Introduction
This is an evidence-based book. Analyzing thousands of case studies and millions of survey responses produced The Five Practices framework, and the hundreds of real people documented throughout these pages make the model practical rather than theoretical. Each chapter brings fresh data on the impact that the behavior of leaders has on engagement and performance.
The most significant contribution leaders make is not to today’s bottom line; it is to the long-term development of people and institutions so they can adapt, change, prosper, and grow. You don’t just owe it to yourself to become the best leader you can possibly be. You owe it to your constituents. The world needs leaders who can unite us and ignite us.
Chapter 1 — When Leaders Are at Their Best
At the very beginning of a journey with a new team, good leadership is about getting to know people personally — knowing their values, what they love to do, what they care about, and what they stand for. That orientation shapes everything downstream. Consider Brian, whose leadership team holds weekly standup meetings to highlight what everyone is working on, examine problems, celebrate successes, and acknowledge failures. During these meetings, the team deliberately looks for what they call “praise moments” — opportunities to draw attention to exemplary behaviors in front of everyone. When people see the successes and hear the positive feedback, it creates momentum. The more good you do as a leader, the more good you can keep doing.
Leaders who operate at their best find as many excuses as possible to celebrate successes. They believe that when you recognize what is working well, people are more likely to repeat the behavior that helped create that success in the first place. When making extraordinary things happen in organizations, leaders engage in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.
To effectively Model the Way, you must first be clear about your own guiding principles. You can’t command commitment; you have to inspire it. Challenge is the crucible for greatness — every single personal-best leadership case involved a change from the status quo. Not one person achieved a personal best by keeping things the same. Innovation comes more from listening than from telling, and from constantly looking outside yourself and your organization for new products, processes, and services. Life is the leader’s laboratory, and exemplary leaders use it to conduct as many experiments as possible.
Exemplary leader behavior makes a profoundly positive difference in people’s commitment and motivation, their work performance, and the success of their organizations. This holds independent of who the direct reports are — their age, gender, ethnicity, education, position, tenure, or nationality. The behavior of the leader is what makes the difference in explaining why people work hard, why they feel committed, why they carry pride in what they do.
Chapter 2 — Credibility Is the Foundation of Leadership
Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. Bobby understood this from his first day. Rather than arriving with a plan already written, he spent his first month sitting with individual team members to understand their desires, needs, and plans — learning what each person aspired to and enjoyed doing before he ever asked anything of them. He couldn’t gain the respect of the team without respecting them, allowing them the freedom to take ownership of their projects. In management meetings, even though he could have provided answers himself, Bobby typically referred questions to one of his team members. This approach earned him something no title can provide.
You earn leadership from the people you aspire to lead. People choose, on a daily basis, whether they are going to follow and commit completely their talents, time, and energy. In the end, leaders don’t decide who leads — followers do.
Research on what constituents expect began with open-ended surveys of thousands of executives. Four characteristics consistently rise to the top across every culture, ethnicity, and age group: honest, competent, inspiring, and forward-looking. In every survey conducted, honesty is selected more often than any other leadership characteristic — over 80 percent want their leaders to be honest above all else. When people follow someone they believe to be dishonest, they come to realize they’ve compromised their own integrity. Over time, they not only lose respect for the leader — they lose respect for themselves.
Fear may bring about compliance, but it never generates commitment. Leaders need to communicate in words, demeanor, and actions that they believe obstacles will be overcome and dreams fulfilled. Being forward-looking means having a point of view about the future — and connecting that to the hopes and dreams of constituents. People want their leader to describe what the organization will look like, feel like, and be like in six quarters or six years, in rich enough detail that they’ll know when they’ve arrived.
People know credibility when they see it. They describe it with phrases like: “They practice what they preach.” “They walk the talk.” “They do what they say they will do.” That last phrase is not just a description — it is the Second Law of Leadership: Do What You Say You Will Do. Leaders must always be diligent in guarding their credibility. Their capacity to take strong stands, to challenge the status quo, and to point in new directions depends upon being highly credible.
