What You Need to Know About LEADERSHIP SPEED

What is leadership speed? Change has occurred in virtually every area of our lives in the past few years. One of the most disruptive changes is the dramatic speed increase in daily business activity. Speed in business partly reflects the overall increase in every area of life. Shopping is faster, delivery is faster, meals are faster, and accessing information is quicker.

We must be faster.

Leadership Speed: What Do We Prefer?

An exceptional leader we know would occasionally get a question from his direct reports in a variety of forms but with the common message, “Do you want this done fast or right?” His answer was always the same: “Yes!” He chose not to compromise on either dimension.

For this leader and for most highly effective leaders we know, making mistakes is not an option. But neither is slowing down.

Over the last few years we’ve been increasingly interested in the impact of a leader’s preference for speed versus a “slow and steady” mode of operation. It’s clear that overall, organizational processes, communications, and human interactions in the world are speeding up. Many organizations are looking for ways to become more agile. Perhaps leaders worry that their organizations cannot move faster if their employees operate slowly.

Are Slower Leaders As Effective as the Fast Ones?

We analyzed multi-rater feedback evaluations on over 50,000 leaders to evaluate the impact speed had on how leaders were evaluated overall. To do this, we created a speed index comprised of items from our 360-degree feedback instrument. These measured a leader’s ability to:

• Spot problems or trends early
• Quickly respond to problems
• Quickly make needed changes

Those leaders rated in the top quartile on speed were rated at the 83^rd percentile in their overall leadership effectiveness. While those who ranked lowest at speed were in the 18^th percentile.

Quality or Quantity?

In a different assessment, we measured preference for quality versus quantity. After gathering data on more than 5,000 leaders across the globe, we discovered a strong tendency for those with a fast pace to also have a strong preference toward quantity rather than quality of work.

• 58% percent of respondents have this preference.
• 19% had a stronger quality focus and a slower pace.

This group was concerned that working faster could create errors or mistakes. Their tendency was to slow down in order to maintain high quality. (If you would like to evaluate your own pace and see how you compare, you may take the abbreviated assessment here. It’s free, but we ask for your email address.)

The Resistance to Leadership Speed

We meet many groups that, when challenged to work faster, worry doing so will cause errors and poor quality. The group we were interested in for this research, however, was the people who preferred a faster pace but also had a quality focus.

Is this really possible? And what does it take for a leader to have both high quality and fast pace? 

To research this question, we turned to another data set, one that includes information on more than 75,000 leaders. This data set contained 360-degree assessments with ratings from an average of 13 raters. In the dataset, we measured a leader’s speed and their quality of output. We identified a group of leaders who were in the top quartile on both speed and quality and compared this group to all other leaders in the database. We computed statistical tests on 49 leadership behaviors. We sought to identify the most differentiating behaviors of leaders who were rated as having high levels of both speed and quality.

What did they do differently from other leaders?

 All of the 49 behaviors were statistically significant, so we were searching for those that differentiated most powerfully.

The Behaviors that Increase Leadership Speed

The analysis identified seven unique factors that appear to identify what it takes to combine these two seemingly contradictory critical leadership goals. 

• Provide a clear strategic perspective. Leaders rated as having both high speed and high quality were absolutely clear about the vision and direction of the organization. They were also rated as better at taking a longer-term, broader view. They were effective at defining that perspective and then sharing their insights with others so the strategy could be translated into challenging, meaningful goals and objectives. Naturally, knowing where the organization is going and which direction is correct would increase both speed and quality. Without a clear map, people get lost and waste a lot of time.
• Set stretch goals and maintain high standards. Stretch goals have a natural tendency to increase speed. People will stay busy without stretch goals but will not accomplish as much. Stretch goals can increase our effort. To ensure quality these leaders also set high standards so that others knew exactly what high-quality work looked like.
• Communicate powerfully. When everyone understands where they are going, what problems need to be resolved, and where projects are in terms of milestones, both speed and quality increase. When people are uninformed, confused, or given misleading directions, errors occur and work slows.
• Have the courage to change. Speedy leaders with high-quality output became the champions of change. They were excellent at marketing projects, programs, or products. Slow leaders who produce poor quality resist change.
• Consider external perspectives. Leaders who were consumed with an internal focus on organizational problems and concerns tended to miss big shifts in the environment and customer’s preferences. This led to speed reductions and quality problems. The leaders who were top in speed and quality are skilled at looking outside the organization and identifying trends and changing mindsets early.
• Inspire and motivate others. These leaders have the ability to inspire people in the organization. Direct reports felt they were on a mission and that what they did was essential. Direct reports of uninspiring leaders feel that they just have a job and they work for their pay. Most leaders know how to push others to accomplish objectives, but these leaders know how to create a pull where others want to deliver both excellence and speed.
• Innovate. Leaders with fast execution and high quality were always looking for a fresher, faster, more efficient way to deliver. Having the desire to increase both speed and quality using standard procedures is often impossible and therefore requires new innovative procedures. Leaders who look for innovative solutions find a way to have the best of both worlds.

Organizations can only move as fast as their employees do. An increasing number of roles require high speed combined with high quality. We believe this achievement is possible. The benefits of speed are very apparent. Speed increases engagement, retention, and discretionary effort. Take a chance and utilize these behaviors to effectively increase your leadership speed.

-Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman

Want to figure out more about your own leadership speed? Take our complimentary SPEED assessment.