Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58065
"All business students need to learn to choose their mentors well. The people they allow to be their mentors will be far more important than the majors they choose, the companies they join, the positions they take, or the salaries they earn." You published Good to Great in 2001. Have your views on its concepts changed at all since then? I now think Level 5 is a lot more "learnable" than I used to believe. That's reassuring! Many think that kind of leadership is incredibly rare, and often inborn. I really do think it's possible to learn. But here's the challenge: At its core, Level 5 leadership is about having ambition for the cause, for the work, for the organization, for the company, for your students, for whatever you're engaged in. It requires all of that, plus an almost brutal stoicism to do whatever it takes to succeed. If you have to fire your brother, you fire your brother. The truth is that Level 5 leadership is painful—not ev- eryone is up to it. I'm not a Level 5 leader myself, but I know that to be a Level 5 requires pain and sacrifice. How can business schools help students aspire to Level 5 leadership, even if they don't attain it? There are two things. First, students need to learn what they're passionate about. When I taught at Stanford, once every quarter I'd walk into class and say, "Pop quiz!" I'd ask my students to take out a blank sheet of paper and write down what they'd do differently if they discovered they only had a short time to live. After they finished, I'd tell them, "Even if you get 90 or 100 years, it's a blink. Life is short. It's vital that you get on with doing what you really want with your life." All students need to ask themselves is, "What am I passionate enough about to endure the pain of Level 5 decisions?" How can business faculty steer students in that direction? I'd have every student do the "three circles" exercise. Fac- ulty should ask students to draw three interlocking circles on a piece of paper. In the first circle, have them answer the question, "What am I really passionate about?" In the second, "What am I genetically encoded for? What am I really good at?" And in the third, "What can I contribute that is of value to society that people will pay me to do?" By discovering where these three circles overlap, students can find their own hedgehogs. The key is to make them start with the first circle. Too many people start with the money circle and say, "I'm going get a job to make a living and hope to goodness that I'm good at it and love it." But chances of that happening are pretty slim. Instead, students need to start with the passion 18 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007 circle, and refine it with the other two. I wish somebody had given me those three circles when I was 22 years old! What's the second thing schools need to do? All business students need to learn to choose their mentors well. Young people always ask, "What's my career choice? What major should I choose? What company should I work for?" But those are the wrong questions. Instead, they need to ask, "With whom do I want to work?" The people they allow to be their mentors will be far more important than the majors they choose, the companies they join, the positions they take, or the salaries they earn. I advise all students in their 20s to form a "personal board of directors." This board should include people of the highest integrity, with the values and discerning stan- dards the students aspire to. They can use that personal board as a guidepost, like a superego conscience, to help keep themselves on track and shape their values. You refer to students in their 20s. Is it too late for, say, 40-year-old executives to embrace these concepts? Not necessarily. But it's just so difficult to change the mindsets of people who've been operating under flawed theories for 20 or 30 years. They still think it takes a char- ismatic hero or outside savior to lead a company, or that a big acquisition can ignite a leap from good to great. Many still believe that compensation drives performance, or that they need to know where they're going before they find the best people to take them there. These are the misper- ceptions that we understand better now that we've done the research. But no matter what you teach older students, many retain their engrained habits. This is why I'm so passionate about reaching young peo- ple in the classroom with the DVD I created with Darden. It's great to reach the current CEOs, but I'd rather reach the future CEOs who are 22 years old today. That's the way we're going to have an impact on companies in the future. It's so much easier to teach students these powerful tools early than it is to try to change 20 years of flawed theory. Then, when these 22-year-olds are running companies, they won't have to relearn everything. You've mentioned that following a passion is essential to Level 5 leadership. I know that you're both a researcher and an avid rock climber. Do you think that it's impor- tant for business students to develop both professional and personal passions—to have a work-life balance? Having both has been very helpful to me. I actually have