Achieving Leader Study

Breakthrough Research on Effective Leadership

  • Immediately improve leadership skills and organizational effectiveness
  • Learn to balance short term performance with long term leadership development needs
  • Define a clear organizational-wide language and model for effective leadership 
     

The evidence based study shows definitively the common behavioral characteristics that the top achieving leaders employ to set themselves apart from their lesser achieving colleagues. These leaders were most highly valued by their respective companies and were promoted faster and given the most responsibility for managing their organization's assets and people.

warren-bennis

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born - that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

- Warren Bennis

 

It proves leadership is not accidental.  There is a clear model and a language for effective leadership that exists and it can be learned by others.  

Summary of the Achieving Leader Study

  • Large sample of over 60,000 participants (approximately 16,000 managers and 48,000 co-workers)
     
  • Leaders are rated as HIGH, AVERAGE and LOW achievers based on a common standard called the Managerial Achievement Quotient (MAQ) which allows participants to be compared across companies--including for profit, non-profit, government.
     
  • Using our validated instruments, each participants's behavior is measured in key areas:
    • Leadership Philosophy
    • Employee Involvement
    • Communication and Interpersonal Relationships
    • Work Motivation
    • Empowerment and the use of Power
    • Overall Management Style

  • Each participant is measured in all areas and feedback is also gathered from at least three of their direct reports for each of the above areas.
     
  • The study was conducted by Jay Hall, Ph.D., the founder of Teleometrics and includes the work by great names such as Douglas McGregor, Abraham Maslow, Robert Blake, Jane Mouton, Chris Argyris, Kurt Lewin, Rensis Likert, David McClelland and many others.  
     
  • Previously, these groundbreaking studies of leadership and organizational behavior arose independent of one another with few researchers consciously building upon the works of the others.

The results?  The top achievers do indeed exhibit consistent behavioral characteristics across all aspects tested. More impressive is the fact that these leaders use these characteristics to create an environment of collaboration, commitment, and creativity that propel their teams to new heights of achievement.

How do they do it and what do they all have in common?

Using the High Achieving Leader as a leadership benchmark, we have developed a process whereby participants can learn to model the same behavioral characteristics used by top achievers.

Achieving Leader Modules

Leadership Philosophy

Leadership Philosophy
Discover how we expand our effectiveness as leaders. Our behavioral practices are an outgrowth of our personal theories and assumptions about the basic nature of people at work. Based on this learned--and sometimes unconsciously referenced--belief system, we develop general guiding principles which result...
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Employee Involvement

Employee Involvement
Discover how we "turn on" employees' willingness to work and participate Successful employee involvement requires that leaders/managers initiate and maintain the process of involvement and provide access to resources that people need in order to contribute. It is only when involvement is practiced effectively...
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Communication and Interpersonal Relationships

Communication and Interpersonal Relationships
Discover how the way we communicate energizes the work climate Our interpersonal communication skills make the work climate more productive (or less so.) This Model discusses an overview of a model of interpersonal communication, and the analysis of one's own individual communication practices and...
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Work Motivation

Work Motivation
Discover how to boost performance by harnessing the motivation powerhouse Researchers agree that the personal motivations of employees are directly related to nearly every facet of the workplace. Therefore, it is widely, but mistakenly, assumed that leaders/managers bear the responsibility of motivating...
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Empowerment and Use of Power

Empowerment and Use of Power
Discover how the way we use power can help organizational performance. Nothing has a greater impact on managers themselves, their direct reports, and their organization, than how they manage and share their power. Research confirms that a manager's power style differentiates the truly productive manager...
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Group Decision Making and Team Effectiveness

Group Decision Making and Team Effectiveness
Discover how to transform low-performing groups into triumphant winners Teams are a reality of organizational life. Today's organizations consist of interconnected groups of people, and "teaming" appears to be a permanent reality. How people relate to one another in the integration of task/social and...
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Management Style

Management Style
Discover how well your management style works - and what to do if it doesn't Model 7 serves to integrate much of the material presented in previous Models. It also provides a structure for systematically examining personal behavior from multiple vantage points... Facilitate better understanding...
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Total Leader Solutions

Leadership Succession

Succession planning is a process to create and manage the organization’s talent pipeline. A key (and often overlooked) part of leadership is developing the next generation of leaders.  Succession...
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Personal Productivity

The Effective Personal Productivity® program will help you increase your personal productivity, achieve your goal and enjoy greater success.  The program's unique methods are a valuable resource...
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Personal Leadership

In order to lead others effectively, you must first lead yourself.  Effective Personal Leadership® is our flagship leadership development program created by the father of personal leadership and...
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Motivational Leadership

Achieving Leader - A Model for High Performance Leadership The Achieving Leader Study definitively shows the common behavioral characteristics that the top achieving leaders employ to set them apart from...
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Strategic Leadership

LMI's strategic planning process manages tomorrow's performance today through effective strategy development and execution. Our Strategic Foundations Process will make a major contribution in assuring...
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Why Management Training?

  • Only 17% of managers are effective at getting results--most struggle to balance short and long term responsibilities1
  • According to a recent 20 year study involving over 800 people, employees with competent management are 30% less likely to develop heart disease2
  • Only 15% of managers have any management training and yet are held accountable for the performance of others
  • Management training is often subjective, sometimes even negative and destructive, and not validated by scientific evidence
  • An evidence-based model for effective management exists and it can be learned1

1Hall, J. (1988). Models for management: The structure of competence: Classic theories and facts about managing people
2Kivimaki M, Ferrie JE, Brunner E, Head J, Shipley MJ, Vahtera J et al., (2005). Justice at work and reduced risk of coronary heart disease among employees: The Whitehall II Study.

Achieving Leader Research

  • Achieving Leader Study Achieving Leader Study
    Breakthrough Research on Effective Leadership Immediately improve leadership skills and organizational effectiveness Learn to balance short term performance with long term leadership development needs Define...
    Read More...
  • High Achieving Management High Achieving Management
    Evidence-Based Model for Effective Management Behavior Our Achieving Manager model can be used to quickly enhance an organization’s performance through a measurement and education process that...
    Read More...