Page 59 - The extraordinary leader

36 • The Extraordinary Leader

on the other hand, reinforced the importance of customer satisfaction. After
going through the experience, the researchers came to the conclusion that
efforts to change employee behavior had to start by making sure that their
managers’ behaviors were in alignment. 3

Impact on Percentage of Highly Committed Employees

We performed a study looking at the percentage of highly committed employ-
ees in a work group. Each person who directly reported to a leader was
asked the extent to which they felt that the work environment was a place
where people wanted to go the extra mile. We selected only those employees
who answered “5” on a 5-point scale. This is the kind of employee that
is enthusiastic about the job. He or she is excited to take on challenging
assignments and will do whatever is necessary to get projects completed on
time and in budget. Every leader can identify a few employees that fit that
description. What would be the impact of having more of this kind of
employee on the success of any work group? Productivity would increase,
morale would be higher, projects would get done faster, and no doubt prof-
itability would also go up. What impact do these employees have on other
employees? When people are walking or running and someone passes them,
what do they tend to do? Most people tend to speed up. It is almost an auto-
matic response. In work groups, when a high percentage of employees are
highly committed and giving their best effort, the remainder of the group is
usually not far behind.
Figure 2-6 shows the percentage of highly committed employees based on
aggregated results for hundreds of organizations. Once again, leadership effec-
tiveness is broken into 10 levels.
It is interesting that 13% of the employees of the worst leaders are highly
committed. Evidently, that is what nature produces. As you look at the chart,
you will note a steady increase in the percentage of highly committed employ-
ees with the increase in leadership effectiveness: 43% of the employees of
leaders at the 80th percentile are highly committed, and 57% of employees
of leaders at the 90th percentile are highly committed. If you were a leader
of a work group where 40% to 50% of your employees were highly commit-
ted, would it have a significant impact on the bottom line? When we have
asked that question to leaders around the world, the answer was always a
resounding “Yes.”