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Bariso, J. (2015, July 30). In search of the definition of leadership. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/in-search-of-the-definition-of-leadership.html

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Last week, Travis Bradberry (co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and fellow Inc. columnist) started a fascinating and profound conversation on LinkedIn. (You can read the original article here.)

What makes someone a leader, anyway?

As Bradberry and his co-author Kevin Kruse admit, despite the plethora of books on leadership (some written by them), it's a rare thing to pause and actually define the quality. The authors go on to assert what leadership is not: Leadership isn't fancy titles, a position in a hierarchy, or even management.

They then go on to quote, and attempt to refute, some of the most respected business thinkers of our time. For example:

Peter Drucker: "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers."

The authors contend that Drucker's definition is too simple. They cite the example of an army captain who is put in command of 200 soldiers, but never leaves his room or speaks to the individuals in his unit personally. By default, the soldiers follow orders, but this makes the captain a commander, not a leader.

John Maxwell: "Leadership is influence-nothing more, nothing less."

While appreciating Maxwell's minimalistic approach, the authors feel it is too reduced. They cite examples of a robber with a gun, who has "influence" over his victim, or a manager with the power to fire team members. The source of influence is missing.

In the end, Bradberry and Kruse settle on the following definition of leadership:

Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a greater good.

They conclude with the powerful statement, "Leadership is a mindset in action".

I'm a big fan of Bradberry (he recently made number two on my list of recommended writers), and I love the article as it really gets us thinking differently about something we read and write about on a daily basis.

Bradberry and Kruse's definition comes close, but I feel it's too narrow.

Some leaders influence others to commit actions that are not for the greater good, but no one can deny that they have led those others. Adolf Hitler is a perfect example. His leadership was wicked, barbaric, and disgusting. But surely, he led millions of men. Some may argue that Hitler or the terrorist leaders we see today aren't exhibiting the type of leadership that Bradberry and Kruse speak about, but they're refusing to acknowledge an extremely important lesson: Following the wrong leaders can give rise to horrible consequences.

The authors also claim that leadership "maximizes the efforts of others". But leadership alone cannot achieve this goal, for individual efforts depend on a variety of factors. For example, one could contend that Michael Jordan's leadership got the most out of his championship Bulls teams, but when he came out of retirement (again) to lead a young Wizards team, several team members complained about playing in Jordan's shadow, and his unfair expectations of them.

Leadership can, however, work towards increasing the efforts of others.

Which leads me to this (edited) definition:

Definition: Leadership is a process of social influence which works to increase the efforts of others in pursuit of a common goal.

In the end, I think that the authors and I agree on one thing: Good leaders don't wait for a title. They simply lead, and others naturally follow.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts, as well as your personal definition of leadership. Please include them in the comments section below.

Last week, Travis Bradberry (co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and fellow Inc. columnist) started a fascinating and profound conversation on LinkedIn. (You can read the original article here.)

What makes someone a leader, anyway?

As Bradberry and his co-author Kevin Kruse admit, despite the plethora of books on leadership (some written by them), it's a rare thing to pause and actually define the quality. The authors go on to assert what leadership is not: Leadership isn't fancy titles, a position in a hierarchy, or even management.

They then go on to quote, and attempt to refute, some of the most respected business thinkers of our time. For example:

Peter Drucker: "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers."

The authors contend that Drucker's definition is too simple. They cite the example of an army captain who is put in command of 200 soldiers, but never leaves his room or speaks to the individuals in his unit personally. By default, the soldiers follow orders, but this makes the captain a commander, not a leader.

John Maxwell: "Leadership is influence-nothing more, nothing less."

While appreciating Maxwell's minimalistic approach, the authors feel it is too reduced. They cite examples of a robber with a gun, who has "influence" over his victim, or a manager with the power to fire team members. The source of influence is missing.

In the end, Bradberry and Kruse settle on the following definition of leadership:

Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a greater good.

They conclude with the powerful statement, "Leadership is a mindset in action".

I'm a big fan of Bradberry (he recently made number two on my list of recommended writers), and I love the article as it really gets us thinking differently about something we read and write about on a daily basis.

Bradberry and Kruse's definition comes close, but I feel it's too narrow.

Some leaders influence others to commit actions that are not for the greater good, but no one can deny that they have led those others. Adolf Hitler is a perfect example. His leadership was wicked, barbaric, and disgusting. But surely, he led millions of men. Some may argue that Hitler or the terrorist leaders we see today aren't exhibiting the type of leadership that Bradberry and Kruse speak about, but they're refusing to acknowledge an extremely important lesson: Following the wrong leaders can give rise to horrible consequences.

The authors also claim that leadership "maximizes the efforts of others". But leadership alone cannot achieve this goal, for individual efforts depend on a variety of factors. For example, one could contend that Michael Jordan's leadership got the most out of his championship Bulls teams, but when he came out of retirement (again) to lead a young Wizards team, several team members complained about playing in Jordan's shadow, and his unfair expectations of them.

Leadership can, however, work towards increasing the efforts of others.

Which leads me to this (edited) definition:

Definition: Leadership is a process of social influence which works to increase the efforts of others in pursuit of a common goal.

In the end, I think that the authors and I agree on one thing: Good leaders don't wait for a title. They simply lead, and others naturally follow.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts, as well as your personal definition of leadership. Please include them in the comments section below.

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In Search of the Definition of Leadership

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Last week, Travis Bradberry (co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and fellow Inc. columnist) started a fascinating and profound conversation on LinkedIn. (You can read the original article here.) What makes someone a leader, anyway? As Bradberry and his co-author Kevin Kruse admit, despite the plethora of books on leadership (some written by them), it's a rare thing to pause and actually define the quality.

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Key strategies that leaders should incorporate.

Schooley, S. (2019, October 17). How to be a true leader and not just a boss - businessnewsdaily.com. Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1404-characteristics-good-boss.html

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Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

There are many differences between bosses and leaders. Supervisors and managers should consistently analyze their leadership styles to ensure they are successfully leading their teams.

According to a recent study by Robert Half, 49% of professionals surveyed have quit a job due to a bad boss.

To become a good leader, you should influence, inspire and mentor your team members.

There are a few key strategies that every great leader incorporates into their behavior: delegating authority, being thoughtful to team members, facilitating open communication and setting clear employee expectations.

Being promoted to a management role may seem like a great accomplishment, but many professionals find the responsibility to be more challenging than they imagined. Merely being someone's boss doesn't mean you are a good leader.

Effective leadership is increasingly important in the workplace, as more and more employees are leaving great companies over one resolvable element - bad bosses. According to a recent study by staffing agency Robert Half, nearly half of all professionals surveyed (49%) have quit a job because of a bad boss.

There are many key differences between a boss and a leader, and it is important that you analyze your leadership style to ensure that you are effectively steering your team in the right direction. Keep in mind, though, that even those who start out with less effective management skills can modify their behavior to become good leaders. [Are you an effective leader? Ask yourself these questions to find out.]

Many professionals step into management or supervisory roles and find themselves wondering, "What are the qualities of a boss vs. a leader?" We spoke with leadership experts to discover the five key differences between the two.

As you read the following comparisons, reflect on your own actions to determine which one you are.

According to Sue Andrews, business and HR consultant at KIS Finance, a key difference is that a boss's authority comes from their position, whereas a leader's authority comes from their ability to influence others.

"A boss is there to ensure that employees follow the rules of an organization, but a leader will encourage others to think for themselves to achieve the desired ends," Andrews told Business News Daily. "A boss will need to give orders to instruct others what to do, but a leader can inspire others to find the best way forward, whilst motivating them to maximize their potential."

Although subordinates only follow bosses because they have to, bosses can grow their influence through encouraging behavior, added Ken Gosnell, CEO of CEO Experience (CXP).

"You can grow your influences by caring for your team, listening to their thoughts and ideas, and sharing the 'why' behind the decisions and actions that you take," said Gosnell. "This is a second step in leadership, but it makes all the difference, and people will follow you because they want to, and not just because they have to."

You shouldn't just explain a task and leave it in your employee's hands. According to Christine Macdonald, director of The Hub Events, a boss ensures you understand your work, while a leader supports and guides you through it.

"The biggest difference between a leader and a boss is that a good leader inspires people and makes them excited about their work," she said.

Success takes passion; without the desire to complete tasks, workers won't be as driven to give their best performances. As their leader, you should motivate them by letting them know the importance of their work.

Employees are human, and mistakes are to be expected. Who you are as a boss is evident in how you deal with mishaps. While bosses are more likely to use a reward/punishment system to discourage poor behavior, great leaders understand that employees benefit from encouragement and mentorship. If an employee performs well in a specific line of work, that strength should be recognized and mastered.

"One key element of leadership is the ability to harness the talents of others to achieve a common goal," said Macdonald.

It's important to note the strengths and weaknesses of each employee and mentor them independently. Rather than attacking skill gaps, work to patch them by guiding employees through their shortcomings and building their confidence in new areas.

A boss focuses on the objectives of their department and is stringent in following protocol to achieve those goals. They think for the short term, delegate tasks to their subordinates and tend to micromanage.

Christina J. Eisinger, executive coach and consultant at CJE Consulting, said that a boss has key objectives to meet, whereas a leader will set the long-term vision for the team and use it as "a key motivator."

"A boss gets results by telling people what to do and is concerned with doing it right," she said. "A leader is skilled at results by enabling their team to figure out what to do, is concerned with doing what is right."

Andrews added that leaders seek to drive commitment by setting an example for others to follow and inspire others by encouraging development. "They are comfortable delegating authority and avoid micromanaging, preferring to see others develop. Utilizing their excellent communication and negotiation skills, they will influence others for the overall benefit of the organization."

A boss doesn't take the time to get to know their employees like a leader does. Eisinger said that bosses view their team members as subordinates, whereas leaders let go of this hierarchical distinction and view their team members as equal contributors.

To be a leader, it's important that you facilitate positive relationships with your employees. Work with their needs and create a culture that encourages open communication.

"By getting to know your team better, you'll be able to understand how to explain your vision in a way that will really connect with each person," said Macdonald. "This means you can personalize the way you motivate people."

She added that good leaders are genuine and loyal. You set an example for your company. If you lack passion or motivation, odds are your team will too. Don't be afraid to be human - be real and express your emotions to connect with your workers.

To be a good boss or leader, you can incorporate a few key strategies into your behavior. Experts listed three of these strategies as thoughtfulness, communication and clear expectations for your employees.

Gosnell recommends treating your employees with thoughtfulness. A good leader conducts their decision-making process based on the best interests of the team as well as the company.

"Leaders who lead for impact think first of their followers," said Gosnell. "They know that if they are doing what is in the best interest of their followers, it will bring great results for the followers and the organization."

Leaders should also incorporate good communication by listening to their teams. Gosnell said a listening leader will hear how to make an organization better through the words of their team.

"Listening leaders grow in influence and impact, while those who neglect to listen to their team will struggle with disengaged employees who won't listen," he added. "A leader who wants to be listened to should practicing listening to their people."

Whether you see yourself as a boss or a leader, Andrews said, the key to your success is your staff seeing you as fair in your approach toward them. Set fair, clear employee expectations and be consistent in your manners so your staff knows what they can expect from you.

"This is essential in the workplace, as one of the greatest causes of employee stress is not knowing what to expect from their manager," said Andrews. "Frequent changes in focus and conflicting priorities will leave staff feeling anxious. However, effective communication and a clear goal will ensure that teams all pull in the same direction."

Team leaders are responsible for more than just delegating tasks and monitoring employees. They are responsible for the success of the whole team as well as the success of each individual team member. An effective team leader should understand each member's strengths, weaknesses, and goals and utilize their talents accordingly.

Eisinger created a brief checklist for leaders to refer to when determining their primary responsibilities:

Ensure the team has what they need to get the job done.

Provide challenging, meaningful work.

Be accessible and approachable.

Hold regular one-on-one meetings with each direct report that focus on career development.

Measure performance.

Provide regular, ongoing feedback (both positive feedback and constructive criticism).

If you do not currently implement all of these responsibilities into your work duties, don't worry. Just focus on improving, and seek feedback from your team about what you can do better. According to Eisinger, most good leaders start out as bosses.

"In the work I do, it seems to be an inevitable transition point for people as they first step into a supervisory role and develop their leadership capabilities," she said. "It's normal to exhibit some of these 'boss' characteristics. However, it is critical to recognize one's unique challenges and work to overcome them so they can become leaders."
What do you think the difference is between a boss and a true leader? Share your thoughts on this topic with the business.com community. Additional reporting by Sammi Caramela. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

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How to Be a True Leader and Not Just a Boss

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There are many differences between bosses and leaders. Supervisors and managers should consistently analyze their leadership styles to ensure they are successfully leading their teams. According to a recent study by Robert Half, 49% of professionals surveyed have quit a job due to a bad boss.

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Leading and Advocating - School Counseling

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Leading and Advocating - School Counseling

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Bush, J. (2019, April). Leading and advocating by example. American School Counselor Association (ASCA). https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Newsletters/April-2019/Leading-and-Advocating-by-Example?st=ID

Leading and advocating by example.

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Leading and Advocating by Example - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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Below are excerpts from Julia Bush’s acceptance speech for NvSCA school counselor of the year, given at the NvSCA Conference in March 2019. Bush is a school counselor in Clark County School District.

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School counselors that lead build positive school environments.

Lindberg, S. (2021, January 22). 11 ways your school counselors serve as leaders. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/school-counselors-as-leaders/

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students! Here are 11 ways school counselors serve as leaders in your building.

1. School counselors recognize and showcase diversity.

In many buildings, school counselors are considered the "heart" of the school. They help create an inclusive environment that is respectful, welcoming, kind, and open to all.

2. School counselors develop community partnerships.

Counseling staff work collaboratively with universities, community colleges, technical schools, local unions, military reps, and apprentice programs to provide a variety of opportunities for students. They are especially vital in ensuring underserved and first-generation students have access to and the tools to reach all possible post-high school options.

3. School counselors help during difficult situations.

Strengths such as listening, reflecting, and high emotional intelligence make school counselors valuable allies when trying to get buy-in from staff or the greater community on difficult issues. Counselors foster a culture of change via strong lines of communication and valuing input from all parties involved.

4. School counselors maintain strong home-school connections.

Counselors tend to be the liaison for parents when it comes to communicating with the school. This leadership role is especially important when assisting families who are not familiar with the school setting or have issues trusting staff.

5. School counselors maximize educational success.

School counselors can help to maximize the educational attainment of all students by providing students with mental health services (school or community-based) and developmental guidance that takes a proactive approach in helping students set and reach academic goals.

6. School counselors lead staff trainings.

Administrators who use their counseling staff (rather than outside contractors) to lead building-wide trainings can save a lot of money and gain quicker buy-in from staff. School counselors are experts on topics such as student engagement, positive discipline, suicide/self-harm, students-as-leaders, peer mentoring programs, and academic/social interventions for low-performing students.

7. School counselors protect and advocate for disadvantaged students.

Counselors identify and amend policies and practices that negatively impact disadvantaged students and advocate for equitable services for all students.

8. School counselors use expertise to bring data to life.

Like administrators, counselors are trained in data collection and analysis. They are skilled at using this information to drive decisions about placement, intervention, and overall student health and wellbeing.

9. School counselors mediate difficult situations between parents/students and staff.

Counselors are consistently looking for ways to support the relationship between school staff and parents. Acting as a mediator when one or both parties are upset about a situation is a critical way in which school counselors serve as leaders.

10. School counselors organize and lead crisis response.

Counselors are on the front lines after a tragedy has happened in a school or community. Staff, students, parents, and community members look to the counselors for guidance and support immediately following an event. Because of their training in emotional/mental, the counseling staff is critical in advocating for and teaching self-care to staff, parents, and students during a crisis.

11. School counselors empower and inspire.

School counselors inherently believe in people and work tirelessly to communicate that. By being visible and accessible at all times, their calming, caring, and encouraging presence helps support and empower staff in the building.

School counselors serve as leaders in many ways and we need to value their perspectives and strengths. They are vital to building positive learning environments in which students thrive.
Join our Facebook group Principal Life for more conversation about and insights into the challenges of school leadership.

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11 Ways Your School Counselors Serve as Leaders - WeAreTeachers

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students!

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School counselors can use leadership skills to make a real impact when working with students.

