Module 1 Leadership Defined

Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader
Professor Elizabeth A. Luckman, Kari Keating & Denise Lewin Lloyd
Module 1: LEADERSHIP DEFINED
Table of Contents
Module 1: LEADERSHIP DEFINED ........................................................................................ 1
Introduction of Module 1 ................................................................................................... 2
Introduction of Module 1......................................................................................................................................2
Lesson 1 : Leadership Defined ............................................................................................ 9

Leadership Defined ...............................................................................................................................................9
Lesson 2 : Brief History of Leadership Research ................................................................ 21

Lesson 3 : Leadership Competencies ................................................................................. 27
Lesson 4 : Leadership Roles .............................................................................................. 36
Lesson 5 : Defining Leadership for Yourself ....................................................................... 41
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Introduction of Module 1
Introduction of Module 1
Elizabeth Luckman: All right, so this is the beginning of the book, we are talking about
leadership in this book, we're talking about leading teams developing as a leader. And so I
wanted to start by asking you both a question, which is what does the concept of leadership mean
to you? What stands out to you? What's important to you about leadership?
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Kari Keating: I think of a couple of words or ideas right off the bat, I think about the idea of
influence, which is so broad and open to everyone. And I think about it as a personal process,
leadership is personal, it's an ongoing process, it's inherently developmental. So that's like the
first things that come to my mind.
Elizabeth Luckman: I like that, what about you?
Denise Loyd: So, even though I try to resist it on some level, it's amazing that when they think
about the concept of leadership, people come to mind that hold positions of authority or positions
of power. Even though I recognize that, merely holding that position does not guarantee that they
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are actually doing what I consider leading. And not having a position like that, does not mean
that you can't lead, in fact it's not at all the case, we can all lead. So it's funny that I still feel and
see that tendency for that image, right? To kind of pop into my mind about certain people, for
certain roles, when leadership is so much bigger than that.
Kari Keating: We've been acculturated that way, right, to believe that it's about power and
authority. So it's natural even for those of us who study it, we still have that reaction to the term.
Denise Loyd: Yeah, even though when talking to people. There's also some clarity that having
that position, doesn't always lead to people recognizing and enacting the power and the influence
that they have and hold and truly leading. So it's really funny that we're sort of acculturated to
this. But then when we ourselves might be in this formal position, we don't always feel like the
leader, right? Or were, not recognizing the power and the position that we have and really
utilizing that in an effective way.
Elizabeth Luckman: So, it's interesting because I think this sort of, brings to mind the idea that
leadership is very individual, it's very subjective, experience of leadership and developing as a
leader is highly individual process. There is no one magic pill, as I like to say, that makes you a
great leader.
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And so, it requires some time to really think through the concept and to identify our assumptions
and biases about it and what it means for ourselves. Because it also changes over time, it is
different from, when you're in your twenties, when your 40s.
Denise Loyd: What's really exciting to me is [LAUGH] that we all have the potential. So it's,
there's this myth of, leaders are born, great leaders, or you've got it or you don't, no, right? It's
actually amazing that we all, have the potential to grow, to learn, to lead. And have in my mind
really a responsibility, to recognize, when we're in a position to make things better for others.
And that's the other thing that comes to mind for me, it's who are you leading? So it's really the
others, as such an important element, it's not the me, right, it's really about the other people. That
are both hopefully engaged in this process of making change and the people who are on the
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receiving end of whatever it is, right? The outcomes of what we're doing that really matter.
Kari Keating: Yeah, that's so well, don't you wish that everyone in a leadership role or position
appreciate that. That it's not about me in this role, it's about all of you. [LAUGH] And how can I
be effective in this role, in making change for you to make you better to make things better.
Denise Loyd: Right.
Kari Keating: Yeah, I love that.
Denise Loyd: Empower you to take action, create a space for you to have a voice.
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Elizabeth Luckman: It's also hard to do, what you're describing is not easy, it's very difficult.
So, I think I love this conversation. I think this is a really helpful way to sort of kick off this
learning journey for anybody that's joining us and for us as well. I mean, we are going on this
learning journey as much as anybody else because it constantly changes. I think that's a theme
here that that we'll see. So, to wrap up sort of leading us into this module. What's well, we talked
about in class, this is a professor Kerry invention that the one big nugget, right? You're one big
takeaway. So, what are your one big nugget say you would like to have learners think about and
that you think about in the context of defining leadership as a concept.
