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    Research

    Evidence for the conversations that matter

    A research programme built around real leadership difficulties: which conversations recur, what people actually say, and which observable behaviours change the outcome.

    • Conflict
    • Development
    • Influence
    • Execution
    • Adaptive
    Illustrative. Each point stands for one of 11,359 real leadership cases, gathering into the 20 moments. Cluster sizes are equal, not to scale. Source: Report 01, draft
    Where the 20 Moments come from

    We named them first, then went looking.

    A Moment is a conversation you need a specific skill for. Here's how we arrived at these twenty.

    See all 20, ranked
    1. We defined them in advance

      Before looking at any cases, we wrote down twenty specific conversations that leaders find hard, each with someone who wants something and a point where you have to act.
    2. We looked for them in real cases

      We checked each one against a two-decade archive of 11,359 real leadership cases. Every Moment turned up. The least common still appeared in 493 of them.
    3. We checked the ranking holds

      We split the archive in half at random and ranked the Moments in each half. Both halves gave almost exactly the same order.
    4. We wrote down what good looks like

      For each Moment we listed the behaviours you can see or hear when the conversation goes well: 298 in all. That's what a simulation checks for.

    How often a Moment comes up isn't the same as how much it matters. Some rare ones do real damage when they go wrong, so we treat frequency and importance separately.

    Research reports.

    Permanent, dated and versioned so every finding can be traced to its source.

    • Report 01v0.2 · September 2026

      Research Report 01

      Giving open & honest feedback appears most often in the current draft prevalence table: 32.6% of 11,359 cases.

    • Report 02

      Research Report 02

      The source material says four to six moments can be collapsed into one category, and notes 112 SHL components with none for feedback.

    • Report 03

      Research Report 03

      206 of 298 markers (69%) were confirmed against real data. Confirmation rates followed the predicted gradient: 89% for counterpart-said markers, 81% for observable facts and 50% for judgement calls.

    Living reference

    The Leadership Moment Index

    Which conversations come up most often for leaders? Follow the prevalence and primary-share findings as the archive grows.

    How can this help you now?

    For you

    Learn the skill. Practise that tough conversation privately, now.

    • Try a simulation free
    • See the sentence behind every result

    Practise, Measurement, Feedback, Confidence. It's in your grasp.

    Try it now!
    For your organisation

    Honest data, because nobody performs for an audience

    • Find which Moments your leaders actually struggle with
    • Evidence mapped to your competency framework
    • Aggregate-only reporting

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