Research findings across a variety of industries and organizations indicate that a strong management team is a key ingredient of organizational performance. While this claim might sound straight-forward, recent examples from the corporate and public sector show that it is incredibly difficult to build and develop a management team that functions well. In this blog post, we take a look at six signs of an ineffective management team that threatens organizational performance in this article.
This CQ Dossier discusses the trait-based approach to leadership and reviews those personality traits that distinguish effective from ineffective leaders. The dossier also identifies key skills or competencies that are related to leader effectiveness and can be used by organizations for selection, promotion, and training.
Leadership skills are somehow seen as magic skills only relevant for a executives, senior managers and CEOs. We argue that this understanding of leadership is outdated and that leadership skills are important for every professional and knowledge worker. After that, we have a look at what leadership is all about and we discuss five reasons why you should start to build your leadership skills today.
Politics exist in all organizations but it is interesting to consider whether organizational politics can be a blessing or a curse. This blog post draws on scientific evidence to illustrate how politics can be effective for an organization through a) drawing on the political skills of the talent within the firm and b) implementing strategies that curtail ineffective organizational politics.
The capability to lead and influence people is essential for success even beyond management. Professionals without a formal leadership role find themselves more and more often in situations where it is key to deliberately influence people, teams, divisions or the whole organization. Thus despite – or perhaps precisely because of its great relevance, leadership is often seen as something mystic. This impression is reinforced by a large number of popular business bestsellers about leadership, CEO biographies, and executive consultants who rely on individual experiences and anecdotal evidence when writing and talking about leadership. These sources generally provide only a limited informative value and therefore are of questionable use for the development of leaders and professionals.
For leaders to improve organizational communication, changing the culture is one place to start. Increasing psychological safety is one of the more important elements to focus on in a culture change initiative. In addition to culture change, coaching employees to communicate will also help encourage communication.
Communication at work can play an important role in an organization’s performance and survival, affecting critical issues like innovation, safety, and operational improvements. This CQ Dossier provides an introduction into the impact of communication on organizational performance.
Upward communication can be intimidating and difficult in organizations depending on the culture and how employees view authority figures. It is important for organizational leaders to be open to upward communication if they want to know what is happening in their organizations.
This CQ Dossier describes the key components of implicit leadership theory. The dossier draws on research by Robert Lord and his colleagues to show how the assumptions that followers hold regarding what constitutes an effective leader can influence performance ratings.
This CQ Dossier focuses on the topic of authentic leadership which emphasizes the importance of leaders building honest and transparent relationships with their followers. The dossier describes the key component of authentic leadership and also describes how organizations can best identify and develop these behaviors in management.
