Jim Collins on the “Keys to Success” and “Leaders”

– From Mitch Barns Blog

Here are some ideas that I have accumulated from various books and talks by Jim Collins, the author of several best-selling business books, including Built to Last, How the Mighty Fall, and Good to Great.
On the keys to success:
• Greatness comes from the values and “DNA” of an organization, NOT from “incentives”.
• Discipline is key to greatness. “Discipline” is not a business idea…business didn’t invent it. But in business, greatness validates the importance of discipline over and over again.
• It is important to have good measures of success.  In some organizations, money is both a primary input and a primary output, and so “ROI” is fairly clear. In other organizations, money is a clear input, but not a clear output. For example, an Art Museum or an Orchestra; or a market research department at one of our clients. In most cases, these types of organizations don’t try hard enough to measure effectiveness. They should try harder. Example: the Cleveland Orchestra. They chose “success measures” like the number of standing ovations, the number of people who attended from outside of the Cleveland metropolitan area, the number of other cities’ orchestras that patterned programming after Cleveland’s, etc. Clever! (and useful)
What does a great business leader look like?
• The best leaders often are often quiet and humble and quick to give credit to others and to “luck” for their success.
• They are people that put the interest of the overall business ahead of their personal interests.
• They are people who manage not to succumb to the seduction of being seen as the leader.
• The best leaders are fanatically driven to produce results.
• The best leaders can get people to do things even when they don’t have the power to MAKE them do it.
• The best leaders rely on high standards more than personal charisma. They are rigorous, but not ruthless.
• The best leaders view themselves as being within a constellation of colleagues rather than atop a hierarchy.
• And perhaps the biggest irony of all … the best leaders ensure they have a successor so that when they leave, the business will continue to succeed without them.
These qualities might not describe the kind of “great leaders” in business that people often hear about, but in my opinion, these nevertheless are the qualities that describe the best leaders.

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Jim Collins的“成功关键”和“领导者”

Jim Collins撰有数本经济类畅销书，包括《基业长青》、《强大企业的兴衰》和《从优秀到卓越》。以下是我从Jim Collins著作和谈话中收集下来的关于成功关键的看法：
• 卓越是从组织的“DNA”中找到的价值，不是从“激励”中来的。
• 训练成就卓越。“训练”不是一个商业理念……商业没有创造这个概念。但是在商业中，卓越一再地证明了训练的重要性。
• 对成功的衡量是很重要的。在一些组织中，钱在最初的投入和产出中都是很重要的，也因此“投资回报率”相对清楚。在另一些组织中，钱是很清楚的投入，但产出不是。比如说，一个艺术博物馆或管弦乐队；又比如说我们某一家客户的市场研究部门。大多数时候，很多类型的组织都不曾努力地衡量效率。他们应该更努力。比如：克利夫兰交响乐团。他们以掌声如雷的次数、站在克里夫兰中心区域以外的人数、继克里夫兰交响乐之后在其他城市模仿其设计的乐队数量等等衡量成功，多么聪明！（并且有用）
一个优秀的商业领袖看起来像什么？
• 最优秀的领袖往往是安静、谦逊、并且对他人讲信誉，给别人的成功带来“运气”。
• 他们把对商业整体的兴趣放在个人兴趣之前。
• 他们让自己抵御住被他人视作领袖的诱惑。
• 优秀的领袖很狂热地创造结果。
• 优秀的领袖可以让别人做事情，即使他们没有“权力”让他们去做。
• 最优秀的领袖总是依赖高标准而不是个人魅力。他们是严格的但不是无情的。
• 最优秀的领袖将自己视作同事之间的一些杰出的人，而不是凌驾于等级制度之上的人。
• 并且最讽刺的是……最优秀的领袖要保证有一位继承人，在他们离开之后让公司继续成功下去，即使已经没有他们的存在。
这些品质或许不足以描绘我们经常听到的“优秀领导者”，尽管如此，这是我观念中的对最优秀领袖的品质的描述。