People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1 - 41

Table 3

Percent High Employee Engagement vs. Health Score
90%
80%
70%

70%

81%

77%

75%

72%

60%
50%
40%

30%

28%
25%

23%

19%

20%
10%
Physical

Vocational

Intellectual

Social

High Score

Emotionall

Spiritual

Low Score

Finally, the cumulative findings have profound implications for how we think about
leadership, as well as how we support and
develop current and emerging leaders. Some
have observed that these findings provide
empirical support for what might be considered conventional wisdom: being a wellrounded, grounded human being is at the
center of being a great leader.
Ronald Heifetz identified "an unprecedented
crisis in leadership" in his groundbreaking
book, Leadership Without Easy Answers.³ He
attributes that crisis to our lack of understanding and unrealistic expectations of leaders as well as how best to support their

ing, mentor-protégé relationships with
exemplars, and peer leadership learning partners. The more visible the development journey of key leaders is within an organization,
the more leadership development becomes a
part of the fabric and culture of the organization. Leadership learning and development
becomes who the organization is-not just
what the organization does. We are hoping
this research will prompt organizational dialogue around dimensions of leadership too
often not discussed. A deeper more holistic
approach to leadership and leadership development will result in effective, fulfilled leaders and sustainable high-performing
organizations that make their communities
and the world a better place.

References

development. Heifetz's work affirms our
research, both of which conclude that organizations need to recognize that leadership is
both active and reflective. In addition to providing leaders with development opportunities in the way of training and stretch
assignments, leaders need to be challenged to
commit to a lifelong leadership development
journey-a journey that includes deep introspection as well as mastering leadership
skills.
Leaders need to be held accountable for
developing their whole selves. Some best
practices in this regard include personal leadership development plans, executive coach-

Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. New
York: Bantam Books, 1995.

Loehr, Jim. Corporate Athletic Training. Human
Performance Institute.

Heifetz, Ronald A. Leadership Without Easy
Answers. Harvard University Press, 1994.

State of the American workplace: Employee
engagement insights for U.S. business leaders;
2013 (A continuation of Gallup's previous report
covering 2008-2010).

Harter, J.K., Schmitt, F.L., & Hayes, T.L. (2002)
Business-unit-level relationship between
employee satisfaction, employee engagement,
and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 87(2), 268-279.

Table 4

Cell entries are t-values for Health Area regression coefficients*
Health Areas

Overall

Emotional

3.826

Intellectual

Male

3.213

Female

3.347
3.389

Physical
Social
Spiritual
Vocational

2.462
2.422

2.034

*Per the Table 2 note, the statistically significant t-values are reported above. The larger t-values
indicate greater predictive power.

2.775

Kathleen T. Ross, Ph.D., is executive
vice president, leadership development, at Healthy Companies International. She has worked in a variety
of settings, including start-ups, IPOs,
and mergers and acquisitions in the
private sector, as well for not-for-profit
organizations. She can be reached at
kathie.ross@healthycompanies.com.
Paul Squires, Ph.D., is president and
founder of Applied Skills & Knowledge. He can be reached at paul.
appliedskills@gmail.com.

VOLUME 38/ISSUE 1 - 2015

People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1