Ronald E. RiggioJay A. Conger
Effective leadership is not easy, and there is no easy path to becoming an effective leader. Leadership is in and of itself one of the most complex of human endeavors. Moreover, leading in today’s increasingly complicated and fast-paced world is becoming more and more difficult. Add into that mix the greater complexity of organizations and a more empowered (and demanding) group of followers, and the challenge of being an effective leader seems almost insurmountable.
The theme of this book, and of the conference that preceded it, was to gather together scholars, each an expert in a particular area of leadership, and ask them to extract from a vast and rich body of research the insights that could truly inform the practice of leadership. The ultimate goal was to inform practicing leaders about what works and what does not.
A topic as complex as leadership can be studied from multiple angles and broken down into a number of foundational or key elements; each of these elements can in turn be analyzed in great detail. The chapters in this book represent those elements that we felt were the most important factors in determining effective leadership for today’s world. Together, they represent a solid core for understanding how organizations and individuals can maximize their leadership potential and effectiveness.
So what do we know about the practice of leadership? One thing is certain: from decades of research we know more about getting it wrong than about getting it right. From leader selection to assessment, from leading diverse groups to leading in times of crisis, from leading individuals to leading international groups, from leading strategically to leading ethically, we can say with some certainty what leadership approaches will not succeed. For example, the research evidence in leader selection suggests that unstructured interviews are not as effective as other selection methods, and handwriting analysis (graphology) is particularly ineffective (see Chapter One). Yet it is perplexing to see how often these ineffective strategies are used in practice. Similarly, it is not surprising to see the attention directed toward studying bad leadership, [1] and to understanding the reasons why leaders fail.[2] Popular books chronicle the ethical failures of leaders and explore how leaders get derailed.[3] On the other hand, it is harder to say authoritatively what will succeed.
But this is often the path of the human and social sciences. We learn about good health practices by studying how poor diet, hygiene, and inactivity cause disease. We learn how the human brain functions by studying localized damage to brain centers. We have greater understanding of how the mind functions by studying common errors, such as optical illusions and fundamental biases.[4] And we can learn more about good leadership practices by learning why and how leaders fail.
Understanding how to get the practice of leadership right is typically more complicated because so often the answer is “It depends.” Good leadership involves the leader doing the right thing for the particular circumstances—taking into account the task, the followers, the situation, the timing, and the process. For this very reason, formulaic approaches and techniques are likely to have very mixed results when it comes to leadership. Each situation presents a unique combination of opportunities and challenges that no simple framework can fully answer for the leader facing that situation. That said, in recent years, the field of leadership research has matured greatly. Researchers today recognize the complexity of the leadership task. Models and frameworks are no longer simple and universal. We no longer just study airplane crews and basketball teams to extrapolate leadership lessons for the manager. The field has also matured in its understanding of leadership practices. Today we are able to provide more useful and sophisticated advice than we could have 10 or 15 years ago, thanks to rich studies of practicing leaders and their successes and failures. With that in mind, let’s turn now to the lessons learned from the expert authors we assembled for the task of informing our ability to practice leadership.
From Part One of this book, on leader selection and development, we can conclude that we know the most about assessing leaders, we can determine some of the better (if not the best) practices for selecting leaders, and we probably know the least about sure-fire ways to develop leaders. Yet there is still much in each area that informs the successful practice of leadership.
Ann Howard (Chapter One) makes a very compelling case that getting leader selection right has huge financial and performance impact on the organization. As she reviews the “technology” of leader selection (for example, screening tests, biodata, interviews, assessment centers), it becomes clear that the use of the more sophisticated selection tools, such as assessment centers that feature simulations of multiple leader functions, is superior to relying primarily on inferences gained from interviews and a review of candidates’ résumés and career achievements. Howard also advocates using multiple screening and selection methods and sticking to a process that fits the organization’s specific needs and its abilities to support the selection system, including the costs and benefits of the various selection methods.
The “takeaways” from Howard’s chapter include:
When possible, use sophisticated selection tools that simulate leader behaviors (for example, assessment centers) when hiring.
Use multiple selection methods. Don’t rely on (or give too much weight to) one method (for example, a single interview performance) or piece of information.
