— held together by a central motivating force which the authors call“ Level 5 Ambition”— the passion for a higher calling and the will to do whatever it takes to fight for their calling or for a cause.
By definition, fanatic discipline is extreme consistency of action without overreacting to events. Empirical creativity is bold and creative moves from a sound empirical base. Productive paranoia, on the one hand, means being highly attuned to threats and changes particularly when things are going well. Fear is channeled into preparation, contingency plans, buffers and margins of safety.
The book inspires readers to evaluate themselves and their behavior when faced with chaos and circumstances. The authors ask: When the moment comes— when we’ re afraid, exhausted, or tempted— what choice do we make? Do we abandon our values? Do we give in? Do we accept average performance because that’ s what most everyone else accepts? Do we capitulate to the pressure of the moment? Do we give up on our dreams when we’ ve been slammed by brutal facts?
Want more on Jim Collins? Look out for the March / April issue of Pulse to read more. Plus, find out how you can be in the front rows of a life-changing Jim Collins session.
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January / February 2012 ■ PULSE 63