From the desks of Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman comes an article sharing the importance of like-ability in a leader. Zenger is CEO and Folkman is President at Zenger – Folkman, a consultancy focusing on strength based leadership development located in Orem, Utah.
Zenger – Folkman has one of the largest known databases of data from 360 reviews in the U.S. This essay reports on one conclusion that can be drawn from that data – specifically, how does a leaders like-ability correlate with the leader’s effectiveness.
In their database of 51,836 leaders, they identified only 27 leaders who were in the bottom quartile in terms of like-ability and in the top quartile in terms of over effectiveness. Said differently, like-ability and effectiveness are highly positively correlated.
This suggests that leaders who want to be effective should also be concerned about their like-ability. The Zenger – Folkman data suggests seven key steps that leaders can take to increase their likability:
The steps in this list should be familiar to alumni of the MOR Leaders Programs. This does not mean that these behaviors are all in active use. Perhaps now would be a good time to do some review and bring one or two of them into more active use now.
Zenger and Folkman close their piece: “…if you are a man, this is even more important for you to consider, because in all probability, you are less liked than your female counterparts, and that’s hindering your effectiveness as a leader.”
Give it some thought and take some time to tune-up your behaviors in this area
. . . jim
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