Leadership Theories and Defining Your Values
Northouse defines leadership as a process of influencing others to achieve common goals. It is not a trait or characteristic but rather a transactional event that occurs between leaders and those they lead.
Common leadership theories strive to define the values and motivators of great leaders. Often based on case studies, these are not identities or one-sized fits all blueprints for leadership but rather aggregate trends found by researchers in leadership.
Your leadership style and motivators are unique to you, how you work, and your values. You can learn from prevailing leadership theories and take the time to understand yourself and who you are as a leader.
Leadership Theories
When reading the theories below, resist the urge to relate to one and move on. Instead, look at each with curiosity and an open mind.
What can you learn from these, what do you connect with, what surprises you, and what may be the pros and cons of each?
“Authenticity has become the gold standard for leadership” —Harvard Business Review, January 2015.
Bill George first popularized the Authentic Leader as a leader who:
Understands their purpose
Practices solid values
Leads with heart
Establishes connected relationships
Demonstrates self-discipline
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.” -Robert K. Greenleaf
Greenleaf shares that there are leader-first and servant-first leaders, but both are extremes. The servant leader focuses on the growth of others and their communities while a leader-first leadership persona focuses on accumulating and exercising power. The gray middle area is those who focus on others’ growth while strategically practicing a directive leadership role.
Servant leadership has mostly been portrayed by the metaphor of the pyramid. Where in the leader-first, the leader is at the top of the pyramid and those they lead is at the bottom, in servant-first leadership, the pyramid is flipped with the people they lead on top and the tip, aka the leader, at the bottom.
Transformational Leader
“Leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.”
-James MacGregor Burns 1978
Bernard Bass expands on the definition of a transformational leader in his book published in 1985. He measures leadership by a leader’s influence over their followers. Citing trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect as measures of influence. Transformational leaders develop this influence through an inspiring:
Mission
Vision
Identity
“Adaptive Leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive.” -Heifetz 2009
Adaptive leadership first came about from Ronald Heifetz in Leadership without the Answers in 1994.
An adaptive leader:
Encourages people to change, grow and learn
Focuses the attention of others
Mobilizes, motivates and organizes followers
Helps others explore and change their values to adapt
You as a Leader
Your Story
Think about your life experiences and the defining moments that have shaped you into the person and leader you are. The moments that have shaped your beliefs, opinions, and decisions.
If that feels completely overwhelming start by looking over your resume or LinkedIn. Where have you worked, what were the organizations like, what were your roles, and what were your managers like? What impact have these variables had on the way you are as a leader?
Where did you grow up? What was your family like? Where did you go to school? What did you study? What impact have these variables had on the way you are as a leader?
Then try to find the common thread that ties this together.
Your Workstyle
Next, think about your work style. What is it like working with you and for you? Ask some coworkers and see what they say. Think about trends and patterns- do you show up early to meetings, are you outspoken, are you organized, are you creative, etc? What are you like as a manager?
Your Strengths
For strengths consider:
Your technical skills and expertise
Your behavioral strengths, skills that cannot be learned from a course as much as through experience in how you work with others
Your personality traits, things that make you unique
If you are stuck, look for an old cover letter, interview prep, or performance review. Consider the feedback you have received throughout your career, for example, what are you often complimented on? Consider the things that come easily to you but don’t seem as easy to others, or ask a coworker, or a good friend to tell you what they think you are good at.
Your Values
Your values are the things most important to you. They may evolve over time. There are a few ways to define values:
Think about the most meaningful and challenging points in your life. In the most meaningful, what was present, what was important to you? In the most challenging, what was missing, and how was that important?
Do a raw brainstorm– list out all of the words that quickly come to your mind. Bucket them by similarity. Dig into each bucket to find the overarching value by asking- what is important, and what matters most to you?
Look at existing lists of values and grab anything that stands out to you. Like this one.
Now narrow this down to something you can remember. This is likely at most 5-7 values. To do that, try to find the overarching themes around what is most important to you by defining the values, and looking for overlaps or commonalities. Ask yourself “why”– why does this value matter to me? Keep asking why until you hit a wall and find yourself saying the same things.
Combine your story, workstyle, strengths, and values– what does this say about your leadership style and how you want to lead?
Read further
George, Bill (William W.). Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. San Francisco :Jossey-Bass, 2003.
What is servant leadership? Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
Burns, J.M, (1978), Leadership, N.Y, Harper and Row.
Bass, B. M, (1985), Leadership and Performance, N.Y. Free Press.
Heifetz, R. A., Linsky, M., & Grashow, A. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership. Harvard Business Review Press.
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: theory and practice. Eighth Edition. Los Angeles, SAGE Publications.
