Leadership connection

Chapter 6 - Leading into the future

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Welcome to the Leadership connection page

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What is the meaning of connection?

A relationship in which a person or thing is linked or associated with something else: e.g. "the connections between social attitudes and productivity".

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Leadership development is an important topic, but the effectiveness of leadership programs raises questions. Research shows that many leadership styles and models show significant overlap. What matters is the quality of the relationship between leader and employee, known as Leader-Member Exchange (LMX).

Successful leaders focus on building trust, empathy, and mutual support within their teams. Instead of developing new leadership models, organizations should focus on strengthening core competencies and creating meaningful working relationships. This is important not only for leadership development but also for managers' roles in change processes.

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Thinking about the concept

A visual thesaurus search is always an excellent starting point to discuss a concept definition:

Thesaurus - ENG

CONNECTION
https://www.freethesaurus.com/connection

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COMMUNICATION
https://www.freethesaurus.com/communication

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CONTEXT
https://www.freethesaurus.com/context

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FRAME OF REFERENCE
https://www.freethesaurus.com/frame%20of%20reference

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Core ideas

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Complexity leadership

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Complexity leadership theory: An interactive perspective on Complexity leadership theory: An interactive perspective on leading in complex adaptive systems leading in complex adaptive systems - Mary UhL-Bien
Traditional, hierarchical views of leadership are less and less useful given the complexities of our modern world. Leadership theory must transi tion to new perspectives that account for the complex adaptive needs of organizations. In this paper, we propose that leadership (as opposed to leaders) can be seen as a complex dynamic process that emerges in the interactive “spaces between” people and ideas. That is, leadership is a dynamic that transcends the capabilities of individuals alone; it is the product of interaction, tension, and exchange rules governing changes in perceptions and understanding. We label this a dynamic of adaptive leadership, and we show how this dynamic provides important insights about the nature of leadership and its outcomes in organizational fields. We define a leadership event as a perceived segment of action whose meaning is created by the interactions of actors involved in producing it, and we present a set of innovative methods for capturing and analyzing these contextually driven processes. We provide theoretical and practical implications of these ideas for organizational behavior and organiza tion and management theory.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub/8/

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Leader-Member Exchange

Three Domain Approaches to Leadership

	Leader-based	Relationship-based	Follower-based
What is leadership?	Appropriate behavior of the person in leader role	Trust, respect, and mutual obligation that generates influence between parties	Ability and motivation to manage one’s own performance
What behaviors constitute leadership?	Establishing and com municating vision; inspiring, instilling pride	Building strong relationships with followers; mutual learning and accommodation	Empowering, coaching, facilitating, giving up control
Advantages	Leader as rallying point for organization; common understanding of mission and values; can initiate whole sale change	Accommodates differing needs of subordinates; can elicit superior work from different types of people	Makes the most of fol lower capabilities; frees up leaders for other re sponsibilities
Disadvantages	Highly dependent on leader; problems if leader changes or is pursuing inappropriate vision	Time-consuming; relies on long-term relationship between specific leaders and members	Highly dependent on follower initiative and ability
When appropriate?	Fundamental change; charismatic leader in place; limited diversity among followers	Continuous improvement teamwork; substantial diversity and stability among followers; Network building	Highly capable and task committed fol lowers
Where most effective?	Structured tasks; strong leader position power; member acceptance of leader	Situation favorability for leader between two extremes	Unstructured tasks; weak position power; member nonacceptance of leader

Content source
Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective - GB Graen, M Uhl-Bien - The leadership quarterly - 1995

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Although LMX experiences great results, time is the resource that imposes limits on the leadership style. Time is money is energy. This usually puts a damper on the party.

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Connection

Leadership connection paradigms

Dialogic and constructivist paradigm			Monologic and realist paradigm
Multitude of	- World-views - View-points - Solutions to problems		One correct	- World view - View-point - Solution to a problem
Language is used for	- Interpretation and creation of reality - Sharing meaning - Inquiry		Language is used for	- Describing reality - Mediating information - Advocation of ones own point of view - Persuasion
Dialogue emphasizes	- Thinking together - Creating mutual vision - Learning together - Balancing listening and voicing - Searching for common values		Monologue emphasizes	- Thinking in solitude - Working for ones own vision - Teaching or learning

Leadership connection forms

Human intent	Core concept	Intention	Method	Goal
GOALS	Persuation	- Influence people to make decisions quickly	- Reciprocity - Scarcity - Authority - Consistency - Sympathy - Social proof	- Getting things done - Saying no
	Coaching	- Learning	- WOOP (an acronym for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) - GROW (an acronym for Goals, Reality, Opportunity, Will)	- Motivation - Personal growth
VALUES	Negotiation	- Resolution - Decision for action - Deal - Contract	- Weigh up - Bargaining - Showing strengths pointing to weaknesses - Counting	- Getting to yes - Avoiding loosing - Consensus or compromise
	Decision making	- Maximising mental comfort	- Matching the situation to the patterns people have learned.	- Finding a satisfying threshold to start action
INTERESTS	Debate	- Proving ones argument to be right - Getting ones own view to be accepted - Showing weaknesses in the opponents argumentation and points of views	- Advocacy - Arguments against person - Rhetorical asking and questioning - Evidence in favor of ones own point of view and against opponents points of view	- Winning - Being right - Getting ones own view to be accepted
	Dialogue	- Thinking and understanding together - Cognitive, emotional and practical wisdom - Shared understanding	- Inquiry - Genuine asking and voicing - Suspension of assumptions - Listening - Building on others ideas - Co-creation of meaning	- Consensus as finding common ground for action - Determining where and if collaboration is possible - Understanding and respecting differences

Content sources
Decision Structuring Dialogue - Raimo P. Hämäläinen - 2011
Naturalistic Decision Making - Gary Klein - 2008