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Better Business Through Better Writing

Jean is President of Leadership On Paper® and a Founding Partner of The Right Direction. Leadership On Paper® is a consultative service founded in 1986.  Its mission is to help business and technical people extend their leadership and management skills to written communication.  The firm provides training and also works with senior management at corporations to improve the quality of internal communication.

The Right Direction, a newer venture, is also a consulting firm.  It offers a range of services  to business with a focus on problem solving, creativity and group decision-making. Clients include Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney, Clorox, Nestle, Google, Abbott Labs, Walmart, Intuit, Mars, Sun Products, ConAgra, Coors, Kroger, McCormick, Centene, Kimberly-Clark,The Royal Bank of Canada and The Cleveland Indians.

Jean's skills come from years of hands-on experience as an Executive Vice President of Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (now Saatchi & Saatchi), a large multi-national advertising agency.  At DFS, Jean ran major accounts, including Procter & Gamble.  He introduced successful brands like Luvs Disposable Diapers and developed programs to reposition existing brands.  One such program took Duracell from a small specialty brand to the #1 premium battery in the world.  In addition to his other responsibilities, Mr. Plumez was a member of the DFS Board of Directors. After 18 years with DFS, Mr. Plumez left to form Leadership on Paper®.

Jean started his career as a commissioned officer assigned to U.S. Army Intelligence.  He then worked for two years as a chemical engineer for Mobil Oil before getting his MBA from The Wharton School.  

Jean Paul Plumez

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Leadership →

• 26 Mar 2024
• Cold Call Podcast

How Do Great Leaders Overcome Adversity?

In the spring of 2021, Raymond Jefferson (MBA 2000) applied for a job in President Joseph Biden’s administration. Ten years earlier, false allegations were used to force him to resign from his prior US government position as assistant secretary of labor for veterans’ employment and training in the Department of Labor. Two employees had accused him of ethical violations in hiring and procurement decisions, including pressuring subordinates into extending contracts to his alleged personal associates. The Deputy Secretary of Labor gave Jefferson four hours to resign or be terminated. Jefferson filed a federal lawsuit against the US government to clear his name, which he pursued for eight years at the expense of his entire life savings. Why, after such a traumatic and debilitating experience, would Jefferson want to pursue a career in government again? Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Anthony Mayo explores Jefferson’s personal and professional journey from upstate New York to West Point to the Obama administration, how he faced adversity at several junctures in his life, and how resilience and vulnerability shaped his leadership style in the case, "Raymond Jefferson: Trial by Fire."

• 24 Jan 2024

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

Aggressive cost cutting and rocky leadership changes have eroded the culture at Boeing, a company once admired for its engineering rigor, says Bill George. What will it take to repair the reputational damage wrought by years of crises involving its 737 MAX?

• 02 Jan 2024
• What Do You Think?

Do Boomerang CEOs Get a Bad Rap?

Several companies have brought back formerly successful CEOs in hopes of breathing new life into their organizations—with mixed results. But are we even measuring the boomerang CEOs' performance properly? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

Employees may seek new approaches to balance, even as leaders consider whether to bring more teams back to offices or make hybrid work even more flexible. These are just a few trends that Harvard Business School faculty members will be following during a year when staffing, climate, and inclusion will likely remain top of mind.

• 12 Dec 2023

Can Sustainability Drive Innovation at Ferrari?

When Ferrari, the Italian luxury sports car manufacturer, committed to achieving carbon neutrality and to electrifying a large part of its car fleet, investors and employees applauded the new strategy. But among the company’s suppliers, the reaction was mixed. Many were nervous about how this shift would affect their bottom lines. Professor Raffaella Sadun and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna discuss how Ferrari collaborated with suppliers to work toward achieving the company’s goal. They also explore how sustainability can be a catalyst for innovation in the case, “Ferrari: Shifting to Carbon Neutrality.” This episode was recorded live December 4, 2023 in front of a remote studio audience in the Live Online Classroom at Harvard Business School.

• 05 Dec 2023

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

A study of 70,000 decisions by Thomas Graeber and Benjamin Enke finds that self-assurance doesn't necessarily reflect skill. Shrewd decision-making often comes down to how well a person understands the limits of their knowledge. How can managers identify and elevate their best decision-makers?

• 21 Nov 2023

The Beauty Industry: Products for a Healthy Glow or a Compact for Harm?

Many cosmetics and skincare companies present an image of social consciousness and transformative potential, while profiting from insecurity and excluding broad swaths of people. Geoffrey Jones examines the unsightly reality of the beauty industry.

• 14 Nov 2023

Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?

Management experts applaud leaders who are, among other things, determined, humble, and frugal, but rarely consider whether they are generous. However, executives who share their time, talent, and ideas often give rise to legendary organizations. Does generosity merit further consideration? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 24 Oct 2023

From P.T. Barnum to Mary Kay: Lessons From 5 Leaders Who Changed the World

What do Steve Jobs and Sarah Breedlove have in common? Through a series of case studies, Robert Simons explores the unique qualities of visionary leaders and what today's managers can learn from their journeys.

• 06 Oct 2023

Yes, You Can Radically Change Your Organization in One Week

Skip the committees and the multi-year roadmap. With the right conditions, leaders can confront even complex organizational problems in one week. Frances Frei and Anne Morriss explain how in their book Move Fast and Fix Things.

• 26 Sep 2023

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf Merger: Competition vs. Cooperation

On June 9, 2022, the first LIV Golf event teed off outside of London. The new tour offered players larger prizes, more flexibility, and ambitions to attract new fans to the sport. Immediately following the official start of that tournament, the PGA Tour announced that all 17 PGA Tour players participating in the LIV Golf event were suspended and ineligible to compete in PGA Tour events. Tensions between the two golf entities continued to rise, as more players “defected” to LIV. Eventually LIV Golf filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing the PGA Tour of anticompetitive practices, and the Department of Justice launched an investigation. Then, in a dramatic turn of events, LIV Golf and the PGA Tour announced that they were merging. Harvard Business School assistant professor Alexander MacKay discusses the competitive, antitrust, and regulatory issues at stake and whether or not the PGA Tour took the right actions in response to LIV Golf’s entry in his case, “LIV Golf.”

• 01 Aug 2023

As Leaders, Why Do We Continue to Reward A, While Hoping for B?

Companies often encourage the bad behavior that executives publicly rebuke—usually in pursuit of short-term performance. What keeps leaders from truly aligning incentives and goals? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 05 Jul 2023

What Kind of Leader Are You? How Three Action Orientations Can Help You Meet the Moment

Executives who confront new challenges with old formulas often fail. The best leaders tailor their approach, recalibrating their "action orientation" to address the problem at hand, says Ryan Raffaelli. He details three action orientations and how leaders can harness them.

How Are Middle Managers Falling Down Most Often on Employee Inclusion?

Companies are struggling to retain employees from underrepresented groups, many of whom don't feel heard in the workplace. What do managers need to do to build truly inclusive teams? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 14 Jun 2023

Every Company Should Have These Leaders—or Develop Them if They Don't

Companies need T-shaped leaders, those who can share knowledge across the organization while focusing on their business units, but they should be a mix of visionaries and tacticians. Hise Gibson breaks down the nuances of each leader and how companies can cultivate this talent among their ranks.

Four Steps to Building the Psychological Safety That High-Performing Teams Need

Struggling to spark strategic risk-taking and creative thinking? In the post-pandemic workplace, teams need psychological safety more than ever, and a new analysis by Amy Edmondson highlights the best ways to nurture it.

• 31 May 2023

From Prison Cell to Nike’s C-Suite: The Journey of Larry Miller

VIDEO: Before leading one of the world’s largest brands, Nike executive Larry Miller served time in prison for murder. In this interview, Miller shares how education helped him escape a life of crime and why employers should give the formerly incarcerated a second chance. Inspired by a Harvard Business School case study.

• 23 May 2023

The Entrepreneurial Journey of China’s First Private Mental Health Hospital

The city of Wenzhou in southeastern China is home to the country’s largest privately owned mental health hospital group, the Wenzhou Kangning Hospital Co, Ltd. It’s an example of the extraordinary entrepreneurship happening in China’s healthcare space. But after its successful initial public offering (IPO), how will the hospital grow in the future? Harvard Professor of China Studies William C. Kirby highlights the challenges of China’s mental health sector and the means company founder Guan Weili employed to address them in his case, Wenzhou Kangning Hospital: Changing Mental Healthcare in China.

• 09 May 2023

Can Robin Williams’ Son Help Other Families Heal Addiction and Depression?

Zak Pym Williams, son of comedian and actor Robin Williams, had seen how mental health challenges, such as addiction and depression, had affected past generations of his family. Williams was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a young adult and he wanted to break the cycle for his children. Although his children were still quite young, he began considering proactive strategies that could help his family’s mental health, and he wanted to share that knowledge with other families. But how can Williams help people actually take advantage of those mental health strategies and services? Professor Lauren Cohen discusses his case, “Weapons of Self Destruction: Zak Pym Williams and the Cultivation of Mental Wellness.”

• 11 Apr 2023

The First 90 Hours: What New CEOs Should—and Shouldn't—Do to Set the Right Tone

New leaders no longer have the luxury of a 90-day listening tour to get to know an organization, says John Quelch. He offers seven steps to prepare CEOs for a successful start, and three missteps to avoid.

What is leadership?

All leaders, to a certain degree, do the same thing. Whether you’re talking about an executive, manager, sports coach, or schoolteacher, leadership is about guiding and impacting outcomes, enabling groups of people to work together to accomplish what they couldn’t do working individually. In this sense, leadership is something you do, not something you are. Some people in formal leadership positions are poor leaders, and many people exercising leadership have no formal authority. It is their actions, not their words, that inspire trust and energy.

Get to know and directly engage with senior McKinsey experts on leadership

Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New Jersey office, Carolyn Dewar is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, Scott Keller is a senior partner in the Southern California office, and Vik Malhotra and Ramesh Srinivasan are senior partners in the New York office.

What’s more, leadership is not something people are born with—it is a skill you can learn. At the core are mindsets, which are expressed through observable behaviors , which then lead to measurable outcomes. Is a leader communicating effectively or engaging others by being a good listener? Focusing on behaviors lets us be more objective when assessing leadership effectiveness. The key to unlocking shifts in behavior is focusing on mindsets, becoming more conscious about our thoughts and beliefs, and showing up with integrity as our full authentic selves.

There are many contexts and ways in which leadership is exercised. But, according to McKinsey analysis of academic literature as well as a survey of nearly 200,000 people in 81 organizations all over the world, there are four types of behavior that account for 89 percent of leadership effectiveness :

• being supportive
• operating with a strong results orientation
• seeking different perspectives
• solving problems effectively

Effective leaders know that what works in one situation will not necessarily work every time. Leadership strategies must reflect each organization’s context and stage of evolution. One important lens is organizational health, a holistic set of factors that enable organizations to grow and succeed over time. A situational approach  enables leaders to focus on the behaviors that are most relevant as an organization becomes healthier.

Senior leaders must develop a broad range of skills to guide organizations. Ten timeless topics are important for leading nearly any organization, from attracting and retaining talent  to making culture a competitive advantage. A 2017 McKinsey book, Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths (Bloomsbury, 2017), goes deep on each aspect.

How is leadership evolving?

In the past, leadership was called “management,” with an emphasis on providing technical expertise and direction. The context was the traditional industrial economy command-and-control organization, where leaders focused exclusively on maximizing value for shareholders. In these organizations, leaders had three roles: planners (who develop strategy, then translate that strategy into concrete steps), directors (who assign responsibilities), or controllers (who ensure people do what they’ve been assigned and plans are adhered to).

What are the limits of traditional management styles?

Traditional management was revolutionary in its day and enormously effective in building large-scale global enterprises that have materially improved lives over the past 200 years. However, with the advent of the 21st century, this approach is reaching its limits.

For one thing, this approach doesn’t guarantee happy or loyal managers or workers. Indeed, a large portion of American workers—56 percent— claim their boss is mildly or highly toxic , while 75 percent say dealing with their manager is the most stressful part of their workday.

For 21st-century organizations operating in today’s complex business environment, a fundamentally new and more effective approach to leadership is emerging. Leaders today are beginning to focus on building agile, human-centered, and digitally enabled organizations able to thrive in today’s unprecedented environment and meet the needs of a broader range of stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, in addition to investors).

What is the emerging new approach to leadership?

This new approach to leadership is sometimes described as “ servant leadership .” While there has been some criticism of the nomenclature, the idea itself is simple: rather than being a manager directing and controlling people, a more effective approach is for leaders to be in service of the people they lead. The focus is on how leaders can make the lives of their team members easier—physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Research suggests this mentality can enhance both team performance and satisfaction.

In this new approach, leaders practice empathy, compassion, vulnerability, gratitude, self-awareness, and self-care. They provide appreciation and support, creating psychological safety so their employees are able to collaborate, innovate, and raise issues as appropriate. This includes celebrating achieving the small steps on the way to reaching big goals and enhancing people’s well-being through better human connections. These conditions have been shown to allow for a team’s best performance.

More broadly, developing this new approach to leadership can be expressed as making five key shifts that include, build on, and extend beyond traditional approaches:

• beyond executive to visionary, shaping a clear purpose that resonates with and generates holistic impact for all stakeholders
• beyond planner to architect, reimagining industries and innovating business systems that are able to create new levels of value
• beyond director to catalyst, engaging people to collaborate in open, empowered networks
• beyond controller to coach, enabling the organization to constantly evolve through rapid learning, and enabling colleagues to build new mindsets, knowledge, and skills
• beyond boss to human, showing up as one’s whole, authentic self

Together, these shifts can help a leader expand their repertoire and create a new level of value for an organization’s stakeholders. The last shift is the most important, as it is based on developing a new level of consciousness and awareness of our inner state. Leaders who look inward  and take a journey of genuine self-discovery make profound shifts in themselves and their lives; this means they are better able to benefit their organization. That involves developing “profile awareness” (a combination of a person’s habits of thought, emotions, hopes, and behavior in different circumstances) and “state awareness” (the recognition of what’s driving a person to take action). Combining individual, inward-looking work with outward-facing actions can help create lasting change.

Introducing McKinsey Explainers : Direct answers to complex questions

Leaders must learn to make these five shifts at three levels : transforming and evolving personal mindsets and behaviors; transforming teams to work in new ways; and transforming the broader organization by building new levels of agility, human-centeredness, and value creation into the entire enterprise’s design and culture.

An example from the COVID-19 era offers a useful illustration of this new approach to leadership. In pursuit of a vaccine breakthrough, at the start of the pandemic Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel increased the frequency of executive meetings  from once a month to twice a week. The company implemented a decentralized model enabling teams to work independently and deliver on the bold goal of providing 100 million doses of vaccines in 12 months. “The pace was unprecedented,” Bancel said.

What is the impact of this new approach to leadership?

This new approach to leadership is far more effective. While the dynamics are complex, countless studies show empirical links among effective leadership, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability.

How can leaders empower employees?

Empowering employees , surprisingly enough, might mean taking a more hands-on leadership approach. Organizations whose leaders successfully empower others through coaching are nearly four times more likely to make swift, good decisions and outperform other companies . But this type of coaching isn’t always natural for those with a more controlling or autocratic style.

Here are five tips to get started  if you’re a leader looking to empower others:

• Provide clear rules, for example, by providing guardrails for what success looks like and communicating who makes which decisions. Clarity and boundary structures like role remits and responsibilities help to contain any anxiety associated with work and help teams stay focused on their primary tasks.
• Establish clear roles, say, by assigning one person the authority to make certain decisions.
• Avoid being a complicit manager—for instance, if you’ve delegated a decision to a team, don’t step in and solve the problem for them.
• Address culture and skills, for instance, by helping employees learn how to have difficult conversations.
• Begin soliciting personal feedback from others, at all levels of your organization, on how you are experienced as a leader.

How can leaders communicate effectively?

Good, clear communication is a leadership hallmark. Fundamental tools of effective communication  include:

• defining and pointing to long-term goals
• listening to and understanding stakeholders
• creating openings for dialogue
• communicating proactively

And in times of uncertainty, these things are important for crisis communicators :

• give people what they need, when they need it
• communicate clearly, simply, and frequently
• choose candor over charisma
• revitalize a spirit of resilience
• distill meaning from chaos
• support people, teams, and organizations to build the capability for self-sufficiency

Learn more about our People & Organizational Performance Practice .

Is leadership different in a hybrid workplace?

A leader’s role may look slightly different in remote or hybrid workplace settings . Rather than walking around a physical site, these leaders might instead model what hybrid looks like, or orchestrate work based on tasks, interactions, or purpose. Being communicative and radiating positivity  can go a long way. Leaders need to find other ways to be present and accessible, for example, via virtual drop-in sessions, regular company podcasts, or virtual townhalls. Leaders in these settings may also need to find new ways to get authentic feedback. These tactics can include pulse surveys or learning to ask thoughtful follow-up questions that reveal useful management insights.

Additional considerations, such as making sure that in-person work and togetherness has a purpose, are important. Keeping an eye on inclusivity in hybrid work  is also crucial. Listening to what employees want, with an eye to their lived experience, will be vital to leaders in these settings. And a focus on output, outcomes, results, and impact—rather than arbitrary norms about time spent in offices— may be a necessary adaptation in the hybrid era .

How should CEOs lead in this new world?

Just as for leadership more broadly, today’s environment requires CEOs to lead very differently. Recent research indicates that one-third to one-half of new CEOs fail within 18 months.

What helps top performers thrive today? To find out, McKinsey led a research effort to identify the CEOs who achieved breakaway success. We examined 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs—from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries. The result is the McKinsey book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022). Watch an interview with the authors for more on what separates the best CEOs from the rest .

Getting perspective on leadership from CEOs themselves is enlightening—and illustrates the nuanced ways in which the new approach to leadership described above can be implemented in practice. Here are a few quotes drawn from McKinsey’s interviews with these top-level leaders :

• “I think the fundamental role of a leader is to look for ways to shape the decades ahead, not just react to the present, and to help others accept the discomfort of disruptions to the status quo.” — Indra Nooyi , former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• “The single most important thing I have to do as CEO is ensure that our brand continues to be relevant.” — Chris Kempczinski , CEO of McDonald’s
• “Leaders of other enterprises often define themselves as captains of the ship, but I think I’m more the ship’s architect or designer. That’s different from a captain’s role, in which the route is often fixed and the destination defined.” — Zhang Ruimin , CEO of Haier
• “I think my leadership style [can be called] ‘collaborative command.’ You bring different opinions into the room, you allow for a really great debate, but you understand that, at the end of the day, a decision has to be made quickly.” — Adena Friedman , CEO of Nasdaq
• “We need an urgent refoundation of business and capitalism around purpose and humanity. To find new ways for all of us to lead so that we can create a better future, a more sustainable future.” — Hubert Joly , former chairman and CEO of Best Buy

What is leadership development?

Leaders aren’t born; they learn to lead over time. Neuroplasticity refers to the power of the brain to form new pathways and connections through exposure to novel, unfamiliar experiences. This allows adults to adapt, grow, and learn new practices throughout our lifetimes.

When it comes to leadership within organizations, this is often referred to as leadership development. Programs, books, and courses on leadership development abound, but results vary.

Leadership development efforts fail for a variety of reasons. Some overlook context; in those cases, asking a simple question (something like “What, precisely, is this program for?”) can help. Others separate reflections on leadership from real work, or they shortchange the role of adjusting leaders’ mindsets, feelings, assumptions, and beliefs, or they fail to measure results.

So what’s needed for successful leadership development? Generally, developing leaders is about creating contexts where there is sufficient psychological safety in combination with enough novelty and unfamiliarity to cultivate new leadership practices in response to stimuli. Leadership programs that successfully cultivate leaders are also built around “placescapes”—these are novel experiences, like exploring wilderness trails, practicing performing arts, or writing poetry.

When crafting a leadership development program, there are six ingredients to incorporate  that lead to true organizational impact:

• Set up for success:
• Focus your leadership transformation on driving strategic objectives and initiatives.
• Commit the people and resources needed.
• Be clear about focus:
• Engage a critical mass of leaders to reach a tipping point for sustained impact.
• Zero in on the leadership shifts that drive the greatest value.
• Execute well:
• Architect experiential journeys to maximize shifts in mindsets, capabilities, and practices.
• Measure for holistic impact.