Tailor your selection methods to your particular needs, with an emphasis on the leadership outcomes you need and want.
Make sure that the selection system becomes embedded in the organization and aligned with other organizational systems and values.
In their comprehensive chapter, London, Smither, and Diamante (Chapter Two) are also interested in assessing leaders for selection purposes, but focus greater attention on evaluating leader performance for development purposes and for better understanding of how leaders impact group and organizational performance. These authors emphasize the use of multiple assessment methods to most effectively measure different aspects of leader performance. For instance, the means for measuring a leader’s financial impact may be quite different from assessments made for evaluating a leader for developmental purposes. Important practice points include:
Assessment of leader performance and accompanying feedback needs to be an ongoing practice of continuous improvement rather than a once-a-year event.
Assessment of leader performance needs to pay attention to the outcomes of a leader’s efforts and also help to understand the process by which leaders do their jobs.
Use a balanced scorecard of measures that aligns organizational, team, and individual goals with associated performance indicators to adequately assess high-level leader performance.
Ensure that the performance assessment methods are sound and are appropriate for the particular needs of the organization, the team, and the individual leader.
In Chapter Three, Patricia O’Connor and David Day argue strongly that the focus on developing individual leaders who are expected to deal with the multiple challenges of today’s increasingly complex world is wrongheaded. Instead, these authors assert that we need to develop collective forms of leadership that involve people participating throughout the organization sharing in the creation of a unified leadership.
Several of the most important takeaway messages from this chapter include:
Build collective leadership identities such that individuals in the organization see themselves as part of the shared leadership effort.
Look for problem or project areas in the organization that require shared leadership, are open to an action learning approach, and would benefit from it.
Invest the time and resources so that the action learning can become well integrated into the organization; give the program the time and support needed so that it can succeed.
Realize that although action learning can lead to significant outcomes, it should be compatible with the organization’s current needs and structure.
McCall and Hollenbeck (Chapter Four) provide a critique of many of the existing leadership development programs for top-level executives. These programs’ failure, according to these authors, is that they try to develop a general “laundry list” of leader competencies. Instead, what is needed are more customized notions of competent performance on the job as a framework for leadership development efforts. Despite their criticism of traditional competency approaches, the authors echo some of the best practices (for example, experience-based learning; development programs that are tailored to specific leadership situations) promoted in earlier chapters. The chapter also offers important guidelines for using executive coaches for leadership development.
Important takeaway messages from the McCall and Hollenbeck chapter include:
View leadership development as an ongoing, on-the-job process of providing challenging learning experiences for leaders.
Concentrate greater development efforts on the individuals identified as high-potential leaders.
Benefit from the leader’s own superior, who can play a significant role in helping him or her learn important leadership lessons from key experiences.
Use properly deployed executive coaches to help leaders learn and develop from their experiences.
Part Two of this book focuses on some of the critical tasks leaders perform. Specifically, leaders use influence to help groups and organizations achieve goals. In addition, in this increasingly complex world, leaders are expected to lead not just for productivity but also for creativity. Even the most productive and creative organizations and groups can fall prey to ethical violations that can wreak havoc and ultimately destroy the unit, so ethical leading is a critical task. Finally, leading teams is discussed in depth.
Gary Yukl (Chapter Five) discusses the various sorts of influence tactics leaders use to build follower commitment or to gain their compliance in an effort to achieve work outcomes. To effectively wield tactics of influence, a leader needs to consider elements of the situation, including the characteristics of the followers, the leader’s personal history with them, and other factors. By fully understanding how and why different types of influence may or may not work, the leader can be much more successful.
Specific takeaway messages from Chapter Five include:
Elicit follower commitment to a request or proposal by using the most effective proactive influence tactics: rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, and collaboration.
Link inspirational appeals to an appealing vision and ensure that they are consistent with the followers’ ideals and values.
Increase followers’ involvement and commitment level by using consultation and collaboration.
Using logical combinations of influence tactics may be more effective than relying on one type of influence alone.
Mumford and colleagues’ chapter on leading for innovation (Chapter Six) is a rich analysis of the complexities of leading creative groups and work teams. It is often believed that creative groups of knowledge workers are self-led teams using “shared leadership.” Although this is true to some extent, the authors argue that there are many important functions performed by leaders of creative teams. For example, the leader should provide a safe, collaborative environment in which idea generation and some element of risk taking are promoted. As the authors state, the leader needs to “manage people just as they manage ideas.”
