Overview of Some Widely Researched Leadership Models

This is a survey of leadership models. These are mostly descriptive models. They also overlap.

Path-Goal Theory

Path-Goal theory was among the first leadership theories to include a description of motivation: that is, why people choose to follow a leader. Thus, it tailors it to each individual being led, since different people have different motivators. It also explains how leadership can be tailored to the situation.

Path-Goal theory is based on “expectancy” theory of motivation (Vroom, 1964), which proposes that people will be motivated in their work if they think they are capable of performing their work, if they believe their efforts will result in a certain outcome, and if they believe that the payoffs for doing their work are worthwhile.

Path–goal theory assumes that leaders change their style as situations require. It defines four modes of leader behavior:

  • directive: The leader lets followers know what is expected of them and tells them how to perform their tasks.

  • achievement-oriented: The leader sets challenging goals for followers, expects them to perform at their highest level, and shows confidence in their ability to meet this expectation.

  • participative: The leader consults with followers and asks for their suggestions before making a decision.

  • supportive: The leader is focused mostly on the needs of their subordinates, including their psychological well being.

[Ref: Northouse, Peter G.. Leadership (p. 118). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.]

Leader-Member Exchange (“LMX”) Theory

Leader-Member Exchange theory, aka “LMX” theory, broke new ground by focusing on the relationships between leaders and followers. Thus, instead of considering leadership as something a leader “does to” followers, it considered the bidirectional impact that leaders and followers have on each other.

LMX theory claims that leaders increase their influence by creating an “inner circle” of loyal followers, and that this is a natural outcome in groups. Thus, LMX theory explains how informal leadership arises: a small group emerges, centered around one individual—the “alpha” of the group. The small inner circle amplifies the influence that the alpha member has. Others enter the inner circle by demonstrating loyalty to the circle—in other words, to its leader. In that way, the inner circle grows.

LMX theory is a powerful refutation of organic leadership. It explains why emergent leaders are often surrounded by an informal power unit. Thus, self-organization is often a hidden system of informal power in disguise. On the other hand, LMX theory has been used to explain how leaders can improve their team, by proactively forming a strong relationship with each individual: in effect, bringing each team member into the “inner circle”.

Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic Leadership (House, 1976) is when someone inspires others. They have a dominant personality, not necessary in an aggressive way, but in a way that gets attention and causes others to take notice and listen.

Note that having charismatic leadership says nothing about how the person came to be that way: it could be their inborn traits, or they could have learned to be charismatic. It does not matter how they got that way: the fact is that they are charismatic.

Charismatic leaders tend to have a strong desire to influence others. They are confident in their ideas, and have conviction. Their ideas are often ideological—they have a higher purpose.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational Leadership (MacGregor Burns, 1978) is not so much a model of leadership, as it is a set of values and behaviors that an effective leader is claimed to have. A transformational leader is also a charismatic leader, at least to some extent.

A transformational leader is someone who leads with conviction, and in so doing, they inspire others to as well. They transform you.

People believe in a transformational leader because they feel that the leader has a vision and is leading them well. They feel that if they believe in the leader’s vision, and in the leader, that the leader will make the vision a reality.

Thoughtful discussion is a large part of transformational leadership, because a transformational leader is not autocratic: they are good listeners; and so people ask them how things will work—how will we reach our goal? And the transformational leader often shares their own opinion. Hence a transformational leader stimulates thoughtful discussion. Transformational leadership is inherently intellectual.

Authentic Leadership

Authentic Leadership derives from people’s desire to be led by those who they can believe in. An authentic leader is someone who is dedicated to their cause, and their dedication is rooted in their values. They are, as we say, authentic.

Servant Leadership

Servant Leadership is widely discussed within the Agile community. Unfortunately, it is often misrepresented. From a behavioral leadership perspective, servant leadership is largely focused on what the Path-Goal model refers to as “supportive” behavior, exclusive of the other Path-Goal behavioral modes.

Some in the Agile community have described servant leadership as merely being supportive—that is, acting as the team’s servant. In that view, a servant leader does not ever make any decisions for the team, offer ideas, or set up processes. But that is not what Greenleaf described when he defined servant leadership in his seminal paper.

Greenleaf’s paper contains a lot of ambiguity, but it is clear that he intended that a servant leader,

  • Is focused on the success and progress of the team.

  • Expresses a vision, and by doing so, inspires the team to follow the leader.

  • Demonstrates competence, so that people feel that the leader is worthy of following.

Adaptive Leadership

Adaptive Leadership is about helping others to grow, as people. The idea is that by helping them to grow, they become more capable, more successful, and more effective.

For people to grow, they often have to change their behaviors, and to change their behaviors, they might have to change their values. Therefore, an adaptive leader helps people to introspect so that they can see what is holding them back, and adjust their perspective—perhaps adjust what is important to them.

Thus, “Adaptive leaders engage in activities that mobilize, motivate, organize, orient, and focus the attention of others,” (Heifetz, 1994) and through that process help them to realize new things about themselves, and then decide to change their behavior.

Adaptive leadership is about individual relationships between a leader and the team members.