The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale

The
Leadership
Imperative
A Report of Findings and
Guidebook for Talent
Leaders Creating Leadership
Capability at Scale

MRK24022000_Research Guidebook_2024_COVER_1.0.0_alt-[Link] 1 11/11/24 1:23 PM

We Enable
Greatness
in People and
Organizations
Everywhere.
Funding and Usage Policy
This report of findings and guidebook was funded entirely by the FranklinCovey
Institute, a division of FranklinCovey. The FranklinCovey Institute is an organization
dedicated to producing research and resources to benefit organizational leaders
and talent professionals globally. No funding was provided by any government, client
or non-client business, or any other organization and the analysis and perspectives
expressed are our own. The report is intended solely for educational and informational
purposes and is available free of charge.

To request additional copies, please visit [Link]/theleadershipimperative or

scan the QR code below.

The Leadership Imperative

A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders
Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
Edition 1.1

Copyright © 2024, Franklin Covey Co. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
express written permission of FranklinCovey. FranklinCovey may pursue criminal and
civil claims for any unauthorized use, misappropriation, misuse or the distribution of
any content contained herein. Trademarks understood to be owned by others are
used in a non-trademark manner for explanatory purposes only, or ownership by
others is indicated to the extent known.
Table of Contents

Fast Find: Ten Sample Insights 6

Introduction: Why We Wrote This Guidebook 8

Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset 12

Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale 28

Executive Leadership Role #1:

Create a Strategically Aligned Leadership Model 33

Executive Leadership Role #2:

Build Leadership Capability with a Systemic Approach 43

Next Steps: A Path Forward 96

Case Studies 100

Sanford Health 101

Greif 111

Enlyte 119

Comprehensive Evaluation Tool 128

Appendices

Methodology 137

Notes 138
Fast Find:
Ten Sample Insights

1
PAGES 16-18
What leadership behaviors are
2
PAGES 23-26
What is the difference between
required for today’s turbulent principles and skills and why does
world? that matter?

3
PAGE 33
What percentage of behavior
4
PAGES 35-37
Why is it important to change both
change initiatives did respondents mindsets and behavior?
see as aligned with their
organization’s goals and strategy?

5
PAGES 37-38
What are the CEO’s responsibilities
for a company’s leadership model?

6 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
6
PAGES 43-44
What are the elements of a
7
PAGE 49
Which learning modalities are
systemic approach to developing considered most effective in large-
organizational leadership scale leadership development and
capability? why?

8
PAGES 53-56
What is the best way to measure
9
PAGE 64
How do organizations ensure that
the effectiveness of leadership their leadership development
development programs? programs will meet future
business needs?

10
PAGE 75
How do organizations motivate
managers to change their
behavior and what role does
compensation play?

7
Introduction

8 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Why We Wrote This Guidebook

Why We Wrote This Guidebook

A
t FranklinCovey, we have While these worries weigh heavily on
been working with clients CEOs and boards, the chief human
and researching critical resource officers, chief people officers,
organizational and leadership issues chief learning officers, and other senior
across 163 countries for more than talent leaders we also work with wonder
forty years. In our recent conversations how, in a world where talent is scarce and
with CEOs, chief operating officers, and employees’ commitment to organizations
other senior business leaders around is often fleeting, they can develop the
the globe, we hear a common concern. kind of leadership, culture, and execution
These leaders wonder whether their capabilities their CEOs are desperate for.
organizations have the leadership
capability, the talent and culture, and Senior leaders across the board
the execution disciplines required to understand that success can rarely
achieve their strategic agendas over the be achieved solely by writing a check,
next three to five years in today’s rapidly deploying a new technology, or buying
changing and challenging world. another company—although you may
need to do these things as well. More
Their concern is validated by abundant often, meeting these challenges will
data. In PwC’s recent survey of 4,700 require a large number of people to think,
CEOs globally, 45%—up from 39% in the act, and perform differently than they do
previous year—expressed worry that their today. They will need to work together in
firms will not be viable in ten years if they new ways that align to your organization’s
continue down their current path. At the
1
strategic agenda and move it forward.
same time, in Deloitte’s recent Global
Human Capital Trends report, although Leadership, at its essence, is the work of
94% said that high-quality leadership was mobilizing people and aligning systems
vital to navigating a challenging world, only and resources to get important things
23% said their organizations’ leaders were done. Creating collective behavior
up to the task.2 Finally, and even more change is, therefore, fundamentally a
pressing, in a survey of more than 2,300 leadership responsibility. Substantial
CEOs and more than 800 board members research shows that when the majority
by the executive recruiter Heidrich & of leaders embrace new thinking and
Struggles, 39% of CEOs and 43% of behaviors, the rest of the organization
directors expressed low confidence in follows. Leaders, in fact, are the leverage
their organizations’ ability to achieve even point when it comes to confidently
the current year’s strategic plan.3

9
Introduction

creating organizational change and strategic priorities…and the ones after that.
improving performance. In a very real way, the breadth and quality
of your leadership are what engages and
We wrote this guidebook to support maximizes all your other assets.
senior talent leaders as they work
in partnership with senior business Second, being a leader—at any level—is
and operational leaders to build the extremely difficult in today’s complex
organizational leadership capability and challenging world. It requires more
needed to address today’s challenges and of individual leaders and much more of
achieve their strategic outcomes. Its title, your collective leadership capability than
“The Leadership Imperative,” has three ever before. This challenge cannot be
implications. underestimated. As a result, we need to be
better than ever at attracting, retaining, and
First, it affirms the necessity for a strong, diligently developing and supporting great
widespread, and highly capable leadership leaders throughout our organizations to
base throughout your organization. That achieve our strategic priorities. Our leaders
is as valuable as any patent, factory, need our full encouragement and support
technology, brand, or other competitive to do their jobs well.
asset you have, not only because it’s
the essential engine that moves your Third, because senior talent leaders own
organization’s current strategic agenda many of the required activities, functions,
forward, but also because it determines its and processes required to develop
ongoing ability to achieve tomorrow’s widespread leadership capability, they have
a great opportunity to become an even

10 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Why We Wrote This Guidebook

more valued executive partner in leading development for leadership and across
the company forward. the board.

To do this effectively, senior talent leaders In preparing this guidebook, we have

must be able to confidently speak the combined our more than forty years of
language of business and strategy and global experience with new research,
lead out boldly in connecting their efforts including interviews with dozens of senior
directly to the organization’s strategic talent leaders, operating executives,
agenda. and industry experts; a global survey of
more than 500 talent leaders; a number
Strategic talent conversations are framed of deep-dive case studies; and an
less in terms of policies, compliance, extensive review of industry research and
and generalized training initiatives, related academic literature to learn how
and more in terms of building specific today’s top organizations are tackling the
leadership capabilities, driving human challenge of building leadership at scale.
engagement, and increasing execution We have sought to distill all this into a
around the organization’s most important clear message accompanied by a simple
goals. It also requires talent leaders to framework that will help talent leaders
engage more directly with their CEO and work together with business leaders
other senior business leaders around to build the widespread organizational
the performance issues that are on leadership capability required to mobilize
their minds. This personal engagement talent, execute strategy, and deliver
becomes a catalyst that unleashes performance in a rapidly changing and
executive commitment to talent unforgiving world.

11
Part 1

Leadership Capability
as a Strategic Asset

12 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 The World Is Fundamentally Different…and More Transformation Is on the Way

The World Is Fundamentally Different…and More

Transformation Is on the Way

“When you have a new challenge, the old successful patterns, processes, and
practices no longer work—nothing fails like success. It requires an entirely
new kind of response. What’s the nature of the new challenge today?”4
– Stephen R. Covey

I
n the past few years, the world has But accelerated digital transformation is
changed in dramatic ways. Economic only one of the tectonic trends shaping
uncertainty, rapidly developing our future.7 This period of economic and
technologies, contentious cultural business history will also be affected
divisions, geopolitical unrest, and altered by a constrained labor force in many
expectations around the nature of work sectors and the continued shortage
and the workplace have forced business of skilled workers—a challenge made
leaders to adopt fundamentally new more daunting by aging populations
approaches to leading and operating and falling fertility rates in advanced
their organizations. Additionally, the pace economies around the world.8 How we
of change will continue to accelerate and collectively respond to the driving need
broaden in scope as frontier technologies to develop widespread new skills and
like generative AI fundamentally alter capabilities in workforce populations will
every market, industry, and organization. affect not only individual firms but the
As a result, the economic foundations competitive positions of entire countries
on which we have stood for decades are and the global economy as a whole.9 In

70
shifting quickly. the nearer term, as

%
national economies
Recent research indicates that 70% of work through current
CEOs around the globe expect that recessionary concerns
in the next three years, generative and again pursue
Al will “significantly change the way accelerated growth, of CEOs expect that in
[our] company creates, delivers, and it will become even the next three years,
generative Al will
captures value.” Further, nearly the more challenging to
“significantly change
same number, 68%, believe it will also attract and retain the the way [our] company
“increase competitive intensity” in their skilled workers that creates, delivers, and
industry, and 69% say that generative organizations need.10 captures value.”5
Al will “require most of [our] workforce
to develop new skills”—also in the next These factors in combination will test our
three years. Gartner, famous for its
5
ability to absorb and adapt to them. CEOs
technology Hype Cycle, also concludes have consistently identified attracting,
that generative AI will have “profound developing, and retaining talent as a
business impacts…as it reaches top priority11 in the coming years. But
mainstream adoption in two to an overarching and perhaps more vital
five years.” 6
question is how to fully engage associates

13
 Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset

to deliver on their strategic priorities. now operate more like independent

Despite substantial efforts to improve contractors or gig workers…it may
wages, extend more time off, and embrace become nearly impossible to create a
more flexible work arrangements, the culture of committed team members”
post-COVID workforce reports even more and that “this disconnect has serious
dissatisfaction with work than it did during implications for customer retention,”14
the pandemic. affecting revenue and organizational
performance across the board—a chain
Recent research by the Conference Board of logic that should concern every CEO
highlights that 84% of employees in the and talent leader. Engagement also
United States and 90% in Europe expect affects productivity, profitability, and a
their employers to pay attention to their host of other performance indicators.15
well-being and take some responsibility According to Gallup, building this culture
for it. This is a particular consideration for of commitment to improve organizational
Gen Z workers, who will represent 31% productivity and performance is “the
of the population in biggest leadership issue of our time.”16
For years, 2025, when deciding One executive we interviewed told us,
FranklinCovey which companies to
surveys have join. And although “Employee expectations of leaders
consistently shown companies have have shifted.... Part of the employee
that most people feel made substantial value proposition is providing good
they have far more investments to and strong leaders who can make a
capability, creativity, engage with their difference in their careers. Employees
talent, initiative, and employees, the same ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’ It’s not just
resourcefulness than research indicates about salary or culture, but the whole
their jobs require or that “the majority of package.”17
even allow. U.S. and European
employees report that factors associated We believe that the significant changes
with well-being are the same or worse” we have experienced over the past several
than in the prior period. These factors years are merely prologue for the far more
include engagement, mental health, and expansive, disruptive, and challenging
“the level of effort I apply at my job.” 12
transformations that are coming. One
executive told us, “It feels like, either due
For years, FranklinCovey surveys have to business conditions, macro-economic
consistently shown that most people feel conditions, global differences, or
they have far more capability, creativity, generational differences, we’re constantly
talent, initiative, and resourcefulness transitioning.” Another senior executive we
than their jobs require or even allow. Yet, heard from said, “Business transformation
according to the latest research from is no longer a project; it is now a constant
Gallup, employee engagement remains reality.”18
around 23% globally.13 Another report by
Gallup suggests that the engagement The ability to respond to business
equation has been fundamentally and market transformations with
altered and that “nothing is going courage, commitment, and exceptional
back to normal.... Most employees will organizational agility will determine

14 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 The World Is Fundamentally Different…and More Transformation Is on the Way

whether our enterprises succeed or fail— is the collective capability of our leaders.19
and the driving factor behind that outcome

Figure 1.1: Some of the challenges organizations face today.

ISSUE IMPACT

Economic uncertainty • Continued uncertainty about overall economic

growth and related policy choices can slow down
investments across the board, including investments
in people.

Accelerated digital transformation and frontier • Leaders are concerned about how to maximize the
technologies (generative AI) productivity and value potential of new technologies
as well as respond to competitors who are doing the
same thing.20
• Many jobs and work processes will completely
change as AI enhances some roles and automates or
replaces others.
• People need to gain new skills to take advantage of
these technologies in their work.21

Geopolitical unrest • Operations and supply chains have been

fundamentally restructured to ensure business
continuity and hedge against future risk—and more
disruption is likely.
• Ongoing disruption requires new workflows and
resilient and adaptive leaders and workers.

Remote/hybrid work • Leaders are struggling to build cohesive, committed

teams that can be highly productive.

Increased cultural divisiveness • Employees expect that leaders will take a stand on
social issues. Leaders find it harder to make policy
choices that please everyone.

Labor shortages • Employees and leaders who can meet strategic

growth needs are harder to find, so organizations
must develop and train existing employees to
achieve growth.

Skills gaps/talent scarcity • Businesses cannot plan for the future without
addressing shortages of talent and skills.

Shifting workforce attitudes/sentiments • Employees, including leaders, are disengaged,

burned out, stressed, and distracted.
• Workers are rethinking the role that work and the
workplace play in their lives by asking questions
such as “Why am I working for a corporation?”
Source: FranklinCovey

15
Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset

New Challenges Require New Leadership

Capabilities
“With unprecedented choices and constant change, people are unlikely to be
moved by, or ultimately even tolerate, leadership that doesn’t match today’s
world....Our world has changed. Our style of leadership has not.”22
– Stephen M.R. Covey

In response to recent business The research identified a “new mix of

challenges and changing workforce leadership behaviors” in which traditional
expectations, leaders have had to “performance” behaviors (such as
develop new capabilities—many of them goal setting and managing down) are
related to how they work with and engage augmented by an increased emphasis
other people. This need will only grow in on “human-centered” behaviors (such
the future. In a recent two-year study on as checking in with team members
leadership development, The Josh Bersin on goals and aspirations, fostering
Company reported, “The traditional collaboration at all levels, and being
models of leadership, which were open to new ideas and experimentation)
heavily ‘positional’, may no longer fit the and “transformation” behaviors (such as
business models of today.”23 Further, the transparency around changes impacting
company says, “While business models the business and teams, receiving
have shifted, organizations have been feedback and adjusting as appropriate,
much slower to transform their leadership fostering team member growth, and
models.... Fewer than half the companies leading teams through transformation).26
we surveyed claim they are currently
developing any of the next-gen practices This research, and other studies like
well.” 24
it,28 highlight both the need for new
capabilities and the struggle many
According to The Josh Bersin Company, leaders and organizations have faced
as they have tried to adapt to changing
“Today’s post-industrial organizations realities. According to The Josh Bersin
are now often organized around Company’s research, most companies
networks and ecosystems: teams are still not very good at developing
are agile and temporary, data and leaders with the necessary skills.
analytics are major drivers of success, Speaking specifically of navigating
and leaders are closer to the customer transformation, the research shows
than ever before. As a result, leaders that “only a quarter of companies claim
must now drive change through their that this skill exists in their leadership
reputation rather than their title, their ranks. That of course means that three
ability to empower people rather than quarters of companies do not feel they
manage them, their willingness to have leaders with the necessary skills to
experiment and fail rather than their help the workforce through change and
past successes, and their focus on disruption.”29 The same was found to be
developing people and their teams true for a broad range of next-generation
rather than having people and teams leadership skills.
serve them.”25

16 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 New Challenges Require New Leadership Capabilities

While calls for the abandonment of M.R. Covey’s work on leadership and
old-school, industrial, command-and- trust34 —unfortunately, what is common
control models of leadership have been knowledge still is not common practice.
around for a while—ranging from Douglas At best, many leaders retain a command-
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y30 in and-control approach but soften it
the 1960s to Robert Greenleaf’s Servant with human relations skills.35 But, when
Leadership31 in the 1970s to modern circumstances become difficult, they
thinkers like Liz Wiseman’s work on often revert to industrial, control-based
Multipliers,32 Amy Edmonson’s research approaches, which ironically diminishes
on psychological safety, or Stephen 33 their team or organization’s collective

Figure
THE NEW1.2:MIX
Josh
OFBersin’s new BEHAVIORS
LEADERSHIP mix of leadership behaviors.27

Human
Performance Transformation
Centered

Old

Human Centered Transformation Performance

New
Source: Shared with permission from The Josh Bersin Company.

Source: The Josh Bersin Company, 2023

17
Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset

ability to successfully address the important things done. Principle-centered

challenges they are facing. In today’s leaders do this in a way that honors the
world, with scarce talent and ever more foundational principles of performance
complex challenges, such outdated and people to achieve both immediate
approaches simply will not work to and long-term success.
generate the sustained performance
needed today.
Engagement and
The central idea that leaders need to both
understand and honor the fundamental
High Performance
principles of organizational performance Are Choices
(profitable growth, shareholder value,
customer value, etc.) and the fundamental The fundamental reality in today’s
principles of human effectiveness (trust, environment is that most of the people in
empathy, collaboration, engagement, etc.) your organization (and particularly your
is what we, at FranklinCovey, have long highest-skilled people) have a range
called Principle-Centered Leadership.36 of choices about both where and how
Such leaders consistently exhibit the much they work. They also make daily
character, mindsets, and behaviors that choices about whether to volunteer their
engage people’s best efforts in achieving finest efforts for the strategic goals of
high-performance outcomes, particularly your organization. Any reluctance to do
when times are tough (the character part). so is not because people are inherently
Leadership, at its essence, is engaging lazy. In fact, most people have a strong
people and aligning resources to get desire to be involved in and contribute

Figure 1.3: Expanded leadership capabilities are required.

FROM TO

Organizations have Operational execution Transformational agility

shifted…
Jobs Skills

Technology People and technology

In-person Hybrid/remote

Information Insight

Hierarchy Network

Stability Agility

Leaders Command and control Trust and inspire

need to shift…
“Know it all” “Learn it all”

Industrial Post-industrial

Performance Performance and people

Source: FranklinCovey

18 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 New Challenges Require New Leadership Capabilities

to meaningful work.37 But leaders amazing employee experience to retain

need to create the conditions in their top talent, or they will go elsewhere.”
organizations that encourage people to
make the daily choice to offer their best. Part of that “amazing employee
experience” is being part of a high-
The low engagement data mentioned performing organization. In our strategy
earlier, as well as related trends around execution work with more than 5,000
“quiet quitting,” “acting your wage,” and client engagements globally, we’ve
so forth, continue to underscore the fact tracked over 4.1 million client goals and
that engagement cannot be coerced or 54.6 million individual commitments
simply managed into existence. While made in pursuit of those goals.
you may be able to purchase or compel Our experience with these clients
short-term compliance with old-school underscores the idea that one of the chief
approaches, broadly capable and drivers of employee engagement is the
modern leadership is required to create feeling of being part of a winning team.
the conditions for people to engage fully As stated in the FranklinCovey book The
and deliver company performance over 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your
time. Wildly Important Goals,

One global executive told us, “The scales “Many believe that engagement drives
have tilted more towards employee results, and so do we. [However,] in
experience and what talent is looking for our experience, nothing affects morale
in the workplace. Leaders need to craft an and engagement more powerfully than

Figure 1.4: People make daily choices about their level of engagement.

CREATIVE EXCITEMENT

HEARTFELT COMMITMENT
ICES
CHO

WILLING COOPERATION

INDIFFERENT COMPLIANCE

RESENTFUL OBEDIENCE

REBEL OR QUIT

Source: FranklinCovey

19
 Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset

when people feel they are winning. In the organization forward. One CHRO
many cases winning is a more powerful told us, “We don’t get better unless we
driver than money, benefits packages, have people who really believe in the
working conditions, whether you have mission and really want to do great work.
a best friend at work, or even whether And we must [create] that environment.
you like your boss.” 38 Everything starts with the leader.”

This is not to say that pay and benefits, Shifting the Leadership
working conditions, and other things
don’t matter. Of course they do. But both
Capability Curve
the fact and the “Righter and Tighter”

25
Only feeling that you

%
are winning are To get this kind of engagement and
a powerful force performance across your organization
for engagement— requires more than the development
particularly for your of a few select groups of leaders. And

of respondents agreed that highest-skilled allowing leaders to develop themselves

their organization’s leaders performers.39 The as they see fit against a broad map of
were “engaged, passionate, best and most professional skills is insufficient as well.
and inspire employees to principle-centered What’s needed is a conscious effort42 to
the best possible extent.” 40 leaders know move your leaders forward in ways that
how to execute align with your strategy—establishing a
their goals and engage their people in a strong leadership culture43 that, in turn,
balanced and mutually reinforcing way. will affect your organizational culture and
improve your overall ability to execute on
But again, this modern and high- your strategic priorities.44
performing leadership capability is in
short supply: One survey by McKinsey One way to represent this is to think of
found that only 25% of respondents the collective capability of your leaders
agreed that their organization’s leaders as a normal distribution curve: Some
were “engaged, passionate, and inspire great leaders are on the right, some
employees to the best possible extent.”40 low-performing ones are on the left,
Yet, employees report that when they are and most are in the middle. The overall
well led, they are far less likely to leave distribution is what determines the level
their jobs. They are also far more likely to of engagement and performance your
be motivated to engage and take on new organization is capable of delivering.
responsibilities at work when they feel a
sense of collaboration with their leaders.41 Organizations with a strong leadership
capability have shifted their leadership
The best leaders of the future will be curves “righter and tighter,” meaning that
focused on finding ways to connect more of their leaders are high-performing
people and performance in appealing on the dimensions that matter most to
ways as they meet the challenges that their strategies, and there is less variation
are sure to come. It’s a virtuous cycle or inconsistency among those leaders.
that drives the strategic direction of

20 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 New Challenges Require New Leadership Capabilities

Organizations that are “loose and left” than eight million survey responses.
are all spread out, with lots of variation It measures the impact of specific
and inconsistency among their leaders. management practices on organizational
These organizations are also less likely to performance. Recent studies drawn
perform well, as we shall see. from this database reveal that 78% of the
variation between organizations in the
top quartile of performance and those
Better Leadership, in the bottom quartile is determined by
Better Results the quality of an organization’s leaders.46
Further, McKinsey’s research shows
In addition to our own work in this area, that “companies with top-quartile
one of the best databases we are aware leadership outcomes [on the OHI] have
of regarding leadership’s impact on 3.5 times greater average total return to
organizational performance is McKinsey’s shareholders (TRS) than companies with
Organizational Health Index (OHI).45 The bottom-quartile leadership outcomes, over
index is built on over twenty years of a three-year period.” Additional studies
data from 2,600 organizations and more using this data indicate that “organizations

Figure 1.5: Top performing organizations are “righter and tighter.”

Most organizations
have pockets of
Every organization has great performance
variability in its performance
% Achieving

Low PERFORMANCE LEVEL High

What really differentiates top

performing organizations

Most organizations
have pockets of
great performance
% Achieving

Low PERFORMANCE LEVEL High

Source: FranklinCovey

21
Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset

performing in the top quartile on overall

leadership effectiveness…outperform
Leadership Capability
bottom-quartile companies by nearly two Requires more than Just
times on EBITDA (earnings before interest,
tax, depreciation, and amortization),
Skills
and that “organizations that invest in
developing their leaders during significant In recent years, driven in large part by
transformations are 2.4 times more likely to new technologies in the HR and training
hit their performance targets.” 47 space, leadership development has
often been described in terms of skills.
The Josh Bersin study mentioned earlier This is largely because they are easier
also provides strong data along these for trainers to organize around, design
lines. In that analysis, organizations that training for, and measure at the end of
were systematically better at developing a learning exercise. And although skills
leadership capability performed more are certainly important, a bit of reflection
strongly across the board and were three reveals that truly effective leadership
times as likely to exceed financial targets, goes much deeper.
three times as likely to delight customers,
nine times as likely to have an empowered Consider, for a moment, your own
workforce, seventeen times as likely to experience. Think back to a leader who
be a great place to work, twelve times as had a meaningful impact on your life. It
likely to engage and retain employees, five could be someone at work, a teacher or
times as likely to adapt well to change, and a professor, or someone else who was
five times as likely to innovate effectively. 48
significant to you: a leader who motivated
you to really lean in, who encouraged you
The link between overall leadership to stretch further and accomplish more
capability and organizational performance than perhaps you thought you could, who
makes perfect sense. And our work for fundamentally changed the trajectory of
clients in strategy execution consistently your life and career for the better. Is that
validates the general rule that significant person clear in your mind?
improvements in business results are
preceded by a significant shift in the What was it about that leader that invited
leadership capability curve. To execute you to step up and engage in that way?
transformative strategies—particularly Was it the person’s “skills,” or was it
those that require larger groups of people something deeper and more meaningful,
to do things differently—a substantial such as who they were, how they saw you
group of leaders in your organization must and your potential, and how they treated
make a material move in exemplifying you?
the mindsets and behaviors that drive
execution forward. As our experience in If you are like most people who have
more than 5,000 engagements globally been lucky enough to have one or more
shows, when that shift in mindsets and experiences like that, we suspect that it
behaviors occurs, improved results will was less about that person’s specific skills
follow. than about who they were as a person—

22 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 New Challenges Require New Leadership Capabilities

their character—and the quality and depth that. A lack of leadership depth can have
of their relationship with you that formed significant consequences. One global
the basis for such a transformational executive told us,
effect on your life.49
“I think a lot of the time, we hire or
At FranklinCovey, our experience is that promote people internally because
the best leaders are defined by much they excel in their work. They’re
more than their skills. Who they are, how good performers. So, we put them in
they think, and how they consistently leadership positions…we keep trying
behave determine the level of results to teach them skills…but it’s just not
they get, in terms of both people and in them. What happens over time
performance. 50
is you have immature leaders who
make immature decisions, business
decisions, that can cost the company
The Difference millions of dollars.”

between Principles Skills, almost by definition, are

and Skills circumstance-specific, whereas
principles apply much more broadly. For
Experts in any field, whether in business, example, new leaders may be learning
science, medicine, or leadership, are how to productively engage in a difficult
those who have done the work to deeply conversation with someone. They may
understand the principles underlying their learn some approaches, language
discipline. While leaders need to have patterns, and so forth, that can make
strong skills in many areas like strategic those conversations flow better. But
thinking, decision making, goal setting, unless they deeply and authentically
and so forth, the power of those skills rests understand the principles of effective
on the underlying principles that make leadership communication—such as
them work—and wise leaders understand empathy, respect, and a commitment

Figure 1.6: Effective leadership requires more than just skills.

