Leadership Is Not One-Size-Fits-All

Leadership, despite all the research, is still not understood in terms of antecedents. There is no one way to determine leadership effectiveness; leadership itself encompasses so many types of employees, that what might be needed for one leader, may be detrimental at another time or to another leader. As an example, a business leader may be purposeful in obtaining support, ideas, encouraging team members to challenge ideas within the project/program team meetings. Whereas a military leader in combat may require immediate action and commitment from troops without collaboration on options. The approach would certainly differ based on situation. 

Of utmost importance for business practitioners is the belief that there is little evidence in how one might develop leaders to be most effective. Research indicates a strong link between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership (Barbuto & Burback, 2006), but developing effective programs is not as clear. In the 2015 book, Neuroscience for Leadership, the authors write that research has provided little hard evidence about what leadership products work and/or why some development programs work while others do not (Swart, Chisholm, & Brown; 2015).

Boytzis (2008) reminds us that other intrinsic issues also impact leadership development initiatives. He is clear that adult learning principles must be considered in evaluating effectiveness of leadership development practices but only adults who want to develop leader characteristics will benefit; and that many people participate in learning activities to satisfy other people’s expectations. These researchers are consistent in clarifying the complexity of leadership learning initiatives. They reinforce that many factors play a role when developing leadership interventions. 

Human Resource and Human Research Development professionals are reminded that leaders more often disengage their direct reports than they engage them. Psychologist R. Hogan’s research found managers to be incompetent 60-75% of the time. Consider your own experience and consider leaders who have been promoted to levels of incompetence or those that are intoxicated with power; the results may appear as tyrants, bullies, or just totally incompetent in delivering results. Organizations therefore may choose to respond by creating strategies to recruit, retain, and develop leaders who positively impact their direct reports; and HR Development professionals may then be challenged with ongoing leadership development that supports positive results of individuals and teams, while minimizing negative leadership traits that demotivates and disengages all types of employees.

How well are you developing your leaders? How well do your interventions provide positive results in terms of organizational performance? And for longer term success, how well are you measuring the effectiveness of your developing exceptional leaders? What will it take to motivate your leaders to want to learn, and apply what is learned? Lots of questions that are often overlooked in an organization’s leadership development strategies. Coaching, mentoring, workshops, assessments…. Finding many options may be the best way to meet the needs of your many leaders.