You Are Already Leading
Another essential lesson we learned when analyzing Personal-Best Leadership Experiences is that leadership is a set of behaviors and actions that are available to everyone. Leadership is not some mystical quality or the private reserve of a special class of charismatic people. It is not a gene or a trait in the DNA of a blessed few. It is not a single personality characteristic or a special innate talent that some people have and others do not. It is not a singular strength, and it is not a gift from the gods.
We repeat: Leadership is a set of behaviors and actions that are available to everyone. Let's check out that claim! For each of the questions below, please answer “yes” or “no.” Have you ever:
Spoken about one or more values that you hold dear?
Set a personal example of what you wanted someone else to do?
Talked excitedly about something that might be possible, even though it didn't exist today?
Asked someone else to go along with you to do something?
Tried to make something work better than it was currently?
Been one of the first people to try something new or different from what you were used to doing?
Listened intently to someone else's point of view, someone you didn't necessary agree with?
Helped someone else learn how to do an assignment or work better?
Said “thank you” to another person for a job done well?
Taken part in a celebration recognizing the accomplishment of a colleague?
These are just some of the actions that leaders take day-in and day-out when at their best, and if you answered “yes” to many or most of the questions above, then congratulations because this means you are already leading. Maybe you are not leading frequently enough, but you are leading. On the other hand, if you answered “no” to most of these questions, we think you'll agree that all of them are actions you could take if you were convinced that doing so would be beneficial, resulting in greater well-being and productivity for yourself and others.
Leadership is in the actions that you take. It emerges from the values that guide your decisions and behavior. It results from the visions you have for yourself and others. It is evident in the changes you initiate and the challenges you accept. It appears in the trust you build and the connections you strengthen. It's about how you lift others up and how you make others feel valued.
Even though we can demonstrate to you that leadership is something you—and others—can do, leadership myths persist. And clearly those myths include believing that leadership comes with a title or position, that it requires a set of direct reports, and that leadership is some genetic quality that is in short supply. Becoming an exemplary leader begins with the belief that everyone is capable of leadership and that you can be a better leader than you are right now because you can learn to improve your skills and abilities. It is also essential that you believe that your actions matter and that leadership makes a difference.
Leadership Makes a Difference
Exemplary leadership makes a significant difference in people's levels of well-being, commitment, and motivation, their work performance, and the success of their organizations. That's the definitive conclusion from analyzing data from over three million respondents around the world using the Leadership Practices Inventory to assess how often people engage in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.10 Those leaders who most frequently use The Five Practices are considerably more effective across a variety of outcomes than their counterparts who use them less often.
Looking at the data just for those people who indicate they are “individual contributors” (as opposed to executives, middle managers, or supervisors) reveals the same pattern as these overall findings. In each of the subsequent chapters we present empirical evidence from their peers that further substantiates these results.* For example, there is a very strong correlation (r = .67) between the likelihood of “being recommended to colleagues as a good leader” by one's peers and the frequency to which they observe the individual engaging in The Five Practices. As shown in Figure 1, the more frequently that one's colleagues and co-workers observe that person engaging in The Five Practices, the more strongly they agree that that individual is a good leader. This certainly makes sense. You can't be regarded as a leader if you don't behave as a leader.
So you don't have to be in a leadership position or have direct reports in order to make a difference to your colleagues and co-workers or to be seen as most effective by your manager. The bottom line empirically is that the more you utilize The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, the more likely it is that you'll have a positive influence on other people and the organization. That's what all our data and the scores of research conducted by independent scholars11 add up to: If you want to have a significant impact on the people around you and the organizations you are involved with, you'd be wise to invest in learning the behaviors that enable you to become the very best leader you can.
While The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership don't completely explain why leaders and their organizations are successful—which is actually good news because you should be very skeptical of anyone who promises perfection or offers a money-back guarantee—it is clear that engaging in them makes quite a difference no matter who you are, what you do, or where you are located. How you behave as a leader matters, and it matters a lot. You are the leader who makes the most difference in the lives of those you lead. And you are the one who has to determine how to match these practices and their associated behaviors to the settings and circumstances that you face. That's how you combine the art of leadership with mastery of the science of leadership.
Figure 1 Likelihood of Being Recommended as a Good Leader by Peers Increases with Greater Frequency of Leadership Practices
In the next five chapters are detailed descriptions of what people do to Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. You will find stories and examples of people just like you who demonstrate each of these leadership practices, and we provide ideas, tools, and techniques that you can use on your leadership development journey.
As you read each of the chapters, keep in mind the key messages from this overview of our research on what people are doing when they are leading:
Leadership is not a position or hierarchical place or genetic trait
Leadership is a relationship
Leadership role models are local
Leadership is everyone's business
Credibility is the foundation of leadership
Leadership is an understandable, observable, and learnable set of behaviors and actions
You are already leading … and you can exercise leadership more frequently
Leadership makes a difference
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