After spending years studying what separates good companies from great ones, author and researcher Jim Collins — knowing that great companies have great leaders — believes he’s isolated the formula that yields superior corporate leadership, and shared it Tuesday with the keynote audience at SHRM’s annual conference in Atlanta.
“The X factor for great leaders is humility combined with a ferocious will to pick people better than ourselves — to truly aspire to be the dumbest person in the room,” he said, noting that many successful leaders have healthy egos and self-confidence, but that great leaders can temper that tenacity and self-assurance with humility.