A well-designed and executed leadership development program can help organizations build leaders’ capabilities broadly, at scale. And these programs can be built around coaching, mentoring, and having people try to solve challenging problems—learning skills by applying them in real time to real work.

What are mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship?

Mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship can also be part of leadership development efforts. What are they? Mentorship refers to trusted counselors offering guidance and support on various professional issues, such as career progression. Sponsorship is used to describe senior leaders who create opportunities to help junior colleagues succeed. These roles are typically held by more senior colleagues, whereas apprenticeship could be more distributed. Apprenticeship  describes the way any colleague with domain expertise might teach others, model behaviors, or transfer skills. These approaches can be useful not only for developing leaders but also for helping your company upskill or reskill employees quickly and at scale.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s insights on People & Organizational Performance . Learn more about McKinsey’s Leadership & Management  work—and check out job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest? ,” December 15, 2021, Carolyn Dewar , Scott Keller , and Vik Malhotra
• “ From the great attrition to the great adaptation ,” November 3, 2021, Aaron De Smet  and Bill Schaninger
• “ The boss factor: Making the world a better place through workplace relationships ,” September 22, 2020, Tera Allas  and Bill Schaninger
• " Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st century organizations ," October 1, 2018, Aaron De Smet , Michael Lurie , and Andrew St. George
• " Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths ," 2017, Scott Keller  and Mary Meaney
• “ Leadership in context ,” January 1, 2016, Michael Bazigos, Chris Gagnon, and Bill Schaninger
• “ Decoding leadership: What really matters ,” January 1, 2015, Claudio Feser, Fernanda Mayol, and Ramesh Srinivasan

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Leadership transparency alone doesn’t guarantee employees will speak up in the workplace

Assistant Professor, HR Management & Organizational Behaviour, Toronto Metropolitan University

Professor of Leadership Development, Rotterdam School of Management

Associate Professor of Management and Organisation Studies, Simon Fraser University

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Toronto Metropolitan University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

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Leaders are often encouraged to be open, authentic and vulnerable at work. Employees are similarly told their voices matter in the workplace and to speak up when they need to. But, being open and honest at work is not always as straightforward as these messages suggest.

What these invitations for honesty don’t fully acknowledge is that speaking up is an act of confidence, bolstered by a steady reserve of self-worth. For many people, speaking one’s truth or revealing one’s honest thoughts and feelings can be a nerve-wracking experience because it leaves them exposed to judgment, ridicule and rejection.

At work, disclosing dissenting opinions, reporting errors or disclosing information about one’s state of mental health can even lead to repercussions. Unsurprisingly, studies consistently show that 50 per cent of employees prefer to keep quiet at work . With this in mind, we set out to examine when and for whom transparent leadership can be beneficial.

Investigating leadership

In our recent research paper , we investigated whether leaders can encourage their employees to express their opinions by demonstrating open and direct communication themselves.

In two studies involving 484 leaders and almost 3,000 of their employees from organizations in Belgium, we examined whether leaders who communicated more transparently created an environment where employees felt comfortable voicing their opinions.

Surveys were sent to leaders and employees over two time periods. The first time, employees completed measures on their leader’s transparency, their own levels of self-esteem based on others’ approval and psychological safety. A month later, they completed a second survey on voice behaviour.

Our studies yielded two key insights. The first is that leaders can set an example. Leaders with a transparent communication style were able to create a climate of psychological safety in their teams. Because followers felt safe to be vulnerable, they were more likely to voice their opinion.

The second is that follower’s self-esteem matters. Transparent leaders were only able to make followers feel safe if the follower had secure self-esteem. Self-esteem can be based on external factors , like the approval of others, or on internal factors , like the extent to which an individual loves and accepts themselves.

Followers who based their self-worth on the approval of others did not feel safe when their leader used direct and open communication and hence, did not open up.

Encouraging vulnerability at work

To help employees to speak up at work, our research suggests that organizations consider several factors. First, organizations should prioritize increasing psychological safety.

Psychological safety refers to the extent to which employees feel like they can voice their concerns or deliver negative feedback at work. When leaders communicate transparently with their employees, their behaviour demonstrates that honesty is valued and that it’s safe for employees to be open in return.

Second, it’s important for organizations to consider their audience when communicating. Direct communication does not make everyone open up. When people base their self-worth on the approval of others, speaking up can be terrifying and keeping quiet or saying the “right” thing, instead of one’s honest opinions, may be the preferred route as it helps protect their self-worth.

Encouraging employees to be aware of the source of their self-esteem and offering mindfulness or self-compassion training could help shift their sense of self-worth. Improving self-compassion , for example, can help people be more accepting and kind to themselves.

Lastly, establishing group norms that promote speaking up is essential. As social beings, humans constantly look to the outside world for cues on how to behave, what is appropriate and what behaviours are safe and acceptable. The more socially acceptable speaking up becomes, the more likely the quality of the conversation will deepen to include richer topics that might otherwise not get broached.

Identifying key team members that are respected and influential and encouraging them to express themselves may help turn the tide so that all team members follow suit.

Fostering trust in the workplace

Our research results suggest that leaders who communicate transparently can encourage their followers to voice their opinions. But the relationship between leadership transparency and follower responsiveness is more nuanced than that.

While transparency can promote open communication, it’s crucial for leaders to recognize that individual reactions vary. Our findings demonstrate that not all followers will find comfort in the presence of managerial candour. Employees who base their self-worth on the approval of others do not feel safe when their leader communicates in a direct manner.

This insight is particularly relevant, given young adults are developing their self-esteem in a backdrop of social networking sites where external validation is the main currency. This is so much so that the next wave of employees has been called “ generation validation .”

We recommend leaders keep their audience in mind when delivering honest messages and suggest they make an effort to gauge whether the recipient is likely to feel confident enough to express their opinion openly. If their goal is to receive direct communication in return, leaders can empower employees to voice their opinions not only by fostering an environment of trust and safety, but also by encouraging their followers to love and accept themselves.

• Transparency
• vulnerability
• Business leadership
• Psychological safety
• Business leaders
• Workplace teams

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Explore our latest thinking on leadership development and learning strategies

We offer the leadership development resources you need to help leaders at all levels succeed in an ever-changing business environment. Our learning content, strategy, and design experts share our point-of-view, research, and best practices via blog posts, research reports, idea briefs, podcasts, infographics, and leadership papers that help answer your big questions and spark new ideas around developing leaders that are future-ready.

The Changing Face of Leadership Development

In today’s fast-paced world of technology and ever-changing business environments, organizations are urgently seeking better ways to develop their future leaders. Harvard Business Publishing conducted a global study to understand these needs and expectations and gather insights into the world of leadership development.

The results include insights into business challenges, future leadership skills, and the organizational goals that companies aim to achieve with the help of leadership development training programs. The report also examines the demand drivers for such programs, along with perceptions of key attributes and success factors.

EXPLORE THE FULL REPORT

Fulfillment at Work Requires Real Human-Centered Leadership

If what is being measured indicates what matters, employee fulfillment is not the focus for most organizations.

Today most organizations track employee engagement, which, despite its popularity, may not be ideal. The reason? Few employee engagement initiatives truly aspire to do anything for employees that doesn’t directly benefit the organization.

In contrast with employee engagement, working with an employee toward fulfillment is done, at least in large part, to benefit the individual. Fulfillment involves understanding each employee’s needs for wellness in its broadest sense.

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Driving Fulfillment at Work through Real Human-Centered Leadership

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Checklist: Creating a Successful Leadership Development Program

How to Create a Successful Leadership Development Program

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

The impact of engaging leadership on employee engagement and team effectiveness: A longitudinal, multi-level study on the mediating role of personal- and team resources

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Research Unit Occupational & Organizational Psychology and Professional Learning, KU Leuven, Belgium, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

• Greta Mazzetti, 
• Wilmar B. Schaufeli

• Published: June 29, 2022
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433
• Reader Comments

Most research on the effect of leadership behavior on employees’ well-being and organizational outcomes is based on leadership frameworks that are not rooted in sound psychological theories of motivation and are limited to either an individual or organizational levels of analysis. The current paper investigates whether individual and team resources explain the impact of engaging leadership on work engagement and team effectiveness, respectively. Data were collected at two time points on N = 1,048 employees nested within 90 work teams. The Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling results revealed that personal resources (i.e., optimism, resiliency, self-efficacy, and flexibility) partially mediated the impact of T1 individual perceptions of engaging leadership on T2 work engagement. Furthermore, joint perceptions of engaging leadership among team members at T1 resulted in greater team effectiveness at T2. This association was fully mediated by team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making). Moreover, team resources had a significant cross-level effect on individual levels of engagement. In practical terms, training and supporting leaders who inspire, strengthen, and connect their subordinates could significantly improve employees’ motivation and involvement and enable teams to pursue their common goals successfully.

Citation: Mazzetti G, Schaufeli WB (2022) The impact of engaging leadership on employee engagement and team effectiveness: A longitudinal, multi-level study on the mediating role of personal- and team resources. PLoS ONE 17(6): e0269433. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433

Editor: Ender Senel, Mugla Sitki Kocman University: Mugla Sitki Kocman Universitesi, TURKEY

Received: December 29, 2021; Accepted: May 23, 2022; Published: June 29, 2022

Copyright: © 2022 Mazzetti, Schaufeli. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available on Open Science Framework (OSF) website at the following link: https://osf.io/yfwgt/?view_only=c838730fd7694a0ba32882c666e9f973 . DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YFWGT .

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Multiple studies suggest that work engagement, which is defined as a positive, work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption [ 1 ], is related to extremely positive outcomes, particularly in terms of employees’ well-being and job performance (for a narrative overview see [ 2 ]; for a meta-analysis see [ 3 ]).

Therefore, when work engagement is arguably beneficial for employees and organizations alike, the million-dollar question (quite literally, by the way) is: how can work engagement be increased? Schaufeli [ 4 ] has argued that operational leadership is critical for enhancing follower’s work engagement. Based on the logic of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model [ 5 ], he reasoned that team leaders may (or may not) monitor, manage, and allocate job demands and resources to increase their follower’s levels of work engagement. In doing so, team leaders boost the motivational process that is postulated in the JD-R model. This process assumes that job resources and challenging job demands are inherently motivating and will lead to a positive, affective-motivational state of fulfillment in employees known as work engagement.

The current study focuses on a specific leadership style, dubbed engaging leadership and rooted in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) [ 6 ]. Engaging leaders inspire, strengthen, and connect their followers, thereby satisfying their basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, respectively. In line with the motivational process of the JD-R model, cross-sectional evidence suggests that engaging leaders increase job resources [ 7 ] and personal resources [ 8 ], which, in their turn, are positively associated with work engagement. So far, the evidence for this mediation is exclusively based on cross-sectional studies. Hence, the first objective of our paper is to confirm the mediation effect of resources using a longitudinal design.

Scholars have emphasized that “the study of leadership is inherently multilevel in nature” (p. 4) [ 9 ]. This statement implies that, in addition to the individual level, the team level of analysis should also be included when investigating the impact of engaging leadership.

The current study makes two notable contributions to the literature. First, it investigates the impact, over time, of a novel, specific leadership style (i.e., engaging leadership) on team- and individual outcomes (i.e., team effectiveness and work engagement). Second, it investigates the mediating role of team resources and personal resources in an attempt to explain the impact of leadership on these outcomes. The research model, which is described in greater detail below, is displayed in Fig 1 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433.g001

Leadership and work engagement

Leadership is defined as the way in which particular individuals–leaders–purposefully influence other individuals–their followers–to obtain defined outcomes [ 10 ].

A systematic narrative review identified twenty articles on leadership and work engagement [ 11 ] and showed that work engagement is positively associated with various person-centered leadership styles. The most pervasively used framework was transformational leadership, whereas authentic, ethical, and charismatic leadership was used much less. The authors conclude that "most of the reviewed studies were consistent in arguing that leadership is significantly correlated with and is affecting employee’s work engagement directly or via mediation” (p. 18) [ 11 ]. Moreover, they also conclude that research findings and inferences on leadership and engagement remain narrowly focused and inconclusive due to the lack of longitudinal designs addressing this issue. A recent meta-analysis [ 12 ] identified 69 studies and found substantial positive relationships of work engagement with ethical (k = 9; ρ = .58), transformational (k = 36; ρ = .46) and servant leadership (k = 3; ρ = .43), and somewhat less strong associations with authentic (k = 17; ρ = .38) and empowering leadership (k = 4; ρ = .35). Besides, job resources (e.g., job autonomy, social support), organizational resources (e.g., organizational identification, trust), and personal resources (self-efficacy, creativity) mediated the effect of leadership on work engagement. Although transformational leadership is arguably the most popular leadership concept of the last decades [ 13 ], the validity of its conceptual definition has been heavily criticized, even to the extent that some authors suggest getting “back to the drawing board” [ 14 ]. It should be noted that three main criticisms are voiced: (1) the theoretical definition of the transformational leadership dimensions is meager (i.e., how are the four dimensions selected and how do they combine?); (2) no causal model is specified (i.e., how is each dimension related to mediating processes and outcomes?); (3) the most frequently used measurement tools are invalid (i.e., they fail to reproduce the dimensional structure and do not show empirical distinctiveness from other leadership concepts). Hence, it could be argued that the transformational leadership framework is not very well suited for exploring the impact of leadership on work engagement.

Schaufeli [ 7 ] introduced the concept of engaging leadership , which is firmly rooted in Self-Determination Theory. According to Deci and Ryan [ 6 ], three innate psychological needs are essential ‘nutrients’ for individuals to function optimally, also at the workplace: the needs for autonomy (i.e., feeling in control), competence (i.e., feeling effective), and relatedness (i.e., feeling loved and cared for). Moreover, SDT posits that employees are likely to be engaged (i.e., internalize their tasks and show high degrees of energy, concentration, and persistence) to the degree that their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied [ 15 ]. This is in line with Bormann and Rowold [ 16 ]. Based on a systematic review on construct proliferation in leadership research, these authors recommended that leadership concepts should use SDT because this motivational theory allows a more parsimonious description of the mechanisms underlying leadership behaviors. These authors posited that the core of "narrow" leadership constructs "bases on a single pillar" (p. 163), and therefore predict narrow outcomes. In contrast to broad leadership constructs, the concept of engaging leadership is narrow because it focuses on leadership behaviors to explicitly promote work engagement.

Schaufeli [ 7 ] reasoned that leaders, who are instrumental in satisfying their followers’ basic needs, are likely to increase their engagement levels. More specifically, engaging leaders are supposed to: (1) inspire (e.g., by enthusing their followers for their vision and plans, and by making them feel that they contribute to something important); (2) strengthen (e.g., by granting their followers freedom and responsibility, and by delegating tasks); and (3) connect (e.g., by encouraging collaboration and by promoting a high team spirit among their followers). Hence, by inspiring, strengthening, and connecting their followers, leaders stimulate the fulfillment of their follower’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, respectively, which, in turn, will foster work engagement.

The underlying mechanisms of the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement are a major focus of research, as the construct of engaging leadership was built upon the identification of the leadership behaviors that are capable of stimulating positive outcomes by satisfying needs. The literature on engaging leadership provides empirical evidence for its indirect impact on followers’ engagement by fulfilling followers’ basic needs. This finding is consistent across occupational sectors and cultural contexts [ 17 – 19 ]. Further, the observation of a partial mediation effect for need satisfaction suggests the presence of a direct relationship between engaging leadership and engagement [ 20 , 21 ]. In their behaviors, engaging leaders are likely to improve their job characteristics to the point of stimulating greater engagement among their employees. This assumption has been corroborated by a recent longitudinal study that delved deeper into the association between engaging leadership and needs satisfaction [ 22 ]. That study found that the relationship between engaging leadership and basic needs satisfaction is mediated by enhanced levels of job resources (among them were improved feedback and skill use and better person-job fit). The fulfilment of those needs, in turn, resulted in higher levels of work engagement. Therefore, perceived job resources seem to play a crucial role in the causal relationship between engaging leadership and basic needs satisfaction. This evidence found support in a later two-wave full panel design with a 1-year time lag, where engaging leadership promoted employees’ perception of autonomy and social support from colleagues [ 23 ]. In addition, a recent study by Van Tuin and colleagues [ 24 ] revealed that engaging leadership is associated with increased perceptions of intrinsic organizational values (e.g., providing a contribution to organizational and personal development) and satisfaction of the need for autonomy which, in turn, may boost employees’ level of engagement.

A recent study investigated the ways in which engaging leadership could boost the effects of human resource (HR) practices for promoting employees’ psychological, physical, and social well-being over time [ 25 ]. Teams led by an engaging leader reported higher levels of happiness at work and trust in leadership, combined with lower levels of burnout than their colleagues who were led by poorly engaging leaders. Happiness and trust played a key role in improving team member performance. These findings indicate that engaged leaders provide a thoughtful implementation of HR practices focused on promoting employee well-being, being constantly driven by their employees’ flourishing.

Another line of studies may reveal the causality between engaging leadership and work-related outcomes. A multilevel longitudinal study provided cross-level and team-level effects of engaging leadership [ 26 ]. Engaging leadership at T1 explained team learning, innovation, and individual performance through increased teamwork engagement at T2. Interventions targeting engaging leadership created positive work outcomes for leaders (e.g., autonomy satisfaction and intrinsic motivation) and decreased employee absenteeism [ 27 ]. However, cross-lagged longitudinal analyses indicate that employees’ current level of work engagement predicts their leaders’ level of engaging leadership rather than the other way around [ 23 ]. These findings imply that the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement cannot be narrowed to a simple unidirectional causal relationship but rather exhibits a dynamic nature, where engaging leadership and work engagement mutually influence each other. The dynamic nature of engaging leadership has also been investigated through a diary study. The results suggest that employees enacted job crafting strategies more frequently on days when leaders were more successful in satisfying their need for connectivity [ 28 ]. Hence, leaders who satisfy the need for connectedness among their followers will not only encourage higher levels of engagement among their followers but also an increased ability to proactively adapt tasks to their interests and preferences.

Since transformational leadership is currently the most frequently studied leadership style, a summary of the similarities and differences in the proposed new conceptualization of leadership proposed (i.e., engaging leadership) must be provided.

A key difference between transformational and engaging leadership originates from their foundation. Whereas transformational leadership is primarily a change-oriented style, engaging leadership encourages employees’ well-being through the promotion of supportive relationships and is defined as a relationship-oriented leadership style [ 29 ].

Further similarities entail the combination of behaviors meant to foster employees’ well-being and growth. Transformational leaders act as role models admired and emulated by followers (idealized influence), encourage a reconsideration of prevailing assumptions and work practices to promote stronger innovation (intellectual stimulation), identify and build on the unique characteristics and strengths of each follower (individualized consideration), and provides a stimulating view of the future and meaning of their work (inspirational motivation) [ 30 ]. A considerable resemblance involves the dimensions of inspirational motivation and inspiring, which are, respectively, included in transformational and engaging leadership. They both entail recognizing the leader as a guiding light to a specific mission and vision, where individual inputs are credited as essential ingredients in achieving the shared goal. Thus, they both fulfill the individual need for meaningfulness. In a similar vein, transformational and engaged leaders are both committed to promote followers’ growth in terms of innovation and creativity. In other words, the intellectual stimulation offered by transformational leadership and the strengthening component of engaging leadership are both aimed at meeting the need for competence among followers.

Alternatively, it is also possible to detect decisive differences between the dimensions underlying these leadership styles. Transformational leadership entails the provision of personal mentorship (i.e., individualized consideration), while engaging leadership is primarily focused on enhancing the interdependence and cohesion among team members (i.e., team consideration). Furthermore, engaging leadership disregards the notion of idealized influence covered by transformational leadership: an engaging leader is not merely identified as a model whose behavior is admired and mirrored, but rather proactively meets followers’ need for autonomy through the allocation of tasks and responsibilities.

Empirical results lent further support to the distinctiveness between transformational and engaging leadership. The analysis of the factor structure of both constructs revealed that measures of engaging and transformational leadership load on separate dimensions instead of being explained by a single latent factor [ 31 ]. More recently, additional research findings pointed out that engaging and transformational leadership independently account for comparable portions of variance in work engagement [ 32 ]. However, this does not alter the fact that a certain overlap exists between both leadership concepts; thus, it is not surprising that a consistent, positive relationship is found between transformational leadership and work engagement [ 11 ].

