High-Resolution Leadership Study

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© Development Dimensions Int’l, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved.

High-Resolution

Leadership A Synthesis of 15,000 Assessments

Into How Leaders

Shape the Business Landscape


High-Resolution Leadership is a collection of findings that reflect how leadership shapes today's business landscape.

Through 18 different lenses on the implications about leadership, we see everything from how leaders impact financial growth to economic turnaround to their skyrocketing rise to the top.

This landmark report includes 15,000 DDI leadership assessment participants ranging from frontline to the C-suite.

Through these insights, you can predict leader success in your own organization and explore the DNA of leadership.


The Money Skills Senior Executive Competencies

That Drive Profitable Growth

Leaders with money skills have laser-sharp

business minds and the gift to mobilize & engage

people. @DDIworld #hirezleadership

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http://www.ddiworld.com/hirezleadership


Money Skills


“When an organization cultivates top-level leaders who combine business judgment with the ability to execute, the impact shows up in the form of financial gains.”

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Leader Skill Shake-Up Critical Consequences of the

Shifts Over Time

The turmoil from the global financial crisis

dramatically reshuffled leader skills.

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Over Time Trend Data


“As businesses have adapted to a new economic reality, so too have their leaders, becoming stronger at doing more with less. However, this likely has come at the expense of talent growth and risk taking.”

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Ready Leaders? Ready for What? How Leadership Readiness

Stacks Up Against Common

Business Contexts

Given the speed of change, executives have

some catching up to do. http://bit.ly/1U4SvC2

@DDIworld #hirezleadership

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Ready Leaders – Ready For What?


“Executives are more equipped to focus on challenges in the here and now, such as im-proving quality, building relationships, and focusing on customers and efficiency. They are far less ready to navigate the ambiguity that comes with more strategic challenges like building or reinventing brands, markets, organizations, and cultures.”

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Industry Revolution In Today’s Landscape, Which

Industries Are Most Poised to

Succeed?

One key differentiator among industries is the

degree of VUCA pressures they face.

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Industry


“Within an industry, use pervasive skill deficiencies to identify which growth targets are most likely to provide a competitive advantage over peers.”

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Race to the Top In the “Survival of the Fittest,”

How Does Personality Impact

Leadership Transitions?

Leaders face high-risk scenarios that trigger

derailers and cause stressors.

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Race to the Top


“Notably, Attention Seeking is the only derailer which increases for senior leaders, as their confidence helps them pursue and win center stage. Their risk is in overshadowing those whose hearts they need the most, in lacking humility, and ultimately, in compromising trust.”

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Judgment: The Personality Blueprint What Happens When Leaders

Are Under Pressure

Being argumentative and risk-adverse sabotages

a leader’s decision-making skills.

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#hirezleadership

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Judgment / Personality


“Leaders with higher learning orientation are more likely to embrace ambiguity, complexity and paradigm shifts and to positively engage in both the practical and intellectual challenges."

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Execution & Engagement Can Leaders be Ambidextrous?

Doing Both Well Is Critical

Senior leaders lose their grip on engagement as

execution grows stronger. http://bit.ly/1YxNdpi


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Execution and Engagement


Execution and Engagement


“Few leaders were truly ambidextrous—at the more senior levels, the majority of leaders scored higher on execution and lower on engagement; furthermore, balance almost disappears.”

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Is Empathy Boss? The Science Behind Soft Skills—

What Really Drives Performance

Only 40% of the frontline leaders we assessed

were proficient or strong in empathy.

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#hirezleadership

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Empathy


“Overwhelmingly, empathy tops the list as the most critical driver of overall performance. It also consistently relates to higher performance in each of the four leadership domains.”

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EQ vs IQ The Surprising Skills Where Each

Matters Most

A larger % of leadership failures may be attributed

to insensitivity than stupidity. http://bit.ly/1U4W1fG


http://ctt.ec/6526i



Predicting Leader Skills – IQ vs EQ


“If you want to win someone over, a business case and strong rationale may be more critical than interpersonal sensitivity and skills. On the other hand, once you’ve influenced someone to take a particular direction, EQ will play a far stronger role in its execution due to the necessity of getting everyone marching in the same direction.”

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China: Looking to the Next Horizon Are Chinese Leaders Wired for

New Futures?

