Before we dive into the modern theories of leadership and management, we must first recognize the man who is the father of modern management, Peter Drucker. He argued that employees should be treated as resources to cultivate rather than costs. He wrote 33 books of what some we employ as best practices in modern management and leadership. These 3 different theories would stem from the works of Drucker, who redefined the roles of managers and created the first MBA program.
There are three main theories of leadership and management today. They are transformational leadership, agile leadership and servant leadership. Depending on the organizational structure, goals and challenges the proper style would vary in effectiveness. It is often necessary to borrow elements from each to address the current need of an organization.
Transformational leadership has a democratic leadership style because it involves the support from the collective in order to achieve a common goal. According to Campos (2020) transformational leadership distributes the power amongst the stakeholders. There must be a consensus as to what the goal is, and everyone must buy in, and all followers are accountable to the realization of the organizational success. According to Bass (1985) there are four dimensions of a transformational leader.
The first dimension is idealized influence or charisma. The leader must have a charisma about them in order to influence their followers. They need to be able to have a clear and concise roadmap to success of the organization, as Northouse (2016) highlighted they must be confident about that position that they take towards the realization of the organization’s goals. Ismail (2020) points out that leaders have a substantial influence of the company culture so they need to present the appropriate positive qualities that would fit the organizations values and goals.
The second is inspirational motivation, which is how leaders articulate visions to inspire the subordinates to reach the desired goals. According to Alessa (2021) inspirational personalities that motivates and stimulates employees become effective leaders with a clear vision. Lai, Tang and Lu (2020) added that the intrinsic value of goal accomplishment fosters meaningfulness and thus both idealized influence and inspirational motivation would likely make the employees more willing to present themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally at work.
The third dimension is the intellectual stimulation is what Campos (2020) describes as the factor that inspires followers to be innovative and creative. This is what pushes the followers to think outside the box and challenge the status quo. The leader would foster an environment that would allow them to think independently to solve the organization problems (Northouse, 2016).
Lastly, the fourth dimension is individualized consideration which is where leaders would provide emotional support and consideration for the followers (Lai, Tang and Lu 2020). It would give the employees a safe space for expression without fear of negative consequences, thus the followers’ problem-solving abilities can be enhanced by encouraging members to tackle a problem from different angles (Bass 1985).
There are many different characteristics and interpretations of agile leadership depending on the organization, but they all share a common theme: they are viewed as a living system able to adapt to unpredictable circumstances (Smet, Lurie, St. George 2018). We can focus on three main traits which is clarity or “north star”, emotional intelligence and a commitment to action or follow through even with the absence of information (Pruitt 2017).
Having the foresight, vision and knowing what success looks like is the guiding light or “north star” of the organization. You need to get to know your stakeholders and reimagine what value you are going to create for and how (Smet, Lurie, St. George 2018). Agile leaders would find themselves with an endless deadlines and emergencies. Research has shown that there is a high correlation between agile leaders handling emergency matters to making the right decisions.
Emotional Intelligence is also a pinnacle trait of an agile leader because you can actively listen to your followers will better prepare you to see the blind spots so that you can course correct when necessary (Pruitt 2017). This can also empower them to collaborate and become more flexible to complex and unpredictable scenarios. Research has shown that there is a correlation between high emotional intelligence job embeddedness (Akkaya, Panait 2022) which means less turnover for the organization.
Having the “guts” to follow through and commit to a completion of a project without all the facts is a necessary trait for an agile leader. This is done by leading through change and taking on risk based on values and vision (Pruitt 2017). Strategic risks, based on iterations is necessary to have innovative solutions.
There are four principles in Servant Leadership according to Hayzlett (2019) which is diversity of thought, culture of trust, unselfish mindset and foster leadership in others. A servant leader would surround themselves with experts and mentors who has the battle scars because they may be the ones who can help you answer problems that is plaguing the organization.