Kari Keating: That leadership is a personal, it sounds cheesy, but it's a personal journey, and it’s
an
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And it is absolutely an ongoing journey and not a place that you get not a destination or a place
that you get all up, position that you arrive at is ongoing and it's personal.
Denise Loyd: Yeah, I think I would say, it's an opportunity and a responsibility and that we
need to recognize and acknowledge, when we have that space to lead and then, bravely step into
that.
Elizabeth Luckman: I love it, all right, thank you both, I think that's great, let's get to work.
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Lesson 1 : Leadership Defined
Leadership Defined
Elizabeth Luckman: I'd like to start by giving you a definition of leadership. Now, there are
many definitions of leadership and different ways to conceptualize leadership. But by giving you
this specific definition, this is going to help set you up for your own leadership development.
Defining leadership helps us to determine where we are as leaders, how we are as leaders, and
why we are as leaders. It helps us craft our leadership. Here's a definition that we will use
throughout this course.
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Leadership is a socially-constructed process in which an individual is either given or takes

increased responsibility or accountability in empowering others to collectively solve problems in
alignment with an organization's or team's purpose. Now, that's a lot. We're going to deconstruct
this a little bit and talk a bit about each part of this definition. First, leadership is a
socially-constructed process. We've talked about how leadership is essentially a relationship
between two people. A leader has other people involved, and so leadership emerges from those
relationships and situations, it emerges out of the meaning that we make in those situations. How
we take roles, the behaviors we engage in. That means it's socially constructed. Every time we
lead, it's going to feel and be different based on the people and the context involved. Social
constructionism as it pertains to leadership, basically means that how we evaluate and understand
leadership is context and relationship dependent. How we conceptualize leadership relies on the
role we are in and the culture we are in at the moment. You can imagine that taking on the
responsibilities of a team lead in a group without defined leadership roles is very different from
stepping into the role of, say, a VP at a large organization. These are both leadership, but the
effectiveness and the evaluation of the people in these positions is going to vary drastically based
on the context, the people involved, and the basic elements of the culture.
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Jeff Brown: No, absolutely. Leadership is a really interesting field because, on the one hand, it is
so incredibly important. On the other hand, there are a lot of different ways that one can go about
being an effective leader, and what's effective in this context may not be effective in that context.
It's the age-old thing about does history make the person, does the person make history? It's both,
and these things are interacting constantly. Having said that, there are principles whether those
principles come from psychology, or sociology, or just things about human behavior, experience
we've learned about what makes organizations healthy versus unhealthy that are really valuable
to know about being exposed to. But unfortunately, it's not a simple recipe.
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Aravinda Garimella: I've worked in consulting, I've worked in tech, and now I'm an academic,
so context matters in a few ways. The task matters the task at hand, the people you're working
with matter also. Your leadership style cannot be the same with an intern or a fresh trainee, and
sometimes you're in a situation where the people who are working with you are just as skilled,
just as knowledgeable, just as qualified as you. You happen to be in this position where you are
taking the leadership for a project, I think the styles have to be very different in both these
contexts.
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Elizabeth Luckman: The second element of this definition is given or takes increased
responsibility and accountability. We think about leadership often in terms of power. Someone
who takes a formal role has leadership, but you don't have to have formal power. You do have to
have responsibility and accountability. It's worth noting that leadership can be given to you in
some role, but you can also take advantage of an opportunity to be a leader. You can step up and
be a leader in any situation, and people will follow those whom they admire and respect,
regardless of whether or not they are in formal leadership roles.
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Roberta Jorge: You don't necessarily have to be in a status of leadership to be a leader. You
could be a leader at any level with your peers, with new hires that are coming in, with people that
you might be on a project on, and it doesn't necessarily relate to what it is that you do in your day
to day. I think it's how it goes beyond what your job title is or what your job role is.
Ryan Martter: I agree on the control being a tough thing to wrap around. I think being a leader
is more about being an influencer than having control, or control is more of an org chart notion
than truly inspiring people and making change.
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Kari Keating: If we step back again and we think about, who are we influenced by? Who can
influence people when they don't have any positional or legitimate power? It gets back to issues
of power. When there's no clear hierarchy, people will follow people who they like and respect
or generally find that they have some expertise.
Elizabeth Luckman: The next element in this definition is empowering others. Leadership is
not about command and control. It is not about telling others what to do. Rather, it's about giving
others the space to grow to be the best version of themselves, and to help them solve the
problems they have been hired to solve.
