The emphasis on luck turns out to be part of a broader pattern that we have come to call “the window and the mirror.” Level 5 leaders, inherently humble, look out the window to apportion credit—even undue credit—to factors outside themselves. If they can’t find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck. At the same time, they look in the mirror to assign responsibility, never citing bad luck or external factors when things go poorly. Conversely, the comparison executives frequently looked out the window for factors to blame but preened in the mirror to credit themselves when things went well.
The funny thing about the window-and- mirror concept is that it does not reflect reality. According to our research, the Level 5 leaders were responsible for their companies’ transformations. But they would never admit that. We can’t climb inside their heads and assess whether they deeply believed what they saw through the window and in the mirror. But it doesn’t really matter, because they acted as if they believed it, and they acted with such consistency that it produced exceptional results.