Young, A. (2019). From doer to leader. ASCASC. https://www.ascaschoolcounselor-digital.org/ascaschoolcounselor/november_december_2019/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=1536790#articleId1536790

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BEING A DOER ISN'T ENOUGH FOR SCHOOL COUNSELORS. STUDENT NEEDS DEMAND SCHOOL COUNSELORS MOVE BEYOND REACTING TO LEADING. Are school counselors doers or

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Ojo, M. (2011, April 25). Integrity, respect for others, and ethics – three essential leadership qualities. Munich Personal RePEc Archive. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/30485/1/MPRA_paper_30485.pdf

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Phrases a leader should use to build trust.

Schwantes, M. (2021, June 16). If you say these 5 phrases often, you're a better leader than you think. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/if-you-say-these-5-phrases-often-youre-a-better-leader-than-you-think.html

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If You Say These 5 Phrases Often, You’re a Better Leader Than You Think

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Using them regularly will result in an increase in trust.

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Sinek, S. (2014). Why good leaders make you feel safe. TED: Ideas worth spreading. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe

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What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety -- especially in an uneven economy -- means taking on big responsibility.

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Six characteristics taught to emerging leaders.

Schwantes, M. (2021, July 28). How can you be sure someone has what it takes to lead others? Look for 6 rare behaviors. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/how-can-you-be-suresomeone-has-what-it-takes-to-lead-others-look-for-6rare-behaviors.html

How can you be sure someone has what it takes to lead others? Look for 6 rare behaviors.

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Leadership is certainly not for everyone. For those in the esteemed role of a "leader," a serious question needs to be asked: Are you fit to inspire human beings to be great and do great things for your organization?

Whether you're a line manager on the floor or an executive in the C-suite, you have to eventually accept, in your heart of hearts, the fact that the majority of the leadership decisions you will make will involve people.

And since people are an organization's most appreciable asset (as the cliché goes), it becomes even more apparent that a leader's most important asset is to develop people skills (i.e., soft skills).

Soft skills leaders need to develop

Today's CEOs and HR execs understand that their organizations cannot retain highly engaged, high-performing employees without developing leaders to manage, coach, develop, and inspire loyal teams.

One big reason leadership remains a challenge is due to companies not identifying and developing young potential talent early in their careers to accelerate up the leadership ranks to meet the complex human needs of today's workers.

This leads to an important question: Are companies ready for the emerging new leaders that are needed today?

The research conducted by our partners found that leaders in high-performing organizations display six characteristics that we now teach in our From Boss to Leader online course. True leaders:

1. Display authenticity

Authenticity has been found to be a significant factor in engaging workers and managing conflict. However, too many leaders show passive-aggressive tendencies, like creating distance or stone-walling to avoid conflict.

Authentic leaders show the capacity to courageously run toward the eye of the storm. They know that cutting through a conflict to resolve a problem with respect, dignity, and active listening is easier than the negative consequences of running away from a conflict.

2. Value people

The pandemic has elevated the leadership game to unprecedented heights. Leaders now have an enormous responsibility to take care of people. As mental health challenges in the workplace increase, understanding each team member's unique experiences, challenges, and opportunities for improved success will greatly increase their engagement.

This is the essence of leading with the strength of valuing your people and their well-being. In practice, valuing your people both as workers and human beings greatly reduces suffering and anxiety, raises performance, and increases value, loyalty, and trust across the organization.

3. Develop people

In the research, great leaders provide for learning and growth while developing potential and career paths for others. They also model appropriate behavior and build up their people through encouragement and affirmation.

Additionally, offering people responsibility for their own actions increases their engagement and learning. So, we teach and coach leaders to provide an environment of more freedom and autonomy at work, but with clear measures of accountability.

4. Provide leadership

One of the skills of every leader is to set the right goals and expectations for employees, as well as to create the kind of work that is fulfilling and has meaning and purpose for each individual contributor. To that end, leaders must make work dynamic and have it tailored to the abilities and needs of fellow workers.

5. Share leadership

The research found that the strength in good leaders comes from sharing power and decision making -- pushing authority down to empower others. Sounds counterintuitive, yes, but remember: Good leaders are selfless and don't subscribe to "positional authority."

They understand that they don't have all the answers and that every person has something to contribute. One of the most important things we teach in our course is to shift from a command-and-control mindset of making all the decisions to one of releasing control and building competency in others to step up to leadership decisions.

6. Build community

Good leaders, the research asserts, enhance relationships and relate well to others at all levels. They promote a sense of belonging and connection for all team members. They also work collaboratively and emphasize teamwork. Finally, they value the differences of others -- differing strengths, expressions, ideas, personalities, and viewpoints.

Whether your company is a startup or an established business, there are questions that must be asked in order to find out if your leaders have what it takes to get the best out of employees. If they don't pass this list of questions, it's an opportune time to develop their soft skills. Some of these questions come out of our own self-assessments as part of our full development process. For example:

1. Do you trust your workers? Are you trustworthy?

2. Do you foster an environment that encourages learning and growth?

3. Do you allow your employees to help determine where the team is headed?

4. Do you give your workers the power to make important decisions?

5. Do you provide the support and resources needed to help workers meet their goals?

6. Are you open to receiving criticism and challenges from others?

Once top decision makers clearly understand how employees feel about their leaders and the environment they work in, they can determine a good strategy for helping all levels of management successfully navigate the challenges and demands of the future.

To reiterate a clear and simple path to leadership development, the first step is always to assess the leadership strength and health of an organization.

Leadership is certainly not for everyone. For those in the esteemed role of a "leader," a serious question needs to be asked: Are you fit to inspire human beings to be great and do great things for your organization?

Whether you're a line manager on the floor or an executive in the C-suite, you have to eventually accept, in your heart of hearts, the fact that the majority of the leadership decisions you will make will involve people.

And since people are an organization's most appreciable asset (as the cliché goes), it becomes even more apparent that a leader's most important asset is to develop people skills (i.e., soft skills).

Today's CEOs and HR execs understand that their organizations cannot retain highly engaged, high-performing employees without developing leaders to manage, coach, develop, and inspire loyal teams.

One big reason leadership remains a challenge is due to companies not identifying and developing young potential talent early in their careers to accelerate up the leadership ranks to meet the complex human needs of today's workers.

This leads to an important question: Are companies ready for the emerging new leaders that are needed today?

The research conducted by our partners found that leaders in high-performing organizations display six characteristics that we now teach in our From Boss to Leader online course. True leaders:

1. Display authenticity

Authenticity has been found to be a significant factor in engaging workers and managing conflict. However, too many leaders show passive-aggressive tendencies, like creating distance or stone-walling to avoid conflict.

Authentic leaders show the capacity to courageously run toward the eye of the storm. They know that cutting through a conflict to resolve a problem with respect, dignity, and active listening is easier than the negative consequences of running away from a conflict.

2. Value people

The pandemic has elevated the leadership game to unprecedented heights. Leaders now have an enormous responsibility to take care of people. As mental health challenges in the workplace increase, understanding each team member's unique experiences, challenges, and opportunities for improved success will greatly increase their engagement.

This is the essence of leading with the strength of valuing your people and their well-being. In practice, valuing your people both as workers and human beings greatly reduces suffering and anxiety, raises performance, and increases value, loyalty, and trust across the organization.

3. Develop people

In the research, great leaders provide for learning and growth while developing potential and career paths for others. They also model appropriate behavior and build up their people through encouragement and affirmation.

Additionally, offering people responsibility for their own actions increases their engagement and learning. So, we teach and coach leaders to provide an environment of more freedom and autonomy at work, but with clear measures of accountability.

4. Provide leadership

One of the skills of every leader is to set the right goals and expectations for employees, as well as to create the kind of work that is fulfilling and has meaning and purpose for each individual contributor. To that end, leaders must make work dynamic and have it tailored to the abilities and needs of fellow workers.

5. Share leadership

The research found that the strength in good leaders comes from sharing power and decision making -- pushing authority down to empower others. Sounds counterintuitive, yes, but remember: Good leaders are selfless and don't subscribe to "positional authority."

They understand that they don't have all the answers and that every person has something to contribute. One of the most important things we teach in our course is to shift from a command-and-control mindset of making all the decisions to one of releasing control and building competency in others to step up to leadership decisions.

6. Build community

Good leaders, the research asserts, enhance relationships and relate well to others at all levels. They promote a sense of belonging and connection for all team members. They also work collaboratively and emphasize teamwork. Finally, they value the differences of others -- differing strengths, expressions, ideas, personalities, and viewpoints.

Whether your company is a startup or an established business, there are questions that must be asked in order to find out if your leaders have what it takes to get the best out of employees. If they don't pass this list of questions, it's an opportune time to develop their soft skills. Some of these questions come out of our own self-assessments as part of our full development process. For example:

1. Do you trust your workers? Are you trustworthy?

2. Do you foster an environment that encourages learning and growth?

3. Do you allow your employees to help determine where the team is headed?

4. Do you give your workers the power to make important decisions?

5. Do you provide the support and resources needed to help workers meet their goals?

6. Are you open to receiving criticism and challenges from others?

Once top decision makers clearly understand how employees feel about their leaders and the environment they work in, they can determine a good strategy for helping all levels of management successfully navigate the challenges and demands of the future.

To reiterate a clear and simple path to leadership development, the first step is always to assess the leadership strength and health of an organization.

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How Can You Be Sure Someone Has What It Takes to Lead Others? Look for 6 Rare Behaviors

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Leadership is certainly not for everyone. For those in the esteemed role of a "leader," a serious question needs to be asked: Are you fit to inspire human beings to be great and do great things for your organization?

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Martinuzzi, B. (2021). What's empathy got to do with it?: How to exercise your thinking and feeling muscles. Mind Tools. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_75.htm

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A few weeks ago, I came across a bumper sticker that said: "I am not good at empathy. Will you settle for sarcasm?" The humor in the bumper sticker led me to think of the slight unease or self-conscious discomfort that many people feel when a term such as "empathy" is introduced in a business environment. Notions of "touchy-feely," spring to mind.

While empathy is a right brain activity, it is far from being a touchy-feely topic. At its core, empathy is the oil that keeps relationships running smoothly. The fact that empathy is an important component of effective relationships has been proven: in studies by Dr Antonio Damasio (outlined in his book: "Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain"), medical patients who had damage to part of the brain associated with empathy showed significant deficits in relationship skills, even though their reasoning and learning abilities remained intact.

Indeed, empathy is valued currency. It allows us to create bonds of trust, it gives us insights into what others may be feeling or thinking; it helps us understand how or why others are reacting to situations, it sharpens our "people acumen" and it informs our decisions.

A formal definition of Empathy is the ability to identify and understand another's situation, feelings and motives. It's our capacity to recognize the concerns other people have. Empathy means: "putting yourself in the other person's shoes" or "seeing things through someone else's eyes."

There are numerous studies that link empathy to business results. They include studies that correlate empathy with increased sales, with the performance of the best managers of product development teams and with enhanced performance in an increasingly diverse workforce. A few of these studies can be viewed on the site of The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.

Yes, increasingly, the topic of empathy is encroaching on the business world. We are now even seeing terms such as "empathy marketing" and "empathy selling." Not long ago, I came across the term "user empathy," referring to user interface.

Along those lines, in his book, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, Daniel Pink predicts that power will reside with those who have strong right-brain (interpersonal) qualities. He cites three forces that are causing this change: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. "Abundance" refers to our increasing demand for products or services that are aesthetically pleasing; "Asia" refers to the growing trend of outsourcing; "Automation" is self-explanatory. In order to compete in the new economy market, Pink suggests six areas that are vital to our success. One of which is Empathy; the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's position, to imagine what they are feeling, to understand what makes people tick, to create relationships and to be caring of others: all of which is very difficult to outsource or automate, and yet is increasingly important to business.

Empathy is also particularly critical to leadership development in this age of young, independent, highly marketable and mobile workers. In a popular Harvard Business Review article entitled " What Makes a Leader?", Dr Daniel Goleman isolates three reasons why empathy is so important: the increasing use of teams, (which he refers to as "cauldrons of bubbling emotions"), the rapid pace of globalization (with cross cultural communication easily leading to misunderstandings) and the growing need to retain talent. "Leaders with empathy," states Goleman, "do more than sympathize with people around them: they use their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle, but important ways." This doesn't mean that they agree with everyone's view or try to please everybody. Rather, they "thoughtfully consider employees' feelings - along with other factors - in the process of making intelligent decisions."

Empathy, then, is an ability that is well worth cultivating. It's a soft, sometimes abstract tool in a leader's toolkit that can lead to hard, tangible results. But where does empathy come from? Is it a process of thinking or of emotion? From my perspective, I believe that it is both: we need to use our reasoning ability to understand another person's thoughts, feelings, reactions, concerns, motives. This means truly making an effort to stop and think for a moment about the other person's perspective in order to begin to understand where they are coming from. And then we need the emotional capacity to care for that person's concern. Caring does not mean that we would always agree with the person, that we would change our position, but it does mean that we would be in tune with what that person is going through, so that we can respond in a manner that acknowledges their thoughts, feelings or concerns.

So this leads me to a question that I am sometimes asked, "Can you teach someone to be empathetic?" We all know some people who are naturally and consistently empathetic - these are the people who can easily forge positive connections with others. They are people who use empathy to engender trust and build bonds; they are catalysts who are able to create positive communities for the greater good. But even if empathy does not come naturally to some of us, I firmly believe that we can develop this capacity.

Here are a few practical tips you might consider to help you do this:

1. Listen - truly listen to people. Listen with your ears, eyes and heart. Pay attention to others' body language, to their tone of voice, to the hidden emotions behind what they are saying to you, and to the context.

2. Don't interrupt people. Don't dismiss their concerns offhand. Don't rush to give advice. Don't change the subject. Allow people their moment.

3. Tune in to non-verbal communication. This is the way that people often communicate what they think or feel, even when their verbal communication says something quite different.

4. Practice the "93 percent rule". We know from a famous study by Professor Emeritus, Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, when communicating about feelings and attitudes, words - the things we say - account for only 7 percent of the total message that people receive. The other 93 percent of the message that we communicate when we speak is contained in our tone of voice and body language. It's important, then, to spend some time to understand how we come across when we communicate with others about our feelings and attitudes.

5. Use people's name. Also, remember the names of people's spouse and children so that you can refer to them by name.

6. Be fully present when you are with people. Don't check your email, look at your watch or take phone calls when a direct report drops into your office to talk to you. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel if your boss did that to you?

7. Smile at people.

8. Encourage people, particularly the quiet ones, when they speak up in meetings. A simple thing like an attentive nod can boost people's confidence.

9. Give genuine recognition and praise. Pay attention to what people are doing and catch them doing the right things. When you give praise, spend a little effort to make your genuine words memorable: "You are an asset to this team because..."; "This was pure genius"; "I would have missed this if you hadn't picked it up."

10. Take a personal interest in people. Show people that you care, and genuine curiosity about their lives. Ask them questions about their hobbies, their challenges, their families, their aspirations.

Empathy is an emotional and thinking muscle that becomes stronger the more we use it. Try some of these suggestions and watch the reactions of those you work with. I believe you will notice some positive results.

Years ago, I had come across a saying that went something like this: the measure of a man [or woman], is how they treat someone who is of absolutely no use to them. Empathy should not be selective: it should be a daily habit. If I were to create a bumper sticker, I would say, "Empathy: Don't Leave Home Without It!"
Copyright © 2009- by Bruna Martinuzzi. All Rights Reserved.
This article is an excerpt from Bruna Martinuzzi's book: "The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow." Bruna is an educator, author and speaker specializing in emotional intelligence, leadership, Myers-Briggs and presentation skills training. Visit her website at www.clarionenterprises.com.

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What's Empathy Got to Do With It?: How to Exercise Your Thinking and Feeling Muscles

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A few weeks ago, I came across a bumper sticker that said: "I am not good at empathy. Will you settle for sarcasm?" The humor in the bumper sticker led me to think of the slight unease or self-conscious discomfort that many people feel when a term such as "empathy" is introduced in a business environment.

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Indeed Editorial Team. (2020, February 25). What is situational leadership? Definition, advantages vs. disadvantages and examples. Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/situational-leadership

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Ackerman, C. (2015, January 24). What is self-awareness and why is it important? [+5 ways to increase it]. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/self-awareness-matters-how-you-can-be-more-self-aware/

What is self-awareness and why is it important? [+5 ways to increase it].

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Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.

