SHRM26 Debrief · Leadership & Development · #3604

Achieving Results: Success Through Purposeful Future-Ready Leadership

with Tracey Walker

& Sarah Bettman

& Rachael Marangu

▶ Watch on the SHRM portal ~56 min, distilled

leadership developmenttrust and EQleadership frameworks

"It wasn't HR at all. What they had between their lettered community and their worker community was a trust problem. A trust problem, which is, by extension, a leadership problem."

What it was about

Leadership excellence comes from a measurable formula, not vague platitudes: EQ (character, earns trust) plus IQ (competency, earns respect) plus XQ (results, earns credibility) equals LQ, your Leadership Quotient. The best leaders learn to balance five commitments, become, inspire, engage, achieve, innovate, rather than relying on competency models alone.

By the numbers

2x revenue, 4x profit, 9x employee engagement, 10x net promoter score

Business-case multipliers attributed to strong leadership focus

70% engagement is manager-driven

Share of employee engagement attributable to direct managers

Doug Conant wrote 30,000 individual letters

Anecdote about the Campbell Soup CEO's employee-engagement practice during a turnaround

Key notes

Diagnose organizational conflict as a trust and leadership problem before defaulting to blaming HR. Tension between groups is often a leadership failure, not an HR failure.
Build leadership currency deliberately across three dimensions: EQ (authenticity, trust), IQ (knowledge, respect), and XQ (results, credibility). Recognize which one you're leaning on at a given career stage and consciously develop the others.
Use the five-commitments model (become, inspire, engage, achieve, innovate) as a balancing act, not a checklist you complete once. The balance point shifts every time you get promoted.

The contrarian takeCompetency and skills-based leadership models, the dominant approach at most organizations, are called out as necessary but 'not enough.' The speakers argue purpose- and EQ-driven development matters more, and that leadership problems blamed on HR are frequently trust and leadership problems in disguise.

Take this back Monday

Do this for your team

Ask each manager which leadership currency (trust, competency, or results) they're leaning on, and coach the other two.

Say this in your next leadership meeting

Culture conflicts we're blaming on HR are usually trust and leadership failures in disguise, not recruiting or rewards problems.

Watch out for

Assuming organizational culture problems are HR's fault (recruiting, rewards, recognition) when the root cause is actually a leadership/trust deficit.
Relying only on competency and skills-based models for leadership development: only 7% of CEOs believe their companies build effective global leaders, and only 11% believe their programs deliver sustained results.
Using command-and-control leadership styles that don't resonate with younger, multigenerational workforces.

Fun fact · Sarah Bettman

Panelist Sarah Bettman is a certified coach who left SHRM Linkage in 2017 only to boomerang back — and unwinds by racing in ultra-endurance events.

If this landed, see these

↳ Go deeperThe Secret Superpower of High Functioning Leaders: How Process Intelligence Creates Aligned, Accountable TeamsAdds process intelligence as the missing third variable in the EQ-plus-IQ math.⇄ The counterpointThe Leadership Clarity Gap: Why "Authentic Leadership" Fails Without DefinitionSays the real gap isn't a missing formula, it's leaders never defining authenticity at all.✦ The unexpected oneState of the Workforce 2026: What to Keep, What to Change, and What AI Is Actually Doing to Your EmployeesTen million workforce data points test whether the same human predictors actually hold up.