Blog Posts

By: Dr. Scott

When we think about leadership, we need to approach the topic from quite a few different angles to fully begin to develop ways to talk about leadership.  In other words, defining leadership and explaining leadership to other people is not as easy as it sounds.  So, in this and the next few entries to this leadership blog will focus on different ways we can think about, conceptualize, and understand leadership principles.  Today, we’ll focus on leadership theories.

One of the most holistic ways to think about leadership is to study theoretical concepts of leadership, how they’ve changed over time, and how these all impacted our current thinking about leadership.  We unfortunately don’t have the space or time here in this brief overview for a comprehensive study of theoretical paradigms, but I’ll touch on a few to give us some general context and scope.

Theoretical Foundations

Probably the best place to start is, well, at the beginning and with the Great Man Theory of the nineteenth century.  Basically, proponents of this theory, starting with the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, argued that leaders were, well, first off men and second, that leaders were born to be leaders, and not made through chance or self-improvement.  Another key element of the Great Man Theory is the belief in the exceptionalism of successful leaders and the significance of the leader’s talents in helping them be successful.  In other words, these leaders transcended their followers and the situation and succeeded because of their inherent skills and exceptional talents.

The Great Man Theory persisted as the dominant paradigm for quite some time.  It wasn’t until the twentieth century when alternate perspectives on leadership began to take shape, first with Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory in the 1930s and Behavioral Leadership Theory that emerged from the collective efforts of researchers at several American universities in the 1940s and 1950s.

Allport theorized that personalities are made up of units or traits that can be categorized through trait assessments such as questionnaires.  Building on Allport’s theory, other researchers continued to expand the trait model of analysis.  Trait Theory continues to be a relevant paradigm in both theoretical discussions and practical applications.  For example, Robert McCrae and Paul Costa’s Big Five Personality Model, also known as the Five Factor Personality Test, is still a popular assessment tool and is a direct descendent of Allport’s Trait Theory.

Trait theory, however, like its predecessor the Great Man Theory kept the focus on inherent skills or traits that leaders possess that make them successful.  In other words, the focus was still on the leadership skills that we’re born with and not the skills or behaviors we can learn. 

This is where Behavioral Leadership Theory comes in and, like Trait Theory, is also still impactful today and informs a lot of our twenty first century leadership schools of thought.  For the Behaviorists, successful leadership is the application of a set of learned behaviors and skills.  Said another way, the key paradigm shift was the notion that individuals could improve their leadership skills and become great leaders by practicing specific behaviors.

Building on the Foundations

Building on the Behavioralists throughout the second half of the twentieth century, researchers thought about leadership in new ways with paradigms emerging every decade or so beginning with the Situational Leadership and the Contingency Leadership Theorist of the 1960s.  Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard introduced Situational Leadership and maintained that a leader’s effectiveness is dependent on the capabilities of their followers.  Fred Fiedler and his Contingency Theorists added an additional component to the leadership triad arguing that the situation and the leadership style of the leader is also key to a leader’s effectiveness. 

In the 1980s, more theories emerged bringing other elements of the leadership equation into focus, such as Transformational Leadership Theory where effective leaders inspire and transform followers into high performing teams.  Similarly, Transactional Leadership Theory emphasized the need for leaders to build relationships and, here again, inspire followers to perform at optimal levels through goal achievement and a system of rewards.

Today, many of these theories are alive and well in various forms and serve as the foundation of many leadership development programs and trainings.  And, understanding how we have thought about leadership overtime can help inform our daily leadership in practice.

Dr. Scott Eidson is the Executive Vice President of the Madison School of Professional Development and holds doctoral degrees in both history and business which he uses to educate occasionally, but mostly bore people at parties.