# Humanity Multiplies Performance: The Level 5 Leadership Framework

**Podcast:** LEITWOLF Podcast - Leadership, Führung & Management
**Published:** 2026-07-09

## Transcript

The best leaders I've ever seen do not choose between humanity and performance.
They create a culture in which both not only coexist, but in fact mutually reinforce each other.
Being human does not only not cost you performance, it increases performance if you do it right.
Hello and a very warm welcome to today's Lightwolf podcast.
Let me start a little differently than I normally do.
Es ist nicht ein Story, weil ich mich, ein Story immer so ein bisschen wie ein Made-Up ist.
Es ist nicht.
Was ich werde, ist ein Real Experience.
Du hast, mein Team und ich, wenn ich angefangen habe, 14 Jahre alt, die Team angefangen hat.
Und über Zeit, wir haben 197 verschiedene Unternehmen, mehr als 12,000 leaders.
And somewhere along the way, I chose my new job title.
After 25 years in three great different companies where I was an employed manager, leader, starting as an intern in household cleaning, I determined my title to be Leadership Catalyst.
That's what we do.
We, that is 10 partners, coaches, trainers and consultants like me, that have 20, at least 20, some of them more than 30 years of real line leadership experience.
So we have been in those situations that you sometimes face.
I have been a young intern who led himself, who led his boss, who led his projects, right?
Without really understanding yet at the time what leadership is all about.
I was looking at marketing and leading brands.
Later on, I had six people.
I then had 650 when I was a general manager in my first company, leading three countries in my business units.
The company is called Procter & Gamble.
Then later on, I was honored to serve in T-Mobile Germany and lead 7,500 people together with my six peers.
And then later on, I was invited to be a European board member in A South African business that at the time was the second biggest beer business in the world.
22 countries, 12,000 people to lead.
And then back to one, because I decided to become an entrepreneur and found my own business.
Initially just me, my laptop and I.
I was alone, so I just led myself in this third and last part of my career.
One of the things I think I've done right, I've made...
Many mistakes, but one of the things I think I've done right is starting this podcast.
A young man named Frederik nine years ago just made it start with the conversation and I just got going.
And since then, this podcast had more and more impact.
And let me illustrate what I mean.
This week, we gained three new clients who entrust us.
der wichtigste Teil der Unternehmen, der Leute, für kleine, mitt- und sehr große, große, die große, die sich in Europa entwickelt.
Eine der Kunden, die wir heute heute haben, und es sieht sehr ausreichend, ist ein Unternehmen, das ist weltweit erfolgreich, mit der Europäer in Europa.
Ein Jahr später, in 2018, A young man named Matthias, and when you hear this, Matthias Ruhrs, then warm regards, greetings to the Basel area, started joining and listened to the Lightwolf Podcast 2018.
Then in 2022, roundabout, his wife Daniela, warm regards Daniela, was promoted and he made his wife aware of this leadership podcast and she started listening.
Yet another three years later, 2025, Daniela awarded us with her first young leader to join our Lightwolf Academy to learn in a structured, simple manner the most important tools, tips and ideas how to lead self and others with impact and with success in there for an entire year.
So this podcast has impact.
That's why I call it Your Leadership Podcast with Impact.
So with that, a warm welcome.
No matter if you're dialing in.
The first time, so welcome.
Or whether you've been a long time loyal listener like Matthias and Daniela.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
And today's episode is very special.
It is very close to my heart.
Because it not only resonates with the core of who I am as a human being.
It's not about me.
It's about you and it's about the topic of leadership.
It's because it very directly addresses a client need and very directly addresses a fundamental misconception and misunderstanding about good leadership.
Let me illustrate this a bit more.
Just last night, I had a great conversation with a CEO of one industry.
Family business, incredibly successful, growth since 20 years, doubling the business in the last 10 years, and continues to be hungry for more.
However, says about his own company, we are very people-centric, and we've always been, and we'd like to be a bit more performance-centric.
So how can we...
Das ist ein sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr who runs a completely different kind of business, very different industry, very different country as well.
And this CEO has outstanding strengths, enormously clear.
There is no doubt.
When he is involved in a meeting, he creates clarity, which is a superpower.
And at the same time, he maybe is aware.
of a side effect of his strong voice and clarity creating personality.
The potential side effect that is not intended is that it sometimes might create some fear.
And I'm looking forward to having a confidential conversation with him, just him and me.
And it's, I'm not going to share this here.
This is going to stay between him and me.
But I'd like, I look forward to this conversation.
I have no idea.
Whether I'll succeed in making him aware of what the potential is for him, I'll give my very best.
He will be the one, though, deciding whether he does anything about it or not.
I mean, it's his career, it's his life, and he is already very successful, right?
So these are just two real examples, live from last night and from this morning.
Conversations with...
Responsible, successful leaders, both of them.
And they all are touching a question that in our leadership transformation work every single week comes back.
And the question is, Stefan and team and partners, if I am too human, won't my performance suffer?
And sometimes I think it's also the reverse question.
