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The 25 Best Leadership Books of All-Time | Soundview Magazine

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In case you don't know, Soundview identifies, selects, and summarizes the best business books that are published every year. And, since we've been doing this for the past 41 years, we've seen A LOT of leadership books filter through our offices. Literally thousands ...

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Emotional Inteligence - A Minute With John Maxwell, Free Coaching Video

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School Counselors' Emotional Intelligence and its Relationship to Leadership

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School Counselors' Emotional Intelligence and its Relationship to Leadership

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Have you ever been in a group where someone took control of the situation by conveying a clear vision of the group's goals, a marked passion for the work, and an ability to make the rest of the group feel recharged and energized? This person just might be what is called a transformational leader.

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.

Quick Background

The concept of transformational leadership was initially introduced by leadership expert and presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns. According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers make each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation."﻿﻿

Later, researcher Bernard M. Bass expanded upon Burns's original ideas to develop what is today referred to as Bass's Transformational Leadership Theory. According to Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders, Bass suggested, garner trust, respect, and admiration from their followers.﻿﻿

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Components

Bass also suggested that there were four different components of transformational leadership.

1. Intellectual Stimulation: Transformational leaders not only challenge the status quo; they also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn.

2. Individualized Consideration: Transformational leadership also involves offering support and encouragement to individual followers. In order to foster supportive relationships, transformational leaders keep lines of communication open so that followers feel free to share ideas and so that leaders can offer direct recognition of the unique contributions of each follower.

3. Inspirational Motivation: Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they are able to articulate to followers. These leaders are also able to help followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfill these goals.

4. Idealized Influence: The transformational leader serve as a role model for followers. Because followers trust and respect the leader, they emulate this individual and internalize his or her ideals.

So what are some typical signs of a transformational leader? Groups led by this type of leader tend to be both successful and loyal. They give a lot to the team and care deeply about the group's ability to accomplish its goals. Turnover tends to be quite low as transformational leaders are able to inspire a great deal of commitment in their followers.

In their classic text, Transformational Leadership, authors Bass and Riggio explained:

"Transformational leaders...are those who stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity. Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by responding to individual followers' needs by empowering them and by aligning the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger organization."

"Research evidence clearly shows that groups led by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders," explained psychologist and leadership expert Ronald E. Riggio in an article for Psychology Today.

The reason, he suggests, is that transformational leaders believe that their followers can do their best, leading members of the group to feel inspired and empowered.

What can you do to become a more transformational leader? Leadership experts suggest that having a strong, positive vision of the future plays a critical role. Not only is it important to believe in this vision yourself; you've also got to inspire others to buy into your vision as well.

Link to Well-Being

According to the results of one study, this style of leadership can also have a positive influence on employee well-being.﻿﻿

The study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine involved surveying workers at several different German information and communication technology companies. Researchers asked participants to answers questions about their employer's leadership style.

A score for transformational leadership was then determined based on qualities such as providing intellectual stimulation, giving positive feedback for good performance, leading by example, and helping employees feel like they were making a contribution toward the goals of the group.

The researchers discovered that employees who identified a higher level of transformational leadership in their employers also had higher reported levels of well-being. The effect stayed significant even after researchers controlled for factors that are linked to well-being such as job strain, education, and age.

"The results of this study suggest that a transformational leadership style, which both conveys a sense of trust and meaningfulness and individually challenges and develops employees, also has a positive effect on employee well-being," the authors summarized.

Real-World Applications

So what impact could such results have for managers and workers?

The study's authors suggest that the results are important and can help companies develop leadership training programs that can be used to teach transformational leadership skills. Acquiring communication skills such as resolving conflicts in the workplace and recognizing the needs of employees are an important part of transformational leadership.

"Such training programs can be seen as another essential component of workplace health promotion and prevention efforts and therefore should receive wide support," explained the study's authors.

A Word From Verywell

The transformational style of leadership can be highly effective when used appropriately, but it might not necessarily be the best choice for every situation. In some cases, groups may require a more managerial or autocratic style that involves closer control and greater direction, particularly in situations where group member are unskilled and need a lot of oversight.

One way to improve your own leadership skills is to assess your own current leadership style and think about ways in which your strengths can benefit the group you are leading. By evaluating your own skills, you will be better able to play to your strengths and work on improving your areas of weakness.

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How Do Transformational Leaders Inspire and Motivate Followers?

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Have you ever been in a group where someone took control of the situation by conveying a clear vision of the group's goals, a marked passion for the work, and an ability to make the rest of the group feel recharged and energized? This person just might be what is called a transformational leader.

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Transformative Leadership in School Counseling: An Emerging Paradigm for Equity and Excellence

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Transformative Leadership in School Counseling: An Emerging Paradigm for Equity and Excellence

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The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders-both successful and unsuccessful - and is used to predict leadership effectiveness.

The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential leaders to assess their likelihood of success or failure.

Scholars taking the trait approach attempted to identify physiological, demographic, personality, self-confidence, and aggressiveness, intellectual, task-oriented and social characteristics with leader emergence and leader effectiveness.

Successful leaders have interests, abilities, and personality traits that are different from those of the less effective leaders.

Through many types of research conducted in the last three decades of the 20th century, a set of core traits of successful leaders have been identified.

These traits are not responsible solely to identify whether a person will be a successful leader or not, but they are essentially seen as preconditions that endow people with leadership potential.

6 traits that differentiate leaders from non-leaders

6 traits in trait theory of leadership are;

1. Drive.

2. The desire to Lead.

3. Honesty and Integrity.

4. Self-confidence.

5. Intelligence.

6. Job-Relevant Knowledge.

6 traits are explained below;

Leaders exhibit a higher effort level. They have a relatively high desire for achievement, they are ambitious, they have a lot of energy, and they are tirelessly persistent in their activities and they show initiative.

Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others. They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility.

Leaders built a trusting relationship between themselves and followers by being truthful or no deceitful and by showing high consistency between word and deed.

Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-doubt. Leaders, therefore, need to show self-confidence to convince followers of goals and decisions.

Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather, synthesize and interpret large amounts of information and to be able to create visions solve problems and make correct decisions.

Effective leaders have a high degree of knowledge about company, industry and technical matters. In-depth knowledge allows leaders to make well-informed decisions and to understand the implications of those decisions.

Advantages of Trait Theory

This is a naturally pleasing theory.

It is valid a lot of research has validated the foundation and basis of the theory.

It gives a detailed, knowledge and understanding of the leader element in the leadership process.

Limitations of Trait Theory

There is bound, to be some subjective judgment in determining who is regarded as a good or successful leader.

The list of possible traits tends to be very long.
This theory is very complex.

Related: Transformational Leadership
This theory, focusing on the leader, attempts to identify leaders from non-leaders based on certain traits.

It mentions that leaders are born, not made.