Chapter 3 — Clarify Values
What would you say if someone were to ask you, “What is your leadership philosophy?” Are you prepared right now to answer that question? In chaotic times, having a set of deeply held values allows leaders to focus and make choices among competing demands. Without that inner clarity, the pressures of the day will make choices for you.
People can only speak the truth when speaking in their true voice. If you only mimic what others are saying, no one can make a commitment to you because they don’t know who you are and what you believe in. In too many organizations there is a huge gap between what the organization says is valued and the degree to which employees believe they can apply those values to their everyday work. That gap is not a communication problem — it is a leadership problem, and the solution begins with leaders who have first done the harder work of finding their own voice.
Conversations about values enable people to find more meaning in their work. When you facilitate a values conversation, you help them see how the work they do connects with who they are — making a much deeper connection than can ever be realized through discussions of tasks and rules alone. You cannot mandate unity; you forge it by involving people in the process, making them feel that you are genuinely interested in their perspectives and that they can speak freely with you. Clarifying values means identifying the values you use to guide choices, finding your authentic way of talking about what is important to you, providing opportunities for people to talk about their values with each other, and then making sure people are adhering to what was agreed.
Chapter 4 — Set the Example
No one will believe you’re serious until they see you doing what you’re asking of others. Those who serve under an effective general know well that he or she would ask nothing of others that they would not first do themselves. Setting the example is not a performance — it is the continuous alignment of action and value, made visible in the smallest decisions of every day.
The most significant signal-sending actions you can take are: how you spend your time and what you pay attention to, the language and words you use, the way you handle critical incidents, and your openness to feedback. How you spend your time is the single clearest indicator of what’s important to you. Whatever your values are, they have to show up on your calendar and on meeting agendas if people are to believe they’re significant.
The language leaders use affects people’s self-images and their responses to what’s going on around them. If you ask, “What have you done today to partner with a colleague on getting the work done?” you are sending a signal about collaboration. If you ask instead, “What have you done today to reduce the costs of doing business?” you are sending a very different message. Questions direct attention to the values that deserve it. Asking relevant questions also forces you to listen attentively — and if you are genuinely interested in what other people think, you need to ask their opinion, especially before giving your own.
Research shows that when leaders want to communicate standards, stories are a much more powerful means than policy statements or data. People more quickly and accurately remember stories than corporate statements, even a story combined with data. Too many values remain just words. Key performance measures, reward systems, recruitment, and promotion systems are all methods available for teaching people how to enact values and align decisions with them.
Chapter 5 — Envision the Future
If you are going to be an exemplary leader, you have to be able to imagine a positive future. When you envision the future and feel passionate about the legacy you want to leave, you are much more likely to take that first step forward. Shared visions attract more people, sustain higher levels of motivation, and withstand more challenges than those that are exclusive to only a few. The leaders whose direct reports give them the highest scores on engagement are precisely those who regularly paint the “big picture” of what the team aspires to accomplish.
Breakthroughs come when you reflect on your past, attend to the present, prospect the future, and express your passion. Attending to the present means creating white space on your calendar, turning off your devices, and starting to notice more of what’s going on around you right now. As one leader put it: “You have to make time to step back and ask yourself, ‘What’s the big story that cuts across all these little facts?’” Listen to your constituents: what are their hot topics of conversation? What gets in the way of them doing their best? What do they think should be changed?
People regard most favorably those leaders who regularly talk about the “why” of work, not just the “what.” Research finds that people stay with an organization because they find the work challenging, meaningful, and purposeful. What they desire is integrity — pursuing values congruent with their own; purpose — making a significant difference; challenge — doing innovative work; growth — learning and developing professionally; belonging — engaging in close relationships; autonomy — determining the course of their own lives; and significance — feeling trusted and validated. Leaders make others feel important and needed. You won’t find the keys to devoted effort by focusing simply on pay, benefits, or even plush working conditions.
