Entrepreneurship
How Leadership Accountability Drives Company Performance
Leadership plays a big role in determining the success of an organization.
Effective and accountable leadership can help propel a company forward. On the flip side, a failure to live up to the expectations of leadership can have cascading and lingering effects across an entire organization.
Bridging the Leadership Accountability Gap
Today’s infographic, from bestselling author Vince Molinaro, is a revealing look at the impact that leadership accountability can have on an organization.
Pre-order Vince Molinaro’s new book, Accountable Leaders
The Value of Leadership Accountability
The majority of people within organizations understand the value of leadership accountability – yet, in practice, many leaders fail to deliver on that promise.
A global survey of over 2,000 HR leaders and senior executives revealed that a mere 27% believed they had a strong leadership culture. Two-thirds of those surveyed believed that leadership accountability is a critical issue within their organization, while only one-third are satisfied with the degree of leadership accountability demonstrated at in their workplace.
What impact does this leadership accountability gap have on the performance of a company? As it turns out, a lot.
The Critical Link Between Accountability and Performance
Once survey responses were organized into three distinct categories – low performers, average performers, and industry leaders – interesting trends began to emerge.
Companies in the “industry leaders” category were far more likely to have a culture of leadership accountability. In fact, industry leaders were twice as likely to have clearly established expectations for their leadership team than respondents in the average or lower performing categories. These high performing companies were also far more likely to:
- Have formal succession programs to help identify high-potential leaders
- Have practices in place to foster more diverse leadership teams
- Implement development programs to effectively build the capacity of leaders
Industry leading companies had leadership teams that ranked higher in a number of key areas. Leaders at high performing companies were far more likely to:
- Understand customer needs and desires
- Understand external trends affecting the business
- Demonstrate a high level of emotional maturity
- Demonstrate passion for executing on the company’s vision
In many of these areas, the gap between industry leaders and the other categories is significant, which presents a compelling case for embracing leadership accountability as a core value.
Building a Strong Leadership Culture: Questions to Ask
The first step to building a culture of leadership accountability is self reflection. Here are questions leaders can ask to help assess how their organization is doing:
- Is leadership accountability a critical priority in your organization?
- Has your organization set clear leadership expectations for leaders?
- Do you believe your leaders at all levels, are fully committed to their leadership roles?
- Have you built a strong and aligned leadership culture across your organization?
- Does your organization have the courage to identify and address mediocre leadership at an individual and team level?
Answering “no” to any of the questions above means there’s an opportunity to develop a more accountable and effective leadership team.
Only three things happen naturally in organizations. Friction, confusion and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.
– Peter Drucker
Misc
The Type of Business Every Country Wants to Start
This series of maps shows a regional breakdown of the most popular types of businesses people want to start, based on online search results.
Creator Program
The Type of Business Every Country Wants to Start
View a higher resolution version of this map.
Every year, millions of new businesses are started across the world—in 2021, nearly 5.4 million new business applications were filed in the U.S. alone.
And since startups and new businesses play a significant role in shaping a country’s economic growth, encouraging entrepreneurship is vital. But what types of businesses around the world are people most interested in starting?
These maps by ZenBusiness show the most popular types of businesses that entrepreneurs in nearly every country want to start, based on analyzing relevant internet search results.
Most Searched Businesses Around the World
To source the data, ZenBusiness analyzed searches from Ahrefs, specifically looking for the term “start a business” and its equivalents in local languages as of February 2022.
They then found the relevant topic or keyword with the highest search volume, and organized the results into 11 different industries:
- Beauty & Cosmetics
- Food & Drink
- Logistics & Infrastructure
- Personal Services
- Recycling
- Software Development
- Business & Financial
- Leisure & Tourism
- Marketing
- Real Estate
- Retail & E-Commerce
The data showed that the industries entrepreneurs are most attracted to vary greatly from country to country, depending on a variety of factors such as infrastructure, business climate, and culture.
Here’s a breakdown of the most searched businesses around the world, broken down by region.
Africa
From cooking gas refills in South Africa to supplements in the Gambia, entrepreneurs across Africa seem to be interested in starting a wide range of businesses (at least according to their searches).
But while the results varied across the region, the most-searched industry was personal services such as cleaning, interior design, and contracting. Cleaning was especially popular, ranking first in six different African countries.
One African country worth highlighting is Morocco, where freight is the most-searched startup term across the country. This makes sense considering Morocco is home to several major ports, including the Port of Tanger Med, which is Africa’s largest port by cargo capacity.
Europe
In Europe, real estate is the most-searched industry, ranking number one in seven different countries across the continent. Over the last decade, the European Union’s real estate market has boomed—between 2010 and 2021, home prices in the EU increased by 42%.
Retail is also a popular industry across Europe, with clothing-related searching taking the top spot in five different European countries.
Middle East & Central Asia
From soap production in Uzbekistan to dropshipping in Azerbaijan, the Middle East & Central Asia have the most diverse searches compared to any other region.
One particularly interesting top search was in the United Arab Emirates, where imports and exports ranked first. The UAE’s economy is heavily reliant on trade, especially oil, which makes up 30% of the region’s GDP and 41% of public revenues.
Rest of Asia & Oceania
Asia and Oceania had an interesting mix of unique business searches. For instance, pig farming ranked number one in the Solomon Islands, and lawn moving took the top spot in New Zealand.
But generally speaking, retail was one of the most-searched-for business types across this region, with clothing taking the top spot in countries like Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
North America
Across North America, retail takes the top spot for most searched business type. In fact, the top searches in nearly half of the region’s countries are related to the retail or e-commerce industry.
The U.S. currently has the largest retail market in the world, although China is close on its heels. In 2021, America’s retail market was valued at over $6.5 trillion U.S. dollars.
South America
Food was the top searched industry across South America, ranking number one in half the countries across the region. In Brazil, sweets took the top spot, which might not be surprising considering the country is the top sugar cane producer worldwide.
Clothing was also a popular business idea, taking the top spot in five South American countries.
Which countries surprised you the most with their new business interest?
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