A previous article in this blog suggested that leadership is not about one magical trait or highly moral attribute – or a set of specific skills. It is many things – arising from a complex personal toolkit. One of the many “things” that a leader has to deliver are results – Dave Ulrich of the University of Michigan and consultants Jack Zenger and Norm Smallwood in the US have argued that it is not enough to gauge leaders by personal traits such as character, style, and values…

It is a mistake to focus primarily on leadership attributes that managers bring to work, such as ethics, personal integrity, analytical thinking. These of course are necessary pre-requisites, but do not by themselves ensure effective leadership. Effective leaders must know how to connect their personal, personality and people-centered attributes with leadership results.

In an excellent book called Results-Based Leadership (Amazon) Ulrich, Zenger, and Smallwood emphasize that we need to move from thinking primarily about the inputs of leadership to emphasizing the outcomes of leadership. The challenge in an organizational development approach is to build leaders throughout the organization, at every level and across the breadth of the organization, who focus on both behavior- attributes and outcomes-results.

These polarities of soft skills and task/result skills for individual and team leadership appear in different forms and various models of management and leadership; the Leadership Grid and the Leadership Continuum are examples. In the results-based model the relationship is

The Results-Based Leadership formula:

“Effective Leadership = Attributes x Results.”

It is important to understand that the equation above suggests that leaders must strive for excellence in both terms; they must both demonstrate attributes and achieve results. Each term of the equation multiplies the other, they are not cumulative. A score of 9 out of 10 in attributes, for example, multiplied by a score of 2 out of 10 on results, yields an effectiveness rating of only 18 out of 100, not 11 out of 20.

There are generally four criteria for judging whether managers are indeed focused on achieving results:

Balanced – results balance the major dimensions of the organization (employees, organization, customers, investors) ignoring no one;

Strategic – results link strongly to the strategy and long-term plan of the organization;

Lasting – results meet both short-term and long-term goals;

Selfless – results support the whole enterprise / department / unit and are not linked or based on the manager’s personal gain.

    Executives should actually deliver results in four areas and each area requires its own metric and emphasis:

    for employees, it is developing their human capital and commitment;

    for customers, providing value for what they value;

    for investors, reducing costs and growing the business;

    for the organization, creating a learning and innovative instinct.

    A question to ask – are we assessing our managers and leaders on the above 4 areas?