Finally, this theory, also called Greatman Theory, gave way to a more realistic trait approach which views that traits are not completely inborn, but can also be acquired through learning and experience.

There is no agreement, in research findings, on which traits are generally found in leaders and which traits are more important than others.

This approach, at best, is descriptive, but not analytical or predictive.

It is still alive, though now the focus has shifted from personal traits to job-related skills. As identified by Katz, to be an effective manager requires technical, conceptual and interpersonal skills.

One important limitation, of this theory, is that it overlooks the needs of the followers and ignores situational factors.

The theory also fails to mention the traits which are necessary to maintain leadership.

Measurement of a trait usually occurs after a person becomes a leader and it is difficult to suggest the traits which are p re-requisites of a successful leader.

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The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders-both successful and unsuccessful - and is used to predict leadership effectiveness. The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential leaders to assess their likelihood of success or failure.

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The 4 Key Qualities of Authentic School Leaders

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The 4 Key Qualities of Authentic School Leaders

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Recently, I've been considering one question that I believe is very important to our education system today...

What does it mean to be an authentic school leader?

My reflections on this question brought me to the work of author and authenticity expert, Brené Brown who defines it as "the choice to show up and be real, to be honest and let our true selves be seen".

Yet as many school leaders often find and Brown points out, being authentic isn't easy. It involves "choosing being real over being liked" and putting your True Self out to the world which can be both uncomfortable and daunting.

However, whilst there is a risk, there's also a lot to gain. Brown explains that this authenticity is also crucial for building trust, believing in oneself, facilitating better communication and cultivating genuine human connection. Features which, I believe are vital in our schools as we seek to nurture within our children a healthy sense of what it means to be human.

In my time working with School Leaders, I've also witnessed first-hand the enormous difference greater authenticity can make to school leaders themselves; in terms of the decisions they make, the leader they have been able to become and the school cultures they've been able to create.

But what does an Authentic School Leader look like, what qualities would you expect to see?
Well, I believe there are four qualities that you will often find in an Authentic School Leader...
1. They are deeply connected to their passion and purpose

Authentic school leaders know themselves, what they stand for, what they want to achieve, and why they have chosen to take on the mantle of school leadership. They are deeply connected to their purpose and this drives them every day.

As a result, they are better able to articulate their school's vision and staff are more able to see beyond their own classrooms and connect with the bigger picture. These leaders are able to stay motivated, even when times are tough, because they are sustained by their driving purpose and their big WHY.

2. They lead with Integrity

Authentic School leaders know what their values and purpose are and every action and decision is made with these in mind. For authentic School Leaders, decision-making becomes easier as the leader knows what can't be done, what has to be done and how to act in alignment with what they stand for.

Moreover, they also have the courage to do what they believe is necessary or right, even when it is uncomfortable and/or difficult to do so.

These school leaders inspire others with their values and helps build trust as staff are able to see and know what their leader is all about.

3. They know their Strengths and Weaknesses

An authentic school leader is also able to recognise both their strengths and the skills and qualities they need to develop. These leaders are more able to make full use of their talents for the benefit of their school but they are also not afraid to be honest with themselves about the aspects of their leadership which could be improved.

These leaders are able to accept themselves as they are and recognise that we are all in a process of growth and therefore, they know their current limitations are neither fixed nor something to be ashamed of.

As these leaders take the time to reflect on and recognise qualities in themselves, in turn, these leaders also become better at spotting talent and seeing the strengths of their staff that could benefit their school.

4. They have the courage to be vulnerable and open

An authentic leader knows that vulnerability and open communication are crucial for authentic and meaningful human connection. Authentic School Leaders have the courage to express who they truly are, share their beliefs, goals, concerns and fears openly and honestly - and encourage others to do the same.

As such, they are not afraid to have the deep, difficult conversations that come from the heart, even in the face of risk and hurt. As a result, they are more likely to speak out and ask for help when they are struggling or need support.

These leaders model their humanity and their openness and staff are empowered to do the same. In their schools, staff feel listened to, cared for and above all come to understand what it takes to show up daily as their best selves.

Do you have a desire to lead with greater authenticity?

We believe that authentic school leadership is crucial for both supporting great leadership and developing healthy schools.

Yet being an authentic school leader can be exceedingly challenging, particularly in the context of an education system which has not, as yet, found a consistent way to enable school leaders to embrace their vulnerability and true sense of personhood.

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The 4 Key Qualities of Authentic School Leaders - Integrity Coaching

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Recently, I've been considering one question that I believe is very important to our education system today... What does it mean to be an authentic school leader? My reflections on this question brought me to the work of author and authenticity expert, Brené Brown who defines it as "the choice to show up and be real, to be honest and let our true selves be seen".

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While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions...The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the "top of the pyramid," servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

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What is Servant Leadership? - Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

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While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: "The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.

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But Rates Can Vary Widely From District to District

One out of every 100 special education students was restrained by school personnel or secluded in school from his or her peers in the 2013-14 school year, presumably to quell behavior that teachers considered disruptive or dangerous.

That means nearly 70,000 special education students were restrained or secluded in that school year, the most recent for which data are available. For most students, this happened more than once: States reported more than 200,000 such incidents, so on average, a special education student was restrained or secluded about three times.

These statistics, based on an analysis by the Education Week Research Center of data collected by the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights, represent the best national snapshot of these controversial practices.

The numbers are also, almost surely, dramatically understated.

The Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection offers the only information available on the use of restraint and seclusion nationwide. The data that is captured show that students with disabilities and boys are most often subject to restraint and seclusion. State policy does not appear to fully determine variations in reported use of such practices.

* One out of 5 districts have students that were restrained or secluded during the 2013-14 school year.

* Nearly 70,000 students covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act were restrained or secluded in 2013-14.

* Those students account for over 200,000 incidents of restraint or seclusion.

* One in every 100 students with disabilities is restrained or secluded.

* Four out of 5 students with disabilities who are restrained or secluded are males.

Many large districts, including New York City and Chicago, were among the nearly 80 percent of districts that reported no special education students being restrained or secluded.

Advocacy groups and news organizations have investigated restraint and seclusion incidents in individual states and have found large undercounts. This is true even in states such as Indiana and Maine that have their own reporting requirements separate from the federal collection of civil rights data.

The shaky recordkeeping has serious consequences for students, who are traumatized or injured at unknown rates; teachers, who say they aren't getting the help they need to deal with troubled students; and advocates and policymakers, who say they want to end inappropriate use of these practices.

The data also show how challenging it is to regulate restraint and seclusion through policy. Whether students are restrained or secluded appears to have more to do with the culture of the school or district they attend than with any state rules or regulations meant to restrict the practice. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire, examining previous collections of restraint and seclusion data, found that the vast majority of the variance in reported restraint and seclusion rates is found among districts in the same state, all presumably governed by the same policies.

