AchieveGlobal's blog

The Business of Leadership

By Craig Perrin

This is the third of seven posts on AchieveGlobal's international study of leadership today, "Developing the 21st-Century Leader" (complete report available HERE.)

Leaders with superior strengths in "Business" make successful business leaders.

Now there's a redundant statement, if ever there was one. But I recently have taken a few contemplative steps back from this statement and discovered a core truth.

Our recent research identified six zones or categories of best practices required to meet the challenges of 21^st-century leadership. Of these six zones (Reflection, Society, Diversity, Ingenuity, People, and Business), leaders tended to rate the Business zone of highest importance.

What are some characteristics of leaders who excel in the Business zone?

• They adapt quickly to changing business conditions.
• They're effective at managing the costs of operation.
• They seek new ways to make the business competitive.

Study Exposes Serious Blind Spot Among U.S. Leaders

By Craig Perrin

This is the second of seven posts on AchieveGlobal's international study of leadership today, "Developing the 21st-Century Leader" (complete report available HERE.)

A surprise for me in our recent research was that of six "leadership zones" - Reflection, Society, Diversity, Ingenuity, People, and Business - U.S. leaders rated Diversity as least important. While this finding begs more study, I can't help wondering about possible causes and effects.

It's important to note that only after we ran the survey did we choose the term "Diversity" for seven related leadership best practices:

• Strive to meet the needs of customers representing other cultures.
• Encourage collaboration among people from different groups.
• Display sensitivity in managing across cultural boundaries.
• Collaborate well with people very different from yourself.
• Effectively lead groups made up of very diverse people.
• Learn about the business practices of other cultures.
• Manage virtual teams with explicit customer-centric goals and practices.

Since we labeled this group "Global" in the survey, we can rule out the term "Diversity" (incorrectly seen by some as code for "political correctness") as a cause for low ratings. Low scores may in part reflect that many U.S. leaders have no urgent need to manage across borders, learn about business practices in other countries, or manage virtual teams. 

We Have Met the Enemy...

By Craig Perrin

This is the first in a series of posts on AchieveGlobal's international study of leadership today, "Developing the 21st-Century Leader." (Download the report HERE.)

To succeed in the volatile 21st century, leaders must rethink their historical views and cultivate a new configuration of beliefs, attitudes, and abilities.

That is the crux of AchieveGlobal's multi-phase study of how leaders can reverse the current economic trajectory. Our comprehensive literature review, focus groups, and survey of 971 leaders worldwide identified 42 best practices grouped in six "zones," or vital areas of action for modern leaders:

             

Notably, the study found a chasm between the perceived importance and observed use of the best practices, implying wide dissatisfaction with leadership today. Respondents identified their central challenges and in effect pronounced their leaders unable to meet them.

As leaders, we all share in our global ennui, and this study found our fatal flaw to be nothing new: hubris, or blindness of pride, or the mistaken view that business is just business, that we know all we need to know, that we can solve any problem arising in obsessive pursuit of short-term gains. The antidote to hubris, said the study, is the six zones of mindful action - one revered (Business) and others sometimes ignored, including Reflection, which makes us more effective in any zone. As a financial executive recently told us, "We have to learn how not to repeat the past." The six zones and 42 best practices articulate that lesson.

Posts to this blog over the next few weeks will briefly outline our findings in each leadership zone.