In sum: a positive link appears to exist between person-centered leadership styles and work engagement. Moreover, this relationship seems to be mediated by (job and personal) resources. However, virtually all studies used cross-sectional designs, and the causal direction remains unclear. We followed the call to go back to the drawing board by choosing an alternative, deductive approach by introducing the theory-grounded concept of engaging leadership and investigate its impact on individual and team outcomes (see Fig 1 ).

Engaging leadership, personal resources, and employee engagement (individual level)

Serrano and Reichard [ 33 ], who posit that leaders may pursue four pathways to increase their follower’s work engagement: (1) design meaningful and motivating work; (2) support and coach their employees; (3 ) facilitate rewarding and supportive coworker relations, and (4) enhancing personal resources. In the present study, we focus on the fourth pathway. Accordingly, a cross-sectional study using structural equation modeling [ 8 ] showed that psychological capital (i.e., self-efficacy, optimism, resiliency, and flexibility) fully mediated the relationship between perceived engaging leadership and follower’s work engagement. Consistent with findings on job resources, this study indicated that personal resources also mediate the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement. In a nutshel, when employees feel autonomous, competent, and connected to their colleagues, their own personal resources benefit, and this fuels their level of engagement.

In the current study, we use the same conceptualization of psychological capital (PsyCap) as Schaufeli [ 7 , 8 ], which slightly differs from the original concept. Originally, PsyCap was defined as a higher-order construct that is based on the shared commonalities of four first-order personal resources: “(1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success” (p. 10) [ 34 ]. Instead of hope, flexibility is included; that is, the capability of employees to adapt to new, different, and changing requirements at work. Previous research showed a high correlation ( r > .70) between hope and optimism, thus increasing the risk of multicollinearity [ 35 ]. This strong relationship points at conceptual overlap: hope is defined as the perception that goals can be set and achieved, whereas optimism is the belief that one will experience good outcomes. Hence, trust in achieving goals (hope) implies optimism. Additionally, hope includes "when necessary, redirecting paths to goals", which refers to flexibility. Finally, in organizational practice, the flexibility of employees is considered an essential resource because organizations are continuously changing, which requires permanent adaption and hence employee flexibility. In short, there are psychometric, conceptual, and pragmatic arguments for replacing hope by flexibility.

According to Luthans and colleagues [ 36 ], PsyCap is a state-like resource representing an employee’s motivational propensity and perseverance towards goals. PsyCap is malleable and open to development, thus it can be enhanced through positive leadership [ 37 ]. Indeed, it was found that transformational leadership enhances PsyCap, which, in turn, increases in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior [ 38 ]. In a similar vein, PsyCap mediates the relationships between authentic leadership and employee’s creative behavior [ 39 ].

We argue that engaging leadership may promote PsyCap as well. After all, by inspiring followers with a clear, powerful and compelling vision, engaging leaders: (1) create the belief in their ability to perform tasks that tie in with that vision successfully, thereby fostering follower’s self-efficacy ; (2) generate a positive appraisal of the future, thereby fostering follower’s optimism ; (3) trigger the ability to bounce back from adversity because a favorable future is within reach, thereby fostering follower’s resiliency ; (4) set goals and induce the belief that these can be achieved, if necessary by redirecting paths to those goals, thereby fostering follower’s flexibility [ 38 ].

Furthermore, engaging leaders strengthen their followers and unleash their potential by setting challenging goals. This helps to build followers’ confidence in task-specific skills, thereby increasing their self-efficacy levels, mainly via mastery experiences that occur after challenging goals have been achieved [ 40 ]. Setting high-performance expectations also elevates follower’s sense of self-worth, thereby leading to a positive appraisal of their current and future circumstances (i.e., optimism ). Moreover, a strengthening leader acts as a powerful contextual resource that augments followers’ self-confidence and, hence, increases their ability to bounce back from adversity (i.e., resiliency ) and adapt to changing requirements at work (i.e., flexibility ).

Finally, by connecting their followers, engaging leaders promote good interpersonal relationships and build a supportive team climate characterized by collaboration and psychological safety. Connecting leaders also foster commitment to team goals by inducing a sense of purpose, which energizes team members to contribute toward the same, shared goal. This means that in tightly knit, supportive and collaborative teams, followers: (1) experience positive emotions when team goals are met, which, in turn, fosters their level of self-efficacy [ 40 ]; (2) feel valued and acknowledged by others, which increases their self-worth and promotes a positive and optimistic outlook; (3) can draw upon their colleagues for help and support, which enables to face problems and adversities with resiliency ; (4) can use the abilities, skills, and knowledge of their teammates to adapt to changing job and team requirements (i.e., flexibility ).

In sum, when perceived as such by followers, engaging leadership acts as a sturdy contextual condition that enhances their PsyCap. We continue to argue that, in its turn, high levels of PsyCap are predictive for work engagement; or in other words, PsyCap mediates the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement.

How to explain the relationship between PsyCap and work engagement? Sweetman and Luthans [ 41 ] presented a conceptual model, which relates PsyCap to work engagement through positive emotions. They argue that all four elements of PsyCap may have a direct and state-like relationship with each of the three dimensions of work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption). Furthermore, an upward spiral of PsyCap and work engagement may be a source of positive emotion and subsequently broaden an employee’s growth mindset, leading to higher energy and engagement [ 42 , 43 ]. In short, PsyCap prompts and maintains a motivational process that leads to higher work engagement and may ultimately result in positive outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment [ 44 ].

Psychological capital is a valuable resource to individuals [ 45 ] that fosters work engagement, as demonstrated in past research [ 46 ]. Hence, following the reasoning above, we formulate the following hypothesis:

• Hypothesis 1: Psychological capital (self-efficacy , optimism , resiliency , and flexibility) mediates the relationship between T1 employee’s perceptions of engaging leadership and T2 work engagement .

Engaging leadership, team resources, and work team effectiveness (team level)

So far, we focused on individual-level mediation, but an equivalent mediation process is expected at the aggregated team level as well. We assume that leaders display a comparable leadership style toward the entire team, resulting in a similar relationship with each of the team members. This model of leader-follower interactions is known as the average leadership style (ALS) [ 47 ]. This means that homogeneous leader-follower interactions exist within teams, but relationships of leaders with followers may differ between teams. The relationships between leadership and team effectiveness might be based on an analogous, team-based ALS-approach as well [ 48 ]. Following this lead, we posit that team members share their perceptions of engaging leadership, while this shared perception differs across teams. Moreover, we assume that these shared perceptions are positively related to team effectiveness.

An essential role for leaders is to build team resources, which motivate team members and enable them to perform. Indeed, the influence of leader behaviors on team mediators and outcomes has been extensively documented [ 49 , 50 ].

Most studies use the heuristic input-process-output (IPO) framework [ 51 ] to explain the relationship between leadership (input) and team effectiveness (output), whereby the intermediate processes describe how team inputs are transformed into outputs. It is widely acknowledged that two types of team processes play a significant role: “taskwork” (i.e., functions that team members must perform to achieve the team’s task) and “teamwork” (i.e., the interaction between team members, necessary to achieve the team’s task). Taskwork is encouraged by task-oriented leadership behaviors that focus on task accomplishment. In contrast, teamwork is encouraged by person-oriented leadership behaviors that focus on developing team members and promoting interactions between them [ 49 ]. The current paper focuses on teamwork and person-oriented (i.e., engaging) leadership.

Collectively, team resources such as performance feedback, trust in management, communication between team members, and participation in decision-making constitute a supportive team climate that is conducive for employee growth and development, and hence fosters team effectiveness, as well as individual work engagement. This also meshes with Serrano and Reichard [ 33 ], who argue that for employees to flourish, leaders should design meaningful and motivating work (e.g., through feedback and participation in decision making) and facilitate rewarding and supportive coworker relations (e.g., through communication and trust in management).

To date, engaging leadership has not been studied at the team level and concerning team resources and team effectiveness. How should the association between engaging leadership and team resources be conceived? By strengthening, engaging leaders provide their team members with performance feedback; by inspiring, they grant their team members participate in decision making; and by connecting, they foster communication between team members and install trust. Please note that team resources refer to shared, individual perceptions of team members, which are indicated by within-team consensus. Therefore, taken as a whole, the team-level resources that are included in the present study constitute a supportive team climate that is characterized by receiving feedback, trust in management, communication amongst team members, and participating in decision-making. We have seen above that engaging leaders foster team resources, but how are these resources, in their turn, related to team effectiveness?

The multi-goal, multi-level model of feedback effects of DeShon and colleagues [ 52 ] posits that individual and team regulatory processes govern the allocation of effort invested in achieving individual and team goals, resulting in individual and team effectiveness. We posit that the shared experience of receiving the team leader’s feedback prompts team members to invest efforts in achieving team tasks, presumably through team regulatory processes, as postulated in the multi-goal, multi-level model.

Trust has been defined as: “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other party will perform a particular action to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (p. 712) [ 53 ]. Using a multilevel mediation model, Braun and colleagues [ 54 ] showed that trust mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and performance at the team level. They reasoned that transformational leaders take into account a team member’s needs, goals, and interests, making them more willing to be vulnerable to their supervisor. This would apply even more for engaging leaders, which is defined in terms of satisfying basic follower’s needs. It is plausible that a team’s shared trust in its leader enhances the trust of team members in each other. That means that team members interact and communicate trustfully and rely on each other’s abilities, which, in turn, is conducive for team effectiveness [ 55 ].

Communication is a crucial element of effective teamwork [ 56 ]. Team members must exchange information to ascertain other members’ competence and intentions, and they must engage in communication to develop a strategy and plan their work. Several studies have shown that effectively gathering and exchanging information is essential for team effectiveness [ 57 , 58 ]. Furthermore, participation in decision-making is defined as joint decision-making [ 59 ] and involves sharing influence between team leaders and team members. By participating in decision-making, team members create work situations that are more favorable to their effectiveness. Team members utilize participating in decision-making for achieving what they desire for themselves and their team. Generally speaking, shared mental models are defined as organized knowledge structures that allow employees to interact successfully with their environment, and therefore lead to superior team performance [ 60 ]. That is, team members with a shared mental model about decision-making are ‘in sync’ and will easily coordinate their actions, whereas the absence of a shared mental model will result in process loss and ineffective team processes.

Taken together and based on the previous reasoning, we formulate the second hypothesis as follows:

• Hypothesis 2: Team resources (performance feedback , trust in management , team communication , and participation in decision-making) mediate the relationship between T1 team member’s shared perceptions of engaging leadership and T2 team effectiveness .

Engaging leadership, team resources, and work engagement (cross-level)

Engaging leaders build team resources (see above). Or put differently, the team member’s shared perceptions of engaging leadership are positively related to team resources. Besides, we also assume that these team resources positively impact work engagement at the individual level. A plethora of research has shown that various job resources are positively related to work engagement, including feedback, trust, communication, and participation in decision- making (for a narrative overview see [ 61 ]; for a meta-analysis see [ 62 , 63 ]). Most research that found this positive relationship between job resources and work engagement used the Job-Demands Resources model [ 5 ] that assumes that job resources are inherently motivating because they enhance personal growth and development and are instrumental in achieving work goals. Typically, these resources are assessed as perceived by the individual employee. Yet, as we have seen above, perceptions of resources might also be shared amongst team members. It is plausible that these shared resources, which collectively constitute a supportive, collaborative team climate, positively impact employee’s individual work engagement. Teams that receive feedback, have trust in management, whose members amply interact and communicate, and participate in decision-making are likely to produce work engagement. This reasoning agrees with Schaufeli [ 64 ], who showed that organizational growth climate is positively associated with work engagement, also after controlling for personality. When employee growth is deemed relevant by the organization this is likely to translate, via engaging leaders, into a supportive team environment, which provides feedback, trust, communication, and participative decision-making. Hence, we formulate:

• Hypothesis 3: Team resources (performance feedback , trust in management , team communication , and participation in decision-making) mediate the relationship between team shared perceptions of engaging leadership at T1 and individual team member’s work engagement at T2 .

Sample and procedure

In collaboration with the HR department, data were collected among all employees of a business unit of a large Dutch public service agency. This agency is responsible for the administration of unemployment benefits and work incapacitation claims, as well as for the rehabilitation and return to work of unemployed and incapacitated employees. A one-year time-lagged design was applied to minimize the likelihood of common method variance effects and to explore causal relationships among the study variables [ 65 ]. The questionnaire included a cover letter reporting the aims and contents of the study. The letter also stated that participation in the study was completely voluntary, and that one can withdraw from the study at any time without having to give explanations and without this involving any disadvantage or prejudice. Participants’ consent was concluded by conduct, through ticking the consent checkbox as a prerequisite to access the questionnaire. This research was conducted in 2015, thus before the publication of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and complied with the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. Thus, ethics approval was not compulsory, as per applicable institutional and national Dutch guidelines. Additionally, the current study did not involve any treatment, medical diagnostics, or procedures generating psychological or social discomfort among participants.

In the first survey at Time 1 ( N = 2,304; response rate 63%), employees were asked about their socio-demographic background, engaging leadership, team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making), team effectiveness, personal resources (i.e., resiliency, optimism, and flexibility), and work engagement. At Time 2 ( N = 2,183; response rate 51%), participants filled out the same survey, which included an additional self-efficacy scale. At both measurement points, participants received an email from the HR department containing a link that allowed them to fill out the online survey. This introductory email provided background information about the study’s general aim and guaranteed that participants’ responses would be treated confidentiality. A sample of N = 1,048 employees filled out the questionnaire twice, with an interval of one year between T1 and T2.

The estimation of multilevel models with at least 50 teams of at least 5 members per group is strongly recommended to avoid underestimating standard errors and variances for random effects [ 66 , 67 ]. Therefore, participants being part of teams with less than 5 employees were excluded from the analyses. Accordingly, the data of 1,048 participants, who completed both questionnaires, could be linked and constitute the current study sample. Employees were nested within 90 work teams, with an average of 13.7 ( SD = 5.72) employees per team. Slightly more women (51.8%) as men were included (48.2%), the average age of the sample was 49.70 years ( SD = 7.46), and the mean organization tenure was 12.02 years ( SD = 9.56).

All measures described below were rated using five-point scales that either ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5), or from never (1) to always (5). The internal consistencies (Cronbach’s α) of the measures are displayed on the diagonal of Table 2 .

Engaging Leadership was measured using a scale developed by Schaufeli [ 64 ] including nine items. This questionnaire contains three subscales of three items each: Inspiring, Strengthening, and Connecting. Sample items are: “My supervisor is able to enthuse others for his/her plans” (inspiring); “My supervisor delegates tasks and responsibilities” (strengthening); and “My supervisor encourages team members to cooperate” (connecting).

Individual-level measures.

Optimism was measured with three items from the Optimism scale of the PsyCap Questionnaire developed by Luthans and colleagues [ 36 ], which is aimed at assessing employees’ expectations about future success at work because of a positive view of their job. A sample item is: “I always look on the bright side of things regarding my job”.

Resiliency was assessed using three items from the Resiliency scale of the PsyCap Questionnaire [ 36 ]. These items refer to employees’ beliefs about their ability to recover from uncertainty and failure and to react successfully to setbacks that can occur at work. A sample item is: "I usually take stressful things at work in stride”.

Self-efficacy referred to the perceived capability to efficiently plan and implement courses of action required to attain a specific work goal and was measured using three items from Mazzetti, Schaufeli, and Guglielmi [ 68 ]. A sample item is: "At work, I reach my goal even when unexpected situations arise".

Flexibility refers to the individual ability to adapt to changes in the workplace and to modify one’s schedules and plans to meet job requirements. It was assessed by using three items: "If the job requires, I am willing to change my schedule”; “I do not have problems changing the way I work” and “I adapt easily to changes at work”.

Work engagement was assessed using a three-item scale developed by Schaufeli and colleagues [ 69 ]. This ultra-short version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale has similar psychometric properties as the nine-item version. A sample item is: "At my work, I feel bursting with energy”.

Team-level measures.

Performance feedback was assessed by the three-item scale from the Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work (QEEW) [ 70 ]. A sample item is: “Do you get enough information about the result of your work?”.

Trust in Management of team members was assessed using two items from Schaufeli [ 7 ]: “I trust the way my organization is managed”, and “I have confidence in my immediate supervisor”. Following the recommendations from Eisinga and colleagues [ 71 ] we computed the Spearman-Brown coefficient, since it represents the most appropriate reliability coefficient for a two-item scale ( r s = .43, p < .001).

Communication , meaning the perception of an efficient and prompt circulation of information at the team level was measured using the three-item Communication scale taken from the QEEW [ 70 ]. A sample item is: "I am sufficiently informed about the developments within my team”.

Participation in decision-making was measured by a single item (i.e., “Can you participate in decision making about work-related issues?”) from the QEEW [ 70 ].

Team effectiveness . The team-level criterion variable was assessed with a three-item scale [ 8 ]. A sample item is: “Do you cooperate effectively with others in your team?”.

In order to check for systematic dropout, the social-demographic background, as well as the scores on the study variables were compared of those employees in the panel who filled out the questionnaire twice at T1 and T2 ( N = 1,142) and those who dropped out and filled out the questionnaire only once at T1 ( N = 1,161). It appeared that compared to the group who dropped out, the panel group was slightly younger (t (2301) = -2.21; p < .05) and had less organizational tenure (t (2301) = -4.05; p < .001). No gender differences were observed between both groups (χ 2 = .88; n . s .). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) that included all study variables revealed a significant between-groups effect: F (12,2291) = 3.54, p < .001. Subsequent univariate tests showed that compared to the dropouts, the panel group scored higher on inspiring (F (1,2302) = 14.90, p < .001), strengthening (F (1,2302) = 9.39, p < .01), and connecting leadership (F (1,2302) = 14.90, p < .05), as well as on optimism (F (1,2302) = 5.59, p < .05), flexibility (F (1,2302) = 12.56, p < .001), work engagement (F (1,2302) = 9.16, p < .05), performance feedback (F (1,2302) = 11.68, p < .01), and participation in decision making (F (1,2302) = 8.83, p < .05). No significant differences were found for resiliency, trust in management, communication, and team effectiveness.

It seems that, taken together, the panel group is slightly younger and less tenured, and scores more favorable than the dropouts on most study variables. However, the differences between both groups are relatively small and vary between 0 and .13 on a 5-point scale. Therefore, it is not likely that systematic dropout has influenced the results of the current study.

Control variables.

At the individual level, we controlled for the potential confounding effects of gender, age, and tenure by including these variables as covariates in our analyses. More specifically, the impact of age was controlled for because previous research suggested that older employees report higher levels of personal resources [ 72 ] and work engagement [ 73 ]. Gender was also included as a control variable because previous research suggested that compared to women, men score lower on work engagement [ 74 ] and higher on personal resources, such as optimism and self-efficacy [ 75 ]. Finally, previous investigations also revealed that job tenure may affect employees’ level and stability of work engagement, with tenured employees reporting higher and more stable levels of work engagement compared to newcomers [ 76 ]. Besides, Barbier and colleagues [ 77 ] suggested that job tenure might affect employees’ personal resources (i.e., self-esteem and optimism). Considering this empirical evidence, job tenure was also included as a covariate in our model.

Data aggregation.

