Page 133 - The extraordinary leader

110 • The Extraordinary Leader

Keys to Success and Failure

One of the primary focuses early in our research was to discover if there were
some competencies that are absolutely essential in order for a leader to be
considered great. In other words, “Great leaders always do _____ well.” In addi-
tion, we looked for competencies that, if done poorly, were a cause for failure.
Surely, there must be some behaviors that catapult leaders to success; con-
versely, there must be others that drag leaders to failure. In the research process,
however, it appeared that whenever we found a rule, we always found excep-
tions to that rule. We found much greater similarity in the causes of failure
than we found in the reasons for effectiveness. Rather than identifying a con-
sistent profile or style that always worked for every person, what we found was
a tremendous variety in the style, approach, and makeup of extraordinary lead-
ers. What started out as a disappointment in our research soon turned out to
be valuable insight on leadership. Extraordinary leaders are unique. Some have
one cluster of attributes, whereas others have a different cluster of attributes.
This isn’t to say that each of the 16 competencies was equally powerful in pre-
dicting overall effectiveness. Indeed, one competency, “inspires and motivates
others to high performance,” is the single most powerful competency, and this
has prompted us to write a subsequent book about it, The Inspiring Leader. 2
The commonality we could find in extraordinary leaders is that they are
extremely effective at a few things. Whereas Scenario 1 would make life sim-
pler for those responsible for leadership development, that is not the reality.
We suspect most people are glad that Scenario 1 is not the way the world
works. It would be mind-numbingly boring.
The good news of our research is that it reinforces the notion of individu-
ality and the power of developing individual talents and gifts. For the authors,
this comes as a great relief. Whereas both of us hope we possess some
strengths, our strengths differ markedly from each other. This fact has been
of great benefit in researching and writing this book. The strengths of one
author balanced the flat side of the other author. After many years of personal
change efforts, being extraordinarily talented at some competencies contin-
ues to evade us. It is just not in our bones. (This does not mean we are totally
incompetent at these skills, but clearly we are not extraordinary.)

The Leadership Paradox
Leaders are both unique and alike. They are unique in that each one has a
different set of competencies that ideally fits the organization in which he