Some of the important lessons learned include:
Stay actively involved in the development of new ideas and help bring the ideas to fruition.
Use a sense of mission or common purpose to encourage team member innovation and commitment.
Lead creative groups effectively by having high levels of relevant knowledge and expertise as well as the ability to lead the process.
Promote sophisticated creativity training for leaders of innovative groups and organizations who need to recognize and respond to novel ideas.
Craig Johnson’s chapter (Chapter Seven) states that ethical leadership is one of the most important challenges for leaders. He argues that leaders have an obligation to shoulder the ethical burdens of leadership. These include being acutely sensitive to issues of ethics and considering ethics to be a key part of “doing business.” In addition, effective and ethical leaders are proactive—taking steps to avoid creating a climate that either encourages or condones unethical behavior. Moreover, leaders must be ethical role models for followers. Considering the visibility and status given to high-level organizational leaders (and the near-celebrity standing of Fortune 500 chief executive officers [CEOs]), it is imperative that top leaders be exemplars of ethicality both in the organization and in their personal lives.
According to Johnson, ethical leaders need to:
Be aware of and not fall prey to unhealthy motivations (for example, insecurity, greed, ego) and destructive behaviors.
Proactively work to create a positive ethical climate.
Develop methods to critically evaluate situations from an ethical perspective.
Work to develop one’s own personal virtues and patterns of ethical actions, and encourage ethical behaviors in others.
The chapter on team leadership by Stagl, Salas, and Burke (Chapter Eight) suggests that although many of today’s high-level teams of skilled professional workers may engage in self-management and shared leadership, team leaders still play a vital role in the performance and effectiveness of work teams. Team leaders play a critical role in the creation of work teams and in guiding and supporting their efforts. Best practices for effectively leading teams include:
Define team members’ respective roles and foster successful interdependencies among team members (as opposed to simply letting it happen on its own).
Define clearly the responsibilities, outcomes, and goals of individuals and of the collective team; reward and celebrate accomplishments.
Provide inspiration and motivation by providing compelling vision and direction for the team and emphasizing the common mission.
Use coaching teams to help team members coordinate activities, facilitate team performance, and help them develop into high-performing teams.
Part Three of the book explores leadership at the organizational level, examining how leaders play a part in organizational transitions, effective leadership at strategic levels, and how corporate boards play a crucial part in organizational leadership.
An expert on how organizations handle major transitions such as mergers, takeovers, and whole-scale downsizing efforts, Mitchell Marks (Chapter Nine) uses these significant transitions as a framework for understanding leadership in particularly stressful times. Marks emphasizes that leading during a major organizational transition is best approached in a step-by-step process with distinct phases and tasks for the leader.
Some of the best practices in leading organizational transitions include:
Recognize the natural “human” reactions to stressful transitions—fear, anger and resentment, resistance to changes—and take proactive steps to recognize these while helping employees resolve them.
Get people involved in the transition process by providing honest information and empowering them to participate in the positive transition from the old to the new organization.
Demonstrate commitment to the organizational transition through a compelling vision of the future, through commitment to the process, and by providing the resources needed to successfully accomplish the transition.
Pay attention to enforcing the posttransition organization through alignment of vision, enforcing appropriate on-the-job behaviors, and measuring and tracking the new structure and organizational culture.
David Waldman discusses the practice of leadership at strategic levels (Chapter Ten). He advocates taking a social responsibility orientation and provides justification for why a strategy driven by social responsibility is a better way to lead an organization. Specifically, Waldman provides evidence that over time socially responsible firms outperform those that are less socially responsible, and they avoid the devastating scandals that have plagued many once-great organizations (for example Adelphia, Enron, WorldCom).
Waldman argues that socially responsible leaders have a broader view of the organization’s impact, focusing beyond short-term profits and emphasizing the quality of relationships with multiple stakeholders—customers, stockholders, the organization’s employees, and the local and larger communities. In order to lead effectively at the strategic level, best practices include:
Articulate a shared vision that will energize followers and also appeal to the organization’s multiple stakeholders.
