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As representatives of student affairs leaders and college student educators, ACPA-College Student Educators International (ACPA) unites with the community of advocates for victims and survivors of sexual violence in our concern over the newly proposed changes from the Department of Education to Title IX administration and adjudication.We strongly encourage institutions to continue centralizing...

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National Association of Student Personnel Administrators

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National Association of Student Personnel Administrators

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Vision & Mission

Fulfilling the promise of higher education.
The professional home for student affairs.

Advocacy for Student Success

Equality, Inclusion & Social Justice

Research & Scholarship

Professional Development & Engagement

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Vision & Mission Fulfilling the promise of higher education. The professional home for student affairs. Advocacy for Student Success Equality, Inclusion & Social Justice Research & Scholarship Professional Development & Engagement

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Leadership theories explained using infographics.

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The leadership process has three components: the leaders, the followers and the situation. These eight leadership theories vary in their consideration of these components.

The Great Man Theory originated from studying behaviors of military figures and people in authority in the 1800s. Thomas Carlyle, a great historian, was heavily involved in the world, and is popularly quoted as saying, "The history of the world is but the biography of great men."

Strengths: This theory started the scholarship of which traits and characteristics build great leaders.
Weaknesses: This theory lacks scientific validity and only considers men in power. And, as 19th century-sociologist Herbert Spencer argued, great leaders may be shaped by their society, not the other way around.

The Traity Theory only considers the leaders as the driving force of the leadership process, so the leader possessing certain traits is critical to having effective leadership.

Strengths: This approach is intuitive and understandable. It also has over a century of supporting research.
Weaknesses: The trait list can be endless, unclear and subjective. This approach fails to take situations and followers into account, and it's not useful for training purposes. Also, the characteristics attributed to leaders throughout time have been masculine, leading to a biased list of traits that make up a leader.

As a reaction to the trait theories, The Behavioral Theory looks not at the traits or abilities of leaders, but their behavior. Two behavior categories were created:

Task behavior: facilitates goals and accomplishment of leaders and followers

Relationship behavior: helps followers feel more comfortable around the leader and about the organization.
From this, management training in different leadership styles became popular, including Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid. This grid is based on two different behavioral dimensions to consider when accomplishing a task:

Concern for Production: how much a leader emphasizes concrete objectives, high productivity and organizational efficiency

Concern for People: how much a leader considers team members' interests, needs and areas of personal development
From these two behavioral dimensions, there are five distinct managerial styles:

1. Impoverished Management: With low regard accomplishing tasks or creating a motivating team environment, impoverished or "ineffective" managers are mostly ineffective.

2. Country Club Management: This style of manager is mostly concerned with the needs and feelings of team members, thinking that if team members feel happy and secure they will work hard. In country club or "accommodating" management the work environment is fun and relaxed, but productivity suffers due to a lack of direction and control.

3. Middle-of-the-Road Management: These "status quo" managers try to balance people and results, but due to the constant compromise, they fail to meet people's needs and deliver mediocre performance.

4. Authority-Compliance Management: Also known as "produce-or-perish management," in this style people's needs are secondary to productivity. The manager typically has strict policies and procedures and utilizing punishment to motivate team performance. Although this style can result in initial productivity, retention is an issue.

5. Team Management: The most effective of all the styles, "sound" managers prioritize both team members and productivity by making sure team members understand and are committed to the organization's purpose and goals.

Strengths: This theory expands views of leadership from trait-based to action-based, which makes it easier to teach. It also has strong research support.
Weaknesses: This theory is not linked to desirable work outcomes, and no universally successful behaviors have been identified. Also, team management may not always be best despite claims.

Different combinations of these behaviors lead to four distinct categories:

Directing: high-directive, low-supportive behaviors

Coaching: high-directive, high-supportive behaviors

Supporting: low-directive, high-supportive behaviors

Delegating: low-directive, low-supportive behaviors
The contingency theory states that followers move along the developmental continuum, which has four development levels indicating the degree to which a follower has the competence and commitment necessary to accomplish a goal or activity.