Who How What The Result

Leaders Leaders Leaders They Get
Are Think Do (people and
(their character) (their mindset) (their behavior) performance)

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVENESS

Source: FranklinCovey

23
24 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 New Challenges Require New Leadership Capabilities

to high performance—their skills may skills they learned are less effective, they
fall short if the conversation becomes can adapt their skills and move forward.
heated. This can have significant
consequences in terms of both people
and performance. One global executive Becoming
told us in our interviews,
Deeply Rooted
“What I’ve learned is that we Think about how a tree grows. It has
bamboozle leaders with all of these three main sections: the roots, the trunk,
models and concepts. We say, ‘You and the branches and leaves. With each
should follow this process and say this, passing season, as temperatures turn
or follow this guide.’ And then people from the warmth of spring to the chill
get stuck in the task of giving and of winter, a tree first sprouts and then
receiving feedback. If I am genuinely sheds its leaves. Skills, like leaves, play an
providing feedback, because it’s in important role in developing leadership
the best interests of the person to capability, but they may be transitory,
help them grow, then I need to trust and their value can vary according to
myself that I’m going to do this in a the season or the circumstances. The
human way and therefore, I’m going tree’s trunk and roots represent a strong
to be more authentic, I have the right and resilient leadership capability that
motivations, and the other remains steady and continues to grow
person feels it.” year after year. Under strong headwinds
and other harsh environmental
Another global executive had the conditions, they keep the tree upright.
following to say about helping leaders
understand the underlying principles and In the book CEO Excellence, the key
develop the right mindset around high- leadership attribute “consistency of
stakes decision-making: character” is defined as “following the
same principles in all circumstances.”51
“It’s not about a right or wrong Leaders who are deeply rooted in the
decision. It’s about ‘What was the most underlying principles of organizational
effective decision at this moment?’ performance and human effectiveness
Because with hindsight, we might all are not blown off course and exercise
have made a different decision. But in good judgment as circumstances
that moment, with the best interests change.
of everybody at heart, with genuinely
trying to get a great outcome for all One senior learning and development
parties, ‘What was the best decision I leader from Australia told us,
could make at that moment?’ is more
of a mindset rather than a skill set.” “The first twenty years of my career,
we taught people the skills that help
Effective leaders are more committed them…and then, you know…job done.
to principle-centered mindsets and I think there’s a place for that for
behaviors than they are to specific sure, but that skill-based approach
skills and practices. That way, when is a bit narrow. I guess I’m leaning
circumstances change, and the specific more towards, ‘It’s hard to acquire

25
Part 1: Leadership Capability as a Strategic Asset

new skills if you don’t also have the That transformation is fundamentally
right mindsets,’ if you haven’t done driven by the collective capability of
the personal work or the personal our leaders. In our research around
transformation, like the inner work. It’s large-scale behavior-change initiatives,
hard to really shift the dial substantially leadership involvement was consistently
without that happening at the same one of the most frequently cited
time.” factors as driving both the success and
failure of those initiatives.52 When it
comes to organizational-performance
Performance transformation, leaders are the leverage
point. When their collective performance
Transformation from curve shifts, the rest of the organization
the Inside Out tends to go with it.

The changing market and economic/ So, the real question is how can you
geopolitical challenges we face as senior develop more deeply rooted, principle-
leaders come at us from the external centered leaders at scale? That’s the
environment—from the “outside in.” How focus of Part 2.
successfully we transform our strategies
and operations to execute in those
circumstances comes from how well we
leverage our own internal capabilities—
from the “inside out.”

26 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
27
 Part 2

How to Develop
Leadership
Capability at Scale

28 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 A Transformational Framework for Leadership Development

A Transformational Framework for

Leadership Development
“Unlocking individual potential is not just a matter of personal will and
individual behavior change; it is a function of entire systems, and reshaping
collective will is hard work.”53
– Liz Wiseman

I
n this section, we will introduce a isn’t to replace what you’re already doing
simple framework to help business well. Rather, it is to help you organize
and talent leaders speak the same and focus your efforts by painting a clear
language and structure their discussions picture of how all the activities related
around creating a strategically aligned to leadership development can operate
leadership capability. This framework will better together to achieve the kind of
also help you decide where best to focus leadership capability you seek.
your efforts for the greatest impact. Some
aspects of this framework may reflect The framework is transformational,
practices that are already in place in your because it addresses a variety of
organization. That’s great—the intent elements that are needed to support

Figure 2.1: A transformational framework for leadership development.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

LEADERSHIP MODEL

DER S HIP DE V
LE A E LO
IC PM
M
TE EN
YS
S

A. Workforce Planning
B. Talent Acquisition
A. Gap Assessment
C. Learning and Development
B. Effective Learning 1. Design
2. Integrate D. Performance Management
Journeys Effective
Talent E. Compensation and Benefits
C. Measurement and Learning
Strategic Systems F. Succession Planning
Accountability Experiences
D. Critical Mass Leadership G. Talent Retention
Capability H. Offboarding

3. Align
Technology,
Tools, and
Workflows

A. Management Technology and

Tools
B. Organizational Design and
Workflows
Source: FranklinCovey 29
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

significant behavior change among your the elements of the framework, reflect on
leaders. However, systems do not create your own level of practice and look for
leaders on their own. Leadership is a areas where you can do better.
choice, not a position. This framework
will help you create the conditions in As a senior talent leader for your
which the people you have in leadership organization, you can accelerate
roles throughout the organization can your progress in developing a strong,
make more effective choices as they strategically aligned leadership capability.
align their efforts, and engage the work of But a haphazard approach will not work.
others, toward the organization’s strategic To create consistently great leaders,
priorities. you must think systemically and align
the various organizational elements in
As you consider this framework, it’s ways that will attract, retain, develop,
important to acknowledge that nobody promote, engage, and continually align
does all these things well all the time. them with the most important goals. That
Our research and interviews with is what this framework is intended to
executives around the world have illustrate. Further, this is not a one-and-
consistently revealed that nobody feels done activity. It is about building a robust
their organization is perfect. However, leadership-development system that
the best organizations consistently will stand the test of time and will evolve
work at building and improving their and adapt to your changing strategic
organization’s leadership capability to goals—strengthening both people and
drive high performance. As a result, performance.
organizations that delay taking even a
first step are exposing themselves to The framework encompasses two
significant strategic risk of falling further executive leadership roles. The first is that
behind, even as they strive for success of the CEO or similar senior leader of an
in a fast-changing world. As you review operational business unit and embodies

30 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 A Transformational Framework for Leadership Development

an indisputable commitment to, and will be left to chance and your efforts will
support of, the activities required to link fall into the realm of a low-level training
the organizational strategy to a leadership initiative rather than the creation of a
model and a systemic leadership- strategic business asset.
development approach. The results
of those activities must fundamentally The second executive leadership role
reflect the outlook and vision of the is that of the CHRO or the CPO, who
CEO and the combined executive team. should operate as a trusted partner of
Otherwise, your leadership capability the CEO and may do much of the work

Figure 2.2: Two executive leadership roles.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Executive
Leadership Role #1:
Create a LEADERSHIP MODEL
Strategically
Aligned Leadership
Model
(CEO commitment
and support) DER S HIP DE V
LE A EL
IC OP
T EM M
EN
YS
S

1. Design
2. Integrate
Effective
Talent
Learning
Strategic Systems Executive
Experiences Leadership Role #2:
Leadership
Build Leadership
Capability Capability with a
Systemic Approach
(CHRO
orchestration and
execution)
3. Align
Technology,
Tools, and
Workflows

Source: FranklinCovey

31
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

in this process. With the CEO’s support, Part 2 of the guidebook is organized
this person orchestrates and executes around these two roles. It includes
a systemic effort to build the leadership insights, illustrative examples, data from
capability we are describing. We use the our research, and some key questions
word “orchestrate” intentionally, because to help you assess where you are. We’ve
to make this happen throughout the also suggested some actions you can
organization, a variety of the elements take to focus your energy for maximum
shown in the model must be activated, impact. Which actions you select will,
and that will require strong collaboration of course, depend on your specific
among the members of the HR/talent circumstances.
team and also their active partnership
with a variety of operational stakeholders.

32 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Executive Leadership Role #1: Create a Strategically Aligned Leadership Model

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP ROLE #1:

Create a Strategically Aligned

Leadership Model

T
he first step in building a strategic approach to developing leaders in
leadership capability for your ways that will help achieve that strategy.
organization is to ensure that the Unfortunately, this alignment is often not
strategy is clear and understood. This is in place. When we asked senior talent
the responsibility of the CEO (although leaders how well
When we asked senior
others may help). Next, the organization’s their company’s
talent leaders how
top team and their respective leadership behavior change well their company’s
structures must be mobilized to move initiatives were behavior change
the organization forward and execute aligned with their initiatives were aligned
the strategy. Attention to the leadership organization’s with their organization’s
goals and strategy, only

51
and human side of a business strategy goals and strategy,

%
matters immensely. Research shows only half (51%) of
that CEOs who treat the people-related respondents felt
implications of a strategy as rigorously as that the initiatives
they would the company’s financials, and were “very well” or
who ensure that every senior leader is “extremely well”
of respondents felt that
similarly engaged, more than double their aligned. The other
the initiatives were “very
odds of a successful strategy execution.54 half ranged from
well” or “extremely
“moderately well” to well” aligned.57
The job of the CHRO or CPO and other “not at all” with 3%
performance-oriented talent leaders is answering “I don’t know.”55
to help the CEO get this work done. To
do so, they must first fully understand At first glance, a lack of investment
the business strategy themselves and doesn’t seem to be the primary challenge.
then take a comprehensive and systemic In our survey, we asked talent leaders

Figure 2.3: “How would you quantify your organization’s investment to the development
of the following groups of leaders?”
I DON’T VERY LOW LOW MODERATE HIGH VERY HIGH
KNOW

Individual Contributors 4% 5% 11% 35% 27% 18%

High-Potential (Emerging)
5% 2% 8% 30% 34% 21%
Leaders

First-Time/New Leaders 5% 3% 14% 37% 26% 15%

Mid-Level Leaders 4% 3% 11% 38% 30% 14%

Senior Leaders 5% 4% 9% 27% 27% 28%

Executive Leaders 8% 6% 8% 24% 21% 33%

Source: FranklinCovey

33
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

to rate their organization’s investment in required, both the level of investment

developing different groups of leaders. and how those investments are deployed
Answers clustered around moderate to warrant strong consideration. The
high levels for most groups of leaders, transformational leadership model in this
with first-time and mid-level leaders guidebook can help you identify where and
ranked last on “very high” levels of how to focus your efforts.
investment (even behind individual
contributors). So, although there may be In 2009, during the heat of the global
some opportunity for more investment, financial crisis, the longtime CEO advisor
particularly for those leaders, how well Ram Charan shared some timeless truths
those investments are deployed may offer about leadership that seem exceptionally
opportunities for greater return. relevant in today’s circumstances:

At the same time, when we shifted “An environment of fast growth can
the question to focus on barriers to cover a multitude of sins, but an era
implementing behavior change initiatives, of slow growth will magnify every
as opposed to leadership development shortcoming of every person in the
in general, insufficient budget was the business, especially the leaders. Not
number one answer. So, when significant only will many formerly well-regarded
changes in leadership capability are managers be found wanting in the new
environment, [but] there will also be
a shortage of well-grounded leaders
Figure 2.4: “From the list of barriers
who have the mental acuity, fortitude,
to implementing behavior change
and persistence to execute well in a
initiatives below, please select those
that most commonly occur in your tough environment. Competition for
organization.” the best leaders will be intense.... If
you don’t have the right leaders for the
ANSWER CHOICES %
environment, then it is incumbent to
Insufficient budget 26.8%
move quickly and make the necessary
Lack of employee buy-in 26.0%
changes. You must also begin now to
Low employee accountability 25.0%
cultivate the leaders of the future, testing
Lack of management/leadership buy-in 22.7%
and evaluating people for their ability to
No ongoing reinforcement 22.3%
execute in the face of new challenges
Not enough participation 21.9%
and circumstances.” 56
Not enough executive support 20.5%

Low management/leadership
20.5% Our work at FranklinCovey on strategy
accountability
execution in thousands of organizations
Team is too small (not enough trainers,
developers, etc.)
19.9% globally has continually validated the
Change in business priorities 17.3% vital importance of having a large cadre
of highly capable leaders, with the right
Remote/hybrid workforce (not having
13.1%
in-person touchpoints) mindsets and behaviors around people
Low utilization 12.9% and performance, to execute organizational
Too many people to train 11.5% strategy successfully. This approach is
Physical environment (no training room, represented in the framework as the
9.9%
no access to computers, etc.) development of a strategically aligned
Not aligned to strategy 9.7% leadership model and the ongoing process
Change in stakeholders 6.2% of systemic leadership development.
Source: FranklinCovey

34 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Executive Leadership Role #1: Create a Strategically Aligned Leadership Model

36
An effective Only
Creating a Strategically

%
leadership model
Aligned Leadership also needs to
be simple. One
Model strategically-savvy
CHRO told us, “I like
of respondents agreed
A company’s leadership model can be simple…as simple
that “our leadership
defined as an articulated set of values, as possible so that
model drives behaviors
behaviors, or expectations that the people can get it.
that link to our business
company has. In our research, 80% Our CEO will tell you,
strategy.”58
of organizations say they have such a if it has HR-speak in
model.57 And when we talk with learning it, I don’t want to use it. So, no HR-speak or
leaders, they often say they employ it well. corporate speak. It needs to be colloquial
But the results can have a wide range of so that people can easily understand.”
meanings and value to the business.

In the worst cases, a leadership model is The Importance

nothing more than a wish list of platitudes
in an HR presentation deck. In the best
of Both Mindsets
cases, it is a serious declaration of what and Behaviors
leaders are expected to think and do
and is a defining driver of leadership Decades worth of experience and
culture and company performance. This research at FranklinCovey support the idea
guidebook rests on the second definition. that the best leadership and organizational
But recent research by The Josh Bersin transformations focus on changes in both
Company suggests that this is rare, with the mindsets and the behaviors that the
only 36% of respondents agreeing that strategy requires.59 This idea has long
“our leadership model drives behaviors been central to our approach and was
that link to our business strategy.”58 often articulated by Stephen R. Covey, “If
you want to make small changes, work on
Another common mistake is to create a behavior, if you want to make significant,
leadership model that is overly complex quantum improvements, work on your
and filled with dozens of behaviors and paradigms [mindsets].”60 Recent research
a variety of skills that nobody can even from McKinsey continues to validate this
remember, much less execute. Such fundamental idea:
complexity is usually an indicator that it
was developed primarily with a training “Making one’s mindset the
agenda in mind, rather than being focused subject of conscious scrutiny is
on the strategic success of the business. an indispensable prerequisite of
The kind of leadership model we are leadership effectiveness. Only about
discussing here is one that is focused on a third of over 2,500 executives in our
the vital few mindsets and behaviors that sample said that their organization’s
will define your leadership culture and transformations explicitly assessed the
drive your organization forward. mindsets that would need to change
to reach their goals. Those that did
so were four times more likely to be
successful.”61

35
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

This is because, as we mentioned earlier, culture, history, and work requirements.

people’s behaviors generally reflect how Organizations that view hybrid work as
they see the world. In fact, it is difficult for a way to propel their strategies forward
people to consistently act with integrity may need to create a significant mindset
or authenticity in ways that contradict shift, driving new behaviors, to ensure
their world view. That, of course, has that employees remain productive and
substantial implications when it comes to connected to their leaders and the
changing the behavior of large groups of mission and strategy of the business.
people. This shift will involve a conscious effort
to ensure that every person feels seen,
Consider the mindset and behavior acknowledged, engaged, and valued.
changes a healthcare organization might
require as it transitions from in-person A learning and development leader in
care only to increasing telecare. Different India told us,
behaviors are clearly needed to make that
kind of a strategy shift. The transformation “I would say our organization,
might start with thinking about the specifically, being a manufacturer,
implications of diagnosing someone on always kind of had this belief of we
a screen rather than in an office. Simply want you here, we want you in the
dictating behavior changes won’t work if office. And, you know, it’s probably a
the people in the organization continue little bit of that old-school mentality....
to believe that they can only properly If I see you here, I know you’re
care for patients in person. They won’t working. And I can trust that you’re
authentically buy in to the new strategy or doing what you’re supposed to be
embrace the behaviors required to make doing.... And what we’ve learned…
it successful. That’s why a significant is that people are productive, even
strategic shift almost always requires when they’re not here. Things are still
a shift in mindset as well. This can be a happening, we’re still improving, we’re
challenge. But getting the mindset right still able to operate effectively as an
can open a whole new business and organization…and I think that trust has
patient-care model for the organization. increased as a result.”

As Figure 2.5 illustrates, one paradigm, if A strategically focused leadership model

sincerely held, will generate very different will usually include critical mindsets
behaviors than the other. When a shift in on the business side—such as those
thinking occurs, behaviors change much involved in a transition to telehealth—as
more naturally—almost automatically— well as the human side—such as those
and new vistas of possibility result. required to create a high-trust, high-
performance culture with a “hybrid
Consider another example shown in workforce”—and combine them in a
Figure 2.6, involving an organization way that is relevant for your strategy and
that is shifting from a hybrid work organization.
environment to a fully virtual one. This
has been a big challenge for many Getting this right takes hard work and
organizations in recent years, and some a lot of involvement from the senior
have made the shift more successfully business and talent leaders who will need
than others, depending on their to support and implement the leadership

36 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Executive Leadership Role #1: Create a Strategically Aligned Leadership Model

Figure 2.5: A mindset shift in telehealth.

OLD MINDSET NEW MINDSET

Our purpose is to provide high-quality care to those Our purpose is to provide high-quality care to those we
we serve. That can be done only on premises, in direct serve. We can provide even better care to more people
physical contact with doctors and other medical when we combine telehealth approaches with in-office
professionals. visits as needed.

Figure 2.6: A mindset shift in hybrid work.

OLD MINDSET NEW MINDSET

If people are not in the office, they will not be focused People can be more productive when working
and productive. Further, we will not be able to build remotely or in hybrid settings. This flexibility will
the culture we need to innovate, solve problems, or allow us to attract needed talent and, if we approach
mentor and develop new employees. it intentionally, we can build a strong culture that is
more agile and enables great performance across the
board.
Source: FranklinCovey

model. But the process is critical to the feel are needed to win. Then the
payoff. The intense effort that goes into CEO must fully support the systemic
articulating the needed mindsets (and development efforts required to
then the related behaviors) in a way that establish these
honors the principles of people and capabilities “All eyes
performance is the first step toward broadly among
driving meaningful strategic impact. the leaders in the
are on the
organization and to person in the
personally ensure
The CEO’s accountability for
most senior
Responsibility for the whether or not that role.” 68

happens.
Leadership Model
2. Intentionally model it. The CEO’s
Defining new leadership mindsets and most important responsibility is to
behaviors is one thing. Making them lead by modeling the mindsets and
stick at scale is another. The CEO has two behaviors they want to see in others62
basic responsibilities to ensure that the —a deliberate and powerful signal to
company’s leadership model has teeth. everyone else that they are serious
about change.63 Doing it intentionally
1. Fully own it. The CEO needs to stand and regularly takes practice, and
firmly behind what is in the leadership requiring it in others takes courage.
model. To do that with integrity, This makes a difference in how well
they must deeply believe that if the other leaders make the change for two
majority of leaders think and act as primary reasons. First, it demonstrates
the model describes, it will help the that this is not something just being
company move forward. If that is not run by the training department; it is
the case, the model should be revised coming from the top. Second, it is one
to reflect the leadership capabilities of the CEO’s most powerful teaching
that the CEO and executive team levers. Leaders are teachers in many

37
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

ways, and others may not know the organizational transformation

what the behaviors mean in practice accelerates.”66
unless they see them. When the CEO
articulates the mindset and models a Edgar Schein, a legendary organizational
representative behavior, other leaders scholar, calls this willingness to learn in
have a clear example to follow. CEOs such a public way “humble leadership.”67
should do this openly, and if they It matters a lot. As a senior learning expert
make a mistake, they should call it out for a global organization told us,
and try again. This will do more than
anything else to give people space to “If it’s modeled from the top, our
learn the new behaviors themselves.64 people know what it means, and
what is expected, and can apply it
The first of these two responsibilities is to themselves, in their teams. Our
foundational, and the second is personal. executive team is great because they
But both are vital if CEOs are serious don’t push this stuff out as training,
about changing the mindsets and per se. What is pushed out and what
behavior of others. Everything else is just they model is part of the performance
writing a check. management and talent review
processes. That’s why everybody
In the well-researched book Scaling knows about it. Because it is woven
Leadership, Robert Anderson and William into everything else.”
Adams share the following about the
CEO’s responsibilities in leading change: Perhaps unsurprisingly, effective
leadership modeling is also called out
“The leaders who make the most in McKinsey’s CEO Excellence research,
progress scaling leadership do two... whose authors note that “all eyes are
things: (1) They take a long-term on the person in the most senior role.”68
systemic approach to development, The CEO’s visibility, by design, exerts an
and (2) They lead the change extreme influence on people’s thinking
publicly, personally, and vulnerably. and behavior. How they personally
Individual and system change happen reflect the leadership model, even when
together.... It is the only way that works. making mistakes, will tell the rest of the
We cannot cite a single organizational organization’s leaders how serious they
transformation effort that succeeded are about it and what it really means in
without senior leadership doing this practice.
work. Not one.” 65

They also state, The CHRO’s

“There is no faster way to develop
Responsibility for the
other leaders and high-performing Leadership Model
leadership teams. When you lead
the development agenda, you do Clearly, some CEOs are more naturally
so personally. If you are willing to inclined to engage with the people side
learn out loud, let go, be vulnerable, of the business than others. Many CEOs
and do it all in deep relationship, may only really go there when there is a

38 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Executive Leadership Role #1: Create a Strategically Aligned Leadership Model

specific catalyst, like a merger, a bold new should be able to engage with their
growth agenda, a significant downturn, fellow leaders about the financial
or a strategic threat. In all circumstances, and operational implications of the
however, the most effective CHROs and strategy and to capably communicate
other senior talent leaders are constantly the full strategic picture and the
involved with the business strategy resulting priorities to their own team
and goals and are actively building as well.
the leadership and human capabilities
needed to help their organizations 2. Create credible connections. Based
succeed. on their understanding of the strategy,
senior talent leaders should be able
This requires talent leaders to invest to clearly connect their efforts to the
proactively the personal and relational goals of the business. While this is
energy needed to build strategic acuity generally true for all their work, for
and act as full partners to their business our purposes here, the connection
leader peers. Such performance-oriented between the business strategy and
partnerships are built as talent leaders the leadership model is paramount.
consistently engage with the business, This also implies another form of
understand the challenges, and bring connection, which is a high-trust,
solutions that enable operational performance-oriented relationship
leaders to achieve their goals. The best between talent and business leaders
partnerships reflect a complementary themselves.
executive team in which the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts, and 3. Think systemically. Transforming
business and talent leaders work together the mindsets and behaviors of your
to define a leadership model that shifts organization’s leaders at scale is
the leadership capability curve righter challenging work. While there tends
and tighter around the mindsets and to be a general sequence of activities,
behaviors that will move the company’s described later in this guidebook, and
strategy forward. some levers will have more impact
than others, talent leaders seeking
To make this happen, CHROs and other to develop widespread leadership
senior talent leaders have three basic capability need to consider how they
responsibilities: can build it into their total systems,
so that it becomes an enduring
1. Understand the business strategy. organizational asset. Again, this
Senior talent executives should be does not mean that everything can
fully conversant in the business or should be addressed all at once,
strategy and the external and internal but a systemic view can help you
challenges faced by their organization. see where the levers are and which
This includes all parts of the strategy, ones might be most impactful in your
not just the people factors. They circumstances.

