What actually sets the most effective leaders apart? Beyond the classic managerial skills, research built on Hogan personality data and 360-degree assessments brings out four broad leadership metacompetencies: emotional intelligence, an orientation towards results, the capacity to think strategically and the ability to inspire others.
Understanding these dimensions lets organisations assess leadership potential more accurately, structure their talent management work and support the skills development of their leaders. This article explores the research behind the four metacompetencies and shows how they contribute to leadership effectiveness, to employee engagement and to lasting team performance.
Effective leaders display four fundamental metacompetencies: being emotionally intelligent, being oriented towards success and results, being strategic and being inspiring. These four dimensions make better sense of what differentiates the best leaders and how their personality and behaviour shape their effectiveness.
The metacompetencies were developed from a combination of Hogan personality data and 360-degree assessments. Peter Berry, managing director of Peter Berry Consultancy (PBC), the authorised distributor of the Hogan assessments in Australia and New Zealand, presented this research on the podcast The Science of Personality. He had appeared on the podcast previously to discuss 360-degree assessments applied to leadership.
Leadership is arguably one of the most important resources an organisation has.
To gauge how much it matters, consider the impact of a good leader on performance, on employee engagement, on talent retention and on business results. And conversely, what impact can a poor leader have while weakening or destroying those same dimensions?
"The breakthrough was understanding that leadership could improve," Peter Berry explains. "It starts with self-awareness, moves on to the ability to manage yourself, and ends in genuine self-mastery."
To assess and develop leadership thoroughly, Hogan personality data is paired with data from the Hogan 360.
Personality concerns reputation, while the 360-degree assessment covers observed behaviour.
"Pairing the two tools enriches the whole leadership and coaching programme considerably," Peter Berry explains. "Using one without the other means holding only half the pieces of the puzzle."
This crossed approach brings more depth to assessment and development work and produces a fuller understanding of how a leader operates.
Peter Berry Consultancy's database holds more than 30,000 records from 360-degree assessments carried out worldwide. Of those, 1,300 concern leaders holding a CEO role.
PBC analysed the characteristics of leaders whose results sat at the 75th percentile or above, in other words among the best leaders globally.
What set these leaders apart from the rest?
Four broad characteristics stood out: emotional intelligence, an orientation towards results, strategic skills and the ability to motivate and inspire others.
"PBC also identified another competency that works rather like an entry ticket, a foundation, an indispensable first brick," Peter Berry explains. "That is conscientiousness."
Whatever their level in the organisation, leaders have to show a certain degree of conscientiousness, reliability and consistency. Even a CEO has to be able to give the board accurate, reliable information.
When 360-degree assessment data is correlated with personality data, the research arrives consistently at the same four metacompetencies of effective leadership.
Emotional intelligence, often shortened to EQ, contributes strongly to professional success.
On Peter Berry's account, PBC's research built on 360-degree data shows that leaders with high emotional intelligence are generally calm and emotionally stable. They are aware of the areas in which they can improve and know how to handle their emotions with maturity.
They also have excellent relational qualities. They can make others feel valued and take a warm, friendly, attentive approach.
Within the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), emotional intelligence is associated in particular with three scales: Adjustment, Interpersonal Sensitivity and Prudence.
The Adjustment scale describes resilience and how a person reacts to stress. It is essentially an intrapersonal dimension.
Interpersonal Sensitivity concerns the ability to build relationships and social skill.
Prudence, for its part, is tied in particular to integrity: it builds trust through reliability and consistency of behaviour.
Together, these three scales feed the emotional and social competencies needed to develop a high level of emotional intelligence.
"People with high EQ encourage a better employee experience, more engagement and high-performing teams," Peter Berry points out.
For organisations, this dimension is therefore a major lever for skills development, for team transformation and for sustainable management.
Producing results and meeting objectives is another essential metacompetency of effective leaders.
Being oriented towards results means, among other things, having a clear business plan, built on measurable objectives, themselves communicated clearly and regularly to teams.