For Chinese leaders, blind spots can limit cross-

cultural engagement and partnerships.

http://bit.ly/1IqHdrc @DDIworld #hirezleadership

http://ctt.ec/gZJXp



How Chinese Leaders Are Hard Wired for

the Future


“Emerging Chinese mid-level and operational leaders—the next generation of senior leaders—exhibit personality profiles that differ from incumbent executives. This represents, in part, the natural ascension of leaders with facilitating traits, but, in some areas there are consequential differences.”

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The Paradox of India Rapid Growth but Fighting Hard

to Win

Indian leaders: build relationship-rich cultures

where creativity thrives & talent stays.

http://bit.ly/1khitpM @DDIworld #hirezleadership

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Personality Attributes in India


“For Indian leaders, boldness is a dominant and overarching theme – they are more ambitious, analytically curious, and competitive than global peers. These attributes fuel envisioning of new business possibilities, but can manifest as volatility and low interpersonal sensitivity.”

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Is Europe Meeting Its Potential? In Post-Crisis Economic

Recovery, Are European Leaders

Stepping Up?

European leaders are relatively predisposed

to be innovative. http://bit.ly/1PkGyae


http://ctt.ec/yAdp7



Personality Tendencies in Europe


“While European leaders show strong strategic flexibility in the face of shifting dynamics, this advantageous style is countered by a less thoughtful and planful execution approach. Their risk, then, lies in being adept in the realm of strategic ideas compared to global peers but unable to translate these concepts effectively or quickly into execution.”

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The Experience Effect Does Tenure as a Manager Grow

or Slow Leaders?

Does experience translate into leader strength?

How does it vary across leadership skills?

http://bit.ly/1RGI6i9 @DDIworld #hirezleadership

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Growth Rates of Skills Based

on Experience


“We found two skills that even long-tenured executives rarely master: coaching and selling the vision. These skills often must be relearned with each new group of employees that needs to be developed and for each new strategy requiring a leader to chart a compelling course.”

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Management Experience

Skills by Years Needed to Become an Expert


The CEO Profile Exclusive Characteristics of

Succession Finalists

CEOs: intensely competitive, confident,

emotionally resilient, and crave the spotlight.

http://bit.ly/1YBzics @DDIworld #hirezleadership

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CEO Profile

The CEO profile using 243 CEO candidate finalists from 48 organizations.


CEO Profile


“This is about what CEO candidates do to excel, where they struggle and how they are wired. For example, they are “creative or pragmatic (but rarely both)—Half of CEO candidates are either conceptual strategists or practical, no-nonsense operators. Only 8 percent balance both.”

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Not Merely a Matter of Degree How Education Both Informs and

Misleads About Leader Skills

Business majors outperformed other degrees

on 5 of 8 leadership skill areas.

http://bit.ly/1YxQi8X @DDIworld #hirezleadership

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Education


“While stereotypes abound about certain degree paths, research exploring how degrees translate into rigorously assessed leaders skills is limited. We answer two questions about the educational background of leaders: How do skill profiles vary by educational degree? What skill advantages do MBA graduates exhibit?”

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Education


The Gender Divide Redefined Some Surprising Differences, But

Fewer Than You Think

Men are far more impulsive than women, who

consider more consequences of action.

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Gender


“Why are women unable to rise as frequently as men? And why does a male-female wage gap still exist across a wide range of jobs including managerial positions? We have found, these conditions do not stem from their competence to lead.”

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Dys-FUNCTION-al Skill Gaps The Risky Reality of Overlooking

Undiscovered Talent

Your greatest leadership talent may be hiding in

unlikely roles in your org. Look deeper.

http://bit.ly/1ZpyObH @DDIworld #hirezleadership

http://ctt.ec/6g601



Functions Across Leader Skills


“For the core business skills of financial acumen and business savvy, leaders in Finance and Marketing/Advertising led all functions, while Engineering, Operations, and HR comparatively fell short.”

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The HR Report Card What Does HR See When They

Hold Up the Mirror?

When compared to leaders from other functions,

where do HR leaders stumble—and succeed?

http://bit.ly/1QI7u7e @DDIworld #hirezleadership

http://ctt.ec/w9o33



HR Functionality


“Perhaps the most important consequence of HR’s profile is its underrepresentation in leader candidate pools. HR leaders are increasingly rare among those being considered for higher-level roles. HR leaders who are being considered have a distinct profile from those who are not.”

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