Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman in their latest book, The Inspiring Leader, share a remarkable piece of data about how to move your leadership ability to its full potential. Their research found that far and away the most powerful leadership competency is “inspires and motivates others to high performance.”

“So, big deal; no surprise there,” you say? Well, here’s the neat part. They found that if you have a particular strength in “Inspires Others” and can combine them with two other leadership strengths–”Analytical/Technical Ability” and “Gets Results”–your probability of being what they call an “extraordinary leader” (i.e. rated as more effective a leader than 90% of other managers out there) goes up geometrically. Take a look at what they found the various probabilities to be:

• Analytical/Technical Ability, alone – 0.9% (i.e. less than 1%)
• Gets Results, alone – 0.8% (again, less than 1%)
• Inspires Others, alone – 1.1% (again, just around the same 1%)
• Analytical/Technical Ability & Gets Results, combined – 6.6%

But, when you have developed a strength in all three competencies your probability of entering the ranks of the 10% most effective leaders rises to an astounding 77%.

What’s the lesson here? While you may be a results-driven leader, you are operating way below your potential unless you develop the ability to tap into the remarkable power of desire and commitment within your team. Inspiration, obviously, is located on the “heart” (as opposed to “head”) side of performance.

What truly excites you about the results for which you are striving? (Other than your own year-end bonus)

Why should your employees care? What’s in it for them? (Hint: “They get to keep their job” is not the right answer.)

Who will be served if your unit or organization achieves the results? (Beyond your stockholders)

If these questions have not occurred to you thus far in your career, perhaps it’s time you started asking them.