D1: low competence and high commitment: leader is excited and motivated about a new challenge, but lacks the skills to succeed

D2: low competence and low commitment: leader has some competence but lacks motivation

D3: high competence and low/variable commitment: leader has mastered skills but has variable commitment

D4: high competence and high commitment: leader has the skills and motivation to complete tasks and achieve goals
An effective leader determines where followers are on the developmental continuum and adapts his or her leadership style to match.

Strengths: This theory is well-known, easy, intuitive and practical to use. It is frequently utilized in leadership training and promotes tailoring follower treatment based on development. This approach is also prescriptive, meaning that it tells you what should or should not be done depending on the situation.
Weaknesses: This theory lacks research support, and there is ambiguity in the development levels. The approach also fails to address demographic differences and how they influence prescriptions.

The Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX), originating in the 1970s, is centered on the relationships and interactions between leaders and followers. Other factors that affect the quality of the LMS relationship include the challenge of the job, the size of the group, the workload and the financial resources.

Strengths: This approach is intuitive and well-researched.
Weaknesses: It does not take individual team member desires into account

Transactional leaders set clear expectations for subordinates for their duties and rewards.

Strengths: A popular theory.
Weaknesses: The primary limitations of this theory are that it simplifies people's motivations and emphasizes the importance of monetary reward while ignoring the rest of Maslow's Hierarchy.

Inspiring team members to follow your vision is essential for transformational leaders.
Strengths: Transformational leaders can turn around a company with low morale and accomplish cross-organizational goals by unifying team members under one vision.
Weaknesses: Visionaries can lack specification and actionable goals.

How participative the leader is on a spectrum depending on how much they involve the team in their decision making:

Exploitative Authoritative: decisions made by the leader only

Benevolent Authoritative: leader considers employees but makes decisions alone

Consultative: leader listens to employees' ideas, but still makes the final decision

Participative: leader shows great concern for employees' ideas and includes them in the decision-making process
Strengths: Team members feel valued and they can perform even when the leader isn't there.
Weaknesses: Decision making can take a long time, and there is a social pressure to confirm with the group's decision.

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Top 8 Leadership Theories - Florida Tech Online

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The leadership process has three components: the leaders, the followers and the situation. These eight leadership theories vary in their consideration of these components. The Great Man Theory originated from studying behaviors of military figures and people in authority in the 1800s.

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Paul Fiorelli, the director of Cintas Institute for Business Ethics at Xavier University, suggested you use plain language like: "You've asked me to do this, but if I did this it would violate this policy we have. You're not asking me to do that, are you?"

In many cases, it's likely the boss hadn't considered his or her request unethical. Citing specific reasons for your objection could help them see why the request is unreasonable - or could solidify that yes, they really do want you to do something you're not willing to do.

Either way, you might solve the problem if you can offer a more ethical alternative that would produce similar results.

Escalating your complaint

If it's crystal-clear your boss is asking for unethical conduct, or if you don't feel comfortable discussing it with your boss in the first place, the next steps depend a lot on your company.

In larger organizations, there could be someone dedicated to receiving complaints from employees like you. It could be a compliance officer, general counsel, auditor or someone in human resources. It could be the person one or two levels up from your boss.

Beware: Your boss probably won't like this. (We'll discuss the risk of retaliation later.)

You might also need to ask: If I complain, will anyone care or will anything change? If you think management would want to sweep your complaint under the rug, assuming the risks of complaining internally might not be worth it.

"Any time the firm's senior management is financially benefiting from the misconduct, they may not want to know that it is occurring," said Bryan Stikeleather, a professor at the University of South Carolina who has studied financial incentives for whistle-blowing.

Some companies offer money to entice employees to report bad behavior, which can signal that they're serious about correcting it. But such monetary incentives can sometimes make employees less likely to report, Mr. Stikeleather said; the rewards can decrease whistle-blowers' sense of responsibility, making it feel less like a moral obligation.

If escalating internally doesn't work, or you're in a small enough organization that there's no one to hear your protest but your boss, you might have to go outside the organization to the government or media. Patricia Harned, the chief executive of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, said most people who go this route only do so after exhausting their internal options without seeing results.

Consider the risks

It's easy for us to say that you should "do the right thing" and flatly refuse any unethical demands. But in reality, the decision is often more complex than that, and there are very real risks you could face.