Diversity of thought considers every perspective when tasked with moving the needle forward (Hayzlett 2019). Others (Tarallo 2018) have called this principal question close, listen closer. Servant leaders will ask many questions and listen to employees what is impeding success, which fosters a sense that they’re opinion truly matters, likewise it also goes the other way where in the employee would feel comfortable asking the leader questions.
This tie into the culture of trust that because by having this open communication, everyone would buy in the company mission and vision and the values they are expected to create for the organization (Hayzlett 2019). Trust is both the defining characteristic and defining outcome of servant leadership (Tarallo 2018).
With building trust, there would be a culture of unselfish mindset because the success of the organization is the result of the collective being able to deliver and trust that they can deliver. A servant leader would convince employees that the leader has their best interest at heart (Tarallo 2018).
The employees would also look to the servant leader’s characteristics and foster leadership within themselves (Hayzlett 2019). A servant leader would empower employees to have the level of autonomy and would themselves evangelize others to align with the organizations overarching vision.
Certainly, there are overlaps in the different theories and principles of modern management. However, there is a common theme among them, which is successful leaders must have a clear vision of what success would be for the organization. The overarching view of leadership must recognize all the small pieces of the organization, all working as a collecting to achieve this goal. Transformational leaders call it idealized influence, whereas agile leaders would call it the north star which a servant leader would foster this by a culture of trust; all working together to trust each other for the collective goal. This complements agile leader’s emotional intelligence to recognize where the problems or bottlenecks would be, and a servant leader’s diversity of thought would encourage the organization to tackle problems in different angles. As such, since a consensus has been established, a transformational leader uses the buy in of all his followers as a way to keep them in track of the organization’s goals. Agile leaders need to have the “guts” to follow through a project even with limited information by taking calculated and mitigated risks. The individualized consideration of transformational leaders borrows from this as well because the employees can suggest action without the fear of negative consequences as long as its done in good faith.
As you can see, these three theories though are different in some ways, they also share many of the same principles as well. Think about the organization you are in and see if you can recognize any of the theories or principles as described above. A hybrid approach picking and choosing what is relevant to you would be the best solution. Ultimately, employees are resources that can be cultivated to whatever the organization requires, the method in which you choose to accomplish this is up to you.
References
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations (1st ed.). Free Press.
Campos, A. (2020) ‘Transformational Leadership’, Available at https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2020/11/05/transformational-leadership-theory/ (Accessed August 30, 2022)
Ismail, K (2022) ‘What is Transformational Leadership Theory’, Available at https://www.reworked.co/leadership/what-is-transformational-leadership-theory/ (Accessed August 30, 2022)
Lai, F., Tang, H., Lu, S. (2020) ‘Transformational Leadership and Job Performance: The Meditating Role of Work Engagement’, Available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244019899085# (Accessed August 30, 2022)
Alessa, G. (2021) ‘The Dimensions of Transformational Leadership and Its Organizational Effects in Public Universities in Saudi Arabia’, Available at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682092/full (Accessed August 31 2022)
Smet, A., Lurie, M., St. George, A. (2018) ‘Leading Agile Transformation’, McKinsey & Company
Pruitt, J. (2017) ‘3 Top Traits of Effective Agile Leaders’, Available at https://www.inc.com/jeff-pruitt/3-ways-to-leverage-agile-leadership.html (Accessed August 31, 2022)
Shamani, A., Abbas, O. (2020) ‘The Effect of Agile Leadership in Reducing Work Pressure), Available at https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/download/4570/4520/8743 (Accessed August 31 2022)
Akkaya, B., Panait, M. (2022) ‘Agile Leadership and Perceived Career Success: The Mediating Role of Job Embeddedness’, Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9025074/ (Accessed August 31, 2022)
Hayzlett, J. (2019) ‘4 Principles of Servant Leadership’, Available at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/340791 (Accessed August 31, 2022)
Tarrallo, M., (2018) ‘The Art of Servant Leadership’, Available at https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/the-art-of-servant-leadership.aspx (Accessed August 31, 2022)
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications