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The Future of Leadership Development

• Mihnea Moldoveanu
• Das Narayandas

Companies spend heavily on executive education but often get a meager return on their investment. That’s because business schools and other traditional educators aren’t adept at teaching the soft skills vital for success today, people don’t always stay with the organizations that have paid for their training, and learners often can’t apply classroom lessons to their jobs. The way forward, say business professors Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas, lies in the “personal learning cloud”—the fast-growing array of online courses, interactive platforms, and digital tools from both legacy providers and upstarts. The PLC is transforming leadership development by making it easy and affordable to get personalized, socialized, contextualized, and trackable learning experiences.

Gaps in traditional executive education are creating room for approaches that are more tailored and democratic.

Idea in Brief

The problem.

Traditional approaches to leadership development no longer meet the needs of organizations or individuals.

The Reasons

There are three: (1) Organizations, which pay for leadership development, don’t always benefit as much as individual learners do. (2) Providers aren’t developing the soft skills organizations need. (3) It’s often difficult to apply lessons learned in class to the real world.

The Solution

A growing assortment of online courses, social platforms, and learning tools from both traditional providers and upstarts is helping to close the gaps.

The need for leadership development has never been more urgent. Companies of all sorts realize that to survive in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, they need leadership skills and organizational capabilities different from those that helped them succeed in the past. There is also a growing recognition that leadership development should not be restricted to the few who are in or close to the C-suite. With the proliferation of collaborative problem-solving platforms and digital “adhocracies” that emphasize individual initiative, employees across the board are increasingly expected to make consequential decisions that align with corporate strategy and culture. It’s important, therefore, that they be equipped with the relevant technical, relational, and communication skills.

Whom do you know, and what can they teach you?

• MM Mihnea Moldoveanu is the Marcel Desautels Professor of Integrative Thinking, a professor of economic analysis, and director of the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking and of Rotman Digital at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
• DN Das Narayandas is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Partner Center

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

Want to know more about leadership?

Related articles.

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What is leadership: Moving beyond the C-Suite

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5 Steps to Creating a Successful Leadership Development Plan

• 27 Nov 2019

Leadership development is a key initiative for many businesses. Organizations not only try to recruit candidates with leadership potential but cultivate their current employees’ leadership skills.

In a survey by global research and advisory firm Gartner , 60 percent of human resources executives said they’ll focus on cultivating leader and manager effectiveness for their company in 2023. In doing so, they intend to nurture the professional development of potential leaders by developing specific leadership qualities, such as authenticity, empathy, and adaptiveness—representing a new kind of “human” leadership.

Additionally, a report by the World Economic Forum projects leadership and social influence to be among the fastest-growing workplace skills through 2022, which ties into a burgeoning trend for all workers to become lifelong learners to address emerging skills gaps.

For motivated professionals who want to advance their careers and assume leadership positions, creating a leadership development plan is vital to staying ahead of the curve and rising to the demands of the job market. According to Harvard Business School Professor Ethan Bernstein, the path to effective leadership is more fluid now than in the past.

“Once upon a time, you would enter a leadership development program in a company that might put you on a 20-year track to becoming an executive,” Bernstein says. “Many of us can’t even fathom that today. But that should be freeing in that it gives us license to develop ourselves and create our own individualized leadership development plans.”

As you plot your career trajectory and consider how you can maximize your professional influence and impact, here are five steps to creating a successful leadership development plan.

How to Design Your Leadership Development Plan

1. assess where you are professionally.

Mapping your leadership development starts with understanding yourself and where you stand professionally. Taking stock of your strengths, weaknesses, and workplace tendencies can help identify areas for improvement and anticipate pitfalls that could arise on your journey to becoming a more capable leader.

“In the process of identifying how what you’ve done before may or may not make you successful going forward, you raise your awareness about how what you already know will contribute to, or undermine, your capacity to successfully lead others in the future,” Bernstein says.

Completing an assessment can be a valuable way to reflect on your motivational drivers and limitations and gain a more holistic view of your personal leadership style . Pairing self-reflection with a 360-degree assessment enables you to solicit feedback from colleagues and peers, which can provide greater insight into how others experience you. In turn, you can build and leverage a keener sense of emotional intelligence throughout your leadership development journey.

Related: 4 Tips for Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

2. Set an Attainable Goal

Goal setting is an essential component of any leadership development plan.

“Just like anything else: If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably not going to get there,” Bernstein says. “It sounds overly simplistic, but that summarizes why goals are important."

Bernstein teaches the PACE model, an acronym for:

• Pick a leadership goal
• Apprise others in your inner circle of the goal
• Collect specific ideas on how to improve
• Elicit feedback on how you’re doing

PACE is employed by learners to select leadership development goals and chart a course of action for achieving them. The first step in the process, Pick, is centered on identifying and prioritizing a goal you can strive toward to boost your professional effectiveness. When setting this goal, take an agile approach and consider both the short and long term.

“You can’t lose sight of where you’re trying to go over the span of a decade—or even a career—which is why making long-term goals is important,” Bernstein says. “But we can’t, as human beings, make progress if we make the milestones so grand and far away that they seem unachievable. A little bit of progress each day keeps the frustration at bay.”

As you define and establish your key goal, consider how you’ll measure progress along the way to ensure you stay on track.

3. Engage in Leadership Training

Leadership training can benefit you no matter your career stage. Beyond the opportunity to gain and practice the technical skills needed to empower employees and influence others , you’re exposed to faculty and peers you can lean on for support and learn and grow from. It can also equip you for future leadership roles.

According to Bernstein, honing your leadership abilities in a classroom setting is advantageous because it provides a low-risk environment for reevaluating and fine-tuning goals when you encounter setbacks.

“It’s helpful to have a group of people—we call it your ‘inner circle’—who’ve heard and embraced your leadership goals, and whose conversations helped inform how you would go about achieving them,” Bernstein says. “In moments of challenge and relapse, you can go back to them for encouragement and courage. You can revise your goals in a safe environment because you have a level of openness and vulnerability with those people built into the course.”

4. Interact with Your Network

A professional network is one of the most valuable resources in any leader’s arsenal, so make it a point to grow yours . Throughout your leadership development journey, connecting with like-minded peers can have a positive impact by providing opportunities to employ the knowledge you’ve gained and receive feedback on your progress.

These kinds of interactions are core tenets of the online course Leadership Principles , in which learners practice delivering feedback through video exercises that allow them to evaluate their effectiveness in various business scenarios.

“Ensure your leadership development includes some interaction with other learners and also with the people who are benefitting and suffering from your current capabilities as a leader,” Bernstein says. “We try to teach people to be good protégés, as well as good leaders. It’s an ongoing process. That interaction is important in making things that seem very theoretical ultimately become very practical.”

5. Hone Your Soft Skills

Effective leadership requires a unique blend of characteristics and skills .

“There are skills you need as a leader that you don’t necessarily develop in any other context, at least in a focused way,” Bernstein says. “These include communication; career planning; knowing how to create and evaluate authentic change in a person, including yourself; and negotiating career transitions. These are things you typically won’t do many times in your career, but they will be very important to continuing your leadership trajectory.”

As you chart your leadership development plan, consider how you can bolster essential soft skills like actively listening , practicing empathy , and creating value in a negotiation to ensure you’re prepared to tackle any organizational challenges that come your way.

Developing Your Leadership Skills

Striving to become a strong, capable leader is a commitment you can make at any stage of your career —although doing so sooner means you can reap the benefits longer. By assessing where you are professionally and thinking deeply about where you want to go, you can design a leadership development plan that enables you to channel your passions and build the skills needed to be more impactful in your role.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our online course Leadership Principles to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

This post was updated on December 21, 2022. It was originally published on November 27, 2019.

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37 Leadership Development: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

D. Scott DeRue, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Christopher G. Myers is a Ph.D. candidate in Management & Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

• Published: 16 December 2013
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This chapter develops a conceptual framework that helps organize and synthesize key insights from the literature on leadership development. In this framework, called PREPARE, the authors call attention to the strategic purpose and desired results of leadership development in organizations. They emphasize how organizations can deliberately and systematically leverage a range of developmental experiences for enhancing the leadership capabilities of individuals, relationships, and collectives. Finally, they highlight how individuals and organizations vary in their approach to and support for leadership development, and how these differences explain variation in leadership development processes and outcomes. As an organizing mechanism for the existing literature, the PREPARE framework advances our understanding of what individuals and organizations can do to develop leadership talent, and highlights important questions for future research.

Introduction

Contemporary organizations operate in environments characterized by rapid change and increasing complexity. Indeed, some historians believe that our world is undergoing a transformation more profound and far-reaching than any experienced since the Industrial Revolution ( Daft, 2008 ). Advancements in technology are creating opportunities for new business models that can dramatically shift the competitive landscape of entire industries. Globalization and shifting geopolitical forces are permanently altering the boundaries of interorganizational collaboration and competition. In addition, a myriad of economic, environmental, and ethical crises are directly challenging the role of corporations in society, and highlighting the interdependence among business, government and social sectors. The result is organizations around the world and across a broad array of domains—industry, government, military, not-for-profit, health care, and education—are adapting their strategies, structures, and practices with the intent of becoming more agile and responsive to these dynamic environments.

Because of these ongoing organizational transformations, effective leadership is needed more than ever. Leadership is one of the most important predictors of whether groups and organizations are able to effectively adapt to and perform in dynamic environments ( Mintzberg & Waters, 1982 ; Peterson, Smith, Martorana, & Owens, 2003 ; Peterson, Walumbwa, Byron, & Myrowitz, 2009 ; Thomas, 1988 ; Waldman, Ramirez, House, & Puranam, 2001 ). As Bass and Bass (2008 , p. 11) concluded, “when an organization must be changed to reflect changes in technology, the environment, and the completion of programs, its leadership is critical in orchestrating that process.” Consequently, organizations are designating leadership as a top strategic priority and potential source of competitive advantage, and are investing in its development accordingly ( Day, Harrison, & Halpin, 2009 ). For example, in 2009, almost a quarter of the $50 billion that U.S. organizations spent on learning and development was targeted at leadership development ( O’Leonard, 2010 ).

Despite the fact that organizations are increasing their investments in leadership development, there is an emerging consensus that the supply of leadership talent is insufficient to meet the leadership needs of contemporary organizations. According to a survey of 1,100 U.S.-based organizations, 56 per cent of employers report a dearth of leadership talent, and 31 per cent of organizations expect to have a shortage of leaders that will impede performance in the next four years ( Adler & Mills, 2008 ). Likewise, a survey of 13,701 managers and HR professionals across 76 countries found that individuals’ confidence in their leaders declined by 25 per cent from 1999–2007, and that 37 per cent of respondents believe those who hold leadership positions fail to achieve their position’s objectives ( Howard & Wellins, 2009 ). These data allude to an emerging leadership talent crisis where the need and demand for leadership surpass our ability to develop effective leadership talent.

Ironically, this leadership talent crisis is emerging at the same time the pace of scholarly research on leadership development is reaching a historical peak. Conceptual and empirical research on leadership development has proliferated through the publication of a number of books, including the Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development ( Van Velsor, McCauley, & Ruderman, 2010 ), Day and colleagues’ (2009 ) Integrated Approach to Leader Development , and Avolio’s (2005 ) Leadership Development in Balance . Likewise, reviews of the leadership development literature point to rapid growth in the base of scholarly research on leadership development over the past 20 years ( Collins & Holton, 2004 ; Day, 2000 ; Hernez-Broome & Hughes, 2004 ; McCall, 2004 ), and numerous special issues in management and psychology journals have been dedicated to the topic ( DeRue, Sitkin, & Podolny, 2011 ; Pearce, 2007 ; Riggio, 2008 ). All of this scholarly literature is notwithstanding the thousands of popular press books and articles that have been written on the topic.

Indeed, the depth and richness of the existing literature has produced an array of important insights about leadership development in organizations. For example, drawing from experiential learning theories ( Dewey, 1938 ; Kolb, 1984 ), scholars have documented how lived experiences that are novel, of high significance to the organization, and require people to manage change with diverse groups of people and across organizational boundaries are important sources of leadership development ( DeRue & Wellman, 2009 ; McCall & Hollenbeck, 2002 ; McCall, Lombardo, & Morrison, 1988 ; McCauley, Ruderman, Ohlott, & Morrow, 1994 ). Indeed, it was this research that led McCall (2004 , p. 127) to conclude that “the primary source of learning to lead, to the extent that leadership can be learned, is experience.” In addition, scholars have identified an array of personal attributes (e.g., learning orientation, developmental readiness) and situational characteristics (e.g., feedback, coaching, reflection practices) that influence how much leadership development occurs via these lived experiences ( Avolio & Hannah, 2008 ; Alimo-Metcalfe, 1998 ; DeRue & Wellman, 2009 ; Dragoni, Tesluk, Russell, & Oh, 2009 ; Hirst, Mann, Bain, Pirola-Merlo, & Richver, 2004 ; Ting & Scisco, 2006 ). Moving beyond the sources and predictors of leadership development, researchers have also examined a multitude of outcomes associated with leadership development, including but not limited to the development of individuals’ leadership knowledge, skills, abilities, motivations, and identities ( Chan & Drasgow, 2001 ; Day & Harrison, 2007 ; DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ; Mumford, Campion, & Morgeson, 2007 ; Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman, 2000 ). Altogether, these conceptual articles and empirical studies provide substantial insight into a complex and multifaceted leadership development process, and point to various ways in which individuals and organizations can enhance (and impair) leadership development.

