What Makes an Inspirational Leader?
I recently heard about a new research study that defines characteristics of the most inspirational leaders. As I listened to different podcasters discuss this study, I couldn’t wait to go and read it for myself.
As I read, I found myself completely enamored with the results of the Bain research study. Bain research defined 33 characteristics of inspiring leaders You don’t need all 33 attributes. Although this is fascinating, and I love the way we can intentionally develop characteristics to be more inspiring, it’s not the part of the study that has me consumed.
The part of the study that has me talking to anyone who will listen is that the researchers boiled down their findings to one attribute that is the most important. And this one attribute is surprising.
It turns out that centeredness is the most important attribute of a leader who creates inspiration in others. It is the axis of the other 32 characteristics.
From the study:
Just as leaders need to be able to meet their performance objectives to be rated as satisfactory, for example, we recognize that leaders need to be able to stay centered to inspire. Being centered is a precondition to using one’s leadership strengths effectively.
Centeredness means being fully present. In a world that is designed to swipe our attention and distraction runs rampant, if we want to be inspiring to our students and colleagues, we must learn to anchor ourselves in the present moment. https://choiceliteracy.com/article/september-13-2024-create-space/
Other interesting information from the study:
The most powerful combination
How many of these inspiring behaviors does someone
need to reliably inspire others?
The key developmental insight from these findings is
that an individual can increase his or her inspirational
leadership ability by excelling at just a handful of intrinsic strengths and converting weaknesses to neutral.
The data also shows that it’s more effective to develop
a distinguishing strength than to neutralize a weakness:
On average, investing in adding a distinguishing strength
is one and a half times more powerful at building inspiration than neutralizing a weakness.
Calibrating a strength
Why create a leadership program focused overwhelmingly on strengths? A growing body of research has
shown that encouraging people to bolster their strengths
is more effective than striving to fix their weaknesses.
According to Gallup research, the odds of employees
being engaged are 73% when an organization’s leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees vs. 9%
when they do not.
“One of the things we know is that when things are negative, people see fewer options, [and] they’re less able
to problem solve. It shuts down the brain,” said business
psychologist Jennifer Thompson, an associate professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
“When people have positive environments, they’re more
creative. They’re more productive.”
To read the full study:
https://www.bain.com/contentassets/2024cdcfe439496d99d49e84e4c489d9/bain_brief_inspirational_leadership.pdf
Interesting, though actually, that one attribute is not all that surprising. "Being centered is a precondition to using one’s leadership strengths effectively." is a three-thousand-year-old philosophy directly from Lao Tzu in the "Tao Te Ching." The center is balance in all things, strengths and weaknesses considered equal.
ReplyDeleteGood to see this thinking come back.