Many states are continuing to enact such restrictions, however. Michigan is one that has recently prohibited seclusion and restricted restraint to emergency situations involving the safety of the student or others. In addition, districts must train key personnel in de-escalation and safe restraint procedures. The changes will take place in the 2017-18 school year.

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, a Republican, led a commission that was asked to recommend reforms to the state's special education program. For that work, he traveled around the state to hear parents' concerns about restraint and seclusion.

"It's really unbelievable, some of the things I've heard," said Calley, who has a daughter with autism spectrum disorder. "The anecdotal evidence was just piling up that it was much more common than anyone cared to admit."

Federal Efforts to Reduce Restraint

Recently, the issue has made it into federal policy: States must explain how they plan to reduce "aversive behavioral interventions" under the state plans that are required by the Every Student Succeeds Act, which passed in 2015.

Several of the 16 plans submitted so far refer to supporting school districts as they implement positive behavioral supports and interventions, a framework to prompt good behavior. None of the plans submitted so far spell out a restraint-and-seclusion threshold that would trigger further state intervention to reduce the numbers.

In 2013, Kentucky enacted regulations that, for the first time, spelled out how restraint and seclusion could be used in its school districts.

The policy stipulates that such practices could only be used if a student's behavior represents "imminent danger" to himself or others. The restraint or seclusion must end as soon as the danger has passed, and parents must be notified within 24 hours. The provisions closely matched a set of best practices that had been released a year earlier by the U.S. Department of Education.

But a year later, a then-16-year-old autistic student, Brennan Long, was left with two shattered thigh bones after being restrained in his Louisville school.

The fallout from that incident has continued since then. An investigation by the Louisville Courier-Journal found that the 100,000-student Jefferson County district, which includes Louisville, was dramatically underreporting cases of restraint and seclusion. In the same year that Long was injured, the district reported 174 restraint and seclusion incidents to the state. Upon further review, Jefferson County reported that restraint and seclusion incidents were far higher-4,165.

Several other concerns have come to light. Jefferson County was found to be one of five Kentucky school districts that trained some staff members in Aikido Control Training, a form of Japanese martial arts that includes prone restraint techniques. Prone restraints are banned under state regulations and have led to deaths in other situations. Further investigations found other troubling restraint cases, including a 2014 incident where a special education teacher held a student against a wall until he vomited as he attempted to break free.

In February, Stephen Pruitt, the state commissioner of education, said that Jefferson County would have to go through a top-to-bottom management audit. The superintendent of the school district, Donna Hargens, announced in April that she will resign at the end of the 2016-17 school year, her sixth leading the district. The relationship between Hargens and the county school board worsened in the wake of the scrutiny by the state.

What happened to Brennan Long, now 18, has yet to be fully explained. No criminal charges have yet been filed in the matter, but investigations continue. School staff members have said that Brennan was aggressive on the day he was injured, and taken to the ground by an aide in a procedure that nudged the student off-balance and allowed him to be lowered to the floor in a seated position. Kentucky Protection and Advocacy, a federally mandated agency that represents people with disabilities, said that the behaviors that staff members described, such as making loud noises, getting up from his chair, biting his arm, and putting his hands in his pants, were not aggressive. And the restraint had to have been more forceful to cause such serious injuries, the advocacy organization said. The aide that restrained Brennan remains employed by the district.

The Long family ended up settling with the school district for $1.75 million, and has continued to speak out on the case.

"It's amazing to us that this is taking so long," said Brennan Long's father, Brian. "But we're going to get to the bottom of this."

"I've done a lot of work with restraint and seclusion. I've gotten laws passed that really limit the use of restraint and seclusion in lots of other settings. None of that has translated into the school setting," said Leslie Morrison, the director of investigations for Disability Rights California, a federally funded organization that advocates and litigates on behalf of state residents with disabilities. "The resistance is remarkable to me."

But when it comes to issues of behavior, it's impossible to say there should only be a certain number of restraints or seclusions, said Sarah Ricker, the student assistance coordinator for the Maine education department. Such numbers are dependent on a student's behavior and needs.

"What is high, what is low-we can only determine that over a period of time," Ricker said. Maine restricts restraints to emergencies where a student's safety is at risk, and teachers understand that, she said."I have not heard a teacher say they don't know what they need to do."

The last time a federal restriction on restraint and seclusion garnered some traction was nearly a decade ago. The National Disability Rights Network, which represents the state protection and advocacy organizations, released a report in 2009 called " School is Not Supposed to Hurt" that catalogued dozens of cases of abusive restraint and seclusion incidents and four deaths linked to the practices.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report the same year saying that it had found hundreds of abuse allegations over the prior two decades linked to restraint and seclusion in schools.

In 2010, Congress came close to enacting a federal policy restricting the practices, but the provision died in the Senate over hotly contested language that would have allowed restraint or seclusion to be written into a student's individualized education program.

But that wasn't the end of the federal government's attempt to influence the issue. In 2012, the Education Department released a document outlining 15 principles that states could use as a starting place for their own regulations aimed at reducing restraint and seclusion. And, in the waning days of the Obama administration, the department's office for civil rights sent out guidance to districts outlining how restraint and seclusion could be considered a violation of a student's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, among other federal statutes.

But statewide policy changes don't always make much of a difference at the school and district level. Researchers at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire analyzed federal data on restraint and seclusion that was collected during the 2009-10 and 2011-12 school years. Of the 10 states with the highest levels of restraints and seclusions, six had meaningful prohibitions meant to limit the practice, said Douglas Gagnon, who led the analysis.

Emergency Considerations

Prohibitions against restraint and seclusion generally leave an opening for the practice to be used on an emergency basis, to protect the student or others from physical harm. But "it's tough to really codify what's an emergency, and what's a threat," Gagnon said.
Hidden Inequities: An Education Week Analysis
Educators and the public are aware that achievement gaps often separate students of color from their higher-achieving white peers, leave low-income students lagging behind their better-off peers, and restrict opportunities for students with disabilities. Less obvious are the mechanisms and circumstances that contribute to those academic differences.

This installment is the third of a series intended to shed light on the "hidden inequities" that keep education from reaching the goal of leveling the playing field for all students. Each report is being produced by Education Week staff writers working in collaboration with the Education Week Research Center. Watch for the June installment, which will examine school closings and high student-mobility rates, their impact on educational quality, and their disparate effects on different school communities.

Click here to read the full series.

In 2013, Maine started requiring schools to document each use of restraint and seclusion. Disability Rights Maine, one of the nation's federally funded and mandated protection-and-advocacy agencies, requested access to that data. In an April report, the organization found that in a state with about 30,000 students, ages 3-21, in special education, there were between 11,600 and 16,500 reported incidents of restraint and seclusion over the four years that the law has been in place.

But that number is also skewed by undercounting: Nearly one-third of the entities covered under Maine's law failed to report data for all four years, the Disability Rights Maine investigation found.

