Recent Research on Leadership

Leadership Index

The Leadership Index Report is an annual study conducted by Melbourne Business School. It asks managers from frontline to CEO level to identify the top five leadership challenges facing them while also seeking their views about their roles, their leaders and their organisations. In the 2005 Leadership Index Report, the number one challenge identified was the need to follow through on or create organisational change. Other findings include:

• Achieving a work-life balance. This is the second leadership priority identified. (In past studies this has ranked as number one).

• Managers share a negative perception of the effectiveness of their CEOs.

• Managers see themselves as being more effective than their CEOs.

• Men and women have different views on the challenges for managing and leading. For example:

• Men believe their leaders are good mentors and coaches whereas women believe that their leaders are not good mentors and coaches.

• Men and women agree that organisational change and achieving a work-life balance are the top two leadership priorities but the other top challenges are perceived differently. For men it is about building teams and attracting and retaining talent. For women it is about dealing with office politics and influencing others.

• Attracting and retaining talented staff is viewed as the major future challenge (i.e. in the next two years)

• All generations surveyed believe that a reduction in physical exercise is the main sacrifice they make by working longer hours

2005 Leadership Index Report by Dr Karen Morley, Associate Dean Executive Programs, Melbourne Business School . To request a free copy of the executive summary please email leadershipindex@mbs.mteliza.com.au

Leadership and Values

"Charismatic leadership has been defined in various ways, but a common thread across definitions is that charismatic leaders motivate people by creating a vision that revolves around some set of higher ideals or values." Sandra Cha, an assistant professor at McGill University , and Amy Edmondson, of Harvard Business School , in this research study the risks and rewards of organisational values using a young, ambitious advertising agency for a field study. The researchers were given unprecedented access for twelve months to the agency - i.e. sitting in on meetings, observing interactions, chatting informally with employees and conducting interviews. The CEO/Founder of the agency envisioned a less pretentious, more collegial and less competitive advertising agency than was the norm.

According to the authors a recurring theme during the research period was "values". "Many employees told us the best thing about the company was its values. But the employees said the worst thing about the company was that the CEO had been, from their point of view, breaching the values that he himself had developed for the company." A key factor in this view was that employees had interpreted the company values differently from the CEO.

Other points made include:

• Clarify the values' appropriate meanings but do not restrict their scope excessively.

• Proactively give sense around actions that could be seen as values- threatening. In other words, leaders should take the time to explain the reasons behind negative decisions.

• Create a sense of psychological safety. "Employees need to feel that it is safe for them to express negative views about leaders. Leaders can make this possible by seeking regular feedback through anonymous surveys or other safe forums.

"Hypocrisy may be unavoidable for leaders in the modern world. With rapid changes in the environment it can be very hard for leaders to keep promises at "Time 2" that they made at "Time 1". With the incredible speed and reach of modern communications, companies are now under unprecedented scrutiny, not only from their employees and shareholders, but also from advocacy groups, watchdog organisations and an ever savvier public."

"Corporate Values and Employee Cynicism." Interview with researchers Sandra Cha and Amy Edmondson in Working Knowledge, February 27 th 2006, Harvard Business School online journal.

Click here

To download the findings of the research click on "When Values Backfire: Leadership, Attribution and Disenchantment in a Values-driven Organisation" at the above site.

Leadership Deficit

A leadership deficit is the biggest challenge facing the nonprofit sector over the next ten years. The Bridgespan Group has just released the white paper called "The Nonprofit Sector's Leadership Deficit" which estimates the sector will need to double the current number of nonprofit leaders by 2016. In the United States this means an additional 8000 executives. The report, based on the United States nonprofit sector, makes some important points for the Australian experience.

The reason for the deficit include:

1. The growth in the number of nonprofit organisations.

2. The retirement of the vast baby-boomer generation.

3. The movement of existing nonprofit managers to outside the sector.

4. The sector's lack of intermediaries to help in recruiting and developing managers.

5. The lack of robust management education and executive search capabilities.

The report states there are three critical imperatives which need to be addressed:

1. Invest in leadership capacity. "Nonprofits must invest in building skilled management teams- even if it means directing a greater proportion of funding to overhead."

2. Refine management rewards to retain and attract top talent. "To recruit more and better leaders, organisations will have to structure more competitive management packages, particularly in light of the push to hold managers to higher performance standards."

3. Expand recruiting horizons and foster individual career mobility. This means actively recruiting baby-boomers who wish to continue working, mid-life career changers seeking greater social impact, and the young.

"The nonprofit Sector's Leadership Deficit is available at www.bridgespangroup.org/kno_articles_leadershipdeficit.html .

Future Leadership

Between 2000 and 2003 Director of the Undergraduate Leadership Program at Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania , Anne Greenhalgh and associated director Christopher Maxwell surveyed nearly 2000 students about their perceptions of leadership. Each student had to design or select an image that represented leadership and then write an explanation for their choice. "Images of Leadership: The Story Emerging Leaders Tell' is the report of their findings.

• The majority of students selected images "we might expect", for example, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Mandela, Martin Luther King, etc.

• The language used to describe leadership was plural, moral and inspirational. The most frequently used words to describe leadership include "group", "people", and "team". There is no lone figure of leadership. The "moral" language consistently used to describe leadership included "good", "great", "best", "able" and "true". The inspirational language used included "become", "believe", "achieve" and "create", all words which reflect a sense of possibility.

• Female students show sensitivity to gender when selecting language to describe leaders using gender inclusive words like "member", where male students chose gender specific nouns like "male".

"Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, a Tree, a Pillow: Images of Leadership From Future Leaders."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewtArticle&ID=1417

You will be required to register (Free)