Chapter 6 — Enlist Others
To make extraordinary things happen, you have to go beyond reason, engaging the hearts as well as the minds of your constituents. Researchers have shown that stressing the “why” — why are we doing this and why does it matter? — activates the brain’s reward system and increases not only people’s efforts but how they feel about what they are doing.
When people analyze what made Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech so moving, they point to consistent patterns: he appealed to common interests and traditional values; used images the audience could relate to; made it personal, mentioning his own children; included everybody; used repetition — saying “I have a dream” many times; was positive and hopeful while not promising it would be easy; and shifted his focus from “I” to “we.” The lesson for every leader: you have to show people it’s not about you, or even the organization, but about them and their needs.
Visions with image-based words are more consistent with the literal meaning of the word vision. To enlist others, help them see and feel how their interests and aspirations align with the vision. Use metaphors and analogies. Give examples, tell stories, and relate anecdotes. Vision statements are not statements at all — they are pictures. Consider what happens when someone calls out the first thing that comes to mind at the words “Paris, France.” The replies — the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Seine, delicious food, wine, and romance — are all images of real places and real sensations. No one calls out the square kilometers or gross domestic product of Paris.
Your enthusiasm and expressiveness are among your strongest allies. Individuals perceived as charismatic are simply more animated than those who are not — they smile more, speak faster, and move their heads and bodies more often. The content alone doesn’t make the message stick; key is how well you tap into people’s emotions. To be willing to change, people have to feel something.
Chapter 7 — Search for Opportunities
When people are asked to describe their personal-best leadership experiences, they don’t talk about maintaining the status quo. They discuss times of challenge and change. The more frequently people see their leader “searching outside the formal boundaries of his or her organization for innovative ways to improve,” the more strongly they agree that their leader is effective. The study of leadership is the study of how men and women guide others through adversity, uncertainty, and other significant challenges.
Seizing the initiative often starts with the simplest of questions: “What would we change if anything was possible?” New jobs and assignments are ideal opportunities for asking, “Why do we do this?” Studies of business breakthroughs find that they often originated from someone asking why a problem existed and how to tackle it. Be proactive in asking questions that test assumptions, stimulate different ways of thinking, and open new avenues to explore. Find ways for people to stretch themselves — set the bar incrementally higher, but at a level at which people feel they can succeed. Raise it too high and people will fail; if they fail too often, they’ll quit trying.
According to global studies of CEOs, the most significant sources of innovative ideas are discovered outside the organization — from customers, lead users, suppliers, and business partners. McKinsey researchers have put it plainly: “Seeing and experiencing something firsthand can shake people up in ways that abstract discussions around conference room tables can’t.” Unless people actively encourage external communication and seek diverse points of view, new ideas are cut off. Don’t let routines become ruts.
Chapter 8 — Experiment and Take Risks
Making extraordinary things happen requires generating small wins and learning from experience. A small win is “a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance.” It identifies a place to begin. Small wins make a project seem doable. They minimize the cost of trying and reduce the risks of failing. When people don’t feel overwhelmed by a task, their energy goes into getting the job done instead of wondering, “How will we ever solve this problem?”
Three key factors build psychological hardiness: commitment, control, and challenge. To turn adversity into advantage, commit yourself to what’s happening — become involved and curious, rather than sitting back. Take control by making an effort to influence what is going on; even if not all your attempts will be successful, you can’t sink into passivity. And view challenge as an opportunity to learn from both negative and positive experiences.
One ceramics teacher divided his students into two groups — one graded on quantity of pots, the other on quality alone. The students graded on quantity also made the best pots. The practice of making lots of things naturally resulted in better quality. Making more things, not agonizing over each one, was the path to excellence.