"We are all here to produce results that benefit customers, communities or society," Peter Berry explains.
He also describes the operating rhythm of a results-oriented leader, alternating between strategic planning and operational activity.
Sharing the vision and developing the team should happen roughly every quarter. The rest of the leader's time should go to operational excellence and team performance.
"Holding a perfectly clear vision and maintaining that constant attention to results and objectives is quite simply essential to building a high-performing team," Peter Berry explains.
This capacity to turn a vision into concrete objectives is a central component of leadership potential. It connects HR strategy, the daily functioning of teams and the organisation's performance directly.
As leaders move up through the levels of management, their work tends to become less operational and more strategic.
They gradually spend less time working in the business and more time working on the business.
"Managerial skills are your foundation. But as you progress, you learn to add far more sophisticated leadership skills on top," Peter Berry explains.
Being strategic means being able to think about long-term opportunities, develop a vision, set ambitious objectives and encourage innovation.
A strategic leader looks constantly for ways to improve, while remaining able to change direction when circumstances demand it.
Peter Berry describes strategic leaders as people whose reading of the next three to five years shapes what goes into this year's business plan.
They understand what it will take for their organisation to become a reference point and a competitive leader in its sector.
They thus combine an ability to see the organisation as a whole with a thorough grasp of its purpose and its values.
This competency becomes particularly decisive when organisations have to run a transformation, shift their organisational culture or develop a new generation of leaders.
The ability to motivate and inspire people is one of the most emblematic characteristics of effective leadership.
"These leaders pay deliberate attention to morale and employee engagement. They set out to be positive role models, to build solid collaborative relationships and to demonstrate strong leadership skills," Peter Berry explains.
The ability to inspire produces several positive effects.
First, the employee experience generally reaches a high level, often in the top quartile compared with competing organisations.
Second, retention stays high.
And third, engagement runs high too, which translates into greater productivity.
The ability to inspire is associated in particular with the HPI Ambition scale, along with the Interpersonal Sensitivity scale.
Data from 360-degree assessments shows that a high level of Interpersonal Sensitivity plays an essential part in letting others feel recognised, valued, motivated and engaged, and also in building a positive working environment.
"This combination of scales is particularly powerful for developing a culture of success," Peter Berry observes.
These dimensions show that leadership is not only about setting a direction or delivering results. It also rests on the capacity to create the human conditions in which people can give their best.
Globally, the most common coaching themes concern executive presence, emotional intelligence, strategy and vision, and the capacity to influence.
These are precisely the capabilities leaders need in order to progress across the four metacompetencies of effective leadership.
Leadership development strengthens the effectiveness of teams in meeting strategic objectives while building a culture that encourages employee engagement.
Individual development, for its part, rests on a targeted development plan, supported by a genuine motivation to progress.
Taken together, the Hogan assessments and the Hogan 360 can surface particularly nuanced insight into a leader's strengths and into the difficulties or challenges they may face.
"The best leaders are the best learners," Peter Berry explains. "PBC encourages people to take a curious mindset. Feedback is the breakfast of champions."
The four metacompetencies this research brings out are a reminder that effective leadership rests on a balance between several dimensions: understanding yourself, delivering results, thinking long term and rallying others around a shared vision.
For organisations, the challenge is therefore to move past an approach to leadership built solely on experience, technical expertise or intuition. Personality assessment, paired with behavioural data from a 360-degree exercise, makes better sense of how a leader is likely to act, how they are perceived by those around them and which areas their development should focus on.
Built into a talent management strategy, this data can support the identification of leadership potential, the coaching of executives, skills development and team transformation.
The aim is not only to develop better leaders in the short term, but to build leadership that is more conscious, more adaptable and more durable, capable of strengthening performance, employee engagement and the organisation's success all at once.
At Authentic Talent, we believe that objective assessment of talent and potential within organisations is a decisive factor in their future success. If you would like to discuss it with us, let's talk!
This article draws on an article published on the Hogan Assessments website: Four Metacompetencies of Leadership
