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When Principal Financial Group Inc. went public in 2001, being a $2.2 billion company seemed pretty good, said J. Barry Griswell, the company’s chairman and chief executive.

“We thought we were good, but we had to break the walls down to be great,” he said, noting that some of the structures it had in place were holding it back. Principal’s revenues are now at $9.5 billion.

Moving from good to great in the style of the Jim Collins best seller, “From Good to Great” was the theme of last week’s Power Breakfast hosted by the Des Moines Business Record. Griswell was among a panel of four business leaders who discussed their ideas about leadership and how it relates to the book’s principles. Also participating on the panel were Gary Thomas, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, Matthew Wendt, superintendent of the Ankeny Community School District, and Ric Jurgens, president and CEO of Hy-Vee Inc. Mike Colwell, executive director of the Business Innovations Zone, moderated. About 180 business leaders attended the event, which was sponsored by Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, Des Moines Area Community College and Right Management.

No matter what size the organization, great leaders share similar goals in identifying and nurturing employees who have the passion to make it better, the panelists said.

Jurgens said Hy-Vee has for years closely followed four priorities: improving customer service, increasing sales, improving margins and lowering expenses. “And the order is important,” he said, noting the company’s goal is to not let lesser priorities interfere with higher ones. “If you go back to the basics, it serves you pretty well,” he said. Operating as an employer-owned company also generates a passion of its own, Jurgens said. “And frankly, we are passionate about what Hy-Vee will look like 50 years from now.”

As an educational organization, the Ankeny school district’s mission is “crystal clear”: to educate students to be prepared for the next phases of their lives, Wendt said. “Contrary to some beliefs, our job is not to prepare students for employment,” he said. “It’s teaching them how to learn how to learn.”

In addition to being blessed with a young and growing population, Ankeny currently has a pool of about 1,000 teacher candidates on file to draw from, he said. However, the district has found “it is becoming more and more difficult to find that pool of leaders” to serve as administrators. “We ask not only whether people are ‘on the right bus,’ but are they in the right seat?” he said, adding that he has let three administrators “off the bus” over the past six months.

Thomas said leadership is particularly important today in the automobile business, which is facing a great deal of economic challenges. “Frankly, if you’re going to go from good to great, you have to get past that,” he said. “What we’re seeing is that the stores that are moving forward, that are selling product … are not focused on those negatives.”

Leaders need to model the behaviors they want their organization to follow, Griswell said. It’s also important to have a process in place, as Principal does, to identify and mentor the next generation of leaders. “We have a very comprehensive talent review process,” he said.

Complacency is a big enemy of greatness, Jurgens said.

“Our quest, no matter where we’re headed, is not to be complacent,” he said, noting that requires looking beyond apparent victories at times. At a Monday staff meeting, for instance, he was told that Hy-Vee had reached a 10 percent increase in sales in January, beating a 6 percent goal. “But I said to the group, ‘We didn’t meet the goal because 56 of our stores did not meet the goal.’ So I think what we try to do as a company is to never be satisfied.”

Wendt said he has instituted a program over the past eight months of sending his administrators to districts around the country that are known for their excellence, and having those people job-shadow for a week at a time. “I’m a believer that leadership can be learned,” he said. He also schedules one-on-one meetings with his administrators to give them “venting” time, he said.

Jurgens said he believes in “establishing expectations and then getting out of the way.”

“One thing I try to do is ask, ‘What do you believe we should do?'” he said. “I believe that’s very much a part of the development of a leader.”