Identifying and developing effective leaders is at the core of what we do at Hogan Assessments. We recently conducted a global study that reveals a striking divide between the characteristics executives display and the qualities employees say define effective leadership.
On episode 150 of The Science of Personality, Hogan’s Managing Director of Asia Pacific Krista Pederson, PhD, and Senior Consultant of Asia Pacific Nicole Dickie, MS, discuss key findings of the Global Leadership Effectiveness Study and implications for leaders around the world.
Our report, The Leadership Divide, contains personality assessment data from more than 21,000 executives in Hogan’s global database and survey responses from nearly 10,000 full-time employees around the world. Let’s explore.
What Is the Global Leadership Effectiveness Study?
As the global authority on leadership and job performance, Hogan Assessments differentiates between effective leadership and emergent leadership. Effective leaders focus on supporting their teams to perform and compete; emergent leaders focus on getting into positions of leadership and reaching the top. “We challenge people to think about what actions a leader needs to do to become effective,” said Krista.
Generally, effective leaders excel at casting a vision, making good decisions, and showing integrity, competence, and humility. But instead of surveying only leaders, the Global Leadership Effectiveness Study focuses on the perspective of employees. How do workers from different global markets describe effective leaders? Are those the people that organizations tend to promote?
Theoretical Background and Methodology
Implicit leadership theory informed the background of our study. “Every person has an unconscious, personal idea of what makes a leader,” Nicole explained. “When you evaluate someone as a leader, you’re willing to follow them. Our goal was to use information about respondents’ perceptions of an ideal leader to help develop current and future leaders.”
We used Hogan’s Job Evaluation Tool, or JET, to administer our survey. While a typical job analysis would survey subject-matter experts and incumbents about what success requires in a particular job (for example, accountant), this survey considered anyone who has ever had a boss to be a subject-matter expert on what success requires in an ideal leader. For each item, the survey presented a behavioral statement and asked respondents to rate the behavior on a five-point scale (very good to very bad) for an ideal leader. For instance, global respondents said that the ability to see things from the perspective of others was very good for ideal leader performance. Perspective-taking was the top endorsed behavior for ideal leaders around the world.
After collecting data on the leaders that people want, we compared their responses to the personality data of existing leaders. Our findings? We uncovered a concerningly large leadership divide.
The Leadership Divide: A Gap Between the Leaders We Have and the Leaders We Want
The leaders that organizations promote are not necessarily the leaders people want. Compare the five highest-ranking competencies of current global leaders with the competencies that global respondents want to see in their leaders.
The Leaders We Have
- Inspiring others
- Competing with others
- Presenting to others
- Taking initiative
- Driving innovation
These behaviors correspond closely to those of emergent leaders, or leaders who strive to attain positions of leadership.
The Leaders We Want
- Effective communication
- Effective decision-making
- Accountability
- Integrity
- Leadership ability (supporting team performance)
Respondents prioritized effective leadership characteristics, such as communicating to the team, making good decisions, and being willing to admit mistakes. “The leaders that we have are emergent leaders, and the leaders that people want are effective leaders,” Krista said.
What Employees Around the World Want from Their Leaders
The Global Leadership Effectiveness Study produced clear themes on how global employees view ideal leadership. First, they want their leaders to value teamwork and relationships. This relates to the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) scale Affiliation, which measures preferences for teamwork. Global executives score only moderately on Affiliation. However, their followers want them to foster a sense of belonging, help people work together as a team, and place importance on relationships in organizations.
Respondents also want people-first leadership. They positively described their ideal leaders as having energy and drive, being empathetic and caring about people, and being curious and strategic. These characteristics relate to higher scores on the Originally published at https://www.hoganassessments.com/blog/leadership-divide-global-leadership-effectiveness-study-findings/
