The DNA of Leadership: Build Genuine Relationships to Shape Great Teams

19 Jul 2025 · 3 min

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2:41

In this segment of William Davis’s talk, the speaker highlights a widening gap between what leadership is perceived to be and what it actually entails. He cites three recent data points that illustrate a global and national leadership crisis: (1) the World Economic Forum’s 2023 declaration of a worldwide leadership crisis, attributing it to rapid technological and societal advances outpacing leadership development; (2) the U.S. News & World Report Harris Poll (Nov 2023) showing 86% of Americans are disappointed with societal leaders, 84% see a crisis in government leadership, and 78% perceive a crisis in corporate leadership; (3) corporate employee surveys that consistently reveal leadership approval ratings in the 50‑70% range, far below the 90% CEOs expect, indicating a disconnect between executive expectations and employee sentiment. The speaker uses these statistics to argue that current leadership practices are failing to meet expectations, setting the stage for a discussion on building genuine relationships to improve team performance.

Chapters

Because what I have seen over that period of time is that what leadership truly is and what people think leadership is don't jive, right? And here is some statistics that I want to share with you that help reiterate that particular fact. In the spring of 19— or in 2023, the World Economic Forum at their conference in Switzerland declared that we have a worldwide leadership crisis. All right, now they based that on the fact of all the advancement that we've had in technology, all the advancement that we've had throughout the world in other areas, and leadership's just not able to keep up. Interesting thought. Interesting thought. So in November of 2023, the U.S. News and World Report Harris Poll declared that 86% of those who were surveyed said that they were largely disappointed by leaders in our society. We're talking America here, not world. America. All right, 84% of them said that there is a crisis in leadership in our government. Shocker, right? I think everybody has an opinion of what leaders should be doing in our government. But then the one that really hit home and the one that really resonated with me, because this is what I was seeing in corporate America, is 78% said that there is a leadership crisis In corporate America. That's a high percentage, right? And this correlated with what I saw across corporate America when they would do their yearly employee surveys. Hey, how are we doing as a corporation? When you got to the leadership aspect of the survey, always 50, 60, 70% Approval rating, and CEOs were saying, why is it not 90? Why is it not 90? Well, it's not 90 because 78% of your people are saying you're missing something.