AchieveGlobal's blog

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. 

I ’m a Leader – So What Do You Expect?

By Craig Perrin We recently concluded a worldwide study of what’s different about leading in the 21st century. What we learned will re-shape both what we say about leaders and how we develop leaders at all levels. Given the 21st-century coming together of peoples, economies, and cultures, we were pleasantly surprised to find a firm picture of good leadership emerging from our research.  Effective leaders, we learned, tend to focus their efforts in six distinct “zones of leadership”:

• Reflection: The tendency to evaluate one’s own motives, beliefs, attitudes, and actions.
• Society: The tendency to apply principles – such as fairness, respect, and “the greater good” – to balance individual and group welfare.
• Diversity: The tendency to value human differences, including gender, ethnicity, age, culture, beliefs, and work styles.
• Ingenuity: The tendency to offer and execute practical ideas and enable others to do the same.
• People: The tendency to engage the hearts, minds, and actions of others in productive work.
• Business: The tendency to make and execute sound plans and decisions.

While individual contributors and leaders at all levels in Asia, Europe, and North America endorsed these six “zones,” the relative importance of the zones (and of 42 specific behaviors that comprise the zones) differed by organizational level and global region. My limited point here: Good leadership in part is relative to the expectations of those being lead. If I’m a senior leader, for example, I may see profitable operation as my highest priority. Everyone else, however – all the people I lead – may see my ability to admit my mistakes as the bellwether of my credibility. Until I meet that expectation, I’m less likely to secure the commitment and effort that promote profitable operation. This and many other implications of our study will be the focus of a comprehensive report due out this Fall.