Despite notable progress in our understanding of leadership development, there are at least three reasons why this body of literature has not yielded the insights and breakthroughs that are needed to sufficiently inform and address the emerging leadership talent crisis. First, the existing literature is predominantly focused on individual leader development, at the expense of understanding the evolution of leading-following processes and the construction of leadership relationships and structures in groups and organizations ( DeRue, 2011 ; DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ). This focus on individuals as the target of development may stem from the broader leadership literature, which has traditionally endorsed an individualistic and hierarchical conception of leadership ( Bedeian & Hunt, 2006 ). However, there is an emerging shift toward thinking of leadership as a shared activity or process that anyone can participate in, regardless of their formal position or title ( Charan, 2007 ; Day, Gronn, & Salas, 2004 ; Morgeson, DeRue & Karam, 2010 ; Quinn, 1996 ; Pearce & Conger, 2003 ). In turn, the leadership development literature needs to explain how these collective leadership processes develop and evolve over time.

Second, consistent with the focus on individuals, the existing literature generally endorses a narrow focus on the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required for effective leadership ( Mumford, Campion, & Morgeson, 2007 ; Mumford et al., 2000 ). One potential reason for the focus on KSAs is that much of the existing literature on leadership development is framed within the domain of human resource management, which often focuses on the training and transfer of KSAs ( Saks & Belcourt, 2006 ). Another potential reason is that scholars have developed coherent theories and taxonomies of leadership KSAs, and there is clear evidence linking these leadership KSAs to individual leader effectiveness ( Connelly et al., 2000 ; Mumford et al., 2007 ). Only recently have scholars begun to explore a wider range of leadership development outcomes, including individuals’ self-concept and identity ( Day & Harrison, 2007 ; DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ; Lord & Hall, 2005 ), motivations related to leadership ( Barbuto, 2005 ; Chan & Drasgow, 2001 ), and mental models of leadership ( Lord, Brown, Harvey & Hall, 2001 ; Epitropaki & Martin, 2004 ; Lord, Foti, & De Vader, 1984 ). These alternative outcomes are important to understanding leadership development because it is possible that individuals are developing the KSAs necessary for effective leadership, but are choosing not to take on leadership roles because they do not see themselves as leaders, or they are not motivated to lead given the risks associated with it ( Heifetz & Linsky, 2002 ). Although these leadership identities, motivations, and mental models could be the target of leadership development interventions, it is not clear based on the current research how malleable these attributes are, or what types of experiences or interventions would develop them.

Finally, consistent with Avolio’s (2007 ) call for more integrative theory building in the leadership literature, our field lacks a coherent and integrative framework for organizing the existing literature on leadership development. With respect to the emerging leadership talent crisis, this lack of an integrative, organizing framework is limiting progress in two ways. First, without an integrative understanding of the inputs, processes, and outcomes associated with leadership development, organizations are forced to speculate or rely on intuition as to what to develop, how to develop it, where and when it should be developed, and who is ready (or not ready) for development. Second, it remains unclear what the critical knowledge gaps are related to leadership development, and where future research needs to focus in order to help organizations more effectively identify and develop future leadership talent.

Thus, the aim of this chapter is to develop an organizing framework for the inputs, processes, and outcomes associated with leadership development, synthesize key insights from the existing literature, and identify critical knowledge gaps that can serve as the impetus for future research on leadership development. We seek to accomplish these goals, as well as complement and extend prior reviews of this literature ( Brungardt, 1997 ; Day, 2000 ), by first defining leadership development and articulating some of the key assumptions associated with this definition. We then introduce an organizing framework called PREPARE, and use this framework to integrate key insights from the existing literature. We conclude by summarizing an agenda for future research based on the PREPARE framework, with the purpose of extending existing theories of leadership development and advancing our understanding of what individuals and organizations can do to identify and develop leadership talent.

Leadership Development: A Definition

Leadership is a social and mutual influence process where multiple actors engage in leading-following interactions in service of accomplishing a collective goal ( Bass & Bass, 2008 ; Yukl, 2010 ). In his oft-cited review of the leadership development literature, Day (2000 ) distinguishes between two forms of development. Individual leader development focuses on an individual’s capacity to participate in leading-following processes and generally presumes that developing an individual’s leadership KSAs will result in more effective leadership. A key limitation of this perspective is that it does not account for leadership as a complex and interactive process among multiple actors who are both leading and following, or that the relationships that are created and maintained within the social context can have a strong influence on how leadership processes emerge and evolve ( Day & Halpin, 2004 ; DeRue, 2011 ). The second form, leadership development, focuses on developing the capacity of collectives to engage in the leadership process. Whereas leader development focuses on individuals and the development of human capital, leadership development attends to the interpersonal dynamics of leadership and focuses on the development of social capital. Specifically, leadership development refers to building the mutual commitments and interpersonal relationships that are necessary for leading-following processes to unfold effectively within a given social context.

Historically, the existing literature has focused on individual leader development at the expense of understanding and explaining leadership development ( Day, 2000 ; Drath et al., 2008 ; Van Velsor, McCauley, & Ruderman, 2010 ). In fact, because of the dearth of research on leadership development, prior reviews of the existing literature have been forced to acknowledge the importance of leadership development but then go on to narrowly focus on individual leader development (e.g., Day, 2000 ; McCauley, 2008 ). This narrow focus on leader development is unfortunate because both leader and leadership development are necessary but insufficient for understanding and explaining how leadership capacity is developed, especially as organizations embrace more collective and shared models of leadership ( Pearce & Conger, 2003 ).

In the present article, we broaden the definition of leadership development to include both individual and collective forms of development. Specifically, we define leadership development as the process of preparing individuals and collectives to effectively engage in leading-following interactions. Several assumptions are embedded in this definition. First, we assume that both leader and leadership development are essential for enabling more effective leadership processes in organizations. Individuals need the leadership KSAs, motivations, and beliefs necessary to effectively participate in the leading-following process, but effective leading-following interactions also involve the emergence of leader-follower relationships and collective leadership structures. In addition, we assume that leader and leadership development are interdependent. Developmental experiences or interventions designed to promote more effective leadership relationships will also affect individuals’ KSAs, beliefs, and motivations. Likewise, actions taken to enhance individual leadership capabilities will indirectly alter the landscape of leading-following relationships among actors. Therefore, the conceptual model we use to structure our literature review will incorporate both individual leader development and the development of leadership relationships and collective structures.

Our expectation is that the framework developed herein will be used by researchers in several ways. First, as noted above, the framework is purposefully integrative across a range of levels of analysis and developmental approaches, with the intent of motivating scholars to adopt a more integrative approach to studying leadership development. For example, scholars might use the framework to emphasize the intersection of individual leader development with more relational or collective forms of development, or ways in which formal training might complement informal, on-the-job development. Second, researchers can use the framework to conceptualize a broader range of outcomes associated with leadership development. Historically, leadership development research has focused narrowly on the development of individual skills or competencies, but this framework emphasizes a range of individual, relational, and collective outputs of leadership development. Finally, we expect scholars can use the framework to situate their individual studies within a broader nomological network of research on leadership development, which in turn will identify key gaps in the literature and advance the accumulation of knowledge related to leadership development.

PREPARE: An Organizing Framework

As illustrated in Figure 37.1 , PREPARE is an acronym that refers to the individual components of our organizing framework. The PREPARE framework consists of seven key components: (1) Purpose, (2) Result, (3) Experience, (4) Point of Intervention, (5) Architecture, (6) Reinforcement, and (7) Engagement.

Purpose refers to why an organization is engaging in leadership development: in particular the role that leadership development plays in enabling an organization to achieve its strategic objectives and performance goals. The Result component refers to the desired outcome, what is actually trying to be developed, such as individuals’ cognitive schemas related to leadership (e.g., implicit leadership theory), the affective or relational ties among group members (e.g., trust), or the organizational climate for shared leadership. Experience refers to the mechanism through which leadership development occurs, specifically what experiences (e.g., formal training, on-the-job assignments) will serve as the basis for challenging individuals and/or collectives to improve their leadership capacity. These experiences vary in their formality (e.g., on-the-job assignments, classroom experiences), mode (e.g., direct or vicarious) and content (e.g., the degree of developmental challenge). The Point of Intervention component represents the intended target of leadership development (i.e., who is being developed), and the attributes associated with that target. The target can be at the individual level (e.g., developing an individual’s skills), the relational level (e.g., developing the leading-following relationship among actors), or the collective level (e.g., shared team leadership). Architecture refers to features of the organizational context (e.g., practices, processes, climate) that are designed to facilitate and support leadership development. The Reinforcement components refer to the temporal sequencing of developmental experiences, and the timing of those experiences. Finally, the Engagement component refers to the ways in which individuals and collectives enter, go through, and reflect on the leadership development process.

PREPARE Framework for Leadership Development.

Each of these seven dimensions receives a different level of attention in the existing literature. For example, scholars frequently examine how the organizational architecture (e.g., 360º feedback, mentoring, and coaching programs) supports individual leader development (e.g., Alimo-Metcalfe, 1998 ; Brungardt, 1997 ), but few scholars consider the purpose of leadership development or how leadership development is aligned (or not aligned) with organizational strategy. Likewise, scholars rarely theorize or empirically examine how developmental experiences should be sequenced so that they are reinforcing over time. Our contention is that each of these dimensions is an essential ingredient to successful leadership development, and that the design of effective leadership development systems must address each of these components. Our hope is that the PREPARE framework helps organize key insights from the existing literature in a way that synthesizes what is known about leadership development, highlights questions that need to be addressed in future research, and provides guidance to individuals and organizations looking to improve their leadership talent. In the sections that follow, we review the base of scholarly research for each of the PREPARE dimensions, and identify key knowledge gaps that can serve as the impetus for future research.

Purpose: Aligning Leadership Development and Organizational Strategy

Theories of strategic human resource management explain how different patterns of human resource management (HRM) practices and activities enable organizations to achieve their strategic objectives and goals ( Wright & McMahan, 1992 ; Wright & Snell, 1998 ). Drawing from theories of fit and congruence ( Nadler & Tushman, 1980 ; Venkatraman, 1989 ), these strategic HRM theories emphasize that organizational performance is in part a function of the alignment between HRM practices and the organization’s strategy ( Schuler & Jackson, 1987 ). Indeed, empirical research has established that a key predictor of organizational productivity and performance is the alignment between firm strategy and the configuration of HRM practices ( Delery & Doty, 1996 ; Youndt, Snell, Dean & Lepak, 1996 ).

With respect to leadership development practices, organizations often speculate that alignment between organizational strategy and leadership development practices is important for maximizing the return on investment in leadership development ( Zenger, Ulrich, & Smallwood, 2000 ). For example, in their report on the Top Companies for Leaders , Hewitt & Associates (2009 ) concluded that “...HR leaders and senior management are finding they must rethink leadership selection and development strategies—to better align with organizational goals, cost pressures, and competing resources.” Similarly, in a review of best-practices research on leadership development, McCauley (2008 ) underscored how, in best-practice organizations, leadership development practices are closely tied to the vision, values, and goals of the business, and that leadership development is a core part of the organization’s strategic planning processes. These conclusions are consistent with McCall and Hollenbeck’s (2002 ) contention that global leaders are best developed through challenging experiences and assignments that are tied to the strategic imperatives of the business.

Despite the fact that organizations are emphasizing strategic alignment with leadership development practices, there is currently a lack of scholarly research on the mechanisms through which leadership development can support organizational goals and strategies, or the implications of alignment in terms of return on investments in leadership development. The research on strategic HRM suggests that alignment with organizational strategy will be essential for developing leadership development systems that promote and enhance organizational effectiveness, but research is needed to connect these insights about general HRM practices to leadership development specifically. Currently, the field of leadership development studies lacks a theoretical or empirical basis for explaining how organizations can achieve strategic alignment with leadership development practices, or why strategic alignment enhances the value of leadership development to the organization.

In fact, there are some trends in the leadership development literature that suggest a sort of duality with respect to aligning leadership development with organizational strategy. On the one hand, scholars suggest that an important source of leadership development is having individuals and groups engage in challenging assignments that are directly linked to firm strategy and the future directions of the business ( McCall et al., 1988 ; McCall & Hollenbeck, 2002 ). On the other hand, organizations are increasing outsourcing leadership development by placing employees in challenging, developmental experiences that are outside of the organization and have very little to do with the organization’s strategy (e.g., IBM’s Peace Corps; Colvin, 2009 ). There are likely benefits to both approaches. Strategic alignment should not only enhance employees’ leadership development but also directly contribute to the business needs of the organization. Yet, enabling employees to explore developmental opportunities outside of the core business may also broaden the employee’s perspective and introduce motivational benefits that might not be possible within the context of the core business. Future research that examines the value of strategic alignment in leadership development, and how best to balance developmental experiences that are inside the organization’s core business with experiences outside of the core business, would be particularly noteworthy. This research would go a long way toward helping organizations explain and understand the business returns associated with leadership development.