Being able to reflect on your experiences, and subsequently adjust your behaviors, is the single best predictor of future success in new managerial jobs. Think of failures as a gift. Carol Dweck’s research distinguishes a growth mindset — the belief that qualities can be cultivated through effort — from a fixed mindset that assumes your qualities are carved in stone. Angela Duckworth defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals,” and reports that it entails “working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress.” Encourage people to see change as full of possibilities.
Chapter 9 — Foster Collaboration
Individuals who are unable to trust others fail to become leaders precisely because they can’t bear to be dependent on the works of others — they end up doing all the work themselves or becoming micromanagers. Their lack of trust in others results in others’ lack of trust in them. People perceived as trusting, by contrast, are sought out more as friends, more frequently listened to, and subsequently more influential.
Self-disclosure is one way that you go first. Once you take the risk of being open, others are more likely to take a similar risk. The concern you show for others is one of the clearest signals of your trustworthiness — listening, paying attention to their ideas and concerns, helping them solve their problems, and being open to their influence. When you show your openness to their ideas and your interest in their concerns, people will be more open to yours.
Active listening involves more than remaining silent while the other person talks. The best listeners ask questions that “promote discovery and insight.” They are “trampolines” — you feel you can bounce ideas off of them. Wharton professor Adam Grant argues in Give and Take that organizations filled with “givers” are consistently more effective than those loaded with “takers.” Knowing how much help people are willing to give one another turns out to be a highly accurate predictor of team effectiveness. Extend trust to others, even if they haven’t already extended it to you. Research has demonstrated that having a friend at work, and a friendly relationship with your supervisor, contribute significantly to healthy and productive workplaces.
Chapter 10 — Strengthen Others
Strengthening others means enhancing self-determination and developing competence and confidence. People feel powerless when no one is interested in their opinion, when they have no input into decisions, when essential information is withheld, or when they are given responsibility without authority. They feel powerful when all important information is shared with them, when they can exercise discretion about how to handle a situation, and when management publicly expresses great confidence in their ability.
By giving employees genuine autonomy, leaders reduce the sense of powerlessness and increase their willingness to exercise their capabilities more fully. Give people choices, let them make decisions on their own — then it becomes difficult to blame “the company” when things don’t go their way. The more freedom of choice people have, the more personal responsibility they must accept. To feel in control of their own work lives, people need to be able to take non-routine action, exercise independent judgment, and make decisions about how they do their work without having to check with someone else.
When high challenges are matched with high skills, the deep involvement that sets flow apart from ordinary life is likely to occur. Everyone is better off when they know why decisions are made. When reasons behind decisions are not shared, the decisions seem arbitrary and possibly self-serving.
Peter Drucker captured the essential shift: “The leader of the future asks; the leader of the past tells.” Asking gives others the room to think and frame issues from their perspective. It indicates an underlying trust in people’s abilities, shifts accountability, and creates almost immediate buy-in for the solution — after all, it becomes their idea. Ask questions; stop giving answers.
Chapter 11 — Recognize Contributions
Research on self-fulfilling prophecies provides ample evidence that people act in ways consistent with others’ expectations. When you expect people to fail, they probably will. When you believe that people are winners, you behave in ways that communicate that to them — not just in your words but through tone of voice, posture, gestures, and facial expressions. Recognizing contributions begins not with a program but with a genuine belief in the people you are leading.
Ravi Gandhi, chief financial officer at United Auto Credit Corporation, uses three pennies to stay mindful of encouragement. When he gets into work, he sets three pennies on the left side of his computer. As he encourages people throughout the day, he moves a penny from left to right. This small reminder, he explains, “keeps me mindful of the fact that we live in an encouragement-starved world — I am just trying to do my small part to fix that.” If he gets to the end of the day with pennies still on the left, he calls his kids and friends on the way home to offer encouragement.
Only those who receive positive feedback improve their performance. Saying nothing about a person’s performance doesn’t help anyone. People hunger for feedback, and no news has the same negative impact as bad news. Rather than a feedback sandwich — praise, criticism, praise — explain why you are giving the feedback, because people are more open to criticism when they believe it’s intended to help them. Ask if the person wants feedback, because once they take ownership of that decision, they’re less defensive about whatever you have to offer.