While it may not be possible to attain total objectivity about oneself (that's a debate that has continued to rage throughout the history of philosophy), there are certainly degrees of self-awareness. It exists on a spectrum.

Although everyone has a fundamental idea of what self-awareness is, we don't know exactly where it comes from, what its precursors are, or why some of us seem to have more or less than others.

This is where the self-awareness theory comes in, offering some potential answers to questions like these.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will not only help you increase the compassion and kindness you show yourself but will also give you the tools to help your clients, students, or employees show more compassion to themselves.

What Is Self-Awareness Theory?

Self-awareness theory is based on the idea that you are not your thoughts, but the entity observing your thoughts; you are the thinker, separate and apart from your thoughts (Duval & Wicklund, 1972).

We can go about our day without giving our inner self any extra thought, merely thinking and feeling and acting as we will; however, we also can focus our attention on that inner self, an ability that Duval and Wicklund (1972) termed "self-evaluation."

When we engage in self-evaluation, we can give some thought to whether we are thinking and feeling and acting as we "should" or following our standards and values. This is referred to as comparing against our standards of correctness. We do this daily, using these standards as a way to judge the rightness of our thoughts and behaviors.

Using these standards is a major component of practicing self-control, as we evaluate and determine whether we are making the right choices to achieve our goals.

Research on the Topic

This theory has been around for several decades, giving researchers plenty of time to test its soundness. The depth of knowledge on self-awareness, its correlates, and its benefits can provide us with a healthy foundation for enhancing self-awareness in ourselves and others.

According to the theory, there are two primary outcomes of comparing ourselves against our standards of correctness:

1. We "pass," or find alignment between ourselves and our standards.

2. We "fail," or find a discrepancy between ourselves and our standards (Silvia & Duval, 2001).

When we find a discrepancy between the two, we find ourselves with two choices: to work toward reducing the discrepancy or avoid it entirely.

Self-awareness theory (and subsequent research) suggests that there are a couple of different factors that influence how we choose to respond. Basically, it comes down to how we think it will turn out. If we believe there's little chance of actually changing this discrepancy, we tend to avoid it. If we believe it's likely that we can improve our alignment with our standards of correctness, we take action.

Our actions will also depend on how much time and effort we believe that realignment will take; the slower progress will be, the less likely we are to take on the realignment efforts, especially if the perceived discrepancy between ourselves and our standards is large (Silvia & Duval, 2001).

Essentially, this means that when faced with a significant discrepancy that will take a lot of consistent and focused work, we often simply don't bother and stick to avoiding self-evaluation on this particular discrepancy.

Further, our level of self-awareness interacts with the likelihood of success in realigning ourselves and our standards to determine how we think about the outcome. When we are self-aware and believe there is a high chance of success, we are generally quick to attribute that success or failure to our efforts.

Conversely, when we are self-aware but believe there is a low chance of success, we tend to think that the outcome is more influenced by external factors than our efforts (Silvia & Duval, 2001). Of course, sometimes our success in realignment with our standards is driven in part by external factors, but we always have a role to play in our successes and failures.

Interestingly, we also have some control over our standards, such that we may alter our standards if we find that we don't measure up to them (Dana, Lalwani, & Duval, 1997).

This is more likely to happen if we're focused more on the standards than on ourselves; if we fail when we are focused on the standards more than our performance, we are more likely to blame the standards and alter them to fit our performance (Dana et al., 1997).

Although it may sound like merely shifting the blame to standards and, therefore, letting yourself off the hook for a real discrepancy, there are many situations in which the standards are overly strict. Therapists' offices are filled with people who hold themselves to impossibly high standards, effectively giving themselves no chance of success when comparing themselves to their internal standards.

It's clear from the research on self-awareness that it is an important factor in how we think, feel, act, and react to our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

4 Proven Benefits of Self-Awareness

Now, let's shift our attention to research on the outcomes of being self-aware.

As you might imagine, there are many benefits to practicing self-awareness:

It can make us more proactive, boost our acceptance, and encourage positive self-development (Sutton, 2016).

Self-awareness allows us to see things from the perspective of others, practice self-control, work creatively and productively, and experience pride in ourselves and our work as well as general self-esteem (Silvia & O'Brien, 2004).

It leads to better decision making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992).

It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related wellbeing (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015).

These benefits are reason enough to work on improving self-awareness, but this list is by no means exhaustive. Self-awareness has the potential to enhance virtually every experience you have, as it's a tool and a practice that can be used anywhere, anytime, to ground yourself in the moment, realistically evaluate yourself and the situation, and help you make good choices.

3 Examples of Self-Awareness Skills

So we know that self-awareness is good, but what does it look like? How does one practice self-awareness?

Below are three examples of someone practicing self-awareness skills:

Bob at work

Bob struggles with creating a quarterly report at work, and he frequently produces subpar results. He notices the discrepancy between his standards and performance and engages in self-evaluation to determine where it comes from and how to improve.

He asks himself what makes the task so hard for him, and he realizes that he never seems to have trouble doing the work that goes into the report, but rather, writing it up cohesively and clearly.

Bob decides to fix the discrepancy by taking a course to improve his writing ability, having a colleague review his report before submitting it, and creating a reusable template for future reports so he is sure to include all relevant information.

Monique at home

Monique is having relationship problems with her boyfriend, Luis. She thinks Luis takes her for granted and doesn't tell her he loves her or share affection enough. They fight about this frequently.

Suddenly, she realizes that she may be contributing to the problem. She looks inward and sees that she doesn't show Luis appreciation very often, overlooking the nice things he does around the house for her and little physical touches that show his affection.

Monique considers her thought processes when Luis misses an opportunity to make her feel loved and notes that she assumes he purposely avoids doing things that she likes. She spends time thinking and talking with Luis about how they want to show and receive love, and they begin to work on improving their relationship.

Bridget on her own

Bridget struggles with low self-esteem, which causes depressive symptoms. She doesn't feel good enough, and she doesn't accept opportunities that come her way because of it. She begins working with a therapist to help her build self-awareness.

The next time an opportunity comes her way, she thinks she doesn't want to do it and initially decides to turn it down. Later, with the help of some self-awareness techniques, Bridget realizes that she is only telling herself she doesn't want to do it because of her fear that she won't be good enough.

Bridget reminds herself that she is good enough and redirects her thoughts to "what if I succeed?" instead of "what if I fail?" She accepts the opportunity and continues to use self-awareness and self-love to improve her chances of success.

These three stories exemplify what self-awareness can look like and what it can do for you when you tap into it. Without self-awareness, Bob would have kept turning in bad reports, Monique would have continued in an unsatisfying relationship or broken things off, and Bridget would never have taken the opportunity that helped her grow.

If you look for them, you can find these stories everywhere.

5 Ways to Increase Your Self-Awareness

Now we have some clearcut examples of self-awareness in mind. We know what it looks like to embrace self-awareness and grow. But how do you do it? What did our leading characters do to practice self-awareness?

There are many ways to build and practice self-awareness, but here are some of the most effective:

1. Practice mindfulness and meditation

Mindfulness refers to being present in the moment and paying attention to yourself and your surroundings rather than getting lost in thought or ruminating or daydreaming.

Meditation is the practice of focusing your attention on one thing, such as your breath, a mantra, or a feeling, and letting your thoughts drift by instead of holding on to them.

Both practices can help you become more aware of your internal state and your reactions to things. They can also help you identify your thoughts and feelings and keep from getting so caught up in them that you lose your hold on your "self."

2. Practice yoga

Yoga is a physical practice, but it's just as much a mental practice. While your body is stretching and bending and flexing, your mind is learning discipline, self-acceptance, and awareness. You become more aware of your body and all the feelings that manifest, and you become more aware of your mind and the thoughts that crop up.

You can even pair yoga with mindfulness or meditation to boost your self-awareness.

3. Make time to reflect

Reflecting can be done in multiple ways (including journaling; see the next tip) and is customizable to the person reflecting, but the important thing is to go over your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to see where you met your standards, where you failed them, and where you could improve.

You can also reflect on your standards themselves to see if they are good ones for you to hold yourself to. You can try writing in a journal, talking out loud, or simply sitting quietly and thinking, whatever helps you to reflect on yourself.

4. Journal

The benefit of journaling is that it allows you to identify, clarify, and accept your thoughts and feelings. It helps you discover what you want, what you value, and what works for you. It can also help you find out what you don't want, what is not important to you, and what doesn't work for you.

Both are equally important to learn. Whether you like to write free-flowing entries, bulleted lists, or poems, writing down your thoughts and feelings helps you to become more aware and intentional.

5. Ask the people you love

It's vital to feel we know ourselves from the inside, but external feedback helps too. Ask your family and close friends about what they think about you. Have them describe you and see what rings true with you and what surprises you.

Carefully consider what they say and think about it when you journal or otherwise reflect. Of course, don't take any one person's word as gospel; you need to talk to a variety of people to get a comprehensive view of yourself.

And remember that at the end of the day, it's your self-beliefs and feelings that matter the most to you!

Importance in Counseling and Coaching

Self-awareness is a powerful tool that, when practiced regularly, can do more good for coachees and clients than anything else a professional can share with them. To make real, impactful, and lasting change, people need to be able to look inward and become familiar with that internal environment.

Building self-awareness should be a top priority for virtually all clients, after which the more traditional coaching and counseling work can begin. For example, you can counsel someone on their bad habits and give 1,000 ways to break their habits.

Still, if they don't understand why they tend toward these bad habits in the first place, it's almost a guarantee that they will either never break those habits or will quit for a while and simply pick up where they left off when things get tough.

Self-awareness is not only vital for the coachee or client; it is also important for the coach or counselor. In fact, self-awareness is prioritized as a core standard in the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs Standards (2017) for the profession, as both a requirement for counselors and a necessary skill to build in clients.

It takes a good amount of self-awareness to give competent counsel and provide actionable advice. Plus, self-awareness will help the caring counselor from getting too wrapped up in their client's problems or seeing the issues through their own skewed lens.

To truly help someone, it's essential to see things from their perspective, and that requires being self-aware enough to put our thoughts and feelings aside sometimes.

Meditation, Mindfulness, and Self-Awareness

The link between meditation, mindfulness, and self-awareness is clear, meaning it's no surprise that practicing the first two will naturally lead to more of the third.

When we meditate or practice mindfulness, we are paying attention to the things that can often get ignored in our busy day-to-day: the present moment and our own internal experience. Those who get to know their thought processes and patterns are more able to adapt and improve them, both by simply being aware of their processes and patterns and by giving themselves a mechanism for practicing and improving.

Indeed, a program intended to enhance self-awareness (among other things) through yoga and meditation resulted in a range of improvements, including more positive affect, less stress, greater mindfulness, enhanced resilience, and even greater job satisfaction (Trent et al., 2019).

Self-Awareness & Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can be defined as the cluster of abilities that allow us to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others (Goleman, 2001).

According to the most popular theory of emotional intelligence from psychologist and author Daniel Goleman (2001), self-awareness is not only crucial for emotional intelligence; it's one of the five components.

These five components are:

Other popular theories of emotional intelligence also include self-awareness as a core component, making it one of the factors that virtually all researchers and experts agree on (Goleman, 2001).

Self-awareness is a necessary building block of emotional intelligence; it is the building block upon which the rest of the components are built. One must have self-awareness to self-regulate, and social skills will be weak and of little use if you are not aware enough about when and how to use them.

If you're looking to build your emotional intelligence, self-awareness is the first step. Make sure you have developed strong skills in self-awareness before giving the other elements your all.

4 Tips for Improving Self-Awareness in Relationships

If you want to be more like post-reflection Monique than pre-reflection Monique (referring to examples of self-awareness skills in action above), or if you're going to help your clients with their relationship woes, here are some excellent tips for introducing more self-awareness within the context of a relationship:

1. Be mindful

Practice mindfulness, especially when interacting with your loved ones. Pay attention to the words they say, their tone, their body language, and their facial expressions. We often communicate far more information with the latter three than we do with our words alone. Give your loved ones your full attention.

2. Talk

Have regular discussions about the relationship. It's important to keep things in perspective and ensure that nothing is falling between the cracks.

When you have regular conversations about your relationship with your loved ones, it's much harder to avoid or ignore things that can turn into problems. It also helps you reflect on your part and come prepared to discuss your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with your loved ones.

3. Quality time

Spend quality time together and apart. This is especially important for romantic relationships, as we often find ourselves spending most or even all of our free time with our spouse or partner. However much you love and enjoy spending time with your partner, everyone needs some quality time alone.

Make sure you and your partner are both getting some quality "me" time to think about what you want, what you need, and what your goals are. This will help you keep yourself from merging too much into your partner and maintaining your independence and stability.

Then, since there will be two independent, stable, and healthy adults in the relationship, it will be even more fulfilling and satisfying to both partners when they spend quality time together.

4. Be considerate

Share your perspective and consider theirs. It's easy to get too caught up in our own perspective on things; however, healthy relationships require that we consider others' needs in addition to our own.

To know what our loved ones need and to deliver on those needs, we must first identify and understand them. We do this by practicing our self-awareness and sharing that awareness with our friends and family.

If you never check in with your loved ones on their views or feelings, it can cause you to drift apart and inhibit real, satisfying intimacy. Ask your loved ones for their perspective on things and share your perspective with them.

Role in the Workplace and Leadership

As noted earlier, self-awareness improves our communication, confidence, and job performance (Sutton et al., 2015).

It's easy to see how self-awareness can lead to these outcomes in the workplace, as better self-evaluation naturally leads to improving the alignment between our actions and our standards, resulting in better performance.

According to Tasha Eurich (2018), self-awareness can be divided into two categories or types: internal self-awareness and external self-awareness.

Internal self-awareness is about how well we see ourselves and our strengths, weaknesses, values, etc., while external self-awareness is understanding how others view us with those same factors (Eurich, 2018). Good managers and leaders need both to perform well in their roles.

Although you might think that more experience as a leader and greater power in one's role lead to better self-awareness, that may not be the case. Experience can be positive or negative in terms of learning and improving the self. Even positive experiences can lead one to attribute success to themselves when it may have had more to do with the circumstances, leading to false confidence.

In fact, only 10-15% of those in Eurich's (2018) study displayed self-awareness, although most of us believe we are self-aware.

To improve self-awareness, Eurich (2018) recommends introspection, but with a focus on asking oneself the right questions. She notes that asking "why" might not always be effective, as many of our internal processes remain shrouded in our subconscious or unconscious minds; instead, asking "what" may lead to better introspection.

For example, instead of asking, " Why do I fail at this task so often?" you might ask yourself, " What are the circumstances in which I fail at this task, and what can I do to change them? " It's not a foolproof method, but it can aid you in improving your self-awareness and increasing your alignment with your standards on certain activities.

Self-Awareness in Students and Children

Self-awareness isn't just for managers and employees; it can also substantially benefit students, children, and adolescents. The same benefits that make us more productive in the workplace can make students more productive in the classroom and at home: better communication with teachers and peers, more confidence, and more satisfaction with performance can all lead to happier, healthier students.

These benefits also apply to advanced students. Increased self-awareness leads to more self-care in medical students (Saunders et al., 2007) and a better understanding of one's strengths and capabilities along with a boost to emotional intelligence in law students (James, 2011).

A Take-Home Message

In short, a little extra self-awareness can be of great benefit to anyone with the will to improve. This piece includes a description of self-awareness, an exploration of the theory of self-awareness, examples, and tips and tools you can use to boost your self-awareness. We hope you find this information helpful in increasing your self-awareness or that of your clients.

What exercises do you use to help build self-awareness? What are some other benefits you've noticed? Let us know in the comments section below.

If you liked this post, head on over to our post about self-awareness books to further help you increase reflection.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our three Self Compassion Exercises for free.

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What Is Self-Awareness? (+5 Ways to Be More Self-Aware)

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Everyone has an idea of what self-awareness is. But do you know why it matters in counseling, or how you can be more self-aware? Find out here

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Berner, B. (2021, October 13). Leaders: This is the impact trustworthiness has on your success. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90685719/leaders-this-is-the-impact-trustworthiness-has-on-your-success

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Leaders: This is the impact trustworthiness has on your success

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A Spotify executive says, ’There’s a big difference between being liked and being trusted, especially when you hold a position of power, and the distinction heavily influences the success of your workforce.

