Page 212 - The extraordinary leader

New Insights into Leadership Development • 189

We found an interesting relationship between strategic perspective and self-
confidence. Leaders who were viewed as having excellent strategic perspec-
tive were also rated as having the ability to inspire and motive others. The
relationship here seems to be that in order to get others to believe in a new
strategy and direction it takes more than just compelling logic. Self-doubt,
hesitation, changing your mind, or introversion can take a well-analyzed, log-
ical strategic plan and turn it into a dead issue. Two critical issues are rele-
vant here in inspiring and motivating others to accept a new strategy and
direction.
First, the most powerful tool that leaders have is the use of emotion. Hav-
ing the ability to get others excited and passionate about a new direction is a
critical skill. People need to know the logic but they also need to feel the value
and power of a new strategy.
Second, leaders need to make sure that their actions are consistent with
the new direction. They need to be a role model and look carefully at all their
activities to ensure that their behavior is consistent with the new course of
action. When a new direction emphasizes controlling costs, leaders need to
take a very hard look at their personal expenditures to ensure that they are a
role model.

A New Approach to Development

Our competency companion research provides a unique perspective on how
leaders can change. Current approaches toward development encourage
people to develop linear development plans. Linear plans can be effective
especially if a person’s current level of performance is poor. Most linear plans
help leaders make the transition from poor to good. However, the major focus
of this book is helping leaders transition from good to great. The competency
companion research provides leaders with a new map on how to reach their
ultimate destination. This map provides alternate routes, which, for the most
part, are unintuitive.
These new routes come out of research. The statistical analysis indicated
that two behaviors were highly interrelated. We then looked for the rationale
of why the one behavior impacted the other. Often, when leaders try to build
exceptional effectiveness on specific competencies, it becomes difficult to find
an effective way to improve. When performance on a competency is good,
using a linear mind-set is useless because leaders already perform the com-
petency reasonably well. However, the nonlinear approach suggests that in