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For the last couple of weeks, I have beeninvolved in conducting a consulting service for one of the largest banks in Korea. The purpose of the consulting was to examine how high-performingbranches are working, how they are different from medium- or low-performingbranches, and how a high-performing organizational culture can be nurtured.

I visited ten branches and interviewed their sales forces, middle managers, and branch managers. Since they werelocated in different environments, their answers provided me with a lot of thought-provoking insights. For example, some branches told me that their remote location had been preventing them from attracting customers. However, there were some branches that were also located remotely, yet this didn’t seem to be a problem for them.

What became most apparent was that the methods, strategies, and processes that the high-performing branches adopted were surprisingly different. All the branches had different approaches as to how sales goals should be shared with and assigned to each staff member and how comprehensive sales should be managed. For example, some branches allocated the same share to each employee, while others made only goals for the staff as awhole. Nonetheless, both types of branches had similar performances and were picked as exemplary branches.

Different branches also had different views on how marketing activities should be implemented; this tended to vary accordingto their clientele and sales strategies. In addition, each branch manager had different secrets on how to motivate, educate, and manage their staff. Finally, and most notably, they had different policies for sales, treating customers, and achieving sales targets.

At first, I was taken aback by how dissimilar each high-performing branch was, since I was supposed to collect common methodologies and processes that worse-performing branches could copy. I began spending a lot of time analyzing each branch’s sales trends against their strategies. However, it was not easy to find common data on what really made them excellent branches.

Fortunately, however, as the interviews went on, I was able to find what helped them achieve better results than theother branches. It was the high quality of leadership that was present in each successful branch. Even though the specific techniques utilized were different, the mind-sets, attitudes, and behaviors were similar or the same. This was my “aha moment.” I was astounded by these real-life examples of powerful and influential leadership, which could be seen not only in the branches’performance, but also in the way that the employees and middle managers talked about their branch leaders.

There were many types of effective leadership. Some leaders gave their power and influence to their middle managers, so the middle managers were the ones who really directed, motivated and educated employees. However, some leaders took those responsibilities onto themselves, and showed genuine interest in how their employees were treated and what they needed. No matter how they interacted with employees, however, there was one thing they undeniably had in common: enthusiasm for their mission. This characteristic was obvious and, because of that, caused a considerable ripple effect, transferring from the top to the bottom naturally. The branch managers served as role models from whom middle managers and employees learned behaviors.

The effects were almost magic: it seemed as though whatever the leaders wanted to happen came true. Whatever specific goals each branch had were attained. I am not saying that the branch managers were omnipotent; however, their leadership created an atmosphere of possibility. Of course, they were reading their physical environments well and strategizing on how best to use their resources and people—passion alone isn’tenough. However, the keen expressions in their eyes made me sure that the most powerful secret of high-performing organizational cultures was the spirit of their leaders.

Nowadays, many people say that Korea cannot expect the economic growth that it had experienced in the past due to a mismatch between the new global economic paradigm and our old, traditional approaches. However, I believe that high-performing culture is more dependent on leaders’ mindsets and attitudes than on any one approach. That is why we should look at our mental preparation and mindsets first. Then, we can look at tools, techniques and theories. Culture is the mirror of leaders’ spirits.