Page 57 - The extraordinary leader

34 • The Extraordinary Leader

Intention to Leave the Organization

In another study conducted with over 7,000 leaders from hundreds of differ-
ent organizations, we looked at the relationship between leadership effec-
tiveness and intention to stay with or leave the company.
(These results were extremely consistent with an organization’s actual
turnover data. In most organizations, actual turnover is about one-half of
the intention to leave results. In other words, if 50% of employees intend to
leave, turnover is typically 25%.) In this study, high scores indicated a greater
intention to leave, whereas low scores indicated a greater intention to stay.
As is apparent from Figure 2-4, the employees of the extraordinary leaders
were significantly more committed to stay with the company. The intention
to stay then translates into lower turnover for those who work with the
best leaders.

Impact on Customer Satisfaction

In a study done with a high-tech communications company, we looked at the
relationship between leadership ability and customer satisfaction (Figure 2-5).
Once again, extraordinary leaders have substantially better ratings on

55
50
% of Employees in Work Groups that “Think about Quitting” 40
45

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1st– 10th– 20th– 30th– 40th– 50th– 60th– 70th– 80th– 90th–
9th 19th 29th 39th 49th 59th 69th 79th 89th 100th
Leadership Effectiveness Percentile
Figure 2-4 Intention to Leave the Company