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Brooke Elliot: I think the other thing I've probably really learned over time is how to really
empower others that I work with. Again, I'm Type A personality, I tend to believe that I can do it
all and I can do it all myself, and I really learn that's not the best approach. Yes, I could do it all.
Yes, I could do it all and I can probably do it all myself but it doesn't make me an effective
leader at all, it probably makes me a very ineffective leader. Because if you empower people that
report to you, if you empower those that you work with, and you empower your staff, you can do
amazing things together, and it's much more fun than trying to do something on your own.
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Elizabeth Luckman: The next element is collectively solve problems. Working in businesses,
working in teams is really about solving problems. You're solving problems all day. Leaders
need to think about their work in terms of helping people solve problems and creating cultures of
problem-solving. People who are ready to engage in problem-solving at any moment.
Jim Luckman: At one point particularly when I was into the role of being a leader, and I had
these lean principles and concepts in mind, my thought of leadership was to say I have to impose
these lean concepts on the organization. It changed because I realized now that it's really about
leaders building a framework for problem-solving and engaging a social change process so that
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people can feel the energy in the success of some of these principles by testing them and trying
them. Most leaders believe that their job is to tell people what to do and that's not what this is
about. This is leaders they have to embrace the opportunity to develop a culture that allows
people to think and act from within to solve problems. Instead of telling people what to do, you
deploy problem responsibility in this very trusting environment and allow them to practice and
make mistakes and share their thoughts without fear.
Elizabeth Luckman: The last element of this definition is in alignment with an organization
or team's purpose. Leaders help people know what direction they're going. Leaders have to
have vision. They can be the inspiration, they have the bigger picture. At any level, leaders need
to help people get together on the same page so they know the purpose, they know why, they
know where they're headed with their overall goals.
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Jeffrey Lowenstein: For me, I think a lot about how a leader engages other people to work
together towards collective goals. That's how I think about it. What does it mean to engage other
people? What motivates them, what informs them, what encourages them to want to act, what
does it mean to work together as opposed to not together or not together? Lots of different ways
of not being effective collectively. Then what does it mean to have shared goals? Who sets those
goals, how do we understand them, buy into them, and then what happens with the bumps along
the way. Do we adjust, pivot, and so forth. To me, engaging others to work together toward
collective goals is mostly what we tried to do as a leader.
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Elizabeth Luckman: Leadership is a socially constructed process in which an individual is
either given or takes increased responsibility or accountability in empowering others to
collectively solve problems in alignment with an organizations or teams purpose. This definition
of leadership reminds us that leadership is socially constructed, so context and relationships
matter for how we evaluate effectiveness. It highlights that we do not have to have formal
authority to lead that our job is to empower others to solve problems and to see the goals that
guide the group or organization toward its purpose. There is space for each of us in any capacity
to learn about leadership and grow as leaders ourselves. This definition encourages us to pay
attention to the factors that we know are important to effective leadership, like relationships,
context, and purpose.
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Lesson 2 : Brief History of Leadership Research
Brief History of Leadership Research
Elizabeth Luckman: The concept of leadership is as old as the human race. For the majority of
history, leadership has been evaluated through the lens of powerful people. Who comes to mind
when you think of powerful leaders, George Washington, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa? We
could list thousands of powerful historical figures that come to mind when we think of leaders,
both those who left a positive legacy as well as those who did great harm. But leadership as a
part of business education and a formal part of being an academic discipline, has really been
around for about a century. What I'd like to do in this video is take us back a bit and look at the
evolution of business leadership research to help us understand a bit more about how we think
about leadership, why it matters, and how leadership as a concept has changed and evolved over
time. To do this, let's explore a timeline of dominant leadership theories. Note that while
certain models may have been more dominant, I'm going to present them in this linear way. That
doesn't necessarily mean that any one went fully away and disappeared, but rather, these were
theories that became more dominant based on the research that was being done at the time.
Early leadership research in the field of organizational studies, which began around the 1920s
generally took a trait approach. The trait approach suggest that leaders have a set of
characteristics that make them effective visionaries, that make them effective leaders. You can
think about this as something you're born with. You're born with the traits of leadership. But
there were some problems with the trait approach. One being, that we aren't necessarily simply
born with the traits of leadership. We have lots of evidence to suggest that great leaders can be
made, that great leaders develop over time. Another problem is that the research shows that
leadership traits don't always predict successful leadership outcomes. It's really difficult to isolate
and identify particular traits or determine how a particular set of traits works together to
influence leadership. The trait approach was a bit problematic. However, it was helpful at the
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time for giving us a way to understand effective leaders. From this trait approach, we moved to
the behaviorist approach. There are some researchers who said, it's not really about what the
leader has in terms of traits. It's actually about how they act or how they behave, which can
change. It's more in the person's control. The behaviorist approach suggested that leadership
should be evaluated not by the internal traits of the leader, but by the activities and behavior of
the leader that they demonstrated in practice.
