Can Great Leaders Stay On Cruise Control? In A Word, No

Pilots in airplanes use an auto pilot that safely guides them to their destination. Some leaders imagine that there will come a time in their career when they know all they need to know, have all the skills necessary and all they need to do is simply sit back and enjoy the ride.

I looked at two data sets to shed light on that subject. In one study, we examined data from 882 leaders from 5 different organizations. All the leaders were given a leadership effectiveness assessment as a pre-test and then approximately two years later were given a post test. I compared these leaders to our global norm of 35,000 leaders and found that in the post test data:

• 36% of those leaders remained about the same
• 18% actually improved moving from the on average the 86th to 96th percentile. (They moved from very good to great)
• But, 47% were rated more negatively in the post test data moving from the 92nd on average to the 65th percentile (They moved from very good to just above average)

In another study I looked at data from a group of executives that were fired. I went back and looked at their performance assessment 2 years before they were let go I found that only 44% were told that they needed improvement. One year before they were terminated that number jumped to 62%, but 12% of those executives were told that they were high potential. A high percentage of the leaders who were fired felt that they were doing fine. In further analysis we found that 48% of the most senior leaders were put into a new job and failed to learn the new skills required of that position.

What this illustrates is that leaders can’t ever go on permanent cruise control. New jobs require new skills, organization transition and technological change. In organizations today there is not safe spot. Leaders need to be constantly looking at how they can improve and become better leaders.

We have a few recommendations for how great leaders can remain at the top.

1.    Recognize that there is no safe spot in organizations. Organizations need to remain competitive and when your boss asks the question, “Would someone else sitting in that chair produce better results?” and if the answer is “YES,” you’re in trouble. In our downsizing study we found that many people lost their job because a new manager would come in and ask that very question. The old manager had been protecting people, but the new managers felt no obligation. Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel INTC +0.43% wrote a book called, “Only the Paranoid Survive.” Be a little paranoid, recognize that you are not perfect and need to constantly provide value.

2.    Rather than looking forward to cruising, look forward to learning new skills and challenging yourself to continuously improve. The best leaders have a positive attitude about personal improvement. They look forward to new challenges and realize they have much to learn.

3.    Ask for and accept feedback. While the performance appraisal did not always communicate to leaders that there was a problem, the 360 feedback was more accurate. 360 ratings from those who were fired were significantly more negative. The weaknesses were pointed out, but not recognized or accepted.

4.    Have an ongoing development plan for improvement. Leaders should have an active improvement plan where they are working to build on their strengths or fix fatal flaws. In a recent meeting I asked a group of 24 leads to raise their hand if they had an active development plan they were working on. Only four hands went up.

5.    Be a coach and mentor to others. In our research, we found that leaders who were excellent at developing themselves were focused on developing others. Perhaps the reason for this is that the teacher always learns more than the students.

6.    Enjoy the journey. We get so caught up in the destination that often we forget to enjoy the journey every day. It a good thing to sit back and cruise a little every day. Think about the good things in your life, accomplishments in your job and what you enjoy about work.

I hope you are enjoying your trip, but be sure to look in the rear view mirror occasionally.