If I demand too much performance, won't I lose my team?
So at the heart, their worry is about getting both people centricity and performance.
And that's why the team and I have chosen today's title.
Does being human hurt performance?
The answer is no, it doesn't.
It's the opposite.
Great leaders do both.
And in this podcast, I'd like to share three tips with you how they do it.
But let's first penetrate this question and the underlying issue.
I believe this question of does being human hurt performance is based on a fundamental misunderstanding.
The best leaders I've ever seen.
Do not choose between humanity and performance.
They create a culture in which both not only coexist, but in fact mutually reinforce each other.
Because being human does not only not cost you performance, it increases performance.
If you do it right.
So since about 10 years ago.
What I've just said was just based on my observations and the observations of my 10 partners.
When we discuss topics like this, we all come to the same conclusion.
But about 10 years ago, a great book entered my life.
Way too late, I should have read it much earlier.
And it's one of the few books, maybe 6 or 7 books in my life, that I've read repeatedly.
This one I reread last Christmas.
And I reread every single line because it's a fantastic book.
It's called Good to Great from Jim Collins.
And in this book, Jim Collins analyzes a question.
And the question is, are there any companies that ever made the turn from good, good defined as 7% annual growth to great, which is at least five times that growth?
So not 7% growth per year, but at least 35% growth per year and sustained over at least 15 years.
So a high bar.
Do companies like this exist at all?
And the answer is yes.
He and his consultant team invested 10 consultant years to search, to analyze, to hypothesize, to debate, to discuss, to redo until finally they found the pattern.
Und die pattern ist in dieser outstandingen Buch.
So, wenn die Thema interessant ist, und du hast es noch nicht gesehen, ich gerne Jim Collins gut zu groß.
Und hier ist die resultatung.
Out of die 1,440 companies they analysed, 11 made the shift.
They indeed managed, at some point in their decade-long, sometimes more than a century-long company history, to take the turn, from 7% to 35% growth per year or more.
Und es hat sich über 15 Jahre gelesen.
Und wir kennen einen der 11en, weil wir arbeiten für sie.
Und dann der erste Frage, was das, was, was, was dann macht die Unterschiede zwischen den vielen, den vielen, den vielen, den vielen, den vielen, den vielen, über eine bestimmte Zeit.
Und die Antwort ist, es ist leadership.
Es ist in Daten.
was meine observations haben für 25 Jahre.
Und ich will Ihnen das mal aus dem Buch.
So, question, was differentiated the many good from the few great ones?
Faktor number one, Level 5 Leadership.
Quote, page 12, Jim Collins.
Wir waren surprised, shocked, really.
To discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one.
Compared to high profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities.
The good to great leaders seem to have come from Mars.
Self-efficacy, quiet, reserved, even shy.
These leaders are a paradoxical blend of Personal humility and professional will.
They are more like Socrates than Caesar.
Unquote.
This to me is the bullseye.
This to me is the heart of good leadership.
And when I compare, I had 16 bosses in my corporate career, right?
And I've now worked with more than 12,000 leaders.
Many have a strong will.
So that's common to many.
But the decisive differentiator is sheer endless personal humility combined with the strong willpower to get the right thing done.
And that means humanity being human not only not hurts, but in fact multiplies your performance.
Now let's look at the real challenges that we encounter in our daily work helping companies, teams and individuals.
To spread the leadership they want and need for a sustained, successful future.
Problem 1.
Difficult conversations are avoided.
Many leaders don't want to disappoint or upset anyone.
They hope that problems will solve themselves somehow magically.
In my life, they never have.
Whenever you delay and postpone a problem, it's not going to solve itself.
It's going to grow until you intervene and get it solved.
The result is performance declines, frustration within your team grows and the best employees start wondering why poor performance has no consequences.
Problem number two.
Humanity is sometimes confused with leniency.
Some leaders believe that good leadership means fulfilling as many wishes of others as possible and shielding their team from pressure and challenges.
Und ich habe nicht mehr gemacht.
Ich habe mich als ein großer Leiterer-Mistake als ein junger Leiter.
Ich war 28.
Ich hatte eine 2.8 Millionen Euro-Business und ich hatte sechs wonderful Leute.
Und ich war behaving wie ein Henn, ein Big Henn, sitting auf dem, rather than allowing dem zu nehmen.
Ich habe das Mistake gemacht.
Aber Teams brauchen mehr als care.
Sie sind adults.
This is not a kindergarten.
They need more than care and support.
They need direction, space and then high expectations to deliver.
Right?
They need a stadium rather than a kindergarten.
And problem number three, leaders carry too much themselves.
Out of a sense of responsibility, out of not wanting to overload their people, many leaders take on tasks, decisions or conflicts.
dass ihre employees eigentlich solve können.
Wir haben über 250 live leadership programs über 17 Jahre, starting in 2009.
Und ein Frequent-Exercise wir machen ist über Empowerment, mit den Techniken der Delegating und Coaching.
