Every highly successful and enduring organisation is led by a Level 5 leader. Becoming a Level 5 leader is a worthy path of growth that lasts a lifetime.

• Get to know the great level 5 leaders.

• Understand the deepest principles of leadership.

• Understand oneself and one’s relationship with the world.

• Enter the process of personal change.

• Become the leader who inspires, the leader people love, admire and choose to follow.

The path of leadership.

In leadership, as in everything in life, you don’t start at the top: you start at the bottom. We started on our journey from being leaders in our own lives, understanding the basics: mind, emotions, values, working towards goals. We continued by learning strategies to be more productive, effective and efficient: to work better and get results. Continuing, we understood how to increase emotional intelligence and lead people in a team. Finally, we studied the strategies of great leaders in guiding entire organisations to success and avoiding failure. We went from the basics to the heights of leadership, step by step. Now it is time to reach the summit, to touch the highest point of leadership.

Level 5 leader.

The fifth is the highest level for a leader. It is what US author Jim Collins calls the ‘Level 5 Leader’.

The ‘Level 5 Leader’ is a ‘Principle-based Leader’: he recognises the existence of principles that are higher and greater than himself. He recognises “a higher loyalty” (in the words of former FBI Director James Comey), a loyalty not to specific people or achievements, but to higher principles: integrity, truth, love, compassion, peace, justice, meritocracy, people’s welfare. He channels his personality into the success of his organisation, rather than his own personal success. He is a leader who has, on the one hand, great determination to succeed and, on the other hand, a deep sense of humility. The result is that, as a leader, he is loved, admired and followed by people. People have a genuine sense of respect for him, are naturally drawn to him, are moved by his words and actions. They are moved by his example to be better, for themselves, for the company, the community and the world.

We find ‘Principle Leaders’ in business, past and present: Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at Berkshire Hathaway, Bill Gates at Microsoft and in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Hewlett and David Packard at HP, Andy Grove at Intel, the ‘second’ Steve Jobs and Tim Cook at Apple, Herb Kelleher at SouthWest Airlines, Ray Dalio at Bridgewater Associates, Darwin Smith at Kimberly Clark, Coleman Mockler at Gillette, Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google, Jack Ma at Alibaba, Jeff Bezos at Amazon and Blue Origin, Howard Shultz at Starbucks. These are leaders who have set a standard against which all others must measure themselves.

The question that may arise in your mind at this point is: “Can I become a Level 5 Leader? Can I become a great Principle Leader?”. In one of the first leadership trainings at Amazon, then a relatively young company, Jeff Bezos called Jim Collins as a trainer. Jim explained the concept of the ‘Level 5 Leader’. Then Jeff stood up and asked the question: “I don’t think I am a Level 5 leader. Can I become one?” Jim replied with great sensitivity and realism: “I don’t know. But if you go to work every day and apply these disciplines, you will get better every day.” Jeff Bezos certainly took the advice. And, as we all know, the successes of Amazon Inc. are the result.

The story of Jeff Bezos shows how it is possible for a capable leader to become ‘Level 5′. It is not easy, as Jim Collins’ realistic response suggests and as experience shows. It requires intention, determination, hard work, perseverance. It requires being willing to change both one’s behaviour and one’s beliefs and emotions. It requires a daily mental, emotional, physical and spiritual commitment, which can go on for months or years. But it is possible. And both the process and the results will be extremely rewarding and satisfying, both in the inner and outer worlds.

A great leader is not an absolute.

Every leader is also a human being, with his limitations and weaknesses. And while as a leader he is a light, a beacon, an example and a model for all, we must be aware that as a human being he is not perfect: he is not perfect in everything, he is not a light in everything, he is not an absolute. But this awareness must not lead us astray. It must not make us think, ‘See! He also does this and this and this…. You can’t trust him!” Such thinking would prevent us from evolving. On the contrary, we must continue to look at the positive example the leader sets, to seize the opportunity to receive the inspiration and teaching that comes from his light, and to change our lives as a consequence of that positive inspiration.

The leader’s journey.

Every great leader that history remembers began his journey with an inner journey of self-knowledge. A journey in which he got to know himself in depth, his limitations, his weaknesses, his ‘negativity’, his ‘shadow’. And in that journey he found awareness, answers, strength. Man’s inner journey is very well symbolised by Dante’s Divine Comedy. The ‘comedy’ is life and it is ‘divine’ because such is its origin: from a spiritual source that has generated us, we are immersed in a world that is a ‘comedy’, a variegated and multicoloured set of different and often conflicting expressions, within which we try to grasp meaning. Each one of us, in life, goes through a ‘Hell’: mistakes, faults, falls, inability to get back up, rises and falls again, sufferings, frustrations, pain, feelings of helplessness, fears, discouragement, depression, anger, injustice, hatred, resentment.

Each one of us has, in life, the opportunity to access “Purgatory”: with humility to understand one’s past and one’s mistakes, to forgive, to let go, to learn, to acquire the right tools, to understand, to give a different meaning to things, to take responsibility for one’s life, to regain strength, to get back up and start walking in the right direction. We all aspire to our own ‘Paradise’: to be healthy, to have a peaceful life and happy relationships, to realise our values and dreams, to be successful, each in our own way, to realise ourselves in the world. It is the journey of each of our lives, in one form or another. It is the journey of our self, which at one point realises that values, first and foremost truth and love, are the only true compass and thus begins to head in the right direction. And it is then that he will fulfil his innate need to always be better and to realise his full potential.

“Straight and narrow is the path. Waste no time.”

– David Hawkins (1927 – 2012), American psychiatrist, writer, teacher

The path of life is narrow and straight. We must not waste time. Having come to this realisation, the leader, guided by the right values, starts walking in the right direction. And in a paradoxical reversal of awareness, the leader realises that he is actually a ‘follower’: a ‘follower’ of the highest values. It is the journey of every great leader: Mohandras Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and, famously, the greatest spiritual leaders, Buddha and Jesus, went through inner and outer difficulties that seemed insurmountable. It is the journey from understanding oneself and the world to forgetting oneself and giving to the world. It is the journey of any of us who want to improve ourselves and express our full potential.

Being a Level 5 Leader

The Level 5 Leader training is the result of years of study and experience in leadership and personal change: studies and experiments guided by the questions: “Can a person change and improve?”, “Can a good leader become a great leader?”, “And how can this happen?”. And again: “From what place, mental, emotional, spiritual, does true leadership come?”, “What is the source of authentic leadership?” The training will show the inner and outer processes of the great “Level 5 Leaders”: their behaviour, their principles, their way of thinking, their strategies, their special way of reacting to life situations, of communicating and motivating. The training, being conducted by ordinary mortals (trainers) and not by ‘enlightened’ beings, cannot promise ‘enlightenment’ or any miracle. More mundanely, it will teach practical strategies for personal change, which have already proved effective in the lives of trainers and which will help you, as a leader, to develop your personality, your way of thinking, your emotional state, your behaviour, with the aim of realising your full potential and becoming a ‘Level 5 Leader’.

Duration.

The duration of the training can vary according to the needs of leaders and organisations. However, it should be borne in mind that optimal results require time and dedication, which are best expressed in the complete training. The complete training lasts 36 intensive days, which take place over a period of 12 months, a full year, for an intensive course of 3 days per month. One-to-one coaching sessions are highly recommended, because the process of becoming a Principle Leader involves profound personal change, which occurs over time through inner work and life experiences. The support of a coach who has already done the work on himself and worked with other leaders can make a big difference in the manifestation, speed and solidity of results.

Partial trainings of varying duration are also possible.