Result: Identifying the Desired Outcome of Leadership Development

Organizations invest considerable resources into identifying the “holy grail” of leadership competencies that are needed for success in their organization ( Alldredge & Nilan, 2000 ; Intagliata, Ulrich, & Smallwood, 2000 ). As described by Intagliata et al. (2000 , p. 12), “This holy grail, when found, would identify a small set of attributes that successful leaders possess, articulate them in ways that could be transferred across all leaders, and create leadership development experiences to ensure that future leaders possess these attributes.” Indeed, organizations routinely use their leadership competency models not only for leadership development but also for performance management, recruiting and staffing, and succession planning ( Gentry & Leslie, 2007 ; McCauley, 2008 ). The challenge, however, is that it is unclear whether there is such a “holy grail,” or even a coherent set of attributes or competencies that are needed for effective leadership.

Scholarly research on leadership development has considered a range of development outcomes, including leadership KSAs ( Hulin, Henry & Noon, 1990 ; Mumford et al., 2007 ), forms of cognition such as leadership schemas and identities ( Day & Harrison, 2007 ; DeRue, Ashford, & Cotton, 2009 ; Shamir & Eilam, 2005 ), and the motivations associated with taking on leadership roles and responsibilities ( Chan & Drasgow, 2001 ; Kark & Van Dijk, 2007 ). In addition, scholars have looked beyond individual attributes and examined the development and evolution of leader-follower relationships ( DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ; Nahrgang, Morgeson, & Ilies, 2009 ). Although we do not intend to discover the “holy grail” of leadership competencies in this chapter, we can identify three broad themes of development outcomes in the existing literature: behavioral, affective/motivational, and cognitive. Further, each of these themes can be conceptualized at the individual, relational, or collective level of analysis, although most existing research is at the individual level.

Behavioral . We conceptualize behavioral outcomes in leadership development as the acquisition of leadership KSAs that are necessary for the performance of specific leadership behaviors, or positive changes in the performance of actual leadership behaviors. In the current literature, leadership development scholars have considered a wide range of these behavioral outcomes. One influential article in this domain is Mumford et al.’s (2007 ) leadership skills strataplex. In this article, the authors identify four distinct categories of leadership skill requirements: cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, business skills, and strategic skills. Then, in a sample of 1023 professional employees in an international agency of the U.S. government, the authors find empirical support for the four distinct categories of leadership skill requirements, and show that different categories of leadership skill requirements emerge at different hierarchical levels of organizations. For example, basic cognitive skills are required across all hierarchical levels, but strategic skills become important only once employees reach senior-level positions.

Moving beyond the acquisition of leadership skills, leadership scholars have also examined changes in the performance of actual leadership behaviors. For example, Barling, Weber, and Kelloway (1996 ) conducted a field experiment of 20 managers randomly assigned to either a control condition or a leadership training condition. In the training group, managers received a one-day training seminar on transformational leadership, followed by four booster training sessions on a monthly basis. The control group received no such training. Drawing upon subordinates’ perceptions of transformational leadership behaviors, results showed that participants in the training group improved their performance of transformational leadership behaviors more so than participants in the control group. In a similar study design, Dvir and colleagues (2002 ) examined the impact of transformational leadership training on follower development and performance. In a sample of 54 military leaders, their results establish that transformational leadership training can increase leaders’ display of transformational leadership behaviors, which in turn have a positive effect on follower motivation, morality, empowerment, and performance.

Affect/Motivational . Most of the existing research has conceptualized and empirically studied leadership development in terms of behavioral outcomes, but scholars have recently begun to examine how individuals’ affective states and their motivations related to leadership influence how they engage in, go through, and process leadership experiences. For example, individuals’ positive and negative affective states explain not only their leadership effectiveness, but also how leaders influence followers’ affect and behavior ( Bono & Ilies, 2006 ; Damen, Van Knippenberg, & Van Knippenberg, 2008 ; Ilies, Judge, & Wagner, 2006 ). Similarly, emotional intelligence, or the ability to understand and manage moods and emotions in the self and others ( Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2001 ), can contribute to effective leadership in organizations ( George, 2000 ; Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter, & Buckley, 2003 ). In terms of motivation, scholars have suggested and found some empirical support for the notion that individuals have different levels of motivation for leadership, and that these motivations can impact participation in leadership roles and leadership potential ( Chan & Drasgow, 2001 ; Kark & van Dijk, 2007 ).

However, in contrast to behavioral outcomes, there is very little empirical research on how individuals or collectives develop the affective or motivational attributes that promote effective leadership. Rather, most of the existing research focuses on how these affective and motivational attributes influence the leadership process or the individual’s effectiveness as a leader (e.g., Atwater, Dionne, Avolio, Camobreco, & Lau, 1999 ; Chemers, Watson, & May, 2000 ). The antecedents to these attributes or the processes through which these attributes are developed generally remain a mystery. Notable exceptions include Chan and Drasgow’s (2001 ) study of Singaporean military cadets, where they find that personality, cultural values such as collectivism and individualism, and prior leadership experience predict whether individuals are motivated to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. Likewise, Boyce, Zaccaro, and Wisecarver (2010 ), in their study of junior-military cadets, find that individuals who have a mastery and learning orientation are more motivated than people without this orientation to engage in leadership development activities, and in addition, are more skilled at self-regulatory, learning processes. Yet, the developmental implications of these studies are unclear given that attributes such as personality and values can be fixed properties of a person ( Costa & McCrae, 1994 ; Schwartz, 1994 ). Another exception is Shefy and Sadler-Smith’s (2006 ) case study of a management development program implemented in a technology company, whereby focusing on non-Western principles of human development (e.g., harmony and balance), the program enhanced individuals’ emotional awareness and interpersonal sensitivity.

Notwithstanding these few exceptions, there is a considerable need for research on the development of the affective and motivational attributes that enable individuals to effectively participate in the leadership process. For example, affective events theory ( Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996 ) explains how work events interact with dispositional characteristics and situational factors to influence individuals’ affective states. This focus on event-level phenomena is consistent with the notion that discrete work events and experiences are the primary source of leadership development ( McCall, 2004 ), yet these two literatures have yet to be integrated. Future research that explains how work events and experiences influence the development of particular affective states, and how these affective states enable more effective leadership and leadership development processes, would help integrate and extend theories of affect and leadership development. Likewise, a fundamentally important question that needs to be explored further is why some people are more motivated than others to take on leadership roles and responsibilities, even when they are not designated as a formal leader. This research needs to move beyond a focus on stable individuals’ differences, and consider how the social and organizational context enables (or constrains) individual motivation for leadership. In particular, this research could build on prior theories of the rewards and risks associated with leadership ( Heifetz & Linsky, 2002 ) to understand how people process, cognitively and emotionally, the rewards and risks of assuming leadership roles and responsibilities in different group and organizational contexts.

Cognitive . Cognitive outcomes refer to the mental models and structures that individuals and collectives rely on to participate in and carry out leadership processes. In this sense, individuals and collectives develop their capacity for effective leadership by expanding or changing their conceptual models and mental structures of what it means to lead, the way in which leading-following processes unfold, and/or their conception of themselves as leaders and followers. Indeed, a commonly espoused purpose of using multi-rater feedback for leadership development is to create self-awareness and stimulate reflection related to what leadership means in a given setting and to expand people’s conceptions of their roles as leaders ( Yammarino & Atwater, 1993 ). Developing these cognitive models and mental structures are important because they impact how people engage in leadership processes ( Shamir & Eilam, 2005 ).

In the existing literature, there are at least three cognitive outcomes that seem particularly important for leadership development, especially as organizations embrace collective and shared forms of leadership. First, an individual’s self-concept or identity as a leader is important for determining how that person will engage in the leadership process ( Day & Harrison, 2007 ; DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ; DeRue, Ashford & Cotton, 2009 ; Hall, 2004 ; Shamir & Eilam, 2005 ). Developmental experiences allow individuals to create, modify, and adapt their identities as leaders by “trying on” different possible self-concepts ( Ibarra, 1999 ) and engaging in the identity work that is necessary to clarify one’s self-concept ( Kreiner, Hollensbe, & Sheep, 2006 ). Importantly, this identity development is not limited to the individual level, as leadership development can help individuals construct leadership identities at the relational and collective levels of analysis, which then become the basis for the formation of effective leading-following relationships ( DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ). In addition, with the increasing interest in ethical leadership and moral psychology ( Aquino & Reed, 2002 ; Mayer, Kuenzi, Greenbaum, Bardes, & Salvador, 2009 ), research on the development of individual and collective levels of moral identity may prove to be particularly important as leadership development outcomes.

Another potentially important cognitive outcome for leadership development is individuals’ implicit theories of leadership. Implicit leadership theories (ILTs) refer to people’s cognitive schemas for what personal attributes and behavioral tendencies make for an effective leader, and these ILTs can have a significant impact on individuals’ perceptions of who is (and is not) a leader in a given context ( Epitropaki & Martin, 2004 ; Lord, Foti, & De Vader, 1984 ; Rush, Thomas, & Lord, 1977 ). There is some research evidence supporting the idea that these ILTs emerge as a result of cultural background ( House, Javidan, Hanges, & Dorfman, 2002 ), media influence ( Holmberg & Akerblom, 2001 ), and life experience ( Keller, 2003 ). However, much more research is needed to clarify the origin of these beliefs about prototypical leaders, as well as what organizations can do to modify these beliefs. It is quite possible that many people choose not to take on leadership roles because they perceive a misfit between their own self-concept and what they believe to be prototypical of an effective leader. However, it is also possible that organizations can change these perceptions and create a fit between people’s self-concept and their ILT, thereby engendering a greater propensity to step up and take on leadership.

Finally, scholars are beginning to suggest that individuals not only have implicit theories about who is prototypical of an effective leader, but that individuals also have implicit theories about how leadership is structured in groups. For example, DeRue and Ashford (2010a ) proposed the concept of a leadership-structure schema, which refers to whether individuals conceptualize leadership as zero-sum and reserved for a single individual within a group (often the designated leader), or whether leadership can be shared among multiple group members. Following up on this proposition, there is emerging empirical evidence suggesting that not only do individuals possess different leadership-structure schemas, but also that these schemas are malleable and can be developed ( Hinrichs, Carson, Li, & Porter, 2011 ; Wellman, Ashford, DeRue, & Sanchez-Burks, 2011 ). Future research that examines the developmental interventions that alter the leadership-structure schemas of individuals and collectives, and the implications for group process and performance, would be particularly important for promoting more shared leadership in organizations.

In addition to behavioral, affective/motivational, and cognitive development outcomes, leadership development scholars have also examined changes in overall leadership performance or leadership emergence (e.g., Atwater, Dionne, Avolio, Camobreco, & Lau, 1999 ). Given that it is rare for empirical studies to model changes in leadership behavior or performance, these studies offer valuable insight into the predictors of leadership development. However, because they focus on overall performance changes and rarely experimentally manipulate the developmental intervention, these studies offer less insight into what is actually being developed or causing the observed change in leadership performance. On the one hand, it might be that individuals are developing new leadership skills or motivations. On the other hand, it is also possible that the context is changing in ways that enable individuals’ to engage in more effective leadership behavior, but that no meaningful development is occurring. For future research, we recommend scholars assess change over time in specific behavioral, affective/motivational, and/or cognitive outcomes, which will provide more insight into the underlying mechanisms explaining improvements in leadership performance or emergence.

Experience: Developing Leadership through Lived Experience

Drawing on experiential learning theories ( Dewey, 1938 ; Knowles, 1970 ; Kolb, 1984 ), scholars at the Center for Creative Leadership conducted the early research on the role of experience in leadership development ( McCall et al., 1988 ). This research then spawned a multitude of follow-up studies exploring a range of leadership development experiences, and there is now considerable consensus in the existing literature that the primary source of leadership development is experience ( McCall, 2004 ; Ohlott, 2004 ; Van Velsor & Drath, 2004 ). As Mumford and colleagues (2000 ) note, without appropriate developmental experience, even the most intelligent and motivated individuals are unlikely to be effective leaders.

The existing research on experience-based leadership development spans across a wide range of different types of experiences, including informal on-the-job assignments ( McCall et al., 1988 ), coaching and mentoring programs ( Ting & Sciscio, 2006 ), and formal training programs ( Burke & Day, 1986 ). A common assumption in the existing literature is that 70 per cent of leadership development occurs via on-the-job assignments, 20 per cent through working with and learning from other people (e.g., learning from bosses or coworkers), and 10 per cent through formal programs such as training, mentoring, or coaching programs ( McCall et al., 1988 ; Robinson & Wick, 1992 ). Despite the popularity of this assumption, there are four fundamental problems with framing developmental experiences in this way. First and foremost, there is actually no empirical evidence supporting this assumption, yet scholars and practitioners frequently quote it as if it is fact. Second, as McCall (2010 ) appropriately points out, this assumption is misleading because it suggests informal, on-the-job experiences, learning from other people, and formal programs are independent. Yet, these different forms of experience can occur in parallel, and it is possible (and likely optimal) that learning in one form of experience can complement and build on learning in another form of experience. Third, it is inconsistent with the fact that a large portion of organizational investments are directed at formal leadership development programs ( O’Leonard, 2010 ). It is certainly possible that organizations are misguided in their focus on and deployment of these programs ( Conger & Toegel, 2003 ), but we are not ready to condemn formal programs given the lack of empirical evidence. Finally, it is possible that the “70:20:10” assumption leads organizations to prioritize informal, on-the-job experience over all other forms of developmental experiences, which some scholars argue allows leadership development to become a “haphazard process” ( Conger, 1993 , p. 46) without sufficient notice to intentionality, accountability, and formal evaluation ( Day, 2000 ).

We offer an integrative framework for conceptualizing the different forms of developmental experience, including both formal and informal developmental experiences. Specifically, we propose that developmental experiences are best described and understood in terms of three dimensions: formality, mode, and content.

Formality . The formality dimension ranges from formal to informal. Formal developmental experiences are activities designed with the intended purpose of leadership development, which would include leadership training programs and interventions. In contrast, informal developmental experiences occur within the normal context of everyday life and are often not designed for the specific purpose of leadership development. Another way the formal versus informal distinction appears in the literature is when Avolio and colleagues discuss planned and unplanned events that serve as “developmental triggers” ( Avolio, 2004 ; Avolio & Hannah, 2008 ). These trigger events are experiences that prompt a person to focus attention on the need to learn and develop, but as Avolio and his colleagues propose, formal training that is planned and informal experiences that are unplanned can both serve as developmental triggers.

One assumed benefit of formal developmental experiences is that they allow individuals to spend time away from the workplace, where they are free to challenge existing ways of thinking and reflect more deeply on the lessons of experience ( Fulmer, 1997 ). Indeed, meta-analyses by Burke and Day (1986 ) and Collins and Holton (2004 ) suggest that formal leadership programs have a positive impact on employees’ acquisition of new knowledge, behavior change, and performance. However, as noted by Collins and Holton (2004 ), formal development programs have a stronger, positive effect on knowledge outcomes in comparison to behavior or performance outcomes. One reason for this differential effect could be that program participants acquire new knowledge and skills, but then encounter barriers to transferring those lessons to their actual jobs ( Belling, James, & Ladkin, 2004 ).

For example, in a study of 95 managers engaged in a formal development program in the United Kingdom, Belling and her colleagues (2004 ) found that participants perceived significant barriers to their ability to transfer lessons from the program back to the workplace. These barriers included individuals’ lack of motivation, as well as organizational factors such as time constraints, lack of managerial support, and a lack of opportunity to apply new skills. Similar barriers appear in McAlearney’s (2006 ) interviews with 160 health care managers, where program participants report that variability in organizational commitment to leadership development has a strong influence on whether they will be able to transfer new knowledge to their actual work. Similarly, Gilpin-Jackson and Bushe’s (2007 ) case study of 18 participants in a Canadian leadership development program reinforces these findings. In this study, participants reported fears about violating organizational norms by applying new techniques learned in the program. To address these barriers, a common suggestion in recent research on formal leadership development programs is to have intact teams from the same organization participate in the program together, which might help develop a common understanding of the lessons learned and increase the likelihood that behavior changes would be welcomed upon returning to the workplace ( Conger & Benjamin, 1999 ; Umble et al., 2005 ).

In part to address the barriers associated with formal leadership development programs, and in part realizing the potential learning value of on-the-job experience, scholars have also investigated the developmental value of informal, on-the-job experiences ( Davies & Easterby-Smith, 1984 ; DeRue & Wellman, 2009 ; Dragoni et al., 2009 ; McCall et al., 1988 ; McCauley et al., 1994 ; Morrison & Hock, 1986 ; Ohlott, 2004 ; Wick, 1989 ). According to Murphy and Young (1995 ), informal learning refers to learning that takes place outside of organized, structured learning processes such as institutionally based degree or training programs. These informal developmental experiences occur within the normal course of work and life, and it is this contextual groundedness that scholars believe provides greater developmental “punch” relative to formal programs ( Day, 2000 ; Dotlich & Noel, 1998 ).

For example, DeRue and Wellman (2009 ) examined how challenging, on-the-job experiences promote the acquisition of cognitive, interpersonal, business, and strategic leadership skills. Based on a sample of 225 on-the-job experiences across 60 managers from a range of organizations, the results of this study demonstrate that the relationship between developmentally challenging experiences and leadership skill development exhibits a pattern of diminishing returns, such that on-the-job experiences are developmental but can become too challenging and actually impair an employee’s development. This research refines the common assumption that challenging employees beyond their current skill set promotes leadership development—there is such thing as “too much” challenge. Consistent with these findings, research suggests that many of the same organizational factors that enhance the efficacy of formal programs are necessary for enabling informal learning through experience, including organizational commitment, feedback, managerial support, and a climate promoting learning and experimentation ( Mumford, 1980 ; Robinson & Wick, 1992 ).

Mode . Learning can occur as individuals directly engage and participate in developmental experiences, but learning can also occur vicariously through observing others and learning from their experiences. Indeed, scholars have long argued that one of humankind’s differentiating cognitive capabilities is the ability to learn vicariously ( Anderson & Cole, 1990 ; Bandura, 1986 ). The mode dimension reflects whether the developmental experience is characterized by direct or vicarious learning. Both direct and vicarious learning are possible in either formal or informal developmental experiences. For example, in a formal development program, vicarious learning can occur through observing other participants engage in various elements of the program. Likewise, in informal experiences, individuals can be directly involved, but it is also possible that significant learning can occur by observing and modeling others.

Most of the existing literature on leadership development focuses on a direct learning mode, specifically on how individuals develop leadership capabilities as they engage in and solve real-life organizational problems ( Revans, 1980 ). As Smith (2001 , p. 36) advocates, “we can only learn about [something] by doing it, and then thinking over carefully what happened, making sense of the lessons, and working through how the learning can be built on and used next time around.” Examples of direct learning approaches to the study of leadership development not only include recent research on the role of experience in leadership development (e.g., DeRue & Wellman, 2009 ; Dragoni et al., 2009 ), but also studies investigating how individuals and groups develop leadership capacity through direct involvement in formal training programs.

Although most of the existing literature focuses on a direct mode of experience, there are several noteworthy exceptions that emphasize the developmental value of observational learning. For example, McCall and colleagues (1988 ) emphasized that “notable people” can be an important source of learning about leadership and management; in most cases, these notable people included bosses who were deviant from the norm, either as exceptional performers or shockingly poor performers. Likewise, in interviews with six directors of a European, multinational company, Kempster (2006 ) found that observational learning was an important source of leadership development, although interviewees had a difficult time immediately recognizing the value of these indirect or vicarious forms of learning. Based on this research, it is possible that indirect forms of experience are more valuable than what is actually recognized in practice, and future research needs to further investigate how vicarious and observational learning can augment and/or complement direct forms of developmental experience.

Content . The final dimension along which developmental experiences vary is with respect to their content. The interest in experience as a vehicle for learning dates back to ancient philosophy—for example, Aristotle’s claim that “...for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” However, it is not until recently that scholars have begun to develop a theory explaining how the content of lived experiences influences the developmental value of those experiences. In particular, experiences that present individuals with novel and ambiguous challenges force individuals to extend and refine their existing knowledge structures and skills ( McCall et al., 1988 ). These different forms of challenge represent the content of experience.

For example, in a study of 692 managers from 5 large corporations and 1 governmental agency, McCauley and colleagues (1994 ) demonstrated that most development occurred in experiences consisting of significant job transitions (e.g., unfamiliar responsibilities), or task-related challenges such as creating change, managing large amounts of scope and scale, and/or influencing people without authority. Likewise, other studies exploring similar forms of experience content have linked these content dimensions to enhanced individual motivation and more creative decision making ( Thompson, Hochwarter, & Mathys, 1997 ), as well as greater individual flexibility and adaptability ( Campion, Cheraskin, & Stevens, 1994 ). Indeed, one reason scholars advocate the developmental value of international assignments is that the content of international assignments includes unfamiliar responsibilities, numerous task-related challenges, and a variety of challenges related to cultural diversity and assimilation ( Caligiuri, 2006 ; McCall & Hollenbeck, 2002 ).

Beyond these positive content dimensions, scholars have also identified ways in which the content of experiences can detract from or impair leadership development outcomes. For example, in the same McCauley et al. (1994 ) study, experiences that were comprised of obstacles such as a difficult boss or a lack of top-management support detracted from individual learning. In addition, it is possible that the same content dimensions that promote learning and development can become overwhelming and impair learning. In their study, DeRue and Wellman (2009 ) showed that, when the content of an experience presents individuals with demands that far exceed their current capabilities, individuals get cognitively and emotionally overwhelmed, and as a result, leadership development suffers. From these studies, a number of interesting research questions emerge. For example, it is not clear when and why these particular types of challenges overwhelm individuals and detract from learning, as opposed to stretching employees in positive, developmental ways. One possible explanation is that people vary as to whether they see challenging experiences as having potential for growth and mastery, or the potential for personal harm or loss ( Folkman & Lazarus, 1985 ), and these different orientations influence how people go through their experiences and ultimately what they gain from those experiences. Future research that investigates the personal and situational factors that explain these differences in orientation across different content dimensions would help organizations construct experiences and allocate people to experiences in ways that reduce perceptions of threat and enhance the perceived developmental value of experience. This research could also help address concerns over high rates of voluntary turnover after employees engage in challenging, on-the-job experiences such as expatriate assignments ( Black, Gregersen, & Mendenhall, 1992 ).

Point of Intervention: Determining the Level of Analysis in Leadership Development

The current literature on leadership development spans across three levels of analysis. In particular, the point of intervention for leadership development initiatives can be at the individual level, the relational level, or the collective level. By a large margin, most of the existing research on leadership development is conducted at the individual level. In these studies, development is generally conceptualized as a positive change in the leadership capabilities of individuals, and there is a predominant focus on how individual attributes (e.g., KSAs, personality, prior experience) impact individual-level learning and development. For example, Mumford et al. (2000 ) examined how the ability, personality, and motivation of junior Army officers explain their leadership development, which in this case was operationalized as individual career success (i.e., reaching senior-level management positions). More recently, scholars have begun to examine how individuals vary in their readiness for leadership development ( Avolio & Hannah, 2008 ), and these different levels of readiness are based on individual differences such as learning orientation, self-concept clarity, and efficacy beliefs. Indeed, several studies have empirically documented how different facets of developmental readiness can accelerate or accentuate learning in the context of developmental experiences. For instance, in a sample of 218 junior-level managers from a wide range of firms and industries, Dragoni et al. (2009 ) showed how learning orientation enhances the developmental value of individuals’ on-the-job experiences. All of these examples portray leadership development in terms of individual-level abilities and performance.

Despite the value of understanding leadership development at the individual level, there are several reasons why our field needs to further extend the research on leadership development to relational and collective levels of analysis. First, leadership theory and research have widely adopted more relational and collective forms of leadership (e.g., Carson et al., 2007 ; Pearce & Conger, 2003 ), but the leadership development literature has yet to develop the conceptual or empirical knowledge base necessary for understanding how relational or collective forms of leadership develop. Second, organizations are shifting toward more collective forms of leadership development—for example, developing cohorts of managers or intact teams altogether ( Conger & Benjamin, 1999 )—but these decisions about how best to develop leadership talent lack a theoretical or empirical basis. Third, most research on leadership development draws on human learning theories that were developed to explain how individuals learn (e.g., Dewey, 1938 ; Knowles, 1970 ; Kolb, 1984 ), but it is not clear that these individual-level learning theories will be able to fully account for the group dynamics involved in relational or collective leadership development.

More recently, however, there is an emerging trend toward the study of relational and collective forms of leadership development. At the relational level, leadership development can be conceptualized as the emergence and development of leadership (leader-follower) relationships ( DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ). The origin of this perspective can be traced back to the initial work on leader-member exchange (LMX), where scholars explained how leader-follower relationships and structures are a function of interactional processes ( Dienesch & Liden, 1986 ; Graen & Scandura, 1987 ). Although most of the subsequent LMX research focused on the effects of LMX rather than the development of these relationships, there are a few exceptions ( Bauer & Green, 1996 ). For example, Nahrgang et al. (2009 ) examined the development of 330 leader-follower dyads over 8 weeks in the context of MBA-student teams. Their findings suggest that leaders and followers form initial perceptions of relationship quality based on different personality characteristics, but over time, both leaders and followers refine their perceptions of the leader-follower relationship based on the performance of their dyadic partner.

Beyond the relational level, there is also an emerging shift in the literature toward understanding how collective leadership structures emerge and develop over time ( Mehra, Dixon, Brass & Robertson, 2006 ; Mehra, Smith, Dixon, & Robertson, 2006 ; Pearce & Conger, 2003 ; Sivasubramaniam et al., 2002 ). For example, Day, Gronn, and Salas (2004 ) theorize that collective or shared leadership in teams is a function of group dynamics and interactional processes, as opposed to the characteristics of individual team members. Providing empirical support for this idea, Carson et al. (2007 ) investigated the antecedents to shared leadership in 59 MBA-student consulting teams. The consulting teams were comprised of five to seven team members and worked with their corporate clients for five months. The results of the study emphasized three distinct antecedents to shared leadership in teams. Specifically, teams with a shared purpose, social support, and opportunities for participation and voice from all group members were much more likely to develop shared leadership structures than teams without these characteristics. These data suggest that the development of collective leadership structures is not simply a function of the aggregation of individuals’ leadership attributes, but rather is a function of the social interactions among group members.

These studies of relational and collective leadership development mark an important change of direction in the study of leadership development—from a focus on individuals independent of any social context to the study of a contextualized and emergent leadership development process. Drawing from this perspective, new and interesting research questions emerge about the development of leadership in organizations. For example, research is needed to explain how the pattern of interactions among group members—for example, in terms of communication, conflict, or trust—influences the structural pattern of leadership that develops in the group. For questions about how group dynamics influence the emergence and development of relational or collective leadership, we expect applying models of group development ( Kozlowski et al., 1996 ) to understand the evolution of leadership roles and networks of relationships will be especially constructive. This research will also need to parse out the influence of formal hierarchical structures from the informal relationships and patterns of interaction that emerge in the leadership development process. Furthermore, it is not yet clear what underlying mechanisms explain how different patterns of leadership relationships and structures emerge. On the one hand, leadership theories are often grounded in the concept of social exchange (e.g., Kellerl & Dansereaul, 1995), suggesting that leader-follower relationships develop as group members exchange resources (e.g., control, liking) for compliance or following direction. On the other hand, identity-based theories of leadership development ( Day, Harrison, & Halpin, 2009 ; DeRue, 2011 ; DeRue & Ashford, 2010a ) suggest that leadership relationships and structures develop as individuals, through interaction, socially negotiate meaning and reciprocal identities as leaders and followers. Research that empirically tests and documents these divergent explanatory mechanisms would significantly advance our field’s understanding of how relational and collective forms of leadership develop in groups and organizations.

Architecture: Developing a Social and Organizational Context That Enables Leadership Development

We define architecture as the organizational practices, structures, and cultural factors that influence the leadership development process. Examples include practices such as feedback or reflection interventions that are designed to enhance employee learning from experience ( Daudelin, 1996 ; Densten & Gray, 2001 ), structures such as on-boarding or job rotation policies that are intended to accelerate employee learning and development (Campion, Cheraskin, & Stevens, 1996; Conger & Fishel, 2007 ), and cultural factors such as an organizational climate for learning ( Lim & Morris, 2006 ; Rouiller & Goldstein, 1993 ). In practice, it is often posited that these architectural features enhance employees’ motivation for engaging in leadership development activities, their access to developmental opportunities, and their ability to learn from experience. Yet, though organizations increasingly invest in these architectures to support and enhance leadership development ( Hernez-Broome & Hughes, 2004 ), the conceptual and empirical basis for these investments has historically been dubious. Recent studies, however, offer important insights about how these architectures can promote leadership development within organizations.

For example, the positive effect of coaching and mentoring on employee career development is well established (e.g., Kram, 1983 ; Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, & McKee, 1978   Ragins & Cotton, 1999 ; Seibert, 1999 ), but scholars are only beginning to examine the value of coaching and mentoring in leadership development ( Hall, Otazo, & Hollenbeck, 1999 ; Ting & Hart, 2004 ). In their quasi-experimental study of 1361 senior managers in a global financial services company, Smither and colleagues (2003 ) provided all managers multisource feedback related to their performance. However, a subset of managers also worked with a coach to interpret the feedback results, link the feedback to the business plan, create a self-development plan, and use the feedback to solicit input from employees on how to improve their leadership performance. Managers who worked with a coach were more likely to set goals for their development, solicit ideas for improvement, and improve their performance based on ratings from their direct reports and supervisors.

Unfortunately, studies that examine coaching and/or mentoring in the context of management or leadership development are rare. In fact, in their meta-analysis of the management development literature, Collins and Holton (2004 ) could not identify enough studies on the role of mentoring or coaching to include these practices in their analysis. Relative to the frequency with which coaching and mentoring are used in practice for leadership development, there is a significant need for more theory development and empirical research on how personal, situational, and organizational factors explain how coaching and mentoring influence the leadership development process. For example, it is possible that coaching or mentoring can enable individuals or groups to more effectively learn from their experiences, but it is also possible that these practices can create a sense of dependency that detracts from employees engaging in self-development activities ( Bushardt, Fretwell, & Holdnak, 1991 ; Kram, 1983 ; North, Johnson, Knotts, & Whelan, 2006 ). The current literature has only begun to unpack the mechanisms through which coaching and mentoring influence leadership development, and future research is needed to inform how individuals and organizations can fully realize the value of practices such as mentoring and coaching.

Beyond coaching and mentoring, there is also an emerging literature on the role of reflection in employee learning and development, and scholars are beginning to extend this feature of the organizational architecture to the context of leadership development. In field experiments with members of the Israel Defense Forces and in laboratory experiments with undergraduate students, Ellis and colleagues ( Ellis & Davidi, 2005 ; Ellis, Ganzach, Castle, & Sekely, 2010 ; Ellis, Mendel, & Nir, 2006 ) have documented how structured reflection practices can enhance individuals’ mental models of their experiences, promote more internal attributions for performance, and produce greater performance improvements than if employees are to process and reflect on their experiences without any formal structure or guidance. Likewise, Anseel and colleagues (2009 ) showed in both field and laboratory settings that reflection combined with feedback results in greater performance improvements than feedback alone. DeRue and colleagues ( DeRue, Nahrgang, Hollenbeck, & Workman, 2012 ) have extended these findings to a leadership development context, where they show in a nine-month field experiment that structured reflection enhances leadership development for people who are conscientious, open to experience, emotionally stable, and have a rich base of prior developmental experiences.

Finally, after decades of research on how organizational climate and culture can influence learning at the individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis ( Argyris, 1993 ; Edmondson, 1999 ; Hofmann & Stetzer, 1996 ; Rouiller & Goldstein, 1993 ; Weick, 1993 ), scholars are beginning to explore how organizational climate and culture influence leadership development. For example, international assignments are often used for leadership development purposes ( Kohonen, 2005 ; Pucik & Saba, 1998 ), and in a study of 58 expatriates from 4 multinational firms, Lazarova and Caligiuri (2001 ) found that a climate of organizational support increases expatriate commitment to the organization and reduces turnover intentions. Similarly, in the context of a large, U.S.-based hospital, Tansky and Cohen (2001 ) found that a climate of organizational support enhanced the degree to which employees were satisfied with their opportunities for personal growth and career development. Altogether, these results suggest that building a culture that supports learning and development not only enhances employee learning, but also the likelihood that organizations’ best leadership talent will be retained and continue to invest in the organization.

Reinforcement: Creating Positive Feedback Loops in Leadership Development

Leadership development is a dynamic and cyclical process of human growth and development ( McCauley, Moxley, & Van Velsor, 1998 ; Van Velsor, Moxley, & Bunker, 2004 ). At individual, relational and group levels of analysis, the capacity for leadership develops in different ways, at different times, and at different rates—ultimately forming positive or negative feedback loops that, over time, emerge as different trajectories of development ( Day et al., 2009 ; Day & Lance, 2004 ; Halpern, 2004). Historically, scholarly research has offered limited insight into these longitudinal patterns and trajectories of leadership development, but a recent special issue in Leadership Quarterly focused entirely on the topic ( Riggio & Mumford, 2011 ). For example, in this issue, Day and Sin (2011 ) demonstrated in a sample of 1315 students from the Pacific Rim that an individual’s leader identity predicts the rate of change in leadership effectiveness over time. Likewise, several articles in this issue establish empirically how aspects of individuals’ childhood and adolescent experiences predict and explain their motivation to lead and leadership potential in adulthood ( Gottfried et al., 2011 ; Oliver et al., 2011 ). Our hope is that studies such as these into the rate of growth and patterns of development are only the beginning of a shift in the field toward more longitudinal investigations of leadership development.

To help motivate research on reinforcement and feedback loops in the trajectories of leadership development, we highlight two issues that, based on recent theory in developmental psychology ( Adolph, Robinson, Young, & Gill-Alvarez, 2008 ), should be important in explaining whether positive or negative developmental trajectories emerge in leadership development. The first issue is related to how developmental experiences are sequenced over time, while the second issue is concerned with the pace and timing of specific developmental experiences.

Theories of human development emphasize that the sequencing or temporal order of lived experiences is an important factor in explaining how much learning occurs from experience, what people learn, and whether those lessons are internalized or quickly forgotten ( Riegel, 1976 ). Likewise, experiential learning theories describe a learning process where lessons are learned within experiences, but then those lessons are refined and internalized through experimentation, repetition, and reinforcement across experiences ( Kolb, 1984 ). Drawing from these theoretical perspectives, we contend that the sequencing of developmental experiences will be an important consideration in leadership development.

Developmental experiences that reinforce and extend the lessons learned from prior experiences are the building blocks to a positive leadership development trajectory ( DeRue & Workman, 2011 ). When learning is reinforced across developmental experiences, people are able to refine and internalize the lessons of experience in ways that are not possible within a single experience. Moreover, developmental experiences that are disconnected or do not reinforce the lessons of past experience can interrupt the development process, and it is possible that individuals could even regress and retreat back to old, ineffective habits and behaviors. Consistent with this perspective, research in cognitive psychology has empirically documented how reinforcing experiences enable individuals to recognize patterns across experiences, and as a result, more effectively recall the lessons of experience ( Bechtel & Abrahamsen, 1991 ; Reed, 1972 ). Similarly, research on expertise suggests that people become experts in a particular domain through repetition over long periods of time and across many reinforcing developmental experiences ( Ericsson & Charness, 1994 ; Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996 ). Unfortunately, the leadership development literature has yet to develop a theoretical or empirical basis for understanding how the sequence of experiences impacts leadership development. Most research on experience-based leadership development examines the developmental value of a single experience or job (e.g., DeRue & Wellman, 2009 ; Dragoni et al., 2009 ), and thus the optimal sequence of experiences remains a mystery. Whereas Ericsson’s research ( Ericsson & Charness, 1994 ; Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996 ) on expertise suggests sequencing experiences so that individuals are able to practice a particular skill repeatedly until it is perfected, leadership requires a complex constellation of skills, and the skills required for effective performance will ebb and flow with variability in situations (e.g., Mumford et al., 2000 ; Mumford et al., 2007 ). Indeed, some scholars have expressed concerns about too much repetition and suggested that employees should be rotated regularly to avoid the narrowing of their leadership skills ( Hall, 2002 ). Thus, it is not clear that the principles of repetition and deliberate practice will generalize to leadership development where the skills requirements are more fluid, and future research that clarifies how developmental experiences should be sequenced will be particularly valuable.

In addition to the sequencing of developmental experiences, the timing of particular experiences will also be important for understanding the emergence of positive feedback loops and developmental trajectories. While sequencing refers to the order of potential developmental experience, issues of timing revolve around the pacing of developmental experiences, as well as the identification of particular moments in an individual’s career that are more or less suited for development. In addition to an appropriate sequence of developmental challenges, individuals need sufficient time in each experience in order to maximize the learning and development that can be gleaned from the challenge (Gabarro, 1987; McCall et al., 1988 ). For example, Eisenhardt and Martin (2000 ) asserted that experience that comes too fast can overwhelm the individual, creating a barrier to their ability to capture their experience and shape it into meaningful learning. However, on the other end of the spectrum, Argote (1999 ) argued that infrequent experience can lead individuals to forget what was learned in the prior experience, hindering the ability to accumulate knowledge. These two perspectives suggest that organizations must seek to find an optimal balance, providing developmentally challenging experiences often enough to accumulate learning and knowledge, but not so often as to run into the problem of diminishing returns from an overwhelming amount of experience (e.g., DeRue &Wellman, 2009 ).

In addition to these questions of pace, research has explored the specific moments in an individual’s career progression where developmental experiences are most suitable. Through interviews with representatives from 13 different organizations, Karaevli and Hall (2006 ) posit that variety of developmental experiences is particularly beneficial early in an individual’s career. Specifically, they contend that developmental challenges at this early stage enable managers to establish their competence and an identity as a professional ( Hall, 1976 ; Levinson et al., 1978 ). Likewise, research suggests that developmental challenge and variety in experience early in an individual’s career enhances adaptability and openness to change, and enables individuals to develop more effectively later in their careers ( Bunker & Webb, 1992 ; McCall, 1998 ). These insights highlight the long-term benefits that early-career challenges can have for leadership development.

Engagement: Learning to Learn Leadership

In his seminal article on organizational learning, de Geus (1988 , p. 71) claimed that the “...only enduring source of competitive advantage is an organization’s relative ability to learn faster than its competition.” The same may very well be true for leadership development. Given the importance of learning from experience in leadership development ( McCall, 2004 ; McCall et al., 1988 ; McCauley et al., 1994 ; Ohlott, 2004 ), both human resource professionals and scholars are turning their attention toward understanding what enables individuals and collectives to effectively learn from developmental experiences. In the current literature, concepts such as the ability to learn ( Ohlott, 2004 ), learning agility ( Lombardo & Eichinger, 2000 ), and mindful engagement ( DeRue & Ashford, 2010b ) all speak to the attributes, practices and strategies that enable individuals to effectively learn from their experiences. The common theme across these concepts is an assumption that learning from experience is, in part, a function of how individuals and collective engage in the experience.