Our research model includes the three dimensions of engaging leadership (i.e., inspiring, strengthening, and connecting) three team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication and participation in decision-making), and one outcome (i.e., team effectiveness) at the team level of analysis. To check the reliability and validity of aggregated scores at the team level, four indices were computed [ 78 ]: (1) ICC [1] , which indicates the proportion of variance in ratings due to team membership; (2) ICC [2] , representing the reliability of between-groups differences; (3) r wg(j) , that measures the level of agreement within work teams; (4) deff , that measures the effect of independence violations on the estimation of standard errors through the formula 1+(average cluster size-1)*ICC [ 79 ]. Generally speaking, values greater than .05 for ICC [1] [ 80 ] and .40 for ICC [2] [ 81 ] an r wg(j) higher than .70, and a deff- index exceeding 2 are considered a prerequisite for aggregating data [ 78 ]. Moreover, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to explore whether participants’ scores on the Level 2 constructs differed significantly among work teams. The results of the aggregation tests are displayed in Table 1 . Taken together, these results justify the aggregation of the team-level variables.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433.t001

Strategy of analysis

To test our hypotheses, a multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was tested using the Mplus 7 statistical modeling software [ 82 ]. The application of this procedure allows the inclusion of latent variables that take measurement errors into account and permits the simultaneous estimation of mediation effects at the individual and team levels; therefore, it is superior to stepwise approaches [ 83 ]. As suggested by Zhang and colleagues [ 84 ], predictors at the individual level (i.e., engaging leadership dimensions and personal resources) were team-mean centered using a centering within context – CWC approach [ 85 ]. This procedure was aimed at preventing the confounding effect of mediation within and between work teams. In other words, predictors at the individual level for subject i were centered around the mean of the cluster j to which case i belongs (i.e., predictor ij —M predictor j ). Accordingly, the latent engaging leadership factor at within-level was indicated by the CWC means of the three dimensions of engaging leadership (i.e., inspiring cwc , strengthening cwc , and connecting cwc ) at T1. In a similar vein, personal resources were included as a latent variable indicated by the observed levels of optimism cwc , reisliency cwc , self-efficacy cwc , and flexibility cwc at T2. Finally, T2 work engagement was included as an observed variable equal to the mean score of the corresponding scale. As previously stated, gender, age, and organizational tenure were included as covariates at the individual level of the MSEM model.

At the team level, the latent measure of engaging leadership at T1 was assessed through the observed scores on the three dimensions of inspiring, strengthening, and connecting leadership. T2 team resources were modeled as a single latent factor indicated by the observed scores on performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making. The observed mean score on T2 team effectiveness was modeled as the team level criterion variable.

At the individual level, the mediation was tested by considering path a , from T1 individual perceptions of engaging leadership (X) to T2 personal resources (M) and path b , from T2 personal resources to T2 work engagement (Y), controlling for X → Y. At the team level, the same procedure was applied considering path c , linking team perceptions of T1 engaging leadership (X) and T2 team resources (M) and path d , from T2 team resources to T2 team effectiveness (Y).

The individual and team-level perceptions of engaging leadership were assessed at T1. In contrast, the mediating variables (i.e., psychological capital and team resources), and the outcomes (i.e., work engagement and team effectiveness) were measured at T2.

Preliminary analysis

Before testing our hypotheses, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed using the maximum likelihood method of estimation using the software package AMOS 21.0 [ 86 ]. This preliminary analysis was aimed at assessing redundancy between the constructs under investigation. For the team level, engaging leadership was included as a latent factor indicated by the observed team levels of inspiring, strengthening, and connecting leadership dimensions. The measured performance feedback levels indicated the latent team resources factor, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making. Team effectiveness, assessed as a criterion variable at the team level, was indicated by a single corresponding item. At the individual level, the group-mean centered scores on inspiring, strengthening, and connecting dimensions were considered indicators of the latent engaging leadership factor. Besides, optimism, resiliency, self-efficacy, and flexibility were included as indicators for the single personal resources latent factor; the observed average score on work engagement was used for assessing the corresponding latent variable. The model fit was assessed by considering the comparative fit index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) ≥ .95, Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) ≤ .06, and Standardized Root-Mean-Square Residual (SRMR) ≤ .08 [ 87 , 88 ]. According to these criteria, the hypothesized measurement model showed a good fit to the data, with χ 2 (91) = 465.09, CFI = .96, TLI = .95, RMSEA = .06, and SRMR = .03. Moreover, all indicators showed significant factor loadings on their respective latent factors ( p < .001) with λ values ranging from .51 to .95, thus exceeding the commonly accepted criterion of .50 [ 89 ]. Hence, these results support the assumption that the study variables were non-redundant and adequately distinct from each other.

Model testing

The means, standard deviations, correlations, and internal consistencies for all study variables are displayed in Table 2 . As expected, the constructs under investigation showed significant relationships in the hypothesized direction.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433.t002

The hypothesized MSEM showed a good fit to data: χ 2 (60) = 155.38, CFI = .97, TLI = .96, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = 0.03 (within teams) and .08 (between teams). As displayed in Fig 2 , at the individual level the three indicators of engaging leadership loaded significantly on their intended latent factor, with λ = .83 ( p = .000, 95% CI = [.79, .87]) for inspiring, λ = .77 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.73, .81]) for strengthening, and λ = .81 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.78, .85]) for connecting. Similarly, the standardized factor loadings for the indicators of personal resources were all significant as well: λ = .74 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.68, .79]) for optimism, λ = .68 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.63, .72]) for resiliency λ = .68 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.62, .74]) for self-efficacy, and λ = .64 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.59, .69]) for flexibility.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433.g002

The direct relationship between T1 engaging leadership and T2 work engagement was significant β = .16 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.10, .22]). Moreover, results indicated that engaging leadership at T1 had a positive impact on personal resources at T2: γ = .27 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.18, .37]). T2 personal resources, in turn, were positively associated with T2 work engagement: β = .55 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.49, .62]). The estimated indirect effect of T1 engaging leadership on T2 work engagement via personal resources (i.e., a*b) was statistically significant: B (SE) = .19 (.04), p < .001, 95% CI [.11, .27]. Hence, personal resources (i.e., optimism, resiliency, self-efficacy, and flexibility) at T2 partially mediated the impact of T1 engaging leadership on employees’ engagement within work teams at T2. These findings provide partial support for Hypothesis 1 . Among the covariates included at the individual level, only gender and age showed a significant association with work engagement, with γ = -.10 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [-.15, -.05]) and γ = .10 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.04, .16]), respectively.

At the team level, all factor loadings for the three indicators of engaging leadership on their corresponding latent variable were significant: λ = .95 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.93, .99]) for inspiring, λ = .86 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.80, .91]) for strengthening, and λ = .94 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.90, .97]) for connecting. Additionally, the observed measure of each team resource loaded significantly on its intended latent variable: λ = .69 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.56, .82]) for performance feedback, λ = .86 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.78, .94]) for trust in management, λ = .89 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.81, .97]) for communication, and λ = .71 ( p = .000, 95% CI = [.60, .82]) for participation in decision-making. Moreover, engaging leadership at T1 had a nonsignificant direct impact on team effectiveness at T2, with β = -.06 ( p = .641, 95% CI = [-.30, .19]). In contrast, team perception of engaging leadership at T1 had a positive impact on team resources at T2: γ = .59 ( p < .001, 95% CI = [.42, .75]). Team resources at T2 were, in turn, positively related to T2 team effectiveness, β = .38 ( p = .003, 95% CI = [.13, .62]). These results suggest full mediation and were supported by the estimation of the indirect effect of T1 engaging leadership on T2 team effectiveness via team resources at T2 (i.e., c*d): B (SE) = .18 (.07), p = .013, 95% CI [.04, .32]. Thus, Hypothesis 2 was fully supported.

Hence, in the current study team resources at T2 (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making) fully mediated the effect of T1 engaging leadership on T2 team effectiveness across different work teams. Moreover, T2 team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, team communication, and participation in decision-making) showed a significant cross-level effect on T2 individual team member’s level of engagement: β = .57 (p < .001, 195% CI = [.27, .87]). This result provided evidence for Hypothesis 3 .

The current study aimed to explore the role of individual and collective perceptions of engaging leadership in predicting team effectivity and work engagement. To this purpose, we developed a two-level research model using a two time-point design.

Main results

At the individual level, the obtained results suggest that psychological capital (i.e., the combination of self-efficacy, optimism, resiliency, and flexibility) partly mediated the longitudinal relationship between employees’ perceptions of engaging leadership and their levels of work engagement. In other words, team leaders perceived as inspiring, strengthening, and connecting could enhance their followers’ engagement directly and indirectly through an increase in psychological capital. Thus, engaging leaders could make their followers feel more optimistic, resilient, self-efficacious, and flexible. At the team level, a shared perception of engaging leadership was associated with a greater pool of team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making), which contribute to define an open and supportive team climate that is conducive for employee growth and development. In their turn, these collective resources were positively related to the perceived effectiveness of work teams.

Hence, team resources at the team level fully mediated the relationship between engaging leadership and team effectiveness. That means that teams in which the leader is considered to be inspiring, strengthening, and connecting can draw upon more team resources, and could feel, in turn, more effective. Simultaneously, a significant cross-level mediation effect was found for team resources, meaning that they mediate the relationship between engaging leadership at team level and individual level work engagement. In other words, teams with engaging leaders are not only more effective at the team level, but they also report higher levels of work engagement among their members. These leaders create a team climate that fosters employee growth and development by providing performance feedback, installing trust, and stimulating communication and participation in decision-making.

Three different contributions.

Thus, three major conclusions can be drawn for the current study, which signifies its contribution to the literature. First, engaging leadership can be considered an individual-level construct (i.e., the perception of particular leadership behaviors by individual followers) and a collective, team-level construct (i.e., the shared perception of specific leadership behaviors among team members). As far as the latter is concerned, our results support the notion of an average leadership style (ALS) [ 47 ]; namely, that homogeneous leader-follower interactions exist within teams, but relationships of leaders with followers differ between teams.

Secondly, Individual-level engaging leadership predicts individual work engagement through increasing follower’s PsyCap. Previous research suggested a positive relationship between person-focused leadership styles and follower’s work engagement, albeit that virtually all studies were cross-sectional in nature (for an overview see [ 11 , 33 ]). Our study added longitudinal evidence for that relationship and hinted at an underlying psychological process by suggesting that psychological capital might play a mediating role. As such, the current study corroborates and extends a previous cross-sectional study that obtained similar results [ 8 ]. However, it should be noted that the present study used a slightly different operationalization of PsyCap as is usually employed [ 36 ]. In addition to the three core elements of optimism, resiliency, and self-efficacy, flexibility instead of hope was used as a constituting fourth element of PsyCap. The reason was that hope and optimism overlap both theoretically as well as empirically [ 35 ] and that flexibility–defined as the ability to readapt, divert from unsuccessful paths, and tackle unpredictable conditions that hinder employees’ goal attainment [ 8 ]–was deemed particularly relevant for public service agencies that are plagued by red tape. Our results indicate that engaging leaders strengthen followers’ sense of proficiency when developing a task-specific skill to reach challenging objectives (i.e., self-efficacy). They also encourage a favorable appraisal of the prevailing conditions and future goal achievement (i.e., optimism).

Furthermore, they enhance subordinates’ abilities to recover from failures and move beyond setbacks effectively (i.e., resiliency) through supporting an increased aptitude for adaption to unfamiliar work circumstances (i.e., flexibility). These results corroborate the assumption that leaders who inspire, strengthen, and connect their followers provide a stimulating work environment that enhances employees’ personal resources. In their turn, elevated levels of PsyCap mobilize employees’ energy and intrinsic motivation to perform, expressed by a high level of work engagement. This result concurs with previous evidence that PsyCap can be framed as a critical component of the motivational process of the JD-R model, namely as a mediator of the relationship between contextual resources (i.e., engaging leadership) and work engagement [ 46 ]. However, this mediation was only partial because a direct effect of engaging leadership on follower’s work engagement was also observed in the current study. This evidence is not surprising since previous research showed that other mediating factors (which were not included in the present study) played a role in explaining the relationship between leadership and work engagement. Among them, innovative work behaviors, meaningful work, role clarity, positive emotions, identification with the organization, and psychological ownership [ 11 ]. Thus, increasing their follower’s PsyCap is not the whole story as far as the impact of engaging leadership is concerned. It is likely that engaging leaders also impact these alternative mediating factors. If this is the case, this might explain why the additional variance in follower’s work engagement is explained by engaging leadership, as indicated by the direct effect.

Thirdly, team-level engaging leadership predicts work engagement of individual team members and team effectiveness through increasing team resources. An earlier cross-sectional study found that engaging leadership, as perceived by their followers, showed an indirect, positive effect on their work engagement level through an increase in job resources [ 7 ]. However, in that study, engaging leadership and job resources, including performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making, were assessed at the individual and not at the aggregated team level. This means that the current study corroborates previous findings at the aggregated team level, using a longitudinal design. It is important to note that employees’ level of work engagement not only depends on individual-level processes (through the increase in PsyCap) but also on collective processes (trough the rise in team resources). Finally, our findings concur with research on team climate, showing that leaders who endorse supportive relations between team members and create an open, empowering team climate enable employees to succeed [ 33 ]. Simultaneously, a team climate like that is also likely to foster personal growth and development, which, in turn, translates into greater work engagement [ 63 ].

Practical implications

Our study shows that engaging leadership matters, and therefore organizations are well-advised to stimulate their managers to lead by the principles of engaging leadership. To that end, organizations may implement leadership development programs [ 90 ], leadership coaching [ 91 ], or leadership workshops [ 92 ]. Previous research has shown that leadership behaviors are malleable and subject to change using professional training [ 93 – 95 ]. Furthermore, leaders may want to establish and promote an open and trusting team climate in which employees feel free to express their needs and preferences [ 96 , 97 ].

Accordingly, our study shows that this climate is conducive not only for work engagement but also for team effectiveness. Finally, our results also suggest that psychological capital is positively associated with work engagement, so that it would make sense to increase this personal resource, mainly because PsyCap is state-like and open to development through instructional programs [ 45 ]. For instance, a short PsyCap Intervention (PCI) has been developed by Luthans and colleagues, which is also available as a web-based version for employees [ 98 ]. PCI focuses on: (a) acquiring and modifying self–efficacy beliefs; (b) developing realistic, constructive, and accurate beliefs; (c) designing goals, pathway generation, and strategies for overcoming obstacles; and (d) identifying risk factors, and positively influencing processes.

Strengths, limitations, and directions for future research

A significant strength of the current study is its design that combines a multilevel investigation of engaging leadership with mediating processes at the individual and team levels. This is in line with the claim that leadership research suffers from a lack of theoretical and empirical differentiation between levels of analysis [ 99 ]. However, leadership is an inherently multilevel construct in nature [ 9 ]. Although the current findings shed light on the role of the emergent construct of engaging leadership, both regarding individuals and teams, an exciting venue for future research involves exploring its predictive validity in comparison with traditional leadership models. This concurrent validation would adhere to the recommendations accompanying the introduction of new leadership constructs in the face of the risk of construct proliferation [ 16 ].

A further strength of the current study is its large sample size, including 1,048 employees nested within 90 work teams. Moreover, data were collected at two time points with a one-year time lag that was considered long enough for the effects of engaging leadership to occur. In contrast with widespread cross-sectional studies that sometimes draw unjustified conclusions on the corollaries of leadership [ 100 ], the current research relied on a longitudinal design to better understand the consequences of engaging leadership at the individual and team level of analysis. According to our results, engaging leadership indeed shows a positive effect across time on outcomes at the individual (i.e., work engagement) and team level (i.e., team effectiveness).

Along with its strengths, the current study also has some limitations that should be acknowledged. The main weakness of the current study lies in the homogeneity of the sample, which consisted of employees working in a Dutch public service agency. This specific work setting prevents us from generalizing the findings of our research with other occupational groups. However, focusing on an organization where most activities are conducted in teams permits independent but simultaneous assessment of the impact of (engaging) leadership on the perceived pool of resources among teams and workers, as suggested by current trends in leadership literature [ 101 , 102 ].

Furthermore, the collection of data at different time points overcomes the inherent weakness of a cross-sectional design, yet a design including at least three data waves would have provided superior support for the hypothesized mediated relationships. Based on within-group diary studies [ 103 , 104 ], it can, on the one hand, be argued that leadership might impact the team and personal resources within a much shorter time frame. On the other hand, work engagement represents a persistent psychological state that is not susceptible to sudden changes in the short term [ 1 ]. Thus, the chosen one-year time lag can be considered reasonable for a between-group study to detect the impact of engaging leadership accurately. This impact needs some time to unfold. An additional limitation of this study entails measuring individual and team resources with only a few items. Nevertheless, all scales had an internal consistency value that met the threshold of .65 [ 105 ] with an average Cronbach’s alpha value equal to .81.

Concluding remark

Despite the novelty of the construct, the emerging research on engaging leadership suggests the potential value of a theoretically sound leadership model that could foster followers’ engagement. While earlier findings showed that engaging leadership is positively associated with the employee’s level of engagement [ 7 , 8 ], the current study suggested that engaging leadership could predict work engagement and team effectiveness. More specifically, being exposed to a leader who inspires, strengthens and connects team members may foster a shared perception of greater availability of team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making), as well as greater psychological capital (i.e., self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and flexibility). Hence, engaging leadership could play a significant role in the processes leading to work engagement at both the team and the individual levels.

Supporting information

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269433.s001

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• Analysis of the evolution of leadership theories from trait to situational theories.
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• An examination of servant leadership theory’s applicability in non-profit organizations.
• Exploring the role of emotional intelligence in the framework of authentic leadership.
• Evaluating the impact of charismatic leadership on employee motivation and productivity.
• Adaptive leadership theory in crisis management: an exploration.
• A detailed study of the correlation between leadership theories and personality traits.
• Leadership theories’ applications and implications in team management and dynamics.

2. Leadership Styles:

• The implications of autocratic leadership on employee satisfaction and morale.
• How democratic leadership fosters innovation and creativity in the workplace.
• The role and effects of laissez-faire leadership in creative industries.
• An investigation of transformational leadership’s influence on organizational culture.
• Evaluating the impact of transactional leadership on performance metrics.
• Applicability and effectiveness of servant leadership in corporate settings.
• Pros and cons of paternalistic leadership in different organizational structures.
• An examination of strategic leadership in the rapidly evolving tech industry.
• Analyzing the effects of adaptive leadership in the complex field of healthcare.
• A correlation study of leadership styles and employee retention rates.

3. Leadership and Ethics:

• Ethical leadership’s role in shaping and promoting corporate social responsibility.
• Analysis of the ethical dilemmas encountered by leaders in healthcare organizations.
• How ethical leadership moulds and influences organizational culture.
• A study on the corporate scandals resulted from unethical leadership.
• The ethical considerations in leadership decision-making processes.
• The relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ moral judgments.
• A sector-focused analysis of leadership ethics in the banking industry.
• Measuring the impact of ethical leadership on brand reputation.
• Exploring the influence of ethical leadership on corporate sustainability strategies.
• Leadership ethics in political organizations: an in-depth study.

4. Leadership and Diversity:

• The impact of diverse leadership on an organization’s inclusivity.
• Cultural diversity’s influence on leadership styles in multinational organizations.
• A study on the challenges faced by women in leadership roles.
• Evaluating the role of leadership in promoting gender equity in corporate organizations.
• The effect of diverse leadership on fostering innovation in multinational corporations.
• An examination of racial diversity in leadership and its effect on corporate image.
• Understanding the benefits and challenges of age diversity in leadership roles.
• Unraveling the opportunities and difficulties faced by LGBT+ individuals in leadership positions.
• Leadership strategies to effectively manage and promote diversity in the workplace.
• Leadership diversity’s impact on corporate social responsibility initiatives.

5. Leadership in Different Industries:

• The pivotal role of leadership in tech startups’ growth trajectory.
• Leadership in the healthcare industry: navigating through challenges and seizing opportunities.
• An exploration of military leadership principles and their potential application in a corporate setting.
• Characteristics of effective leadership in the hospitality industry: a detailed study.
• The significance of impactful leadership in the functioning of non-profit organizations.
• Leadership strategies that drive success in the retail industry.
• The role of leadership in driving innovation in the automotive industry.
• The best practices of effective leadership in the education sector.
• The influence of leadership on team performance in professional sports.
• Defining the traits of successful leadership in the fast-paced entertainment industry.

6. Leadership and Change Management:

• Exploring the impact of transformational leadership on change management processes.
• The role of leadership in shaping and implementing successful change initiatives.
• Understanding the leadership styles most effective for managing organizational change.
• A detailed study on leadership’s role in overcoming resistance to change.
• Leadership in driving and managing technological change in digital companies.
• An examination of adaptive leadership during organizational restructuring.
• The correlation between strategic leadership and successful change management.
• Influence of leadership on change acceptance and adaptation among employees.
• The role of leadership communication in managing change effectively.
• Examining the impact of leadership in change management across different industries.

7. Leadership and Employee Motivation:

• Impact of transformational leadership on employee motivation and job satisfaction.
• How leadership can influence employee motivation through effective communication.
• An exploration of the relationship between leadership styles and employee motivation levels.
• How servant leadership enhances employee motivation and engagement.
• Evaluating the role of leadership in developing effective reward systems for employee motivation.
• Examining the effects of charismatic leadership on employee motivation.
• The influence of leadership behavior on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
• Leadership strategies for fostering a motivating work environment.
• How leadership can use job design to enhance employee motivation.
• The impact of leadership recognition on employee motivation and performance.

8. Leadership Development:

• Understanding the role of mentoring in leadership development.
• Examining the importance of continuous learning in leadership development.
• The impact of coaching on leadership skill development.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of various leadership development programs.
• The role of experiential learning in the development of leadership skills.
• Influence of leadership development on succession planning in organizations.
• Investigating the role of self-awareness in leadership development.
• Evaluating the role of feedback in the leadership development process.
• The impact of leadership development initiatives on organizational performance.
• Understanding the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership development.

9. Leadership and Organizational Culture:

• The role of leadership in shaping and sustaining organizational culture.
• Analyzing the influence of leadership style on organizational culture.
• A study on how effective leadership can instill a culture of innovation.
• Investigating the relationship between leadership and organizational culture in multinational corporations.
• Exploring the effects of leadership communication on organizational culture.
• How transformational leadership influences a culture of teamwork.
• The role of leadership in promoting an ethical organizational culture.
• The influence of servant leadership on organizational culture.
• Leadership’s role in the creation and management of a customer-oriented culture.
• The impact of leadership transition on organizational culture.

10. Leadership and Decision Making:

• The role of leadership in strategic decision making.
• The influence of different leadership styles on decision-making processes.
• Evaluating the impact of leadership on ethical decision making in organizations.
• An exploration of how leadership affects group decision-making processes.
• The role of leadership intuition in decision making.
• Leadership strategies for effective crisis decision making.
• The influence of leadership in data-driven decision making.
• The impact of transformational leadership on innovative decision making.
• Leadership and decision-making under uncertainty: a comprehensive study.
• How leadership influences employee involvement in decision making.

These varied topics allow students to explore different aspects of leadership, spanning theory, styles, ethics, diversity, industry specifics, change management, employee motivation, development, organizational culture, and decision making. The broad range enables students to select a topic that aligns with their personal interests and professional aspirations. This extensive list also gives students the freedom to narrow their focus and delve deep into a specialized area of leadership. Thus, creating a foundation for an insightful and meaningful research paper.

The Range of Leadership Research Paper Topics

Leadership is an inherently complex and multifaceted concept, embodying various dimensions of organizational functioning. It is a dynamic process involving influence, direction, and facilitation towards achieving a common objective. Therefore, leadership has a profound influence on the behaviors, attitudes, and overall performance of an organization, making it a fertile ground for extensive and diverse research.

The range of leadership research paper topics is vast, reflecting the wide-ranging implications of leadership in different contexts. This breadth allows students to delve into various aspects of leadership, from exploring various leadership styles such as transformational, transactional, autocratic, democratic, and servant leadership, to understanding their effects on team dynamics, employee performance, motivation, and job satisfaction.

For instance, research into the various leadership styles provides critical insights into how different approaches to leadership can influence an organization’s effectiveness. Transformational leadership, for example, emphasizes the leader’s role in inspiring and motivating followers, fostering innovation, and driving change. In contrast, transactional leadership focuses on clear role and task definitions, rewards, and punishments as motivational tools.

Moreover, the intersection of leadership and ethics is another prolific area of research. Ethical leadership explores how leaders can integrate ethical principles into their decision-making processes, cultivate ethical behaviors within their teams, and ultimately foster an ethical organizational culture. Research in this field can range from examining the influence of ethical leadership on employee behavior to investigating the strategies leaders can employ to navigate ethical dilemmas.

Diversity in leadership, a critical aspect in the current globalized business environment, offers another area of intriguing research potential. Diverse leadership promotes a plethora of viewpoints, encourages creativity and innovation, and enhances organizational adaptability. Research topics in this category can involve investigating the effect of diverse leadership on team performance, the challenges and strategies in managing a diverse leadership team, or understanding how leadership can promote diversity and inclusion within an organization.

Research on leadership in different industrial and organizational contexts also offers a wealth of research paper topics. This can include leadership in healthcare, exploring how leaders can effectively manage healthcare professionals, improve patient outcomes, and drive change in the healthcare system. Leadership in educational settings, examining how school leaders can impact educational outcomes, foster a conducive learning environment, and navigate the unique challenges in the education sector.

Leadership’s role in change management is another critical area of research. Change is a constant factor in any organization, and effective leadership is critical in navigating this change successfully. Research topics here can focus on the various leadership strategies in implementing change, the challenges leaders face in this process, and the critical role leadership plays in overcoming resistance to change.

The impact of leadership on employee motivation also provides a rich area for investigation. The influence a leader has on an employee’s motivation levels can significantly affect job satisfaction, productivity, and retention. Topics here can explore the different leadership strategies that can enhance employee motivation, the role of leadership in developing effective reward systems, or how leadership behavior affects intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Leadership development is another theme rich in research opportunities. The creation of effective leaders is crucial to an organization’s success. Therefore, investigating leadership development programs, the role of coaching and mentoring in leadership development, or the impact of leadership development initiatives on organizational performance are all meaningful research directions.

In conclusion, the diversity in leadership research paper topics allows students to explore and investigate various areas of leadership theory and practice. From understanding different leadership styles and their effects, to delving into leadership ethics, diversity, industry-specific leadership, change management, motivation, and leadership development, the possibilities are extensive. This breadth and depth enable students to gain a comprehensive understanding of leadership and its vital role in shaping organizational success. The explorative journey into these leadership research paper topics lays a robust foundation for future leaders, providing them with essential insights into effective leadership practices.

How to Choose Leadership Research Paper Topics

Choosing the right topic for a leadership research paper is a critical first step in the process of writing a top-notch research paper. The right topic is not just a subject you find interesting, but one that is unique, manageable, and relevant to your course of study. In this section, we provide ten comprehensive tips to guide you in choosing the best leadership research paper topic.

• Identify Your Interest : Start by identifying what aspects of leadership interest you the most. Are you more drawn to the psychological aspects of leadership, such as how leaders motivate their teams, or are you more interested in the organizational aspects, such as how leadership styles impact company culture? Personal interest in a topic can make the research process more engaging and the writing process more enjoyable.
• Brainstorm : Spend time brainstorming potential topics. Write down everything that comes to mind, no matter how broad or specific. This process can help you to identify potential areas of interest and narrow down your options.
• Research Existing Literature : Before settling on a topic, take some time to read up on existing literature in the field of leadership. This can help you to identify gaps in knowledge that your research could fill, or controversial issues that could be the focus of your paper.
• Consider the Scope : Consider the scope of your research paper. If it’s a shorter paper, you’ll need a narrower topic. Conversely, for a longer paper, you can choose a broader topic that you can explore in detail.
• Consult Your Supervisor or Peers : Discuss potential topics with your supervisor or classmates. They may offer a fresh perspective or suggest areas of interest that you hadn’t considered.
• Check for Resources : Ensure that there are enough resources available for your chosen topic. This can include books, peer-reviewed articles, and credible online sources. Having enough sources will make your research process smoother and more productive.
• Relevance to Your Course : The topic you choose should be relevant to your course and future career. For example, if you plan to work in the non-profit sector, you might choose a topic related to leadership in non-profit organizations.
• Flexibility : Be flexible with your topic. As you start your research, you may find that your initial topic is too broad, too narrow, or not as interesting as you thought. Don’t be afraid to refine and modify your topic as needed.
• Uniqueness : While it’s good to align with current research trends, strive for uniqueness in your topic. Don’t just rehash old studies; instead, seek to contribute something new and meaningful to the field of leadership research.
• Practical Implications : Lastly, consider the practical implications of your research. Good research not only contributes to academic knowledge but also has practical applications. Choose a topic that could potentially inform leadership practices in real-world settings.

In conclusion, choosing a topic for a leadership research paper involves careful consideration of your interests, the scope of the paper, available resources, and the potential impact of your research. While the process can be challenging, the result is a topic that you’re passionate about and invested in, which ultimately makes for a higher quality research paper. Remember, the topic you choose sets the foundation for your entire paper, so take the time to choose wisely!

How to Write a Leadership Research Paper

Writing a leadership research paper is an intricate process that requires careful planning, thorough research, and detailed writing. A well-written research paper not only demonstrates your understanding of leadership principles but also your ability to critically analyze information, formulate arguments, and present your ideas in a clear and coherent manner. Below are ten comprehensive steps to guide you in writing an outstanding leadership research paper.

• Understanding the Assignment : Before you begin the actual writing process, make sure you understand the assignment requirements. What is the length of the paper? What is the deadline? Are there specific sources or citation styles you need to use? Understanding these requirements will help guide your research and writing process.
• Choose a Topic : If you haven’t been assigned a specific topic, use the tips provided in the previous section to choose a suitable topic for your leadership research paper. Make sure it’s a topic you’re interested in and one that is relevant to the course.
• Conduct Preliminary Research : Conduct initial research to get an overview of your chosen topic. Use this research to refine your topic and formulate a preliminary thesis statement. This statement will guide your further research and help focus your paper.
• Develop a Thesis Statement : Your thesis statement should clearly express the main point or argument of your research paper. It should be concise, specific, and arguable. A good thesis statement will guide your research and provide a roadmap for your paper.
• Create an Outline : An outline helps to organize your thoughts and ensure that you cover all the necessary points. It should include an introduction, body paragraphs (each with a sub-point supporting your thesis), and a conclusion. Outlining can also help you identify gaps in your research or arguments.
• Conduct In-Depth Research : At this point, dive deeper into your research. Utilize various sources, including books, academic journals, reputable websites, and interviews. Remember to evaluate the credibility of your sources and to take detailed notes, including the source information for citation purposes.
• Write the First Draft : Using your outline as a guide, start writing the first draft of your paper. Don’t worry about making it perfect; focus on getting your ideas down first. Start with the body paragraphs, then write the introduction and conclusion.
• Revise and Edit : Review your first draft, looking for any inconsistencies, redundancies, or areas that lack clarity. Check the flow of your arguments, the strength of your thesis statement, and the organization of your paper. Also, ensure that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and that it supports the thesis statement.
• Proofread : After revising your content, proofread for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. You can use proofreading software, but also consider reading your paper aloud or having someone else proofread it.
• Cite Your Sources : Lastly, properly cite all the sources you used in your paper. Ensure that your in-text citations and reference list comply with the citation style required for your assignment (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard).

In conclusion, writing a leadership research paper is a step-by-step process that requires thorough research, careful planning, and detailed writing. It may be a challenging task, but it’s also an opportunity to deepen your understanding of leadership and hone your academic writing skills. With commitment, patience, and the right strategies, you can successfully write a high-quality leadership research paper.

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• Volume 4, Issue 4
• Your leadership style: why understanding yourself matters
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0110-2378 Clare Felicity Jane Price-Dowd
• People Directorate , NHS England and Improvement , Leeds , West Yorkshire , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Clare Felicity Jane Price-Dowd, People Directorate, NHS Improvement, Leeds LS1 4HG, West Yorkshire, UK; clare.price-dowd{at}improvement.nhs.uk

Understanding of personal leadership style has been shown to be a key part of effective leadership practice. It has been a topic of interest for many decades as we have tried to understand, and replicate, what makes those considered to be ‘great leaders’ so successful. This article gives a brief introduction to different leadership ‘theories’, leadership ‘styles’ and the effect they have on the ‘climate’ in organisations. Having an understanding of the different approaches can help leaders be more effective through comprehending how and why they do what they do, as well as helping them identify where and when they need to adapt their style. By considering how our understanding of leadership has evolved, it is possible to show how effective leadership is not linked to one approach. It is a combination of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours with a focus on both the task in hand and concern for those undertaking that task. Furthermore this understanding supports impactful personal development, which creates positive climates in organisations where compassionate and inclusive leadership behaviours can, and do result in better outcomes for staff and patients.

• effectiveness
• leadership assessment
• role modeling

https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2020-000218

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Introduction

Who, when flipping through a publication has not been tempted by the ‘personality quiz’, hoping to get the ‘mostly A, B or C’ that indicates we have the attributes for long and successful careers or lots of friends? While this level of ‘knowing how we are’ could be dismissed as flippant, when it comes to leadership, understanding our personal approach can be invaluable. If you asked people around you ‘what sort of leader do you think you are?’ they would most likely answer in the singular ‘I lead by example,’ ‘I build relationships with people,’ or ‘I don't tolerate underperformance’. They are unlikely to say ‘I do this here, and that on other occasions’ yet the most effective leaders are those who attune to their context, consciously adapt their practice and have an awareness of how their own style effects others. This article introduces the different theories and styles of leadership and how they can be used to create positive work climates. The key terms are given in table 1 .

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Evolution of leadership theory and understanding of style

A desire to understand what makes a successful leader is not new. For centuries there has been debate about what differentiated leaders from non-leaders, and leaders from followers. In a comprehensive review of leadership theories by Stogdill, 1 a number of categories were identified and in the 80+ years since Lewin et al 2 published their theory on patterns of behaviour in 1939, we have seen an evolution from trying to identify ‘common traits’ based on inherent characteristics of ‘great men and women’ through to the what we now understand to be the successful combination of person, place and approach. Looking further into this evolution, although this is not a comprehensive list, it is possible to group the stages of development as follows:

Trait theory—for example as seen in the work of Carlyle 3 and Stodgill 1 is concerned with the type of person that makes a good leader and the innate qualities and associated leadership traits they have. A meta-study by the Centre for Excellence in Management and Leadership 4 identified over 1000 leadership traits in the literature, which they distilled to 83 more or less distinct attributes. While no specific trait or combination was found to guarantee success, trait theory did help in identifying qualities that are helpful when leading others such as integrity and empathy.

Later, behavioural theory identified what good leaders do—effectively how they ‘lead well’. Examples include the Tannenbaum and Schmidt continuum 5 —seven stages of reducing control namely Tells, Sells, Suggests, Consults, Joins, Delegates and Abdicates; the Action-Centred Leadership Model of Adair 6 which sets out the three responsibilities of the leader—‘achieving the task, managing the team and managing individuals’ and the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid 7 also referred to as ‘The Power to Change’ which outlines two behavioural dimensions: Concern for Results and Concern for People.

Situational and contingency theory: looks at the leader in the context of where they lead. By considering how the leader’s success is directly influenced by their environment, it became possible to identify the conditions that support or constrain leaders as seen in work including Feidler 8 Vroom and Yetton 9 Yukl 10 ; Hersey and Blanchard 11 ; Thompson and Vecchio. 12

Transactional theories—as seen in the work of Weber 13 and later by Bass, 14 focuses on the leader getting results by using process and structures while applying reward and penalty in response. Within this are power and influence theory, exchange and path-goal theory by House 15 16 which concentrate on the relationship between leader and led as a series of trades or ‘leader-member exchanges’.

In more recent years, while the transactional and positive view of hero leadership has never entirely gone away, the notion of ‘Hero to Host’ 17 which describes the move to transformational and ‘new wave’ styles outlined by Burns 18 Bass 14 and Kouzes and Posner 19 among others. Transformational leadership not only serves to enhance the motivation, morale, satisfaction and performance of followers, but also sees the leader role model compassionate and inclusive behaviours, which are valued. In ‘Good to Great’ by Collins, 20 the Level 5 leader is described as possessing both indomitable will, but also humility and is often self effacing and shy, the opposite of what we might have previously described as leadership traits!

Relevance for leaders

Every day, leaders in healthcare must constantly analyse complex situations, engage, motivate, empower and delegate. Many leaders now operate within complex adaptive systems—organisations that are an interconnected whole of many parts, which may and may not function effectively together depending on changing circumstances. This calls for leadership skills and behaviours that can move between each required activity with seemingly effortless ease and without loss of effectiveness.

Having an appreciation of different theories and styles also helps us identify our reaction to these changing situations. In considering the global COVID-19 pandemic, the leadership behaviours required, and experienced, may be different to anything encountered before. The effect of leadership in this situation is profound and will have a lasting impact. Displaying command behaviours may be necessary but uncomfortable, while teams may not be used to being directed with minimal consultation. Sustained pressure may have a negative effect, but it does not follow that leadership behaviours slide into being disrespectful or non-inclusive—it is about the leaders focusing on the task and ensuring individuals and teams are clearly instructed on the part they have to play; consulted where possible and informed of when and when they need to do as instructed.

However, knowing about ‘how we are’ is only part of the picture, equally important is understanding the effect we have on other. Goleman 21 found that the one of the biggest mistakes leaders make was to default to a style of personal choice rather than responding with the most appropriate in the situation, while Blanchard 22 suggests that 54% of leaders only ever apply one preferred leadership style regardless of the situation. The result is that almost half of the time, leaders are using the wrong style to meet their current objective or lead the people around them well.

The danger here is trying to be the most popular leader and everyone’s favourite, rather than developing an authentic repertoire of skills. If you have never considered your leadership style or the types of leadership behaviours you have there are a number of tools to help such as the National health Service Healthcare Leadership Model. Based on research of the behaviours of effective leaders, Storey and Holti 23 defined nine domains (Inspiring shared purpose: leading with care: evaluating information: connecting our service: sharing the vision: engaging the team: holding to account: developing capability and influencing for results) against which can leaders can self assess and gain pointers on how to strengthen their style.

Relevance for the work environment

Research by KornFerry Hay Group 24 shows an up to 70% of variance in climate and an up to 30% increase business performance can be directly attributable to the climate leaders create through their style of leadership. This includes feeling included, supported and having a role that is meaningful. To help leaders create a positive climate, Goleman 21 defined six leadership styles—see table 2 —which he then correlated with the type of climate each created for those around them. Those able to deploy the styles in the left column have been shown to create high performing teams in positive climates.

Leadership Styles and the climate they support (adapted from Goleman 21 )

These are not the only leadership styles: others include Autocratic leadership where leaders/managers make the decisions and employees follow orders as previously stated; laissez-faire leadership where the manager empowers employees but gives them few rules to follow with little oversight or direction: bureaucratic leadership where hierarchies and job titles to determine responsibilities and rules and servant leadership which focuses on the needs of employees, seeing them as the organisation’s most important resources and often treating them as clients, but only the six here were included by Goleman.

The effects of the leadership styles displayed and the effects they have on the climate within organisations has far reaching impact for team members. The ability to flex your leadership style and create a positive climate has been shown to create greater job satisfaction and pride in work, greater collaboration and creativity. Having an awareness of the effects of personal style, is therefore an essential part of a leaders toolkit and something every leader should have awareness of

In practice

Delivering health and care is highly complex and effective leadership calls for a match of style and approach to context and presenting challenge. Leadership styles is not a neat category of things, the increasingly interconnected world with ever-evolving technology has dictated a need for leaders who can adapt effortlessly as the situation dictates. Daniel Goleman 21 likens leading to being a golfer—one game but choosing the right club, at the right moment, for the next shot. Lets think about what this could look like: again, thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic the deteriorating clinical condition requires a leader who draws on all their experience, interprets the situation, takes control and ‘tells’ in order to get the best outcome for the patient—transactional and it’s wholly appropriate. At other times, that same leader will need to take time to build relationships and coach others in order to give the best care possible.

We all have a natural tendency towards our preferred style and when under pressure, there is evidence that we ‘revert to type’, relying on the most comfortable part of our personality to see us though. Unfortunately this means using fewer of the leadership skills that usually provide balance. Skilful, mature leadership is about leading ourselves as much as leading others. This level of understanding our style helps us recognise triggers that support adopting the right style for the given situation.

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Different situations require different leadership style and each style can be considered a tool in itself. How we lead needs to be a combination of concern for the task in hand and also the people undertaking it, as both individuals and collectively as teams. We have looked briefly at small number of the plethora theories and styles that can help us understand how we lead. Leaders who understand themselves and can move effortlessly between a range of styles in response to changing situations have been found to have more positive outcomes for their teams and patients.

