Perspectives
The missing link in leadership theory
No matter what leadership theory you believe in, beyond certain skills required in figuring out a vision (technical business skills), leadership comes down to all sorts of qualities that impact on how you: Communicate Delegate Motivate Coach If you believe in Trait...
More leadership theories than you can shake a stick at
I'm still at this leadership theories thing and have found so many more theories that it is quite amazing. I guess the thing to do is make up a theory and then you can charge big bucks for consulting. Transformational Theory This theory is what I suspect forms the...
Situational Theory and Contingency Theory.
If leadership isn't really a trait and it isn't totally a skill, maybe it's a behaviour. There are sort of two schools of thought that propose that leadership is behavioural in nature. Situational Theory suggests that different situations require different behaviours...
Skills Theory
On the other side of the spectrum from Trait Theory is a theory of leadership known as Skills Theory. Developed as a theory by Robert Katz in 1955, it postulates that leadership is a combination of: Technical skills related to the field in which one operates. Human...
Trait Theory
To many people, leadership is a set of traits or innate abilities. Those who adhere to this mode of thinking are proponents of what is called Trait Theory. (They also happen to be the ones whose mothers told them they were natural born leaders.) Trait Theory...
Back to basics: What is leadership?
I may be confusing myself again but some work I've been doing with a client along with the research I'm doing is leading me to question the nature of leadership. Essentially I'm asking the question I've asked before, what is leadership? There appear to be three...
Where are the women business leaders?
I'm wading back into the issue of women business leaders again, partially because of Ontario's desire to balance out the boards of directors of companies by requiring public companies to set targets for the number of women in senior roles. But what if women don't want...
Under pressure?
I've been pondering this issue of being able to think and communicate under pressure. It comes up on lists of things leaders need to be able to do to be effective leaders. If we're naturally no good at processes such as these when we're under pressure, then what will...
Choking
While there is no fancy term for it like Glassophobia, an inability to think or speak when under pressure is much the same as the reaction people have to speaking to an audience. This is choking. The thing is though that you need to be able to work effectively under...