For example, Lombardo and Eichinger (2000 , p. 323) define learning agility as “the willingness and ability to learn from experience, and subsequently apply that learning to perform successfully under new or first-time conditions.” The concept of learning agility is derived from insights about how individuals learn from and draw patterns across developmental experiences ( McCall et al., 1988 ), as well as the literature on learning orientation ( Dweck, 1986 ) and adaptive performance ( Pulakos, Arad, Donovan, & Plamondon, 2000 ). Although conceptual development and empirical research on learning agility are in their infancy, some interesting insights are emerging from the current research ( De Meuse, Dai, & Hallenbeck, 2010 ). In a series of studies using the CHOICES measure of learning agility, findings suggest that learning agility is empirically distinct from related concepts such as cognitive ability, goal orientation, and openness to experience, and that learning agility is associated with higher promotability and performance ( Connolly & Viswesvaran, 2002 ; Eichinger & Lombardo, 2004 ). Building on these findings, our hope is that scholars will heed recent calls for further theory development and research on learning agility ( DeRue, Ashford, & Myers, 2012 ), with the goal of understanding how the learning agility concept contributes to the field’s understanding of how people learn leadership via experience.

In addition, scholars are beginning to identify the behavioral practices and strategies that people can employ as they engage in key developmental experiences. For example, in interviews with 100 senior pastors, McKenna, Boyd and Yost (2007 ) found that pastors engaged in a series of personal strategies that helped them navigate through and learn from their experiences. These strategies included adopting a learning orientation, relying on personal character and values, establishing and managing relationships, relying on their faith and calling, and using their expertise and knowledge. Similarly, DeRue and Ashford (2010b ) outlined a set of practices that individuals can engage in to enhance the developmental value of experience, including approaching experiences with a learning orientation and specific goals for their development, engaging in active experimentation and feedback seeking during the experience, and systematically and critically reflecting on the successes and failures of any given experience.

These few studies on the ability to learn from experience are only the beginning. Indeed, much more research is needed on the antecedents to understanding the ability to learn from experience for both individuals and collectives. For example, there may be a range of cognitive abilities (e.g., practical intelligence, wisdom; Sternberg, 2007 ), or different sources of motivation for learning (e.g., extrinsic vs. intrinsic, self vs. other; DeRue & Myers, 2011 ), that explain why some people are more effective at learning from experience than others. In addition, research is needed to further develop, both conceptually and empirically, the behavioral practices and strategies that enable individuals and collectives to learn from experience. Thus far, the current literature has largely overlooked how the social context shapes the behaviors and practices that enable individuals and collectives to learn from experience, and research that develops a more contextually embedded model of ability to learn would be particularly helpful for advancing theories of experience-based leadership development. Indeed, this research could ultimately shift organizations’ leadership selection, staffing and succession planning processes away from a singular focus on who has performed well in prior leadership roles, and expand these processes to consider who is better equipped to learn from future experiences that might require fundamentally different modes of leadership. As John Ryan (2009 , p. 7), the president and CEO of The Center for Creative Leadership, stated: “To succeed in a world where our work is always changing, where challenges are unpredictable and competition abounds, we need to be agile learners.”

Concluding Remarks: Key Insights and Next Steps

The scientific study of leadership enjoys a rich tradition of theoretical development and empirical research ( Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009 ; Bass & Bass, 2008 ), but most of this research has emphasized the effects of leadership rather than the development of leadership. However, in the past two decades, scholars have developed a wealth of ideas and theories about how leadership capacity develops in organizational settings. In addition, working across a variety of organizational and cultural contexts, scholars have employed a diverse set of research methods to empirically examine the antecedents and processes associated with leadership development. Based on this research, a range of key insights have emerged. For instance, leadership development occurs primarily through action-based learning and experience, but not all experiences are equally developmental; and challenging assignments can be formal or informal, direct or indirect, and vary greatly in terms of their content. In addition, it is clear that leadership development is not simply about developing leadership knowledge and skills, but also about developing people’s motivation to lead, their affect toward the rewards and risks associated with leadership, their identity as leaders, as well as their cognitive schemas about what it means to participate in a leadership process. Indeed, leadership development has become a topic of interest for scholars across a range of disciplines, and the diversity of theories and research emerging on leadership development is stimulating new and exciting ideas on the topic.

At the same time, however, a number of important knowledge gaps remain in the field’s understanding of leadership development. Indeed, based on the present literature review, there are aspects of the PREPARE framework that lack the necessary theoretical or empirical grounding, and thus represent opportunities for future research. Herein, we review several of these knowledge gaps and explain how they provide a foundation for new and interesting research on leadership development.

An Agenda for Future Research

• Considering Multiple Points of Intervention: Integrating Leader and Leadership Development

Most research has focused on individual leaders as the point of intervention for leadership development, but based on the current literature, the process by which organizations develop leadership relationships and collective leadership structures remains an open question. Leader and leadership development have historically been treated as distinct concepts, but as Day (2000 , p. 605) noted, the “preferred approach is to link leader development with leadership development such that the development of leadership transcends but does not replace the development of individual leaders.” Instead of treating these concepts as independent, future research should provide a more integrative account of how leader and leadership development can be complementary in building the capacity for more effective leadership processes. In particular, an important research question is how organizations can develop effective leader-follower relationships and collective leadership structures, while also cultivating individuals who effectively participate in these leadership processes. The two concepts are interdependent and likely complementary.

Aligning Strategy and Purpose : Syncing Leadership Development Efforts with Strategic Goals

Despite a wealth of theory and empirical research on the value of strategic alignment in HRM practices ( Delery & Doty, 1996 ; Wright & McMahan, 1992 ), there is very little research on how leadership development can be effectively aligned with the strategic priorities of organizations, or what the value of that strategic alignment might be for organizations. For instance, research is needed to determine the appropriate balance between developmental experiences that align directly with an organization’s goals or strategy and developmental experiences that are not aligned with strategy, but which may bring new insights and broaden an individual’s perspective on leadership. Understanding the various mechanisms by which leadership development efforts can be shaped to both support and broaden organizational strategies will contribute significantly to the field’s understanding of the organizational-level impact of leadership development.

Unpacking Developmental Engagement : Understanding what Motivates and Triggers Leaders to Develop From Experiences

Though research has begun to explore some of the antecedents to learning from experience, this research has largely focused on individuals’ cognitive abilities and behavioral approaches to learning, with much less attention paid to individuals’ motivations for learning or the process by which these individuals come to recognize an experience as an opportunity for development. Indeed, individuals may be equally able to learn from experience, but may differ substantially in why they would be motivated to develop (i.e., they may have different motives for learning; DeRue & Myers, 2011 ), and this difference in the source of their motivation may lead to differing levels of engagement in a developmental experience. Likewise, certain events or situations may serve as “developmental triggers” ( Avolio, 2004 ), focusing an individual’s attention on the need for development. The current literature offers little insight into why some people can see an experience as an opportunity for learning (and thus a trigger for development), whereas other people may see that same experience as a problem or risk that needs to be solved or minimized. Future research that explores the consequences of individuals’ motives for leadership development, and the anatomy of events that trigger a focus on learning, would be particularly helpful in advancing the field’s understanding of leadership development in organizational contexts.

Promoting Reinforcement : Considering Leadership Development as a Sequence of Developmental Experiences

In spite of considerable recognition that leadership development is a temporal and cyclical process, there is a dearth of research on how developmental experiences should be arranged over time, how these experiences can reinforce each other, how different trajectories of development emerge and evolve, or how the timing and pace of experiences affect development. Conceptualizing leaders’ development in terms of the trajectory of development over time (e.g., steep, flat, linear, exponential) opens up a new set of questions about the nature of time and cumulative experience in the developmental process, which are only beginning to be explored in empirical research, and require researchers to develop new theories that specify the duration of change, the predictors of change, the form or pattern of change, and the level of change expected ( Ployhart & Vandenberg, 2010 ). Drawing from exemplars such as Day and Sin’s (2011 ) study of developmental trajectories, future research needs to unpack the temporal cycles and processes involved in leadership development.

To address these questions, scholars will need to employ a diverse range of research methods and approaches. At its core, leadership development is about change (in knowledge, skills, motivation, identity, process, structure, etc.); thus studying a leadership development process requires modeling change processes over time, whether it be at the individual, relational, or group level of analysis. Accordingly, scholars will need to carefully craft research designs, determining the number of measurement occasions and observations necessary for testing the proposed theory of development (i.e., change). In addition, these future research designs will need to either use experimental methods with a control group, or introduce the appropriate time lags between intervals to address issues of causality. Indeed, as our theories of leadership development advance and become more refined, our methods for studying leadership development will also need to advance and become more sophisticated. Our hope is that by acknowledging these opportunities for future research, the current chapter not only provides a substantive review of the current literature, but also serves as a source of inspiration and guidance as scholars seek to build and test new theories of leadership development.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Leadership — Importance Of Leadership Development

Importance of Leadership Development

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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References:

• Center for Creative Leadership. (2017). The Impact of Leadership Development on Organizational Performance. Retrieved from https://www.ccl.org/articles/white-papers/the-impact-of-leadership-development-on-organizational-performance/
• Gallup. (2020). Employee Engagement. Retrieved from https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx

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Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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Leadership development plan

Ivan Andreev

Demand Generation & Capture Strategist, Valamis

February 2, 2022 · updated April 2, 2024

11 minute read

After reading this guide, you will understand how to improve leadership skills training in your organization, and get actionable tips for building a leadership development plan.

What is leadership development?

Why is leadership development important, leadership development goals.

• Define what type of leaders do you need
• Align an employees career vision with your business needs
• Create a list of leadership development goals and skills
• Identify which methods of development to use
• Measure and analyze the program results

Leadership development is the process of improving leadership skills and competencies through various activities.

In leadership development, staff at all levels are taught the invaluable leadership skills that allow them to properly lead, inspire and guide their teams to success.

This type of development is important to properly cultivate a culture of leadership throughout an organization.

Leadership development training can take on many forms, both on-site, such as internal training and mentorship programs, and off-site, such as training seminars, conferences, online training, or graduate programs.

To effectively action leadership development, an organization should create a leadership development plan.

This plan will lay out the steps that the organization will take, what is expected of staff who undergo this development, and how the development will help both the organization and the staff.

Career development plan template

This template helps employees and bosses plan together for career growth: set goals, assess skills, and make a plan.

Leadership development benefits an organization in a multitude of ways.

1. It drives better business results

Including higher financial performance and more consistent achievement within departments guided by proficient leaders.

2. Skilled leaders are more agile

An organization with empowered leaders can navigate today’s complex business environment and solve problems quickly and effectively.

3. Good leadership drives innovation

A workforce with effective leaders will be inspired to believe in, and work for, a greater vision.

4. Skilled leaders attract and keep employees

Good leadership can inspire higher engagement from their staff and reduce turnover. A great leader will attract talented new employees and will be able to keep the ones that they have, which leads to better work satisfaction.

5. Improves employee engagement

More than half of American workers are disengaged at work. Effective leadership that knows how to increase engagement within teams using purpose and recognition has been shown to increase profitability within an organization.

6. Improves communication inside and outside the organization

Good communication can make or break a company. If the leaders within a company make effective communication a priority, it leads to increases in productivity, better speed of execution of tasks, and a more positive organizational culture.

7. Improves Customer retention

Customers will be more loyal when leaders are effective in engaging employees. Leading by example improves the customer experience.

8. Increases employee loyalty

Inhouse leadership development inspires loyalty from employees, as it shows that there are growth opportunities available for them. It is also cheaper, and requires less time, than finding, hiring and training leaders from outside.

9. Proper leadership development strategy fuels business strategy

A properly developed leadership development strategy is an invaluable tool for driving and achieving the organization’s business strategy. In taking the time to understand what your organization needs from its leaders, you will better understand the business strategy that will work best for you. These two strategies go hand-in-hand, developing one will help in achieving the other.

No matter the industry, every organization can benefit from developing leadership skills from within their organization and prioritizing leadership in their company culture.

For a leadership development program to be effective, there must be clear goals that are set at the beginning of the process. Some, or all, of the following goals can be used as a starting point.

1. Demonstrate personal responsibility

A true leader owns their actions and the consequences of them, whether good or bad.

They are able to look at the outcomes of their decisions, and appreciate the lessons that both success and failure teach.

Employees notice if a manager never takes responsibility for their actions, or worse, pushes the responsibility for their failures onto their subordinates.

2. Practice self-discipline

When making decisions, it can be tempting to make ones that benefit the individual, rather than the team or organization.

A good leader considers all options then chooses the one that is best for the company, rather than themselves. This practice involves shedding bias and developing integrity.

3. Develop active listening skills

Sometimes leading means listening, rather than speaking.

Every member of a team has some valuable input and experience that they can share, and a good leader takes the time to create a space for discussion and actively listen to each person.

4. Expand and diversify knowledge

Leaders need to be well-rounded, with a wide array of skills in different areas of competence.

In taking the time to study fields that may be outside of their direct role, a leader will be better able to handle issues as they arise in a creative and agile fashion.

5. Focus on time management

A leader is not going to be much use to anyone if they are consistently running behind on projects and don’t have enough time to actually lead.