California lawmakers in 2013 repealed a state requirement that mandated data collection on emergency interventions and required districts to create behavior-management plans for students with serious behavioral problems. The previous state law had imposed costs and requirements on California that were in excess of what the federal law required, state officials argued.

In the last year that state reporting was required, California had 22,043 "behavioral emergency reports," which include restraints and seclusions. Advocates believe many of those incidents were not linked to emergencies, however.

Last year, the federal Education Department's civil rights office entered into a settlement agreement with California's Oakland Unified district after investigating a case where a student was restrained more than 90 times in 11 months. Stuart Candell, who has autism and was 9 at the time, was often held face down by two to three adults, according to federal investigators. Prone restraint has been linked to suffocation deaths. The district was required to sever ties with any private schools that use the technique.

Now a 13-year-old in 7th grade, Stuart is not being restrained any more, said his mother, Bonnie Candell. While she did not know about all of the restraint incidents, she knew the school used the technique.

"You think, well, they must know what they're doing," Bonnie Candell said.

Potential Undercount

At the same time, federal data could be capturing overcounting. The 3,000-student Columbia-Brazoria district in southeast Texas is one of many across the country that stands out from neighboring school systems because federal data show a relatively high 82 restraint or seclusion incidents among 250 students with disabilities.

That's wrong, said Lynn Grell-Boethel, the director of special education for the district for 16 years. A clerical employee was erroneously recording children being sent to the office as seclusions, she said, and police arrests were wrongly recorded as mechanical restraints. Typical seclusions, such as isolating a child in a special room for that purpose, are not allowed under Texas regulations.

The actual number of restraint incidents for students with disabilities in the 2013-14 school year, Grell-Boethel said, was seven.

The district is making efforts to reduce restraint rates, Grell-Boethel said.

"You really have to know the kid, and you really have to develop strong relationships with them," she said. "These are community schools, so a lot of people in the schools know the family, know the kids, know the situation."

The 42,000-student Marion County, Fla., district is also trying to lower its restraint and seclusion rates. Florida requires districts to report numbers and take corrective action if the incidents reported are higher than state averages. According to state data, the central Florida district reported 467 restraints and 377 seclusions in 2015-16, more than any other similar-sized state district.

Heidi Maier, who was elected superintendent in November, knew the issue would have to be addressed, said Elizabeth Fields, the district's special education director. The school system is looking at a variety of methods, from eliminating seclusion rooms to providing more teacher training and setting up rooms where students can voluntarily calm themselves.

"We need a lot of verbal de-escalation training," Fields said. "That needs to happen to all teachers. General education teachers are saying those kids are in my room, too."

Reece L. Peterson, a special education professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an expert in reducing restraint and seclusion, supports more training, but he is sympathetic to teachers who say that's just one more activity to fit into an already-packed schedule.

"What we need is a few states to be models of what could happen," he said.

Published in Print: May 17, 2017, as 70,000 Are Secluded, Restrained

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70,000 Students With Disabilities Secluded, Restrained in School

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One out of every 100 special education students was restrained by school personnel or secluded in school from his or her peers in the 2013-14 school year, presumably to quell behavior that teachers considered disruptive or dangerous. That means nearly 70,000 special education students were restrained or secluded in that school year, the most recent for which data are available.

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Leaders confront students' hazing, drinking, and sexual violence

When Brad Seamer became principal of the joint middle and high school in a small South Dakota town in 2008, his predecessor warned him about the hazing. It was best to just look the other way, Seamer remembers being told.

In Salem, a rural community on the east side of the state, there had been a long-standing tradition that many of the current students' parents had experienced: Around homecoming every year, seniors would take freshmen out into surrounding cornfields for an "initiation ceremony."

But as Seamer learned the details of the ritual-senior football players paddling lowerclassmen and dumping manure on their heads-he decided it had to stop.

He threatened to call police on students. He made football players sit out during games-no small punishment in Salem. He warned freshman students and their parents about the hazing they might encounter.

And despite strong pushback from some quarters-including parents who challenged his authority to punish students for their behavior outside of school-Seamer refused to back down.

"The kids that were participating in this-they never thought they were bad kids. ..." said Seamer. "I just felt they had the wrong perspective, and it was my job to change their perspective."

Seamer never doubted that ending the hazing was his job. "It was affecting the freshmen's learning environment, and we went after it."

Seamer's experience strikes at a persistent issue facing school leaders. How much leverage can they-and should they-use to ward off damaging and dangerous student behavior, be it hazing, underaged drinking, bullying, or sexual assault that takes place outside school walls and school days? And what can school leaders do when they encounter pushback from parents, the community, or even from within their own ranks?

This is not a new challenge for principals and other school leaders. In 1990, Education Week published a story about headmasters of several Washington-area private schools imploring parents to stop allowing students to throw large, unsupervised parties where "excessive drinking and sexual license are common." But questions around what role principals and educators play in shaping student behavior, judgment, and character are increasingly front and center, amid the reach of social media and shifting cultural expectations driven by the #MeToo movement and, most recently, the controversial hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused decades later of sexual assault while in high school.

Three recent examples highlight the thorny, sometimes criminal behaviors that school leaders must confront:

Five teenagers in Damascus, Md., have been charged with second-degree rape for allegedly assaulting or attempting to assault four of their junior varsity football teammates with a broom in a locker room. Leaders in the Montgomery County, Md., school system said they are investigating whether the incident is part of a broader hazing culture at Damascus High School. Superintendent Jack Smith and two other senior district leaders sent a video message to all high school students condemning the acts and reminding students that those who harass, bully, or abuse others will be held accountable.

A video of high school students in Southlake, Texas, chanting the "N-word" quickly circulated on social media last month, according to local media. Although the racist incident occurred off-campus, district officials demanded that the video be taken down and said in a letter to parents and staff that students involved would be disciplined.

A principal in Maryland who sought to crack down on underage drinking at prom in 2016 barred students who were caught doing so from participating in commencement ceremonies, but the disciplinary measures were reversed by the interim superintendent, according to local media.

Uncharted Waters

Oftentimes, though, principals can feel like they are in uncharted waters. Such was the case for Mary Pat Cumming, the principal at the FAIR School, an arts-magnet high school in Minneapolis.

A student, along with her mother, recently approached Cumming with a specific request. Could she, they asked, require students to take sexual-consent and -assault training?

Their case was compelling. Seventeen-year-old Isadora Colón told Cumming she had been sexually assaulted, and neither she nor her mother wanted another student to go through the confusion and helplessness they had felt as they tried to figure out what to do after the assault. And should the worst happen, Isadora and her mother, Natalie Hart, wanted families to know what to do.

Isadora was moved to talk to Cumming as she listened to student chatter taking place at the height of the hearings for Kavanaugh. What she heard students saying about the accusations against Kavanaugh was alarming. She was worried that her peers saw youth as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card.

"Students were saying, 'oh, he was just young, he didn't know what he was doing,' or kind of making the perpetrator the victim in the story," she said. "And I think that in itself was a clear sign that there needs to be some sort of program, teaching about how it's not just the fact that the perpetrator is young and naïve, it's that the perpetrator isn't aware of consent, doesn't know about it."

Cumming agreed right away to take on Isadora's request. But after surveying her fellow principals in the district, she realized no one was tackling the issue with a comprehensive curriculum. She's building her own, with input from Isadora and her mother and with experts from community groups who'll talk with students about consent throughout the upcoming semester.

All students are taking part, Cumming said, and parents, too, will be brought into the discussions.

The program will also focus on perpetrators of sexual assault, at Isadora's request, and how they and their families should handle coming to terms with their actions.

The hope, Isadora said, is that if other families find themselves in the same position, they won't feel as lost as she and her mother did.

"Before my experience, I'd never ever in my life heard before, 'If you are assaulted, the first step you should take is 'blank,' " said Isadora. "I had never heard anyone tell me ... what I should do in that situation."

Her mother said this is the time to make the greatest impact.

"The more we do talk about it ... we can change the conversation," said Hart. "Reaching people when they're young, when they're hitting puberty ... that's the golden opportunity."

Schools vs. Parents

About 9 percent of young people ages 14 to 21 have committed some type of sexual violence, be it attempted rape, rape, or sexual coercion, according to a 2013 study by researchers from the Center for Innovative Public Health Research in San Clemente, Calif., and the University of New Hampshire.

Thirty percent of high school students drink some alcohol, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control's 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and 14 percent binge drink.

And 22 percent of Americans experienced hazing during high school, according to a 2017 YouGov poll.

These behaviors-drinking, hazing, and sexual violence-often happen in varying combinations. And even when those behaviors occur completely outside of school, they often have a dramatic effect on students' learning.

Although there is a lot of focus on preventing hazing and sexual assault on college campuses, these behaviors usually start before then, said Michele Ybarra, the chief executive officer and research director of the Center for Innovative Public Health Research and one of the co-authors of the study on sexual violence.

"Our research does support this idea that sexual violence does seem to be emerging in high school, and we need to be talking to our teenagers and we need to be talking to them before they start having sex," Ybarra said. "We need to talk about consent before that."

A range of factors can contribute to a student's behavior, said Ybarra, such as seeing spousal abuse in the home, watching violent pornography, being a victim of sexual violence, and drinking alcohol.

She said educators can play an important role in helping teenagers make healthy choices outside of school.

But it's not entirely up to schools. Parents have the most critical influence, said Caitlin Abar, an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Brockport, who studies parental influence on young adults' substance abuse.

"Perhaps contrary to popular belief, while peers are an important element, in the vast majority of healthy adolescents, parents maintain an important role in their lives," she said. "While adolescents may seek peers on social processes, they're still checking in with their parents on the big issues."

Sometimes, principals have to contend with parents aiding and abetting teenage drinking, as was the case in a Bethesda, Md., high school in the fall semester of 2016. Three local teenagers had died in alcohol-related car accidents in the past two years. After learning of students drinking at parties while the parents were home, the school's principal emailed all parents, imploring them not to allow students to drink or provide them with alcohol. The principal warned that not only are there hefty fines for adults who allow underage drinking to take place in their homes, there is also the risk that teenagers will get into a bad accident.

Pervasive Drinking

Abar said the notion that allowing adolescents to drink under parental supervision helps demystify drinking and teaches young adults their limits, is a myth. Sometimes called the "European model," Abar said young European adults have higher rates of substance abuse.

"Alcohol, drugs, they're not friendly to brain cells," she said. "We know that the earlier that you are exposed, the more likely you are to be addicted."

At J.W. Mitchell High School in Pasco County, Fla., Principal Jessica Schultz is attacking underage drinking by focusing on educating parents.

Schultz realized that some students in her school had a drinking problem during the 2017 prom, when 50 of them were involved in a situation related to alcohol. Seventeen prom-goers were formally disciplined.

Students had been drinking at homecoming, football games, even in the classroom, but, for Schultz, the prom was the breaking point.

"I'm tired of seeing this. It's heartbreaking to watch a kid be passed out because they drank too much and be sitting at your school, in your dance arena," Schultz said. "That is not what I want as a high school principal. That is the last thing I want."

The next year, J.W. Mitchell High partnered with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to target not the students, but their parents.

Now, if a student wants to attend a school dance, his or her parent must attend a 45-minute workshop led by MADD to discuss the dangers of alcohol and drug use. Parents who cannot attend in person have the option to take part in an online seminar, which times out if the parent does not actively engage with it.

More than 75 percent of students' parents have participated in the workshops, Schultz said. Since implementation, no students were disciplined during the 2017 homecoming dance, and only four students were disciplined during the prom last spring.

Karyn Smith's daughter attended the 2017 prom, and her son is currently in 11th grade. Although her children were never disciplined for drinking, Smith remembers waging bets with her family as to how many students would get in trouble for alcohol use. This past year, no one was able to guess how low the numbers would be.

"It was a great sounding board, and, because it was a requirement from the school, my kids didn't see it as me being heavy-handed," Smith said.

According to MADD, 3 out of 4 teenagers say their parents are the leading influence on their decisions about drinking. By targeting parents, the program hopes that these conversations trickle down to the students and throughout the community.

"A lot of times, when it comes to alcohol, parents don't really understand the dangers because the laws around alcohol have changed," said Kim Morris, MADD's national senior director of programs. "There's a big mismatch between the experience of today's parents and the research of today."

Schultz said that she received some backlash from parents, many of whom saw the workshops as the school telling them how to parent. She remembers reading Facebook comments calling her a prude and driving home from work in tears.

"I know I stuck my neck out, but I will say, if I ever went to another school, I'd do it again," Schultz said. "If one kid benefits from it, then I've done my job."

Published in Print: November 14, 2018, as Principals Crack Down on Harmful Acts

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Principals Crack Down on Harmful Student Behaviors

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When Brad Seamer became principal of the joint middle and high school in a small South Dakota town in 2008, his predecessor warned him about the hazing. It was best to just look the other way, Seamer remembers being told.

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Reframing the Path to School Leadership: A Guide for Teachers and Principals

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Reframing the Path to School Leadership: A Guide for Teachers and Principals [Bolman, Lee G., Deal, Terrence E.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Reframing the Path to School Leadership: A Guide for Teachers and Principals

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Center for Educational Leadership Recorded Webinars

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Center for Educational Leadership Recorded Webinars

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Patty Maxfield, CEL's director of teacher evaluation, introduces version three of the 5D+ Rubric, highlights changes from the previous version and explains what educators using the tool in their practice need to keep in mind when switching to the updated rubric.

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Patty Maxfield, CEL's director of teacher evaluation, introduces version three of the 5D+ Rubric, highlights changes from the previous version and explains what educators using the tool in their practice need to keep in mind when switching to the updated rubric.

