A Lesson in Level 5 Leadership

It was over 30 years ago when I received a phone call from a gentle sounding man called Ray King, who said he was visiting from Melbourne and would like to meet me. I had recently started my own business and was operating from the back office of a solicitor friend in fashionable Park Road Brisbane.

Ray was the Managing Director of a franchise network called Capt'n Snooze (today it's just Snooze). He had found my number at the bottom of an article.

Embarrassed at my lack of an office, I suggested we meet at the Aroma's Cafe downstairs. We hit it off immediately and had a refreshingly honest conversation over a coffee. Ray listened to my thoughts on the psychology of franchising excellence, and shared his vision to reshape their franchise network so it would be set up for sustainable growth in the future. He wasn't the least put off when I told him I didn't have an office and that he would be one of my first clients. On the contrary, he said he was excited by the prospect of letting me try out my ideas on his team!

An embarrassing boardroom visit

And so started a special relationship over the next 14 years, as I worked closely with Ray and his team exploring ways to support their franchisees and build a sustainably great franchise network. Many of the processes I use today with hundreds of clients around the world are based on the work I did with Ray and his team in those early years.

I distinctly remember the first time I visited their offices in Melbourne, keen to make a good impression. Ray's fabled assistant, Christine Boniface, led me into the upstairs boardroom where I was to be introduced to the management team. Ray came in first and then turned around and asked the others to wait outside for a moment. He then whispered to Chris who returned a moment later and gave him something. Ray approached me with a warm smile and a tissue, pointing out I had shaving cream under my ear. We both laughed and I have since always checked my face before client meetings.

"It's like I never left"

I am writing about this because last night I had the pleasure of meeting Ray for the first time since he sold the business. We had both been invited to an Awards Evening to celebrate Snooze's 50 years in business. It was a delight to hear current CEO, Damian Donohoe recognise him for the legend he is, and articulate how the company has flourished largely as a result of the values and strong foundations that were established under Ray's leadership.

In a conversation with Ray later that evening, he told me he was genuinely amazed at how familiar it all felt, watching the way people interacted and related to the brand, despite the fact he had been away for 20 years. He didn't use the word culture but that's exactly what he was referring to. The cultural foundations that he had established were alive and well, even though the franchisor business has changed hands several times. Now that's a legacy.

The paradox of Level 5 Leadership

In Jim Collins' seminal book, Good to Great, he writes about his research findings on the style of leadership that takes a company from being good to sustainably great - what he calls Level 5 Leadership.

"The good-to-great executives were all cut from the same cloth. It didn’t matter whether the company was consumer or industrial, in crisis or steady state, offered services or products, or how big the company. All the good-to-great companies had Level 5 leadership... The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results."

I remember first reading Good to Great around the time Ray left the Snooze business, and thinking how much he embodied the qualities of a Level 5 Leader, particularly his humility and gentleness, his clarity over the company's mission and values, and his commitment to innovation and continuous learning.

I watched Ray introduce innovation after innovation, so they could keep the company strong and ahead of the curve in fashion, store design, technology and business processes. He would also seek out good advice. listen carefully to the evidence and then take what he felt was the best decision based on what was right, not what was easy. He was always gracious in his relationships and it was amazing to see so many Snooze franchisees and employees receive awards for their tenure, one of the defining initiatives introduced by Ray as a way of showing his appreciation.

A thought on sustainable franchising

With so many franchise networks changing hands these days between venture capital investors, I wonder how many of these new franchisor owners understand the power of a healthy culture and the importance of developing and supporting people at the helm who strive for sustainable excellence.

Congratulations Snooze for 50 Years of successful franchising, and thank you Ray King for your inspiring example of sustainably great leadership without the big ego. As Jim Collins concludes, "While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy. Every good-to-great transition in our research began with a Level 5 leader who motivated the enterprise more with inspired standards than inspiring personality."

Until next time,