It seems that everyone is looking to build\improve\introduce leadership into their senior management teams. But how many of us have actually define what we mean by that; how it differs from management, how to spot it, who is doing it already in our company, what we need to be doing differently.

If you ask most people what are the characteristics of a great leader, whether it be in business, politics or other, you will get the usual replies - dynamism, hard driving, ego-centric, larger than life. Nowadays we would see them as your classic celebrity leader.

Jim Collins, in his book Good To Great, identified a style of leadership in successful companies as pretty much the opposite of this. He called them Level 5 Leaders:

'Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company....they are incredibly ambitious - but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.'

Just they were the opposite of the larger-than-life, egocentric leader that boards often feel they need to bring in to make their company great. Of course, that kind of appointment is high profile, usually applauded and helps to make the board feel that they are 'doing something'.

Ten out of eleven of the good-to-great CEOs, however, came from inside the company. WOW!

What this means is that it is possible that the potentially great leaders for your company are already with you. They are just not as easy to spot as the ego-driving, shouting loudest celebrity leader.

Who are the Level 5 leaders in your organisation?