Page 164 - The extraordinary leader

Great Leaders Possess Multiple Strengths • 141

Leaders with five strengths are at the 91st percentile. When we have
challenged leaders to move from the 50th percentile to the 90th percentile,
their response was most often that it seemed impossible. Their perception was
that they needed to be perfect in almost every competency in order to be at
the 90th percentile. That clearly is not so, but it is a hard concept for many
to absorb. To be at the 90th percentile simply required a leader to be highly
skilled at five competencies! This seems achievable to most aspiring leaders.
For example, we have been working with a large financial services company
and determined that in one large group, of the 150 most senior executives,
one-third of them had six or more competencies at the 90th percentile. That
was the good news. On the other hand, 46% of them had no competency at
the 90th percentile. This provided a huge opportunity for development within
this executive team.
After presenting this research at a conference one of the conference
participants asked the following question: “What is the most significant find-
ing from your research?” The answer given was a bit academic, carefully
including many of the various insights covered in this book. The participant’s
response was, “No, that stuff is all important, but the thing that is most impres-
sive is your research on the impact of strengths on overall effectiveness.” The
participant went on to explain his answer: “When I saw the research that
showed the impact leaders can have on bottom-line results I was both
impressed and depressed—impressed that the impact occurs and depressed
because I thought there was no way to develop those kinds of leaders. Those
leaders are born, not made. Then you showed me the strength research.
When you understand the key to being at the 80th percentile is having three
strengths, it seems possible. Developing four strengths also seems possible for
a large number of our people. It also seems clear to me that our managers
have invested all their energy in trying to fix a nit here and there rather than
concentrating on developing three strengths.”

How Much Should I Bite Off?

If a person has a strategy for personal improvement that relies on incremental
improvement of weak areas and moving all competencies to higher and
higher levels, this seems like an overwhelming, maybe impossible task. Our
research indicates that people can only be successful at change if they focus
efforts on change in a few areas. We recommend a maximum of three areas
of improvement at any one time. Ideally, people would work on building one