39
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

As you go through the rest of this Additionally, we have included three

guidebook, there will be opportunities cases later in this guidebook that illustrate
to reflect on the maturity of your how different talent leaders, in different
organization’s efforts in a variety of areas. organizational circumstances, were
The Maturity Continuum below and able to define a leadership model and
the questions that follow are the first of effectively engage their CEO and other
fifteen such charts. Use this to consider executives to make substantial progress.
where you are and where you could
improve. All fifteen of these charts are in
the back of this guidebook in the section
“Comprehensive Evaluation Tool.”

Maturity Continuum: Create a strategically aligned leadership model.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We have no leadership model. We have a set of statements that We have a leadership model that is
reflect the general values and current and reflects the mindsets
behaviors we want to see our and behaviors we view as critical
leaders exhibit. Although we may to our success. Our senior leaders
acknowledge it occasionally and openly advocate for it and work to
may measure elements of it in a model those capabilities in their
culture survey (or some similar own leadership. Our leaders view
assessment), leaders do not really it as a defining statement for our
feel accountable to it, and it is not a organization and feel
defining document for our accountable to it.
leadership culture.

Source: FranklinCovey

40 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Executive Leadership Role #1: Create a Strategically Aligned Leadership Model

Reflection Questions
• Does your company’s leadership model clearly support your current business
strategy?

• Does your CEO personally own this connection? Are they convinced that if the
majority of your organization’s leaders consistently exhibited the mindsets and
behaviors described in the model, they would be significantly more likely to achieve
their strategic goals?

• Does the CEO actively model the mindsets and behaviors they want to see in other
leaders? If we were to ask ten leaders that the CEO interacts with regularly, would they
agree?

• As the CHRO (or other senior talent leader), do you fully understand the business
strategy, and could you convincingly and specifically articulate to your CEO and other
business leaders how the mindsets and behaviors in your leadership model will help
drive the strategy forward? Would they unhesitatingly agree with you?

Recommended Action
• If the CEO is not convinced that the leadership model will help the company
accomplish its current strategy, identify whether the model is misaligned or what else
might be needed to strengthen that connection.

41
42 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Executive Leadership Role #2: Build Leadership Capability with a Systemic Approach

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP ROLE #2:

Build Leadership Capability

with a Systemic Approach

W
ith a clear, strategically aligned 3. Align work processes, technology,
leadership model and a CEO- and tools. This area examines the
led commitment to creating systems and tools that support a
and maintaining a strong leadership leader’s work as well as the design
capability, talent leaders can move of the organization to ensure that
forward in much more effective ways. The the mindsets and behaviors in the
strength of this posture enables a shift leadership model are encouraged.
from leadership development as a training Tools, systems, and processes that
program to leadership development as promote ineffective mindsets and
a core business process that creates behaviors should be removed,
significant competitive advantage. while those that encourage the right
mindsets and behaviors should be
As shown in the framework, a systemic promoted.
approach describes consistent, aligned
effort that falls into three basic areas: Before we dive into the details, let’s
acknowledge that getting things right
1. Design effective development with a systemic mindset can sometimes
experiences. This area describes the feel like an impossible task. But don’t
content and approach of learning despair. Senior leaders don’t need to
programs that help leaders understand “boil the ocean” and align everything
the mindsets, behaviors, and skills of perfectly across their organizations in
effective leadership and encompasses order to get a payoff. This framework
what many organizations envision is designed to help you identify high-
when they think of “leadership value, practical actions that you can
development.” The design and tactical take in your specific circumstances in
execution of this work are typically the order to move forward. You can decide
responsibility of a chief learning officer, which of these areas is best to focus
a director of leadership development, on first given your context (see also the
or similar role. section, “Next Steps: A Path Forward,”
on page 96). Even improvements
2. Integrate talent systems. This area in just one or two high-value areas
focuses on aligning various elements (our recommended approach) will
of the talent ecosystem (or talent life strengthen your leadership culture. The
cycle) to continually attract, retain, ultimate goal is to do enough of these
develop, promote, and engage your things consistently to move your entire
leaders in ways that are consistent with leadership culture righter and tighter on
the desired leadership model. the way to higher future performance.

43
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

As we examine the sub-components you, so our suggestions will be specific

of these three areas, we’ll describe the enough to help you get the main idea,
basic ideas, offer a Maturity Continuum yet general enough for you to consider
to help you evaluate where you are, and in your particular setting. We’ll also share
provide some questions for reflection and some insights, thoughts from other talent
some recommended actions. Again, we leaders, and data from our research that
recognize that how those actions might might help you decide how best to move
work in your organization is unique to forward.

Figure 2.7: A transformational framework for leadership development.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

LEADERSHIP MODEL

DER S HIP DE V
LE A E LO
IC P
M M
TE EN
YS
S

A. Workforce Planning
B. Talent Acquisition
A. Gap Assessment
C. Learning and Development
B. Effective Learning 1. Design
2. Integrate D. Performance Management
Journeys Effective
Talent E. Compensation and Benefits
C. Measurement and Learning
Strategic Systems F. Succession Planning
Accountability Experiences
D. Critical Mass Leadership G. Talent Retention
Capability H. Offboarding

3. Align
Technology,
Tools, and
Workflows

A. Management Technology and

Tools
B. Organizational Design and
Workflows

Source: FranklinCovey

44 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

AREA 1:

Design Effective Learning

Experiences
“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it…is the hallmark of the
growth mindset.”69
– Carol Dweck

Although developing leadership leadership model. How right and tight (or
capability is not limited to formal learning left and loose) are your leaders?
experiences, it can’t survive without them.
If leaders are to adopt new mindsets and Chances are that although you may
behaviors, they need to know what they have other culture and leadership
are and why they matter, and gain some assessments, you don’t have a
practice using them along with feedback gap assessment that reflects your
to help them improve. This is as true organization’s current strategy in a
for business capabilities—such as how precise way. The good news is that
to move to a telehealth model—as it is creating one, and assessing where
for human capabilities—such as how to people are, is itself an act of leadership
engage people throughout the process of that strongly communicates the
organizational change. importance of the mindsets and
behaviors in the model.
The resources on modern learning
design are abundant, and up-to-date Some aspects of this assessment may
learning professionals will be aware of lean on measures you already have in
them, so we won’t go through all the place, such as manager ratings, employee
details here. Rather, we will focus on the Net Promoter Score (eNPS®) scores, or
importance of four high-value areas: culture survey data. But you may need to
create something more specific to get
A. Gap Assessment
an accurate and comprehensive view.
B. Effective Learning Journeys The objective is to understand whether

C. Measurement and Accountability your organization has the leaders in

place, particularly in key roles, to move
D. Critical Mass
the company forward, and a number of
approaches might need to be combined,
A. Gap Assessment including both quantitative and qualitative
methods. To do a good job of gathering
The foundation of a great development the data, business and talent leaders
design is to first know where your must work closely together with a clear
gaps are. We are referring not only to focus on the desired mindsets and
individual leadership assessments but behavior. In doing so, you may decide to
also to an organizational view of your prioritize specific divisions that are critical
overall leadership, including the strategic to achieving your organization’s strategy
mindsets and behaviors identified in your for the next three to five years.

45
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Once you have identified your leadership probably wouldn’t have the mindsets and
gaps, you have some basic options: hire, behaviors you will need the next time the
reallocate (for key roles), or develop. strategy changes. Therefore, you need
Whereas hiring and reallocation may to get good—really good—at continually
work for some key roles, it’s obviously developing the leaders you have moving
unrealistic to replace all your leaders to forward.
get the mindsets and behaviors you need.
And even if you could, the replacements

Maturity Continuum: Gap assessment.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We have a defined leadership We have a general sense of how We have a clear understanding of
model, but we don’t know how well our leaders are doing against the how our leaders stack up against the
our leaders represent that model, leadership model (from a culture leadership model, both individually
either as individuals or across the survey or some other metric). and across the organization. We
organization. also have a clear view of leadership
capability for the strategic roles
that are most critical for our
organization’s success for the
next three to five years.

Source: FranklinCovey

46 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

Reflection Questions
• Assuming you have a leadership model in place, do you have a clear picture of where
the majority of your leaders stand in relation to it?

• Do you have a system or process to get that information reliably and regularly so that
you can measure your progress over time?

• Is that process viewed with suspicion or welcomed by the leaders in your

organization? If it is perceived negatively, what can you do to change that?

Recommended Actions
• If you don’t have a way to assess the gaps, begin to design one that will work for your
organization.

• Communicate that the process is meant to help leaders gain the capabilities
needed to move the organization forward. This works best when it is part of a larger
communication plan in which the top leaders openly assess where they themselves
are, indicate what they need to learn, and make visible progress.

47
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

As one U.S.-based CHRO said,

B. Effective Learning
Journeys “Each leader could go out and find
what’s comfortable to them, but then
Becoming a wise and capable leader is you have no cohesion. If you want to
the journey of a lifetime. Nevertheless, drive change in behavior, you have
talent leaders can design significant to identify the leadership behaviors
learning experiences that accelerate that we value as a company. You have
a leaderhip development. This is to ask what are the organizational
particularly important for the most leadership behaviors that we believe
strategically critical mindsets and will drive the culture of the company
capabilities related to both people and and the results of the company.”
performance.
Learning departments make a dangerous
Creating effective learning journeys in mistake when they spend most of
these critical areas stands in contrast to their energy building out large skills
an open, free-for-all approach whereby taxonomies, with tens and even hundreds
people are given access to thousands of thousands of skills, while neglecting
of distinct, skills- the relatively few capabilities most critical
“The better focused courses for their organizations’ success. Our
question is: in the hope that conversations with senior talent leaders

‘What are the they will find suggest that although the concept of a
what is needed skills-based organization is meaningful
five critical to become more for a variety of reasons, and the idea
skills my capable leaders. of a comprehensive taxonomy can be
organization While such open appealing, it can also become unwieldy,
needs?’”71 access to learning and the technology is still trying to catch
resources can up with the promise. But even as the
have a place in an organization’s overall technology matures (generative AI will
learning program, strategically significant likely help), the best organizations will still
capabilities need to be developed much be very much aware of the capabilities
more intentionally. most vital to their strategy and will be
focused on developing them. One
Industry thought leader Josh Bersin CLO we spoke with cautioned, “People
has long advocated for the creation considering a skills taxonomy now may
of “capability academies”70 to help be already outdated; skills management
organizations develop the high-value may become the next competency
skills and capabilities that are crucial for model. The better question is: ‘What are
a company’s success, and his concept the five critical skills my organization
is generally consistent with what we needs?”71
are talking about here. But regardless
of what you choose to call it, focusing When it comes to developing cohesive
diligently on developing your most critical leadership culture that is anchored
competencies is essential for future around the most vital mindsets and
performance. behaviors, several elements stand out

48 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

for learning design. Although modern leadership is a social skill. It is inherently

learning leaders have a lot of options to human, and practice with other humans
draw on, the best tend to be those that in a supportive environment (whether in
emphasize social connection, human person or virtual—with a preference for at
interaction, and deliberate practice with least some in-person components when
high-quality feedback.72 possible) is the best way to develop it.
Second, the goal is to develop not just
Even in today’s highly digital learning individual leaders but the organization’s
environment, our survey of global leaders leadership capability as a whole—to
in learning and development found create a cohesive leadership culture.
that, when it comes to driving actual This can happen only when leaders
behavior change, some form of live share a common mindset and language
or in-person learning is still preferred. that allows them to engage with one
While digital tools can also play a key another, and with people throughout the
supporting role, these richer modalities organization, in consistent and mutually
are seen as driving actual changes in reinforcing ways. A shared mindset
performance. Coaching and mentoring, and language are at the very heart of
also very human experiences, were any culture, and its formation requires
rated very highly as well. Depending a social experience. Weaving the right
on your leaders and the context of your kind of social engagement throughout a
work, you will likely use a mix of these learning journey helps turn “training” into
learning methods. What is important to transformation.
remember is when it comes to leadership
development, rich human experiences Also important is the quality of the
should be given particular emphasis.73 experience itself. One executive told us,
“Think about how people change their
This emphasis on social learning is behavior in a profound way. They have to
important for two primary reasons. First, have a profound experience.” Profound

Figure 2.8: Learning modalities identified as “proven most effective in large-scale

leadership development initiatives” by leadership level.
INDIVIDUAL HIGH FIRST- MID-LEVEL SENIOR EXECUTIVE
CONTRIBUTORS POTENTIAL/ TIME/NEW LEADERS LEADERS LEADERS
EMERGING LEADERS
LEADERS

In-person training 64% 46% 54% 46% 42% 39%

1-on-1 coaching 37% 43% 43% 40% 37% 34%

Mentoring 41% 41% 44% 35% 29% 27%

Live virtual training 30% 27% 27% 24% 24% 22%

Group coaching 21% 19% 24% 24% 18% 18%

Cohort-based learning 18% 23% 21% 21% 18% 14%

Self-paced online modules 23% 19% 19% 20% 17% 16%

Blended learning journeys 18% 20% 20% 17% 17% 15%

Virtual reality (VR) 13% 11% 13% 14% 13% 13%

I don't know 4% 5% 5% 5% 9% 12%

Source: FranklinCovey

49
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

learning focuses on shifting mindsets One global CLO based in the U.S. told us,
rather than just conveying information
or teaching surface-level skills. It derives “We used to have some leadership
from the power of story, interaction, development programs that were
engagement, and other meaningful vendor-specific, but it didn’t resonate
factors that can’t be had from a generic or with our employees because…it wasn’t
random set of tips and tricks. us. What was huge for us was finding
[a partner] that had what we would
Additionally, in their attempts to consider world-class content, with the
be helpful, inexperienced learning right global reach, with consultants
professionals sometimes fall prey to the to regionalize the content for us,
“law of good intentions” and add all sorts and the ability to put our [company
of unnecessary activities, touchpoints, name] stamp on it and customize
and modalities, creating a cumbersome it so that it felt like us. We took the
learning-journey design that nobody power of their content in a way that
wants to engage in. They forget that made sense for us, our language, and
people don’t come to work to take our behaviors. It was customized for
training; they come to get their work our organization and set that kind of
done. The best design principle is “fewer essential foundation for our leadership
things done better” within a time frame development.”
that makes sense.
Finally, no discussion of modern
Whatever you do create should be tightly learning methods would be complete
woven into your organization’s specific without considering the coming
goals and context. To accomplish that, transformative impact of generative
many companies choose to develop AI on learning design and learning
leadership content on their own. Others solutions. Research by McKinsey
find involving carefully chosen external suggests that one area that could be
partners can help them create the most most fully automated by generative AI
powerful learning experiences. Often this is the learning function.74 In the coming
choice depends on the topics in question years, generative AI will completely
and your level of internal development transform the creation, distribution, and
capability. When you do involve external personalization of learning experiences.
content partners, make sure to clearly Trends we can already see today
connect it with your leadership model suggest that when done well, AI will
and strategic goals. Creating that accelerate both leadership development
connection can be accomplished in a and performance improvement in
variety of ways, and overall philosophical powerful ways. Nevertheless, the key to
alignment is usually more important than strengthening your overall leadership
cosmetic adjustments. In any case, our capability will be to find applications
experience suggests that the programs that reinforce the underlying principles
with the greatest impact resonate with the of human effectiveness—because for
overall cultural values and “feel like us” or leadership, what is most human is most
“who we aspire to be.” valuable.

50 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

Maturity Continuum: Effective learning journeys.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our leadership development We have some intentional We have a full range of highly
programs are eclectic and generic leadership-development journeys focused and intentionally designed
in nature and are not intentionally for specific audiences (senior learning journeys for leaders at
aligned with the mindsets and leaders, high potentials), while other every level. These center on crucial
behaviors crucial for moving the audiences are left largely to their mindsets and behaviors and create
organization forward. They consist own devices. Programs are treated profound personal and social
largely of one-off, self-selected, more like training events or rewards experiences over time that
skill-based courses; we have no real than as profound parts of an ongoing will advance our organization’s
learning journeys that target specific learning journey to build widespread strategy.
changes in behavior. strategic capability.

Source: FranklinCovey

51
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• Have you invested appropriately in developing the few critical business and human
capabilities needed to drive your organization forward over the next three to five
years?

• Do you over-focus on broad-based skills at the expense of the most strategically

critical skills and capabilities?

• Are your learning journeys structured to promote the human connections required for
establishing a cohesive and widespread leadership culture, with shared mindsets and
language?

• Would participants describe their learning experiences as “profound,” meaning that

they result in significant shifts in mindsets and behaviors?

Recommended Actions
• If you don’t have enough focus on the leadership skills and capabilities needed to
accomplish your strategy, consider how you can change the equation.

• If leaders are not experiencing fundamental mindset shifts as a result of participating

in their learning journeys, look for ways to improve the power and quality of their
learning.

52 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

1. If these mindsets and behaviors are

C. Measurement and part of a strategically linked leadership
Accountability model, the connection to the business
is already acknowledged. If they have
Our own research, and that of others,75 no connection to the strategy, they
shows that L&D professionals use a shouldn’t be in the model.
wide range of methods to measure the
effectiveness of learning programs. Most 2. The link between observable
practitioners give a nod towards the leadership behaviors and
well-worn Kirkpatrick Model or the more
76
accountability is clear and natural.
nuanced ROI Model by Jack Phillips.77 It’s hard (and makes no sense) to
However, participant ratings (some hold people accountable for reaction
version of “They did or did not like it”) and measures (Did they like it?) or even
self-reported performance improvements knowledge measures (Do they know
along with other qualitative feedback it?), and it’s really hard (and fraught
methods are among the most commonly with complexity) to hold people
used. A few try to identify a tangible accountable for extrapolated ROI
ROI, but that’s rare, and often the insight metrics from a training perspective.
is not worth the effort. Surrogates Business results have their own
such as employee retention rates are accountability mechanisms, and that’s
frequently used—a logical connection in where such accountability should
a talent-scarce environment. But unless reside. It is, however, both logical and
retention is a high strategic priority (as natural from a learning perspective
retaining skilled nurses is for hospitals), to create a sense of accountability for
such connections can be tenuous and changed behavior.
unconvincing. And to be frank, ROI
exercises are often undertaken simply 3. When we talk about improving an
to protect training budgets when the organization’s leadership capability,
strategic link or business value is not we are talking about the reliable,
clear. Improved technologies and AI- widespread adoption of more-
based workforce analytics are opening effective leadership mindsets and
up new measurement options and offer behaviors in order to move the bulk
solid opportunities. But unless they of your leaders righter and tighter
are approached wisely, they can also on the performance axis. If that’s the
generate a lot of data that, although output we are after, it makes sense to
measurable, misses the primary point of measure it.
strategic impact.
The good news is that measuring
We recommend that to build the few behavior change is not rocket science,
strategic leadership capabilities that drive and most organizations already have
the business forward, leaders should some experience doing it. When
primarily focus on and measure observed specifically asked, “How does your
behavior change over time. We do so for organization measure the effectiveness
three reasons: of leadership development programs?”

53
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Figure 2.9: Measure what matters: observable behavior change over time.

What really differentiates top

performing organizations

Most organizations
have pockets of
Every organization has great performance
variability in its performance
% Achieving

Measure this

Low PERFORMANCE LEVEL High

Source: FranklinCovey

respondents selected “observed measure directly (e.g., “Does your leader

behavior change” as the top response believe…?”).
(44%), although this response could point
to a wide range When leadership expectations are clearly
When specifically of rigor in their communicated throughout the culture,
asked, “How does your approaches. and people have been trained on what
organization measure the the appropriate mindsets and behaviors
effectiveness of leadership When critical are, it will be no surprise when leaders are
development programs?”

44
mindsets and evaluated on them. This process provides

%
behaviors have social accountability and is as much a
been identified, part of the behavior change process as
measurement anything else.
can be as simple

of respondents selected as asking team

“observed behavior members a
change” as the top answer. question such
as, “Does your
leader authentically and consistently
demonstrate [this behavior]?” By asking
if the behavior is both authentic and
consistent, the question seeks to discover
if it is an expression of an underlying
mindset—which would be difficult to

54 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

Similar questions could, of course, modeling by senior leaders, people will

be incorporated in a comprehensive feel less threatened, and it will become
culture survey, but you might find it more part of a positive change process. Such
effective to make them part of regular connections highlight the systemic nature
and simple pulse surveys, sending out of the transformational framework we
a single question periodically to assess are using. If the learning group sent out a
progress on mindsets and behaviors question like the above in isolation, with
throughout the organization. The no leadership support, it would most
ultimate goal is to get a sense of your likely be viewed with suspicion rather
total leadership capability (which is an than understanding.
aggregate measure) as well as to give
individual leaders information that will Finally, a word on accountability. Just
help them make improvement where as the highest form of motivation is
personal gaps are evident. self-motivation, the highest form of
accountability is self-accountability.
How this works in your organization If people become aware of their
will depend greatly on the openness of own performance gaps or areas for
your culture to feedback and learning. improvement, they dive in to fix them.
Again, if it takes place as part of a larger Social accountability can also be a
effort, with good communication and powerful force, and when it’s built
How does your organization measure the effectiveness of your leadership
development programs? (Please select all that apply)
Figure 2.10: “How does your organization measure the effectiveness of your leadership
development programs? (Please select all that apply).”
50%

45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

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..
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ch

tr
ee

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org
My

Source: FranklinCovey

55
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

on a desire to progress together and how feedback on needed behavior

not let other people down, it can changes will be received. Additionally,
generate positive cycles of learning and senior leaders who model openness to
improvement. When individual and social feedback and learning will help other
accountability combine, you are well on leaders do the same.
your way to building a learning and high-
performance culture. The key for measurement in our context is
to keep it simple and clearly focused on
Conversely, the lowest form of the behaviors you are trying to change.
accountability is punitive and supervisory One U.S.-based director of leadership
in nature. It is more about control and development told us,
management than about leadership. It
may generate short-term compliance, but “Sometimes it’s hard to get people to
it rarely creates enthusiastic commitment wrap their minds around what we’re
to ongoing change and improvement. all doing. Even if you’re just starting,
when they start to see improvements
Your culture’s current level of maturity on these [key measures], they start to
in this area will largely determine come back for more.”

Maturity Continuum: Measurement and accountability.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not measure the impact We routinely measure things like We consistently measure behavior
of our programs, and there is no participants’ ratings, and we notify change over time and have a reliable
accountability for behavior change. leaders of their team’s participation approach for ensuring that people
so that they can provide additional feel accountable for adopting new
encouragement and support to apply mindsets and behaviors.
behaviors on the job.

Source: FranklinCovey

56 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

Reflection Questions
• Do you have a simple way to consistently and reliably measure adoption of the
mindsets and behaviors you seek?

• Are these measures welcomed by your leaders or viewed with suspicion or fear?

• Do leaders feel motivated to change their behavior where gaps are evident?

Recommended Actions
• If you do not have aggregated measures of your leaders’ adoption of key mindsets
and behaviors, what steps could you take, using tools you may already have, to get
them?

• If you do not currently give individual feedback on leaders’ progress toward the key
mindsets and behaviors, what steps could you take, using tools you may already have,
to do so?

57
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Additionally, senior leaders (the C-suite

D. Critical Mass plus two or three levels down) are vital
to enlisting the leadership population as
An effective leadership development a whole by communicating the change,
program is meant to turn leadership walking the talk, and actively engaging
capability into a strategic asset for your the next levels down, until the majority of
organization. That means most of your your leaders have changed their behavior.
leaders will lead in the desired way the Such processes are seen as leader-led and
majority of the time. But how can you training-supported rather than as being
get them to do that? And even more advocated solely by HR. That makes all
important, how can you transfer that the difference when it comes to creating
impact to the rest of the organization? widespread behavior change.

