15 Strategies for High-Impact Leadership: A Year Long Focus that Can Transforms Individual, Team and Organization Success
Creating an exceptional organization requires exceptional leaders. Leadership requires inspiring people to want to follow, and optimally, to want to lead (projects, their own role, and possible others). Leadership is not one class, or even one degree (which includes many courses), it is a life long journey because once you master one style/approach, things change, people change, problems/obstacles change.
Organizations that want to create exceptional leaders can do so with a strategic and system-wide approach. Below are ways to operationalize and embed exceptional leadership practices into leadership expectations, accountability mechanisms, and organizational processes. The first five are best practices based on Posner/Kouzes 40 years of exemplary leadership research.
1. Inspire a Shared Vision
Integrate vision-setting into leadership development programs.
Encourage leaders to create a team vision with their departments.
Require leaders to co-create team goals that align with organizational strategy.
Use 360-feedback to measure how well leaders communicate and champion vision.
2. Model Core Values
Help leadership discover their core values, and understand the benefits of leader from this place of authenticity.
Tie leader performance to observable behaviors that reflect core values, as well as team results.
Use behavioral interviews and case scenarios in promotion decisions.
Recognize and reward value-based leadership in performance reviews.
3. Remove Obstacles
Expect leaders to regularly gather feedback on workflow bottlenecks.
Introduce lean, agile or other continuous improvement practices to provide autonomy for individuals and teams.
Evaluate leaders on how effectively they escalate and resolve barriers.
4. Celebrate Wins
Include “recognition practices” in leadership competency frameworks.
Educate leaders on the power and purpose of positive reinforcement for employee.
Track frequency and types of recognition through pulse surveys or HRIS systems.
Offer tools and training on meaningful, personalized recognition.
5. Empower Others to Act
Hold leaders accountable for developing others—track team promotions, lateral moves, and project ownership.
Monitor micromanagement indicators via engagement feedback.
Coach leaders to delegate, coach, and encourage autonomy.
6. Elevate Others
Use peer and upward feedback to identify if leaders mentor or overshadow others; or if leaders build up others or knock them down (micromanage or toxic/bullying approaches).
Evaluate how leaders advocate for others during talent reviews.
Highlight “lifting others up” as a success metric in performance conversations.
7. Create Psychological Safety
Include safety and trust questions in culture or team effectiveness surveys.
Embrace the power of trust as a foundational core value throughout the organization.
Train leaders to navigate tough conversations with empathy and openness.
Address repeated patterns of fear-based or dismissive leadership directly.
8. Act Quickly on Ineffectiveness
Establish a structured process for identifying leadership derailers (e.g., low engagement, high turnover, poor cross-functional feedback).
Align HRBPs and senior leadership to act swiftly when red flags appear.
Treat leadership behavior as critical to performance—not optional.
9. Invest in Leadership Development
Offer tiered leadership development programs based on growth goals and organizational impact.
Build personalized leadership development plans with metrics for application.
Leverage omni-dimensional mentoring relationships
Provide challenging work/projects to encourage leadership development.
10. Promote Based on Impact, Not Tenure
Redesign promotion criteria to emphasize outcomes, behaviors, and cultural contributions.
Use data (project success, engagement scores, 360s) to inform advancement.
Clarify and develop leaders and emerging leaders on core leadership competencies.
11. Evaluate Trust and Influence
Implement trust-building assessments as part of leadership reviews.
Embrace the power of trust as a foundational core value throughout the organization.
Track retention, psychological safety, and collaboration under each leader.
Use anonymous feedback tools to assess influence and credibility.
12. Lead with Respect and Inclusion
Audit inclusion and belonging metrics per leader.
Require inclusive leadership training and follow-up application activities.
Hold leaders accountable for building diverse, equitable, and welcoming teams.
13. HR’s Role in Upholding Culture
Empower HR to act as a coach and watchdog—not just a compliance partner.
Train HR on courageous conversations and evidence-based leadership assessment.
Include cultural fit and leadership impact in regular HR reviews.
14. Link Culture to Promotion and Removal
Include cultural alignment as a non-negotiable for role advancement.
Use exit interviews, stay interviews, and internal feedback to flag culturally harmful leadership.
Remove leaders who repeatedly violate values—regardless of results.
15. Reframe the Cost of Inaction
Present business cases showing the cost of poor leadership (e.g., turnover, disengagement, missed innovation).
Use data dashboards to link leadership behavior to team performance.
Regularly review whether leadership is accelerating or hindering organizational growth.