In focusing on proper time management, a leader can make sure that they set a good example and are available for their team.

6. Creating a culture of mentorship

A key role of a leader is to foster leadership in others.

Being able to identify and develop those skills in team members is an important aspect of a leader’s job, and is essential in the development of a leadership culture within an organization.

This involves coaching, giving actionable and constructive feedback , and paying attention to how team members are approaching challenging projects.

7. Improve communication practices

A leader is only as effective as their communication.

Great ideas and active mentorship won’t go far if a leader’s communication style lets them down.

Developing communication skills takes time and effort and includes building rapport with team members, understanding how, and when, to use persuasion, and improving conflict management skills .

8. Practice big-picture thinking

Leaders shouldn’t think small. Problem-solving and effective team management are dependent on a leader who can make decisions that will benefit the team not just immediately, but down the road as well.

Using these goals as a starting point will help an organization dial in on what is important, what changes need to be prioritized, and what kind of training will be most effective in developing the leadership that they would like to see within their organization.

Leadership development plan template

So, how to improve leadership skills within your organization? You should start with a leadership development plan.

It is the roadmap of how your organization is going to nurture leadership skills in employees of all levels. It should cover goals that align with both strategic business needs and interpersonal, or more human, needs.

It should address the needs of leaders of all levels within the organization, both current leaders and those you wish to train for future leadership positions.

An example of a good leadership development plan is one that has followed the following steps:

1. Define what type of leaders do you need

First of all, you need to understand what type of leaders you need, what set of skills are most essential for your business, and will be valuable in the future.

To do so, it’s better to take a step back and review your key business objectives, if you don’t have a clear list, then it is time to make it.

• Create a list of skills that you are expecting to see in a good leader that fits your company. It should be aligned with your business.
• If you have a different department that requires improvements in leadership, create a separate profile for them.
• Assess where your leadership is. Create a leadership assessment for your employees. Using a variety of methods, including anonymous, email, and face-to-face feedback, your organization can develop a clear idea of where the leadership currently is.
• Also, it might be good to have a list of employees who demonstrate an interest in management roles and are talented enough to take leadership roles.
• Maybe you need a leader with a specific Management style . In such cases would be good to check them and prepare some questions for an interview.

2. Align an employees career vision with your business needs

Talk to the employees who will participate in this leadership development and try to align their career vision and path with your ideas and business path.

Having the same direction in development will affect final results dramatically.

• Of course, a culture of leadership is easier to develop with engaged employees who view the organization in a positive light. So, sometimes it will be better not to focus on people who are going to leave the company.
• One-on-one meetings will be the most beneficial tool for discovering what your employee’s career vision is. Make the time to meet with employees on a regular basis to ensure that the two paths are in accordance.
• Be willing to listen to your employee’s ideas about what is needed both in leadership development and business strategy. You might get unexpected insight into your organization and ideas for the future.

3. Create a list of leadership development goals and skills

As discussed above, leadership development goals are an important part of this strategy. Without clear goals, it will be hard to understand what to do and how effective your plan is.

The required qualities and skills of your organization’s leadership will determine the relevant leadership development goals.

• These goals must be achievable, measurable, and should correlate with the key business objectives.
• Take a look at leadership skills , it might help you.
• Create a list of goals and skills required for each individual or role.
• Rank their importance so people will focus on the most valuable or important goals for them.
• Define a clear timeline for each goal, it will motivate people to act.
• Be clear about what success for each goal looks like. The clearer this list is, the more successful employees will be in reaching their goals.
• Look within your organization for examples of success. It is better to show, rather than tell.

How to conduct a skills gap analysis and what to do next

Start building your foundation for strategic workforce development.

4. Identify which methods of development to use and create a development plan

There are many different methods that can be used for leadership development:

• mentorship programs,
• formal training,
• volunteering,
• task forces,
• working groups and committees,
• changing the way the responsibility is taken,
• and others.

You can read more about ideas on how to develop leadership skills in this employee development article.

Some companies will develop these methods in house, while others bring in a third party company who specializes in this type of development, it’s up to you what to choose.

• We recommend creating a separate leadership development plan for each role or individual. It will make it more personal and role oriented, and as a result, it will be much more engaging and relevant.
• Focus on those methods that fit you, some of them are expensive, while others require experience.
• Think about the realization stage .

5. Measure and analyze the program results

As mentioned the development plan must be measurable, otherwise, it will be impossible to quantify its success.

By using measurable goals, concrete criteria, feedback from employees, and data, your organization will be able to measure the success of the program and make adjustments where necessary. Get more ideas from the Reviewing & Monitoring Results chapter of this employee development article.

• Set timeframes and review results frequently.
• Communicate with employees, their feedback will be really important.
• Come back to the plan and adjust it if necessary.

Using these steps, your organization can create a leadership development plan template to follow. In doing so, a culture of leadership and positive development will be established, and beneficial results will follow.

Use learning data to accelerate change

Understand learning data and receive a practical tool to help apply this knowledge in your company.

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82 Leadership Development Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on leadership development, ✍️ leadership development essay topics for college, 🎓 most interesting leadership development research titles, 💡 simple leadership development essay ideas.

• Personal Leadership Development Plan
• Psychodynamic Approach to Leadership Development
• Individual Leadership Development Plan and Report
• Leadership Development Plan Based on the Bible Principles
• Leadership Development Strategy for Human Capital
• Leadership Development in the US Army
• A Leadership Development Plan for a Nurse Manager
• Applied Management: Developing Leadership Skills Leadership development refers to any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization.
• Johnson and Johnson: Best Practices in Leadership Development Case Johnson and Johnson manufactures Tylenol medications, Johnson’s Baby products, Neutrogena skin and beauty products, etc.
• The Leadership Development Plan A leadership development plan gives people the essential leadership skills and attributes they need to succeed. Communication, motivation, and inspiration are among these skills.
• Nursing Leadership Experience in the Development of an Educational Program for Patients This paper is dedicated to describing and analyzing the leadership experience of a nursing student which took the form of participating in the development of an educational program.
• Leadership and Professional Development To nurture leadership traits in a manager, organizations need to develop effective mechanisms that facilitate learning and development of leadership skills.
• Integrated Leadership Development Program The Integrated Leadership Development Program is designed to address the needs of the L&D company by attracting and developing talent within the organization.
• Personal Experience: Developing Leadership Leadership has various concepts and theories that combine critical skills into standard systems. Experience teaches leadership qualities best of all.
• Leadership Development in Government Sector Leadership is critical for ensuring good governance either in private or in the government sector. In the present circumstances, the government organizations are over managed.
• Leadership in Drug Abuse Program Development Within the context of a potential intervention for drug abuse, the roles and competencies of leaders are the primary emphasis of this paper.
• The Role of Responsible Leadership in NGOs in Frames of Sustainable Development The call for sustainable development became even more urgent as the number of people affected by ecological issues increased.
• A Leadership & Organization Development Interview The individual being interviewed demonstrates many positive qualities of leadership and stands to be a very effective and successful leader in his industry and business.
• Evaluation of a Proposed Leadership Development Intervention in Google This paper provides an evaluation of a proposed training and development intervention for leadership development in Google.
• Coaching and Leadership Development in an Organization Organizational coaching and leadership development significantly impact the organization’s internal and external performance.
• Managing Project Teams: Leadership and Information Systems Development Each participant in the project solves individual tasks set by the project manager, but some tasks can be solved exclusively through collective interaction.
• Servant Leadership: Organization Development Changes in the global management paradigm have affected one of the most important components of management – the leadership process.
• School Leadership Training and Development in Australia This paper discusses Australian education system programs to encourage students to develop leadership and development skills in schools.
• Effective Situational Leadership Development In the design of effective situational leadership development, a list of factors must be put into consideration to ensure its effectiveness.
• Design the Perfect Leadership Development Experience for Yourself Leaders need to understand that best solutions and management practices could also evolve from outside the organization and not necessarily from cloned thinking.
• Personal Leadership Development in an Organization Leadership is one of the most important concepts in organizational behavior study because it determines the main approaches of management and performance.
• Leadership Selection and Development Programme at General Electric This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the concepts of leadership and management, an investigation of the transformational leadership theory and training programme at General Electric.
• Personal Leadership Development, Goals and Actions Employees with the ambition to become better leaders should focus on self-development. One of the ways to become a high achiever is through training and learning new techniques.
• Personal Leadership Development and Course Goals Self-development for improving leadership skills is an indispensable condition for any ambitious employee. It is not enough just to want to achieve high results.
• Leadership Development in Organizations Leaders, in most cases, do not get the approval of all the people. This distinctive nature of leaders makes them and their decisions natural.
• Leadership Skills Development: Strategic Plan A leader is an individual who has the motivation, which is important in the process of achieving the set goals. This work presents a leadership plan to improve leadership skills.
• Balance of Leadership Development Leadership development is a broad term which encompasses various activities that make sure that one becomes a better leader either as a person or as an organization.
• Asian Leadership Wisdom: The Relevance of Kautilyan and Confucian Values for Leadership Development
• Leadership Failures and Challenges of Leadership Development
• Career Development Intervention vs. Leadership Development Intervention
• Elected Local Government Leadership Development
• Promoting the Entrepreneurial Competencies for School Leadership Development
• How Should Companies Organize Their Future Strategy for Leadership Development?
• Urban Involvement and Leadership Development
• Leadership and Leadership Development: What Makes a Good Leader?
• Challenges Hampering Leadership Development Within Public Enterprises in South Africa
• The Emerging Leader: Leadership Development Based on the Magnet Model
• Maintaining Diversity for Leadership Development
• Why Is Leadership Development Important?
• Human Resource Management and Leadership Development
• Leadership Development and Talent Management
• Existing Leadership Development Initiatives of Bangladesh Army
• Self-Leadership Development: The Link Between Body, Mind, and Reflection
• Leadership Development: Managing People and Relationships
• Organizational Change and Personal Leadership Development
• Coaching and Leadership Development in the Workplace
• Leader Development and Leadership Development
• Emotional and Social Intelligence and Leadership Development in the Higher Education
• Reasons for Leadership Development and Leadership Training
• Leadership Development Strategic Practice and Criminal Justice System’s Succession Planning
• Confucianism Values for Transformational Leadership Development in the Chinese Context
• The Need for Leadership Development in the NHS
• Competency Mapping and Leadership Development at IBM
• Leadership Development and Leadership Effectiveness
• The Future of Leadership Development
• Effective Leadership Development Interventions
• Quality Assurance and Leadership Development
• Leadership Development and Individuals in Organizations
• How to Create a Successful Leadership Development Program
• Team Emergence Leadership Development and Evaluation: A Theoretical Model Using Complexity Theory
• Matching Leadership Development and Compensation
• Leadership Theory and Leadership Development
• Global Mindset and Global Leadership Development
• Leadership Development for Team Leadership
• Advances in Leader and Leadership Development
• Supervisory Training and Leadership Development
• Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Development
• Developing Leaders vs. Leadership Development
• Why Is Leadership Development Important for Your Business?
• Holistic Approach to Leadership Development
• Leading and Leadership Development: Nature of Leadership
• Strategies for an Effective Leadership Development Plan
• Ethics and Leadership Development
• Leadership Development Among College-Aged Students
• Improving Team Leadership Development Training
• Connecting Values to Leader and Leadership Development
• Experience-Centric Leadership Development Process: Challenges and Way Forward for Organizations in India

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Leadership Development Essay Examples

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Business , Leadership , Environment , Workplace , Organization , Customers , Employee , Development

Published: 01/11/2020

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Leadership Development

Leadership development should be a strategic choice because, as studies have shown, leaders have an impact on organizational performance (DuBrin, 2012). In a study conducted by the Center on Leadership & Ethics at Duke University (DuBrin, 2012), it was found that leadership can affect organizational performance but only if the leader is perceived as inspirational and responsible where such behaviors include inspiring employees to aspire for higher goals and engaging employees in the achievement of the company’s vision. In addition, an effective leader is able to promote an environment where employees feel responsible for the whole company.

This is evident in the leadership of Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Petagona, Inc. (Chouinard, 2006). Being an enthusiast climber himself, his passion for the sport not only inspired people – both customers and employees alike – but also resulted in the company’s increased bottom line. Because he truly cared about the sport and his products, he made sure that his company’s products were made of quality material and were capable of providing his customers with the comfort and protection they needed while engaging in the sport. Moreover, not only does Chouinard care about his products and his customers, he also cared about the environment, especially the one where he engaged his sport of climbing in. As such, he made sure that his organization’s practices were environment-friendly. As well, he regularly made donations to environmental causes. His sense of social responsibility not only allowed him to reduce costs (from promoting sustainability) but also enabled him to inspire his employees, customers, and other stakeholders, which further increased his influence and power. By being a charismatic and transformational leader, Chouinard not only influences the people he directly interacts with but is also able to affect positive change into the community.

However, not everyone can be like Chouinard for whom leadership seems to come naturally. As such, organizations should ensure that they have leadership development initiatives. In particular, it is important for organizations to have a leadership development strategy as this would ensure that the organization is being led by individuals who have the skills and capabilities to deliver the objectives of the business plan, to cope with the changes in the external environment and the market, and to cope with the increasing customer expectations (Ryan, 2012). It is important for organizations to develop leaders who are capable of looking into the future, that is, leaders who are capable of providing the organization with direction through vision and strategic thinking. These leaders should also be able to ensure that the vision, goals, values, and culture of the organization are aligned. In addition, leaders should be highly influential, both internally and externally. They need to be able to persuade and work with people with whom they have no positional authority.

