It's Not the How or the What but the Who

{28}

Finding Alignment

Throughout this book, I’ve endeavored to surprise you with new research or stories in every chapter. But there’s one study I discussed earlier to which I now must return. Remember that joint analysis from Egon Zehnder and McKinsey in chapter 22. The broad conclusion was straightforward: high-growth companies had executives with higher ratings in all eight key leadership competencies we analyzed, on average. However, there were some interesting subtleties in the findings.¹

First, there was one skill that seemed more important than the rest in driving performance: customer impact. In companies that ranked in the top quartile for revenue growth, at least 40 percent of the senior executives scored 5 or above in this competency. ...