Leadership Behaviour: The Foundation of High-Impact Leadership

Welcome back! If you've been following our Leadership Impact Chain discussions, you'll know that we've journeyed from business impact to performance, to the conditions that drive performance. Now, we land on the core of it all - leadership behaviour. Because, at the end of the day, leadership is not just a title; it’s a series of actions, words, and decisions that shape the work environment and the experience of those around us.

What is the Leadership Impact Chain?

The Leadership Impact Chain framework helps to ensure that leadership and its development and practice isn’t just theory, but is directly linked to practical business outcomes, leading to desired business results and long-term success. It also helps identify and address any breaks in the chain quickly. The approach identifies four key links in the chain:

1. Business impact: Defining the business results you want to achieve

2. Performance: Understanding the performance needed from the leader’s team to reach those results

3. Creating the conditions for success: Ensuring leaders create the optimal environment for their team to deliver the desired level of performance

4. Leadership behaviours: Defining the specific leadership behaviours necessary to foster the right environment

Source

These elements are interconnected and must work together to achieve meaningful results.

The Power of Leadership Behaviour

Leadership behaviour is the force that creates the conditions for success. It’s not about being in charge, but about consciously shaping a climate where teams thrive. Our focus isn’t just on what makes a great leader in theory - Google can give you a million different answers - but on what leadership looks like in practice, specifically within the context of an organisation’s goals and challenges.

When we talk about leadership behaviour, we’re talking about the things we do and say, the conversations we engage in, and the intentional ways we show up every day. These behaviours create the work climate, influence team and individual performance, and ultimately impact the business. And here’s the thing: if we’re not deliberate about them, our habitual behaviours will dictate the environment by default.

This says a lot about who we are at our core and why we exist as a business. LIW's purpose is to 'Improve lives by transforming the experience' and we believe this is where leadership comes in. What we are focused on is developing that leadership behaviour in others.

The Four Practices of Leadership Behaviour

Through our leadership development work, we’ve identified four foundational practices that empower leaders to drive meaningful impact. Think of them as the core pillars of leadership behaviour:

1. Be Present

Being present is about more than just showing up - it’s about truly engaging in the moment. Leaders who master presence actively listen, tune into their surroundings, and stay aware of their own emotions. They notice what’s happening in their teams and make space for meaningful conversations.

In today’s digital world, distractions are everywhere—emails, messages, and the ever-present background noise of daily life. The challenge for leaders is to cut through this and be fully present. Whether it’s a one-on-one with a team member or a critical strategic meeting, being present enhances decision-making and deepens relationships.

When leaders can cultivate the art of being present, everything else they do, they do with awareness of the impact they are having...

2. Stay Curious

Curiosity is the gateway to learning and growth. Great leaders listen - really listen - not just to respond, but to understand. They ask thoughtful questions, challenge assumptions, and remain open to different perspectives.

Otto Scharmer describes the highest level of listening as "listening with an open will" - the ability to move away from one’s own viewpoint and create something better together. This kind of deep listening is a superpower in leadership, allowing teams to collaborate more effectively and innovate with purpose.

Real curiosity gives a leader valuable data that supports decisions and drives proactive, informed behaviour...

3. Make Conscious Choices

Many leaders operate on autopilot, repeating behaviours and decisions out of habit rather than intention. Making conscious choices means pausing to evaluate our actions, questioning whether they align with our goals, assessing the data we have gathered, leveraging it to best effect and being deliberate in how we lead.

This applies to everything—from how we communicate with our teams to the strategic decisions we make. Leaders who embrace this practice ensure their actions align with the outcomes they want to achieve, bypass bias and increase effectiveness, rather than defaulting to past behaviours that may no longer serve them.

However, great leaders know that what looks good on paper or in theory may not have the impact they desire or expect. Leaders must test their hypotheses against real world evidence...

4. Keep Experimenting

Leadership is an ongoing experiment. The best leaders embrace a mindset of continuous learning, testing new approaches, and adapting based on what works. Rather than seeing decisions as final, they view them as hypotheses - ideas to be tested and refined.

‍

This requires regular reflection. What was the intended result? What worked? What didn’t? How can we adjust? Leaders who cultivate this experimental mindset create a culture where innovation thrives and where failure is seen as a stepping stone to success.

Why This Matters

The impact of leadership behaviour goes beyond the workplace. It shapes how people feel about their jobs, how they show up at home, and how they interact with their families. Leaders have the power to create an environment that supports not just professional success, but personal well-being as well.

By focusing on these four practices - being present, staying curious, making conscious choices, and continuously experimenting - leaders can create the conditions for high performance, engaged teams, and lasting business impact.

Next time, we’ll dive into a critical question:  how do we measure leadership behaviour and its impact? Stay tuned!

What’s your experience with leadership behaviour? Have you seen these practices in action? What do you in your experience believe to be the most essential leadership behaviours? Let’s continue the conversation!