In this regard, it is then important for organizations to create a culture of leadership (Kotter, 2001). They can do this by recruiting individuals who have the potential to become leaders. However, the organization should also be able to manage these individuals’ career patterns, that is, they should be able to give these individuals the opportunity to lead, to take risks, and to learn from their successes and failures. These individuals should also be provided with opportunities to increase their knowledge across different areas and develop informal networks that would enable them to get the support they would need for the implementation of their future leadership initiatives. In particular, decentralization may be implemented as this places responsibility on the lower levels of the organization, which enables young employees to “test and stretch their leadership potential” (Kotter, 2001, p. 96). Executives and senior leaders should also take the time to assess their employees in order to determine who has leadership potential and what skills they need to develop. In turn, such development initiatives can come in the form of informal initiatives, although the organization’s executive team may also decide to implement such leadership development initiatives through ether a high-potential development process or a formal succession planning process. In addition, to further encourage behaviors that are oriented towards leadership development, these behaviors should be rewarded, that is, leaders’ qualification for promotion should be based on their ability to develop and nurture leaders. By doing this, the organization is able to cultivate a culture where “people value strong leadership and strive to create it” (Kotter, 2001, p. 96).

In summary, leadership development should be a strategic choice in that leadership skills should be cultivated within the organization by providing employees with leadership development opportunities in the form of trainings, mentoring, and coaching among others. It is also important for employees to be provided with the opportunities that will allow them to demonstrate ad develop their leadership potential. With the great impact that leadership has in the success of an organization, particularly in its performance, only by continuously developing leaders from within can an organization ensure its business continuity and its future success.

Chouinard, Y. (2006, October 10). Let my people go surfing. Retrieved from http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=4626 DuBrin, A. J. (2010). Leadership: Research findings, practice and skills.

Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. Kotter, J. P. (2001, December). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review.

Retrieved from http://web.sau.edu/ richardsrandyl/what%20leaders%20really%20do_kotter.pdf Ryan, R. (2012). Leadership development. Burlington, MA: Routledge.

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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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• Future-Proofing Healthcare
• Small Patients, Big Discoveries

To The Frontlines

• WHOCCC by the Numbers

Discovery & Innovation

• Building Connections
• Finding Solutions For Burnout Among Nurses of Color

A Reflection On Claire Fagin

• Q&A with Jessica Martucci
• Bates Center Timeline

Weird and Wonderful

• Running to Doja Cat
• Alumni Profile

SCOPE A Driving Force

PATH Path to Penn Nursing with Katelyn A. Kuwata Esq.

Alumni Notes

• Class Notes, Spring 2024
• In Memoriam, Spring 2024

As Penn Nursing marks the passing of Emerita Dean Claire M. Fagin, nursing leadership takes center stage. Honoring the life and work of this visionary leader.

Written by Jane Barnsteiner, PhD, RN, FAAN and Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN | Collage by Eleanor Shakespeare

The nursing profession lost an accomplished and visionary leader with the passing of Claire M. Fagin in January at the age of 97. Fagin’s leadership abilities were widely recognized in nursing scholarship and beyond, with many awards, honorary degrees, and even a stint as a university president. Her remarkable career was memorialized with obituaries in the New York Times and the Washington Post , as well as with a shout-out on CBS Sunday Morning.

Fagin’s early work was in pediatrics, particularly in the care of children with mental health issues. She initially worked with pediatric patients at Sea View Hospital, a dedicated tuberculosis hospital on Staten Island in New York City before moving to the adolescent psychiatry unit at the city’s Bellevue Hospital. After earning a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing, she joined the pediatric psychiatry unit at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where she became the first director of children’s programs.

In July 1993, Penn’s trustees selected Fagin as the university’s interim president, the first woman to lead the university. Fagin went on to head the John A. Hartford Foundation program Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity, which transformed the specialty of geriatric nursing. Today, more than 300 nurse scientist graduates of the program are making their mark on gerontology research, practice, and education.

Fagin’s contributions have been honored with numerous tributes, including eight honorary doctorates. In 1988, the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) bestowed on Fagin its highest honor, naming her an AAN Living Legend. And, in 2006, Penn’s School of Nursing building was renamed Claire M. Fagin Hall to acknowledge her exemplary leadership.

Several principles guided Fagin’s work in every role she undertook: democratic participation, empathy, nurturing/ development of peer relationships, and activism. Here are some examples of how they played out in her work:

Democratic participation..

As Penn interim president, Fagin inherited a campus fractured by accusations of racism, assaults on academic freedom, and other conflicts. To address these issues, she established a Commission on Strengthening the Community to promote an academic environment where all members could learn from and be enriched by their similarities and differences. This required soliciting a wide range of opinions and much deliberation about how to foster a culture of respect, inclusion, and freedom of expression. The resulting reforms laid a foundation for better understanding among interest groups in keeping with Penn’s core values.

The ability to recognize and understand different viewpoints was critical to developing the interpersonal competence that Fagin deployed in her various leadership roles. She was dubbed “The Healer” during her term as Penn’s interim president. And while these expert interpersonal skills aided Fagin in leadership roles, it was her personal impact on nurses and others she worked with that made her beloved. Many who knew Fagin have a “Claire” story—an interaction with her they remember as profound.

Nurturing/development of peer relationships.

Fagin consciously learned from others and sought to foster that spirit of collegiality, so as to help all realize their potential. Marvin Lazerson, interim provost at Penn while Fagin was interim president, said she was always pushing those around her to achieve more. “She helped me live up to incredibly high standards as the interim provost, often kicking and pushing me,” Lazerson said in an interview with Penn Today.

One of us—Jane Barnsteiner— recalls a conversation with Fagin when Barnsteiner was considering applying for membership in the AAN. Fagin quickly disabused her of the idea that she should wait for someone to invite her to join. “You need to get out there, talk with someone to sponsor you—and take the lead,” she urged. “Nobody’s going to tap you on the shoulder.”

Barnsteiner took the advice to heart and convinced several Penn colleagues to do likewise. Barnsteiner and four of her fellow Penn Nursing faculty members were subsequently inducted into the AAN in 1991, the largest cohort from a single nursing school at that time. Fagin viewed such successes in others as a measure of her leadership, remarking in her 2000 book, Essays on Nursing Leadership: “The extent to which I have built leaders around me dictates my success.”

Fagin’s recognition of the importance of activism and the use of evidence to support policy recommendations was rooted in her 1964 doctoral dissertation, “The Effects of Maternal Attendance During Hospitalization on the Behavior of Young Children.” Her findings of the negative effects on hospitalized children of rules that barred parents from visiting received national attention and led to changes in attitudes and policies about parental presence in pediatric facilities, including in the ICU and during resuscitation events.

“I feel I have given a lot to the profession, but I am not even near to repaying what it has given me. I shall always be grateful for the stroke of fortune that brought me to choose this wonderful field.”

Fagin’s advocacy ranged widely, including issues such as nursing home reform and health care payment reform. She wrote a landmark report in 2001 for the Milbank Memorial Fund, When Care Becomes a Burden: Diminishing Access to Adequate Nursing, which highlighted the decline in the availability of nursing services in hospitals and provided recommendations for corrective changes to regulation, licensing, and financing of services.

The report also offered suggestions for improved nursing organization, governance, and education.

Fagin’s advocacy persisted well into her 90s. In the COVID-19 and post- COVID era, she continued via editorials to advocate for improvements in health care, weighing in on such topics as nursing education and public health financing. Her life and career hold lessons for us all, especially about how fortunate we are to be part of nursing.

“Whatever I have achieved, the awards I have gotten, the personal rewards I have felt, would not have come my way were I not a nurse,” Fagin wrote in Essays on Nursing Leadership . “I feel I have given a lot to the profession, but I am not even near to repaying what it has given me. I shall always be grateful for the stroke of fortune that brought me to choose this wonderful field.”

As Fagin’s colleague, Neville Strumpf, professor emerita at Penn Nursing, noted at Fagin’s Celebration of Life service on January 21, “No one needed to say her last name—she was Claire—accomplished, stylish, heroic, generous, hilarious, honest, fearless, larger-than-life, and forever proud to be a Real Nurse.”

A version of this article was first published in the American Journal of Nursing. Barnsteiner J, Villarruel, AM. A reflection on Claire Fagin. Am J Nurs 2024;124(4):12-13.

Jane Barnsteiner is professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, where Antonia M. Villarruel is professor and the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing.

• The Claire and Sam Fagin Scholarship at the School of Nursing
• Claire M. Fagin Leadership Lecture Fund

More From This Issue

Thinking historically, see yourself here.

Developing Leadership Skills

Strong leadership abilities are necessary to ensure the success of any activity performed by a team. Leadership refers to a process through which one person uses the help and support of others towards achieving a particular goal or task. For one to be a truly effective leader, he/she must posses some leadership skills. Only then can one interact better with his followers and hence foster productivity. In this paper, I shall analyze some of the skills expected of a leader and evaluate how they apply in my leadership style.

The most important skill that a leader should have is the ability to identify his/ her team. Team identity is of great importance because it enables a leader to know who is on a team and the purpose of the team (Adair, 2010). Understanding a team’s mode of operation enables the leader to make decisions that are considerate to all members need’s thereby instilling morale and boost team spirit.

Motivational skills are among the core attributes that a leader must posses. Motivation is defined as a “process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goals” (Kondalkar 2002, p.245).

Bearing in mind the fact that the leader is tasked with marshaling the organization’s resources to accomplish some organizational goal, it can be rightfully stated that part of the role of the leader is to motivate his staff to achieve certain desired goals. As such, an exemplary leader must possess motivational skills to ensure that the employees have a high degree of commitment in their performance.

Similarly, communication skills are of great importance to a leader. According to Greene and Burleson (2003) communication is arguably the corner stone on which any successful relationship, be it business or personal, is built. As such, a great leader should be able to effectively communicate the organizational goals, mission, vision and regulations to his/her subordinates. In so doing, the leader has a guarantee that set tasks shall be executed effectively and efficiently. This ensures that the organization works towards success.

In addition, Adair (2010) asserts that a great leader should possess conflict resolution skills. In all organizations, there arise contentious issues which elicit different reactions from the organization members at some point in time. How these issues are diffused may spell out the difference between the subsequent success and failure of the organization. Having conflict resolution skills can play a crucial role in ensuring that the crises or contention is managed in a diplomatic manner.

On the same note, a great leader should be flexible. By this I mean that a leader should be aware of his/her employee’s emotions and traits and consider them while making decisions. Disregarding these aspects may invariably lead to the failure of a team and subsequently, the organization.

In regard to the above skills, I often fall short when it comes to motivating fellow colleagues. This is mainly due to the fact that I do not interact well with others and I cannot eloquently express myself while under stress. This is most disturbing since communication and motivation are core attributes that can be used to promote team work.

Regardless of these shortcomings, I believe that I can improve on these skills, thereby ensuring that I become a better leader in the future. Leadership seminars are seen as one of the way through which people can be empowered.

Conflict management, communication and motivational skills can be gained through such seminars thus equipping an individual with ways and means of how to deal with issues arising from workplace interactions. Adoption of a policy of openness to dissimilarity can further act in the good of workplace communication.

This paper set out to investigate what effective leadership consists of in business and organizations setting. To this end, the paper has highlighted the skills expected from good leadership and subsequently articulated how the skills of an effective leader impact on the organization.

It has been seen that the adoption of an effective leadership skills in an organization will yield to higher productivity which will subsequently result in the attainment of the organizational goals of increased productivity. From the discussions forwarded in this paper, it has been noted that a lack of these leadership skills can lead to lack of focus and generally unmotivated workers hence lowers profitability of the entire organization.

Adair, J. (2010). Develop Your Leadership Skills: Develop Yourself as a Leader; Lead at a Strategic Level; Grow Leaders in Your Organization . USA: Kogan Page Publishers.

Greene, O., & Burleson, R. (2003). Handbook of communication and social interaction skills. New York: Routledge.

Kondalkar, P. (2002). Organization effectiveness and change management. USA: PHI learning Pvt. Ltd.

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IvyPanda. (2023, November 24). Developing Leadership Skills. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-skills/

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IvyPanda . "Developing Leadership Skills." November 24, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-skills/.

• Customer Service Seminar: Project Proposal
• Reflection on the Seminar Dedicated to Financial Statement Ratios
• Nursing Seminars as a Scholarly Activity
• New Service to Be Offered: Information Literacy Seminars for New Students
• Atmosphere and Climate Dynamics Seminar
• Employee's Performance and Power
• Motivational Strategies for Teamwork
• The Motivational Factors at the Workplace
• Why Being a Jerk in the Workplace Could Pay Off?
• Motivational Interviewing in Psychology
• Power & Power Dispersion and Its Effects on Group Dynamics
• Critical Analysis of the Movie Gandhi
• Is it right for an organization to seek to shape employee views and values?
• Types of Questions and Interview Structure
• Product Development Management