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

six major disruptive trends and six primary
development areas that allowed us to categorize the research results-and to create a
framework that we could both test and use
for leadership development going forward
(we use the term health as it best captures the
notion of optimal functional efficiency in a
living organism). We are explicit in our definitions of each of the dimensions of health,
which tend to be broader than conventional
usage (particularly as it relates to spiritual
health).
* Intellectual health is important because of
significantly increased complexity; it
involves thinking beyond the linear path,
embracing deep curiosity, an adaptive
mindset and paradoxical thinking. Leaders need this mental flexibility to adapt to
today's rapidly changing environment and
analyze complex, even contradictory
information.
* Vocational health is important because of
significantly increased competition; it
involves having a sense of meaningful calling. It provides leaders the drive they need
to achieve personal mastery and market
savvy while also modeling for others the
value of excellence and performance.
* Physical health is important because of the
speed of the current environment; it is
about energy management. Today's leaders need discipline to maintain a peakperformance lifestyle that enables stamina
and vitality despite unrelenting demands.
It also means having mind-body awareness to stay conscious of the ways fatigue,
stress, and illness can influence perceptions and performance.
* Emotional health is important because of
the level of uncertainty in today's business
landscape; it ensures balance so that negative thoughts and feelings don't disrupt
performance. Emotional health is rooted
in self-awareness and is comfortable with
uncertainty and vulnerability. A default
toward optimism ensures resilience in the
face of setbacks.
* Social health is important because of the
need for transparency in the face of significant cynicism toward today's leaders; it
focuses on how you interact with the
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PEOPLE & STRATEGY

world and people around you-including
having strong personal connections,
mutually beneficial relationships, and
nourishing communities. Social health
elevates leaders to be authentic and maintain integrity in all relationships and
interactions.
* Spiritual health is important because of
the increasing globalization and interconnectedness of today's world; it is
defined as seeing oneself as part of a
greater whole-having a higher purpose
and grasp of the global and interconnectedness of today's world. Spiritual health
includes having a magnanimous and generous spirit that fosters a long-term perspective rather than merely a transactional
one.
While there is significant research around
several of the areas we identified (most notably Daniel Goleman's work on EQ¹ and the
Corporate Athlete's focus on physical and
emotional health for leaders²), we sensed that
a more holistic view of leadership would substantially add to the body of knowledge.
Although psychologists and a variety
of medical practitioners have long known
of the powerful connection between cognition, emotions, relationships, and overall
health, we found little research that linked
this knowledge to our understanding of leadership and its impact on personal or organizational performance. These are
interconnections that, until now, have been
extremely underestimated.

The Research Design
To test our hypothesis-that each dimension
of leadership health is predictive of effective
leadership actions and high performance-
we designed a survey that gathered feedback
from leaders, their boss, their subordinates,
and their peers. A separate survey gathered
feedback about effective leadership actions,
and a third gathered data about each leader's
job performance. This third survey included
questions about employee engagement. Survey questions were painstakingly crafted,
pretested and honed prior to beta testing
(via multiple rounds of "friends and family"
testing). Through an item analysis, questions
that did not support the validity and reli-

ability of a scale in the survey were eliminated after the beta testing and prior to
commercial launch.
These surveys included:
* Questions on perceived health in each of
the six leadership dimensions. Examples
of some of the 108 questions include:
[Name] manages his/her workload so
that s/he has the energy needed to
work and compete successfully
(physical health).
[Name] creates heightened expectations without raising the stress levels
of the team (emotional health).
[Name] is good at seeing different
perspectives in meetings without
judging them (intellectual health).
[Name] has a business reputation for
being open, honest and trustworthy
(social health).
[Name] obviously enjoys and is energized by the work s/he does every day
(vocational health).
[Name] is someone who not only
contributes to the success of the business, but seeks to improve the lives of
all those around him/her (spiritual
health).
* Questions about effective leadership
actions. Examples of some of the 30 questions include:
[Name's] team operates with a shared
set of values (higher purpose).
[Name's] team members have a clear
sense of how their individual roles
contribute to the broader organizational goals (shared direction).
[Name's] team works to ensure that
it provides the most possible value to
our business partners (productive
relationships).
Everyone on [name's] team feels like
they are learning important knowl-

People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

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