Identifying Critical Leadership Behaviors
Last week I wrote about my job and mentioned one of my newer responsibilities, turning research studies into whitepapers. We try to choose topics or questions that help us better understand the populations and companies we serve, while sharing interesting, valuable information for our clients and readers like you.
My most recent paper is “Identifying Critical Leadership Behaviors.” We analyzed the findings from 28 different studies that had been done previously to establish hiring models for managers and supervisors. Candidates took the Competency Index, the Leadership Index or both. These are two of our most widely used forced-choice indexes. Some of the companies were large, some were small. Most were manufacturing or retail organizations.
Results showed that the Competency Index factors that correlated most closely with success were Results, Initiative and Ambition. Among the success factors that emerged from the Leadership Index were Driving Results and Decisive. It seems pretty obvious that at least in these organizations, leaders are judged successful largely because they challenge people, demand performance and take initiative to make things happen so that measurable results are forthcoming.
This can be an important learning for young leaders just developing their style and approach to leadership. They may want to emulate these behaviors to be judged successful, but is this always the best style to have? Is it a style that will continue to be deemed successful in the next generation? What do you think?
Read more about this research by downloading the whitepaper. You can go to www.pradco.com and click on the link on the right side of the page. Let me know your questions and reactions. Next week I’ll share some of the plans we have for our next whitepaper on Women Leaders.