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Vantage Circle. (2020, October 9). 25 Leadership Qualities that help Leaders achieve Great Success. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soesgbk2Ef4&t=1s

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25 Leadership Qualities that help Leaders achieve Great Success | Motivational Video

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Daniel Goleman Leadership Styles based on EI

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Daniel Goleman Leadership Styles based on EI

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Leadership Styles - the six leadership styles you need! Daniel Goleman Leadership Styles based on EI

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Great leaders develop emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence can be learned and continuously improve.

Meinert, D. (2019, August 16). Emotional intelligence is key to outstanding leadership. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0318/pages/emotional-intelligence-is-key-to-outstanding-leadership.aspx

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​If you're a leader, you probably already have the time-honored "business smarts" for the job, namely the intellectual capability and technical skill.

Those are important. But they're only the base line. Numerous studies have shown that what distinguishes outstanding leaders from average ones are emotional self-awareness and self-control.

"Effective leaders tend to be smart in the traditional way, but there's also this emotional component that's probably equally important, if not more so," says Cary Cherniss, professor emeritus of organizational psychology and co-chair of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at Rutgers University.

​Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your own and others' emotions and how they drive behavior, and then using that knowledge to motivate others.

"Most people make mistakes around emotional intelligence because they don't understand what's going on with other people," says Travis Bradberry, president of TalentSmart in San Diego, which provides emotional intelligence tests and training. "They don't even necessarily understand what's going on with themselves."

In assessments of more than 2 million workers, TalentSmart researchers found that "just 36 percent of people are able to accurately identify their emotions as they happen," says Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (TalentSmart, 2009).

A lack of emotional intelligence among the senior team can be devastating to the rest of the workforce.

"Leaders prime the emotional state of the organization," Bradberry says. "So when they're ineffective, when they set poor examples of how they treat other people, that trickles down throughout the company." The result could be low employee engagement or high turnover because of the toxic interactions between people.

"It's very hard on morale, and you start to lose that discretionary effort that you get from people who love their jobs and work in motivating, comfortable environments," he says.

One telltale sign of leaders who need to work on managing their emotions is that they frequently have challenging interactions with others.

"They find people very difficult, and they don't tend to understand that they are part of the equation," Bradberry says.

On the other hand, leaders with high emotional intelligence "tend to be uplifted by their interactions with people and think it's great to have a team," he says.

The good news is you can improve your emotional intelligence, if you're willing to work at it.

"It's really critical for somebody who wants to excel as a manager and leader that they look at developing these skills. And by the way, they can be learned," says Annie McKee, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's graduate school of education who teaches leadership and emotional intelligence and is co-author of Becoming a Resonant Leader (Harvard Business Review Press, 2008).

McKee and fellow researchers have identified the following four key elements of emotional intelligence:

Self-Awareness

Frequently, leaders don't see a need to control their emotions because they've reached their lofty position without doing so-and their teams are afraid to clue them in.

A 360-degree feedback process can help pinpoint problem areas. The assessment, which uses input from supervisors, colleagues and subordinates, is often eye-opening.

A more low-profile approach is to simply ask trusted colleagues.

"It's good for all leaders to get some honest feedback," says Cherniss, noting that some companies are requiring executives to focus on emotional intelligence as part of their leadership development programs.

Social Awareness

People without this skill don't understand that, in social interactions, they need to focus more on the other person than themselves. They miss important cues because they're always thinking about what they will say next.

Those prompts can be particularly subtle with subordinates, who often defer to authority and may be reluctant to share what's on their mind directly. Learning to read nonverbal signals can provide clues about what they're feeling, Bradberry advises.

Ask team members from time to time how they're feeling about a particular project, suggests Joshua Freedman, the San Francisco-based CEO of 6 Seconds, a global nonprofit researching and sharing best practices for emotional intelligence. Just the act of acknowledging their stress can help them feel better, he says.

{SHRM members-only toolkit: Developing Organizational Leaders]

Self-Management

​Once you've determined which areas to work on, focus on achieving one or two goals.

"Self-management is getting your emotions to produce the behavior you want," Bradberry says. "Sometimes that's keeping yourself from doing something. Other times it's magnifying a productive behavior."

Here are some tips from the experts:

Set narrow, measurable goals. It could be as simple as giving your undivided attention to someone who walks into your office or as difficult as eliminating habitual angry outbursts.

Keep a journal. Stop several times a day and jot down what you're feeling and why, McKee advises. "Am I angry because that person just snapped at me and I feel my job is on the line? Maybe it's not because he hates you. It could be he's having a bad day," she says.

Quiz yourself. In larger companies, executives may have the opportunity to work with a coach who can help them to recognize the emotions they are feeling and to use them in more-productive ways.

"Sadness, anger and fear are signals to help us inform our actions," says Shawn Kent Hayashi, an executive coach, a consultant and CEO of The Professional Development Group in Center Valley, Pa.

'That 20-second pause that engages your thinking brain instead of your out-of-control emotional brain is all it takes to be more effective.'

She teaches clients questions to ask themselves to analyze their feelings. For example, a leader prone to lashing out might ask questions such as: "What crossed my boundaries? Who do I need to talk to to clean up this situation? Am I the one who didn't meet my own standards?"

Dig beneath the surface because sometimes hidden emotions are driving our behavior, Freedman says.

Pause and reflect. Before reacting, take a deep breath and think about what's really going on with both you and the other person. "That 20-second pause that engages your thinking brain instead of your out-of-control emotional brain is all it takes to be more effective," McKee says.

Find an outlet. When you feel like exploding, let off steam with a trusted friend instead. "It's venting with a purpose, venting with the intention of learning something," McKee explains.

Psych yourself up. "Other people pick up on the leader's mood, so having a positive outlook and communicating with people can really pull a team along in doing outstanding work," says Geri Grossman, president of My Executive Coach in Buffalo, N.Y.

Practice. Replacing destructive habits with productive ones takes a lot of time and effort. Realize that it won't happen overnight.

Relationship Management

Use your new insights to inspire your workforce. Researchers have found that "outstanding leaders almost continuously monitor the emotional climate in any setting where they are," Cherniss says.

They can walk into a room and lift people up. "They're very good in the way they interact with people, in the way they express their own feelings and getting other people to feel good even if the situation is a difficult one," he says. "They give them a sense of hope and commitment to the goal."

That's true genius.

Dori Meinert is senior writer/editor of HR Magazine.

Was this article useful? SHRM offers thousands of tools, templates and other exclusive member benefits, including compliance updates, sample policies, HR expert advice, education discounts, a growing online member community and much more. Join/Renew Now and let SHRM help you work smarter.

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Emotional Intelligence Is Key to Outstanding Leadership

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​If you're a leader, you probably already have the time-honored "business smarts" for the job, namely the intellectual capability and technical skill. Those are important. But they're only the base line. Numerous studies have shown that what distinguishes outstanding leaders from average ones are emotional self-awareness and self-control.

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Mind Tools Videos. (2019, September 3). Developing Emotional Intelligence [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9h8fG1DKhA

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Cherry, K. (2020, May 25). 5 ways to become more emotionally intelligent at work. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/utilizing-emotional-intelligence-in-the-workplace-4164713

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Emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as EQ, refers to a person's ability to recognize, understand, manage, and reason with emotions. It is a critical ability when it comes to interpersonal communication-a hot topic not only in psychology but in the business world. The term itself was coined by psychologists in the 1990s, but its use quickly spread into other areas including business, education, and popular culture.

Psychologists Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, two of the leading researchers on the topic, define emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others. This ability also involves utilizing this emotional understanding to make decisions, solve problems, and communicate with others.

In the past, emotions and intelligence were often viewed as being in opposition of one another. In recent decades, however, researchers exploring emotion psychology have become increasingly interested in cognition and affect. This area explores how cognitive processes and emotions interact and influence the ways that people think. Consider how emotions and moods such as happiness, anger, fear, and sadness influence how people behave and make decisions.

Emotional Intelligence: Important for Success

Interest in emotion psychology and the concept of emotional intelligence really caught fire with the 1995 publication of Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence: Why it can Matter More Than IQ. In the popular book, Goleman argued that emotional intelligence could be just as important, if not even more so, at predicting success in life. These emotional competencies, he argued, also played a particularly important role in the workplace.

The concept quickly caught the attention of the public, including human resource managers and business leaders. Researchers have suggested that emotional intelligence influences how well employees interact with their colleagues. EQ is also thought to play a role in how workers manage stress and conflict as well as overall performance on the job.

Studies have shown that employees with higher scores on measures of EQ also tend to be rated higher on measures of interpersonal functioning, leadership abilities, and stress management. Other studies have linked higher emotional intelligence with better job satisfaction as well as overall job performance.

Goleman suggested that while traditional intelligence was a quality associated with leadership success, it alone was not enough. People who are successful at work aren't just smart - they also have a strong amount of emotional intelligence.

But emotional intelligence is not something just for CEOs and senior managers. It's a quality that is important at every level of a person's career, whether you are a college student looking for an internship or a seasoned employee taking on a leadership role. If you want to succeed in the workplace and move up the career ladder, emotional intelligence is critical to your success.

Why Emotional Intelligence Matters in the Workplace

So why is emotional intelligence such a valued workplace skill? According to one survey of hiring managers, almost 75 percent of respondents suggested that they valued an employee's EQ more than their IQ.

Some of the reasons why emotional intelligence can be the key to workplace success:

Emotional intelligence can lead to better business decisions

Emotionally intelligent employees are more likely to keep their cool under pressure

Those with high EQ are better at resolving conflicts

Emotionally intelligent leaders tend to have greater empathy

Employees with high EQs are more likely to listen, reflect, and respond to constructive criticism

Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a valuable skill, and it is also one that researchers believe can be improved with training and practice. While emotional skills may come naturally to some people, there are things that anyone can do to help improve their ability to understand and reason with emotions. This can be particularly helpful in the workplace, where relationships and business decisions often rely on interpersonal understanding, teamwork, and communication.

How to Become More Emotionally Intelligent

Since it is such a highly valued skill, is it possible for anyone to have high emotional intelligence? Can people who lack this skill improve their abilities to understand and manage emotions? Factors such as upbringing and personality tend to play a large role in the development of emotional intelligence, but it is a skill that can be improved with effort and practice.

One study found that participants who trained in key emotional competencies not only showed lasting improvements in emotional intelligence, they also experienced improvements in physical and mental well-being, better social relationships, and lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

So if you are interested in improving your emotional intelligence skills to benefit your workplace performance, there are a few things you can do.

One of the first steps toward utilizing emotional intelligence skills in the workplace is to practice recognizing your own emotions. Self-awareness involves being aware of different aspects of yourself, including your emotions and feelings. It is one of the foundational components of emotional intelligence. In order to recognize your emotions and understand what is causing these feelings, you need to first be self-aware.

Ways to improve self-awareness:

Pay attention to how you are feeling at any given moment throughout the day. How do these emotions influence how you respond? Do the things you are feeling have an impact on the decisions you make or how you interact with others? As you spend more time reflecting on these questions, you may find that you become much more aware of your own emotions and the role that they play in your daily life.

Take stock of your emotional strengths and weaknesses. How well do you communicate with others? Do you find yourself experiencing impatience, anger, or annoyance often? What are some ways you can deal with these feelings effectively? Recognizing your weaknesses allows you to look for ways to deal with such shortcomings.

Keep in mind that emotions tend to be fleeting and can change quickly. A co-worker might irritate you or your boss might give you a frustrating task to complete. Before you react, remember that these things are temporary, so making rash decisions based on intense emotions can be detrimental to your long-term goals and success.

Daniel Goleman identified self-regulation as a critical part of the emotional intelligence. Being aware of your emotions is an important first step, but you also need to be able to manage the things you are feeling. People who possess good self-regulation are able to adapt well to changing situations. They don't bottle things up, but they do wait for appropriate ways to express their emotions rather than just reacting impulsively in the moment. They also think about how their emotional expressions affect others.

Ways to start improving your self-regulation skills in the workplace:

Find techniques to help you deal with workplace stress. Having hobbies outside of work is a great place to start. Physical exercise is also a healthy way to release stress.

Keep your cool when things get stressful at work. Accept the fact that you cannot control everything, but look for helpful ways that you can respond that don't add fuel to the fire.

Take time to think before making decisions. Emotions can overwhelm you in the heat of the moment, but you can make a calmer, more rational choice if you give yourself a bit of time to consider all of the possibilities.

Improve Your Social Skills
Research on emotion psychology also suggests that people with high EQs also have strong social skills. Because they are adept at recognizing other people's emotions, they are able to respond appropriately to the situation. Social skills are also highly valued in the workplace because they lead to better communication and overall company culture.

Employees and leaders with great social skills are able to build rapport with colleagues and communicate their ideas effectively. People with good social skills are not only great team players; they are able to take on leadership roles when needed.

Ways to strengthen your own social skills in the workplace:

Listen to what others have to say. This doesn't mean just passively listening to other people talk. Active listening involves showing attention, asking questions and providing feedback. Whether you are in a management role or a team member, active listening can show that you are passionate about work projects and willing to work with others to help the group reach its goals.

Pay attention to nonverbal communication. The signals that people send through their body language can convey a lot about what they really think.

Hone your persuasion skills. Being able to carry influence in the workplace and convince team members and supervisors to listen to your ideas can go a long way in advancing your career.

Avoid office drama, but make sure that you are capable of managing conflict. Do your best to stay out of the petty office politics that sometimes take over the workplace, but be aware that conflicts are not always avoidable. Focus on listing to what others have to say and look for ways to solve problems and minimize tensions.

Emotionally intelligent people are good at stepping into another person's shoes and understanding how they feel. Empathy is more than just recognizing how others are feeling; it also involves how you respond to these emotions.

In the workplace, empathy allows you to understand different dynamics between colleagues and supervisors. It also allows you to recognize who holds power and how it influences the behaviors, feelings, and interactions that flow from such relationships.

Some ways to work on your empathy in the workplace:

Try seeing things from the other person's point of view. It can be challenging at times, especially if you feel like the other person is wrong. But rather than let disagreements build up into major conflicts, spend time looking at the situation from another's perspective. It can be a great first step toward finding a middle ground between two opposing points of view.

Pay attention to how you respond to others. Do you let them have a chance to share their ideas? Do you acknowledge their input, even if you disagree? Letting others known that their efforts have merit often helps everyone feel more willing to compromise.

Another key component of emotional intelligence is something known as intrinsic motivation. People who have a strong EQ tend to be more motivated to achieve goals for their own sake. Rather than seeking external rewards, they want to do things because they find them fulfilling and they are passionate about what they do.

Money, status, and acclaim are great, but people who are highly successful in the workplace are usually motivated by something more than that. They are passionate about what they do. They have a commitment to their work, they love taking on new challenges, and their enthusiasm can seem contagious. They don't give up in the face of obstacles and they are able to inspire others to work hard and persist in order to achieve goals.

Focus on what you love about your job. No matter how you feel about your job, there are probably going to be things about it that you love and things about it that you hate. In order to build your intrinsic motivation, try focusing on the aspects of your job that you truly enjoy. Perhaps you love the feeling of accomplishment you get when you complete a big project. Or maybe you love helping your clients achieve progress toward their own goals. No matter what it is, identify those components of your job and take inspiration from them.

Try to maintain a positive attitude. Notice how optimistic people in the workplace tend to inspire and motivate others as well. Adopting this kind of attitude can help you feel more positively about your work.

A Word From Verywell

Emotional intelligence plays an important role not only in well-being but also in your success in the workplace. Fortunately, there are a number of lessons you can take from emotion psychology that will allow you to improve your EQ and foster greater emotional competencies t improve your work performance and career success.

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Article Sources

Brackett, MA, Rivers, SE, & Salovey, P. Emotional intelligence: Implications for personal, social, academic, and workplace success. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 2011;5(1):880103. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00334.x.

Kotsou, I, Nelis, D, Gregoire, J, & Mikolajczak, M. Emotional plasticity: Conditions and effects of improving emotional competence in adulthood. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2011;96(4): 827-839. doi: 10.1037/a0023047.

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How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence In the Workplace

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Emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as EQ, refers to a person's ability to recognize, understand, manage, and reason with emotions. It is a critical ability when it comes to interpersonal communication-a hot topic not only in psychology but in the business world.

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What is charismatic leadership? Leading through personal conviction. (2018, May 18). St. Thomas University Online. https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/what-is-charismatic-leadership.aspx

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The charismatic leadership style relies on the charm and persuasiveness of the leader. Charismatic leaders are driven by their convictions and commitment to their cause.