Research shows that to change large Some organizations have found that
populations, enough members of the change gets stuck in the layers of middle
right group must lead the way. When management, necessitating a particularly
you reach a tipping point,78 the rest of strong focus on those layers. We’ve seen
the population other organizations work from the bottom
The tipping
tends to follow, up, beginning with first-level leaders for
point for your
shifting the entire changes specific to frontline behavior,
organization
organization’s with supportive transformations coming
consists, in fact, of
the vast majority distribution from the middle level. Your approach will

73
curve righter and depend on what mindsets and behaviors

%
tighter around the must be adopted to implement your
new behavior.79 strategy and where they should reside in
Depending on the the organization. The broad point is that
study, the tipping most leaders need to demonstrate the
point tends to desired behaviors if you want the entire
of your leaders.
range from 15% to organization to follow.
35% within the population (some outliers
suggest as low as 5%). A primary risk in strategic leadership
development is that the initiatives won’t
What the research sometimes omits, go far enough or deep enough, and the
however, is the importance of who makes effort will stall. If improved organizational
up that percentage of change leaders. performance is the goal, the breadth
To transform the entire organization, this and depth of leadership engagement
vanguard group must include the majority matters. Once the majority of your
of formal leaders, as well as other opinion leaders have bought in to changing their
leaders and key influencers.80 Practically mindsets and behaviors, you will move
speaking, almost all your leaders must the entire organization to higher levels of
alter their behavior if the organization is to performance.
do so as well. Our global survey of senior
talent leaders suggests that the 15% to
35% of your population that will lead the
transformation—the tipping point for your
organization—consists, in fact, of the vast
majority (73%) of your formal leaders.

58 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 1: Design Effective Learning Experiences

Maturity Continuum: Critical mass.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our leadership development is While we want to build a Our leadership effort is designed to
focused primarily on people at the leadership culture that changes our create significant behavior change
top rather than on developing a organizational performance, our and shift the performance of our
widespread leadership capability in efforts only reach a small portion of organization. As a result, most of our
our organization. our leaders in the organization at formal leaders (73% or more), along
any given time. with high potentials and other key
opinion leaders, are receiving this
development in an intentional way.

Source: FranklinCovey

59
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• Are you serious enough about creating significant change around these strategic
mindsets and behaviors that you will commit to training the bulk of the leaders
throughout the organization?

• How much money are you willing to invest to move the majority of your leaders righter
and tighter?

• What kind of development is needed at each level? (Some leaders may require a
deeper level of experience than others, but they should all be mutually reinforcing.)

Recommended Actions
• As you consider the mindsets and behaviors that need to change, look across your
leadership population and identify all those you will need to involve to reach your
tipping point. Make sure to include critical influencers, high performers, or others who,
for a variety of possible reasons, would be good to have on board.

• Decide what the appropriate learning journey for each group is. For instance, a vice
president of marketing might need a different approach than a branch manager, but
they both should be in sync with the new behaviors and mindsets. Make sure your
effort reaches all the appropriate levels and that each one is given an intentionally
designed learning journey.

• Ensure that from a project management and resource standpoint, you are prepared to
deliver with enough scale and speed to build an effective critical mass.

• If, for some reason, you can’t deliver to the extent you’d like, pick the division that
is most critical to achieving your organization’s strategy and reset the scale for that
division. Be as thoughtful as possible about the people who are trained: They should
have maximum impact on executing the strategy. For example, in a company of
30,000 employees, a particular division of 10,000 or even 5,000 might have the most
influence on whether your strategy is achieved. Begin your efforts there.

60 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
61
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

AREA 2:

Integrate Talent Systems

“A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in
a way that achieves something.”81
– Donella Meadows

T
hroughout the world and across This principle applies to the development
many industries, there are a of leadership capability in organizations.
number of standout businesses As we’ve noted, creating a widespread
that have created strong market leadership capability as a strategic asset
reputations and great leadership and requires more than just formal learning
talent brands, and are considered and development programs. They are a
excellent places to work. Some lists of vital component, but they are only part of
these companies are more journalistic a larger system that enables you to attract,
and well-known (like the Fortune 100 retain, develop, deploy (and redeploy),
Best Companies to Work For lists ), while 82
and engage high-quality leaders
other research is more academic or throughout your company.
from consulting firms. These standout
83

organizations are evaluated on a number One CHRO cautioned us about

of factors, including leadership quality organizations that might take training-
and management behavior, overall only approaches to leadership
organizational culture, pay and benefits, development when she said,
and, of course, financial performance.
“That’s not how you drive
An important takeaway from studies organizational behavior and
like these is that the companies that change [because] you can’t build in
consistently earn a spot at the top of the accountability hooks…[but] we can
lists are not just good at one thing, they build in accountability hooks through
are good at many—success is built into our promotion processes, our rewards
their systems. and recognition processes. We even
have interview guides with questions
for leaders, and we bake in questions
around the leadership model for the
interviewer panel.”

Figure 2.11: Common elements of a talent lifecycle.

Workforce Talent Learning and Performance Compensation Succession Talent

Offboarding
Planning Acquisition Development Management and Benefits Planning Retention

Source: FranklinCovey

62 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

This kind of systemic thinking is vital to and tighter your leadership capability
consistently building and maintaining will become. As you read through
widespread leadership capability. this section, we recommend that you
choose the one or two areas where
Figure 2.11 shows the common elements making some progress will have the
of a talent lifecycle (sometimes called a most impact and start by working on
talent ecosystem). Yours may not match those. When you’ve made the desired
exactly, but these elements should look progress in those areas, move on to the
familiar. next ones in a continuous process of
iterative improvement. That way you will
We recognize that each element in this increasingly build the systemic strength
model represents an area of specific that produces consistent leadership
expertise. This guidebook won’t go into all excellence.
the details of each area. Rather, we want
to pose two basic questions: Here are the elements we will review:

1. Do the elements of your talent lifecycle A. Workforce Planning

reinforce the leadership model and B. Talent Acquisition (recruitment and
the mindsets and behaviors your hiring)
organization needs to succeed in the C. Learning and Development (platforms,
years ahead? content, systems)
D. Performance Management
2. Is your talent system largely a E. Compensation and Benefits
bunch of disconnected silos, or do F. Succession Planning
they work together to produce the G. Talent Retention
kind of leadership you want in your H. Offboarding
organization at scale?

We will briefly review each of the

components in the model with these two
questions in mind. We’ll also highlight
a few areas for your consideration and
suggest some positive actions you
might want to take. Depending on how
sophisticated your organization is,
some of these actions may be basic,
and others may be a stretch. However,
upon reflection, you may find that you
are not doing any of them as well or as
consistently as you’d like.

Remember, nobody does everything

perfectly in this model (not even all the
Great Place to Work organizations). But
the more things you have in place to
reinforce the leadership mindsets and
behaviors you aim to achieve, the righter

63
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

planning (called out separately in this

A. Workforce Planning talent lifecycle model), productivity
metrics, cost modeling and management,
At its highest level, workforce planning and other things.
involves looking at your organization’s
strategy in the context of the economy, When we asked the question, “How
employment trends, and so forth; does your organization ensure that its
evaluating your current employees leadership development programs will
against that strategy; and then meet future business needs?” our survey
implementing the appropriate plans respondents put workforce planning and
so that your organization has the right succession planning among the top ways
number of people, with the right skills and to do so, along with a defined leadership
How does your organization ensure that
capabilities, in the right places, at the right
its leadership development programs
framework, executive guidance, and clear
willinclude
times. It may also meetsuccession
future business needs? (Please
links to the select
business all that apply)
strategy.

Figure 2.12: “How does your organization ensure that its leadership development
programs will meet future business needs? (Please select all that apply).”

50%

45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
g
g

ut
e

is

s
rk

ow
y

en
c

nin
nin

n
eg

lys

inp
wo

an

tio

kn
sm
at

lan
lan

na
id
me

era

al
str

't
es
gu

sa
p

on
ep

n
fra

sid

ss

tio
ss

ion
e

Id
ed
orc

pa
tiv

on
ip

nc
ine

ss

ne
rsh

rkf

yc

fu
ga
s

e
ec

ic
bu

cc

s-
Wo

t
de

Ex

rsi
teg

ls
Su

os
ea

to

il
ve

sk

Cr
ra
dl

ks

Di
St

ted
ne

lin
efi

en
r
ea
Ad

ori
Cl

re-
tu
Fu

Source: FranklinCovey

64 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

Maturity Continuum: Workforce planning.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have a workforce plan. We have a workforce plan (partial or We have a workforce plan and our
complete), but it doesn’t explicitly leadership model and the data
connect to our leadership model. around it are integral parts of how
we think about the leaders we need
to hire and develop.

Source: FranklinCovey

65
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• As you consider your strategy and what needs to happen over the next three to five
years, how confident are you that you will have the leadership strength in place to
accomplish those things with excellence?

• If you are aware of gaps, do you have a clear plan to fill them through hiring,
development, reassigning key roles, or some combination of these?

Recommended Actions
• If you have no comprehensive workforce plan, identify the parts of your organization
that are most crucial for accomplishing your strategy and start there. Place specific
emphasis on the kind of leadership you need to be successful in those parts of your
organization.

• If you have a workforce plan but your leadership model is not part of it, take
appropriate steps to incorporate it into your planning.

66 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

reinforce the idea that people entering

B. Talent Acquisition the organization ought to reflect the
values defined in its leadership model.
Most organizations, especially those that
are growing, need to hire new talent from Just as tremendous power comes from
the outside. The question is whether that hiring highly capable leaders who are
hiring effort, especially for key leadership strategically aligned and demonstrate
roles, is tightly linked to the mindsets the right mindsets and behaviors, a
and behaviors that are needed to propel tremendous downside comes from
your organization’s strategy forward. To getting this wrong. Research indicates
do that well, your hiring process needs that the direct cost of replacing a
to communicate to potential candidates management hire
Research indicates
what those mindsets and behaviors are can easily exceed
that the direct
and also weave them into the screening that manager’s
cost of replacing a
process. annual salary.84
management hire can
That’s expensive,
easily exceed that
For example, organizations may lean but it doesn’t
manager’s annual
in to the well-established technique of include the possible
salary.84
behavioral interviewing, which seeks damage to team
to identify whether candidates have morale, the wasted time and effort, and
previously modeled the kinds of mindsets the potential loss of other talented players
and behaviors you’re looking for. Some on the team.
psychometric assessment techniques,
situational judgment tests, and even As you think about how this dynamic
future uses of AI may help you in the can multiply across the organization
screening and interviewing processes to if your hiring process is not aligned
find what you are looking for and reduce with your leadership model, imagine
unwanted bias. the negative impact on your ability to
achieve your goals. On the flip side, if
Ideally, your approach to interviewing your hiring process consistently brings
should filter down throughout the in people who fit your leadership model,
organization, and every hiring manager the odds that you achieve your goals will
should have access to similar tools to significantly improve.

67
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Maturity Continuum: Talent acquisition.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our hiring of leaders is not We have established hiring practices We have strong systems for finding
systematic and is done differently for leaders, and they are generally and hiring leaders who match our
throughout the organization. It is used throughout the organization. leadership model, and they are
unconnected to our organization’s We may mention our leadership used consistently throughout the
leadership model. model in that process, but we organization.
have no real system for evaluating
candidates in relation to the model.

Source: FranklinCovey

68 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

Reflection Questions
• How confident are you that your talent acquisition systems are bringing you people
with the leadership capabilities you need throughout your organization to achieve
your future strategy?

• When you have a leadership hiring failure, do you consider your leadership model in
evaluating what went wrong?

• How much difference would it make to your organization’s performance if you were
systematically better at bringing in leaders with the mindsets and behaviors identified
in your strategically aligned leadership model?

Recommended Actions
• Identify the areas in your organization that will be most critical to your strategy over the
next three to five years. Consider how you might more tightly integrate your leadership
model into your screening and hiring processes for leaders in those areas.

• Think about how you can help all your recruiters and hiring managers more clearly
understand the desired mindsets and behaviors in the leadership model so that they
can better identify candidates who exhibit them. Is there a simple tool you could
provide to help them?

69
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

on the organization, hoping that people

C. Learning and will find what they need to improve. As
Development we’ve mentioned, providing widespread
access to skills-based content, when
We have already discussed learning done well, can be valuable for general
and development in “Design Effective professional development. But it will not
Learning Experiences,” but organizations generate consistent, widespread, and
also have an opportunity to integrate strategically aligned behavior change.
their leadership model into their overall Most L&D leaders have experienced the
learning platforms and approach and to low-utilization, low-impact nature of this
increase their ability to facilitate effective approach and yearn for something better.
learning journeys generally. To move a large group of people righter
and tighter in terms of their behavior, and
Over the past several years, advances to measurably improve organizational
in learning technologies and platforms leadership capability, learning journeys
have been tremendous. With generative must be more intentionally designed and
AI, another revolution will soon be thoughtfully and deliberately deployed
underway. Skills-based technologies— over time, as we’ve discussed.
which help people know where they are
and develop personalized learning paths That said, a modern learning platform
to make needed progress—are part of can make a huge difference in enabling
the equation, as are improvements in effective learning journeys for large
bringing learning into the flow of work numbers of people. As you consider your
on the productivity platforms that people learning technologies, make sure your
use every day. With generative AI and platforms have the capabilities required
the potential for rapid, even real-time, to field rich learning experiences over
development of content that is highly time, including a variety of modalities
personalized, interactive, continuously such as assessments, coaching, in-person
adaptive, and learning, and cohorts. Also ensure that the

45
Only

%
instantly available in mindsets and behaviors identified in your
the formats needed, leadership model can be used to help
new opportunities people self-assess and show real progress
for transformative in areas where they need to improve.
learning will soon be
of organizations “think at our fingertips. For Specifically, a good learning platform
their learning platforms L&D professionals, the should be able to support (1) individual
are fit for the modern
need to stay abreast of and collective gap assessment
workplace.” 85
the latest technologies against your leadership model, (2)
is great. At the same time, some core the deployment of effective learning
principles remain vital, especially as we journeys over time (with all the content
consider how these technologies can and interaction modalities needed for a
help build leadership capability in our profound, mindset-shifting experience),
organizations. and (3) appropriate measurement and
accountability. And it should be able to
For example, L&D leaders may be tempted deliver at scale until the tipping point is
to simply buy a learning platform and a achieved.
few content libraries and turn them loose

70 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

For many organizations, this process the modern workplace.”85 Ideally, your
may involve the elimination of existing learning platforms will connect to the
platforms and careful re-selection of larger HR technology stack so that data
new platforms. According to industry can be shared across the entire talent life
data, most companies have several cycle. But most companies also have a
learning platforms and content libraries variety of HR systems in use,86 and they
scattered throughout, and the European often don’t connect with one another
HR Industry analyst firm Fosway Group directly. We expect that this will improve
reports that only 45% of organizations over time and that generative AI will
“think their learning platforms are fit for accelerate a more integrated approach.

Maturity Continuum: Learning and development.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have an adequate learning We have several learning platforms We have a learning platform that
platform to support our learning and and content subscriptions in use, supports the rich developmental
development needs, particularly for but they are not organized and are experiences we want to provide for
our leaders. not tied to our leadership model. our leaders. It is tied directly to our
They do not support the kind of rich, leadership model, and it supports
multi-mode learning journeys we deployment at scale. People use it
want to use to develop our leaders, regularly and enjoy it.
and usage is low.

Source: FranklinCovey

71
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• Do you have a modern learning platform that can support the deployment of rich
learning journeys at scale?

• Are the mindsets and behaviors in your leadership model supported by your learning
platform?

Recommended Actions
• Assess your current platform(s). Are there features that you are not currently using that
could help provide more-meaningful learning experiences for your leaders?

• If you do not have a modern platform that supports your needs moving forward,
consider finding one that will.

• Keep on top of emerging technologies like generative AI so you can bring new
capabilities to your organization as appropriate.

72 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

middle managers and all the way up

D. Performance to senior leaders. Whatever system or
Management methodology your organization uses
to evaluate leaders’ performance, it
How are leaders evaluated in your can probably be modified, without
organization? Is it simply on whether they much effort, to include a discussion
hit their performance goals? Or do you around the leadership model. Such a
pair that with an assessment of how they conversation will, of course, be helped
hit their goals? The best organizations immensely if you are collecting data on
understand that achieving goals isn’t how well leaders exhibit the desired
all a leader needs to do. The human mindsets and behaviors or adopt new
side of leading and engagement must skills and capabilities. Leaders can also
also factor into this evaluation. As we be evaluated on their learning goals in
said at the outset, principle-centered relation to the leadership model and in
leaders understand that both people and other strategically important capability
performance are essential, particularly in areas. In this way, an evaluation can be
such a rapidly changing world. For your about improving a leader’s potential for
leadership model to have teeth, people improved future performance as well.
should be evaluated both on the results
they achieved and on how they achieved You can work with internal specialists
them. to decide how to best configure your
performance management practices
This kind of evaluation should be so that they drive both your leadership
done throughout the organization, model and business results.
from team leaders to supervisors and

Maturity Continuum: Performance management.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have a structured or We have a system for performance We have a structured and data-
uniform approach for evaluating the management, but it focuses on driven way of addressing both
performance of our leaders. financial results. It does not include people and performance results
the mindsets and behaviors in the in our reviews. Our leadership
leadership model. model plays a central role in our
evaluations, and leaders are also
assessed on how well they are
learning and developing the high-
value skills and capabilities needed
to advance our strategy.

Source: FranklinCovey

73
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• Does your performance management process reflect a concern for results—both
performance and people—as well as how they were delivered?

• Do you have the data necessary for an informed discussion in both areas?

• Does your performance management process include an evaluation of how leaders

are working to improve their capabilities for the future, particularly in the areas most
vital to your strategy?

Recommended Actions
• Look for ways to bring your leadership model into the performance review process
for leaders. If you don’t have the necessary data, start by making the model a topic of
discussion and then look for ways to add data in the future.

74 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

setting, look for ways to tie aspects

E. Compensation and of compensation directly to the
Benefits demonstration of the mindsets and
behaviors reflected in your organization’s
Performance management is a close leadership model. For example, you might
cousin to another key part of the talent tie some portion of variable compensation,
lifecycle: compensation and benefits. such as bonuses, to how well leaders
As much as we hope that people will exhibit those mindsets and behaviors.
make positive changes all on their own, If financial compensation options are
financial compensation is a powerful limited, extra perks and celebrations
influence for changing behavior. In our can be helpful. The idea is to reward
research, when we asked what methods and recognize those leaders who best
their organizations used to “motivate embody the leadership model and create
managers/leaders to engage with and an incentive for others to follow. Consider
support behavior change initiatives,” how, in your specific environment,
performance measures and management/ compensation and other forms of
leadership training were most frequently recognition might support behavior
selected (at 48% and 46% respectively) change among your leaders.
but these methods were immediately
followed by different forms of recognition It is probably obvious, but still worth
(45%) including vocal praise or other forms emphasizing, that having good data
of communication and then by financial will be vitally important if compensation
incentives (43%), including pay increases is involved. It’s also worth noting that
or bonuses. because compensation is such a powerful
lever, it should be used thoughtfully to
When used wisely, pay can be a strong avoid any unintended consequences.
way to communicate priorities. Where But precisely because it so strongly
How does your organization motivate managers/leaders to engage
possible—as allowed by law, governance communicates value, compensation
with and support the behavior change initiative?
policy, etc.—and as appropriate in your should not be overlooked as a way to

Figure 2.13: “How does your organization motivate managers/leaders to engage with
and support the behavior change initiative?”

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
ail se,
ng

ne
on s
res

ds
s

ow
, b ve

on
)
em rai

No
ini

ar
us

kn
su

se nti

oti

Aw
m p
tra

)
ea

't
rea nce

om
ea al

on
em

hip

, t voc

Pr
inc l i

Id
ay cia
nc

ers

ter (
let tion
a

(p an
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rm

Fin
/le

ws ni
rfo

ne cog
nt
Pe

me

Re
ge
na
Ma

Source: FranklinCovey 75
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

encourage real and widespread behavior matter can be applied in all sorts of
change. Regardless of your specific creative ways to support and encourage
approach, the overall principle of reward your leaders.
and recognition for the things that really

Maturity Continuum: Compensation and benefits.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Even in areas where it is possible, Even in areas where it is possible, Where possible and appropriate,
compensation is not connected to compensation is not connected some form of compensation is
our leadership model. Nor do we have to our leadership model, but we directly tied to our leadership model.
any form of systematic recognition or do have regular and systematic We also have regular and systematic
public acknowledgment for leaders ways of celebrating leaders who ways of celebrating leaders who
who demonstrate the desired demonstrate the mindsets and demonstrate the desired mindsets
mindsets and behaviors. behaviors we want to see throughout and behaviors.
our organization.

Source: FranklinCovey

76 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

Reflection Questions
• If you could tie some portion of compensation to your leadership model, would it
make a significant difference in moving your organization forward?

• If you are unable to affect compensation, what other forms of recognition might be
helpful to encourage your leaders to adopt the desired mindsets and behaviors?

Recommended Actions
• Explore what might be possible in your setting and circumstances to connect
compensation with your leadership model.

• Find creative ways, beyond financial compensation, to recognize and reward leaders
who embody the mindsets and behaviors in your leadership model.

77
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

in key roles, it’s worth asking yourself

F. Succession whether you have (or are intentionally
Planning developing) at least one or two specific
people who demonstrate the right
A vitally important part of the talent mindsets and behaviors and could step
lifecycle, particularly as it relates to an up to fill those roles internally. If you have
organization’s leadership capability, is an established history of collecting data
succession planning. It is part of the on your leaders from both a people and
broader concept of a leadership pipeline a performance perspective, that data can
or overall leadership bench strength. In be very helpful when it comes to moving
general, succession planning is focused people into more visible and more senior
on fewer and usually high-profile roles positions. The systemic approach we are
and those who are being developed to discussing makes such a data-informed
fill them, whereas a leadership pipeline history possible.
refers to an organization’s ability to
develop and progress new generations of When capability gaps are identified and
leaders at all levels. you have no logical internal candidates,
your leadership model should be helpful
There are many firms with deep expertise in bringing in new talent to fill those roles,
in this area. At a minimum, for leaders as mentioned in “Talent Acquisition.”

78
78 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

Maturity Continuum: Succession planning.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our organization has no formal We have a succession plan for We have a robust succession plan
succession plan in place. key leadership roles. Potential for our key leadership roles. Our
Replacements and promotions are candidates are identified primarily leadership model is an important
made on an ad hoc, as-needed basis. on the basis of their performance, part of how we evaluate and develop
but we don’t evaluate them people who will be filling those roles.
according to our leadership model,
and we don’t have a specific
development plan for them that is
influenced by that model.

Source: FranklinCovey

79
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• As you think about the key leadership roles in your organization, do you have—or are
you intentionally developing—one or two specific people who have the right mindsets
and behaviors to step up and fill those roles over time?

• Where is your ability to execute your strategy at greatest risk? Do you have a
succession plan for key leaders in the related roles?

Recommended Action
• Start by focusing your efforts on key roles, and incorporate your leadership model as
appropriate.

• If your leadership model is not already part of your broader succession planning
process, find ways to integrate it.

80 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

of retention. These are the people you

G. Talent Retention absolutely don’t want to lose.

Tight labor markets in recent years have The vital question is whether you have
driven many organizations to take a hard the right systems and processes in place

52%
look at how well they retain their key talent. to help identify your
At the same time, Gallup’s most recent best leaders while also
State of the Global Workplace report ensuring that you’re
indicates that 52% of associates globally doing everything
are “watching for or actively seeking a possible to retain them.
of associates globally are
new job.” When narrowed specifically to Compensation and other “watching for or actively
managers, that number rises to 56%.87 basics ensure that the job seeking a new job.”
While this dynamic will vary by country and is attractive, but specific
industry, global labor trends suggest that engagement plans for When narrowed specifically
labor markets will be tight for some time, key players can help stem to managers, that number
particularly for higher-skilled workers. flight risk and ensure rises to

56.%
87
that people remain with
Of course, talent retention matters across your organization when
your organization, but leaders who recruiters call—as they
exhibit the mindsets and behaviors in undoubtedly will.
your leadership model, and who deliver
great results in terms of both people and
performance, merit extra effort in terms

81
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Maturity Continuum: Talent retention.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have a comprehensive We know who some of our most We have a process in place to
view of who our most talented talented leaders are, and we pay identify our most effective leaders
leaders are or a reliable assessment close attention to them. But we are throughout the organization, and our
of their flight risk. As a result, we probably missing many leaders who leadership model plays an important
have no intentional process of should be on our radar. We largely role in that evaluation. Where we
engagement to mitigate that risk. count on their direct managers to identify flight risks, we engage
When we lose key people, it is often retain them. We have no widespread with those leaders and do what
a surprise. system in place for tracking this risk, is possible to retain them. Some
and our leadership model is not a departures are a surprise, and we
formal part of our evaluation of the experience some turnover, but we
leaders we do identify. are effective in retaining the
majority of the leaders we
want to keep in our
organization.

Source: FranklinCovey

82 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

Reflection Questions
• Are you often surprised by the loss of key leaders?

• Do you have an appropriately broad and accurate understanding of which leaders you
don’t want to lose?

• Is your overall leadership attrition rate acceptable? Or are you losing more talent than
you should?

Recommended Actions
• If you don’t have a strong leadership-retention system in place, identify the individuals
and teams, groups, or divisions that are most important to your current strategy and
start there.

• Look for ways to consider any current flight risks in the context of your leadership
model. Make an extra effort to keep those leaders who are high performers and are
known for having the mindsets and behaviors needed for the future.

83
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

the new leader is introduced. Such

H. Offboarding deliberate reinforcement will do a lot to
shape the culture by demonstrating that
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, the leadership model was an important
you will lose some great leaders. When consideration in bringing on the new hire.
that happens, it is wise to conduct a
post-departure evaluation to determine If the exit process for a talented and
whether any patterns (or people) might highly capable leader is conducted with
cause other talented leaders to leave as respect and in a friendly manner, the
well. Some factors may be fairly objective, leader may return to your organization
such as higher pay or significant later on, and with valuable new
opportunities elsewhere that you can’t experience. At a minimum, that person
match. Others may be more nuanced and will remain an advocate for your
may point to internal variables that can be organization and recommend that others
fixed. come your way. How you treat exiting
“alumni” sends a strong message that can
A talented leader who departs will leave strengthen your company’s leadership
an important gap in the organization. brand.
You will need to fill it with someone who
is similarly talented and also reflects There is, of course, another kind of
your leadership model well. Whether offboarding process, for leaders who do
you fill the role internally or externally, not perform well and who do not, or will
consider this an opportunity to reaffirm not, act in harmony with the company’s
the desired mindsets and behaviors leadership model. When a nonperforming
moving forward. You can do this by leader is invited to exit, a similar
specifically communicating the values opportunity arises to communicate (as
and priorities of your leadership model permissible and appropriate) the reasons
during the hiring process. You can also for the decision.
communicate them to the team when

84 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 2: Integrate Talent Systems

Maturity Continuum: Offboarding.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We have no formal post-departure We have a post-departure review We have a consistent post-departure

evaluation process that can help us process, but the results are not review process, and the results are
retain other great performers. widely shared and are rarely acted appropriately shared and acted
on. We do not use leadership on. We use leadership transitions
transitions as a way to reinforce our (whether voluntary or involuntary)
leadership model. as a way to affirm and reinforce our
leadership model.

Source: FranklinCovey

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Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• What processes are in place for learning from and responding to the departure of
high-performing leaders?

• Do you regularly use leadership transitions to reaffirm the mindsets and behaviors
defined in your leadership model?

• Is your offboarding experience designed such that talented leaders would want to
return in the future or, at a minimum, recommend your organization to other talented
leaders?

Recommended Actions
• If you have a process for capturing insights from departing leaders, go back and
review the last several departures with your leadership model in mind. What can you
learn?

• Do you have a way of keeping track of and maintaining relationships with high-
performing leaders who have departed? If so, consider reaching out to them. They
may help you fill some needed roles one day, either by returning or by recommending
others.

86 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
87
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

AREA 3:

Align Technology, Tools,

and Workflows
“We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”88
– John Culkin/Marshall McLuhan

T
he structures and systems we With this in mind, we’ll look at the two
use can have a dramatic impact areas below:
on leadership mindsets and
A. Management Technology and Tools
behaviors and how leaders engage with
one another day-to-day. A founding figure B. Organizational Design and Workflows
of organizational design, Arthur Jones,
once said, “All organizations are perfectly Once again, our intent here is not to
aligned to get the results they get.” As 89
plumb the depths of performance
senior leaders, our job is to ensure that technologies or organizational design.
the alignment of structures and systems You can find numerous solutions and
in our organizations reduces unnecessary specialists in these areas. Rather, we aim
friction and supports the leadership to surface a few ideas that will help you
behaviors that will reinforce the kind of leadership you want

16
Only

%
help us advance our to see in your organizations at scale.
strategies.

We should also ensure A. Management

that our leaders
of respondents in Deloitte’s
throughout the
Technology and Tools
Global Human Capital
Trends survey agree that organization have the In recent years, a number of new
“their leaders are very capability to do the technology platforms have arisen to
ready to use technology
same thing in their areas help managers do their jobs better and
to improve outcomes and
team performance,
of responsibility. The support leaders in day-to-day work with
and only data show, however, their teams.91 These platforms tend to

18%
that many organizations focus on specific processes such as
have a long way to performance management, one-on-one
go, with only 16% conversations, and team goal setting
of respondents in (including “objectives and key results”
say their leaders are very Deloitte’s Global Human or OKRs). Some of these platforms also
ready to develop the right Capital Trends survey have “employee listening” functions to
workplace model for their
agreeing that “their gather feedback and a variety of team
organizations.”90
leaders are very ready and productivity analytics as well. Many of
to use technology to improve outcomes the larger, more comprehensive HR and
and team performance, and only 18% say human capital management platforms
their leaders are very ready to develop have similar features that support these
the right workplace model for their processes, and some companies have
organizations.” 90
even developed customized systems

88 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 3: Align Technology, Tools, and Workflows

for internal use. The space is constantly How leaders address performance can
changing, and with the increasing dramatically shape your culture. As we
adoption of AI in these areas, we expect mentioned at the outset, the best leaders
to see further innovation in the years affirm both people and performance.
ahead. But if your tools are out of sync with
that message, leaders will end up either
Consciously or unconsciously, conforming to the system or working
however, these technologies have an around it.
embedded philosophy of leadership and
management. In other words, they tend to The good news is that modern
promote certain mindsets and behaviors. systems tend to incorporate modern
As a result, you should strive to ensure assumptions about how leaders can
that the approaches embedded in your best interact with employees. Older
tools are consistent with, rather than systems, on the other hand, may have
contrary to, the mindsets and behaviors in more industrial, command-and-control
your leadership model. No technology in leadership assumptions built into them,
this space is completely philosophy-free. leading to industrial-style mindsets and
behaviors. Even
For example, not only is the idea that newer systems can
managers should have regular one- inadvertently drive No technology
on-one conversations with employees those behaviors, in this space
embedded in many platforms, but a depending on how
structure is built into the interface that they are applied. is completely
implies how that conversation should philosophy-
be conducted—bringing with it certain One of the fastest
mindsets and behaviors. ways to change free.
behavior is to
A good test would be to look at your change the tools people use every day
performance management system. If a to get things done. Entire fields of study
specific process is built into that system, are rooted in that idea.92 Among the
ask yourself whether it treats people more effective things you can do as a
like cogs in a corporate machine to be senior leader looking to shift the behavior
controlled and managed, or like sources of large groups of leaders in your
of talent to be honored and engaged. You organization is put the right tools in place
may (or may not!) be surprised by what to support their work.
you find. If it runs contrary to the mindsets
and behaviors you are trying to establish
with your leaders, you have a problem of
dissonance.

89
Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Maturity Continuum: Management technology and tools.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We don’t have any technologies We have a variety of tools available, We have a few carefully chosen
or tools that support our leaders but they are not used consistently, tools that help our leaders carry out
in carrying out foundational and they have not been evaluated in their work in a way that supports
management processes. terms of how well they support the the mindsets and behaviors in
mindsets and behaviors we want our our leadership model and that we
leaders to exhibit. want to establish throughout our
organization.

Source: FranklinCovey

90 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 3: Align Technology, Tools, and Workflows

Reflection Questions
• If you have some software platforms or tools in place to help leaders with foundational
management tasks, do they use them? Do they work around them, and if so, why?

• Do the management tools and platforms you use reinforce the mindsets and
behaviors defined in your leadership model, or do they send a different message?

Recommended Actions
• If there is a widely used management tool in your organization that runs contrary to
the mindsets and behaviors you are trying to promote, figure out how to revise or
replace the tool.

• If some of the behaviors you are trying to promote could be supported by software,
find a way to help make that happen, either by building resources or workflows into
your existing platforms, or, where the value is clear, by purchasing a new tool.

91
 Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

required to change the game. It’s hard to

B. Organizational ask all your leaders to be accountable,
Design and to be collaborative, and to enable
change if your overall structure makes
Workflows that difficult. As the organizational
scholars Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
The field of organizational design has recently noted in their wide-ranging
a long history and a variety of models critique of bureaucratic organizational
and definitions,93 all of which essentially designs, “Bureaucracy was designed
relate to how senior leaders configure to produce exactly what it does:
the structure, processes, procedures, compliance, discipline, and predictability.
and workflows of their organizations It’s a sausage-making machine that
to get things done. The best design produces—wait for it—sausages!”96 So,
choices produce clear ownership and if the world you are facing requires more
accountability, agility and adaptability, some new design
In many cases, enable rapid choices may be in order.
small-scale decision-making,
design choices promote the right In many cases, however, small-scale

can remove levels of flexibility design choices can remove walls and
and collaboration, help your overall leadership capability
walls and help and reduce improve. Clarifying leadership roles and
your overall unwanted friction in decision-making authority, localized
leadership strategy execution.94 restructuring in key positions and
capability departments, and implementing helpful
In the context of policy changes are some examples.
improve.
this guidebook,
“organizational design and workflows” We encourage you to look at your
can apply to topics as large as how the business strategy, identify the top one
business is structured and as small or two structural barriers that hold your
as the approval process for booking leaders back and are within your circle
travel.95 We encourage you to identify the of influence to change, and then act on
design choices, of whatever size, that will them. If you are a C-suite leader, you have
encourage the mindsets and behaviors a lot of influence. But choose your targets
you want to see in your leaders, whether carefully. An organization can handle only
related to performance or to people. so much change at once, and radical
“shock therapy” redesigns often fail,97 so
If the way your overall organization (or ensure you involve people or partners
division or department) is structured with the right expertise, focus on the one
makes accountability unclear, hinders or two areas with the most potential for
collaboration, or regularly stymies impact, and then move forward.
change, then bold action is probably

92 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Area 3: Align Technology, Tools, and Workflows

Maturity Continuum: Organizational design and workflows.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our structure, processes, policies, We make changes to structure, We have looked carefully at how
and workflows have not changed processes, policies, and workflows our current structure, processes,
much over the years, and we are where we see a need, but we rarely policies, and workflows support our
having a hard time adapting to the consider them in terms of our overall strategy and the leadership mindsets
requirements of our current strategy. strategy and the leadership mindsets and behaviors required to support it.
Our leaders are either frustrated by and behaviors required to execute Where changes are needed, we have
how we operate or have become it. Changes are usually made in a plan to make them in a thoughtful,
experts in doing what we’ve always response to cost-cutting or other prioritized way.
done. initiatives and are more reactionary
than strategic.

Source: FranklinCovey

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Part 2: How to Develop Leadership Capability at Scale

Reflection Questions
• How well does your current organizational structure support the accomplishment of
your business strategy for future growth?

• What mindsets and behaviors does your organizational design promote? Are they
helpful or harmful to the accomplishment of your strategy?

• Are there some specific changes, large or small, that could make a difference?

Recommended Actions
• Ask your leaders whether they view any structures, processes, policies, or workflows
as running contrary to the mindsets and behaviors identified in your leadership model
or as obstacles to accomplishing your business strategy. If they do, prioritize and then
make the appropriate changes.

94 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
95
Next Steps

96 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 A Path Forward

A Path Forward

N
ow that you’ve had a chance to model throughout the organization. Which
reflect on a systemic approach brings us to…
to developing and supporting
the leadership capability needed to drive 3. Integrate and align systems and
your business strategy forward, what’s processes. This is where you and your
next? How do you organize your efforts larger team identify specific systemic
to create this strategic asset inside your levers that you can directly influence
organization? and that would be most impactful
in promoting and supporting the
There are three basic steps: leadership mindsets and behaviors in
the leadership model. Some of these
1. Make sure that your leadership may be under your direct control
model is aligned to the business and you may be able to influence
strategy and supported by operating them quickly, like specific hiring
leaders. This is the foundational work or onboarding processes. Others
and is what differentiates building may require partnership with your
strategic leadership capability from information technology group or other
a general training or skills building partners and take longer to address.
initiative. Getting this connection There may be other areas where
right and gaining business leaders’ the timing is not right, or it would
personal support for the leadership be counterproductive to address
model make all the difference. given other considerations. The key
is to keep the systemic mindset in
2. Design and deploy effective place and constantly look for ways to
development experiences. This is reinforce the leadership model.
the first part of a systemic leadership
development approach for a reason. It would be unrealistic to try to do all of
You can’t do number two (Integrate this at once. The foundational sequence
Talent Systems) or number three of these steps is vital, followed by
(Align Work Systems, Processes and consistent effort over time to integrate
Tools) until leaders have had a chance and align everything else. It is this
to engage with the new leadership ongoing commitment to systemic
model and learn about the thinking and alignment that turns what people can
behaviors that are required of them. experience as a “training initiative” into
a real transformation of leadership
Once steps 1 and 2 are underway, you capability. Shifting from training to
can then look for what systemic supports transformation can require a mindset
can be created to reinforce the leadership shift and a new set of disciplines for

97
Next Steps

Figure 3.1: A process for building leadership capability.

1. Executive Design 2. Implement the

Session Plan

Weekly Accountability Until... Outcomes

Are Achieved!

3. Repeat the Process

Source: FranklinCovey

talent leaders, but it is the difference 2. Implement the Plan: This is a process
maker when it comes to fundamentally of action and accountability around the
improving the performance equation for key priorities in the plan you developed
your organization. in the Executive Design Session. It
consists of clear progress measures
Our experience is that the best way to and weekly meetings to review
approach these steps is with a process progress and make commitments to
like the one illustrated in Figure 3.1, which move forward.
includes the following parts:
3. Repeat the Process: The mindset here
1. Executive Design Session: This is a is that this work is never done and the
meeting (or series of meetings) in which creation of a robust and constantly
you assess where you are and create improving organizational leadership
a prioritized plan to make progress. If capability requires constant attention.
your leadership model is inadequate, While specific priorities and goals
forgotten, or unsupported by your might change over time, leadership
CEO and executive team, start there. culture, like organizational culture, is a
If the leadership model is strong and living thing.
supported, then the focus turns to the
development experiences you have Our experience is that making meaningful
in place and if they are effective and progress on strategically important goals,
being done at the scale required to particularly in the early stages, usually
“tip” the organization into new levels of requires that those goals be pulled out of the
thinking and behavior. If both of these whirlwind of normal operations and given a
are in place, then the attention turns dedicated, executive-led process to achieve.
to systemic integration and alignment, Only when progress is clearly under way
and the planning focuses on what you would you move this effort into your normal
can do in these areas. meeting cadence.

98 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 A Path Forward

and capabilities of the people in our

In Conclusion organizations, and that requires that we
fully engage and equip our leaders for the
We introduced this guidebook with challenges ahead.
the assertion that all the change we’ve
experienced in recent years is only a Whatever your starting point, the research,
harbinger of significant transformations to frameworks, and insights we have shared
come. While the future may be uncertain, it will provide you with a reliable approach
is also filled with tremendous opportunity— to target your efforts. We invite you to
both for our organizations and the people thoughtfully and courageously apply them
in them. Our ability to confidently seize as we all step forward into a truly exciting
those opportunities will be determined future.
by our ability to mobilize the finest talent

99
Case Studies

100 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 1: Sanford Health

CASE STUDY 1:

Sanford Health

Introduction development program for each stage

S
of a leader’s career?
anford Health is the largest rural • How would that affect engagement,
health system in the United States, retention, and culture?
with nearly 50,000 employees.
Its leader-driven organizational agility
has been a key advantage as it’s flexed Challenge
with changing times and grown into a
top provider of the complete healthcare In 2019, Sanford Health merged with Good
lifecycle to the communities it serves. Samaritan Society. The merger doubled
the headcount and allowed Sanford Health
Transformative leaders know when to lead in their sector. Still, Gassen knew
they face an inflection point, a moment his leadership needed transformational
that dramatically shifts the strategy to agility—when an individual, leader, or
guide the company through change. organization dynamically and effectively
Sanford Health CEO Bill Gassen is one of responds to changes and challenges—
those transformative leaders. He led his to navigate and capitalize on the
organization through a merger, the global opportunities presented by the merger.
pandemic, and a leadership development
journey that leveled up his leaders and laid “If you’re not investing in your leaders,
the groundwork for employee success at all the other things you’re trying to
scale. accomplish won’t happen,” said Mike
Dishman, Sanford Health’s Senior Director
Those efforts began by answering of Learning and Development.
questions like:
The merger presented a business need to
• How do you help leaders change their level up Sanford’s leaders and establish
mindset when the business strategy common guiding principles, skillsets, and
changes? behaviors to reinforce the leadership they
wanted in a “Sanford Leader.” And the
• How do you check the state of your
progress towards this new agile people
organization and make it agile and
leader was promising to build the desired
responsive?
sustainable and consistent leadership
• How do you create a culture of
culture.
transformational agility?

• How would you design a leadership

101
Case Studies

However, like other healthcare systems long-term strategy. However, to get to

worldwide, Sanford faced another where it wanted to go as a business,
inflection point when the COVID-19 transformational leaders with an agile
pandemic hit, requiring a shift from mindset who could engage, inspire, and
its long-term strategy to a short-term retain employees needed to be hired.
one. The learning team’s leadership
development strategy was paused to “Look, you can recruit all day,” said
prioritize the collective effort of supporting Dishman. “But in our industry, retention is
Sanford’s healthcare workers. critical. And the only way you can really
work on retention is to give people a
The pandemic worsened the chronic really good place to work. And that starts
problems of stress and burnout for with their leader. So, the leader better
healthcare workers. Healthcare systems have the skills to lead.”
worldwide face a serious challenge
from the projected nurse shortages, and Sanford knew retention rates and the
research indicates that between 22–32% employee Net Promoter Score would
of the current nurses are thinking about improve. So, the goal was to continuously
quitting their jobs, retiring, or exiting the improve the employee NPS through
nursing profession completely (see: https:// ensuring healthy leadership teams
[Link]/pmc/articles/ focused on engagement, innovation, and
PMC10074070/). education.

Sanford’s learning team needed to focus The organization faced complexity

on supporting healthcare workers, so they internally and externally, but Sanford’s
decided to become Certified Professional team was perfectly poised to deliver a
Career Coaches (CPCC) to help provide leadership development program that
career mapping and guidance to the would transform each level of people
highly important, highly skilled workforce. leaders at each career stage into the
impact drivers they needed to succeed.
The certification is an intense process,
but they felt confident that retooling
these employees during this time would Solution
establish the primary mechanism Sanford
Health needed to retain its workforce in The Sanford Leader
the short term effectively.
Dishman’s main question was “How do
They didn’t know that reskilling the we better equip and empower our leaders
learning team, now armed with experience to positively impact employee experience
covering the whole career cycle for and retention?”
Sanford employees, would ultimately serve
as the foundation required to advance the Building on their work prior to and
long-term strategy. during the pandemic, the team created a
leadership model for how company leaders
By 2021, Sanford Health had achieved should act and behave—the Sanford
its goal of providing excellent care for a Leader. That model included three key
complete and healthy lifestyle, allowing areas: Principles, Skillset, and Behaviors.
the organization to focus again on its

102 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 1: Sanford Health

As the team performed a gap assessment Executive Buy-In and Advocacy

of their current people leaders against
that model, they were surprised to find After building the Sanford Leader, the L&D
that leaders needed more tools and a team sat down with CEO Bill Gassen and
framework to foster the mindset and the entire executive team and said, “We are
behaviors they needed to be effective. going to show you the model, our game
plan, and what we’re thinking for leadership
Using their skills as CPCCs, the team development. Can we get your blessing
examined the elements of Sanford and buy-in from the top?”
employees’ talent systems at each
stage of their careers. The idea was to Dishman’s team presented the model and
continuously support the leadership model the leadership development roadmap built
as the standard for attracting, retaining, into Gassen’s organizational strategy, using
and engaging the workforce through his key objectives and the same language.
leadership.
Sanford Health’s Director of Learning
“We wanted to be able to speak the and Development, Linda Kirchhevel, said
language and be able to back up our it’s important to know your audience’s
strategy and how it aligns with the overall language with the balance of heart and
success of Sanford Health’s business head.
strategy,” said Dishman.
“When you go into those rooms, you have
The Sanford team identified three finance people, tech people, operations,
principles that applied to all levels of and each of these people wants to receive
leadership: Leading Self, Leading Others, information based on what they’re focused
and Leading Mission. Then they defined on—numbers,” she said. “They want the
specific skill sets with accompanying data, and they want to know if you’re
behaviors that would change based on a meeting the metrics. And then you have
leader’s level in the organization. people in the room who want to hear the
heart, the personal stories of impact and
“These principles, skill sets, and intervention, and how it’s changed lives.”
behaviors are not unique to Sanford or
even healthcare, because leadership Kirchhevel said, “Most presentations should
is transversal regardless of industry or be a 70/30 split, where 70 percent is data
organization,” said Dishman. and 30 percent is heart. Sometimes,
however, it should only be 20 percent
What is unique about the Sanford model is heart, depending on the audience, so it’s
the authenticity of its creation. The mindset important to know their language.”
behind the model is, “These are the things
we think are very important. Whether it Gassen listened to the plan they brought
comes naturally to you or not, if you can in and immediately knew this model was
work on these skill sets and demonstrate what Sanford Health needed to improve
these behaviors, you can become a good the employee experience and advance
leader.” the business strategy.

103
Case Studies

The Sanford Leader Model

Principle Skillset Behaviors

Leading COMMUNICATION Improves Promotes Dialogue Inspires Action Influences Others
Self Expression of words Interaction by creating by sharing relevant by responding
and action that lead by adapting to understanding information directly thoughtfully
to understanding. others when through listening and efficiently. to concerns or
speaking and and summarizing. reactions.
listening.
TRUST Heightens Demonstrates Promotes Displays
Demonstration Credibility Reliability Transparency Authenticity
of character by providing advice by maintaining a by sharing by integrating
that builds to satisfy team or consistent presence information that personal traits and
trustworthiness. customer needs. in relationships. builds trust and values into daily
relationships. work.
EXCELLENCE Demonstrates Builds Emotional Develops Self Seeks Knowledge
Pursuit of personal Resilience Intelligence by using tools to by participating
awareness and by adapting in by considering own assess own abilities in activities that
growth. difficult situations and others’ feelings and opportunities. improve skills.
with help as needed. in making decisions.

Principle Skillset Behaviors

Leading PEOPLE Builds Relationships Manages Conflict Inspires Action Influences Others
Others Development of by demonstrating by listening to by sharing relevant by responding
individual and team concern for others. understand others’ information directly thoughtfully
potential. viewpoints. and efficiently. to concerns or
reactions.

ACCOUNTABILITY Manages Change Guides Work Identifies Priorities Drives

Creation of by planning by providing by responding to Organizational
expectations that for effective feedback and new requests while Initiatives
align with priorities. implementation. support to progressing on by ensuring
encourage progress. current work. that resources
are given to
organizational
priorities.
ENGAGEMENT Promotes Inspires Greatness Maximizes Drives Vision and
Support of individual Collaboration by ensuring teams Strengths Purpose
and team activities by working with receive needed by aligning team by highlighting
that strengthen others to solve support. member talents to links between the
organizational problems and meet the work. team’s work and
commitment. goals. the organization’s
mission.

Principle Skillset Behaviors

Leading BUSINESS Demonstrates Manages Applies Knowledge Develops Strategy
Mission Management of Understanding Operations by seeking feedback by creating action
business practices by using business by performing from others to plans that track
and daily operations. knowledge to make business practices execute business progress and meet
quality decisions. such as staffing and priorities. objectives.
budgeting.
CUSTOMERS Delivers Quality Exceeds Aligns Strategy Engages
Fulfillment of Service Expectations by focusing on Community
internal and external by meeting by responding products and by addressing
customer needs. with customers to unexpected services that meet customer needs
to understand customer requests customer needs. that emerge
their needs and with urgency. during interaction.
expectations.
VALUES Acts With Integrity Upholds Ideals Adopts a Global Commits to
Integration of by aligning by guiding others Perspective Diversity, Equity,
organizational personal beliefs to connect by analyzing and Inclusion
values into daily with organizational organizational organizational by adapting to
work and strategic values. values to daily work. relationships to different ways of
planning. guide work. working.

Source: Shared with permission from Sanford Health.

104 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 1: Sanford Health

“As part of Sanford Health’s vision to experience and strategic employee

become the premier rural health system retention goals.
in the country, we are committed to
developing and engaging a talented The executive team also requested
workforce. Our people are our most that the new leadership development
valuable asset, so providing opportunities program be completed for each level of
for them to grow and learn ensures leader they thought was most important,
we can continue delivering care to our starting with Sanford’s formal leader level
communities well into the future,” said (managers and supervisors, also known
Gassen. as “frontline management”).

