In Jim Collin’s new book, “Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All” he compares what he calls 10x companies (the best of the best) to those that are less than 10x (the mediocre or barely surviving). The secret to these “10xers”, as he refers to them, is that they all display patterns of 10x Leaders.

10x Leadership is a combination of behavioral traits that distinguished the 10xers them from their comparisons.  Collins uses a simply triangle to describe these 10x Leadership traits.

As you can see it is the motivational force of level 5 ambition, surrounded by fanatic discipline, productive paranoia, and empirical creativity. Companies that display 10x Leadership are ones that have outperformed their comparisons by 10 times during uncertain, chaotic times.  It’s companies like Southwest airlines surviving government regulations and growing during the aftermath of 9/11.  Or the fascinating story of two very different leaders, Amundsen and Scott, as they lead their team of men through an extreme journey to the South Pole.

So what are these traits and would you or someone you know be considered a 10x Leader?  Below you will find excerpts from the book that describe the four areas of the triangle. After each there is list of traits. Ask yourself if you display those characteristics and to what extreme.

Fanatic Discipline: 10xers are “utterly relentless, monomaniacal even, unbending in their focus on their quests. They don’t overreact to events, succumb to the herd, or lead for alluring –but irrelevant— opportunities. They’re capable of immense perseverance, unyielding in their standards yet disciplined enough not to overreach.”

Traits of people with Fantatic Discipline:

• Consistency of action
• Consistency with goals, performance standards and methods
• Complete and utter focus to achieve the quest

Empirical Creativity: “10xers do not look to conventional wisdom to set their course during times of uncertainty, nor do they primarily look to what other people do, or to what pundits and experts say they should do. They look primarily to empirical evidence. They rely on direct observation, conducting practice experiments, and/or engaging directly with evidence rather than relying upon opinion, whim, conventional wisdom, authority or untested ideas.”

Traits of people with Empirical Creativity:

• Unconventional in their thinking and problem solving
• Completely driven to empirically analyze all the possibilities
• Base decisions on empirical evidence

Productive Paranoia: “10xers differ from their less successful comparisons in how they maintain hypervigilance in good times as well as bad. Even in calm, clear, positive conditions, 10xers constantly consider the possibility that events could turn against them at any moment. Indeed, they believe that conditions will – absolutely, with 100 percent certainty – turn against them without warning, at some unpredictable point in time, at some highly inconvenient moment. And they’d better be prepared.”

Traits of people with Productive Paranoia:

• Constantly scan for changes and threats in their environment, zooming out and then zooming back in
• Continuously prepare for challenges that may arise
• Build buffers for when times of uncertainty hit

Level 5 Ambition: “The 10xers share Level 5 leaders’ most important trait: they’re incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the company, for the work, not themselves.”

Traits of people with Level 5 Amibition

• The need to achieve great results for a greater good than themselves
• The drive and passion to do whatever it achieve those results
• The continuously push to motivate and engage others on their quest