Charismatic leaders also are sometimes called transformational leaders because they share multiple similarities. Their main difference is focus and audience. Charismatic leaders often try to make the status quo better, while transformational leaders focus on transforming organizations into the leader's vision.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a charismatic leader who used powerful oratory, an engaging personality, and unwavering commitment to positive change in the lives of millions of people.

Read on to discover more about charismatic leadership:

What sets charismatic leaders apart is that they are "essentially very skilled communicators, individuals who are both verbally eloquent, but also able to communicate to followers on a deep, emotional level," said Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., professor of leadership and organizational psychology at Claremont McKenna College, in his Psychology Today article "What is Charisma and Charismatic Leadership?"

Charismatic leaders are often identified in times of crisis and exhibit exceptional devotion to and expertise in their fields. They are often people with a clear vision in business or politics and the ability to engage with a large audience.

A charismatic leadership definition is incomplete if it does not focus on the leader personally. More than other popular leadership styles, charismatic leadership depends on the personality and actions of the leader - not the process or structure.

Differences between charismatic leadership and other styles

"Charismatic leadership is a leadership style that is recognizable but may be perceived with less tangibility than other leadership styles," writes Mar Bell in "Charismatic Leadership Case Study with Ronald Reagan as Exemplar."

Charismatic leadership is similar to other styles. Both it and transformational leadership rely on the ability of the leader to influence and inspire followers. Transformational and charismatic leaders motivate the individual or those around them to be better and to work for the greater good of an organization or society. Other similarities include:

Leaders rally those around them in service of a common goal

Initiative and boldness are encouraged

The differences between charismatic and transformational leadership styles lie primarily in how the individual is viewed.

The personal vision of a charismatic leader has a great deal of influence over his or her audience

Charismatic leaders speak about their moral compass or passion rather than an existing method of doing business

Democratic and charismatic leaders compared

When compared to democratic leadership, similarities to the charismatic style include:

They both place considerable responsibility on the leader

Leaders guide employees, team members or volunteers in a particular direction

There is often a spirit of collaboration

The differences between charismatic leadership and democratic leadership include:

In democratic leadership, workers must have high-level skills in addition to the desire to work

Democratic leaders are highly rational and deliberate in their style

Charismatic leaders appeal to the emotions of the audience

In the charismatic leadership style, working toward a greater good is emphasized

Comparing autocratic and charismatic leadership

Likewise, charismatic and autocratic leadership styles share some traits. Both leaders often increase employee productivity. The key difference: The charismatic leader typically inspires employees to perform. The autocratic leader uses their authority to demand high performance. The short-term result is identical, although the long-term consequences may differ.

Charismatic leaders structure their organizations as they see fit. This is another example of a crossover between charismatic and autocratic leadership styles. The intensity of both styles may also generate early burnout of their leaders (and followers).

History of charismatic leadership

German sociologist Max Weber first published his book "The Three Types of Legitimate Rule" in 1958. In it, he sets forth a tripartite classification of authority for organizations and governments:

Two forms of order: authority and norms

Weber suggests that there are two fundamental forms of order: norms and authority. In organizations with authoritative order, people follow rules set by their leader. Transactional and bureaucratic leadership styles fit into this form of order.

Institutions that use norms depend on the appeal of their mission and vision to inspire allegiance in employees or followers. Charismatic leaders use norms to build a strong emotional relationship with the people who work for them.

Charismatic leaders are from all walks of life. In addition to business, this leadership style can be found in religious institutions and political and social movements.

Religious examples of charismatic leadership

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Born in 1929, Dr. King followed in the footsteps of his father as a Baptist minister. He started his civil rights career as the leader of the bus boycott the night that Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. King's powerful speeches and belief in peaceful protest put energy into the civil rights movement. In January 1957, he and several others founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1960, Dr. King gained national notoriety for his arrest at a lunch counter sit-in, which came to the attention of presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. He was soon released and went on to have even greater influence in the fight for civil rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches ignited smaller movements for equal rights through the American South and beyond. Dr. King is best known for the August 28, 1963, march on Washington that drew more than 200,000 people. At that march, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The following year, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

Mother Teresa

Born in Macedonia (now Yugoslavia) as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910, Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun best known for her work with the poor. Mother Teresa joined the Sisters of Loreto when she was 18 and moved to India in 1929. As a novitiate, she was sent to Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's School for Girls.

In 1946, Mother Teresa abandoned teaching to follow what she considered her calling, founding the Missionaries of Charity to live and serve in the slums of Calcutta. Over the course of the 1950s and '60s, she established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home, a family clinic and a string of mobile clinics.

In 1971, she traveled to New York to open her first U.S.-based house of charity. In 1985, she spoke at the 40th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly. By the time of her death, the Missionaries of Charity numbered over 4,000 sisters with 610 foundations in 123 countries. Her inspiring, devout persona and devotion to a singular idea make her a good example of a charismatic leader.

Pope John Paul II

In 1920, Pope John Paul ll was born in Poland as Karol Józef Wojtyla. Under Nazi occupation, he began his theological studies in a secret seminary in 1938 and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1946. John Paul became the bishop of Ombi in 1958.

Well regarded for his work in the church, John Paul was made a cardinal in 1967. In 1978, he was elected pope, a role he occupied until his death in 2005. Pope John Paul II was instrumental in examining the Roman Catholic Church's role in the modern world. He traveled to more than 100 countries and was a vocal advocate for human rights.

Political examples of charismatic leadership

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in 1911. He gained fame as an actor after signing a seven-year movie contract with Warner Brothers in 1937. During World War ll, he made training films for the military. Although he served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, a labor union, Reagan's political views shifted from liberal to conservative in the 1950s.

He began giving motivational talks to businesses and moved to the national stage in 1964, when he gave a well-received televised speech for Barry Goldwater. He ran for president beginning in 1968 and won in 1980. President Reagan was able to articulate his political vision in ways that appealed to his followers. Along with Teddy Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, Reagan is recognized as one of the most charismatic American presidents of the 20th century.

Sir Winston Churchill

Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born in 1874. Although he is best known for being the prime minister of England during World War ll, he honed his communication skills as a war correspondent in World War l and crafted legislation for Parliament as a member. He was a powerful orator who used radio speeches to buoy the British people's resilience during Germany's World War II bombing of England.

Lee Iacocca

Lido Anthony Iacocca was brought to Chrysler in the late 1970s to rescue the automaker from impending bankruptcy. Those who saw Iacocca "work the room," ultimately persuading Congress to guarantee a huge loan to Chrysler, observed a charismatic leader working his magic.

Iacocca, an automotive executive with an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering, was not blessed with natural charisma, but he developed the talent. A memorable example of his charismatic style is his signature slogan, "If you can find a better car, buy it!"

Jack Welch

John Francis Welch was born in 1935 in Peabody, Massachusetts. He grew up playing sports and used lessons he learned as an athlete throughout his life. After college, Welch went to work at General Electric as a chemical engineer in 1960. He rose through the ranks to become the youngest CEO in GE's history in 1981.

As a CEO, Welch went out of his way to develop positive relationships with GE employees and customers. He talked informally with workers, making them feel as if they might receive a note or a visit from him at any time. Although Welch didn't hesitate to cut costs and lay off employees he viewed as poor performers, his leadership style engendered a sense of value and pride in the company.

Mother Teresa: "Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."

Martin Luther King: "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable...every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

Pope John Paul ll: "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."

Ronald Reagan: "We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."

Winston Churchill: "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

Lee Iacocca: "Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people."

Jack Welsh: "The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it."

Common characteristics of leaders with charisma identified by Jay Alden Conger, leadership expert at the University of Southern California, and Henry Kravis, professor of leadership at Claremont McKenna College, include:

Sensitivity to their environment and the needs of their employees or followers

Articulate and visionary

Inclined toward personal risk taking

Adept at using unconventional behavior

There are many advantages to this leadership style. Charismatic leaders are often a catalyst for social change. They are, however, not a fit for organizations that depend on rigid structures and processes to function.

Charismatic leadership pros

Charismatic leaders inspire people to work together for a common cause

Organizations are committed to a central mission

Management prioritizes learning from mistakes in an effort to succeed in their mission

Charismatic-led companies tend to be cohesive because their workers have a clear purpose

Charismatic leadership cons

Leaders may develop tunnel vision or arrogance, undoing their previous good deeds

Organizations can become dependent on charismatic leaders and may suffer if he or she retires, leaves the company, or dies suddenly

Charismatic leaders sometimes become unresponsive to their subordinates or constituents

These leaders may not learn from their mistakes, compounding them

Charismatic leaders may believe they are above the law, committing financial or ethical violations

The world needs charismatic leaders because they fight for quality of life and a better world. Charismatic leaders have the courage of their convictions. They are willing to stand up to people who have a differing view of society or the organization.

Charismatic leaders tend to be able to see the gaps between what an organization delivers to its workers and what the workers need from the organization. They create visions that their supporters can readily see, and in return the supporters are motivated to contribute to a common goal.

Sources:

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., " What Is Charisma and Charismatic Leadership?," Psychology Today

John C. Welch IV, "Insights on Charismatic Leadership from the Heroes and Villains"

Brian Evje, " 3 Dangers of Charismatic Leadership," Inc.
Have a question or concern about this article? Please contact us.

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What is Charismatic Leadership? Leading Through Personal Conviction

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The charismatic leadership style relies on the charm and persuasiveness of the leader. Charismatic leaders are driven by their convictions and commitment to their cause. Charismatic leaders also are sometimes called transformational leaders because they share multiple similarities. Their main difference is focus and audience.

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Lee, S. (2021, March 16). What is charismatic leadership? Torch. https://torch.io/blog/what-is-charismatic-leadership/

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Every leadership style has a different area of focus. For instance, some types of leadership - such as democratic leadership - focus on the development of people. Others, such as bureaucratic leadership, focus on existing processes and hierarchies. Today, we're going to focus on a leadership style that puts the spotlight on the leaders themselves: charismatic leadership.

What is charismatic leadership?

The definition

Charismatic leadership is defined by a leader who uses his or her communication skills, persuasiveness, and charm to influence others. Charismatic leaders, given their ability to connect with people on a deep level, are especially valuable within organizations that are facing a crisis or are struggling to move forward.

The characteristics

Every charismatic leader looks a little bit different. However, there are many key characteristics that most charismatic leaders share:

You may notice that charismatic leadership shares many traits with transformational leadership . While similar, there's one important difference: charismatic leaders rely on their own personality and skillset to move their followers to action, while transformational leaders rely on a shared vision to create change. So while most transformational leaders tend to be charismatic, not all charismatic leaders are necessarily transformational.

What are the pros and cons of charismatic leadership?

Charismatic leaders can have a powerful, positive influence on an organization and the people they lead. But if approached the wrong way, this leadership style can easily lead to unintended consequences. To help you better understand what these potential strengths and weaknesses can look like, we outlined the pros and cons of this leadership style below:

Pros

Highly inspirational and motivating

Encourages a sense of camaraderie, collaboration, and union

Makes followers feel heard and understood

Creates movement toward positive change

Cons

Can become more focused on themselves than their people

Has the potential to become self serving

Frequently viewed as shallow or disingenuous

How to apply charismatic leadership

As we mentioned before, one of the potential pitfalls of charismatic leadership is its tendency to focus too much on the leader instead of the people. To prevent this from happening, and to maximize the potential of this leadership style, we recommend taking the following steps:

Practice vulnerability

A common negative association with charismatic leaders is that they're not authentic. To combat this, we recommend practicing vulnerability. It's easy to get caught up in the idea that you always need to be perfect or demonstrate strength as a leader. But the truth is that vulnerability lies at the root of human connection . When you're brave enough to show your authentic self, your employees will be more trusting of you and find you more relatable.

So if your organization is facing challenges, don't try to sweep it under the rug and pretend like everything is okay. Instead, have the courage to share your fears, doubts, and insecurities with employees - who are likely already aware of the issues and may be experiencing anxiety themselves. Being vulnerable in situations like this will make it more likely that a company moves forward together as a team.

Develop your listening skills

Imagine that you had a deep, thoughtful conversation with someone at your company. During this interaction, you shared personal details with the other person and felt more bonded to them as a result. But the next time you run into them, they don't seem to remember anything you talked about! This is a surefire way to make someone feel terrible and overlooked.

As a charismatic leader who engages in many conversations on a daily basis, it may be tempting to tune out what the other person is saying or operate on autopilot. As you can see in the example we shared, this can have detrimental effects. So work on developing and practicing your active listening skills. If you think you need some more guidance in this area, look for training opportunities or to a coach to help you develop this skill.

Be transparent

Don't praise an employee or make empty promises simply because it sounds good. This is a trap that charismatic leaders can fall into since they're so focused on inspiring and motivating others. In the process, it's easy to say things that aren't entirely true for the sake of making someone feel good. Instead, always prioritize being honest, sincere, and straightforward in your communication. Over time, your employees will learn to trust what you say and increasingly look to you for information and feedback.

If approached thoughtfully, charismatic leadership has the potential to bring positive change to any organization. Be aware of the potential pitfalls of this leadership style, take the action needed to prevent them from happening, and you'll find that this to be an incredibly effective type of leadership to practice in your role.

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your own leadership style can help you better identify which approach is best for your current role. Check out our ebook, 10 Leadership Styles You Should Know, to learn more about different approaches to leadership and when and how to apply them.

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Do you possess the traits to be a charismatic leader? Learn more about the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of this leadership style.

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Srivastava, Y. (2020, December 3). Democratic leadership style: Pros, cons, examples, and how to make it work BetterUp. https://www.betterup.com/blog/democratic-leadership-style-pros-cons-examples-and-how-to-make-it-work

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If you've worked in an organization of any kind, chances are you are familiar with different kinds of leaders and their unique ways of working.

Some leaders monitor your work really closely.

Some leaders want to make sure that everybody feels heard and understood.

For others, the only concern is getting the work done.

The different ways in which leaders interact with their teams are calledleadership styles.

A democratic leadership style is just one of these possible options.

Let's examine the democratic leadership style specifically. Its strengths and limitations, and ways in which it can be used effectively.

Different types of leadership

The most effective leaders combine various styles of management and leadership based on the need of the hour. However, most leaders show a dominant style.

One of the earliest frameworks on leadership styles was proposed by a team of researchers led by psychologist Kurt Lewin in the 1930s.

Lewin's leadership styles fall into three categories:

Authoritative (or autocratic leadership)

Participative (or a democratic leader)

Delegative (or a laissez faire leader)

Since then, various other styles of leadership have been proposed, including but not limited to:

Transactional leader: one who uses rewards and punishments to direct their team.

Transformational leader: one who identifies a needed change and motivates the group to work toward it.

Servant leader: one who prioritizes the greater good of their team, instead of their own objectives.

Situational leader: one who chooses their leadership style based on their goals and the current circumstances.

Autocratic leader: one who controls every decision and takes very little input from group members.

Bureaucratic leader: one who relies on a formalized set of rules and procedures.

Each of these different leadership styles is worthy of an article all to itself.We will primarily be looking at the democratic leadership style in more detail.

Types of leadership and the democratic style

A democratic leadership style invites group members to participate in decisions and provide input. Although the leader gets the final say on most decisions.

It's important to keep in mind that there is also some overlap between different leadership styles.

A leader can exhibit different leadership styles when working with specific people. Or in certain environments. A leader might even use multiple different leadership styles at a given time.

A democratic leader may also be a servant leader.

Some leadership styles are in direct opposition to the democratic style. A prime example of this would be authoritative leadership. In the modern workplace, it's seen as a form of toxic leadership.

A leader can't be in complete control and also allow people below them to be part of the decision-making process.

In case you're still unclear on what a democratic leadership style is, let's discuss it in more depth.

What is the democratic leadership style?

The word "democracy" originates from the Greek words "demos" (the people) and "kratia" (power or rule.)

So, a democratic leadership style is a form of participative management. It actively involves the people being led. They're part of the decision-making process about how they'll be led.

Most large organizations today include an element of participative leadership in the form of:

A few specific examples of leaders who have demonstrated this style of leadership include:

Former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, demonstrated how much she valued her team members by writing personalized letters to their parents.

The 16th President of the United States and visionary leader,Abraham Lincoln, surrounded himself with extremely capable people. Even if they were likely to disagree with him and challenge his assumptions.

Former Secretary-General of the United Nations andcharismatic leader,Kofi Annan, who was known for his ability to bring warring parties together.

Human beings have an innate need to have control over their lives. They need to feel like they are valued and can make valuable contributions to the world.

