Quid pro quo... An interesting take on leadership
Quid Pro Quo Leadership & More
Greetings, everyone! And as always, a special welcome to those of you receiving this newsletter for the first time.
What's in this Newsletter?
"I want you to do me a favor..."
Talent & Learning: An interesting article around a less-discussed (but personally loved!) leadership theory
Personal news and updates
I want you to do me a favor...
...except this favor is totally legal and doesn't jeopardize the security and foundations of our democratic republic. (Sorry, I couldn't resist).
For those located in NYC: I'm looking for an NYC location to host an open-cohort half-day workshop on designing influential presentations. I have been investing more energy in delivering the Extreme Presentation workshop on designing influential presentations and slides/decks - even piloting it for handful of you readers (you know who you are!). I love instructing this half-day (or full-day) workshop. Simply put, it is the single best one-day skills workshop I've been fortunate to teach.
If you have a decent training room that can host 25-30 people for a half-day and would be interested in hosting later this season in exchange for a few free seats to the workshop, PLEASE let me know! Email me!
Speaking of 2020 - my work schedule for the year is beginning to shape up. If you have any training and development, executive coaching, or talent advisory needs - let's talk! Also, I have been approached about assisting with some executive search efforts, so I may be able to help there as well...
Alright, enough pitching. Let's get to the stuff you came here for!
Talent & Learning
With all the talk of 'quid pro quo' in the news this week, I got to thinking about the importance of psychological contracts in leadership. My mind first went to a less-discussed but incredibly valuable theory of leadership that focuses on the interplay between leaders and their subordinates: Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory.
Unlike many formal theories of leadership that focus solely on the characteristics of the leader, LMX theory explicitly emphasizes the dynamics of leaders and their followers, postulating that effective leaders build psychological capital with their followers by bringing them into the 'in-group'. Put more eloquently: "There is a reciprocal process in the dyadic exchanges between leader and follower, wherein each party brings to the relationship different kinds of resources for exchange" (Wang et al, 2005).
In searching for the impact of 'quid pro quo' exchanges with regard to this theory, I landed on a well-cited study from 2005 that explored the intersection of LMX Theory with Transformational Leadership. I enjoyed the article because of its cleanliness as well as the emphasis on practical implications. Which are:
Transformational efforts should be highly personal. "Effective leaders link achievement of organizational goals to follower fulfillment of self-development goals, with the former advancing the latter."
Leadership development programs should emphasize a leader's sensitivity to the relational elements of high-quality relationships. "It appears that through developing stronger dyadic social bonds that transformational leaders impact follower performance."
Building transformational leadership characteristics themselves can actually build relational quality! "The effectiveness of leadership programs aimed at developing the quality of leader-follower dyadic relationships can be enhanced by incorporating training in transformational leadership skills."
Pretty cool. Curious about how to incorporate both transformational leadership characteristics and build better leader-member exchange capabilities into leadership development programs? Me too! Email me!
Want to read the full article? I put it on my shared drive here.
Personal Updates
1) My new venture, Endeavorun, is launching soon! I am incredibly excited and wildly nervous. If you know of anyone who might be interested in a running program designed to give amateurs a professional training experience, please pass the website along.
2) Our soon-to-be-baby girl is kicking quite a bit and gearing up to make her first appearance. Our pup, Russ, can tell something is up. I would say that I'm also insanely excited... albeit slightly less-nervous. I've got all of you for support!
3) Let me know how we can work together in 2020! And another final plug for those in NYC - please let me know if you can help find a training space for half a day!
That's it for this edition - please reach out if I can be at all helpful!