Fifty-three percent of employees in the United States who reported misconduct in their companies said they experienced some form of retaliation, according to the 2016 National Business Ethics survey by the Ethics and Compliance Initiative. That could include receiving worse evaluations and being passed up for promotions and raises.

At the very least, there could be social costs in whistle-blowing. Some people have found themselves uninvited from happy hours or given cold shoulders in the hallway.

"One man's whistle-blower is another man's snitch," Mr. Stikeleather said.

Mary-Hunter McDonnell, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said at least one high-stakes whistle-blower she interviewed for her research had regrets.

"He said if he could relive it he wouldn't have done it because it devastated his social life," she said. "He was no longer invited to join the kind of charitable boards he had been invited to join, or any of the kind of corporate social networks that he had been involved in. He was basically boxed out of the social world he had created for himself as part of his job."

If all else fails, leave

No one wants it to come to this, and it may not be practical advice if you need the paycheck. But if you're in position to find another job, this might be good reason to head for the door.

You could even try one last staunch refusal as an ultimatum.

"I think you have to just say no if it's against your own moral values. You can't be forced to do something," Ms. McDonnell said. "The worst thing that could happen to you is you'll be fired, but you can't really stay at a job that's going to ask you to transgress your morals anyway."

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When the Boss Wants You to Do Something Unethical

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Paul Fiorelli, the director of Cintas Institute for Business Ethics at Xavier University, suggested you use plain language like: "You've asked me to do this, but if I did this it would violate this policy we have. You're not asking me to do that, are you?"

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When emotional intelligence (EQ) first appeared to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: People with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70 percent of the time. This anomaly threw a massive wrench into the broadly held assumption that IQ was the sole source of success.

Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as being the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack. The connection is so strong that 90 percent of top performers have high emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is the "something" in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions to achieve positive results.

Despite the significance of EQ, its intangible nature makes it very difficult to know how much you have and what you can do to improve if you're lacking. You can always take a scientifically validated test, such as the one that comes with the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book.

Unfortunately, quality (scientifically valid) EQ tests aren't free. So, I've analyzed the data from the million-plus people TalentSmart has tested in order to identify the behaviors that are the hallmarks of a high EQ. What follows are sure signs that you have a high EQ.

1. You Have a Robust Emotional Vocabulary.

All people experience emotions, but it is a select few who can accurately identify them as they occur. Our research shows that only 36 percent of people can do this, which is problematic because unlabeled emotions often go misunderstood, which leads to irrational choices and counterproductive actions.

People with high EQs master their emotions because they understand them, and they use an extensive vocabulary of feelings to do so. While many people might describe themselves as simply feeling "bad," emotionally intelligent people can pinpoint whether they feel "irritable," "frustrated," "downtrodden," or "anxious." The more specific your word choice, the better insight you have into exactly how you are feeling, what caused it, and what you should do about it.

2. You're Curious About People.

It doesn't matter if they're introverted or extroverted, emotionally intelligent people are curious about everyone around them. This curiosity is the product of empathy, one of the most significant gateways to a high EQ. The more you care about other people and what they're going through, the more curiosity you're going to have about them.

Emotionally intelligent people are flexible and are constantly adapting. They know that fear of change is paralyzing and a major threat to their success and happiness. They look for change that is lurking just around the corner, and they form a plan of action should these changes occur.

4. You Know Your Strengths And Weaknesses.

Emotionally intelligent people don't just understand emotions; they know what they're good at and what they're terrible at. They also know who pushes their buttons and the environments (both situations and people) that enable them to succeed. Having a high EQ means you know your strengths and you know how to lean into them and use them to your full advantage while keeping your weaknesses from holding you back.

5. You're A Good Judge Of Character.

Much of emotional intelligence comes down to social awareness: the ability to read other people, know what they're about, and understand what they're going through. Over time, this skill makes you an exceptional judge of character. People are no mystery to you. You know what they're all about and understand their motivations, even those that lie hidden beneath the surface.

6. You Are Difficult To Offend.

If you have a firm grasp of whom you are, it's difficult for someone to say or do something that gets your goat. Emotionally intelligent people are self-confident and open-minded, which creates a pretty thick skin. You may even poke fun at yourself or let other people make jokes about you, because you are able to mentally draw the line between humor and degradation.