The shift to the behavioral research meant that these behaviors could be modeled. I could learn
leadership from somebody else who was behaving in a way that seemed to make them a good
leader. Let's consider a couple of examples of frameworks that came from this behaviorist
perspective. One of the frameworks was the Ohio State Leadership Studies, which essentially
found that there are two primary and distinct factors that leaders can use.
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These two factors were called initiating structure and consideration. Initiating structure refers to
the extent to which the leader clarifies roles and responsibilities, assigns tasks, manages work,
and organizes the group. These are more task-focused. Consideration refers to the extent to
which the leader demonstrates care or concern for the individual members of the group. These
behaviors are more people focused.
Similarly, the Michigan Leadership Studies also conducted around this time, identified two
types of leader behaviors. Those that are more job-oriented as compared to those that were more
employee-oriented. Another distinction you may have heard that's related to these findings is
transformational versus transactional leadership behaviors. At the heart of all of these ideas is
that leadership effectiveness is evaluated in terms of the behaviors of the leader, and those
behaviors can either be more task or work focused or they can be more people focused. After the
behaviorist approach, there was an understanding that behaviors matter. But the context can
influence whether those behaviors are effective and this leads us to the contingency approaches.
You can imagine that this same behavior in any given environment can have a different impact
depending on the context and that's where these contingency theories come into play. With the
contingency theories, here's where we start to see even more complexity in the evaluation of
leader outcomes. A leader who behaves the same way in two vastly different contexts, is still
going to have different experiences and different outcomes. There are well known theories based
on the contingency approach and let's consider just one of those here. That's the Hersey and
Blanchard situational leadership theory, which suggests that the effectiveness of leadership
behaviors is contingent on different situational factors, more specifically, the characteristics of
the followers.
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In this framework, Hersey and Blanchard suggested that the level of follower development,
specifically their task abilities and psychological readiness determined the style of leadership that
the leader needed to adopt. For example, a follower who is on the low end of task and
psychological development needs a leader who uses more directive behaviors. While a follower
who is on the higher end of task and psychological development needs a leader who uses more
delegating behaviors. Other contingency theories from this time that you may have heard of
include the Fiedler Contingency Model, the Vroom-Yetton Contingency Model , and Path-
Goal Theory. Each of these is rooted in the assumption that effective leadership requires paying
attention to the different situational factors that can influence leader effectiveness. With these
contingency theories, we can already see that followers are becoming an important part of
effective leadership. The next dominant theories of leadership were based on Vertical Dyad
Linkage Theory, or the leader member exchange approach
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From here, research explored the relationships between leaders and followers as foundational to
effective leadership. Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory influenced what is known as LMX or
leader member exchange. LMX suggests that leader effectiveness is a function of the dyadic or
interpersonal relationship between two people. A dyad simply refers to a relationship between
two people. There are differences in these dyadic relationships which give rise to an in-group set
of behaviors and an out-group set of behaviors. The in-group relationships are defined more by
trust and opportunities that the out-group doesn't share.
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At the core of LMX is the concept of trust and that is foundational to the way we think about
leadership today. Perhaps you've heard of some of the following leadership models, each of
which is based on the idea that leaders have to cultivate trusting relationships through some
particular behaviors or relationship building activities. Charismatic leadership refers to a style
of leadership in which the leader uses charm and inspiration to influence others to follow.
Servant leadership is a model in which leaders earn trust through their focus on supporting and
developing their followers. Authentic leadership is a model in which the leader focuses on
being genuine and real, honest and transparent, so that trust is built through authenticity.
These are just a few examples of contemporary models of leadership.
These theories attempt to mix the fundamental ideas of traits, behaviors, situations, and
relationships. This leads us to where we are today in terms of defining leadership in a way that
helps us learn and grow. Leadership is not about power and control, it's about relationships.
