Only 7% of leaders get this right—and their teams outperform everyone else

I recently met with 300 leaders at one of the country’s top-performing transit authorities. I asked them to raise their hands if they’d ever worked for a leader who truly cared about them. Nearly every hand rose. The room lit up with warmth, as people recalled a boss who’d looked after them. Then I asked: on that team, how many of you were pushed to truly exceptional results? Lots of hands dropped. Then I turned the question around: Who has worked for a leader who drove performance like no other? Hands shot up. And how many of you felt valued and understood as a member of that team? Many hands fell. Only a smattering of people kept their hands up through all four questions. And you could see that they were proud. Heads nodded, and there was a visible pride having worked with someone rare—an “Expect a Lot, Care a Lot” leader. New data from FranklinCovey Institute’s The Case for the 6 Critical Practices Survey confirms just how rare they are. · Onl