An employee’s work usually consists of two types of tasks or behaviours: in-role tasks, which are the tasks required by the job or position; and discretionary behaviours, which are undertaken by the employee in order to help others or the organization but that are not required tasks or responsibilities. Of course, employees are not always […]
Subject: Leadership
From Charisma to Autonomy: How India’s Generations Rate Leadership Qualities
Three generations of Indians are currently employed in India’s workplaces. The ‘partition generation’ (born 1944-1963, and roughly equivalent to the baby boomers) were born during times of insecurity and instability. As a result, stability is their primary goal in life, one reason they focus on maintaining cultural norms. Their name refers to the partition of […]
Read More… from From Charisma to Autonomy: How India’s Generations Rate Leadership Qualities
How to Resolve Workplace Conflicts by Addressing Conflict Expression
Workplace conflicts are, unfortunately, a common and difficult problem for managers. The traditional approach to resolving conflict is to examine the content of the conflict: what are you fighting about, and how can we reach some kind of agreement or resolution about this topic? Past research has focused on helping managers effectively manoeuvre this conversation. […]
Read More… from How to Resolve Workplace Conflicts by Addressing Conflict Expression
Bullying Bosses: Don’t Just Take It, Fight Back
Abusive behaviour from bosses, what researchers call ‘downward hostility’, has a negative psychological effect on employees, undermining job satisfaction and the commitment to the employee. Such hostility also causes psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression. Persistent hostility leads employees to adopt a ‘victim identity’, the negative self-image that one is destined to be a […]
Read More… from Bullying Bosses: Don’t Just Take It, Fight Back
Why First-Time Managers Need More Development Support
A Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) survey of first-time managers attending its Maximizing Your Leadership Potential (MLP) program offers some insight into the challenges first-time managers face. The 12 top leadership challenges, according to survey respondents, ranged from doing more with less (mentioned by just 5.4% of respondents), working with a range of employees (14.2%), […]
Read More… from Why First-Time Managers Need More Development Support
Potential Leaders: Height Helps But So Does Being Smart
Tall men have a greater chance of becoming leaders. As unfair as this may seem, and despite the obvious exceptions from Napoleon to CEO superstar Jack Welch, decades of research have consistently borne out the fact that men in leadership positions — from U.S. presidents to CEO’s — are likely taller than average. Additional research […]
Read More… from Potential Leaders: Height Helps But So Does Being Smart
A Lower Voice Can Take You Higher Up the Leadership Ladder
Research in academic laboratory settings — that is, within controlled experiments with voluntary participants — has shown that individuals with deeper voices are perceived as having more leadership capabilities. Different research points to specific qualities attributed to individuals with deeper voices, including competence, persuasiveness, confidence and trustworthiness. What happens, however, in the real world? Are […]
Read More… from A Lower Voice Can Take You Higher Up the Leadership Ladder
Why Leaders Sabotage Their Own Teams
In most hierarchies, power is malleable, which means that it can change. A leader at the top can lose his or her power, and be replaced by subordinates who have, usually through their superior skills and accomplishments, managed to rise through the hierarchy. One of the characteristics of highly skilled subordinates is their ability to […]
How Early Work Experience Shapes Later Leadership Outlook
Employees just joining the workforce will have different experiences in their first jobs, depending on the economic situation of the firm in which they land. This economic situation makes a major difference in the skills, habits and routines that these first-time employees develop. For example, new workers who arrive during good economic times will have […]
Read More… from How Early Work Experience Shapes Later Leadership Outlook
Facial Cues: Can We Judge Who Looks Like a Leader?
A number of academic studies have shown that because many of us form impressions about potential leaders from their facial characteristics, certain facial characteristics (for example, a ‘competent’ look) can help people achieve leadership positions. At least six different studies show that CEOs who share certain facial characteristics command higher salaries or are hired by […]
Read More… from Facial Cues: Can We Judge Who Looks Like a Leader?