• Stogdill RM
• Lippitt R ,
• Carlyle T ,
• Tannenbaum R ,
• Blanchard K
• Thompson G ,
• Wheatley M ,
• KornFerry Hay Group
• Newstrom JW ,
• Griffin MA ,

Twitter @clarepricedowd

Contributors CFJP-D completed all part of this paper:

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent for publication Not required.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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How much do you admire effective communication — and the power to inspire and unify through words and actions?

The Times video “ The Leader We Wish We All Had ” looks at the leadership style of Dr. Amy Acton, an Ohio Health Department official, who has earned praise for her daily briefings on the pandemic.

The Leader We Wish We All Had

A look at the style of dr. amy acton, who has earned praise for her daily briefings on the pandemic..

“This is no small thing that we are doing together. It is so incredibly hard to have shut down our lives the way we have. I am absolutely certain you will look back and know that you helped save each other.” This is Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health. Trademark lab coat, emphatic hand gestures, and a knack for metaphors. “It’s like Swiss cheese. So I want you to picture a hurricane. When you have a fire on your stove and you have your kitchen extinguisher, you’ll want to get it quick.” You may not have seen her press briefings. But in Ohio, they’ve become a daily ritual, catapulting her from unknown local official to cult icon. “Hi, my name is Amy Acton. Any questions?” “Dr. Amy is going to help us fight out the coronavirus.” In her youth, Dr. Acton overcame neglect and homelessness on her way to being crowned homecoming queen. And last year, she became the first doctor appointed to run Ohio’s health department. Under her, Ohio has become a leader in responding to Covid. It declared a state of emergency with just three confirmed cases, and it was the first state to shut down schools. Later that same week, some governors were still proudly eating in packed restaurants. And Dr. Acton issued a stay-at-home order affecting more than 11 million people when the death toll was still just three. So how did Dr. Acton do it? To find out, we watched more than seven weeks of press briefings, and we noticed themes that, well, let’s just say other leaders should pay attention to. First up, she empowers us. Take a look at this clip from the day Dr. Acton issued that stay-at-home order. “I don’t want you to be afraid. I am not afraid. I am determined. But I need you to do everything. I want you to think about the fact that this is our one shot in this country. All of us are going to have to sacrifice. And I know someday we’ll be looking back and wondering, what was it we did in this moment?” Of her 65 words there, 12 are pronouns. Her repeated use of “I” tells us she’s in it with us. She’s taking ownership. Her use of “you” makes the audience feel a connection with her, even though we’re watching from home. Toward the end, she switches from singular to collective pronouns, signaling that she’s just like us, and we’re in it together. She’s in charge, yet she’s made us feel like the heroes. “There are everyday heroes everywhere. We know that not all heroes wear capes. You’re heroic when you stay at home and watch your neighbor who’s a nurse’s child. I know you’re all donning those capes in big ways and small ways. Please help us. Thank you.” Ohioans were inspired. Not just to stay at home, but to spread her messages to each other. Another theme of Dr. Acton’s briefings is brutal honesty. And to understand this one, we have to take you back to mid-April. People were getting restless, wondering when things would get back to normal. “So I do hope no one at home thinks like, it’s wide open, May 1, going back to life as normal. The rules have changed, and they’re not going to be quite the same. Life will be different for quite some time to come, and maybe in some ways that are permanent.” She’s preparing us for the long haul, even if it’s not what we want to hear. “It’s really hard to hear that, but we are not going back to six months ago. That’s not the reality we all face.” This is something she does a lot, actually. Setting up bad news with a warning. “Ohioans, you know, I know that’s hard to take. I know that’s a hard truth for people, because we want there to be a right answer and a right way. And I know this is a deep breath we all must take.” Dr. Acton is also honest about what she doesn’t know. “We have to be very clear and transparent with you. All of these numbers are a gross underestimation, and we have no real idea of the prevalence of this infection yet.” A lot of leaders just avoid talking about uncertainty. But when Dr. Acton repeatedly says, “We don’t know.” It’s actually calming to hear her admit what we all feel deep down, that we just don’t have the full story. And finally, Dr. Acton sees vulnerability as a strength. After watching dozens of hours of briefings, there was one word we kept hearing over and over. “Please just acknowledge and give a name to what you’re going through. Acknowledge it with each other. And so I just want to acknowledge that these are still really tough times. This is wearing on all of us, and I just want to acknowledge that. I just want to acknowledge that all of us are feeling this. It’s such an unprecedented time.” Hearing Dr. Acton acknowledge our harder emotions forces us to face them head on. Stuffing down fear and sadness just causes more stress, and may make us act more selfishly instead of empathizing with each other. “And you’ll have days when you’re anxious. But don’t kill yourself over that. Please know and forgive yourself and try again.” And take a look at what she does here. “Every day I go through stages of grief. I go through, you know, denial. I go through a little anger. I go through a little bargaining. I don’t have to wear this. I might not need it. This isn’t true. I get a little down.” When she tells us she’s struggling too, we feel seen, and heard and less alone. And maybe that’s all any of us want right now. In a pandemic, the words our leaders choose can save lives. As of the end of April, Ohio had recorded fewer than 1,000 Covid deaths. By comparison, neighboring Michigan suffered more than 3,000, even though Ohio has a bigger population and had its first case three weeks earlier. Of course, other factors help explain this. But Dr. Acton convinced millions of Ohioans to stay at home. Not by ordering them, but by inspiring them. “People at home, you are moving mountains. You are saving lives. Again, I get emotional talking about this, because this is no small thing that we are doing together. It is so incredibly hard to have shut down our lives the way we have. I am absolutely certain you will look back and know that you helped save each other in this state. The impact is profound. Please, at home, don’t stop.”

What is your reaction to the video? Does it make a convincing case for Dr. Acton’s leadership? Do you agree that a good leader empowers listeners and makes them feel like “we’re in it together”? How important is it for leaders to be brutally honest? Should more leaders see “vulnerability as a strength,” as Dr. Acton does?

In “ In a Crisis, True Leaders Stand Out ,” the Times Editorial Board writes:

Leadership may be hard to define, but in times of crisis it is easy to identify. As the pandemic has spread fear, disease and death, national leaders across the globe have been severely tested. Some have fallen short, sometimes dismally, but there are also those leaders who have risen to the moment, demonstrating resolve, courage, empathy, respect for science and elemental decency, and thereby dulling the impact of the disease on their people. The master class on how to respond belongs to Jacinda Ardern, the 39-year-old prime minister of New Zealand. On March 21, when New Zealand still had only 52 confirmed cases, she told her fellow citizens what guidelines the government would follow in ramping up its response. Her message was clear: “These decisions will place the most significant restrictions on New Zealanders’ movements in modern history. But it is our best chance to slow the virus and to save lives.” And it was compassionate: “Please be strong, be kind and united against Covid-19.” Ms. Ardern, a liberal, then joined with the conservative prime minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, in shaping a joint effort that has all but eliminated the virus from their island nations. Other examples of countries where swift and decisive action helped allay the impact of the disease and unite the nation range from South Korea and Taiwan in Asia to Germany, Greece and Iceland in Europe. Women, a minority among the national leaders of the world, emerged among the most effective and reassuring of them. Like Ms. Ardern, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany acted early and calmly, warning Germans that many of them would fall prey to the novel coronavirus, and quickly getting testing underway. President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan likewise responded at the first sign of the new danger, keeping the virus under control and enabling her to send millions of face masks to the United States and Europe. In Iceland, Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir led the government in offering free coronavirus testing for all and organizing a thorough tracking system. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin — at 34 among the youngest of the world’s leaders — and Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, are other women who have earned plaudits at home and abroad for their handling of the crisis.

The editorial continues:

That said, the leaders who have gained the respect and attention of their people, and who have succeeded in dulling the impact of the disease, share certain traits and approaches to leadership worth noting as this pandemic roars on — and for future crises as well. A willingness to take quick and bold action, even when it carries political risk, is surely among the most important hallmarks of leadership in a crisis. It is now obvious that China’s efforts to conceal the outbreak, or President Trump’s to downplay it for far too long, proved disastrous. Ms. Ardern, by contrast, chose, as she put it, to “go hard and go early.” Other elements of effective leadership include a respect for science, transparent messaging, constant updating of the evidence and prompt assurance of financial support. And also experience: Ms. Merkel’s background as a scientist is by all accounts a major factor in her credibility; in Ireland, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s background as a doctor prompted him to start giving phone consultations half a day each week and helped boost his previously flagging standing. Beyond politics, economics and science lie qualities of character that can’t be faked, chiefly compassion, which may be the most important in reassuring a frightened, insecure and stricken population. Ms. Merkel is arguably among the least flashy, charismatic or eloquent of Europe’s leaders, but nobody would ever question her decency. When she addressed her nation on television, something she does rarely and with evident reluctance, there was nothing pompous or bombastic in her parting words: “Take good care of yourselves and your loved ones.”

Students, read the entire editorial, then tell us:

In your opinion, what makes a person a great leader? Which qualities of leadership described in the video and the editorial do you most value?

What role should leaders, in government and elsewhere, play during a crisis like this one? Which leaders — local or global, famous or not — do you think have most effectively risen to challenges of the pandemic?

What qualities of good leaders do you possess? Tell us about an experience you’ve had as a leader. What did you learn? What mistakes did you make? What life lessons might you be able to give to others as a result? Are there ways that you can use or develop your leadership skills now?

The Times editorial notes that many of the most effective national leaders during this crisis are women. What is your reaction? Are you surprised?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

Feb 15, 2023

Essays on Leadership for Students | 200 - 500 Word Essays

Are you writing an essay about leadership? Check out these examples!

Leadership is often defined as "the action of inspiring others to act in concert to achieve a particular goal." It signifies the harmony in actions that lead to a common objective. A genuine leader not only exudes confidence but also paves the way for their followers towards triumph. Over the years, various leadership styles have been identified and discussed by psychologists.

 Qualities such as intelligence, adaptability, extroversion, innate self-awareness, and social competence often emerge as the hallmarks of impactful leaders. There's a consensus that these traits mold an individual into an effective leader. Interestingly, some theories suggest that extraordinary situations can thrust an ordinary individual into the spotlight, bestowing upon them the mantle of leadership. It's also believed that leadership isn't a static trait but an evolving journey. It underscores the belief that with dedication and the right resources, anyone can hone their leadership abilities.

 True leadership goes beyond merely advocating for a cause. It involves taking responsibility, igniting motivation in others, and differentiating oneself from just being a 'boss'. A leader's essence lies in their ability to inspire and propel people towards grand visions, whereas a manager typically focuses on oversight and operational aspects.

What Is a Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay falls under the category of student application essays and serves to provide student admissions officers with insight into your past leadership experiences. Despite appearing to be very specific, this type of essay acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can vary significantly depending on the individual and the context.

 If you find yourself in need of further insights or a unique angle for your leadership essay, consider exploring an expert essay-writing tool designed to assist students in crafting compelling narratives by analyzing vast data and generating fresh ideas within minutes. In this article, we'll also delve into various leadership essay examples to offer a clearer understanding of the genre and inspire your writing journey.

4 Examples of Leadership Essays

Qualities of a good leader, introduction.

Confidence is the most important attribute first of all. One of the most important qualities in a leader is confidence in one's own abilities. A lack of self-assurance is fatal to a person's leadership potential. If you want others to follow you, you need to exude self-assurance. It's imperative for a leader to have faith in his own judgment and actions. How can people want to follow him if he doesn't even know what he's doing?

Every effective leader knows that they need to be an inspiration to their followers. A leader needs to set an example for his team. In addition, he ought to inspire them whenever feasible. A leader must also maintain optimism in trying times.

What qualities a good leader must have?

Leadership is the ability to influence and guide individuals or groups toward a common goal. A leader must possess several qualities to be effective, including:

Communication skills: A leader must be able to communicate their vision and goals clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. This requires excellent listening skills, empathy, and the ability to adapt to different communication styles.

Emotional intelligence: A leader must be able to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as those of their team members. This includes being able to understand and respond to the emotions of others, and handling conflicts in a constructive manner.

Visionary: A leader must have a clear and inspiring vision of the future, and be able to articulate this vision in a way that motivates others to work towards it.

Strategic thinking: A leader must be able to think critically and creatively to identify and solve problems, make decisions, and develop plans and strategies to achieve their goals.

Flexibility: A leader must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be open to new ideas and perspectives. This requires the ability to embrace change, be innovative, and continuously learn and grow.

Integrity: A leader must have strong ethics and values, and be willing to make difficult decisions that are consistent with their beliefs. This requires honesty, transparency, and accountability.

Decisiveness: A leader must be able to make tough decisions quickly, without undue hesitation or procrastination. This requires courage and the ability to take calculated risks.

Empowerment: A leader must be able to delegate responsibilities, give team members the resources they need to succeed, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their team.

Conclusion 

These qualities are essential for effective leadership, and when combined with hard work, determination, and a commitment to excellence, can help leaders to achieve great things.

How one can be a Great Leader?

Leadership is the act of performing the duties of a leader. In the business world, for instance, it is essential to have someone in charge of a team to ensure everything runs well. Effective leadership is essential for any group that wants to maximize its prospects of success.

Leadership Comes from Experience

As we've shown, leadership can be innate in some cases but is more often learned through practice and exposure. Sometimes the best traits of a leader must be learned over a lengthy period of time, so that one can become a notable one, proving that leadership is not always about a person's innate qualities. Leaders should continuously be on the lookout for opportunities to grow their leadership skills.

Nobody can disagree that experience is a key component of leadership. Numerous examples exist to back up this claim, such as:

Instance 1:

Our school's head boy or girl has traditionally been an older student who has been around for a while and thus has a better grasp of the ins and outs of school politics.

Instance 2:

When there is a vacancy for a team leader, it is common practice for the employee who has consistently put in the most effort and attention to the office job to receive a higher number of votes than their coworkers. 

“The best teacher for a leader is evaluated experience.” - John C. Maxwell

How one can be a Great Leader/Skills to be a Great Leader?

Effective leadership is a skill that develops through time. Developing into a leader with all the qualities that are needed takes a lot of hard work and potential. Being a prominent leader calls for a wide variety of traits. Some of these characteristics are addressed in further detail below:

One should be a Good Communicator

To be an effective leader, one must be able to convey his thoughts clearly to his/her/its subordinates.

Should have Confidence

The individual should have faith in what he says and does.

Give Credit to other Team Members too

A leader not only needs to impose his viewpoints and opinions instead he must also hear to the suggestions of other members of the team and offer them credit if their concept is appropriate.

Good Bond with the Team

A leader's ability to command respect from his team members depends on his ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with them.

Leads with Responsibility

A leader needs to be completely committed to his position. It's important that he takes on responsibility so that he can effectively deal with the various challenges he will inevitably face.

Any group or organization needs a leader above all else. Leadership development takes time and effort. One needs to have lived through a lot to be an effective leader. It's not enough to simply have years of experience in the field; one must also have the traits that make one an effective leader. You can't be a great leader unless you possess certain traits.

What makes a Good Leader?

Trying one's hand as a leader appears easy when viewed through this lens. Is that so tough? Of course not; leading is difficult, and not everyone aspires to be a leader. The vast majority of us have settled into well-established careers where we report to superiors and make a living. Still, not everyone is content to go along with the crowd. They become leaders in whatever field they pursue. A leader is an example to followers and will prioritize the needs of those around them.

Some Unique Qualities of a Leader

Many individuals resort to their leaders to vent their frustrations, therefore it's important for them to be good listeners.

A leader ought to be completely forthright; they can't play favorites or give anyone preferential treatment. One of the most essential qualities of a strong leader is the ability to make decisions with integrity.

They need to be aware of the bigger picture and understand what makes an individual stand out or become a leader. It's their expertise in addition to other distinguishing traits. Their awareness of current events and the results of recent studies is essential. In many ways, this is helpful, and it's the leader's responsibility to stay current.

Since some might not understand them, they should utilize straightforward, easily comprehended language. Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively at all times. In reality, what sets them apart is their exceptional communication skills. Adolf Hitler was such a gifted orator that his followers believed every word he said.

No matter how you're feeling or what's going on in the world, if you listen to a leader, they may make you feel energized. Since leaders are in charge of inspiring confidence in their followers, they can't afford to be wary or unsure of themselves. People tend to blindly follow their leaders.

Whether you're a leader or a doctor, you should devote yourself completely to your chosen field. Everything we do is for the benefit of others; engineers, for example, spend much of their time designing and constructing buildings for other people. So, take pride in what you do, and if you possess the aforementioned traits, you are also a leader who doesn't have to rely on others to succeed. No matter what you do, aspiring to leadership positions will always benefit others.

What is Leadership in Management and what are the weaknesses and strengths of a Leader?

Simply said, leadership is acting as a supervisor or manager of a group. Different mental pictures pop up when we hear the word "leadership" used in conversation. One might think of a political leader, team leader, corporate leader, school leader, etc. Leaders facilitate order and efficiency in the workplace. Teamwork and success are fundamental to effective leadership. Leaders utilize their managerial abilities to establish courses and guide their teams to success.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership

Able to express oneself more clearly

Growth of character.

Self-awareness.

Possession of teamwork skills.

Gain assurance in yourself.

Weaknesses:

Acting favorably toward one's teammates.

Having no faith in the leader.

Thinks they're better than everyone else, but act hypocritically.

Not living up to the promised standard.

Insufficient morals.

Leadership and Management

Management and leadership are inextricably linked to one another. Leadership and management are both vital to the efficient operation of an organization; but, they accomplish very different things in the process. Leadership is a necessary skill for anyone aspiring to be an effective manager. The terms management and leadership are synonymous with one another. In this manner, we are able to draw the conclusion that a manager who demonstrates the traits of a successful leader is, in fact, a manager who is effective.

Leadership in School

Leadership is essential in nearly every group, as we've seen above. That group includes one's educational institution. Every school needs an outstanding figure to serve as its head of school. Class monitor, assembly captain, cultural leader, etc. are all examples of leadership roles that can be taken on at school, but this raises the question of what makes a person a successful school leader.

Any student hoping to be chosen as a student body leader will need to demonstrate a wide range of competencies. He or she needs to be a consistent student who pays attention in class and does well in extracurricular activities. For the simple reason that no intelligent and hardworking kid would ever be considered for leadership. Student leaders are most often selected from among those who participate fully in all activities.

Leadership in Organization

Leadership in an organization, also known as organizational leadership, is the process of establishing long-term objectives that further the company's mission and help it reach its ultimate destination. This is a classic illustration of how Bill Gates often works with his team: they agree on a strategy, and Gates implements it. To the same extent, it is the responsibility of the leader in each given organization to determine what it is that the group is trying to accomplish.

Leadership in Politics

Leadership in politics, also known as political leadership, is the process of becoming actively involved in a political party in the role of a party leader. Knowledge of political processes, their outcomes, and the political agenda is central to the idea of political leadership.

An effective leader can be developed in anyone who has the determination and drives to do so. Both the strengths and the areas for improvement should be nurtured. Whether in the classroom, the workplace, or the political arena, leadership is always necessary. Therefore, one can exercise leadership anywhere they like inside their own organization.

What are the types of Leadership?

The ability to lead is a rare trait that not everyone possesses. The ability to do so is a gift, so count your blessings if you possess it. It's recommended that you hone it even more so that you can propel your career forward and serve as an example to people around you. However, it is crucial to grasp the various leadership styles before you go ahead and polish your skills.

Types of Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership

In this style of management, subordinates are given a voice in decision-making. Although the subordinates' efforts are highlighted, the leader is ultimately held responsible for the group's actions. Many people find this type of leadership to be effective.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate and inspire others to adopt new behaviors and ways of thinking in order to improve their own performance and that of their teams and organizations. A transformational leader is someone who encourages their team to strive for greater things and works to boost morale and output.

Team Leadership

A good leader fully incorporates his team into the task at hand. Members of the team are motivated to reach their goals and advance in their careers thanks to the leadership of the group.

Strategic Leadership

It requires a chief executive who doesn't restrict himself to brainstorming sessions with his superiors. He contributes on every level of the team. He is well-liked for his ability to unite the need for fresh ideas with the necessity of grounding them in reality.

Autocratic Leadership

The leader in a command and control structure is the center of attention. The chief executive has absolute power in this setting. He decides things on his own, without polling his staff. He relays this information to his staff and stresses the importance of swift action. The buck stops with him, and he alone must answer for his actions. Not much room for negotiation exists. It's no secret that this method of leading has its detractors.

