Wanted: Level 5 Leaders, experience preferred

I recently read in the New York Times about Hewlett-Packard's decision in their new CEO, Meg Whitman. This blog reminded me a lot of the concept of a level 5 leader that Good to Great speaks of. Leo Apothecker, was recently outed by the board of directors at HP because he poorly communicated a very significant strategy change. In announcing the possibility of a spin-off PC company and also the decision of closing their line of portable mobile devices, many members of the board were left questioning whether or not the software, WebOS, which was recently purchased by HP, would continue to be used. Because of the significant misunderstanding, poor financial decisions were made which caused additional problems. It seems to me that the major problem was a lack of a top level leader. Inability to properly communicate strategies leaves a company blindsided without vision. A level 5 leader is someone who properly shares his vision with the entire company and is able to communicate, with faith and realism, potential problems and can receive and apply feedback from the company.

Mr. Apothecker lacked the ability to paint the picture of his vision for the HP board which left a lot of people questioning his ability to lead the company to success. As a result, Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay during a large transition period, was appointed to lead the company as CEO. I believe that she has a lot more of the level 5 leadership qualities that will result in more strategic decisions within the company. She wants to retain some of the strategies that Mr. Apothecker implemented, strategies that the company was already working towards. She also seems to have put more of the right people on the bus, people that can help her better understand what strategies to pursue. She says that her biggest goal to save the American Icon that is HP. She wants to retain its image. She was chosen because she was a member of the board and came from within the company. This is a strategy that many company pursue, to hire from within. Other companies have an idea that bringing big CEOs from outside companies can help transform a good company to great. Jim Collins states otherwise. Saying that more often than not a good company can transform into a great company by being led by a person from within the company that is passionate about that company and cares more about the image of the company than their personal image. It seems to me that Ms. Whitman cares more about the image of HP as an American icon than she does about her personal image.