Defining Leadership and Effectiveness

This technical note helps explain what leadership really is, explores some of the factors that influence leader effectiveness, and introduces the basics of how people can begin to develop as leaders. It is an introduction to a very big topic area, but provides simple definitions and explanations of complicated concepts. Excerpt UVA-OB-1292 Rev. Jul. 24, 2019 Defining Leadership and Effectiveness We hear the word “leadership” all over the place in business schools and in the broader business community. When recruiters are asked what skills they want MBA students to have, “leadership skills” are typically right at the top of their lists. Similarly, when executives come back to business school for executive MBAs or when companies send rising stars to various development programs, improving leadership skills is regularly noted as a goal. This might lead to the conclusion that leadership is a pretty important skill for one's career—and indeed, it is. But here's the problem: How do you define this thing that people say is so important? What is leadership? Who is a leader? What does it mean to be an effective leader? If you ask a dozen people, you will likely hear a dozen different answers. How is there so little consensus around this topic about which mountains of books have been written and about which society cares so deeply? One reason is that leadership is often confused with other things that sound similar. This note aims to clear up some of that confusion and present a useful working definition of what leadership is, how to evaluate it, and the behaviors that are important. Importantly, this note is not an exhaustive list of what we know about leadership—that would be too tall an order for any readily digestible piece of reading. Instead, consider this a primer about what leadership is, how it gets done, and how to know whether it's good. Art versus Science Consider Figure 1. If I asked you to place “leadership” somewhere on this spectrum between art and science, where would you put it? . . .