Spare a thought this morning for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has just given us all a fresh reminder of how important tone at the top really is.

Today Christie is front-page news at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the New Jersey Star-Ledger and probably a bundle of other media outlets. The story is that his senior staff conspired with other political appointees in New Jersey to close off northern New Jersey's access to the George Washington Bridge into New York, as punishment for a local mayor not endorsing him for re-election.

Did Christie know about that misconduct? He claims not, and the aides plotting the Washington Bridge closure have been sent packing. But skepticism runs deep in Jersey, and the floodgates of Christie criticism are now wide open: he's a bully; he's a blowhard; he's thin-skinned and over-sensitive to criticism or opposition. The Star-Ledger declared him unfit to be president in an editorial this morning, and more denunciations will follow.

All this is a shame, because once upon a time I liked Christie. He was the sort of Republican that Democrats and independents could tolerate, and even support; a Republican who understood that you sometimes have to work with political opponents like Barack Obama, and sometimes should work with political opponents when your interests happen to align. That's more than you can say for the Tea Party.

In other words, Christie demonstrated a valuable tone at the top of New Jersey—until the Washington Bridge scandal erupted, that is.

Now Christie looks evasive, every bit as slippery as Obama trying to wriggle away from the failures of Obamacare. He looks petty, a small-minded man focused on small things, whether that be closing a bridge to punish a mayor, or crafting just the right statement to deny that he knew anything about it. Next will come the criticism from people who have held their tongues for too long. We'll see all the videos: search “Christie yelling at teacher” and you get 449,000 results on YouTube. We'll hear all the stories about Christie the bully, the short-tempered, the vengeful.

Eventually, when Christie declares that he “is moving past the controversy” and runs for president in 2016, he will see how much people value character. My hunch is they value it a lot, and won't vote for him.

As I watch Christie's tone at the top go from statesman to shrill, I can't help but think of the good examples of leadership discussed in Good to Great, one of the best business books ever published. The author, Jim Collins, opens the book with a look at the character of chief executives who take a good company and propel it on to truly great things. If you want to understand what successful tone at the top is, read every bit of what Collins says on that.

Collins calls these people “Level 5 leaders”—someone who demonstrates patience, humility, and unflappable resolve to keep the whole business moving forward despite whatever obstacles come along. These people credit others for the organization's success, and blame themselves for the organization's failures. They may fire people or cancel projects, but they are not bullies, and not the center of attention. They lead by example. In other words, they set such a strong, disciplined tone of how they want to conduct themselves and their businesses, that employees want to embrace that culture. People like to follow leaders who set good examples.

If you want an example of a Level 5 leader, look to another New Jersey resident: Ed Breen, who led Tyco International from 2002 to 2012. Breen took control of Tyco as its former CEO went off to prison on fraud charges, and the company teetered at the brink of disaster. Over the next decade, he did amazing things at Tyco to bring it back to health—including many things, I'm sure, that left some at Tyco disappointed, unhappy, or unemployed. Even Level 5 leaders make unpleasant choices, that create opponents and dismay.

Still, the key to a successful organization is maintaining that disciplined ethical tone despite the opposition. We had Breen deliver a keynote address at the Compliance Week 2013 conference—and little surprise, then, that by the time he left the stage 40 minutes later he had a standing ovation. Everyone in the audience later told me, “I want to work for that guy. That's the type of person you want as a leader.”

Few people, I suspect, will say the same about Chris Christie any more. 

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