Their team had a short timeline to execute A Systemic Approach with

the leadership development program. Technology and Tools

Luckily, from day one, because it was “We can have all these anecdotal stories
CEO-led, they had complete buy-in, and we want. But we need data to back
members of the executive team asked, up what we are doing,” said Dishman.
“How can we help promote it?” and “Let’s “I always want to be able to tell our
go first; we want to model the way.” operations team for our organization that
they’re getting what they’re paying for.
And they did. The executive team So we use different tools to tell our value
reviewed the new leadership roadmap story.”
and training, providing suggestions
and revisions before introducing it to The Sanford team couldn’t find
Sanford’s leaders. They also suggested technology to track and demonstrate
adding more elements to the roadmap the impact they were having with the
to make it more relevant to the business leadership development program.
strategy. For example, the HR department
had been simplifying their processes So, they experimented with existing
and programs across the organization organization-wide tech tools and created
and linking all initiatives into one a custom solution that allows them
comprehensive strategy. Before, there to make the leadership development
were programs in different areas of the content easily accessible for people
organization, but there was no connection leaders to survey and pulse the
or overarching strategy. So, the team organization regularly, and to measure
worked to incorporate the same language outcomes from their efforts.
and goals throughout the organization
into the roadmap. For example, prime real estate on the
corporate intranet landing page is
As the Sanford team worked to align reserved for linking to the Sanford Leader
different elements of the talent lifecycle, dashboard. The leader can navigate
they established a key partner with the their individualized dashboard with their
employee experience team. Together, leadership pathway and links to content,
they built development opportunities courses, or other educational materials.
consistent with the leadership model And, because the learning team is fluid
and its desired impact on the employee and continually innovates to bring value,

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Case Studies

they regularly pulse the employees and their gifts and talents lie and what they’re
schedule quarterly webinars to address passionate about, you will achieve results
key themes identified during the surveys. beyond what you thought was possible,”
Lastly, the metrics from leaders accessing Kirchhevel said.
their dashboards and any tools and
metrics from the courses, webinars, or One of Sanford’s colleagues said she
other offerings are aggregated into a real- dreamed of creating content to impact
time measurement tool to evaluate and leaders her entire life but never knew
demonstrate impact. how to get there. She just always had it in
her heart that she wanted to do it. As she
The Sanford team can see a snapshot neared retirement, she was allowed to build
of the organization in data using their the curriculum for Sanford’s senior leaders.
custom dashboard, including the number She said, “I’ve waited my entire career to do
of self-assessments taken, broken down this, and we’re doing it. We are building this
by job family, region, leader level, and and watching it improve people’s lives.”
date. They know how the leader wants to
create their leadership development plan, Two colleagues on Sanford’s team had
why they are taking the self-assessment, a similar experience. They “dreamed”
what roadblocks they encounter, and of attending an external certification so
other questions discovered from the pulse they could return with the skills to teach
surveys. a workshop on the content they learned.
They repeatedly fill the workshops and
The diversity of data points gathered have employees on waiting lists. “Do
by the technology and tools Sanford’s you know why?” Kirchhevel asked. “It’s
learning team created provides evidence because they care about this thing more
they can use to communicate their value than anything else.”
story and make data-driven decisions
around content and next steps. Another big One comment from Sanford’s post-survey
differentiator demonstrated by Sanford’s was, “I can’t believe how enthusiastic
team is that their offerings are designed your instructor is. Her personality and
to match the organization’s needs. They’re enthusiasm are absolutely infectious.”
only creating offerings to help close the Another quote said, “I am so inspired to
gap between their biggest needs and what grow my career after this workshop.”
the employees and leaders are asking for.
Because the facilitators are excited to
Building It Together give the workshop, they’re infectious in
how they present.
Another way the Sanford team balances
the heart and head is by dividing the Similarly, Sanford balanced the heart with
department’s responsibilities among the the head as they identified the team’s
team. They didn’t hire their dream team; strengths and found a curriculum builder
the team was inherited by the new leaders, who could harness all the ideas and turn
and they built it into the dream team by them into clear, concise tools for leaders.
discussing their needs, asking what their Another colleague is the metrics guy who
interests were, and aligning it to where they uses numbers to ensure the outcomes
could contribute the most. “If you let people are aligned.
choose to align themselves to where

106 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 1: Sanford Health

“I think if you interviewed the people on Along with this cultural safety to
our team, they would tell you they did not experiment, Sanford leaders are invited
have the skill sets or the confidence when to bring their authentic selves to work. “I
they came into the original job they’re in. feel like I have authentic leadership above
They have risen to the occasion because me, which allows me to be my authentic
they started to believe in themselves.” self, which then trickles down,” Kirchhevel
said.
As they built the Sanford team, they
started to build up one another because Starting with the CEO Bill Gessen, Sanford
they became a team that cared about Health has authentic leadership working
one another. “We care about people from the top down, creating a culture of
first, employees second. When you build asking, “How can we do this together?
up confidence within your team, they Here are my problems. How can we
will deliver the results because you’re solve them together? We’re in it together
investing in them as human beings. It’s and I don’t have to worry that it’s going
infectious once they get excited and see down on my performance evaluation as
success, and they want to do it [Link]’s something that isn’t going well. Instead,
where the outcomes keep on generating.” it’s, ‘We’re going to brainstorm together
because this is a safe space.’”
Because transformational agility is
crucial to Sanford’s people leaders, the Sanford Health’s team operationalizes
learning team influenced the leadership this experimentation to bring offerings
development program and leadership to their people in a consumable way
culture through fluid agility and innovation. for a workforce and organization open
365 days a year, twenty-four hours a
One Sanford leader instilled in her teams day, and using trial and error to ensure
the 80/20 rule. To create anything, she that what they’re creating will have the
said, use the 80/20 rule, where 80 percent maximum impact on their key objectives
is managing the work, and 20 percent is (and metrics to demonstrate that impact).
refining it—don’t wait until it’s perfect to They decide to continue some things and
launch anything. This mindset is critically others they have identified as barriers to
important to the Sanford Health learning taking them to the next level. Because
team because it not only gives permission of the team’s high agility and learning
for them to be agile and always learn but mindset, they incorporate feedback and
also to experiment, innovate, and continue keep moving forward.
to try things and find solutions that really
drive success. The Sanford team believes this fluid
creation process is a best practice
Kirchhevel said, “When you have and the secret to their tremendous
leadership with the mindset of, ‘I’m success. That’s how they’ve been able
not going to hold you accountable for to adapt quickly, scale throughout the
perfection, I’d rather see you try things.’ organization, and achieve milestones in
What you see culturally is a playground, short windows of time.
a freedom for your people to try things
without fear because it’s okay if it isn’t
perfectly right.”

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A Culture of Leadership the learning team’s session on leadership

development and retention was the most
This same cultural freedom has translated attended session at the 2024 Sanford
into the leadership culture as Sanford annual meeting with vice presidents and
has continued to mature through the above. “We actually beat out AI, twice.
leadership development program. That is a litmus test that there’s a culture
shift happening. That it’s important.”
For instance, when the learning team
asked what else the managers needed Sanford is also seeing a significant shift in
to learn to support their people best, leadership philosophy from business- or
they learned that many of the individual financial-centered leadership to people-
contributor-level employees were centered leadership.
aspiring leaders. The managers asked
if the learning team could create more The executive team bought in from
offerings around informal leaders day one but didn’t stop there. The
because their teams’ demand was so executive team has integrated personal
high. Now, every employee at Sanford leadership development plans as part
has the chance to learn what being a of the senior-level leadership and
Sanford Leader means and participate in higher annual performance evaluation.
leadership development. So, authentic Traditionally, if an employee receives
and encouraging leadership sets the coaching and leadership development, it
cultural tone for the people. These is because they were on a performance
aspiring leaders answer with a grassroots improvement plan and were likely on their
campaign to learn and grow the same way out. “That’s how much of a shift has
leadership mindsets and behaviors. taken place at the organization, where
coaching used to be reserved for the
people who weren’t operating at the line;
Results they were below the line. And now we’ve
got so many people lined up, it’s like, how
“For the first time ever, I am seeing a do you divide and conquer the number of
culture shift starting to happen around people who have lined up to be coached
leadership development, which has been about how you are at or above the line
amazing,” said Kirchhevel. and moving the bar higher?”

As a result of the Sanford Leader model Senior leaders also reinforce the
and the efforts of the learning team, behaviors by elevating leaders doing a
Sanford Health has experienced a good job. For example, a leader recently
transformative mindset and behavior modeled reinforcing behaviors towards
shift not only among its leaders but also an individual contributor: “Hey, I noticed
throughout the organization. your consistent scores and appreciated
that you took that self-assessment.” Then,
“If there’s no behavior change, then we’re the leader cc’d the email to their leader,
missing the mark,” said Kirchhevel. who took it to their leader and up the
chain until it reached the executive team.
People leaders are hungry to learn more The executive leader called the individual
about leadership development. In fact, contributor and said, “Your email made it

108 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 1: Sanford Health

to me, and I just want to congratulate you cornerstone of building a sustainable

on a job well done. You’re inspiring our workforce. By investing in our leaders, we
next generation of leaders.” cultivate a culture of growth, collaboration,
and innovation. This not only strengthens
One of the greatest achievements of our organization’s capabilities but also
Sanford’s leadership development enriches the employee experience,
program is its impact on nurses. driving engagement and satisfaction.
The nurse workforce at Sanford fully Since adopting the Sanford Leader Model,
embraced the Sanford Leader model, we have increased our hiring, reduced
and the learning team developed a turnover, and consistently raised our
reoccurring specialized series called, employee net promoter score each year.”
“Leadership Development for Nursing
Leaders.” The first cohort of nurses The Sanford team uses the same metrics
voluntarily went through the training and as the organization’s key objectives as
found it so valuable that word spread to a baseline to define success. The key
other groups of nurses and then another, metrics that Sanford Health measures are
until over 1,200 nurses had gone through retention and employee engagement, so
the leadership training. Now, nurses make the learning group uses the enterprise
up the largest job family committed to standard for these two metrics because
living the Sanford Leader model and the senior leadership is holding the entire
continue to increase their audience. This organization accountable for it. And if they
has resulted in advocacy and buy-in don’t move the needle in those two areas,
from all the nursing executive leaders in they need to shift their strategy.
Sanford’s major markets: “What are you
doing with our nurses? They’re going to Sanford Health’s program is creating a
these sessions, and their leadership is better organization for everyone, better
changing. What are you guys doing, and employee engagement, better retention,
how can we make this bigger?” less turnover, happier employees, and
better patient outcomes.
The Vice President/Chief HR Officer,
Sanford Bismarck DJ Campbell said,
“Leadership development is the

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Discussion Questions
• What was essential to the success of Sanford’s efforts in leadership development and
what might work in your own organization?

• When presenting to the CEO and other senior operating leaders, do your talent
leaders speak the language of business and have the right amount of business data in
their presentations? What can you learn from the way talent leaders at Sanford Health
presented to their CEO?

• What else can you learn from how Sanford used data to understand their progress?
The Sanford team “uses the same metrics as the organization’s key objectives as
a baseline to define success.” How could your organization better align leadership
development efforts with key business metrics?

• What can you do to better establish a culture of leadership and leadership

development?

110 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 2: Greif

CASE STUDY 2:

Greif

Introduction and services. And Greif’s purpose is clear:

V
to create packaging solutions for life’s
isionary CEOs recognize that essentials. Founded in 1877, the company
building leadership at scale is developed a rich history of pursuing
a strategic asset necessary to innovative solutions and technologies
win in the marketplace now and into the to satisfy its vision of becoming the
future. To fulfill that mission, it is critical “best-performing customer service
to establish a winning vision for leaders company in the world.” The company
inside the organization to follow. But grew significantly through mergers and
that isn’t enough. CEOs also need to acquisitions, and today has a global
take ownership and intentionally live the workforce of 15,000 colleagues across
vision. forty countries and over 200 locations.

Not only does Greif (pronounced

“Gryfe”) have a CEO who walks the talk, Challenge
but it also has a strategic CHRO who
understands the strategic importance of With so much growth happening
an organizational leadership model. The worldwide, Greif’s leaders discussed what
CEO and CHRO have created a global they needed to do to drive the business
leadership framework and a systemic strategy forward and operate as a truly
accountability system to motivate leaders global organization. The vision became
to own and model this framework for their very clear: to establish consistency
teams. The two executives live a new kind among the people leaders and discover
of leadership model that transformed a what leadership behaviors needed to
century-old manufacturing conglomerate look like globally.
from a global organization of siloed
people leaders into a unified leadership Greif used to operate very differently
culture. in different regions of the world and
business unit. The company needed to
transform from a fragmented leadership
Background team—by leadership style, language,
and region, with limited insight into the
Almost everything you touch daily, from corporate culture—into a consistent
the medicine in your cabinet to cardboard leadership culture where they could
boxes, could come from Greif’s reach more colleagues at scale.
packaging solutions. Greif is a global
leader in industrial packaging products Like other organizations with this

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challenge, Greif realized they had to Rosgaard’s involvement is a strong

align the leaders to get the business incentive for Greif’s leaders worldwide.
results they wanted. But how would they It helps them feel appreciated and
successfully align and scale leadership acknowledged, contributing to more
development to meet the needs of the committed leaders and strengthening the
corporate strategy? And how would bonds and awareness among the global
they overcome the silos and develop a leadership team.
united leadership mindset and behaviors
without compromising Greif’s financial “This is all great in theory, but when
goals? you hear the CEO join one of our final
leadership sessions and speak to his own
leadership style, learning moments, and
Solution failures along the way, it has a completely
different impact. The message that
Leader Buy-In and Modeling [Rosgaard] reinforces on the importance
of action bias, taking risks, and using
To overcome the global silos and begin those as learning moments speaks to
to unify their leaders, they started from the culture of learning and continuous
the top. CEO Ole Rosgaard is known for improvement we are embracing here at
his authentic and personable leadership Greif,” Plazarin said.
style. When he presented the vision of
“One Greif” to the company, Rosgaard, CEOs show the way by being role models
as expected, fully dedicated himself to and establishing the expectations
practicing the new leadership principles for the leadership and culture that
every day. the organization requires. The CEO’s
strong commitment to the leadership
“Our CEO is 100% invested in our framework also shows the organization
leadership development,” VP of Global how important it is and that training is not
Talent Tara Plazarin said. “And because he a mere formality but a core part of the
knows it’s important, we have succeeded organizational values and strategy.
because we aren’t pushing our leader
initiatives uphill.” And the CEO wasn’t the only executive
leading the way. Alongside CEO Rosgaard
Rosgaard shows this investment was CHRO Bala Sathyanarayanan, the
to every global leader in the Greif strategic people leader who built the
leadership course. He participates in framework to amplify Greif’s principle-
their last learning session and leads it centered leadership at a global scale and
as the facilitator. He has a very genuine institutionalized a systemic approach to
leadership style, so he begins the session uniting the leaders.
by discussing his support for what
they’ve learned and what he expects Sathyanarayanan became Greif’s CHRO
from them as a leader at Greif. Then, he in 2018, and it’s easy to understand the
opens the floor for the cohort members powerful impact he’s achieved when you
to share their experiences and have an meet him. He speaks with wisdom and
honest conversation. “What will you do has a proven track record for success, but
differently?” he asks them. his strong character is most evident.

112 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 2: Greif

His mindset and behaviors define him. Executive Leadership Team (ELT) with
Sathyanarayanan believes every person updates on key initiatives and an open
is capable of greatness, and this mindset forum Q&A with Greif leaders. This same
consistently influences his behaviors. He practice is modeled by functional and
will pause to sit down and have a sincere business unit leaders who also host their
conversation with someone who stops own town halls, which provide a deeper
him on his way out, even when he has a and more focused update and seek to
flight to catch. The power of this kind of keep employees engaged and directly
principle-centered leader is that it ignites connected to the “Build to Last” strategy.
the individuals around them, sparking
a higher level of human performance With strong buy-in and modeling from
by making these people feel seen and the executive and senior leader levels and
important in a genuine way. with consistent global communication
platforms in place, Sathyanarayanan
Sathyanarayanan leveraged this power created an intentional and systemic plan
to ignite the global senior leaders to amplify Greif’s “One Greif” strategy.
and expanded a Leadership Council
comprising eighty of Greif’s top leaders. Design Effective Development
Leaders in the Leadership Council are Experiences
expected to behave differently, knowing
they are responsible for exemplifying Before addressing the talent lifecycle,
Greif’s leadership framework and good CHROs who want to improve their
nurturing a diverse and inclusive organization focus on one or two key
company culture. They encourage their components, usually identified during a
teams to participate in the learning and gap assessment. So, one of the first things
keep their colleagues accountable to the Sathyanarayanan did was to prioritize the
leadership framework’s values, behaviors, learning and development function and
and language. design effective people development.
He started by equipping a new Global
These 80 senior leaders commit to Talent Center of Expertise (COE) to bring
shifting their mindsets and elevating their consistency to Greif’s global operations
actions each day by modeling Greif’s and focus on scaling this development
principle-centered leadership as one globally with a world-class approach.
cohesive unit worldwide.
The talent center, led by Plazarin,
Greif created an intentional interviewed over fifty stakeholders to
communication strategy to increase understand the specific needs within
global visibility and reinforce the the organization. They interviewed
business’s strategic vision and goals. high-performing people leaders, high
The company has a Global Kick-Off potentials, and key influencers and heard,
engaging all global colleagues to start “Our supervisors need training. We need
each new year, focusing on sharing the leadership training. We need something
organization’s key “Must Win Battles” consistent,” according to Plazarin.
(MWBs), providing transparency and
visibility to create shared ownership The small team got to work identifying
and accountability. Every quarter, Greif themes, challenges, and other data points
hosts a Global Town Hall hosted by the to help them identify development needs

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Case Studies

from an internal perspective. “These operational, commercial, market, and

interviews were important to us because functional compliance. Every quarter,
leaders across the business knew they the committee comes together to
had input into the Greif leadership prioritize the learning agenda across the
program,” Plazarin said. They wanted the organization.
content to feel relevant to Greif’s people,
mission, and culture. The team wove The committee has proven to be a best
together the values, behaviors, and a practice, but how do organizations
common language that made sense for encourage involvement in key learning
Greif and its people into the leadership areas when the only required training is
framework, “Lead to Last,” strategically compliance, and effectively persuade
aligning to their “Build to Last” business people leaders to volunteer precious
strategy. time­—to step away from their work and
commit several hours towards career and
To execute the business strategy, the leadership development each month?
talent development program containing
Greif’s leadership framework helped Plazarin’s team carefully crafted a
Greif achieve its mission through its communication strategy to drive
leaders and people. “Everything we do excitement and recruit participants for
is anchored in our business strategy. We the leadership development program,
have a clear set of values, all foundational including:
with the Greif Way, and it is critical that
• Lead to Last and Greif University
our leadership development program
pages on the company’s internal
provides a common language and set of
employee website
behaviors, reflective of what it means to
be a true servant leader at Greif,” Plazarin • Email communication campaigns
said. • Directed emails

• Town Hall announcements

Sathyanarayanan recruited
knowledgeable partners across the • Program brochure
organization to create a steering • Video about the program
committee to provide insight from across
• Video from CHRO Bala
the globe and across the business unit in
Sathyanarayanan
driving Greif’s learning and development
programs. The Greif University Operating • Lead to Last materials provided by
Committee was also born. The committee HR partners
is a group of critical organizational • Leaders provided Lead to the Last
stakeholders who ensure every learning “Coaching Placement”
offered through Greif University is
aligned with one of the company’s critical Weaving the Talent Lifecycle
strategic learning areas.
To create a lasting impact on a global
The committee partners directly with a scale, Rosgaard knew Greif needed to
team of business leaders representing operate as one cohesive leadership
critical learning needs in the Greif culture; Sathyanarayanan intentionally
Business System (GBS), including weaved Lead to Last into the fabric of

114 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 2: Greif

the HR talent lifecycle and the colleague reporting for performance management
value proposition (CVP). All companies to identify gaps and make data-based
want to attract and retain top talent, decisions.
and most organizations have this
goal as a critical business strategy to Recently, Greif introduced a Colleague
ensure viability in the marketplace. To Stock Purchase Plan, which created
accomplish this at Greif, the team created additional benefits for the employees and
a plan to deliver a world-class CVP that established greater individual buy-in and
balances talent acquisition/retention, engagement.
learning and development, performance
management, employee engagement, Shifting Righter and Tighter
compensation and benefits (rewards)—all
in harmony with their overall HR mission In 2021, the company launched
“to enable a world-class, diverse, and Greif University with career and
engaged workforce to deliver on our leadership development training, and
strategic priorities.” in 2022 launched Lead to Last. The
communication blitz was successful, and
According to Plazarin, “All of the work that to date, over 1,000 of their 1,350 people
we do to create a strong CVP is grounded leaders and high-potential colleagues
in our desire to impact the colleague have self-registered to complete the
experience at every stage of their lifecycle program, with the Greif team seeing
here at Greif and ultimately, achieve clear progress toward a consistent and
our mission.” The CVP describes how elevated leadership culture. Cohorts
Greif attracts, engages, and develops its of thirty people, separated by a first-
employees and how the people strategy level leader, mid-level leader, senior-
aligns with the business strategy. For level leader, and high potentials (by
example, Greif has excellent employee nomination), underwent a blended
engagement results compared to other learning journey of self-paced and live
manufacturers and was recognized as virtual training for twelve weeks.
an Employer of Choice with 1.7 million
job views on LinkedIn in 2023 (a 54% “Along with the senior-level leaders, who
increase). The company fosters a learning presented the greatest need to learn
culture and a top-notch global leadership these concepts, we wanted the leaders
development program. Plazarin is who had the most eagerness to drive it,”
focused on empowering Greif’s HR Plazarin said.
partners as they leverage their Global
Talent Center (COE) to “Think Globally and All leaders learn the same standard
Deliver Locally.” Her team makes the L&D practices regardless of leadership level
materials easy for HR partners to access because the team found that some
and gives them the tools and resources things that are common sense might
they need to use the talent development not necessarily mean that it’s common
offerings. Her team created an internal practice or that it’s consistent. However,
site with all program information, reports, trainings differ for varying levels of
and updates to keep the HR community leaders, for instance, high potentials
informed and connected. Greif also versus senior leaders, and the team works
implemented consistent dashboard to provide participants with a customized

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workbook with content tailored to the strategy to continue their individual

leadership level. development.

“Within a few weeks, we saw our people In addition, people leaders are regularly
leaders touting the program to their team, assessed through quarterly performance
starting to speak this new language, and check-ins and annual performance and
adopting the behaviors and practices,” development reviews for their ability to
Plazarin said. “Our numbers are moving in demonstrate competencies linked to
the right direction when we look at what Greif’s values, behaviors, and language.
we would expect from our leadership
behaviors to drive controllable results. The goal is for people leaders who
And I think that’s a testament to the complete Lead to Last to align their
caliber of leader we are developing at mindsets, behaviors, and language
Greif.” with the One Greif standard and hold
themselves accountable for living
How does Greif unite the global leaders this higher level of principle-centered
as “One Greif” and provide consistent leadership each day.
training in different languages and
countries?
Results
Greif uses another best practice to scale
the program well with global, multi- Greif measures success as a service profit
language leaders. The program is in chain: when colleagues are engaged, they
Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese, and drive customer service excellence, which
more languages are coming. The team drives performance in the marketplace. The
chose “Engagement Partners” from each team focuses on creating increased levels
region to guide them on the journey and of employee engagement as a metric to
ensure these programs are as engaging measure the success of developing their
and successful as the first ones. Having a colleagues and contributing to the mission
native speaker from the region has made of Build to Last. Since 2018, Greif has seen
the delivery more effective and helped year-over-year increases in engagement
the international programs grow. scores from the 32nd percentile to the
85th percentile in 2024, one of the biggest
Reinforcing the Learning impact areas with a direct correlation.