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When 93 teachers and staffers were fired from Rhode Island's Central Falls High School in 2010, it fueled a nationwide debate over how failing schools might be resurrected.

But of all the school's dismal statistics, and there were plenty to choose from - fewer than half of its students graduated within four years, and only seven percent of its juniors were proficient in math - issues of chronic instability loomed largest: In six years, it been led by nearly as many principals.

Of everything we've learned about the art and science of reforming a failing school in the past decade, school leadership is second only to teacher quality in terms of importance - and the more dire a school's predicament, the greater the need for strong leadership. Because of this, the emphasis is now less on the lone dynamic teacher and more on the whole school environment.

"Indeed, there are virtually no documented instances of troubled schools being turned around without intervention by a powerful leader," said Kenneth Leithwood, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies leadership.

While the topic of school reform is hardly a new one, we haven't always looked to school leaders as harbingers of change.

Since 1983, when A Nation At Risk warned Americans that its public schools were failing at an alarming rate, reform has taken on many different forms, with some experiments yielding more success than others. At both the local and federal levels, however, our slow progress hasn't been for a lack of ideas. Among them: stringent graduation requirements, national standards, new approaches to how reading and math are taught, smaller classes, smaller schools, greater accountability through increased testing, and a focus on recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers.
New thinking on leadership
More recently, research has emphasized the importance of school leadership in improving outcomes for a school and its students. But make no mistake: this is not the school leader as drill sergeant, or the charismatic leader whose skill-set is impossible to replicate. Instead, it is a school leader who is capable of transforming a school environment so that its students and teachers can flourish.

It is important to keep in mind that while school leadership is essential, consistent, strong leadership at the district level must not be overlooked. While principals create conditions that encourage great teaching, superintendents can create conditions that allow principals to become even better leaders.

In this way, superintendents can lay the groundwork for successful school leaders by setting a clear direction and tone, investing in professional development, setting up mentors for new principals, giving principals the authority to make key decisions and elevating the importance of academic achievement - sometimes even going so far as to making it a part of a principal's evaluation. And while many states have adopted standards for principals, Delaware is leading the charge by working on statewide evaluation systems for its principals.

One significant shift from the previous way of doing things is that principals, particularly at the elementary school level, are expected to be instructional leaders - meaning they must be skilled at making all of their teachers better educators. And while the concept has been around for quite some time, it's now a key element of the job description.

But how can one person have such a huge impact?

A 2009 study by New Leaders for New Schools found that more than half of a school's impact on student gains can be attributed to both principal and teacher effectiveness - with principals accounting for 25 percent and teachers 33 percent of the effect.

The report noted that schools making significant progress are often led by a principal whose role has been radically re-imagined. Not only is the principal attuned to classroom learning, but he or she is also able to create a climate of hard work and success while managing the vital human-capital pipeline.

Getting from here to there isn't about magic or one-size-fits-all solutions. According to Michael Fullan, author of Leading in a Culture of Change, leadership can take on many different forms in school turnarounds. While some leaders opt for transformational leadership or turning good organizations into great ones, other personalities are better suited for distributive leadership, or the sharing of responsibility among a few people such as an assistant principal or outstanding teacher.
Leaders who cope vs. leaders who transform
Leithwood has written that good leadership tends to follow three basic steps: first, setting a direction; second, developing people so that they can head in that direction; and, third, redesigning the institution around instruction. He says it's less about leaders possessing a compelling shared vision and more about helping "people figure out the shorter-term goals on the way to achieving that vision and then set[ting] high expectations for people in accomplishing those."

When it comes to school leadership, being willing to change is the name of the game - whether it's restructuring the school day so teachers are able to observe teaching of the highest order, or allocating enough money in the budget so that instructional coaches can be hired. Persistence, open-mindedness and optimism are helpful qualities, especially when facing tough decisions that result from statewide spending constraints or contract negotiations.

Public Agenda, a public opinion research organization based in New York City, conducted focus groups with principals in high-need school districts, focusing specifically on how leaders respond to the challenges that inevitably arise. Whether it's ensuring that buses run according to schedule or that loose-leaf paper is delivered on time, school leaders classified as "copers" versus "transformers" tackle problems in fundamentally different ways. Public Agenda found that transformers had an explicit vision for their school and did not get bogged down in the obstacles. The copers, on the other hand, became overwhelmed. Both types of leaders talked about the importance of instructional leadership. But the transformers actually did it, while copers merely talked about it. "The transformers knew teachers, knew kids, knew what they needed, and were on top of it," Jean Johnson of Public Agenda said. "Copers," she said, "never got to it. You'd hear the phrase, 'I was headed to the classroom, and then something happened.' "

But the school leader as superhero isn't a sustainable model - and copers can be taught to become transformative leaders. The focus is now on how to create conditions so that otherwise ordinary leaders might be trained to become extraordinary.
Preparing principals

Meanwhile, greater attention is being paid to the training of principals. A 2005 report by Arthur Levine, who at the time was president of Columbia University's Teachers College, noted that leadership programs at many education schools lacked rigor and were of low quality.

New models have been introduced to educate and train the next generation of school leaders. The most successful programs, according to Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues, tend to have the following key characteristics:

A focus on instruction, organizational development and change management.

Curricular coherence that links goals, learning activities and assessments around a set of shared values, beliefs and knowledge about effective organizational practice.

Field-based internships that enable principals-in-training to apply leadership knowledge and skills under the guidance of an expert practitioner.

Mentoring or coaching that supports modeling, questioning, observations of practice and feedback.

Problem-based learning strategies-such as case methods and projects-that support reflection and link theory to practice.

A structure that enables collaboration, teamwork and mutual support among principals-in-training.

Collaboration between universities and school districts to create coherence between training and practice, as well as pipelines for recruitment, preparation, hiring and induction.

Vigorous recruitment of high-quality candidates with experience as expert, dynamic teachers and a commitment to instructional improvement.

Financial support that enables principals-in-training to complete an intensive program with a full-time internship.

Both the Wallace Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation have invested in principal-training programs, in addition to New Leaders for New Schools, a national organization that trains principals in different districts. Cities like New York (with its Aspiring Principals Program) are also joining the effort, while states such as Iowa and Louisiana have shuttered weak programs.

Finally, Race to the Top, last year's federal competition for $3.4 billion in grants to support education reform, emphasized improving the training and evaluation of principals as much as it did the training and evaluation of teachers. Going forward, it's tough to imagine a 21st-century school being resurrected by a lackluster school leader. Instead, we are learning about ways to equip more school leaders with better tools, a set of skills that can transform not only a whole school building but also our perception of what it means to be a principal in the first place.

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Why school leadership matters - The Hechinger Report

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When 93 teachers and staffers were fired from Rhode Island's Central Falls High School in 2010, it fueled a nationwide debate over how failing schools might be resurrected. But of all the school's dismal statistics, and there were plenty to choose from - fewer than half of its students graduated within four years, and only ...

