Oftentimes, what separates good leaders from bad ones lies is their art of communication. Much has been said about preferred leadership styles which advocate openness, tolerance and active engagement with subordinates. James R. Detert But according to James Detert, Assistant Professor of Management at Cornell University, it’s not enough to just possess good leadership traits. “What my research is suggesting is that that's actually just the starting point. That these behaviours are a necessary but insufficient condition for upward communication from subordinates to their authority figures in most organisations for a set of reasons. “One is that even when leader behaviour is pretty positive for open communication, often organisational systems or structures are not positive,” explains Detert, who spoke to INSEAD Knowledge on the sidelines of the first INSEAD-Wharton Research Conference on Leadership.