The internal logic of leadership

Abstract

What drives real leadership? Our research is based on a story-completion tool called "Understanding My Leadership Logic". A sample of 500 leaders in senior leadership positions in corporate, were asked to undertake this story completion survey. The research question was: "What are the Internal Action Logics of leaders in corporate?" An effort has been made to understand how leaders interpret their own actions and what action logics are followed by them. This research showed six internal leadership logics or leader's dominant way of thinking. We found that the three types of leaders associated with below average corporate performance (The Controller, The Pacifier, and The Specialist) accounted for 57% of our sample. They were less effective at implementing organizational strategies than the 32% of the sample measured as Team Builders. Independent Thinkers form the next class with 8% of the sample following this action logic. Finally only the final 3% of managers in the sample are Strategic Thinkers who are transformational leaders with the consistent capacity to innovate and to successfully transform their organizations.