team members who are performing poorly. As conflicts arise within the team you will have to know how to resolve these conflicts. Conflict resolution is a key component of leading an effective team.
In order for you to lead a team it's also important to know how to staff the team. When adding new members or replacing old ones you need to know what skills are required and how to select for them. Finally, as a team leader it's important to know the training needs of your subordinates. People tend to grow in their jobs and will need to pick up new information and skills to keep current.
The second way leaders have been measured in the research literature has been based on approval ratings. While standing out has been common in corporate environments, approval is likely most common in the political arena. We generally cast votes on politicians based on how we feel about them. While many people vote by political party, and some vote for policies, the deciding factor in most elections has likely more to do with how you feel about the candidate (either good or bad). Even when looking at research in the corporate environment, Kaiser's review reported that most studies focused on people's feelings about the leader, as opposed to the results or outcomes attributed to that leader. Sometimes we see this in 360 ratings that subordinates complete on their supervisors.
Next, there have been studies that have focused on leader effectiveness. When looking at the effectiveness of a leader, we can look at two different kinds of studies. The first group looks at the effectiveness of leaders in influencing team members, or the process of how the team functioned, for example, were they engaged? The second group of effectiveness studies focuses on the outcomes achieved by the team or organization.
In the first group of effectiveness studies, how the team plays is mainly about process and engagement. I sometimes compare this to the kind of outcome you look at with religious leaders. It's like measuring the effectiveness of a minister, priest, or rabbi by how many seats are filled in the pews each week, or how involved people are in the activities of the organization. The leader's effect on the team is the focus here. Are they present, are they engaged? I can almost hear them saying, “Amen.” When measuring this kind of influence that leaders have researchers would look at things like the group dynamics, climate, and culture as measurable factors.
One of the ways researchers have studied this type of leader effectiveness has been through what is called transformational/transactional leadership measures. Bass and Avolio28 developed the concept of transformational leadership to examine the ways in which leaders are influencing their teams or groups. Basically, they look at a leader's ability to inspire and enhance the performance of their followers. When successful, the leader gets workers to set aside their own self-interest pursuits and work toward a collective purpose. The leader achieves this through her use of vision, appealing group goals, high standards, intellectual stimulation, role modeling, and relationships.
The final group of studies looked at leader effectiveness through the actual outcomes or the performance of the team or organization led by that person. There are a number of different examples of outcomes for an organization. These can be financial (gross earnings, profitability), productivity (number of widgets produced, projects completed), customer retention or satisfaction, human resource measures (absenteeism, engagement), and innovations (successful new products created, money/time saving processes implemented).
Outcome measures are most common in the sports world. Sports leaders – coaches or managers – are often judged by the outcomes of the teams they have worked with. Coaches of winning teams tend to be more sought after than those with less stellar outcomes.
So a lot of what we know about leadership from the academic world comes out of one of these four ways of evaluating leadership. We can look at who stands out, or appears leader like. This is most often seen in how we reward and promote corporate leaders. We can look at the approval or how people feel about a leader. This is often what we see in who wins political elections. We can look at how engaged people are with the leader. This is often how we might look at religious leaders. Finally, we can look at what outcomes have been achieved by the team. This is most often how leaders are judged in the world of sports. In my own study of leadership, I have found you can best understand a leader by the effect they have on others and by their accomplishments. By engaging others, giving them purpose, getting things done, and making the world a better place, you can be a successful leader.
1. How do you define leadership and who are some of the leaders that have influenced your life?
2. How much of your time do you see yourself in a leader role?
3. How do you tend to judge the leaders around you?
4. How would you like to be judged as a leader?
5. When you lead others what are some of the outcomes you strive for?
1. Write down some of the things about yourself that might make you stand out as a leader.
2. What are some of the qualities that people might see in you that would make them feel good about having you as a leader?
3. How do you get other people excited about something you would like them to do?
4. What are some actual tasks or activities that you were able to get someone else to complete?
5. Set some goals for how you would like to be seen as a leader. Include what you would like to accomplish.
CHAPTER 3
LEADERSHIP
WHY EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?
No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just can't ignore it.
One day I was giving a presentation to a large group of leaders in education. I asked them all to think back to the time they graduated from high school. “Do you remember your high school valedictorian?” I asked. As usual when I ask this question the majority of hands in the room go up.
“How many of you know where that person is now?” Once again, as usual, about half the hands in the room go up.
And then the closer, “how many of these people have lived up to your expectations of what they would become in life?” At this point, I usually get a small scattering of hands that go up. Occasionally, someone talks about the student who went on to be a professor at Harvard or MIT.
More often than not, I get a scattering of stories about the nonachiever at school – Fred, the nerdy guy who went on to make millions in a start-up, or Jill the loner, who ended up singing in a rock band and getting rich and famous. Who would have known?
But this one time an older gentleman came up to me and said, “not only do I remember who was valedictorian at my high school, but I still see him quite regularly.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes,” he pointed out. “You see, George and I were classmates since third grade. He was a genius. He excelled in math and sciences. There wasn't a math problem he couldn't solve. We were friends all the way through high school. And he was the school valedictorian – just brilliant. Me? I wasn't so good. I just made it through each year. But I was the go-to guy. I knew where the parties were and where to go to have fun. I gotta say, I was one of the more popular guys at school.”
“So what happened to George?” I asked.
“Well,
B. M. Bass and B. J. Avolio,
