Martians
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the author suggests, it is not the larger-than-life types who become the greatest corporate leaders. He characterizes the alien quality of reality he discovered that it is non-celebrity type who tends to be more successful by writing these “good-to-great leaders seem to have come form Mars.” He then gives examples of Martians compares to simple earthlings, metaphorically speaking:
“They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.”
Windows and Mirrors
In describing the difference between successful leaders who put the company ahead of themselves, the author engages a twofold metaphor of windows and mirrors. As in looking through a window shows one the world beyond themselves while the mirror does the opposite:
“Level 5 Leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well…they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly”
“Good is the enemy of great”
The metaphor quoted above as the title of this section seems wrong, right? Isn’t bad the recognized nemesis of good? That goes back at least to the bible, so what’s going on here? Think of it in the same terms as indifference being the enemy of love rather than what is typically identified as its opposite, hate. Hate is a passion that under the right circumstances often turns to love where it is much harder to stir up a complete lack of interest into a passionate feeling. What he is really saying is that it not doing bad work which keeps one from being great; that’s likely never going to happen anyway. More likely is the possibility of being satisfied with being “good enough” keeping one from attaining greatness.
Delusional East Coast Suits
An analysis of cigarette mavens Philip Morris reveals the delusion in which corporate American is often so steeped as to be unable to determine reality. The image of the cowboy is mythic and, even more so, has nothing much to do with the most east coast agricultural base of tobacco industry. It has even less to do with pale groupthink guys with teeth stained yellow wearing Brooks Brothers suits:
“The Philip Morris people clearly loved their company and had passion for what they were doing. It’s as if they viewed themselves as the lone, fiercely independent cowboy depicted in the Marlboro billboards.”
The Fox and the Hedgehog
The author reaches back into Greek myth rather than American to develop a foundational element of the book’s philosophy. It is a parable which separates instinct into two divides: those who follow the ways of the fox and those who follow the way of the hedgehog. This is based upon the nature of the beast: the fox is crafty and always looking for an edge while the hedgehog knows it can only rely on its one weapon—its quills. The lesson of the parable draws from this:
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