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The great man theory of leadership suggests that some individuals are born with characteristics that naturally make them skilled leaders. According to this view, leaders are born, not made. It also suggests that leaders assume authority when their leadership traits are needed.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Great leaders are born, not made"? This quote sums up the basic tenet of the great man theory of leadership, which suggests that leadership capacity is innate. According to this theory, you're either a natural-born leader or not.

The term "great man" was used because, at the time, ​ leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military leadership.

Origins of the Great Man Theory of Leadership

The great man theory of leadership became popular during the 19th century. The mythology behind some of the world's most famous leaders, such as Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, and Alexander the Great, helped contribute to the notion that great leaders are born and not made.

Carlyle's Views on Leadership

In many examples, it seems as if the right man for the job seems to emerge almost magically to take control of a situation and lead a group of people into safety or success. Historian Thomas Carlyle also had a major influence on this theory of leadership. He stated, "The history of the world is but the biography of great men."

According to Carlyle, effective leaders are those gifted with divine inspiration and the right characteristics.

Early Leadership Reasearch

Some of the earliest research on leadership looked at people who were already successful leaders. These individuals often included aristocratic rulers who achieved their position through birthright. Because people of a lesser social status had fewer opportunities to practice and achieve leadership roles, it contributed to the idea that leadership is an inherent ability.

Even today, people often describe prominent leaders as having the right qualities or personality for the position. This implies that inherent characteristics are what make these people effective leaders.

Nature vs. Nurture

The great man theory of leadership is an example of using 'nature' to explain human behavior. The nature vs. nurture debate in psychology suggests that some skills are innate while others are acquired through learning and experience. In this case, great man theory suggests that nature plays the dominant role in leadership ability.

Examples of the Great Man Theory of Leadership

Some examples of famous historical figures who are often cited as examples of "great men" include:

Abraham Lincoln: The 16th president of the United States shepherded the Union through the Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation. His leadership through this tumultuous period is often seen as an example of how great leaders seem to be born with specific skills that make them destined to lead.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: The civil rights leader was influential in the fight for civil rights during the 1960s. His leadership characteristics, including his persuasive abilities and charisma, are often cited as examples of how innate traits contribute to leadership ability.

Mahatma Gandhi: The spiritual and political leader who led the successful movement for India's independence from British rule advocated non-violent resistance. His resilience, wisdom, and vision made him an inspiration in the fight for freedom in India and across the globe.

Other leaders often used as examples of the great man theory of leadership include George Washington, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela. Carlyle cited other figures in his book "Heroes and Hero-Worship," including Odin, Muhammad, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Criticisms of the Great Man Theory of Leadership

The great man theory of leadership has been the subject of considerable debate and criticism. The following are some of the major critiques of this approach to explaining leadership.

Herbert Spencer's Response

Sociologist Herbert Spencer suggested that the leaders were products of the society in which they lived. In "The Study of Sociology," Spencer wrote:

"You must admit that the genesis of a great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown...Before he can remake his society, his society must make him."

Incomplete Account of Leadership

One of the critical problems with the Great Man theory of leadership is that not all people who possess the so-called natural leadership qualities become great leaders. If leadership were simply an inborn quality, all people who possess the ​ necessary traits would eventually find themselves in leadership roles.

Ignores Situational Factors

Research has instead found that leadership is a surprisingly complex subject and numerous factors influence how successful a particular leader may or may not be. Characteristics of the group, the leader in power, and the situation all interact to determine what type of leadership is needed and the effectiveness of this leadership.

Neglects Skill Development

The great man theory of leadership also fails to explain how leadership skills can be developed. It oversimplifies leadership and focuses on a very narrow set of skills that may not be effective or appropriate in every context or situation. Modern views emphasize that leadership abilities can be learned and honed with practice.

The psychologist William James defended Carlyle's ideas, suggesting that it is the innate characteristics of individuals that then shape their environments. The theory was critiqued by others in literary form, including in Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace."

Contemporary Views of the Great Man Theory

The great man theory was an influential early theory of leadership, but it has fallen out of favor in modern leadership research. Contemporary ideas take a more nuanced and complex view of the many factors that influence leadership, including the characteristics of group members and the role of the situation.

While the great man theory has been largely replaced by other ideas, elements of it are still relevant today. The theory does not fully explain or account for the many aspects of leadership, but the existence of specific traits that contribute to great leadership is still of interest to contemporary researchers.

Today, experts recognize that leadership is complex and that innate traits alone do not account for how and why some leaders are successful.

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How Does the Great Man Theory of Leadership Hold Up?

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The great man theory of leadership is one of the earliest theories to explain and understand leadership. Discover the history of this theory.

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Great Man Theory of Leadership | Thomas Carlyle theory | Trait Theory

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Behavioral Theory of leadership is a big leap from Trait Theory, as it was developed scientifically by conducting behaviour focused studies. The theory emphasizes that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This theory is based on the principle that a leader's behaviors can be conditioned in a manner that one can have a specific response to specific stimuli.

Behavioral Theories of Leadership, also known as "The style approach to leadership" focuses on the behavior of the leader and what leaders do and how they act. In the 1940s, two parallel studies on leadership were in progress, one based on traits displayed by leaders, another on the behaviours exhibited by leaders.

Traits theory assumes that leaders are born, rather than made

Trait theory concentrates on, what the leaders are

Great Man Theory and Traits Theory are focused on intrinsic personal characteristics

Behavioural theories are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born

Behavioural theories concentrate on, what leaders do

Behavioral approach is based on the leader's beliefs, values, and interpersonal relations

Considers the Leader's attitude, behavior, opinion, and concern about his followers/organization

Studies leadership behavior from the point of view of motivation, supervision, and authority

Behavioural theories assume that specific behavioral patterns of leaders can be acquired

People can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation.

What are Behaviors?

Behavior is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment.

What is Human Behaviors?

Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics. In humans, behavior is believed to be controlled primarily by the endocrine system and the nervous system. Behaviors can be either innate or learned.

Human behavior is experienced throughout an individual's entire lifetime. It includes the way they act based on different factors such as genetics, social norms, core faith, and attitude. Behavior is impacted by certain traits each individual has. The traits vary from person to person and can produce different actions or behavior from each person.

As the questions about how to measure traits continued to challenge trait theory, researchers began thinking about measuring behavior. While you can't easily measure confidence or honesty in a person, they noted, you can define a behavior or a set of behaviors that seem to embody the trait.

Beliefs are ideas that people have about the world around them and how it operates. People tend to behave according to their beliefs. Values are assessments of the goodness or badness of various features of one's life. Values form attitudes that guide a person's conduct. Beliefs and values have close interaction. Beliefs become values when they lead to certain favorable or unfavorable consequences.