Promote shared leadership that involves followers in the strategic process in order to develop a truly compelling vision.
Foster an environment that encourages organizational members to engage and live their moral values at work.
Demonstrate integrity, and be straightforward and “transparent” in sharing information that has direct effects on the organization’s stakeholders.
In his chapter on board leadership, Jay Conger (Chapter Eleven) begins with the premise that leadership by corporate boards is often-times lacking. Conger argues that some high-profile corporate disasters might have been avoided had their boards exercised appropriate oversight and good leadership.
Conger points out what’s wrong with the historic tradition of allowing the chief executive officer to perform as the board’s head. He makes the “Two heads are better than one” argument, noting that an independent board chair or even a lead director can help foster independent oversight of the company and the CEO and provide diverse perspectives on issues and problems. An alternative—and one that is becoming more popular—is having strong committee leadership, although this solution has the drawback of providing no centralized board “authority.”
For improving board leadership it is important that:
Board members view themselves as playing a leadership role, as opposed to being mere advisors to the CEO. Regardless of the leadership structure of the organization, boards that take their leadership role to heart are more likely to avoid the bad decisions and ethical debacles that have destroyed many once-mighty corporations.
Independent directors should constitute a majority and control key board committees.
The board should be able to conduct independent analyses of issues and outcomes without having to rely solely on information provided by the CEO.
The board should conduct serious and regular evaluations of the CEO’s performance and engage in proactive succession planning.
Part Four, the final part of the book, focuses primarily on leading in today’s complex world. It begins with a discussion of leading during crisis situations—a critical capability in this era of national and international disasters—continues with a discussion of leading diverse organizations, and ends with a focus on global leadership.
In his chapter on leading during crisis situations, Ian Mitroff (Chapter Twelve) argues that leading in times of crisis requires proactive thinking and planning. He suggests that the forms of leadership needed during crises are fundamentally different from leadership that is successful in “normal” times.
To lead successfully in a crisis-ridden world:
Be proactive; play the “devil’s advocate” and imagine worst-case scenarios; question your personal assumptions and those of your organization about “normality.”
Prepare emotionally and spiritually for the shock and loss a crisis will inevitably cause.
Create an organizational mechanism to deal with crises; train key individuals in the organization in crisis management and run practice scenarios.
Learn the leadership requirements necessary for uncertain circumstances.
In their chapter on leading diverse organizations, Offermann and Matos (Chapter Thirteen) emphasize that leading today’s increasingly diverse groups represents a significant leadership challenge. Diverse work groups and organizations have both benefits and significant costs. For example, greater diversity is associated with critically thinking groups with members holding multiple viewpoints and perspectives that can be beneficial to a unit’s ability to be creative. Diverse organizations are also more attractive places to work—better able to attract and retain employees. On the other hand, diversity can lead to divisiveness and dissatisfaction, particularly if not managed well. The key element for managing diversity to maximize benefits and minimize costs is effective leadership.
Important conclusions from this chapter include:
Look broadly at diversity, beyond simply gender and racial diversity, considering also cultural and subcultural differences and issues. The leader needs to provide a unifying vision and a culture committed to common goals and acceptance of diverse members.
Be sensitive to others’ cultural differences, but also be aware of how one’s own culture can impact others.
Champion diversity, be flexible and adaptable, be insightful and inclusive, and set and communicate challenging goals and positive expectations for all followers.
Use mentoring programs as one of the best ways to manage diverse work groups and help mentor-leaders and protégés better understand persons from diverse backgrounds.
In her chapter on cross-cultural leadership (Chapter Fourteen), Mary Teagarden asserts that corporate success in today’s world requires competent global leaders. In this chapter, Teagarden describes the characteristics, skills, and qualities needed for effective global leadership, as well as providing guidelines for the development of these cross-cultural attributes. For leaders, the takeaway messages from this very detailed discussion of the topic include:
Become “culturally intelligent”—able to cross cultures and contexts and function effectively in a variety of settings.
Develop cross-cultural competency through a step-by-step process of building a knowledge base and strengthening key competencies (for example, dealing with complexity, inquisitiveness, adaptability) that combine for success.