Emotionally intelligent people distance themselves from their mistakes, but do so without forgetting them. By keeping their mistakes at a safe distance, yet still handy enough to refer to, they are able to adapt and adjust for future success. It takes refined self-awareness to walk this tightrope between dwelling and remembering. Dwelling too long on your mistakes makes you anxious and gun shy, while forgetting about them completely makes you bound to repeat them. The key to balance lies in your ability to transform failures into nuggets of improvement. This creates the tendency to get right back up every time you fall down.

8. You Don't Hold Grudges.

The negative emotions that come with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about the event sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. When the threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but when the threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact, researchers at Emory University have shown that holding onto stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Holding onto a grudge means you're holding onto stress, and emotionally intelligent people know to avoid this at all costs. Letting go of a grudge not only makes you feel better now but can also improve your health.

9. You Neutralize Toxic People.

Dealing with difficult people is frustrating and exhausting for most. High EQ individuals control their interactions with toxic people by keeping their feelings in check. When they need to confront a toxic person, they approach the situation rationally. They identify their own emotions and don't allow anger or frustration to fuel the chaos. They also consider the difficult person's standpoint and are able to find solutions and common ground. Even when things completely derail, emotionally intelligent people are able to take the toxic person with a grain of salt to avoid letting him or her bring them down.

10. You Don't Seek Perfection.

Emotionally intelligent people won't set perfection as their target because they know that it doesn't exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you're always left with a nagging sense of failure that makes you want to give up or reduce your effort. You end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of moving forward, excited about what you've achieved and what you will accomplish in the future.

Taking regular time off the grid is a sign of a high EQ because it helps you to keep your stress under control and to live in the moment. When you make yourself available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of stressors. Forcing yourself offline and even-gulp!-turning off your phone gives your body and mind a break. Studies have shown that something as simple as an e-mail break can lower stress levels. Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an e-mail that will change your train of thought and get you thinking (read: stressing) about work can drop onto your phone at any moment.

12. You Limit Your Caffeine Intake.

Drinking excessive amounts of caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline, and adrenaline is the source of the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response to ensure survival. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you're responding to a curt e-mail. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyper-aroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. Caffeine's long half-life ensures you stay this way as it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body. High-EQ individuals know that caffeine is trouble, and they don't let it get the better of them.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day's memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams) so that you wake up alert and clearheaded. High-EQ individuals know that their self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when they don't get enough-or the right kind-of sleep. So, they make sleep a top priority.

14. You Stop Negative Self-Talk in Its Tracks.

The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that-thoughts, not facts. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain's natural tendency to perceive threats (inflating the frequency or severity of an event). Emotionally intelligent people separate their thoughts from the facts in order to escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive, new outlook.

15. You Won't Let Anyone Limit Your Joy.

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from the opinions of other people, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When emotionally intelligent people feel good about something that they've done, they won't let anyone's opinions or snide remarks take that away from them. While it's impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don't have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people's opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within.

Bringing It All Together:

Unlike your IQ, your EQ is highly malleable. As you train your brain by repeatedly practicing new emotionally intelligent behaviors, it builds the pathways needed to make them into habits. As your brain reinforces the use of these new behaviors, the connections supporting old, destructive behaviors die off. Before long, you begin responding to your surroundings with emotional intelligence without even having to think about it.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Want to learn more from me? Check out my book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0.

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15 Signs That You Are Emotionally Intelligent

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When emotional intelligence (EQ) first appeared to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: People with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70 percent of the time. This anomaly threw a massive wrench into the broadly held assumption that IQ was the sole source of success.

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This website provides link to various pages with information on different leadership theories.

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Over time, a number of different theories of leadership have evolved.

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The year 1777 was not a particularly good time for America's newly formed revolutionary army. Under General George Washington's command, some 11,000 soldiers made their way to Valley Forge. Following the latest defeat in a string of battles that left Philadelphia in the hands of British forces, these tired, demoralized, and poorly equipped early American heroes knew they now faced another devastating winter.

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