Und wenn wir uns fragen, mit einem einfachen Tool wir entwickelt haben, dann wird es bewusst, wie sie Delegate.
Und wenn wir fragen, so, do Sie delegieren zu viel?
Wir haben nie einen Arm raised.
Do Sie delegieren die richtige Amount der Verantwortung?
1 in 10 raises their Arm.
Und wenn wir fragen, jetzt, wer von Ihnen denkt und jetzt observes, auf der Reflexion, dass Sie können mehr Delegieren als Sie machen?
Dann 9 out of 10 raise their Arm.
Typically, it's between 10% and 40% of their own capacity that they could free up by handing more responsibility to others.
Don't get me wrong, it's not about just blindly overloading your people and leaving them alone.
It's about helping them get clear on success, what is success, and then helping them clear away stuff that's just too small so there is enough space to manage and deliver the big bets.
That's one of the mistakes that leaders do.
So this is my experience of typical problems related to today's headline.
Let's flip the page and talk about potential solutions.
What can you do in practice?
No matter whether you are a first time leader, a middle manager, a team leader or a company CEO globally.
This is true for everyone independent from seniority.
Lesson one.
Give feedback early and with respect and with impact.
Not just with positive intent.
Use a simple formula.
Describe what you've seen.
So an observation.
An insightful question related to the impact of the other person's behavior.
And then share a wish or an expectation.
So share your own observation firsthand.
Don't go with secondhand gossip that others tell you.
Go with firsthand observations.
Then ask, here is the impact?
Or what do you think has been the impact of your behavior?
On yourself, on the team, on me.
And then articulate a wish or an expectation for the future.
And if you do so with your tangible intent to help, then there is no risk that the other person misunderstands this criticism as a personal assault.
They won't.
If you do your leadership work right.
So say I noticed that, here is my observation, as a result this had the following impact.
And going forward, I would like you to...
If you apply this formula to giving feedback, to giving constructive criticism, you have a much higher chance to have the impact you want, i.e.
growth, for the person and for the business.
Clear feedback is not an attack.
It's a sign of respect, if done right.
Second suggestion for you.
Be empathetic with people, but demanding...
Be empathetic with people.
Be human with people.
But demanding on performance.
Because that's what many of them want anyway.
One of my favorite definitions of good leadership is high care, high standards.
I've had 16 different bosses in my career.
And one of them had the most lasting impact on me.
His name is David.
He combined these two on an unprecedented high level.
Amazing.
He cared, but he always raised his expectations of me.
And if you show genuine interest in people while also being clear about the results and the behavior you expect, you will help them grow.
And three, suggestion number three, develop people instead of solving their problems.
Develop people instead of solving their problems for them.
Wenn ein Team Member kommt zu Ihnen als Leader mit einem Problem und vielleicht sogar charmiert Sie, wie, hey, dear Leader, Sie sind so ein great Leader und so ein great Funktionärer in XYZ.
Hier ist mein Problem.
Was soll ich tun?
Don't give eine Antwort.
Just return the question.
Instead of answering the question, just say, what would you suggest?
Great question.
What would you suggest?
This strengthens ownership.
This clarifies leadership expectations.
You want them to come to you with their solutions, not just with their problems.
This strengthens their self-confidence.
And ultimately, long-term performance of both the individual, the team and the business will grow as a result of your change in behavior.
In this moment, let's take 10 seconds for a quick poll.
I'd love to hear your perspective.
What do you find more difficult as a leader?
Showing humanity and empathy or consistently demanding high performance?
What is more difficult for you?
Please take 10 seconds now to quickly go into the show notes and leave your vote.
We'd love to hear your perspective.
Thank you.
So net for today, for this episode, my key takeaway.
The most successful leaders I've ever met were neither especially tough nor especially nice.
Because that's not what leadership is about.
They were clear.
They took people seriously.
They took performance seriously.
And they understood one key thing.
The two.
Do not work without each other.
In fact, being human and wanting performance mutually multiplies each other.
And my source of inspiration is David Taylor.
I was blessed to have many bosses, but he really stands out in a couple of ways.
And I have two Lightwolf podcast episodes if you want to learn about him, how he did it.
One is a long interview.
Und der zweiten, das ist der kurze, ich empfehle euch zu hören heute.
Es ist Nummer 215, entitled Expect and Encourage.
Das shares mein Reflexion auf den Impacten er hat auf mich als ein Leader, bei nur den zwei Dinge, Expecting und Encouraging.
Und vielleicht das ist das wichtigste Insight heute.
Humanität nicht kommt an der Ausgabe des Ausgaben.
Das ist die opposite.
Genuine humanity creates trust.
And trust is the foundation for outstanding performance.
Humanity multiplies performance.
Or even shorter, weak leadership believes that it has to choose between the two, humanity and performance.
Good leadership combines both and hence multiplies both.
I wish you every success.
in putting your version of humanity and performance into practice.
Great you are here today.
I look forward to welcoming you soon on the show again.
Have a fantastic week.
Thank you, your Stefan.