A democratic management style caters to these needs and is shown to enhance:

Democratic leadership can be extremely effective in certain situations. However, it's important to note that it's not without its limitations.

The most effective leader is the one who knows when to use this style versus another.

For example, Abraham Lincoln used a democratic approach.

For months, he and his cabinet members engaged in an intense debate on the topic of abolishing slavery.

However, there came a point when, in the absence of a consensus, he made the decision and then announced it to his team. An arguably authoritative, yet effective, move.

In the next section, we'll look at some strengths and limitations associated with a democratic leadership style.

Strengths and limitations of a democratic leadership style

Examples of democratic leadership situations

Here are four tips for adopting a democratic management style at work:

Decide if it's the right fit for the situation at hand

As we've seen, a democratic leadership style is not a one-size-fits-all solution. There will be times when this form of participative management is not the most effective approach.

As a leader, make sure you're deploying this style when it can truly add value.

Ask yourself questions such as:

If your answers indicate that a democratic approach is what will get you the best results, then go for it.

Be open and transparent

If you've decided to use this approach for a specific situation, communicating openly with your team is the next crucial step.

Let them know:

Why are you using this approach? (e.g., that you value their feedback and want to improve something)

What the goals are. (e.g., coming up with a number of ideas before deciding upon a course of action),

What may be some pitfalls of the process (e.g., that it may take some time but is still important).

Collaboratively set up and communicate a process to maximize effectiveness. Some of the limitations of the democratic leadership style can be prevented by being proactive about them.

For example, you could discuss questions such as:

How will the final decision be made? Considering not everyone's ideas can get implemented?

How can we create a safe environment for everyone to openly share their thoughts?

What will happen if we can't reach a consensus?

How can we focus on delivering the best outcome without getting tied to specific ideas?

When will you, as a great leader, step in?

You can also look at structuring the conversation in different phases.

For example, phase one can be setting some ground rules and establishing psychological safety. Phase two could be brainstorming ideas. Phase three could be narrowing down the options. And phase four could be making the final decision and plan for execution.

Having a structure in place will clarify what employees can expect and how the process will proceed.

Make sure people commit to execution

At the end of the process, some team members may be more engaged than others. Especially if their ideas were the ones taken into account.

However, you may still need the whole team for the effective execution of the decision or plan.

Make sure you have a way to get everyone on board with the plan, commit to their deliverables, and stay accountable.

Find time for reflection and lessons learned for the future

Reflection is crucial. So reflect immediately after the conversation is over, or once the decision has been implemented.

Find time to regroup and review the process:

What worked well?

What were the key takeaways?

What could have been better?

This reflection and learning will help you set up for success the next time you have a similar conversation.

Is a democratic leadership style right for you?

As we've seen, the democratic leadership style is one of many ways in which you can lead your team.

It has its strengths as well as limitations, and being thoughtful about when and how to use this approach can help you reap its benefits.

What are some situations at work where you can experiment with this leadership style?

What are some benefits that might come with it?

And what are some things you would like to watch out for?

Considering these questions will enable you to determine how well the democratic leadership style aligns with your vision. They will guide you in figuring out how this type of management can be leveraged to enhance your team's performance and your company culture.

BetterUp builds leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement. Request a personalized demo. See how our coaching can help you develop your own democratic leadership style.

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Democratic leadership style: How to make it work as a team

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If you've worked in an organization of any kind, chances are you are familiar with different kinds of leaders and their unique ways of working. Some leaders monitor your work really closely. Some leaders want to make sure that everybody feels heard and understood. For others, the only concern is getting the work done.

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Lindberg, C. (2021, June 14). Democratic leadership – Explained by a CEO: Pros/Cons, examples. Leadership Ahoy. https://www.leadershipahoy.com/democratic-leadership-what-is-it-pros-cons-examples/

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Leaning on my fifteen years of experience as a global business leader, I must say that democratic leadership should be used much more than it is. In some cultures and parts of the world, a democratic leader might even be regarded as a weak leader, believe it or not. The advantages of democratic leadership heavily outweigh any disadvantages so you should absolutely consider using this leadership style.

As usual, we start out with the nutshell format answer to the over-arching question of this article.

What is democratic leadership?
Democratic leadership is when an empowered team takes full part in the decision-making process. Ideas and suggestions can be brought forward by any team member, and there is a strive for consensus in decision making. In the end, the democratic leader approves or makes the decision. Democratic leadership is an effective leadership style but can sometimes be too slow when fast decisions are needed.

In this article, we will let you know why you should also use the democratic leadership style. We explain the concept of the democratic leadership style, its advantages, and disadvantages as well as some examples of famous democratic leaders. The article also contains information and comments based on my practical experience as a business leader.

Continue reading or visit our extensive portal with more than 25 leadership styles including situational leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, and many others: Leadership Styles.

What is Democratic Leadership?

Based on democratic principles, democratic leadership occurs when ideas are freely exchanged within a team. All team members are considered equals and are encouraged to contribute to the decision-making process just as much as the leader him or herself. The Democratic leader gathers input from the whole team and involves them in the decision-making process by facilitating and asking questions. This makes the democratic leadership style a collective style of leadership. The team is highly empowered, but at the end of the day, the democratic leader is still the one making the final decision or approving the decision of the team. The team also has a part in getting democratic leadership to work by actively contributing to and participating in these discussions. This is perhaps why the democratic leadership style works better with highly skilled and experienced workers that can give strong input and contribution. Some definitions of democratic leadership also involve a drive towards consensus, even if the leader has the final say or approval right.

Democratic leadership is sometimes explained by referring to its complete opposite, which is Autocratic leadership, a style where the leader makes virtually all decisions on his or her own.

Democratic leadership is often referred to as "the best" or "most productive" leadership style. These statements have their limitations, as we shall see further down in this article. Democratic leadership is highly engaging, just like Transformational Leadership. (Read our comparison article here: Democratic vs. Transformational Leadership.)

Let us end the introductory explanation on democratic leadership with a quote. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus." This statement aptly describes democratic leadership at its core. It's one of the most favored leadership styles. All for one and one for all is a democratic leader's mantra.

History of Democratic leadership style

Democracy is originally derived from two Greek words, namely Demos which means public, and "Kratos" which means ruling power or governing. So, essentially, governing the public. This concept gave citizens the right to access parliamentary forums, although far from everybody was a citizen.

The concept of democracy has evolved and developed further over centuries or even millennia to this day.

When it comes to the democratic leadership style in specific, it was defined much later than democracy itself. Kurt Lewin, a behavioral psychologist from the 1930s to the 1940s, is credited with coining democratic leadership as part of the Kurt Lewin leadership styles. He worked with colleagues Ronald Lippit and Ralph White on the Lewin leadership experiments to study leadership styles. (Democratic Leadership is also part of the Six Leadership Styles by Goleman, which is a much more modern framework. You can find the Goleman framework in our leadership styles portal.)

Their first study on the topic, which was undertaken in 1938, involved eleven-year-old children who were studied in two different group settings. One group was made to apply a democratic approach and the other one was to apply a more autocratic leadership. Once the different roles had been distributed, Lewin and his colleagues studied what happened.

The experiment was expanded in the second study when a third group using what we now refer to as the Laissez-Faire leadership style was included. Furthermore, each group got to experience several leaders and leadership styles.

The two experiments combined showed the following:

When the group using democratic leadership lost its leader, the productivity dropped from 50% to 46%

When the group with the autocratic leader left, the group productivity dropped from 70% to 29%.

The autocratic leadership group also displayed aggressive behavior among the group members. (I'm thinking "the Lord of the Flies" here..)

The third group was left alone, literally without a leader. This was the Laissez-Faire group, and it displayed boredom and lack of productivity. The productivity was rated at 33%

After the Lewin experiments, three different leadership styles were defined, namely:

Democratic leadership style, the one you are reading about now

Autocratic leadership is essentially when a leader retains all the decision-making power. The group would experience little if any empowerment and a high degree of control and receiving orders on what to do.

Laissez-faire leadership, where the leader is either completely hands-off or a group is completely lacking a leader

Read about the entire Lewin Leadership Styles framework, where you can also reach a quiz showing which of the three leadership styles is most dominant with you.

As you can probably tell from the results of the experiments shown above, their studies revealed that democratic leadership was the most preferred leadership style among those three leadership styles, at least from the perspective of the group. Autocratic leadership looks surprisingly productive though. Please note that there is a vast array of additional leadership styles available, and the aforementioned study did not take them into account. In fact, some of them were not even defined back then. (Including the Situational Leadership Model, Fiedler's Contingency Theory, Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid, etc. All available in our portal on leadership styles.) Hence, you cannot say that democratic leadership is the best leadership style in the world and rest your argumentation on the Lewin experiments.

Furthermore, the experiment was run on eleven-year-olds. What would have happened if adults were to participate in the same experiment? The results need to be judged with the circumstances of the experiments in mind, that's why it is too simplistic to state that democratic leadership is the best based on the Lewin experiments. (Read more about the experiments and the adult version here: Lewin leadership experiments, and my rather heavy criticism of the Lewin styles.

John Gastil, a professor at Penn State University, adds distribution of responsibility among team members as well as empowering them to the definition of democratic leadership.

Daniel Goleman goes even further and adds a consensus element to his explanation of the democratic leadership style. Although not required, consensus is a target and the democratic leader strives for consensus in decision making. You can read more about all kinds of leadership styles, including the six styles by Goleman and the situational leadership model, and others right here: Leadership Styles.

Characteristics of democratic leadership

In order to succeed with the democratic leadership style, the following characteristics are important.

1. Knows to use the expertise of the team

A leader using the democratic leadership styles knows that he or she does not always know best. Therefore, it is crucial to involve other people with better knowledge in different fields and utilize that competence.

2. Being a good facilitator

The democratic leader should be a facilitator of free-flowing conversations where each team member gets an opportunity to share ideas and opinions. Great communication skills are essential here. (Tip: if you want to get better at communication you can read our article with 17 tips for improved communication.)
3. Being respectful with an open mind
Furthermore, the leader needs to be a person with an open mind; there are some ideas the leader may disagree with, but these should still be extracted from the team. These ideas might provide additional useful angles and perspectives as well as put new information on the table.

4. The capacity to understand and prioritize among ideas and information

If you are a democratic leader, you also need to have the ability to sort through and identify useful ideas from the flood of ideas emerging during the participative process. Some ideas will be great, and some might be so irrelevant they become a nuisance if time is spent on evaluating them further. Hence, the selection and prioritization of the input received is a key aspect of democratic leadership.

5. No need for autocratic decision-making

A democratic leader also ensures that team members feel involved in decisions affecting them. If you commit to using the democratic leadership style, you will not make decisions on your own unless it is completely necessary.

Keep in mind that it is not entirely up to the leader to get good democratic leadership established. The team needs to be willing to participate and be part of idea generation and decision-making - not all team members actually want to do this. Democratic Leadership has a strong focus on people-oriented behavior compared to task-oriented behavior. (Learn more about these types of behaviors from the Blake and Mouton managerial grid or the Ohio State Leadership Studies which are available in our leadership styles portal.)

What are the Pros and Cons of Democratic Leadership?

You can read an extensive and more detailed list of the Advantages and Disadvantages of democratic leadership below this image that provides an overview of the topic.

Democratic leadership Pros and Cons. Feel free to use the image as long as you link back.

The Advantages of Democratic Leadership

As mentioned above, Lewin et al showed that democratic leadership leads to more satisfied group members than the autocratic leadership style. Newer research shows that the difference isn't that big and that it depends on several other parameters than just which of the styles are being applied, such as group size for instance[2]. Let us look at some of the advantages of democratic leadership.

1. Creativity and innovation are encouraged.

Democratic leaders value the process of generating new ideas. They appreciate that each team member has unique experiences and skills which add value to the creative process. Since they deliberately encourage idea sharing, a climate of innovation spreads in the organization. People think of how to increase productivity, make a process a bit easier, how to reduce errors, how to solve customer needs better, new products to build, etc.

2. Collaboration creates strong solutions for complex problems.

There are times when decisions need to be made quickly. Oftentimes, autocratic leadership is preferred in those particular cases. However, when time isn't scarce, which is in an absolute majority of the cases in the business world at least, the democratic team can come together and find the best solutions to complex problems. By utilizing multiple perspectives, experiences, attitudes, and ideas, the team can most often find robust ideas with limited downsides by working together. Thanks to the transparency of democratic leadership, the group clearly understands the issue and the leader guides them towards consensus on the best way to tackle it.

3. Employee engagement is high.

The participative nature of democratic leadership creates a more positive work environment where team members are included. They work together to achieve the organization's goals and feel that their opinions matter. This builds trust and respect among the team members, which in turn makes the work environment even better.

4. Common goals lead to high accountability

A democratic leader involves people in setting the goals and targets of the organization. In the end, this means people will feel that this is their goal and their targets rather than the leaders. This strong feeling of accountability in combination with the high empowerment in democratic leadership normally leads to higher productivity than in Laissez-Faire leadership for instance. Continue reading below and I will elaborate on a personal experience where participation and democratic leadership in strategy creation had an enormous impact on employee engagement as well as productivity.

The Disadvantages of Democratic Leadership

Democratic leadership may seem like the perfect leadership style for any business serious about growth. However, like any other leadership style, it has some flaws.

1. Resent may creep in.

A positive work environment is created when all team members are respected and valued. However, it is possible that some team members' ideas and opinions may consistently be better or get more attention than the ideas of others. This may lead to others believing that their ideas are not valued - the opposite of what democratic leadership should be. A democratic leader should know how to incorporate the ideas of as many team members as possible so that it does not seem that preference is being given to a select group of team members over others.

2. Collaborative decision-making is time-consuming.

Leaders often need to make quick decisions. Having to defer decisions to the team may cause unnecessary delays which either increase the problem or worsen the consequences. A strong democratic leader will know when to use collaborative decision-making and when to use a quicker approach that involves discussion with selected individuals or no discussion at all.

3. Team members can lose trust.

After some time in an environment of democratic leadership, team members start to expect a participative leadership approach and perhaps even see it as mandatory. Therefore, they become confused if and when the leader makes quick decisions without their input. This can lead to uncertainty about when they'll be included in decisions and a sense of feeling left out. A democratic leader needs to effectively communicate the reasons for quick decisions so that discord doesn't permeate throughout the team.

4. There can be lulls where there is limited productivity.

Valuing the input of all team members is great. However, waiting for consensus in order so that the team can move forward creates periods where people are not sure what to do. This waiting time could lead to a reduction in productivity. Team leaders should understand how to simplify the decision-making process and reduce moments of low productivity. Furthermore, striving towards consensus does not mean that consensus is always a requirement.

5. The team's expertise may be insufficient.

The input of team members can be more valuable when they are skilled and experienced. Democratic leaders with an inexperienced team may get more ideas with limited viability or too many flaws. This can make the decision-making process longer so the leader should be mindful of this when setting up the decision-making team. (For these teams, use some coaching leadership as well, to develop your people.)

In order to limit the drawbacks of democratic leadership, you can alternate it with other styles, especially the six leadership styles by Goleman, which also contains the coaching leadership style and the visionary leadership style for instance.

How Can Democratic Leadership Be Used Effectively?

One of the nice things about democratic leadership is that it isn't extreme, in fact, it is kind of building on compromise already. Whereas Laissez-Faire and autocratic leadership can be devastating if applied to an entire organization, and rather should be used for portions of an organization, democratic leadership can actually work well on a wider basis since it isn't belonging to any of the extremes on the authority scale. The extremes would be Laissez-F aire where team members have complete authority and Autocratic leadership where team members have close to zero authority.

In order to deploy democratic leadership effectively in your organization or team, consider the following few pointers.

7 tips on effective deployment of democratic leadership

Here are seven tips on effective democratic leadership:

1. Start by using your closest team

The core of democratic leadership is participation, so why don't you start with gathering your team and discussing it with them? Make sure all of you get a general orientation of the democratic leadership style and what it can do for you, and let the discussion start. This will generate ideas, support, inclusion, participation which is a great start to deploying democratic leadership. In the end, this will also generate accountability within the team - they were part of it from the start so they will also be part of any success or failure of this endeavor in the future. Develop your empathy as a leader before doing this, it will make things much easier for you. Also, consider using elements of Affiliative Leadership to strengthen your bonds.