The Greif team has curated a multi-tiered Additionally, Greif reports high NPS when
approach to help counter potential measuring the content experience. On
“learning loss” and create a sustainable the most recent quarterly review, the
way to keep the new values, behaviors, course experience received a 49 NPS
and language alive. Participants receive (near “Great”) and a 70 NPS (“Excellent”)
weekly microlearning articles to allow for on the facilitator experience. Depending
consistent learning and reinforcement. on the region, some cohorts measured
All employees receive a biweekly Greif exceptionally high in the “World Class
University newsletter containing key levels.”
concepts from the training and different
opportunities aligned to Greif’s business Plazarin and her team are developing

116 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 2: Greif

a deeper dive analysis of engagement strategic move achieved financial

results to show a direct correlation between success and fostered a cohesive and
colleagues who have been through the empowered leadership culture.
program and their team’s engagement
results compared with those who have not. Greif has a unique and special culture; its
Once this analysis is complete, Plazarin workplace awards represent that. Greif
will be able to demonstrate the correlation leaders, like Rosgaard, Sathyanarayanan,
between leaders who have completed the and Plazarin, place their people at
program and measures like engagement, the center of all they do and don’t just
medical case rate, and operating profit. She say it; they act on it. In 2024, they were
said, “When we drive better engagement, recognized for their second year as a
we see better safety numbers, and we Global 100 Most Loved Workplace with
see better productivity, we see better three years running as one of America’s
performance measures.” Greif witnessed 100 Most Loved Workplaces. They
outstanding service excellence and also won the prestigious 2024 Gallup
performance with more engaged Exceptional Workplace Award (GEWA).
colleagues. These achievements, Sathyanarayanan
said, not only highlight their success
Greif collects some of the best in the marketplace but also provide
measurements of success from testimony opportunities to attract top talent
and colleague feedback. They get and enrich Greif’s global company
many testimonials from the facilitated culture. (see: [Link]
discussion with their CEO, Rosgaard, sustainability-2023/about-our-company/
and they believe hearing directly from accreditations-awards) and (https://
their colleagues is equally as important [Link]/press-releases)
as measuring numbers. One thing that
surprised the team was hearing that the “We truly have the best people in the
biggest learning was the importance of world. And our success wouldn’t have
having effective one-on-one meetings been possible without our leaders taking
and having the skills to deliver good ownership to execute on our Build to
feedback—something that seemed Last Strategy,” Sathyanarayanan said.
common sense but, again, wasn’t “But the tremendous thing that’s come
common practice. along with exceeding revenue goals
is the transformation in our workforce.
“I think there’s still a lot we can do to Our employees are engaged, happy,
create this continuous improvement productive, innovative, and together we’re
leadership culture,” Plazarin said. “But I’m committed in helping Greif achieve new
so proud of the team’s work and how it heights.”
has impacted the Greif organization.”
The results of uniting leadership on a
global scale paid off for the company’s
bottom line, as voiced by Rosgaard: “I
am extremely proud of the results our
colleagues delivered in 2022. This year
has easily been the most successful
financial year in Greif’s history.” This

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Discussion Questions
• What would happen if you approached leadership development as a strategic asset
to win in the future? How could you demonstrate an alignment with the organization’s
business strategy?

• You may not be able to secure the level of buy-in and modeling demonstrated by
Greif’s CEO, but what influential leaders could help you in the critical business units
that propel the strategy forward?

• How would participation look if the learning cohorts knew they would share what they
learned on a closeout session with the CEO or senior-level leader?

• Imagine the transformative impact on your organization if your top leaders willingly
volunteered to advocate the leadership framework and promoted the desired
values, behaviors, and language expected of leaders. What would it take for you to
demonstrate that kind of support in your organization?

• Following Greif’s example, how could you achieve similar success in your
organization? What would your impact story look like?

118 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 3: Enlyte

CASE STUDY 3:

Enlyte

Kristian has successfully navigated the

Introduction

I
company through the integration of three
n times of constant change and large and established companies within
unpredictability CHROs are taking on the last five years, in addition to many
a more critical role than ever. They smaller acquisitions during her tenure at
create a vision that enables employees Enlyte. She also oversaw the transition to
to do their best while reaching new a nearly 95% remote workforce across
performance levels. The most effective the U.S. and Canada.
CHROs can forge a crucial link between
the business and people strategies, However, Enlyte continues to innovate to
ensuring the two work together to drive enhance its ability to drive performance
results. and achieve business results by aligning
its business and people strategies.
Enlyte specializes in providing cost- To help accelerate that move, Enlyte
containment solutions for the property has defined the role and clarified
and casualty industry. Enlyte has expectations for a people leader at the
adapted to changing times by becoming company.
an industry leader in innovation in
response to a highly competitive industry Kristian has embraced authentic
and constantly evolving regulatory leadership in her role. For example, she
environments. This adaptability is fostered joins virtual meetings without a filtered
by CHRO MG Kristian, who cultivates a background. She wants to share her
culture of innovation, leadership, and home office, the open door visible in the
results at Enlyte. She helps her people background, and a dog resting on the
thrive amidst complex challenges and floor nearby. Most of the conversations
rapid changes. she has with her team start with, “How was
your weekend? How are the kids?” And
“We recognize that our leaders are the sometimes, she enjoys the occasional
key to our success,” said Kristian. “By appearance of her employees’ children on
investing in their development, we are the screen: “Hi, Bea! How are you?”
investing in the success of our people,
in and out of the workplace, and the She aspires for Enlyte to be a safe place
success of our company.” for her employees in today’s tumultuous
and changing world. Her motto is to
create an environment where her people
can do their best work.

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Case Studies

“The world is distracting for our In addition to the cultural challenge,

employees,” Kristian said. “And it’s real Enlyte needed to align its business
for all of us as leaders. Think about what strategy under one cohesive vision.
people are confronted with and how
they’re dealing with all the distractions Part of that challenge resulted from
and noise outside of work. But it’s our Enlyte onboarding several people
job to try and make their work life as leaders through acquisitions who had
conducive as possible for them to do very different experiences as leaders and
their best work.” approaches to achieving the business’s
strategic goals. Some people leaders
Kristian also understands the role of a were very consensus driven, whereas
people leader in helping deliver results others were more directive in their
that meet the organization’s strategic approach.
needs. Her exceptional ability to align the
people strategy with the organization’s Additionally, the global pandemic brought
business strategy sets her apart from about a visceral shift to remote work, with
other top HR executives and makes her a 95% of Enlyte’s over 5,000-person workforce
valuable asset to the company. now working remotely.

“We don’t move the strategy and we “Previously, managers on site could count
don’t improve results unless we have on being present in the same space as their
people who really believe in the mission people to ensure the work gets done,” said
and want to do great work,” Kristian said. Kristian. “It’s a different challenge inspecting
“And we’ve got to have that environment. what you expect in a remote environment.”
Everything starts with the employees.
We say, ‘Take care of the employee, they This required leaders to develop new
take care of our customers, and then the skills to engage their teams and drive
shareholder value is created.’” performance in a virtual environment.

How did Kristian redefine the role of a “The good news is, now we can significantly
people leader at Enlyte? How can her broaden our talent pool,” Kristian said, since
strategies and tactics be applied to most jobs can be done remotely.
drive success? How can an organization
operationalize similar principles to However, leading a geographically
enhance leadership effectiveness and dispersed and remote team created
adaptability? other challenges since leading people
in person allows for visual oversight of
their productivity and the opportunity
Challenge to lead individuals with similar regional
characteristics.
Working for Enlyte in recent years has
given Kristian ample experience with “We are managing people who are different
acquisitions. However, the combination than we are. They come with more diverse
of larger organizations brought new backgrounds, there are regional differences,
challenges. Each organization came with and that powerful dynamic is brought to
deeply entrenched leadership styles, work. We literally have five generations in the
decision-making processes, and cultures. workplace, for example,” Kristian said.

120 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 3: Enlyte

Kristian recognized the need to align Assess the Need

leadership expectations within the
organization with the changes occurring With the changes happening inside
in the talent landscape as a whole. She the organization due to the business
knew Enlyte leaders needed to adapt their integration work, transitioning to remote
management style and learn new ways to work, and other challenges facing
lead their team effectively. leaders, people leaders needed to know
their role in driving the business’s goals
“I was determined to define, ‘What does it forward.
mean to be a leader at Enlyte?’” Kristian said.
Kristian identified the need to create a
unified leadership model to level-set
Solutions and align all the people leaders across
the enterprise with what is expected of
Success Starts with a Mindset them as leaders. And she knew the timing
was right to simplify and clarify the role
“If you get MG [Kristian] on something, leaders were expected to play.
she will work and move the needle.
Whether that’s productivity, performance, “When you give your people clarity, they
engagement, or all the above, she moves thrive because they know what you
what needs to move,” said Seth Connors, expect,” said Kristian.
Senior Manager of Learning and OD.
Get the Timing Right
Kristian has earned a reputation as a
strategic HR leader with a demonstrated Kristian is recognized as a key executive
history of achieving business results team member whose strategic
through her people strategy. This success contributions are crucial in advancing the
hinges on her holistic approach to her company’s business strategy.
work.
“As for having a seat at the executive
“She has that mindset of ‘my job is to table, she’s constantly looking for ways
achieve the result,’” said Connors. “She’s to add value that are tailored to the
not thinking, ‘My job is to engage, retain, needs of the business,” said Connors.
and protect the business,’ and so forth, “She understands the strategy, she
although all of those things are critical understands the business, and she
components. Her mindset is, ‘My job is watches what is happening in the
to help the business achieve results. The industry.”
way I do that is by attracting, engaging,
and retaining talent, among other things.’” Typically, when a new leadership model
or other HR-led initiative is introduced, its
With this mindset focused on the goal is to benefit current employees.
business’s needs, Kristian positions
herself well as a strategic HR leader who Examples can include increasing
is not there to check the box or do the employee wellness, promoting diversity
activity; she’s there to move the needle awareness and inclusion, and providing
and get traction toward business results. skill training. While these initiatives

121
Case Studies

are important, the most effective HR Kristian and her team began by drafting
leaders must also apply the strategic the principles they felt were important to
needs of the business to determine Enlyte’s culture and success. Then the
the most appropriate timing for these team met with cross-functional leaders and
trainings to support the organization’s influencers across the company.
goals best. Failing to do so may result
in these initiatives detracting from the But this wasn’t intended to get a rubber
core objectives that drive results for the stamp of success. The leaders invited to
company. participate on the newly created steering
committee included advocates and
At Enlyte, Kristian understood that the potential skeptics. Kristian understood
bringing together of three companies this was a strategic opportunity to clarify
was distracting—leaders had a lot on their and simplify the roles of leaders within the
plates, synergizing enterprise systems organization. And to do that, she needed
and processes. She saw this as an ideal input from key informal influencers and
opportunity to create the Enlyte Leadership senior leaders to weigh in on what it
Model and get everyone aligned. meant to be a leader at Enlyte, so they felt
ownership for the model.
“The timing is now,” she said. “Let’s make
it really simple for them: Here are the three Kristian had established a reputation for
things you do as a people leader at Enlyte.” talking straight. “The senior leadership team
listened and participated because [Kristian]
Kristian understood that defining that new made it clear she really wanted business
leadership model would require a mindset leader input to refine this important model
shift among the people leaders at all levels that would guide how we think about
of the organization. She also knew that the leadership. So they involved themselves in
success of inspiring this mindset hinged the ideation phase and contributed to the
on partnering with key leaders across the model,” said Connors.
organization to buy in and advocate for this
new model. It took multiple conversations curated by
Kristian and her team, asking, “What are
Build a Winning Team the three roles our leaders play here? How
do we think about leadership? What’s your
From the beginning, Kristian knew it would reaction to this model? Does this resonate
take more than her team of well-qualified with you? What would you change about it?
HR professionals to achieve culture- Is there something that’s missing?”
changing experiences for their people
leaders and employees. To create the
mindset shift needed to align the business
and people strategies, cross-functional
participation and buy-in would be needed.
It required a company-wide effort.

122 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 3: Enlyte

Provide a Blueprint values of the Enlyte Leadership Model

into employee and people leader
With the support of the steering development planning, rewards and
committee, the Enlyte Leadership Model recognition, promotion criteria, and hiring
was born. criteria, Kristian and her team created
a systemic approach to leadership
In addition to providing a framework development that is both effective and
for people leaders to follow and adapt efficient. This best practice ensures that
to their unique circumstances, Kristian the leadership model is fully integrated
also helped institutionalize the model into the organization, promoting
throughout all of the company’s talent consistency and alignment at all levels
processes. By incorporating the and creating a strategic asset for Enlyte.

The Enlyte Leadership Model

Leader Manager
of the of the
People Work

Steward of
the Company

Leader of the People

“I earn their trust, engage their minds, and help
them see the vision.”

Manager of the Work

“I orchestrate and oversee the work that delivers
results.”

Steward of the Company

“I see beyond myself, my work, and my team for
the good of Enlyte.”

Source: Shared with permission from Enlyte.

123
Case Studies

Secure Buy-In Create a Culture-Changing

Experience
With the blueprint for the new leadership
framework, Kristian arranged a meeting In September 2023, executives and
with Enlyte CEO Alex Sun. During the senior-level Enlyte people leaders
meeting, Kristian outlined the business across the company flew to San Diego,
needs she had identified and discussed California, for the annual in-person senior
the timing and participants involved in leader meeting. To kick off the meeting,
creating the framework. She shared the Sun, the CEO, introduced and advocated
business case for how the framework for the model and the subsequent
would enhance business results and introductory workshop.
drive the company forward.
“What message does it send when, for
She received a quick response from the one time a year when all the senior
Sun, who immediately saw the value leaders and executives are together for
of Kristian’s work in creating the new eight hours, half of the meeting is spent
leadership model for Enlyte. introducing the model and that it’s the
CEO who’s taking the lead, talking about
“Alex Sun makes my job easy because the value, and then having them go
he is such an empathetic and authentic through the workshop together?” said
leader,” said Kristian. “He leaned in and Connors.
asked his executive team to lean in too.”
Then, Kristian’s team facilitated an
Kristian’s team filmed Sun introducing interactive workshop.
the expectations of people leaders at
Enlyte and the importance of a cohesive “[Kristian] says it all the time, ‘We don’t
leadership model to drive the business. do training, and check the box,” said
Connors. “That is not how we roll.
“An important thing that Alex Sun did was What we do is create culture-changing
to tee up the model as Enlyte’s model, experiences.’”
the business’s model,” said Connors. “It
wasn’t an HR model, and it wasn’t HR The in-person meeting was intentionally
saying, ‘Let’s roll this out.’ It was Alex Sun curated to create an impactful experience
rolling it out. That leader-led, top-down for the leaders. Instead of lining up
approach was imperative to the success rows of chairs in a conference room or
of the rollout.” letting leaders choose their seats, they
strategically placed an executive at a
Top executives bought into the new round table surrounded by their senior
model and shared examples of what it leadership team.
looks like to be an Enlyte Leader at the
annual meeting. Kristian and her team could have
trained all 800 people leaders through a
series of signup sessions. Instead, they
chose a focused, intentional effort that
purposefully included the senior leaders

124 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 3: Enlyte

who attended the in-person training. experiences needed to influence the

The broader people leadership team at organization as a whole.
Enlyte subsequently received a culture-
changing experience with their senior
leaders in intact leadership teams. Results
These workshops are not only led by Now that the model has been rolled out
senior leaders and co-facilitated with the to all people leaders, the HR team is
team, but the leaders are also coached leading the effort to “institutionalize” the
in preparation meetings on the key role model by continuing to incorporate it into
they can play. For example, “We need Enlyte’s talent processes. One way they
you to champion this. This is what it looks do that amongst others is use it as the
like. These are the behaviors we want to basis of a leadership program for their
see from you throughout the workshop. newly hired and newly promoted leaders.
Here’s how you might approach the The company is receiving anecdotal
opening comments. Here are some times evidence of the powerful impact the
you might want to join the conversation.” sessions are having on Enlyte leaders
across the enterprise.
The team prepares senior leaders to
facilitate the session by encouraging From the post-workshop survey
them to become storytellers. Senior administered to gain perspective from
leaders are asked to identify informal the leader, initial reviews have been
influencers among their team and positive. For example:
engage them in advance to prepare
to share personal stories about one of “I’ve never bought into this stuff. I’ve
the three roles in the Enlyte Leadership never liked it. This is the first model
Model. This approach ensures that each that I can both remember and that I
role is supported by multiple personal buy into.”
experiences and stories, adding depth
and authenticity to the session. “This is simple, this is important, I get
it.”
“And we’re helping the leader tie in what
they need to achieve for their team or The Enlyte Leadership Model is clear
business unit’s goals and strategies,” said enough that people remember and
Connors. “Like, ‘Hey Dave, what’s top of understand it well and recognize its
mind for you right now? What do you importance. It’s already making a huge
need to achieve in your business unit? impact. Participants are asked to rate how
What do you think if we emphasize that much they comprehend the training:
behavior while talking about this role in
the model?’ So they see the strategic “1” is I understand it completely; give
correlation between this model and how me a deck, and I’ll go train it myself.
it can help them achieve their business
results.” “2” is I can recall and talk about what
each of the three roles means.
This approach requires more prep work,
but Kristian knows it has a significant So far, the impact is high: 20% of the
impact and creates the culture-changing respondents are ready to train it (“1”), and

125
Case Studies

80% are prepared to discuss each of the clearly articulate what we know engage
three roles in the model. our people and drive business results.
For example, our managers are expected
In addition to the initial success to have regular 1X1 and team meetings
where individual and team priorities are
measurements for the Enlyte Leadership
identified and clarified, and advice is given
Workshop, Enlyte conducts operations
and received. We believe we produce
reviews, engagement surveys, and other
better work products when managers
measurements.
collaborate cross-functionally within Enlyte
and partner well with our customers, so
“But at the end of the day, it’s, ‘How do those are called out in our model. The
people feel about working here?” said model is essentially a roadmap for leading
Kristian. “People vote with their feet. effectively and delivering results.”
And we are below industry averages for
turnover, and it’s pretty remarkable to
see.”

As CEO, Alex Sun has this to say about the

progress so far, “While it is still early in the
implementation of the Enlyte Leadership
model, I view it as a way to reinforce
cultural norms and serve as a practical
guide to leadership at Enlyte. The three
roles, Leader of the People, Manager of
the Work, and Steward of the Company
clarify expectations for our leaders. The
behaviors associated with each role

126 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Case Study 3: Enlyte

Discussion Questions
• What are your takeaways from Enlyte’s story that will help you achieve the success
you’re looking for in your organization?

• How does MG Kristian’s experience demonstrate the power of a mindset that

balances the principles of human effectiveness and the principles of productivity?

• How did the right timing impact MG Kristian’s ability to move the initiative forward?

• Based on what you know, what next steps could be taken to further establish the
Enlyte Leadership Model inside the organization?

127
Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Use this tool to assess where you are in all the areas of the transformation model. Mark
in the white boxes at the top of each column where you are in the Maturity Continuum,
and use the Comments section to capture your thoughts and/or create a more accurate
description for your specific context (see example below). This assessment can help you
identify next steps to make additional progress.

Example
Maturity Continuum: Create a strategically aligned leadership model.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON 4 MORE EFFECTIVE

We have no leadership model. We have a set of statements that We have a leadership model that is
reflect the general values and current and reflects the mindsets
behaviors we want to see our and behaviors we view as critical
leaders exhibit. Although we may to our success. Our senior leaders
acknowledge it occasionally and openly advocate for it and work to
may measure elements of it in a model those capabilities in their
culture survey (or some similar own leadership. Our leaders view
assessment), leaders do not really it as a defining statement for our
feel accountable to it, and it is not a organization and feel accountable
defining document for our leadership to it.
culture.

COMMENTS

• Our leadership model is somewhat dated.

• Although we had some energy around it several years ago, and it is still
inspiring to read, we don’t talk about it much any more.
• We have a new CEO, and she is emphasizing different leadership
mindsets and behaviors than are in our model.
• We need to revise our leadership model, tie it more closely to our
current strategy, and ensure we have our CEO’s support.

128 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Executive Leadership Role #1: Create a strategically aligned leadership model.

Maturity Continuum: Create a strategically aligned leadership model.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We have no leadership model. We have a set of statements that We have a leadership model that is
reflect the general values and current and reflects the mindsets
behaviors we want to see our and behaviors we view as critical
leaders exhibit. Although we may to our success. Our senior leaders
acknowledge it occasionally and openly advocate for it and work to
may measure elements of it in a model those capabilities in their
culture survey (or some similar own leadership. Our leaders view
assessment), leaders do not really it as a defining statement for our
feel accountable to it, and it is not a organization and feel accountable
defining document for our leadership to it.
culture.

COMMENTS

Executive Leadership Role #2: Build leadership capability with a systemic approach.

Maturity Continuum: Gap assessment.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We have a defined leadership We have a general sense of how We have a clear understanding of
model, but we don’t know how well our leaders are doing against the how our leaders stack up against the
our leaders represent that model, leadership model (from a culture leadership model, both individually
either as individuals or across the survey or some other metric). and across the organization. We
organization. also have a clear view of leadership
capability for the strategic roles
that are most critical for our
organization’s success for the next
three to five years.

COMMENTS

129
Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Effective learning journeys.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our leadership development We have some intentional We have a full range of highly
programs are eclectic and generic leadership-development journeys focused and intentionally designed
in nature and are not intentionally for specific audiences (senior learning journeys for leaders at
aligned with the mindsets and leaders, high potentials), while other every level. These center on crucial
behaviors crucial for moving the audiences are left largely to their mindsets and behaviors and create
organization forward. They consist own devices. Programs are treated profound personal and social
largely of one-off, self-selected, more like training events or rewards experiences over time that will
skill-based courses; we have no real than as profound parts of an ongoing advance our organization’s strategy.
learning journeys that target specific learning journey to build widespread
changes in behavior. strategic capability.

COMMENTS

Maturity Continuum: Measurement and accountability.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not measure the impact We routinely measure things like We consistently measure behavior
of our programs, and there is no participants’ ratings, and we notify change over time and have a reliable
accountability for behavior change. leaders of their team’s participation approach for ensuring that people
so that they can provide additional feel accountable for adopting new
encouragement and support to apply mindsets and behaviors.
behaviors on the job.

COMMENTS

130 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Critical mass.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our leadership development is While we want to build a leadership Our leadership effort is designed to
focused primarily on people at the culture that changes our create significant behavior change
top rather than on developing a organizational performance, our and shift the performance of our
widespread leadership capability in efforts only reach a small portion of organization. As a result, most of our
our organization. our leaders in the organization at any formal leaders (73% or more), along
given time. with high potentials and other key
opinion leaders, are receiving this
development in an intentional way.

COMMENTS

Maturity Continuum: Workforce planning.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have a workforce plan. We have a workforce plan (partial or We have a workforce plan and our
complete), but it doesn’t explicitly leadership model and the data
connect to our leadership model. around it are integral parts of how
we think about the leaders we need
to hire and develop.

COMMENTS

131
Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Talent acquisition.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our hiring of leaders is not We have established hiring practices We have strong systems for finding
systematic and is done differently for leaders, and they are generally and hiring leaders who match our
throughout the organization. It is used throughout the organization. leadership model, and they are
unconnected to our organization’s We may mention our leadership used consistently throughout the
leadership model. model in that process, but we organization.
have no real system for evaluating
candidates in relation to the model.

COMMENTS

Maturity Continuum: Learning and development.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have an adequate learning We have several learning platforms We have a learning platform that
platform to support our learning and and content subscriptions in use, supports the rich developmental
development needs, particularly for but they are not organized and are experiences we want to provide for
our leaders. not tied to our leadership model. our leaders. It is tied directly to our
They do not support the kind of rich, leadership model, and it supports
multi-mode learning journeys we deployment at scale. People use it
want to use to develop our leaders regularly and enjoy it.
and usage is low.

COMMENTS

132 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Performance management.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have a structured or We have a system for performance We have a structured and data-
uniform approach for evaluating the management, but it focuses on driven way of addressing both people
performance of our leaders. financial results. It does not include and performance results in our
the mindsets and behaviors in the reviews. Our leadership model plays
leadership model. a central role in our evaluations, and
leaders are also assessed on how
well they are learning and developing
the high-value skills and capabilities
needed to advance our strategy.

COMMENTS

Maturity Continuum: Compensation and benefits.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Even in areas where it is possible, Even in areas where it is possible, Where possible and appropriate,
compensation is not connected to compensation is not connected to some form of compensation is
our leadership model. Nor do we have our leadership model, but we do directly tied to our leadership model.
any form of systematic recognition or have regular and systematic ways of We also have regular and systematic
public acknowledgment for leaders celebrating leaders who demonstrate ways of celebrating leaders who
who demonstrate the desired the mindsets and behaviors we want demonstrate the desired mindsets
mindsets and behaviors. to see throughout our organization. and behaviors.

COMMENTS

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Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Succession planning.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our organization has no formal We have a succession plan for We have a robust succession plan
succession plan in place. key leadership roles. Potential for our key leadership roles. Our
Replacements and promotions are candidates are identified primarily leadership model is an important
made on an ad hoc, as-needed basis. on the basis of their performance, part of how we evaluate and develop
but we don’t evaluate them people who will be filling those roles.
according to our leadership model,
and we don’t have a specific
development plan for them that is
influenced by that model.