Leadership is context and person dependent, so there are no magical solutions, no magical set of
behaviors that make a great leader. There's no one framework, there's not even really one style of
leadership that's going to work 100 percent of the time. Leadership is about recognizing the
humanity in all of us, building those trusting relationships. When we can build trusting
relationships, we can engage in all leadership behaviors that are effective and ethical to embrace
leadership and learning to be a better leader and to develop future leaders. We have to take that
personal journey of self-discovery. We have to build relationships with others and we have to
practice. When we consider this history of leadership research, it gives us context for our own
leadership development. As leaders in today's world, we can be cognizant of practicing elements
of all of these theories recognizing that relationships, context, and our actions all affect our
leadership effectiveness
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Lesson 3 : Leadership Competencies
Leadership Competencies
Elizabeth Luckman: Effective leaders don't have just one way of doing things. Rather they
build trusting relationships with others, they pay attention to their behaviors and actions based on
the context of the situation. Given the complexity of leadership then, where do we start? What
competencies should we as leaders be focused on developing? The society of human resource
management notes that there are three broad categories of leadership competencies, leading the
self, leading others and leading the organization.
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Leading the self includes developing a sense of ethics and integrity, enhancing self-awareness.
Leading others includes communicating effectively and developing others. Leading the
organization includes navigating complex organizational change, having a strategic vision and
managing politics. Similarly, the Center for Creative Leadership outlines the same three
categories. Under leading the self, they reference self-awareness and taking initiative. Under
leading others, they identify building collaborative relationships and putting people at ease. And
for leading the organization, they cite strategic perspective and change management.
Regardless of your leadership level, whether you are fresh out of undergrad and looking to
launch your career or you lead a 50,000 person organization. Leaders need to develop
competencies related to leading themselves and leading others first and foremost. These
competencies are at the heart of the relational definition of leadership. As leaders become more
senior inside organizations, as they take responsibility for larger groups of people and bigger
organizational units, the need to develop competencies of leading the organization like
understanding or design, developing an understanding of business strategy, and articulating large
scale vision becomes increasingly important.
One of my favorite studies of leadership competencies that gives us yet another way to think
about the skills today's leaders need to focus on developing is a study reported in HBR by Dr.
Sunny Giles, an organizational scientist and executive coach. She surveyed 195 leaders in 15
countries across 30 global organizations to gain consensus on what leaders working around the
world believed to be the most important leadership competencies. She took the ranked responses
and synthesized the answers into five categories of competencies. The number one category
based on percentage of respondents was strong ethics and safety. This category included two of
the most highly rated attributes, high ethical and moral standards and communicating clear
expectations. Take just a moment and think about that.
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It suggests that as we think about developing as leaders, we should be starting with our own
moral standards, our character, our integrity. As well as figuring out how to communicate
effectively, specifically our expectations with others, leading the self and leading others. We've
come a long way from leadership models that emphasize making all of the important decisions
and telling other people what to do.
LaTonya Wilkins: The purpose of leaders is to create other leaders, right? The purpose of
leadership is to put your team first. It's to develop your team so they can lead one day and that's
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all it is. I think when I was in corporate, I did a lot of manager training and it did not feel like
that. It was just very much very tactical. And so that's why I think leadership is a topic that is
often misunderstood where the leader has to steer the ship. They have to be dominant. They have
to be bureaucratic, but that's not what you're doing. You're more of a facilitative role.
Elizabeth Luckman: When we come to work and we feel safe, we trust those around us. We can
be more open and curious. We are more likely to be innovative and bring problems to the surface
instead of sweeping them under the rug. So we should be thinking about developing
competencies that allow us to create that safe space for others.
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Jim Luckman: I actually think that we have a concept of managing a company that has a lot of
flawed assumptions. And that there really is a different paradigm that has to be formed in your
mind as a leader to actually lead your company through this paradigm shift. Yet some leaders
don't know how to do this very well unfortunately, and that is make sure that you have a good
problem defined. One that is meaningful not just to you and your business but can be made
meaningful to the team. They have to feel a sense of that being a real problem. It can't be a phony
problem. But the other thing is asking good open-ended questions and humble inquiry and giving
and modeling the sense that these people have brains and values and different points of view and
they're all good. And no one, no one in the room should be excluded. They should all be included
in trying to solve the problem. And over time what happens is that level of trust and camaraderie
just grows and it becomes part of the culture of the problem solving team.
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Elizabeth Luckman: The other categories of competencies that rose to the top in Dr. Giles'
study are empower others to self-organize, foster a sense of connection and belonging. Foster
openness to new ideas and learning and nurture growth and others. Let's hear from some of our
faculty here at Gies about how they practice these skills defined in Dr. Giles study.