2. High transparency and open communication

Inform your team and organization regularly on current developments, priorities, achievements, etc. Use multiple formats for this, and ensure you have some opportunity for people to ask questions and encourage them to do so. When those questions come, make sure to answer them properly.

If you use the phrase "never excuse, never explain", then reconsider. In democratic leadership, it is important that you take the time to explain things to people, even if it is regarding your own decisions. Explaining things to people properly will make them feel valued, creates an opportunity for you to gather more information and ideas through feedback, and make them feel part of what you are trying to achieve together.

People that are regularly updated on how the company is doing and having their leader explain what is going on and what the concerns are will make them feel respected and part of the overall picture - both will motivate them to higher productivity.
Consider how you run your meetings in your organization. Find ways of getting everybody to communicate and avoid having a few people dominating the meetings. In discussions, complete the circle around the table and make sure everyone talks. People will get used to this in the end. (Read about Why leaders should always speak last for inspiration.)
In order to improve communication, refer to our article on Leadership Communication.

Encourage all other leaders to do the same throughout the organization.
3. Put enablers for idea sharing and creativity in place
Consider different tools for stimulating creativity throughout your organization. These can be simple or complex, you and your team will set the bar. Here are some examples:

Re-introduce the old suggestion box - perhaps in the shape of an inbox in this digital age

Have recurring brainstorming meetings on certain topics. The purpose of the meeting is to generate new ideas, not find reasons why they will not work

Provide incentives for patents or great ideas

Set up a cross-functional forum for multi-disciplinary idea generation. You will be amazed at what can come out of a session with people from sales, manufacturing, R&D, finance, service, and sourcing for instance.

Remove the drama - an idea does not have to be the next big product for the company. All ideas count, even the ones making it easier to book a conference room in your office building

4. Deploy joint target and goal setting processes
Avoid autocratic leadership when setting budgets, targets, and personal goals as much as possible. This is an area where it might be difficult to reach consensus and even to gather ideas on how to raise the bar. Some things you can do to achieve this:

Have people start out with suggesting their own targets

Involve a larger group. If the sales manager is in the room, he or she might make it obvious why production need to increase their targets

Ask what it would take to reach a higher target, then find ways together to enable that and remove any barriers and obstacles

Work on targets and goals both ways. If a subordinate of yours are over committing, discuss whether the targets should be reduced. It would not be good to only try to push numbers up - after all, the targets should be the right ones, not the highest ones

Discuss what reaching a higher target would result in for the team and the organization

If you manage to get targets set jointly, the empowerment will be high, and the accountability will be great. In autocratic leadership, you can always blame your leader for setting an outrageous and unreachable target. It is an entirely different thing to blame someone if you took an active part in creating said target yourself. This will work like magic in terms of getting a willingness for execution and a hard drive to meeting the target.
Just make sure people get the support they need from other people in the organization.
5. Inclusion in general, and in the big picture in particular
Make sure people feel included. You will come a long way by deploying tips number one, two, and three above, but do not forget the big picture, be it your long-term vision or strategy. There are different levels of involvement possible here, you and your team need to find out where to draw the line.

1. A certain group can participate in creating the vision or strategy goal

2. A larger group can participate in determining how to achieve the vision or goal

3. An even larger group can participate in executing the "how"

There are pros and cons with most approaches on how to do this of course. It is difficult to involve one thousand employees in number one, vision creation, right? Not necessarily. Involve them to create the background information, submitting ideas, suggestions on what they think is the most important to achieve, etc. You can use surveys to gather input and reactions as well as deploy an affiliative leadership style. Doing this can grow engagement rates as well as ensuring the people feel part of the bigger picture.

Regardless of how you do this, it is my opinion that the efficiency and outcome of tip number three will be better the more you communicate and include people in tip one and two. Don't go too far though, remember that time also costs. Do not try to have 50 people agree on what your strategy is going to be. This is for a smaller group, just don't forget the others when it comes to two-way communication aspects. (Again, check out our 17 tips on communication for leaders.)
6. Strive for, but don't require consensus
If you are a democratic leader, consensus is a good thing. Try to establish it when possible, but do not spend too long doing so. In the end, sometimes a delayed decision can be costly and problematic. It is good if everyone agrees, but in the end, the democratic leader will need to make decisions every now and then. Just remember to be transparent. Let the team know how you think and why you took the decision you took.

7. Ensure respect and commitment to execution

Do not settle for anything else than a true commitment to decisions in your top team. Even if there is a disagreement and lack of consensus in the team, once the decision has been taken, everybody needs to be committed to the decision and execute as required. In democratic leadership, you get your voice heard. The price of this is that everyone else also gets their voices heard and this will result in decisions that are sometimes unfavorable to a specific team member.

Additional tips can be found in our article: How can democratic leadership be effective? I also suggest you learn the other six leadership styles by Goleman, which can also be reached in our leadership styles portal together with transformational, situational, spiritual, and many other styles.

Where is democratic leadership extra beneficial?

Some businesses can benefit additionally by deploying a democratic leadership style. Highly skilled workers that require little to no supervision are generally a good target group for democratic leadership. Here are a few examples[3].
1. Creative businesses
In companies where research and development are important and companies where designs and artistic work are important, it can be beneficial with democratic leadership. These types of workers need to be uninhibited and be allowed to freely think of possible new innovations rather than being forced to adhere to a specific route or set of strict rules. This could be technology companies, certain manufacturing companies, marketing, advertising, and other types of businesses where creativity is a key to success. The inclusion and participation that come with democratic leadership are extra useful since development in these businesses is often project-based. Working with project members that are used to being empowered and used to contribute can make it quicker to get new project-based teams up and running.

2. Knowledge worker environments
Democratic leadership can be extra useful in businesses with knowledge workers where everyone needs to participate in leading the company in some way. Consultant companies, for instance, require relatively few individuals with high competency to deliver on customer projects. Having an open and empowered atmosphere is crucial since the formal boss might not know much about a specific customer project. Democratic leadership also facilitates the influx of information and ideas from all directions, be it the consultants themselves, their colleagues, the customer, or other stakeholders

The service industry and the education industry are two other examples that benefit from democratic leadership. Read this article for practical examples of democratic leadership.

Democratic leadership: practical experience from my career

I have seen quite a few leaders demonstrating the democratic leadership style in my career. Some of them have truly bought into it and worked for strong empowerment of the team members and actively seeking and processing input and ideas from others. Communication has always been a great part of it, so make sure to improve your communication skills if you can.

Sadly, there have been one or two examples of leaders using democratic leadership for show as well. They have essentially asked for ideas and input, but you can tell that they had already made up their mind before any participative process started. In some cases, it was obvious since you found out afterward that the job of executing their decision had already been started.

Management team meeting on a big project

One leader set up a participative process on project X. As the discussion moved forward, more and more people exclaimed their opposition to the idea. Many arguments against were presented, and many risks with going through with the project. Several of the people, this was a management team meeting, by the way, asked why this project was even suggested or brought up since few people understood the purpose of it at all. At this point, about two hours into it, our leader simply stated that it doesn't matter since the decision to execute project X had already been taken anyway. This statement resulted in a rather anti-climactic mood in the meeting, I can promise you. So, why did the leader do this? Here are a few possible reasons:

Perhaps the leader hoped and thought that the group would be in favor of project X - thus, we would have felt it was our decision and wish, which would have resulted in higher dedication to the execution of it.

He truly wanted to hear our thoughts but made a mistake - he should have been honest about it from the get-go instead of having the team members think they could influence this

The decision wasn't actually taken in the beginning, but the leader got sick of the reactions of the team members and turned autocratic instead - lack of self-control or patience

Project X turned out to be a mistake and much of it was undone a few years later.

In other cases, the democratic leadership style has worked great for some of my previous leaders. Gathering the team to handle certain issues has resulted in an overflow of ideas on solutions and methods, a more precise problem description, and better risk mitigation. When going into execution mode, the group has believed in the necessity of the actions and has felt part of putting them together. This has led to a sense of accountability in execution - after all, you can't blame the boss or say "I told you so" if you were part of generating both decisions and actions, can you?

How I currently use democratic leadership

The democratic leadership style is also one of my personal favorites although I honestly cannot separate democratic leadership totally from transformational leadership or servant leadership in some of my daily situations. There are many roads to reaching high decision participation after all. (Here's my article comparing two of them: transformational leadership vs. democratic leadership styles.)

That said, I try to always involve the team in the following cases:

When the matter requires additional perspectives and expertise

When they are affected by the decision to be made

When they are required in executing actions resulting from the decision

In most cases, the whole team is involved, in some cases, a subsection of the team is involved. To put this into context, I am the leader of a global company with a senior management team. This means my decisions are not about whether to call customer X or if isle A should be re-stocked. The items on our agenda would more be items like:

Succession planning and organizational changes

Company financials - budgets, forecasts, etc.

Development of new products and services

Deployment of strategic projects

Major marketing decisions

Global campaigns

Etc.

If I fail to involve people in the above decisions, I would very soon be perceived as an autocratic leader. I mean, if I decide to make a global product campaign without consulting the four vice presidents of our sales regions, of course, I would be seen as a micro-managing autocrat.

Including them gives me access to a wide array of perspectives and decades of years of experience combined. They often bring up items and aspects I did not know about and would never have thought of. In the end, after making a decision together, people feel empowered and they also feel accountable for transforming the decision into execution which leads to faster and better deployment than if they had been given orders to execute without questions asked.

Democratic leadership in an experienced and skilled team beats autocratic leadership any day of the week! For additional inspiration from real-life situations, including some elements of democratic leadership in the workplace, read our article on Democratic Leadership Examples.

Famous Examples of Democratic Leaders?

Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969)- The 34th President of the U.S.

Eisenhower was the Supreme Command of NATO before he served two terms as the U.S. President. His military role came at a pivotal time in world history- World War II. One would have expected him to adopt an autocratic leadership style since that's the common style of the military. However, Eisenhower knew that his team had to take on a more participative role if they were to succeed. He involved several people in the decision-making process and consult many trusted advisors.

Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011) - Co-founder of Apple

Steve Jobs displayed at least two leadership styles when he led Apple. He began as an autocratic leader while he was building the company from the ground up. However, he was ousted from the company in 1985. The company began to decline, and he was asked to return in 1997. A more democratic approach became customary for him during this second phase of leadership although he still had autocratic tendencies. Jobs understood how to adapt his leadership style to suit the needs of the company at various stages of growth.

Larry Page (1973- present) - Cofounder of Google and Former CEO of Alphabet Inc.

Page believes in leadership that makes a difference. He values innovation and allowing his team to have creative freedom. Efficient communication and management strategies are things he highly values. In fact, many would describe him as a transformational leader. He may just be a little bit of both. (Here's our comparison by the way: transformational leadership vs democratic leadership.)

Jack Dorsey (1976 - present) - Twitter CEO

Dorsey believes in developing and empowering team members while holding them accountable. He also believes in being open about weaknesses and doing whatever possible to correct them. His leadership has helped Twitter become one of the most popular social media platforms.

The ugly siblings of democratic leadership

Since the Lewin definition of democratic leadership was done in a framework of three styles connected to each other, I figured it would make sense to give you, the reader, a short overview of the other styles of the set, namely autocratic and laissez-faire leadership. The following descriptions are based on excerpts from our articles on these topics.

Read more about the Lewin leadership styles and my criticism of the Lewin styles if you are interested.

Autocratic leadership - the polar opposite of democratic leadership

The autocratic leader is the one retaining virtually all decision-making power. The autocratic leadership style can pretty much be regarded as the opposite of the democratic leadership style above, much like produce-or-perish management. (You can find the produce-or-perish, a.k.a. the authority-obedience style in our leadership styles portal.) It rests on a strong leader calling the shots basically, with some similarities to the Great Man Theory of Leadership. This can lead to low engagement since there is little empowerment and little trust in general. Depending on the situation, the autocratic leadership style can be surprisingly effective, especially when time is scarce and quick decisive decisions are required - again the opposite of the participative element of the democratic leadership style.

The autocratic leadership style is often divided into three different types.

Directing: detailed instructions are given, and execution is expected to the letter. This is followed by close control and constant monitoring. No questions asked.

Permissive: Although the autocratic leader makes all the decisions, the followers are left with authority on how to execute the decisions. This retains some creativity and utilizes the competency and experience of the followers to a higher degree.

Paternalistic: This version of autocratic leadership focuses on the well-being of the followers. The leader acts as a "father" who knows what is best for the "children", i.e. the followers. Some input and discussion might be allowed in decision making, but the leader disregards if he or she wants to.

Although the autocratic leadership style is generally disliked it has a place and that's in times of crisis when difficult decisions need to be taken fast. The autocratic leadership style can also be useful in organizations where motivation is lacking; the autocratic leader can push through for results anyway. Studies have found that specific types of personalities actually prefer being led by an autocratic leader.

Examples of autocratic leaders: Martha Stewart, Howell Raines, and Leona Helmsley.

For a full and more complete description of this leadership style, click here: Autocratic Leadership Style.

Laissez-faire Leadership - leaderless of hands-off leadership

This leadership style is sometimes referred to as the delegative leadership style. Laissez-faire is essentially a hands-off approach where the leader stays back and lets the team do the work on their own. Minimal guidance is provided to the team and they are expected to make decisions and execute using that guidance. Laissez-faire leadership can be intentional, i.e. the leader backs off and lets the team loose so to speak. It can also be unintentional, literally resulting in an absence of leadership. Laissez-faire can work well in a team where a high level of empowerment meets the right talent. In fact, a good team can do well under a laissez-faire regime.
Teams with highly specialized experts can do rather well under laissez-faire leadership since it gives them substantial freedom to make their own decisions. A high degree of specialization could lead to silo thinking if not the overall leader is there to remind the team of the importance of cooperation etc.

A laissez-faire leader can be perceived as uncaring, uninterested, and absent which can confuse the team members regarding direction and clarity on roles. An uninterested leader often results in lower accountability amongst the team members which in turn leads to decreased productivity.

Warren Buffet and Ronald Reagan are considered examples of laissez-faire leaders. If you have further interest in laissez-faire leadership you can read more about its origin, pros, cons, and examples in our article on the laissez-faire leadership style. The article also contains some real-life examples of the leadership style that I have experienced over my fifteen-year-long leadership career.

Other words for democratic leadership

Democratic leadership is sometimes also referred to as[4]:

Participative leadership

Shared leadership

Integrative leadership

Channeled leadership

Democratic leadership - quotes

Let us top off this article with a few quotes related to Democratic Leadership. Take a look at this infographic.

Feel free to use this image, as long as you link back to this page.

Related leadership styles

Before going into some practical examples of democratic leadership that I have personally experienced, let us spend some time looking at similar and related leadership styles. The core of democratic leadership is really to include the team in decision-making, and there are multiple styles that do this. To deepen our understanding of democratic leadership, it makes sense to scratch the surface on these styles as well. The following descriptions are based on excerpts from the articles on each style.

Transformational leadership

A transformational leader inspires people and leads by example. He or she believes the team members can transform and evolve to become better as individuals and reach higher levels of performance and productivity. For an in-depth comparison, refer to our separate article: transformational leadership vs. democratic leadership.

The leader and the team work together to find the need for change and create a vision for the future which they then start working towards together. Empowering and giving authority to individuals in the organization is one segment of transformational leadership and this often leads to positive attitudes and higher productivity.
The working together part and empowerment part has strong connections to democratic leadership.

The wanted outcome of transformational leadership is to reach really high engagement and use that to reach increased levels of motivation and productivity. The leadership style also seeks to improve and increase the ethical aspects of team behavior. The ultimate goal of the transformational leader is to inspire and develop the team members to achieve fantastic levels of success and achievement. (Check out our article on How to create a leadership development plan.)

Transformational leadership is associated with positive results and high engagement among employees.

Nelson Mandela is often mentioned as a transformational leader who painted a strong vision and inspired a lot of people to believe that change was possible. Mandela's strong focus on forgiveness has an ethical aspect that is also in line with the transformational leadership style. Another example is Mahatma Gandhi who managed to instill great change while retaining strong ethics. Sir Richard Branson and Marissa Mayer are also examples of transformational leaders.

For ideas on providing your team members with a vision, please have a look at our articles on Transformational leadership and Visionary Leadership. You might also want to get some inspiration from reading about the Charismatic Leadership Style. All three styles and many others are available in our leadership styles portal.

