What makes a great leader?
The typical response from executives is, “I know one when I see one.” This is just another way of saying that most organizations use gut feel when it comes to selecting and promoting leaders. Of course the second most common response to this question is, “We promote our highest performing employees.”
It is interesting to get these types of responses when there has been so much research (both qualitative and quantitative) suggesting that gut feel and promoting your best individual contributor are terrible ways to make decisions. In many ways I don’t blame leaders (or organizations) for this. Many times they don’t believe there is any alternative. They take the data that
is available to them (their own opinions and past work performance) and make a decision. Isn’t that how most decisions get made these days anyway?
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