Visionary Leadership

This kind of leader appreciates the abilities and requirements of his team members. He describes his ideal outcome and the teamwork that will be necessary to attain it.

Coaching Leadership

Leaders who coach their teams do so regularly in an effort to raise output. He inspires his employees to do better and works to keep them motivated. This approach to leadership has been much praised.

Facilitative Leadership

With occasional guidance, a facilitative leader ensures that the process runs smoothly for his team. As a precaution in case his team is ineffective. If the team is highly effective, the leader will take a hands-off approach.

Cross-Cultural Leadership

The leadership of this type is necessary when interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds. Because of the wide variety of cultures represented in the workforce across the United States, many managers and executives hold cross-cultural positions.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

The members of the team are given responsibility in this style of management. They are free to choose how they spend their time at work, with minimal oversight from the boss. It's not a good way to lead, according to experts.

Transactional Leadership

An interactive approach is integral to this kind of leadership. When team members successfully implement their leader's ideas and choices, they are rewarded with immediate, material benefits.

Charismatic Leadership

In order to bring out the best in his followers, this kind of leader makes the effort to change their attitudes, values, and actions.

This article should dispel the notion that leadership qualities can't be further subdivided. It should also assist you in pinpointing your own personal brand of leadership so you can perfect it over time.

Final Words

In conclusion, leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept that involves various qualities and skills. Effective leaders possess traits such as integrity, vision, empathy, decisiveness, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. They are able to navigate challenges, make difficult decisions, and lead their team toward success. Leadership also involves continuous learning and self-improvement, as leaders must adapt to changing circumstances and remain relevant. Effective leadership can have a positive impact on both individuals and organizations, fostering growth and creating a culture of success.

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Assessing Religious Leadership: A Scoping Review of Leadership Effectiveness Criteria and Current Trends in the Academic Literature

• Open access
• Published: 15 November 2023
• Volume 73 , pages 1–21, ( 2024 )

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• Annemarie Foppen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8527-8540 1 &
• Joke W. van Saane 2  

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A clear understanding of what constitutes effective religious leadership in the context of faith communities is essential for religious practitioners, religious communities, and educational institutes. Twenty-five years after the latest review study by Nauss, an updated overview is needed to account for new insights, especially regarding the latest developments in leadership research and the changing religious landscape. A scoping review was conducted in four databases from 1997 to 2022 to examine the academic literature. The search identified 64 unique references that researched effective religious leadership using 27 different effectiveness criteria. These criteria were categorized based on their target of evaluation: (1) the religious leader, (2) followers/members, and (3) the congregation. Although most references assessed leadership effectiveness by evaluating the religious leader, the most used effectiveness criterion was ‘attendance or numerical growth.’ Over the last 25 years, the criteria for religious leadership effectiveness have become more diverse, and a growing number of references combine criteria from multiple targets to evaluate effectiveness. However, the focus on Christian leadership remains prevalent in the academic literature. The present overview is intended as a starting point for future research as it identifies the current trends and existing knowledge gaps. The study’s findings also invite religious practitioners and congregations to reflect on their methods of assessing leadership effectiveness.

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Introduction

Assessing religious leadership is important for religious practitioners, religious communities, and educational and religious institutes. Insight into which competencies make religious leaders effective and how they affect people’s lives and their congregations can result in more vibrant religious communities (Boyatzis et al., 2011 ). However, identifying the criteria for religious leadership effectiveness has proven difficult (Malony, 2000 ; Nauss, 1994 ). The measurement of effectiveness among religious leaders is complicated and, in some contexts, debated or even resisted (McKenna & Eckard, 2009 ). Some consider religious leadership effectiveness untraceable due to its spiritual or transcendental dimension (Malony, 1984 ), making it not objectively measurable. For others, existing methods of assessment are perceived as uninspiring or unsuitable for their congregation (e.g., numerical growth; Dadswell & Ross, 2013 ; Strunk et al., 2017 ). The diverse contexts in which religious leaders operate provide another challenge. What is considered effective religious leadership can vary depending on the context, religion, denomination, congregational size, and geographical location (Nauss, 1996 ). Just as leadership has been defined in many ways, conceptions of leadership effectiveness vary among scholars; as Yukl and Gardner ( 2020 ) state, “The selection of [leadership effectiveness] criteria depends on the objectives and values of the person making the evaluation” (p. 30). As there does not seem to be a shared definition of leadership effectiveness in the literature nor in the domain of religion, and as most references studied were not explicit about their definition, the current study aims to provide an overview of the various effectiveness criteria used to assess religious leadership in the recent academic literature. Instead of proposing our own definition of effective religious leadership, we intend to identify and clarify the different ways effective religious leadership is being evaluated, sorted by the target of evaluation.

DeRue et al. ( 2011 ) propose a model of leader traits, behaviors, and effectiveness in which leadership effectiveness criteria are categorized along three dimensions to organize the various effectiveness criteria. The model differentiates between effectiveness criteria based on their (1) content (i.e., task performance, affective and relational criteria, or overall judgments of effectiveness), (2) the level of analysis (i.e., individual, dyadic, group, or organizational), and (3) the target of evaluation (e.g., leader effectiveness, group performance).

In his review study, Nauss ( 1996 ) utilizes the latter as he identifies two types of criteria used for evaluating clergy effectiveness based on their target of evaluation, namely, the minister and the congregation. The first type, referred to as primary criteria, includes descriptions of the behavior and characteristics of the minister, such as ‘preaching behavior,’ ‘ability to serve,’ ‘personal characteristics,’ and ‘traits.’ The second type, i.e., secondary criteria, focuses on the effects or consequences of the minister on the congregation and its members, such as ‘church growth,’ ‘commitment,’ ‘satisfaction,’ and ‘changes in faith.’ To the best of our knowledge, Nauss's review of the empirical literature remains, to this day, the most comprehensive overview of assessing effective religious leadership in the academic literature. However, the kind of leadership that is considered effective changes over time. Social, cultural, and technological changes have significantly impacted religious practice, causing changes in our perceptions of the behaviors and characteristics that contribute to religious leaders’ effectiveness (Dobrotka, 2021 ). Thus, after 25 years, the field requires an updated overview to account for new insights, especially concerning the latest developments in leadership research and the changing religious landscape.

A changing landscape

Global mobility has changed the religious landscape radically from the 20th to the 21st century as millions of migrants have brought their religions, values, and traditions to other parts of the world (Giordan, 2014 ). Consequently, many nations transformed from homogeneous religious societies into places with much religious diversity. The work of Nauss ( 1996 ) and the empirical studies he reviews, however, are limited to Christian leadership, in most cases Protestant ministers. The social scientific study of religion traditionally also has a narrow focus on Christianity and Judaism. However, other religions have gradually been included, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and new religious movements (Rambo & Haar Farris, 2012 ). For the current article, we aimed to take into account the growing variety of religions and traditions by not focusing on a specific religion in our data search.

Additionally, almost every high-income country faces lower levels of religiosity, and many other countries have become less religious as well (Inglehart, 2021 ). This trend is reflected in the declining number of individuals involved in organized religion in Western societies and attending religious services (Brauer, 2018 ; European Social Survey, 2002 , 2016  as cited in De Hart & Van Houwelingen, 2018 ). At the same time, a rise in post-Christian or New Age spirituality is observed, characterized by a more individualized, experience-oriented, and anti-institutional spirituality (Marshall & Olson, 2018 ; Tromp et al., 2020 ). Along with these developments, confidence in and obedience to traditional religious leaders has declined in these societies (Hoffmann, 2013 ; Inglehart, 2020 ), giving rise to new types of authority and leadership. These changes in the religious landscape present new challenges for religious leaders in the West and will undoubtedly impact how effective religious leadership is viewed and evaluated.

Over the past decades, academic thinking about leadership has also changed (Zhu et al., 2019 ). In line with most of the earlier studies on ministerial effectiveness, Nauss focused on the religious leader and determined effective religious leadership in terms of ministerial functions or activities (McKenna & Eckard, 2009 ; Nauss, 1972 , 1996 ). This approach to leadership can be categorized as part of what Haslam et al. ( 2015 ) call “the classical leadership perspective.” New insights in leadership research, however, suggest that leadership is not solely about the person of the leader (e.g., character and competencies) but rather should be conceived of as a relational process between the leader, the followers, and the group (Haslam et al., 2020 ; Steffens et al., 2021 ). Leadership is now generally studied as a process of influencing other people to accomplish shared goals (Wilson, 2022 ). In line with this, most researchers evaluate leadership effectiveness “in terms of the consequences of influence on an individual, group, or organization” (Yukl & Gardner, 2020 , p. 28).

The current study

To account for these changes and developments in the religious landscape and leadership research, we conducted a scoping review in the recent academic literature to provide an overview of the various effectiveness criteria used to assess religious leadership over the last 25 years. A systematic approach was employed to search for studies on religious leadership that explicitly address the issue of effectiveness. A combination of search terms was used to account for the variety of religions (i.e., Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, Buddhism, and spirituality), the various terms for effectiveness (e.g., success, flourishing, thriving, vitality, vibrancy), and the various indicators for religious leaders (e.g., clergy, minister, pastor, imam, priest, rabbi). However, to limit ourselves, we focused exclusively on what Chaves et al. ( 2022 ) call congregations’ religious leaders: “religious specialists who are leaders of organized religious communities.” As a result, this review did not examine religious or spiritual leaders in more diffuse and fluid, interstitial settings (Ammerman, 2020 ), such as spiritual guides or meditation teachers; nor religious or spiritual leadership in secular or organizational contexts, such as spiritual caregivers in health institutions (Timmins et al., 2018 ); or organizational leaders who incorporate spiritual values in the workplace (Oh & Wang, 2020 ). In addition, this review concentrated solely on the academic literature (i.e., peer-reviewed articles, books, and dissertations) as this literature could be accessed and searched systematically through bibliographic databases. Also, this approach ensures that only studies meeting the highest scholarly quality standards are included. Consequently, we did not evaluate the professional literature and the extensive work being done outside of academia, such as Duke’s Faith and Leadership initiative. We strongly encourage others to follow up on the current study by reviewing this body of literature as well.

The purpose of the current study is to contribute to the field by building on the work of Nauss ( 1996 ) and extending it in three ways: (1) by updating the data and mapping religious leadership effectiveness criteria that have been used over the last 25 years, (2) by charting recent trends and developments in the academic literature, and (3) by broadening the search from an emphasis on Protestant Christian ministers to reviewing effective religious leadership across different religions. The studies’ findings and conclusions are used to propose directions for future research on the topic.

The present study used a scoping review methodology to examine the academic literature on effective religious leadership. This scoping review aimed to survey the academic literature on effective religious leadership, identify the criteria used to evaluate effectiveness, and detect any knowledge gaps (see Munn et al., 2018 ). We adhered to the five steps of Arksey and O’Malley’s ( 2005 ) methodological framework for conducting a scoping study—(1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying relevant studies, (3) selecting the studies, (4) charting the data, (5) and compiling, summarizing, and reporting the results (Levac et al., 2010 ). The research question that guided this scoping review is: What leadership effectiveness criteria are used in the recent academic literature to assess religious leadership?

Identifying relevant studies

The review of Nauss ( 1996 ), which assessed relevant studies on effective religious leadership up to and including 1996, served as a reference point. A comprehensive search was performed in the bibliographic databases Atla Religion Database, PsycInfo, Eric, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection (via Ebsco) from January 1, 1997, to January 12, 2022. To conduct the search, we first combined various terms for ‘religion’ and ‘leaders(hip)’ to search for leadership studies across various religions. In addition, all studies with direct synonyms for religious leaders were searched for using terms such as ‘clergy,’ ‘pastor,’ ‘minister,’ ‘rabbi,’ and ‘imam.’ Next, a focus on effectiveness was added by combining the search string above with the term ‘effectiveness’ and closely related indicators such as ‘success,’ ‘flourishing,’ ‘thriving,’ ‘vital,’ ‘growing,’ ‘vibrant,’ and ‘efficacy.’ The full search strategy is presented in Table 1 . From these results, we included journal articles, dissertations, and books in the final search. The search was performed without language restrictions, and duplicates were excluded. The database search identified a total of 11,653 references.

Study selection

The two-stage review process was divided into a title-and-abstract screening and a full-text screening round. The 11,653 references were submitted to Rayyan (rayyan.qcri.org), an online review application, to facilitate the review process. References were included when they studied congregations’ religious leaders, defined in this study as “religious specialists who are leaders of organized religious communities,” as opposed to religious specialists who are private practitioners (Chaves et al., 2022 , p. 737). Next, to be included in this study, references had to explicitly address the issue of effectiveness either as a focus of empirical research or theoretical reflection. The first author screened the articles and discussed her findings midway with the second author to further refine the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In addition, the second author reviewed a random selection of articles to assess the reliability of the review process ( n  = 112), resulting in an interrater agreement of 71% regarding which studies to include or exclude.

A total of 11,541 references were excluded during the abstract-and-title screening because they did not meet the inclusion criteria above, because they did not meet the initial criteria (i.e., not being published as a journal article, dissertation, or book), because an abstract was not available ( n  = 17), or because an abstract was not available in English and the reference was written in a language other than English, Dutch, French, or German ( n  = 2). Next, a full-text screening was performed with the remaining 112 references. During this phase, it was decided to focus only on journal articles and dissertations as obtaining the full text of the seven remaining books was challenging. Another 40 references were excluded based on the inclusion criteria during the full-text evaluation. One reference was excluded because the authors of the current study were not proficient in Polish. See Fig.  1 for the flow diagram and the number of references included in this review.

Flow Diagram of the Screening Process

Charting the data

For each of the 64 references included in this study, an overview was created with general information about the study. This overview included the study’s author(s), year of publication, research question, theoretical embedding, research methodology, the method used to assess effective religious leadership, and the most important outcomes reported in the study’s abstract. Charting how effective religious leadership was defined across the different studies proved difficult as many references did not provide an explicit definition. After careful consideration, it was decided to focus on recording the specific criteria used to assess religious leadership effectiveness.

Twenty-six of the 64 references examining effective religious leadership that were included in this study were published in 21 different academic journals, while the other 38 studies were dissertations. Ten studies were theoretical, literature-based contributions, whereas the additional 54 were empirical (i.e., 22 quantitative studies, 17 qualitative studies, and 15 mixed-method studies). Although the studies varied with regard to their discipline (e.g., psychology, religious studies, theology) and motives (to describe, understand, predict, or prescribe), there was a strong focus on Christian leadership ( n  = 60), with only three studies investigating Muslim leadership and one study researching religious leadership in general. In the years after 2010, the number of references published each year was considerately higher, with an average of 2.3 before 2010 and 3.5 from 2011 onwards. The nationality of the authors varied only minimally. All the dissertations were submitted to American universities, and the first author was situated in the United States in 16 of the 26 journal articles. The other 10 references were written by scholars from Australia (2), Nigeria (2), Germany (1), Indonesia (1), Ireland (1), Malaysia (1), South Africa (1), and the United Kingdom (1). An overview of the descriptives can be found in Table 2 .

Religious leadership effectiveness criteria

Twenty-seven different criteria of religious leadership effectiveness were identified among the included references. The criterion used most often in the references to assess effective religious leadership was ‘attendance or numerical growth’ (20 out of the 64 references; 31%). Other criteria that were used in ten or more of the references were ‘personal spirituality/character’ (11 references; 17%), ‘leadership style’ (10 references; 16%), ‘leadership skill and qualities’ (10 references; 16%), ‘perceived effectiveness’ (10 references; 16%), and ‘organizational mission and goals’ (10 references, 16%). Although we observed some differences between the journal articles and the dissertations, the overall use of criteria was quite similar, with an overlap of 23 out of the 27 identified criteria (89%). The most significant difference was observed in the criteria of ‘personal(ity) traits’ and ‘numerical growth or attendance’ as they were used as a criterion in 8 and 14 dissertation studies, respectively, versus 1 and 6 journal articles.

Following the model by DeRue et al. ( 2011 ), we categorized the leadership effectiveness criteria by their target of evaluation, which refers to “whether the leader is the target of evaluation (e.g., leader effectiveness, satisfaction with leader) or another outcome that is within the domain of leadership effectiveness but not specific to the leader [such as] group performance” (p. 11). The criteria used to assess religious leadership effectiveness could be subdivided into three target groups of evaluation:

leader -focused criteria that assess characteristics and outcomes associated with the religious leader as the target of evaluation, such as leadership style, leadership skills, or perceived effectiveness;

follower/member -focused criteria that evaluate outcomes specific to the followers or members of the congregations, such as satisfaction or spiritual growth;

congregation -focused criteria of effectiveness that evaluate outcomes associated with the religious community, such as numerical growth or attendance and organizational mission and goals.

An overview of the criteria sorted by target group can be found in Table 3 .

Leader-focused criteria

References that used leader-focused criteria examined individual characteristics, traits, skills, and qualities of the religious leader to determine effectiveness. The most utilized effectiveness criteria were ‘personal spirituality/character’ and ‘leadership style.’ The leadership styles associated with effective leadership in these references center on the relationship between leader and followers, such as transformational leadership (Taylor, 2019 ; Wasberg, 2013 ), servant leadership (Agee, 2001 ; Graham-Brown, 2020 ), and relational leadership (Watt, 2014 ). Other references list specific leadership skills, qualities, or personal traits as characteristic of effective religious leadership. The Ministerial Effectiveness Inventory (MEI; Majovski, 1982 ) was used in three references to assess leaders’ ministerial competencies; it contains items such as ‘the minister enables the congregation to experience opportunities for personal growth and spiritual enrichment’ and ‘I have an approach to ministry that emphasizes evangelistic and mission goals.’

Follower/member-focused criteria

The effectiveness criteria in this target group center around the congregants as the primary focus of leadership evaluation. Some criteria that focus on followers or members include their satisfaction with leadership, worship, and sacraments; how well their needs are being met; and their sense of community and financial support to the congregation. The most common follower/member-focused criterion used to measure leadership effectiveness was ‘spiritual growth.’

Congregation-focused criteria

The congregation-focused criteria operationalized leadership effectiveness through its effect on the religious community. The criterion most frequently used with respect to the congregation was’numerical growth/attendance.’ Other numerical criteria in this category included the number of conversions, baptisms, church plants, and religious classes. Additionally, references focused on the achievement of ‘organizational mission and goals,’ the degree of ‘community service and outreach,’ and congregational health / well-being as indicators of leadership effectiveness in the congregation.

Ways of assessing effective religious leadership

We observed different approaches to assessing effective religious leadership in the included references based on the targets that were used for evaluation. Some studies assessed religious leadership solely by using leader-focused criteria; other references exclusively used follower/member-focused or congregation-focused criteria. A last group combined the three target groups in various ways to determine leadership effectiveness (i.e., multiple targets). Most references utilized leader-focused criteria to determine leader effectiveness (44%), but a significant number of references used a multiple-targets approach to assess effective religious leadership (34%). This approach was especially prevalent in the dissertation studies. These references tended to take a more comprehensive approach to assessing religious leadership (e.g., Boyatzis et al., 2011 ; McKenna & Eckard, 2009 ). Among the journal articles, the focus on leader indicators was particularly prevalent (see Table 4 for an overview).

Trends and developments in the field

Indicators of effectiveness: from a focus on the minister’s behavior to a more diverse pallet.

While the main focus in Nauss’s review ( 1996 ) was on the minister and their observable behavior, more recent studies also include followers and the congregation as a factor in their evaluation of leadership effectiveness, with ‘numerical growth or attendance’ being the most used criterion of effectiveness. However, the centrality of leader-focused criteria still appears in the recent literature, especially in journal articles. At the same time, the pallet of indicators has become more diverse. For instance, ‘leadership style’ and ‘personal spirituality/character’ were added to the list of indicators, as well as some follower/member- and congregation-focused criteria such as meeting ‘followers’ needs,’ ‘congregational health,’ and achieving ‘organizational mission and goals.’

