March 2009, Inspire Employee Engagement

Given the myriad of problems that are plaguing the economy, not the least of which is confidence, it is not surprising that leadership is at the forefront of any business or political discussion on developing solutions.

After decades of research and thousands of interviews with great leaders, The Gallup Organization uncovered seven factors that were crucial to leadership success. Where history can be instructive, this short list helps serve as a blueprint.

1. Visioning: Successful leaders are able to look out, across, and beyond the organization. They have a talent for seeing and creating the future. They use highly visual language that paints pictures of the future for those they lead.
   
   
2. Maximizing Values: By highlighting what is important about work, great leaders make clear what is important to them in life. They clarify how their own values - particularly a concern for people - relate to their work. They communicate a sense of personal integrity and a commitment to act based on their values.
   
   
3. Challenging Experience: Confronting challenges produces beneficial effects for leaders. It accelerates their learning curve, stretches their capacity for high performance, and broadens their horizons about what is possible for an organization to achieve.
   
   
4. Mentoring: These relationships are not the product of formal company-wide mentoring programs - not that these aren't helpful. Instead, more informal, yet successful, mentoring relationships enable each individual leader's needs and differences to be taken into account. They selectively pick one, two, or three highly talented individuals and invest greatly in their growth and development over a significant period of time. They see the success of these 'mentees' as a reflection of their own success. These leaders practice a form of succession planning that cultivates the next generation of leaders.
   
   
5. Building a Constituency: While the work environment naturally forces relationships with certain people, great leaders also think about those who they don't yet work with and figure out who might be useful to know. Relationships built this way bring dividends because these leaders understand networks and the importance of networking.
   
   
6. Making Sense of Experience : Great leaders learn from their mistakes and their successes, and - as they seek out a range of experts across their wide constituency - they ask questions and listen. Moreover, these leaders are able to deal with the complexity of business life and help those around them make sense of it. They do this by keeping things simple and making information accessible.
   
   
7. Knowing Self: They don't try to be all things to all people. Their personalities and behaviors are indistinguishable between work and home. They are genuine. It is this absence of pretense that helps them connect to others so effectively.