Servant Leadership

In the Servant Leadership Style, the leader is selfless and focuses completely on improving the organization and its people. Servant leaders are good at listening and have a lot of empathy - assets that are used to develop others. This leadership style often leads to high employee engagement and highly motivated employees, much thanks to a high degree of empowerment and that the leader is willing to relinquish a lot of the authority to others. It can go too far though if the focus on the employees is so high that the future of the organization is set to a second priority.

The listening attitude and the high level of empowerment compare well with the democratic leadership style.

Mother Teresa is a well-known example of a servant leader due to a high level of self/sacrifice and dedication to caring for others. The 14 th Dalai Lama, Lhamo Thondup, is another leader who has helped his followers and made it his mission to serve humanity.

We have a full article on the Servant Leadership Style available in our leadership styles article portal if you want more in-depth information.

Democratic Leadership Articles and further reading

Democratic leadership is part of two leadership styles framework: The Six Leadership Styles by Goleman and the Kurt Lewin Leadership Styles.

You can learn more on how to use democratic leadership here: How can Democratic Leadership be effective?
For additional inspiration from real-life situations, including some elements of democratic leadership in the workplace, read our article on Democratic Leadership Examples.
The Lewin leadership styles experiments and some criticism of the Lewin leadership styles.
An in-depth comparison here: Democratic leadership compared to transformational leadership.

Most importantly, I suggest you visit our huge repository with all kinds of leadership styles where you can learn more about how to excel as a leader.

[1] https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/democratic-participative-leadership.aspx#definition
[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104649640003100603
[3] and [4]"A Handbook of Leadership Styles", Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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Democratic Leadership - Explained by a CEO: Pros/Cons, Examples | Leadership Ahoy!

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Leaning on my fifteen years of experience as a global business leader, I must say that democratic leadership should be used much more than it is. In some cultures and parts of the world, a democratic leader might even be regarded as a weak leader, believe it or not.

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Correlli, J. (2021, August 6). The 10 principles of servant leadership. Team Gantt. https://www.teamgantt.com/blog/servant-leadership

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"If your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

When Nathan and I started TeamGantt, we decided to buck tradition and take a different approach. As leaders of the company, we care more about being part of the team and setting people up for success than making sure everyone knows who's boss.

That's why servant leadership is our go-to leadership style.

Let's take a closer look at what servant leadership is and the 10 characteristics that define a servant leader.

What is servant leadership?

Servant leadership is a management style that prioritizes the team's growth and well-being over the organization's or leader's own ambitions. Unlike traditional leaders, a servant leader focuses on coaching and developing individuals, not just achieving the goals of the organization.

Servant leadership traces its origins to Robert Greenleaf. In his 1970 essay "The Servant as a Leader," he described servant leadership like this:

"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first."

A lot of companies look at employees as cogs in a wheel who exist solely to help the organization advance its goals. Leaders act as taskmasters who dole out authority and don't care how work gets done, as long as it's delivered on time. Servant leadership flips the typical leadership script by putting people ahead of power.

10 key principles of servant leadership

So what does it take to be a servant leader? Servant leaders share a common set of core characteristics. Follow these 10 principles to put servant leadership to work with your team.

1. Listening

Listening is at the heart of servant leadership. If a team member's talking, give them your full focus and attention-no interruption allowed! It's a simple way to make your team feel valued so they know you care.

2. Empathy

A lot goes into empathy, but when it comes to servant leadership, it basically comes down to getting to know your team. Find out what makes them tick, and learn their strengths and weaknesses. That way you can let your team members shine and maybe even help them turn their weaknesses into strengths.

3. Healing

Some team members may come to you from a previous job that had a really toxic work environment-and you have the privilege to help them heal.

Don't worry: It's not as hard as it sounds. Healing is as simple as creating a healthy work environment that has work-life balance built in. It's also about giving people the tools they need to succeed so they feel like a valued member of the team.

4. Self-awareness

I've already mentioned the importance of understanding your team's strengths and weaknesses. But it's just as important to do a little self-reflection of your own.

Take inventory of your own strengths and weaknesses, and figure out how you fit into the overall team. Then use yourself in ways that benefit the team and the company. Recognizing your own limitations can help you see opportunities to leverage your team's strengths more clearly.

5. Persuasion

Slick sales tactics may come to mind when you think of persuasion. But that's not what we're talking about here.

Servant leaders use persuasion to build consensus and get buy-in from their team. That way everyone feels like they have a stake in the team's success.

6. Conceptualization

You've got to know where you're going as a leader and a company. After all, how else will you carve a positive path for your team?

TeamGantt enables you to keep the big picture in mind without losing focus on the day-to-day. For example, the Project Health Report makes it easy to see how all your projects are tracking, while Workloads enables you to keep a finger on the pulse of your team.

7. Foresight

Another key characteristic of servant leadership is taking the knowledge you've learned in the past and applying it to the future so you and your team can continue to grow.

Project post-mortems or retrospectives are a great tool for figuring out what worked-and what didn't-so you can fine-tune your process with each project. You can also use TeamGantt's baselines feature to compare your original plan to your actual timeline and pinpoint opportunities to improve.

See how baselines work in TeamGantt.
8. Stewardship

Stewardship is simply leading by example. It's your job to set the tone for your team, so don't ask people to do things you wouldn't do yourself.

At TeamGantt, I lead the development team. One way I put this into practice is by being the first person to sign up for 2:00 a.m. deployments. If something goes wrong, I'll take the heat. This goes a long way toward building trust-a must for any well-functioning team.

9. Commitment to the growth of people

If you want your team to grow, you've got to invest in people. One simple way we do this is by providing an annual conference budget so team members can develop the skills they need to thrive in their role.

We also conduct 360 performance reviews each year. As a leader, you can only see so much. A 360-degree review brings peer and even direct report feedback into the process so you have a more complete picture of performance and can identify meaningful opportunities for growth.
Watch this video to learn how we build unity and morale on our remote team.

10. Building community

Teams who trust each other work together to get more done. That's why it's important to cultivate relationships among your team.

As a fully remote team, we have to be extra-intentional about this. We bring the whole team together once a year for our annual team meetup, while smaller teams get together more often. We make sure to build in time for fun between business strategy so trust has room to grow. It's worth the investment!

Apply the servant leadership style to project management

Servant leaders know there's always more to learn-and we can help you out with that. The Art and Science of Project Leadership is an online video course that can help you embrace the servant leadership style as you grow your project management skills. Watch the classes anytime, from anywhere-and it's totally free!

I recommend starting with An Introduction to Project Leadership-not just because it's the first in the series-but because it lays the foundation for what it means to be a great project leader.

Lead the way!
Remember: You don't have to have a manager title or a team of direct reports to be a servant leader. If you lead projects in any way, you have the power of positive influence and can set your team and organization up for success.

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The 10 Principles of Servant Leadership | TeamGantt

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"If your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams When Nathan and I started TeamGantt, we decided to buck tradition and take a different approach.

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Tarallo, M. (2021, May 19). The art of servant leadership. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/the-art-of-servant-leadership.aspx

The art of servant leadership.

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Servant leaders are a revolutionary bunch–they take the traditional power leadership model and turn it completely upside down. This new hierarchy puts the people–or employees, in a business context–at the very top, and the leader at the bottom, charged wi

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Cherry, K. (2020, November 13). Why the most effective leaders know how to adapt to the situation. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-situational-theory-of-leadership-2795321

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The situational theory of leadership suggests that no single leadership style is best. Instead, it depends on which type of leadership and strategies are best-suited to the task. According to this theory, the most effective leaders are those that are able to adapt their style to the situation and look at cues such as the type of task, the nature of the group, and other factors that might contribute to getting the job done.

Situational Leadership

Situational leadership theory is often referred to as the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, after its developers, Dr. Paul Hersey, author of "The Situational Leader," and Kenneth Blanchard, author of "One-Minute Manager."

Leadership Styles

Hersey and Blanchard suggested that there are four primary leadership styles:

Telling (S1):In this leadership style, the leader tells people what to do and how to do it.

Selling (S2): This style involves more back-and-forth between leaders and followers. Leaders "sell" their ideas and message to get group members to buy into the process.

Participating (S3): In this approach, the leader offers less direction and allows members of the group to take a more active role in coming up with ideas and making decisions.

Delegating (S4):This style is characterized by a less involved, hands-off approach to leadership. Group members tend to make most of the decisions and take most of the responsibility for what happens.

Maturity Levels

The right style of leadership depends greatly on the maturity level (i.e., the level of knowledge and competence) of the individuals or group.

Hersey and Blanchard's theory identifies four different levels of maturity, including:

M1: Group members lack the knowledge, skills, and willingness to complete the task.

M2: Group members are willing and enthusiastic, but lack the ability.

M3: Group members have the skills and capability to complete the task, but are unwilling to take responsibility.

M4: Group members are highly skilled and willing to complete the task.

Matching Styles and Levels

Leadership styles may be matched with maturity levels. The Hersey-Blanchard model suggests that the following leadership styles are the most appropriate for these maturity levels:

Low Maturity (M1)-Telling (S1)

Medium Maturity (M2)-Selling (S2)

Medium Maturity (M3)-Participating (S3)

High Maturity (M4)-Delegating (S4)

How It Works

A more "telling" style may be necessary at the beginning of a project when followers lack the responsibility or knowledge to work on their own. As subordinates become more experienced and knowledgeable, however, the leader may want to shift into a more delegating approach.

The situational approach to leadership also avoids the pitfalls of the single-style approach by recognizing that there are many different ways of dealing with a problem and that leaders need to be able to assess a situation and the maturity levels of subordinates in order to determine what approach will be the most effective at any given moment.

Situational theories, therefore, give greater consideration to the complexity of dynamic social situations and the many individuals acting in different roles who will ultimately contribute to the outcome.

Situational Leadership II

The Situational Leadership II (or SLII model) was developed by Kenneth Blanchard and builds on Blanchard and Hersey's original theory. According to the revised version of the theory, effective leaders must base their behavior on the developmental level of group members for specific tasks.

Competence and Commitment

The developmental level is determined by each individual's level of competence and commitment. These levels include:

Enthusiastic beginner (D1): High commitment, low competence.

Disillusioned learner (D2):Some competence, but setbacks have led to low commitment.

Capable but cautious performer (D3):Competence is growing, but the level of commitment varies.

Self-reliant achiever (D4): High competence and commitment.

SLII Leadership Styles

SLII also suggests that effective leadership is dependent on two key behaviors: supporting and directing. Directing behaviors include giving specific directions and instructions and attempting to control the behavior of group members. Supporting behaviors include actions such as encouraging subordinates, listening, and offering recognition and feedback.

The theory identifies four basic leadership styles, including:

Directing (S1): High on directing behaviors, low on supporting behaviors.

Coaching (S2): High on both directing and supporting behaviors.

Supporting (S3): Low on directing behavior and high on supporting behaviors.

Delegating (S4): Low on both directing and supporting behaviors.

Key Factors

Experts suggest that there are four key contextual factors that leaders must be aware of when making an assessment of the situation.

Consider the Relationship

Leaders need to consider the relationship between the leaders and the members of the group. Social and interpersonal factors can play a role in determining which approach is best.

For example, a group that lacks efficiency and productivity might benefit from a style that emphasizes order, rules, and clearly defined roles. A productive group of highly skilled workers, on the other hand, might benefit from a more democratic style that allows group members to work independently and have input in organizational decisions.

Consider the Task

The leader needs to consider the task itself. Tasks can range from simple to complex, but the leader needs to have a clear idea of exactly what the task entails in order to determine if it has been successfully and competently accomplished.

Consider the Level of Authority

The level of authority the leader has over group members should also be considered. Some leaders have power conferred by the position itself, such as the capacity to fire, hire, reward, or reprimand subordinates. Other leaders gain power through relationships with employees, often by gaining respect from them, offering support to them, and helping them feel included in the decision-making process.

Consider the Level of Maturity

As the Hersey-Blanchard model suggests, leaders need to consider the level of maturity of each individual group member. The maturity level is a measure of an individual's ability to complete a task, as well as his or her willingness to complete the task. Assigning a job to a member who is willing but lacks the ability is a recipe for failure.

Being able to pinpoint each employee's level of maturity allows the leader to choose the best leadership approach to help employees accomplish their goals.

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Why the Most Effective Leaders Know How to Adapt to the Situation

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The situational theory of leadership suggests that no single leadership style is best. Instead, it depends on which type of leadership and strategies are best-suited to the task.

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Indeed Editorial Team. (2020, February 25). What is situational leadership? Definition, advantages vs. disadvantages and examples. Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/situational-leadership

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There are many leadership styles that a leader can implement to be more successful in the workplace. One of these styles is situational leadership, which is when a leader adjusts their type of leadership to best suit a particular situation or task. In this article, we discuss the definition of situational leadership, how leaders can implement situational leadership and the advantages and disadvantages of this style of leadership.

What is situational leadership?

Situational leadership is a leadership style in which a leader adapts their style of leading to suit the current work environment and/or needs of a team. This style of leadership is not dependent on the skills of a leader; rather it is based on a leader's ability to adjust to the requirements of a team or organization in order to be a better and more effective leader. This leadership style may also be referred to as "Situational Leadership Theory" or the "Situational Leadership Model" and was originated by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey during the development of the book, Management of Organizational Behavior.

According to Blanchard and Hersey, a situational leader may use one of the following leadership behavioral styles depending on the situation:

Delegating. The delegating leadership style is when a team is efficient and effective at their jobs and require little guidance.

No particular style is considered to be the best for a leader. Rather, a leader using a situational style of leadership will use whichever style is best suited to a situation.

Related: 15 Leadership Qualities That Make a Great Leader

What do situational leaders do?

A leader implementing a situational style of leading will evaluate an organization or team and adjust their way of leading to meet the particular needs of the team or organization. A situational leader implements adaptability and flexibility into their leadership and regularly assesses the situation to ensure they are leading in the most appropriate and successful way.

Common traits that a situational leader illustrates or is capable of illustrating in the workplace include:

Honesty. A situational leader must be honest about a situation and adapt their leadership style to suit it rather than lead in a way that is most advantageous to the leader.

A true situational leader is able to successfully assess their team and implement various leadership styles to meet the needs of the team in each situation. These leaders offer support where needed and encourage growth and independence among their teams to promote increased productivity and success.

Related: 10 Common Leadership Styles (With Examples)

Advantages of situational leadership

Situational leadership can have many benefits for both the leader and the team or organization. A few advantages of this type of leadership include:

This type of leadership accounts for the various levels of development in employees and helps to address each employee's skill level and needs.

Disadvantages of situational leadership

In addition to benefits, there are also potential pitfalls to implementing a situational leadership style within an organization. Disadvantages to consider when using this style of leadership include:

SItuational leadership depends on the leader's ability to judge an employee's maturity level. Some leaders are unable to do this effectively and may, therefore, provide a style of leadership that does not suit a particular employee or team.

Related: How To Become a Successful Team Leader

Examples of situational leadership

The following are real-life examples of how situational leadership may be implemented in the workplace:
An emergency room has just received a large influx of patients that have been critically injured in a bus crash. With such a large amount of patients in the emergency room, the emergency room supervisor must implement a "telling" style of leadership to direct the emergency room workers in an efficient manner. This requires the emergency room supervisor to provide constant supervision and regular direction to all emergency room staff to ensure that all patients are seen and taken care of in a timely manner. A manager must oversee the completion of a project with his team. The manager's team has ample experience completing all tasks required for the project and the team has shown confidence and the ability to take responsibility for their work. Knowing this, the manager uses a "delegating" style of leadership throughout the duration of the project and delegates tasks to each team member with minimal supervision.

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What is Situational Leadership? Definitions, Pros, Cons and Examples

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There are many leadership styles that a leader can implement to be more successful in the workplace. One of these styles is situational leadership, which is when a leader adjusts their type of leadership to best suit a particular situation or task.

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Lynch, M. (2020, May 9). Becoming a transformational school leader. The Edvocate. https://www.theedadvocate.org/becoming-a-transformational-school-leader/

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Becoming a Transformational School Leader

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The transformational school leader must confront student deviance , as well as teachers' possible cynicism and lack of motivation.

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Cherry, K. (2020, March 4). How do transformational leaders inspire and motivate followers? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-transformational-leadership-2795313

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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.﻿﻿

Mental Health in the Workplace Webinar

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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Van Edwards, V. (2019, August 2). 10 leadership skills that every leader should have. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kehjByLNvmo

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10 Leadership Skills that Every Leader Should Have