Researchers have found that members of top-performing teams provide at least three, and as many as six, times the number of positive comments for every negative one. Robert Emmons of UC Davis finds that people who practice gratitude are healthier, more optimistic, more resilient, more willing to offer support to others, more generous, and more likely to make progress toward important goals. Be spontaneous. Have fun. Make saying “thank you” a natural part of your everyday behavior.
Chapter 12 — Celebrate the Values and Victories
Celebrations are the punctuation marks that make sense of the passage of time; without them, there are no beginnings and endings. Life becomes an endless series of Wednesdays. When the spotlight shines on certain people and others tell stories about what they did, they become role models — visibly demonstrating that it is possible to live out the organization’s values. Create “pay it forward” programs: a month after receiving an award, the recipient recognizes someone else.
Researchers have shown that people tend to pick up on the mood and attitudes of those around them — what psychologists call “emotional contagion” — often in ways they don’t consciously realize. Employees with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to engage fully in their work than those reporting no such friendships. Studies involving more than three million people show that social isolation is worse for people’s health than obesity, smoking, or alcoholism. By making achievements public, leaders build a culture in which people know that their actions are not being taken for granted.
Every personal-best leadership experience is a combination of hard work and fun. Without the enjoyment of interacting with others on the team, most people say they wouldn’t have been able to sustain the level of intensity required to do their personal best. People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care for them. First-person examples are always more powerful than third-party examples — it’s that critical difference between “I saw it for myself” and “Someone told me about it.” Well-told stories make the message stick. Calendar celebrations — and always look for the spontaneous opportunity to link shared values with victories.
Chapter 13 — Leadership Is Everyone’s Business
When people are asked to identify their most important leadership role model, they are more likely to choose a family member than anyone else. The patterns are consistent: people are watching you, regardless of whether you know it or not. You are having an impact on them, regardless of whether you intend to or not. The most lasting test of your leadership effectiveness is the extent to which you bring forth and develop the leadership abilities in others, not just in yourself.
When people think about their experience with their worst leaders, the percentage of talent utilized averages only 31 percent. Exit interviews reveal a similar phenomenon: people aren’t quitting their companies as much as they are quitting the relationship with their manager. One in two people at some point in their careers have left their job to get away from their manager. The best leaders bring out more than three times the amount of talent, energy, and motivation compared with their counterparts at the other end of the spectrum.
It’s a myth that leadership can’t be learned. Leadership is an observable pattern of practices and behaviors, a definable set of skills and abilities — and any skill can be learned, strengthened, and enhanced. What truly differentiates expert performers from good performers is devotion to deliberate practice. Engaging in a designed learning experience just once or twice doesn’t cut it. It has to be done over and over again, until it’s automatic, and that takes hours of repetition. There is no get-rich-quick program for leadership.
Any leadership practice can become destructive when taken to extremes. An obsession with being a role model can push you into isolation for fear of being “found out.” A singular focus on one vision can blind you to other possibilities. Challenging the process, taken to extremes, can create needless turmoil; routines matter, and if you seldom pause long enough to give people an opportunity to gain confidence, they’ll lose motivation to try new things. Humility is the antidote for hubris. Exemplary leaders know they “can’t do it alone,” and they act accordingly.
Of all the things that sustain a leader over time, love is the most lasting. As one leader put it: “The secret to success is to stay in love. Staying in love gives you the fire to ignite other people, to see inside other people, to have a greater desire to get things done than other people. I don’t know any other thing in life that is more positive a feeling than love.” After studying leadership for over thirty years through thousands of interviews and case analyses, this theme surfaces again and again. The best-kept secret of successful leaders is love: staying in love with leading, with the people who do the work, with what their organizations provide, and with those who honor the organization by using its products and services.