Researchers define behaviors as observable actions, which makes measuring them more scientifically valid than trying to measure a human personality trait. In this theory, we will focus on two general kinds of behaviors by leaders called task behaviors and relationship behaviors.

What is Behavioral Theory of Leadership?

Behavioral Theory of Leadership is a leadership theory that considers the observable actions and reactions of leaders and followers in a given situation. Behavioral theories focus on how leaders behave and assume that leaders can be made, rather than born, and successful leadership is based on definable, learnable behavior. Behavioral theories of leadership are classified as such because they focus on the study of specific behaviors of a leader. For behavioral theorists, a leader behavior is the best predictor of his leadership influences and as a result, is the best determinant of his or her leadership success.

These theories concentrate on what leaders actually do rather than on their qualities. Different patterns of behavior are observed and categorized as ' styles of leadership'. This area has probably attracted the most attention from practicing managers.

Quotes on behaviors:

Overview of Behavioral Theory of Leadership:

Behavioral Theory of leadership is a big leap from Trait Theory, in that it assumes that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This theory is based on the principle that behaviors can be conditioned in a manner that one can have a specific response to specific stimuli. Rather than seeking inborn traits this theory looks at what leaders actually do by studying their behaviors in response to different situations, assessing leadership success by studying their actions, and then correlating significant behaviors with success.

The practical application of the theory is that leader's behavior affects their performance and different leadership behaviors could be appropriate at different times. The best leaders are those who have the adaptability to flex their behavioral style and choose the right style suitable for each situation.

According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation and certain behavioral patterns may be identified as leadership styles.

Advantages of Behavioral Theory of Leadership:

Behavioral theory promotes the value of leadership styles with an emphasis on concern for people and collaboration. It promotes participative decision making and team development by supporting individual needs and aligning individual and group objectives.

It helps managers evaluate and understand how their behavioral style as a manager affects their relationship with the team and promotes commitment and contribution towards organizational goals.

This theory helps managers find the right balance between different styles of leadership, and helps them decide how to behave as a leader, depending on concerns for people and for productivity.

Criticism / Arguments against - Behavioral Theory of Leadership:

As there were inherent limitations with the Trait approach to leadership, when early researchers ran out of steam in their search for traits, they turned to what leaders did, how they behaved, and came with behavioral theory of leadership. This became the dominant way of approaching leadership within organizations in the 1950s and early 1960s but this theory too had its own limitations.

Behavioral Theory of Leadership proposes leadership styles but a specific leadership style may not be best in all circumstances. When researchers really got to work on this it didn't seem to validate their assumptions. While behavioral theories may help managers develop particular leadership behaviors but they provide little guidance as to what constitutes effective leadership in different situations.

There were lots of differences and inconsistencies between studies. It was difficult to say which style of leadership was significant in enabling one group to work better than another. The styles that leaders can adopt are far more affected by those they are working with, and the environment they are operating within than had been originally thought. Most researchers today conclude that no one leadership style is right for every manager under all circumstances.

Two Important Behavioral Studies:

The first and foremost study on leadership was carried out by a psychologist, Kurt Lewin, and his associates in 1939 and identified different styles of leadership, viz. autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership. Subsequently, many research studies could be categorized under the heading of the behavioral approach leading to the identification of various leadership styles and their correlation with measures of effectiveness. The following three studies are strongly representative of the ideas in this approach:

By looking closely at each of these groups of studies, we can draw a clearer picture of the key concepts and implications of the style/behavioral approach to leadership.

Of these three the two Key Studies in behavioral theory at the University of Michigan and Ohio State University became famous in the next generation of leadership research. These studies identified two key behavioral categories

Orientation toward task: Task behaviors facilitate goal accomplishment and help the team to achieve its objectives.

Orientation toward people: Relationship behaviors help team members feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the situation in which they find themselves.

List of Behavioral Theories:

Given below is a list of theories and articles that are also classified under behavioral theories or should be read to understand behavioral theories:

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You may also like Team Leadership Theory | Trait theories | The Great Man Theory | Trait Theory of Leadership | Trait Theories - Application | Leadership Traits - A great List | Five-Factor Personality Model | Charismatic Theory | The Five Bases of Power | Iowa Studies | Lewin's Change Management Model | Freud Personality Types | Jung Personality Types | Skills Approach to Leadership | Contingency Theories of Leadership | Group and Exchange Theories | Leader Member Exchange Theory | Management Theories | McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y | Social Learning Theories | Michigan Studies | Ohio State Studies | Likerts Management System | Psychodynamic Approach | Continuum of leadership | Four Factor Leadership Theory | Action Centered Leadership | Functional leadership theory | Open Systems Model | Role Theory of Leadership | Sociotechnical Systems | Life cycle theory of Leadership | Situational Theories of Leadership | Multiple Linkage Model | Normative Leadership Theory | Vroom's Expectancy Theory | Fiedler Model of Leadership | Participative Leadership Theories | Leader-Participation Model | Strategic Contingencies | Cognitive Resource Theory | Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs | McClelland's Theory of Needs | Reciprocal Influence Approach | Theory of Idiosyncrasy Credit | Neo-Emergent Theory | Theory Z of Management | Burns Transformational Leadership Theory | Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP) Leader Theory | The Systemic Approach to Leadership | Self-Leadership | Servant Leadership | Authentic Leadership | Modern Approaches to Management | Taylor's Scientific Management | Behavioral Approach to Management

Creation Date Wednesday, 27 February 2013 Hits 196701 behavioral learning theories, behavioral psychology, Behavioral Theories, Behavioralism, behaviour theory of leadership, behavioural traits of leadership, leadership characteristics, leadership qualities, leadership skills, leadership studies, leadership style, list of behavioral theories, qualities of a leader, studies on leadership, theories in leadership, theories of leadership, types of leadership

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behavioral theory of leadership examples

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Behavioral Theory of leadership is a big leap from Trait Theory, as it was developed scientifically by conducting behaviour focused studies. The theory emphasizes that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This theory is based on the principle that a leader's behaviors can be conditioned in a manner that one can have a specific response to specific stimuli.

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Special Webinar on Self Care from the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions Session I In a typical year, no one in college admissions would mistake the work for a walk in the park. This year, our work is further transformed by COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement and other important events and issues. In this environment, the need for self-care and self-preservation are more urgent than ever. Join faculty from the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions for a session that will explore ways to keep our heads, hearts, and souls together in order to care for ourselves and the people in our charge. Topics will range from micro to macro; from health tips and strategies for managing social media to considerations of career and identity work. Participants will be encouraged to participate in a follow-up session at the virtual College Board Forum in October.

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Webinars - For Counselors | College Board

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Special Webinar on Self Care from the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions Session I In a typical year, no one in college admissions would mistake the work for a walk in the park. This year, our work is further transformed by COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement and other important events and issues.

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Free personality test - take it to find out why our readers say that this personality test is so accurate, "it's a little bit creepy." No registration required!