For nearly twenty years, I have been a coach to scores of CEOs and an invited speaker for international business leaders. I have seen that most business leaders overlook a crucial leadership imperative critical to their effectiveness and their organization’s success. It’s not that the concept is difficult or confusing. It may be elusive because it is stunningly obvious. It is also almost always misunderstood.
If there was one simple thing any leader could accomplish for themselves and their organization that would change everything, why wouldn’t everyone attend to this immediately? This question comes to mind whenever I encounter the annoyances and dysfunction I experience nearly everywhere I go. Whenever I see brilliant people struggling to solve problems where the solutions should easily be within their reach, I wonder why.
When left to their resources, most people are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, managing their affairs, and doing what they must to survive. But relatively few accomplish great things. One way people do this is by organizing together and joining resources to expand the capacity of what one person might achieve alone. It is why organizations exist. It is also the reason why we need leaders to assemble people, articulate a shared sense of purpose, administer to the success of their aims, and develop the other leaders necessary to propel the organization forward into the future.
Leaders eventually recognize that followers are not all equal in their performance. Some excel beyond anyone’s expectations, but most followers do not. Defining standards to separate performers from non-performers and inspiring people to work to their fullest potential is the most vital aspect of any leader’s job —and the most vexing. People do not perform their best at the behest of others; to realize their potential, they must discover their drive and sense of purpose within themselves. The leader’s role is to cultivate conscientiousness.
I often ask CEOs the definition of conscientious – and they nearly always get the answer wrong. Most bring up awareness, confusing conscientiousness with consciousness. I quickly point out that awareness is a component of the answer but that the word’s root is conscience. Conscientious people operate from an internal sense of right and wrong. They must be aware of this, but their personal value system is the core driver informed by an abiding sense of purpose. The reason that it is so critical is that it informs grit, the thing that makes people comfortable being uncomfortable. We notice grit in people who are willing to learn hard things and who put in the time and effort in pursuit of an awareness of a future benefit. It is the grounding we find in emotional intelligence.
That is why you must be conscientious and exemplify the values and expectations you have of others to be a fully competent leader. Cultivating conscientiousness involves setting high expectations around a clearly articulated purpose. That is the DNA of high-performance organizations and the tell-tale sign of highly effective leaders.
