Page 48 - The extraordinary leader

Demystifying Leadership • 25

an impassioned “locker-room” speech to your team about the importance of
better customer service, a more effective approach could be to ask your team
members to listen in to customer complaint calls or to call 10 customers who
had ceased purchasing from your firm. That technique could be far more
“motivational” than any speech delivered.
Another nonobvious competency companion is the practice that some
leaders have of setting extremely high standards and stretch goals. Some peo-
ple might assume that leaders inspire and motivate their troops, and having
done that, then fail to present to them a challenging goal. They might assume
that properly motivated people will figure out the goal for themselves. Our
research, however, suggests that the very process of setting a stretch goal is
motivating and inspiring for the recipient.
Our message is not that reading a book on motivation, or taking a class in
public speaking, or deliberately showing more energy and enthusiasm is a bad
thing to do. Instead, the message is that many behaviors and practices come
together to create the perception on the part of subordinates that their leader
is motivational and inspirational. Understanding the competency compan-
ions gives the leader additional ways to improve that perception. It appears
that the more of these a leader displays, the more likely the leader is to be per-
ceived as a highly effective “motivator and inspirer” of others.
The more linear, “hit-it-straight-on” development seems best geared for
moving people from bad to neutral. It may also be of some help in moving
people from neutral to the “good” range. The competency companions seem
especially helpful for those who desire to move from “good” to “great” or
“extraordinary.” They open up many new doors for development. Some would
perceive these as side doors, maybe even back doors. But for those who have
difficulty in following the traditional, linear development process, we believe
that competency companions provide exciting new paths to explore. Chapter
8 elaborates on this idea and gives examples of competency companions for
each of the 16 competencies that make a difference.

Insight 17. Leaders Are Made, Not Born

This controversy continues. The question has not gone away. We attest that
leaders are made. Although this is certainly not a new point of view, we go
on record declaring this to be a fact. We contend that strong evidence exists
to support this conclusion. We readily acknowledge that some people start