Beyond the bifocal view: Interactions between leader and congregation

In 1996, Nauss observed a bifurcation in his review study on how ministerial effectiveness was defined. References either focused “upon the minister’s behavior or the effects of the minister’s work in the activities and behavior of the church and its members.” A significant number of the references included in the current study departed from this bifocal view on assessing effective religious leadership by adopting a more dynamic approach. Twenty-two references explicitly combined criteria from multiple target groups to determine leadership effectiveness (5 articles and 17 dissertations). Also, many references that assessed effectiveness by focusing on one specific target often took the interactions between the leader and the congregation into account. For example, in various studies, leader characteristics were used as a predictor of follower/member-focused or congregation-focused criteria of effectiveness (e.g., Adams, 2013 ; Al-Hilali, 2012 ; Cobb-Hayes, 2018 ; Oney, 2009 ; Rowold, 2008 ; Rumley, 2011 ; Soldo, 2017 ). In addition, the transformational leadership model, a follower-oriented approach, was a recurring theory used by about 20 references (30%), either in the study’s design or as part of the theoretical embedding.

The “ultimate criterion”: A value-based approach to assessing religious leadership persists

A value-based approach to assessing religious leadership was recognized across the references as dominant criteria of effectiveness included ‘personal spirituality/character,’ leadership styles such as servant leadership, ethical leadership, and spiritual leadership, ‘organizational mission and goals,’ and ‘spiritual growth.’ Spiritual indicators were already being used as empirical measures of effectiveness in the review by Nauss ( 1996 ), but only minimally.

Measures of effective religious leadership remain scarce

Based on the included references, it appears that hardly any new instruments have been developed to measure effective religious leadership over the past 25 years, and there seems to be a specific lack of validated measures. The Ministerial Effectiveness Inventory by Majovski ( 1982 ) was used three times to map ministerial competencies. Another nine references administered the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass, 2004 ), a psychological inventory that measures transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership and three leadership outcomes (i.e., followers’ perception of leadership effectiveness, followers’ satisfaction with the leadership, and the leader’s ability to meet followers’ needs, inspire extra effort, and achieve organizational goals). In addition, studies that used congregation-focused criteria indicators to assess leadership effectiveness sometimes employed congregational models, such as the National Church Live Survey and the Natural Church Development characteristics (Powell et al., 2022 ; Schwarz, 2006 ).

The focus on Christian leadership remains

Only four references were included in this study that examined effective religious leadership outside the Christian context (6%). One study discussed religious leadership in general (Malony, 2000 ), and three studies examined Muslim leadership (Al-Hilali, 2012 ; Mahazan & Abdullah, 2013 ; Soldo, 2017 ). Given the few references that examined religious leadership outside the Christian context, there still appears to be a one-sided emphasis on Christian leadership in the existing literature. Although, at first glance, the ways of assessing religious leadership in these four studies do not appear to diverge from the main findings discussed above, we cannot generalize our findings on religious leadership effectiveness outside of the Christian context.

The present study conducted a scoping review to provide an up-to-date overview of how effective religious leadership has been assessed over the last 25 years in the academic literature and to chart recent trends and developments in the field. A literature search yielded 64 references that together used 27 different criteria to assess religious leadership effectiveness. The criteria were categorized based on their target group of evaluation, namely, leader, follower/member, or congregation. Most references used leader-focused criteria to assess religious leadership, but a significant number of studies also employed a multiple-targets approach to determine leadership effectiveness. Comparing our results to the review conducted by Nauss ( 1996 ), we did not observe drastic changes in how effective religious leadership is assessed. There were, however, some significant developments, and these are discussed below.

Next to the importance of leader-focused criteria, follower/member-focused and congregation-focused criteria are increasingly being included as valid measures of effectiveness. ‘Attendance or numerical growth’ was the criterion most frequently used in the included references to assess effectiveness. Although congregational growth has been debated as a criterion of vitality or effectiveness (e.g., Thiessen et al., 2019 ), success and status are often attributed to those leaders who can break with the downward trend and draw large numbers of visitors to their services. Linking congregational growth or decline to leadership efforts aligns with several studies showing that clergy contribute to church growth (e.g., Francis et al., 2015 ; Haskell et al., 2016 ; Wollschleger, 2018 ).

Recent references adopted a more dynamic and extensive approach to assessing effective religious leadership by combining multiple criteria and different target groups. The shift from a strong focus on the leader to a more follower- and group-oriented approach to religious leadership has taken longer than it has in the mainstream research on leadership (Haslam et al., 2020 , pp. 19–44) but appears to be prevalent in the current literature on religious leadership as well. Transformational leadership has a prominent place in the references in the current review study, as it does in most contemporary leadership research (Dinh et al., 2014 ; Zhu et al., 2019 ), which shows a continued interest in (neo)charismatic leadership topics such as inspirational leadership, visionary leadership, empowerment, and followers’ trust. Transformational leadership refers to a multidimensional leadership style in which leaders motivate followers to perform beyond expectations by transforming followers’ attitudes, beliefs, and values as opposed to simply gaining compliance (Bass, 1985 ; Rafferty & Griffin, 2004 ; Yukl, 1999 ). Behavior linked to transformational leadership has the following four components (Bass & Riggio, 2005 ): idealized influence (i.e., serving as a role model for followers), inspirational motivation (i.e., communicating a stimulating vision), intellectual stimulation (i.e., encouraging innovation and creativity), and individualized consideration (i.e., attention for followers’ development).

A value-based approach to assessing religious leadership remained prevalent in the reviewed body of research, with many references using indicators such as ‘personal spirituality/character,’ ‘servant leadership,’ and ‘spiritual growth’ to determine effectiveness. A normative approach to assessing religious leadership also appears inherent to researching leadership in the religious context (McKenna & Eckard, 2009 ; Wollschleger, 2018 ). The spiritual dimension entails a normative element to effective religious leadership, resulting in ultimate criteria of effectiveness based on specific beliefs or values that are so important that they are usually not open for debate or modification. Although such a prescriptive approach to leadership appears specific to religion, value-based approaches to leadership are also emerging in mainstream research on leadership (Dinh et al., 2014 ; Zhu et al., 2019 ). Recent studies demonstrate a growing interest in leadership behaviors that include value elements such as ethical leadership, authentic leadership, spiritual leadership, and servant leadership. Zhu et al. ( 2019 ) link this trend to a growing focus on corporate social responsibility.

Implications for research and practice

By identifying the various criteria of effectiveness and sorting the literature into three target groups for assessing religious leadership, this study offers clarity and coherence in a rather fragmented field of research. Consequently, this overview can function as a starting point for future research identifying the trends and developments in the field and current knowledge gaps. This will make it easier for researchers to determine their research focus and build on previous work. Some concrete recommendations for future research are given below. Additionally, the current findings show interesting leads for collaboration between researchers of religious leadership and mainstream leadership scholars. For example, the shared interest in transformational leadership would be an interesting starting point as this theory has some evident religious connotations (Spoelstra, 2017 ). Aside from its focus on charisma, which has historical roots in Christian writings, common elements include the central notion of transformation and the religious concept of conversion. The transformational leader is expected to induce change within their followers to transform (i.e., convert) them into more effective, engaged, or moral individuals, embodying higher values for the company’s good (Delaney & Spoelstra, 2022 ; Spoelstra, 2017 ). Another lead for collaboration could be the emergence of value-based leadership in mainstream leadership research (Zhu et al., 2019 ) as a value-based approach to leadership is central in the domain of religion as well (e.g., Agee, 2001 ; Graham-Brown, 2020 ; Taylor, 2019 ).

The current findings invite religious practitioners and congregations to reflect on their own ways of evaluating leadership effectiveness. What are current practices, and what would be appropriate ways to measure effectiveness based on the shared beliefs and values of their specific contexts? The overview of indicators of effectiveness used in recent research will hopefully inspire this process and encourage new and more comprehensive approaches to measure effectiveness in helping religious communities to flourish. Educational institutes can benefit from the current findings by reflecting on the trends and developments that have been outlined. The growing significance of follower-oriented approaches to leadership can, for example, lead to new areas of focus in educational programs and the screening of candidates for religious vocations.

Limitations

A limitation of the current study design is that the outcomes of this review study are confined to the references that were included based on the data search that was conducted. In our discussion of the literature, we stayed close to the included references and focused on the trends and insights that emerged from these specific references. As a result, we might have missed relevant works on the study of religious leadership effectiveness because they were outside of our search terms and inclusion criteria. For example, the reviewers have brought to our attention the work of Friedman ( 2007 , 2011 ). His work was widely influential in the 2000s and has been especially valued by mainline Protestant and Jewish leaders for its holistic approach to religious leadership based on Bowen’s family systems theory. Friedman’s work was most likely not identified during our literature search because it does not explicitly address religious leadership and partly falls outside the selected timeframe. The same will apply to the professional literature as our data search was limited to the academic literature. In addition, studies that did not research religious leadership in the context of faith communities or that did not explicitly discuss the issue of effectiveness also fell outside the focus of the current study.

Recommendations: An agenda for future research and practice

A theme that should be high on the research agenda is broadening the scope of research from focusing on Christian leadership to examining religious leadership effectiveness across different religions. The current data search only identified three references that researched religious leadership from a Muslim perspective and one reference that focused on religious leadership in general. This suggests that the findings of the current study may not be applicable beyond the Christian context as only limited academic research was included on the effectiveness of religious leadership in general. Therefore, future research should focus on conducting studies across various religious backgrounds to deepen our understanding of effective religious leadership. Additionally, the studies included in the current overview were conducted mainly by scholars from the United States examining religious leaders in an American context. We therefore also need more studies from underrepresented parts of the world to get a more comprehensive perspective on religious leadership effectiveness.

Another recommendation for future research concerns the coherence in the field and its theoretical foundation. The references included in this study do not strongly build on previous work in the field, and, as a consequence, research on religious leadership appears to be less incremental. Also, an overarching narrative of assessing effective religious leadership seems to be lacking as academic reflection on the topic stagnated after the work of Nauss and Malony (e.g., Malony, 1984 , 2000 ; Malony & Hunt, 1991 ; Nauss, 1972 , 1996 ). An updated theoretical foundation that does justice to the current landscape is essential for the field to progress. Future studies can build on such a foundation and create more sound evidence regarding religious leadership effectiveness by collecting data that supplements earlier findings and addressing current knowledge and research gaps. For example, a theoretical framework could combine the three target groups (i.e., leader, follower, and congregation) into a dynamic and comprehensive model (see Boyatzis et al., 2011 ). Additionally, transformational leadership could serve as an overarching theory given the popularity it already has in the field and the promising effects of this type of leadership style on the congregation (e.g., Carter, 2009 ; Rowold, 2008 ).

A concrete recommendation for practice that follows from the current overview is to use multiple criteria from multiple target groups to evaluate religious leadership in congregations (DeRue et al., 2011 ). As McKenna and Eckard ( 2009 ) point out, the criteria deemed appropriate will vary depending on the mission and overall purpose of the congregation. However, using a range of criteria can help overcome a one-sided focus on, for example, numerical growth or leadership competencies. By evaluating religious leadership using various criteria, we can better understand the dynamic and diverse leadership contexts and, hopefully, alleviate some of the discomfort people feel in assessing religious leadership effectiveness.

A theme for the research agenda that follows from the above is the need for reliable and validated scales to measure religious leadership effectiveness. Over the past 25 years, only a few new instruments have been developed. One possible reason for this could be the limited interest of social scientists in religious leadership. The only validated measure used by references in this study that was specifically designed for the assessment of religious leadership was the Ministerial Effectiveness Inventory by Majovski ( 1982 ), a shortened version of the Profiles of Ministry (Schuller et al., 1980 ) consisting of 59 items (Nauss, 1996 ). There are growing concerns regarding the content validity of this scale in current research because the qualitative data underlying the development of this scale (mid-1970s) has become less representative of effective leadership in the twenty-first century (Dobrotka, 2021 ). Additionally, the sample consisted exclusively of respondents from the 200 seminaries that were members of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada at that time. Consequently, the field could benefit from well-researched measures that can be used to evaluate religious leadership across different religious and cultural contexts. In order to develop such a scale, scholars should collaborate with practitioners to create evidence-informed scales that will benefit religious leaders and their communities as well. The work by McElroy et al. ( 2014 ), which describes the development of a measure of intellectual humility in the context of religious leadership, could be used for inspiration. Alternatively, researchers could build on and extend work in related fields, such as the development of the Authentic Leadership Inventory (Neider & Schriesheim, 2011 ), Spiritual Leadership Scale (Fry et al., 2005 ), Identity Leadership Inventory (Steffens et al., 2014 ), or Servant Leadership Survey (Van Dierendonck & Nuijten, 2011 ).

In short, the current scoping review provided an up-to-date overview of how religious leadership effectiveness has been assessed over the last 25 years in the academic literature. Although a focus on Christian leadership remained prevalent among the included references, recent references adopt a more dynamic and extensive approach to evaluating effective religious leadership by combining criteria from different target groups (i.e., leader, follower/member, and congregation) while using multiple measures and emphasizing the interactions between the leader and congregation.

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Foppen, A., van Saane, J.W. Assessing Religious Leadership: A Scoping Review of Leadership Effectiveness Criteria and Current Trends in the Academic Literature. Pastoral Psychol 73 , 1–21 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-023-01113-8

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Large language models (LLMs) have exhibited memorable strategic behaviors in social deductive games. However, the significance of opinion leadership exhibited by LLM-based agents has been overlooked, which is crucial for practical applications in multi-agent and human-AI interaction settings. Opinion leaders are individuals who have a noticeable impact on the beliefs and behaviors of others within a social group. In this work, we employ the Werewolf game as a simulation platform to assess the opinion leadership of LLMs. The game features the role of the Sheriff, tasked with summarizing arguments and recommending decision options, and therefore serves as a credible proxy for an opinion leader. We develop a framework integrating the Sheriff role and devise two novel metrics for evaluation based on the critical characteristics of opinion leaders. The first metric measures the reliability of the opinion leader, and the second assesses the influence of the opinion leader on other players' decisions. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate LLMs of different scales. In addition, we collect a Werewolf question-answering dataset (WWQA) to assess and enhance LLM's grasp of the game rules, and we also incorporate human participants for further analysis. The results suggest that the Werewolf game is a suitable test bed to evaluate the opinion leadership of LLMs and few LLMs possess the capacity for opinion leadership.

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Anyone Can Learn to Be a Better Leader

• Monique Valcour

You just have to put in the work.

Occupying a leadership position is not the same thing as leading. To lead, you must be able to connect, motivate, and inspire a sense of ownership of shared objectives. Heightening your capacity to lead others requires being able to see how you think and act, and how your behavior affects others. Leading well requires a continuous journey of personal development. Yet people in leadership roles often eschew the long and challenging work of deepening self-insight in favor of chasing after management “tools”— preferably the “quick ’n’ easy” kind, such as personality type assessments that reduce employees to a few simplistic behavioral tendencies. Tools can be handy aids to good leadership. But none of them can take the place of fearless introspection, feedback seeking, and committed efforts to behavioral change for greater effectiveness and increased positive impact on others.

When you’re an individual contributor, your ability to use your technical expertise to deliver results is paramount. Once you’ve advanced into a leadership role, however, the toolkit that you relied on to deliver individual results rarely equips you to succeed through others. Beware of falling into the logical trap of “if I can do this work well, I should be able to lead a team of people who do this work.” This would be true if leading others were akin to operating a more powerful version of the same machinery you operated previously. But it’s not; machinery doesn’t perform better or worse based on what it thinks about you and how you make it feel, while humans do .

• MV Monique Valcour is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and management professor. She helps clients create and sustain fulfilling and high-performance jobs, careers, workplaces, and lives. moniquevalcour

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• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)

Leadership is a complex concept, but it’s essential for boosting your career. That’s why a leadership essay focuses on applying the theoretical models and concepts of successful management to real-life situations. 

If you don’t know where to start writing such a paper, please read on for professional tips!

What Is Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a paper that analyzes leadership concepts and their application to real-life situations that may involve everyday business management, crisis situations, and other scenarios. 

Every essay on leadership is about defining a concept. Then, it’s either comparing it to similar management tools or proving that it’s useful (or not).

While some students enjoy writing such papers, other learners hate them. The below samples will come in handy, no matter which group is yours.

What Does Leadership Mean to You? (Essay Sample)

It is one of the most popular topics for a leadership essay. If you need to write a paper like that, ask yourself:

• Who is a good leader?  
• What style do they use?  
• What are the situations when they might switch styles?

You may take a more personal approach to such an essay if your professor allows you to. In the example below, you will see the academic approach to this topic. It analyzes three leadership styles to discover which one corresponds to the meaning of leadership if one thinks of it as guidance and support.

Why I Want to Participate in a Leadership Program (Essay Sample)

It’s another example of a popular topic. Such papers often have a meaning beyond the classroom since they may decide whether you plan to participate in a specific program. It’s critical to make them as effective and compelling as possible.

A personalized approach is the best when it comes to essays like this. In the example below, you will see the paper that relies on individual beliefs and a personal life story to explain why it’s so important for the specific student to participate in the chosen program.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

Like every other essay, this paper has an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion summarizing your thoughts. (1) The most important part of the introduction is the final sentence,  aka  a thesis statement. That’s where you state your claim to prove or develop in your leadership essay.

Each body paragraph should correspond to the purpose of your essay. To ensure you don’t stray from the aim you’ve established in the thesis statement, write the topic sentences for all your paragraphs in the outline . In simple words, write the first sentence of every paragraph to define its development in advance and see if you cover everything you need.

And now, to the conclusion:

Its most essential element is thesis restatement or the first sentence of that paragraph. It’s not just paraphrasing your thesis; it’s also considering the new information you’ve discovered while writing the essay.

Structure :

• Introduction (End it with a thesis statement.)
• Body paragraphs (Each one starts with a topic sentence.)
• Conclusion (Start it with a thesis restatement.)

Understand the purpose of a leadership essay

When starting to write, think about why you’re creating this paper. Before you sit down and type the words, think about the ideas you want to convey and their meaning in your life:

Can this essay teach you to take responsibility? Or maybe will it help you understand how to be a leader in crisis situations? When you’ve answered the “why” question, begin outlining.

Build a strong thesis

Always start with your thesis statement. It will help incorporate your answer to that notorious “why” question into your essay. Once done, you can plan out the rest of the paper and start working on the body paragraphs as soon as you finish the introduction.

There’s another important tip —don’t rush into writing the conclusion before you finish everything else!

It might seem like a good idea to create a thesis statement and thesis restatement right off the bat. However, you’ll find yourself with more refreshing ideas after completing all the research and thinking necessary for the introduction and each body paragraph.

Decide on a structure; format accordingly

Even if your essay about leadership seems not so formal, and you can use personal pronouns, you still need a clear structure.

The best way to write any academic paper is to keep your introduction and conclusion as short as possible. (But no shorter than three sentences and four lines of text). 

Another important tip is to try making all your body paragraphs equal in length. That way, you’ll give the same attention to all the vital points of your essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Leadership Now?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the most critical elements of a leadership essay. 

Remember the structure, grammar, and appropriate academic style to create a top-level paper. Please don’t forget to answer the “why” question and remember  why  you’re writing. Then you’ll impress everyone with your results!

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Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: helmsman of the masses evaluate the opinion leadership of large language models in the werewolf game.

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) have exhibited memorable strategic behaviors in social deductive games. However, the significance of opinion leadership exhibited by LLM-based agents has been overlooked, which is crucial for practical applications in multi-agent and human-AI interaction settings. Opinion leaders are individuals who have a noticeable impact on the beliefs and behaviors of others within a social group. In this work, we employ the Werewolf game as a simulation platform to assess the opinion leadership of LLMs. The game features the role of the Sheriff, tasked with summarizing arguments and recommending decision options, and therefore serves as a credible proxy for an opinion leader. We develop a framework integrating the Sheriff role and devise two novel metrics for evaluation based on the critical characteristics of opinion leaders. The first metric measures the reliability of the opinion leader, and the second assesses the influence of the opinion leader on other players' decisions. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate LLMs of different scales. In addition, we collect a Werewolf question-answering dataset (WWQA) to assess and enhance LLM's grasp of the game rules, and we also incorporate human participants for further analysis. The results suggest that the Werewolf game is a suitable test bed to evaluate the opinion leadership of LLMs and few LLMs possess the capacity for opinion leadership.

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