Key to Organizational Agility is Leadership SpeedDo you feel like you’re expected to move faster and do more? Are you often frustrated that your organization moves too slow and gets stalled? If your organization were to move faster, would it substantially influence your success?

These questions were recently asked in a Zenger Folkman survey on agility and leadership speed. Agreement with the statements ranged from 70% to 83%.

What do you think is most important: doing things fast or doing things right? Zenger Folkman’s research from 51,137 leader in their global 360 assessment database shows that if only doing one or the other — doing things fast or doing right — is a strength, leaders were assessed as being extraordinary (in the top 10%) less than five percent of the time. However, those leaders who were assessed as strong at doing things both fast and right were extraordinary 96% of the time!

‘Fast and right’ leaders were shown to:

  • Be twice as effective in overall leadership effectiveness
  • Earn performance ratings at exceeding or far exceeding 74% of the time versus 13% with poor speed leadership
  • Foster employee engagement at the 83rd percentile
  • Quadruple productivity and highly committed employees compared to the worst rated leaders

How can leaders improve their leadership speed? Zenger Folkman conducted another study using their cross-training companion behaviors research. This involved looking at extraordinary leaders (10%) in leadership speed and correlating which of their behaviors and competencies were statistically significant.

Eight behaviors emerged as having the most impact on leadership speed. Four involve executing right and four are about executing fast. These became the base for a self-assessment instrument. This Pace Assessment helps leaders understand their speed comfort zone and determine which behaviors they might work on to pick up their pace.

Joe Folkman delivered a keynote presentation, The Key to Organizational Agility: Leadership Speed at our 2016 Leadership Summit in Salt Lake City. Click here to watch now.