Five Levels For Champions

In the early 2000s, Jim Collins hit the Barnes & Nobel shelves with "Good to Great." Like many, I read it immediately, since the book introduced some new perspectives. The premise was simple: That "good is the enemy of great" is not a business problem but a human challenge. If we can crack the real truth on the question of good-to-great, we can add value to almost any endeavor. Good schools could become great, good teams could become great, and good radio stations could become great. So besides guts and terminal competitiveness, what does it take?

Collins' model described the "Level 5 Organization." When I revisited the book recently, I hyper-focused on Collins' Level 5 model, transposing it to radio as it exists in 2018 (though it applies to virtually any organization's structure). Using Collins' model, it shook out this way through adapting Jim's original structure, overlaying it in the context of a radio group.

Level 5 Executive: highly skilled person who builds sustaining greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will to concurrently raise the bar for programming and sales. This is what history's greats like Churchill, Patton, Lombardi, Jobs, Thatcher and Roosevelt either knew or inherently possessed.

Level 4 Leader: a catalyst for commitment to, and vigorous pursuit of, a clear and compelling vision stimulating an ever-higher performance standard for sellers and on-air talent. Think of the PDs, sales managers or market leaders you've experienced. How many personify this description?

Level 3 Competent Manager: organizes his or her programming and sales resources for relentless pursuit in order to beat market competitors. If a manager isn't fueled by acute competitiveness, he or she will never experience the rare-air of radio's winners.

Level 2 Contributing Team Member: It's the all-in mentality. He or she sheds "the disease of me" and realizes a team or organization-united is the only way rare entities like the New England Patriots or Apple can sit atop their mountain of competition. The only way.

Level 1 Capable Individual: A media leader has two choices in their approach to human capital. They may view them as "necessary associates" to be tolerated and directed. Or the Level 5 leader may and often does mandate that every single person in their building be seen as valuable, treated with respect and empathy. One day they may run the company! As one nationally celebrated CEO reflected on his retirement, "I never stopped trying to be qualified for my job."

The lesson may be simpler than we think as we assess the past and future of seeking winning radio properties or any group structure; exceptional management can be achieved by mere mortals and their employees can help create great media companies.