The study identified the following distinctions between good and outstanding leaders:
All leaders talked about engaging others in a vision. Outstanding leaders conveyed a greater depth and higher purpose when speaking about vision (Hallmarks: Purpose and Moral Courage)
· All leaders understood the need for trust, respect and honesty. Outstanding leaders understand how they combined these attributes to create the conditions for exceptional performance and they knew the role they had in creating these conditions. (Hallmarks: Trustworthiness and Authenticity)
· All leaders respond to failure. However, outstanding leaders maintained and built trust by recognizing what was learned and achieved, and the growth that will come from this experience. (Hallmark: Resiliency)
· All leaders understood the importance of team spirit and engagement. Outstanding leaders shaped the environment through team bonding, removed hierarchy and formed deep relationships. They co-created plans instead of making all the decisions. (Hallmarks: Presencing and Trustworthiness)
· Outstanding leaders clearly saw the link between behavior and outcomes, therefore provided space for meaningful conversations. Good leaders were less likely to see the link between process and outcomes. (Hallmark: Presencing)
In addition, the study identified specific mindset shifts that separated outstanding leaders from good leaders. Here are four of the seventeen identified in the study:
Good: Objectives and targets
Outstanding: People and engagement (Purpose)
Good: Delegate task
Outstanding: Delegate space for autonomy (Trustworthiness)
Good: Tend to focus on work
Outstanding: Seek to understand people and motives (Presencing)
Good: Reflect on learning about job
Outstanding: Reflect on learning about self and others (Resiliency)
This study is significant for a number of reasons; it provides a template for organizations in designing their leadership development programs, it gives guidance to individuals in what courses and training to select that will assist them in making the shift from "good to outstanding", and hopefully it begins to transform how organizations prioritize their training budgets. There is now evidence that the "soft stuff" not the "hard stuff", is what makes the difference in performance and outcomes in workforce engagement, organizational performance and customer loyalty.
My belief is that the challenges of this decade require people centered approaches to leadership. New ideas and technology may hold the promise and ability to address our challenges, but people must embrace and support the changes for them to be successful. In forty years there will be over 9 billion people on this planet; 3 billion more than there are today. The planet's greatest challenges and resources are people. Leaders who understand this and learn how to engage and motivate people wisely will not only be successful, they will be significant.
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