Develop cross-cultural leadership by requiring executives to gain significant experience living and working in international assignments.
Develop cross-cultural leaders through an integrated system of selecting the best prospects, cross-cultural training, strategic international assignments, and ongoing performance feedback.
An important question is whether there are common themes that can be distilled from this wide array of chapters. The answer is “Yes.” There are several important themes about leadership effectiveness and success that appear in many of the book’s chapters.
Leaders need to engage and involve followers. It is quite clear from decades of research that an essential task of leaders is to motivate followers. While motivation can be encouraged in a transactional way, such as by offering rewards for desired behaviors or outcomes, it takes much more to build long-term commitment to the leader and to the group or organization. To get this sort of deep commitment, leaders need to inspire followers through a compelling vision or mission. They must make all members of the group or their organization feel as if they are part of the process. Moreover, in today’s cutting-edge organizations, where team members are likely to be highly knowledgeable and talented, it is critical for the leader to allow his or her followers to take an active role in setting course and in making decisions. This engagement builds more than affective commitment on the part of followers. It often leads simply to better outcomes. The concept of “shared leadership” is one that is mentioned in many of this book’s chapters, and it seems increasingly important in leading modern organizations.
Effective leaders monitor, measure, and adapt. Good leaders must be constantly vigilant. They keep their finger on the pulse of followers and of the organization. Many of our authors mention the importance of staying “tuned in” to followers and employees at all levels, whether through “management by walking around,” formal or informal mentoring programs, formal feedback mechanisms, or shared strategic planning and decision making.
Many chapters also emphasize the importance of measuring the outcomes of leadership efforts—the impact on performance measures, the effect on followers, and the impact on the bottom line. Effective leadership requires that leaders have ongoing streams of critical data at their fingertips to help them better understand what is going on in their organizations.
Several chapter authors highlight the fact that the best leaders adapt to the ever-changing circumstances that are commonplace in today’s world. In actuality, these three elements—monitoring, measuring, and adapting—go hand in hand. Effective leadership is about knowing and understanding your followers, being aware of how the organization is performing, and making the necessary adjustments to keep everything and everyone moving forward in a positive direction.
Leaders need to model the way. Leaders need to be true to their visions, missions, and values. It is very hard to get others to buy into a vision, to be true to the organization’s mission, or to adhere to shared values if the leader is not out in front setting the pace and serving as a positive role model. This is particularly true in regard to ethical practices, but it involves other areas as well.
Several of the authors suggest that leaders need to “get their hands dirty”—getting intimately involved with teams and developing relevant expertise. For example, Mumford and associates suggest that when leading highly creative groups the best leaders are those with relevant expertise, but also those who understand the creative process.
Leaders need to be proactive. Effective leaders, like masters of chess, think several moves ahead, considering possibilities and “What if?” scenarios. Moreover, by anticipating future needs and courses of action, the leader can prevent problems before they happen. In his chapter on leading during crises, Ian Mitroff goes so far as to suggest that leaders should work through the emotional aspects of a worst-case-scenario crisis even in the absence of any impending threat.
There are no shortcuts; effective leadership is a long-term, developmental process. All too often, leaders search for the seemingly elusive key to success—the one best means or method of leading successfully. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to leading effectively.
Leading well in today’s world often strains leaders to their limits. It requires a great deal of knowledge and skill. Leaders need to be able to initiate and maintain high-quality relationships with followers and others. Leaders must analyze, strategize, prioritize, mobilize, empathize, and economize—and do all of this well, consistent with the organization’s mission, in an ethical manner, and in an increasingly uncertain environment. Is it really any wonder that truly great leaders are scarce? Is it any wonder that our approaches to leadership development need to be more long term, rigorous, and sophisticated?
Bearing in mind that there are no easy solutions, it is clear that developing oneself as an effective leader requires a great deal of time and effort. It takes a lot of personal commitment and motivation. Like medicine and many other professions, leadership is partly science and partly practice. The science of leadership involves scholars’ ongoing search for what works and what doesn’t. The term practice suggests that leaders can always learn how to do it better. Our intent has been to take what has been learned from scholarship and use it to inform leadership practice. Our aim has been to help good leaders become even better and to help the very best leaders become truly exceptional. The world needs them.