COMMENTS

Maturity Continuum: Talent retention.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We do not have a comprehensive We know who some of our most We have a process in place to identify
view of who our most talented talented leaders are, and we pay our most effective leaders throughout
leaders are or a reliable assessment close attention to them. But we are the organization, and our leadership
of their flight risk. As a result, we probably missing many leaders who model plays an important role in
have no intentional process of should be on our radar. We largely that evaluation. Where we identify
engagement to mitigate that risk. count on their direct managers to flight risks, we engage with those
When we lose key people, it is often retain them. We have no widespread leaders and do what is possible to
a surprise. system in place for tracking this risk, retain them. Some departures are a
and our leadership model is not a surprise, and we experience some
formal part of our evaluation of the turnover, but we are effective in
leaders we do identify. retaining the majority of the leaders
we want to keep in our organization.

COMMENTS

134 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Offboarding.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We have no formal post-departure We have a post-departure review We have a consistent post-departure

evaluation process that can help us process, but the results are not review process, and the results are
retain other great performers. widely shared and are rarely acted appropriately shared and acted
on. We do not use leadership on. We use leadership transitions
transitions as a way to reinforce our (whether voluntary or involuntary)
leadership model. as a way to affirm and reinforce our
leadership model.

COMMENTS

Maturity Continuum: Management technology and tools.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

We don’t have any technologies We have a variety of tools available, We have a few carefully chosen
or tools that support our leaders but they are not used consistently, tools that help our leaders carry out
in carrying out foundational and they have not been evaluated in their work in a way that supports
management processes. terms of how well they support the the mindsets and behaviors in
mindsets and behaviors we want our our leadership model and that we
leaders to exhibit. want to establish throughout our
organization.

COMMENTS

135
Comprehensive Evaluation Tool

Maturity Continuum: Organizational design and workflows.

LESS EFFECTIVE COMMON MORE EFFECTIVE

Our structure, processes, policies, We make changes to structure, We have looked carefully at how
and workflows have not changed processes, policies, and workflows our current structure, processes,
much over the years, and we are where we see a need, but we rarely policies, and workflows support our
having a hard time adapting to the consider them in terms of our overall strategy and the leadership mindsets
requirements of our current strategy. strategy and the leadership mindsets and behaviors required to support it.
Our leaders are either frustrated by and behaviors required to execute Where changes are needed, we have
how we operate or have become it. Changes are usually made in a plan to make them in a thoughtful,
experts in doing what we’ve always response to cost-cutting or other prioritized way.
done. initiatives and are more reactionary
than strategic.

COMMENTS

136 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Methodology

Methodology
Our research design included four courses of exploratory study: a comprehensive literature
review, quantitative data collection from a survey instrument, qualitative data collection
through virtual interviews and open-ended survey responses, and case studies.

Literature Review
A thorough literature review was conducted by our research team, reviewing hundreds of
the most cited academic reports, business articles, and other relevant thought leadership.

Aside from the proprietary primary data gathered by the FranklinCovey Institute, other
data referenced in this report were populated from published studies, books, and other
referenced sources and can be found in the Notes section.

Survey: “2023–2024 Global Leadership Survey”

The primary survey data in this report comes from the 2023–2024 FranklinCovey Global
Leadership Survey. The survey was developed for this study and designed to extract primary
quantitative and qualitative data from practicing experts and leaders across industry,
discipline, and geographic region around the world on the topic of leadership and behavior
change at scale. The survey was globally distributed, available in six different languages
(English, Simplified Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish, and French) and was in the field for
five months.

The participants surveyed were primarily learning and development or business leaders at a
manager level and/or higher.

From the initial pool of respondents, our research team conducted a rigorous data-
cleaning process. This involved removing all personally identifiable information, filtering out
incomplete responses, and refining the dataset to a final sample of 503 valid observations
with 201 measurable variables.

Virtual Interviews: “Global Conversations on Leadership”

The utilization of virtual interviews as a method of primary data collection was conducted
by our research team. We conducted thirty-six open and candid conversations with CHROs,
CLOs, and other senior-level learning and development practitioners and twelve leadership
experts and consultants from around the globe, totaling forty-eight virtual interviews. Our
sampling strategy was grounded in finding professionals who had demonstrated experience
that closely aligned with the focus of this report. The structure of the “Global Conversations
on Leadership” was to provide a framework to gather consistent data, while offering flexibility
in asking follow-up questions to allow emerging exploratory themes (particularly those
consistent to region, industry, or perspective). We anonymized and aggregated the data (via
quotes), identifiable only by role, location, years’ experience, and company size.

Case Studies
The selection of case studies for this report were collected by a purposeful sampling
strategy, ensuring the organizations and leaders demonstrated excellent, tactical
examples of achieving impact within their organizations. Both FranklinCovey clients and
non-clients were interviewed, and the three chosen to highlight in this guidebook include
two clients and one non-client.

137
Notes

1. “US CEO Views from PwC’S 27th Annual Global CEO Survey,” PricewaterhouseCoopers, January 15, 2024.
[Link]
2. “New Fundamentals for a Boundaryless World 2023 Global Human Capital Trends Report,” Deloitte,
January 19, 2023.
[Link]
GLOB175985_HUMAN-[Link].
3. “CEO and Board Confidence Monitor: A Worried Start to 2024,” Heidrick & Struggles, January 17, 2024.
[Link]
start-to-2024. In November 2023, Heidrick & Struggles fielded an online survey with data from 3,156
respondents. Of those, 2,320 were CEOs and 836 were directors. Forty-one percent were in Europe; 38%
in North America; 10% in Asia Pacific; 4% in each of Latin America and the Middle East; and 2% in Africa.
Respondents represented companies of all sizes; 23% reported annual revenue of $1 billion or more.
Companies ranged across all industries.
4. Whitewater, “Videos from the 8th Habit,” Created by FranklinCovey, [Link]
resources/videos/the-8th-habit/.
5. PricewaterhouseCoopers, “US CEO Views from PwC’S 27th Annual Global CEO Survey.”
6. Lori Perri, “What’s New in the 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies,” Heidrick and Struggles,
August 23, 2023. [Link]
emerging-technologies.
7. Steven T. Hunt, Talent Tectonics: Navigating Global Workforce Shifts, Building Resilient Organizations, and
Reimagining the Employee Experience (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2022). We call these trends “tectonic”
because they represent fundamental, long-term shifts that cause a variety of manifestations on the surface.
A friend and collaborator who also uses this term is Steven T. Hunt. You can read his take on these and
related trends and their implications in his aforementioned book.
8. Daniel Liévano, “Global Fertility Has Collapsed, with Profound Economic Consequences.” The Economist,
June 1, 2023. [Link]
profound-economic-consequences?utm_content=section_content&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw
1920BhA3EiwAJT3lSaCOqTVTeYKPKw5o1AR6-niBmFGtlhU1kW6anBncRF8mB3BQeYMKQRoCufQQA
vD_BwE&gclsrc=[Link].
9. “The Future of Jobs Report 2023,” 61. World Economic Forum, April 30, 2023. [Link]
publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/. “. . . the future of work can be shaped for better outcomes
and . . . it is the policy, business and investment decisions made by leaders today that will determine
outcomes and the future space for action.”
10. Ibid., 15. “Data on worker preferences from CultureAmp and Adecco find that more than a quarter of
workers (33% and 27%, respectively) do not see themselves at their current company of employment in
two years’ time. In line with this, a little under half of workers (42% and 45%, according to CultureAmp and
Adecco, respectively) actively explore opportunities at different companies.”
11. “Survey: In 2024, CEOs Are Most Worried About a Recession & Inflation, But Say They’re Not Ready,” The
Conference Board, January 10, 2024. [Link]
suite-outlook-2024.
12. Rita, Meyerson, host, “The Employee Well-Being Crisis,” Interview with Diana Scott. C-Suite Perspectives
(podcast), April 22, 2024. [Link]
Employee-WellBeing-Crisis.
13. “State of the Global Workplace,” 24. Gallup, Inc., Accessed July 17, 2024. [Link]
workplace/349484/[Link]. Those who feel involved in and enthusiastic about
their work -- remains at 23%, matching the record high recorded in 2022, according to Gallup’s State of the
Global Workplace report. But most employees are not engaged (62%) -- those who show up, do the bare
minimum and are uninspired by their work -- or actively disengaged (15%).
14. Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, Culture Shock: An Unstoppable Force Is Changing How We Work and Live.
Gallup’s Solution to the Biggest Leadership Issue of Our Time. (Washington, D.C.:Gallup Press, 2023), 81.
15. Gallup, Inc., “State of the Global Workplace,” 22.
16. Clifton and Harter, Culture Shock: An Unstoppable Force Is Changing how We Work and Live. Gallup’s
Solution to the Biggest Leadership Issue of Our Time, inside flap.
17. Unless specifically noted, all comments come from the interview-based research (“Global Conversations
on Leadership”) related to this study. Quotes are anonymized to respect the privacy of the leaders who
shared this information with us.
18. FranklinCovey Institute, “Global Conversations on Leadership,” 2023-2024.

138 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Notes

19. Although FranklinCovey strongly believes in and advocates the importance of leadership at every
level, including the tremendous leadership potential of individual contributors, this guidebook focuses
primarily on positional leaders (or formal people leaders) and their role in mobilizing change throughout
the organization. Ultimately, to compete and win in today’s challenging environment will require the best
efforts of everyone. However, formal positional leaders—from the most senior level to the front line—play
an outsized role in making that happen.
20. “The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier: Report,” McKinsey & Company,
June 14, 2023. [Link]
potential-of-generative-ai-the-next-productivity-frontier.
21. “A New Future of Work: The Race to Deploy AI and Raise Skills in Europe and Beyond,” McKinsey &
Company, Accessed July 17, 2024. [Link]
and%20middle%20east/deutschland/news/presse/2024/2024%20-%2005%20-%2023%20mgi%20
genai%20future%20of%20work/mgi%20report_a-[Link].
22. Stephen M.R. Covey, David Kasperson, McKinlee Covey, and Gary T. Judd. Trust and Inspire: How Truly
Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022) 16.
23. “The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership,” 19. The Josh Bersin Company,
November 1, 2023. [Link]
24. Ibid., 20.
25. Ibid., 20.
26. Ibid., 24-28.
27. Ibid., 24, shared with permission.
28. The research in this area is abundant. See particularly, Kerrie Fleming and Carla Millar, “Leadership
Capacity in an Era of Change: The New-Normal Leader,” Journal of Organizational Change Management
32, no. 3 (May 13, 2019): 315, https:// [Link]/10.1108/jocm-05-2019-49; Black, Jeanette. 2022. “Leading
People-Centered Cultures.” Springer EBooks, January, 7530, 7532. [Link]
66252-3_2820; Andrés Salas-Vallina, Cristina Simone, and Rafael Fernández-Guerrero, “The Human Side
of Leadership: Inspirational Leadership Effects on Follower Characteristics and Happiness at Work (HAW),”
Journal of Business Research 107 (February 2020): 169. https:// [Link]/10.1016/[Link].2018.10.044; Mary
Baker and Teresa Zuech, “Gartner HR Research Identifies Human Leadership as the Next Evolution of
Leadership,” Gartner, June 23, 2022, [Link]
gartner-hr-research-identifies-human-leadership-as-the-next-evolution-of-leadership.
29. The Josh Bersin Company, “The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership,” 27.
30. Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise: Annotated Edition (New York: McGraw Hill, 2006).
31. Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 25th
Anniversary Edition (Maheah: Paulist Press, 2002).
32. Liz Wiseman, Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (New York:
Harper Business, 2017).
33. Amy Edmondson, “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.” Administrative Science
Quarterly 44, no. 2 (1999): 350-383. [Link]
34. Stephen M.R. Covey, Stephen R. Covey, and Rebecca R. Merrill, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That
Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2008); Stephen M.R. Covey, David Kasperson, McKinlee Covey,
and Gary T. Judd, Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others (New York: Simon
& Schuster, 2022).
35. This approach has sometimes been called “enlightened command-and-control” and while it is typically
better than hard-core command and control approaches, it still leaves a lot of human potential on the
table. Stephen M.R. Covey’s research shows that only 8% of leaders operate with what he calls a “Trust
and Inspire” style, one that truly leaves the old model behind and taps into the full gifts and talents of the
“whole person.”
36. The paradigm Principle-Centered Leadership includes honoring the underlying principles of effectiveness
with all stakeholders, including those related to sustainability and the environment.
37. Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011).
38. Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling, The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly
Important Goals (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012).
39. Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement,
and Creativity at Work (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011). For one of the hallmark articulations of research
along these lines, see the aforementioned book.
40. “The State of Organizations 2023: Ten Shifts Transforming Organizations,” 38. McKinsey & Company, April
26, 2023. [Link]
the-state-of-organizations-2023.
41. “2024 Global Human Capital Trends,” Deloitte. Accessed July 17, 2024.
[Link]

139
Notes

42. The Josh Bersin Company, “The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership,” 22.
“Companies that have cohesive, carefully managed leadership development programs are 3 times more
likely to outperform their peers [and] 2.6 times more likely to innovate effectively.”
43. Mariya Markova, Guray Taysever, and Slav Angelov, “A Theoretical Framework of Developing Leadership
Capacity for Successful Organizational Outcomes.” Journal of Leadership in Organizations 6, no.1 (2024).
[Link] “There is a strong statistically significant relationship between leadership
capacity, skills, teamwork, training, and coaching influencing teamwork and motivation, which brings
successful organizational outcomes. The authors found that involving training and coaching at workplaces
had positive effects on individuals and teams.”
44. David Day, Nicolas Bastardoz, and Eduardo Salas, “Unlocking Human Potential through Leadership
Training & Development Initiatives.” Behavioral Science & Policy 7, no. 1 (2021). [Link]
org/10.1177/23794615210070010. A meta-analysis of 335 studies found that leadership training programs
were associated with a 25% increase in learning, a 28% increase in on-the-job leadership behaviors, and
a 25% improvement in organization-level outcomes (such as higher profits and lower costs, turnover, and
absenteeism).
45. “Organizational Health Index,” McKinsey & Company, Accessed July 17, 2024.
[Link]
46. Claudio Feser, Michael Rennie, and Nicolai Nielsen, Leadership At Scale: Better Leadership, Better Results.
2nd ed. (Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2018) 5.
47. Ibid., 5.
48. The Josh Bersin Company, “The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership,” 24.
49. Lucas Monzani, Gerard H. Seijts, and Mary M. Crossan, “Character Matters: The Network Structure of Leader
Character and Its Relation to Follower Positive Outcomes.” PLoS One 16, no. 9 (2021). [Link]
[Link].0255940. “Leaders with strong character (integrity, empathy, fairness, etc.) tend to lead to
higher subjective well-being, increased resilience, and improved work engagement in their employees.”
50. Fred Kiel, Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Companies Win (Brighton: Harvard
Business Review Press, 2015) 132. Additional research in this area shows that CEOs and senior teams that
are perceived as having “high character” have a return on assets that are 5 times higher than those with low
character scores.
51. Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra. CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the
Best Leaders from the Rest (New York: Scribner, 2022) 263.
52. FranklinCovey Institute, “Global Leadership Survey,” 2023-2024.
53. Wiseman, Multipliers, 16.
54. Dewar, Keller, and Malhotra, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the
Rest, 67-68. “The Best CEOs…make sure that every senior leader, not just the CHRO, owns the people-
related implications of the strategy.” For those that do, “the odds of a strategy being successfully executed
more than double from 30 to 79 percent, and the impact of execution is 1.8 times greater.”
55. FranklinCovey Institute, “Global Leadership Survey,” 2023-2024.
56. Excerpt(s) from EXECUTION: THE DISCIPLINE OF GETTING THINGS DONE by Larry Bossidy and Ram
Charan with Charles Burck, copyright © 2002 by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Used by permission
of Crown Business, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights
reserved.
57. FranklinCovey Institute, “Global Leadership Survey,” 2023-2024.
58. The Josh Bersin Company, “The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership,” 20.
59. “The Leader in Me Research Guide,” FranklinCovey, Accessed July 12, 2024. [Link]
research-highlights-leadership/. One unique and particularly well-researched source of data comes from
FranklinCovey’s Education division, which provides whole-school transformation offering to thousands
of elementary schools worldwide. That transformation model revolves around six specific offerings that
need to change to operate a school more effectively and help develop leadership skills in children. This
approach to school transformation, called Leader in Me, has been validated by over 30 independent,
university-based studies, and it consistently yields dramatic impacts on everything ranging from improved
academic achievement to decreased disciplinary events.
60. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated: 30th Anniversary Edition,
2nd ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020) 31 (quote shortened for brevity).
61. Used with permission: Claudio Feser, Michael Rennie, and Nicolai Nielsen, Leadership At Scale: Better
Leadership, Better Results. 2nd ed. (Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2018)19; permission conveyed through PLS
Clear UK.
62. Gerald Eisenkopf and Torben Kölpin, “Leading-by-example: A Meta-analysis.” Journal of Business
Economics 94, no. 4 (2023): 1-35. [Link] “Leading by example improves
the cooperation and contributions of others, creates a stronger alignment of group member contributions,
and improves long-term levels of contributions. The increased contribution persists over time, and the
effect is even stronger in large groups.”

140 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
 Notes

Liat Eldor, “Leading by Doing: Does Leading by Example Impact Productivity and Service Quality?”
Academy of Management Journal 64, no. 2 (2021): 1-35. Accessed July 8, 2024. [Link]
s11573-023-01176-2. See also, “The findings provide evidence that leading by example improves
productivity and service quality. . . .The indirect effect of leading by example on productivity and service
quality (through engagement) is even stronger when manifestation of organizational core values is high.”
63. The Josh Bersin Company, “The Definitive Guide to Leadership Development: Irresistible Leadership,” 28.
“Whatever the right mix of leadership behaviors is for your company and your growth cycle, one thing is
critical to keep in mind: powerful results come only when leaders consistently and continuously model
those behaviors.”
64. Excerpt(s) from MINDSET: THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS by Carol S. Dweck, copyright © 2006,
copyright by Carol S. Dweck. Used by permission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a
division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
65. Used with permission: Robert J. Anderson, William A. Adams, and Ed Catmull, Scaling Leadership: Building
Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons,
2019) 189 & 191; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center Inc.
66. Ibid., 106.
67. Edgar H. Schein, Humble Leadership, Second Edition: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust
(New York: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2023).
68. Dewar, Keller, and Malhotra, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the
Rest, 264.
69. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, 7.
70. Josh Bersin, “What Is A Capability Academy? Here’s The Answer,” The Josh Bersin Company, July 25, 2021.
[Link]
71. FranklinCovey Institute, “Global Conversations on Leadership,“ 2023-2024.
72. Christina N. Lacerenza, Denise L. Reyes, Shannon L. Marlow, Dana L. Joseph, and Eduardo Salas,
“Leadership Training Design, Delivery, and Implementation: A Meta-analysis.” Journal of Applied
Psychology 102, no. 12 (2017). [Link]
73. Other studies from industry providers highlight this preference as well. DDI’s 2023 Global Leadership
Forecast indicated that “leaders crave the human experience of learning” especially in the context
of remote and hybrid work, p. 21 ([Link] and
Blanchard’s 2024 HR/L&D Trends Survey shows a steady increase in live delivery after the pandemic
([Link]
74. McKinsey & Company, “The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier: Report.”
75. “Workplace Learning Report 2024,” 24, 26. LinkedIn, Accessed July 10, 2024. [Link]
resources/workplace-learning-report. Compare, for example, the LinkedIn Learning Workplace Learning
Reports for 2022 (p.24) and 2024 (p.26) for the evolution of methods from “vanity metrics” to more impact
linked metrics.
76. “The Kirkpatrick Model,” Kirkpatrick Partners, Accessed July 10, 2024.
[Link]
77. Jack J. Philips, “Measuring ROI: The Process, Current Issues, and Trends,” The ROI Institute. Accessed July
10, 2024. [Link]
[Link].
78. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Toronto: Little, Brown
and Co., 2022).
79. Damon Centola, Joshua Becker, Devon Brackbill, and Andrea Baronchelli, “Experimental Evidence for
Tipping Points in Social Convention.” Science 360, no. 6393 (2018). [Link] 10.1126/science.
aas8827.
80. Feser, Rennie, and Nielsen, Leadership At Scale: Better Leadership, Better Results, 86-87.
81. Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright, Thinking in Systems: International Bestseller. (White River Junction:
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008) 11.
82. “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: 2024,” Fortune. Accessed July 16, 2024.
[Link]
83. “How OHI Works,” McKinsey & Company, Accessed July 16, 2024.
[Link]
84. Katie Navarra, “The Real Costs of Recruitment,” SHRM, April 11, 2022. [Link]
news/talent-acquisition/real-costs-recruitment; Shane McFeely and Ben Wigert, “This Fixable Problem
Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion,” Gallup, Inc., March 13, 2019. [Link]
[Link]; “The Talent Forecast Part 3: Beyond hire and the long
term impact of talent acquisition on an organization,” Korn Ferry Institute, September 18, 2024. https://
[Link]/content/dam/kornferry/docs/article-migration/[Link]. While
specific numbers vary, many sources support the idea that the cost of replacing a manager can easily
exceed the cost of that position’s salary, particularly when factoring in soft costs. Additionally, these costs
increase dramatically as the level of the position increases.

141
Notes

85. “Digital Learning Realities 2023: L&D Priorities, Strategy and Execution in an Economic Downturn,” Fosway
Group, Accessed July 16, 2024. [Link]
realities-2023/.
86. “2023-2024 26th Annual HR Systems Survey White Paper Report,” Sapien Insights Group, Accessed July
16, 2024. [Link] Sapient
Insights, a leading research firm in the HR Technology industry, indicates that, of the 50 most common
applications they track, the average company has 21 of them in use somewhere in their organization.
This varies by organizational size and there is a wide range of implementation realities, but the general
message is that some consolidation is needed.
87. Gallup, Inc., “State of the Global Workplace,” 32.
88. This quote has a long history and likely originated with Marshall McLuhan. You can explore that history
here: ([Link] This
specific wording and its attribution to John M. Culkin can be found in the following document: 1967 March
18, The Saturday Review, A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan by John M. Culkin (Director of the
Center for Communications, Fordham University), 53. Saturday Review Associates, New York.
89. The exact source of this quote is unclear, but it is frequently attributed to Arthur Jones.
90. Deloitte, “New Fundamentals for a Boundaryless World 2023 Global Human Capital Trends Report.”
91. This includes more focused platforms like CultureAmp, Leapsome, and Lattice but it also includes related
functions in mid-sized and larger HR platforms from Rippling to SAP SuccessFactors or Workday.
92. Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: The Final Edition (New York: Penguin Books, 2021).;
Wendel, Stephen. Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics. 2nd
ed. (Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, 2020). These include behavioral economics, performance psychology,
experience design, behavioral insights, and so forth. If you are curious, consider the aforementioned books
as helpful primers.
93. Jay Galbraith, Designing Complex Organizations (Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1973).
Those familiar with the field will recognize the early founder Jay Galbraith and his STAR model, described
in the 1973 book Designing Dynamic Organizations, the McKinsey 7s Model, and other similar approaches.

David P. Hanna, Designing Organizations for High Performance (New York: Ft Press, 1988). Hanna
offered the Organizational Performance (OP) Model in the late 1980s and was an early thought leader
at FranklinCovey in this area. His model places a stronger emphasis on the culture-and-people part of
organizational design.
94. Robert I. Sutton and Higgy Rao. The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and
the Wrong Things Harder (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2024) 237.
95. Modern methods such as “customer journey mapping” and experience design can be helpful in areas
like these, on workflow automation platforms such as ServiceNow and Microsoft Power Automate, with
workflow automation features in SAP, etc.
96. Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside
Them (New York: Harvard Business Review Press, 2019) 209.
97. Dewar, Keller, and Malhotra. CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the
Rest, Chapter 5: Organizational Design Practice.

142 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
Authors

Auroon Thapa Addie Thomas

Senior Researcher Senior Researcher,
Project Leader

Adam Merrill
EVP, Market Intelligence
Executive Director,
FranklinCovey Institute

The authors wish to thank Tom Weinkle, Alberto Siordia, and Sierra Eichers for the beautiful
design of this guidebook; Jennifer Schill, Darren Dahl, Meg Hackett, Martha Spaulding,
and Jodi Riedthaler for their help in research, writing, and editing; and our colleagues at
FranklinCovey who provided additional insight and guidance. We also extend a special
thanks to Curtis Clawson, a senior analyst with the Market Intelligence team who helped
bring this project to the finish line.
About FranklinCovey
FranklinCovey (NYSE:FC) is a performance transformation company with operations in
over 160 countries. We help organizations achieve breakthrough results by systematically
improving the effectiveness of their leaders, culture, and ability to achieve their most
important goals.

About the FranklinCovey Institute

The FranklinCovey Institute produces research and resources to help leaders increase
human effectiveness and improve organizational performance in a rapidly transforming
world.
 The Leadership Imperative: A Report of Findings and Guidebook for Talent Leaders Creating Leadership Capability at Scale
The
Leadership
Imperative
A Report of Findings and
Guidebook for Talent
Leaders Creating Leadership
Capability at Scale

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