This allowed for an understanding that leadership could be developed in others. In the middle of the last century, the study of leadership shifted from the study of traits to the study of behaviors: not who the leader is but what the leader does.
We still see this theory at play unconsciously today, when someone is overlooked for a leadership role because of a quiet personality. (Starting, first, with a Y chromosome.) For many of us, our first understanding of leadership may have aligned with these theories: leaders were often men with dominant personalities. You were either lucky enough to be born with them, or you weren’t. (Perhaps you can see one primary fault with these theories, just from their name: they assumed only half the world’s population could even be considered for leadership.) The Great Man concept evolved into trait-based theories of leadership, which defined leadership by a leader’s characteristics, most of which were considered innate. The earliest theories of leadership were the Great Man Theories, which emerged in the late 1800s. We will explore:īut First, A Quick Review of Leadership Historyīefore we begin, we need to put leadership theory and practice in the context of history, to understand how the field of study has evolved. In this article, we outline five current leadership theories, and offer resources and suggestions for integrating the theories into your own leadership practice.
#Theories of leadership how to#
In the past half century, the study of leadership has grown, offering many new theories and frameworks for exploring what it means to be a leader, and how to do leadership well. Leadership is a skill that can be learned, but it takes intentionality. In many companies, individuals are promoted because of their technical skill – they are gifted engineers, accountants, or marketers – but that does not mean they are prepared for leadership. But for many others, our first forays into leadership felt much like Yosko’s first day: knowing how to start was not obvious. They told her, “Just do whatever a president does.”įortunately, Yosko was a seasoned leader and she intuited where to start. Thinking it was a mistake, Yosko called her headquarters for advice. When Kathleen Yosko, now CEO of Northwestern Medicine’s Marianjoy Rehabilitation Center, began her first job as a hospital president, there was no onboarding process planned, and no one to welcome her.
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