Brooke Elliott: So any time I've taken a new role and I mean I just had all these conversations in
the last weeks because I have new reports. And the first thing I said to them is I'm a very
transparent leader. I have no intention of micromanaging you. I have full confidence in your
abilities and the way that you manage your teams and I want you to continue to do that. So, and I
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think what lies behind that is just instilling confidence in those that report to you. And from the
very beginning, being explicit that I have confidence in your ability to perform your job well. So,
I think that's one. Two, you actually have to live that out. And that's probably harder. It's easy for
me to say, I have confidence in how you run your units, I'm not going to micromanage. But
again, they're all going to do things in a way that may not be consistent with the way that I would
operate, right, and it could be a big decision. And they're going to share that with me and I have
to be okay, like really with them making a decision that I would not have made and being
supportive. And so I think it's can you really live that out and can you do it in a really genuine
way? I can't just say it and then I roll in my eyes at them, right? I have to believe it. And I think
as it takes some time. The team I have now, they know that I have confidence in them and they
have seen again and again that I've empowered them to make decisions. And sometimes it is a
great decision and I've celebrated their success. Sometimes it hasn't been the best decision, but
they know my response has not been to come in and take their power away. I think that probably
tends to be what some leaders do. They attempt to instill confidence. They allow their next kind
of layer of management to make decisions, but as soon as something goes wrong, they either
swoop in and try to reverse it or they take those decision rights away. And if you take these
decision right away, as soon as there's a failure, then you've lost what you started with which was
instilling confidence in those individuals.
Jeffrey Loewenstein: So we talk about trust, right? And we talk about empowerment, right? We
talk about respect and consideration. So for me, that's where all of this plays out. What does it
mean if I hoard and I use that word intentionally here, these decision rights, these
responsibilities, these behaviors. It means I am not interested in deeming you worthy of
participating. I don't think you're worthy of contributing, right, and so forth. And am I doing that
because I don't feel good enough about myself and confident enough and I'm afraid you'll do it
better than me and therefore I'm an imposter, I don't belong in this role etcetera. So I'm insecure,
right? Or is it I actually think I'm fabulous and I don't need all you other people and I'm going to
show the world that I can do this myself, right? Both of those are problematic, right? But rather if
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we have some confidence that the main job of a leader is organizing, right? It isn't to have the
thought. It isn't to, right? It's about enabling us to accomplish it, which doesn't mean I have to be
the one making every decision, accomplishing everything. So it's that insight that if I enable you
to do something and us to do something and we succeed, that I have succeeded.
Kari Keating: I think we should be teaching people the value of curiosity. It's better to be a
learner than always being the knower. And we work with a lot of young adults in our profession
and it's very natural and tempting for young people to sort of show off what they know in front
of their peers. And even in adults in our contexts at work to be the one who's got the right
answer. The leader isn't always the one with the right answer, but the one who knows how to pull
information and ideas and perspectives from the people around to help build the right answer. So
I think curiosity, if we can call that a skill, maybe it's a mindset. But I think in today's world that
requires us to move and shift quickly, to be agile, to be innovative, that we have to do that from a
sense of curiosity, of maybe not knowing. And being willing to admit that you don't know, and
then being ready to pull people around and create the answer together.
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Elizabeth Luckman: As you continue to think about what leadership means to you, keep these
ideas in mind. First that we need to focus both on developing ourselves to become better leaders
as much as we need to develop better connections with others. And second that we should focus
on creating a safe space open to new voices and learning where people understand their purpose
and everyone feels like they have a chance to grow in their work.
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Lesson 4 : Leadership Roles

Leadership Roles
Elizabeth Luckman: Another aspect of the complexity of effective leadership is that a leader
can and should play different roles to different people at different times. I'm going to share three
roles that leaders can play in the process of developing their employees or team members and
those roles are coach, mentor, and sponsor. A leader as a coach is a support system or guide.
When we put on our coaching head as leaders we are simply there to support the other person on
their journey. In the field of leadership coaching in particular we say that people are creative,
resourceful and whole. Coaches are there to help give structure to an individual who is trying to
become the best version of themselves. As a coach, a leader doesn't have to have any particular
expertise, a coach does not tell someone what to do but ask questions to allow that person to
reflect on their choices and offer support for the choices that the other person makes.
A leader as a mentor is sharing advice learned through experience.
The concept of a mentor assumes that a leader has some specific experience in an area that they
can pass onto another person. Maybe the mentor has gone through the exact same career path
with the company as the person they are mentoring. Maybe the leader mentor has technical
expertise that they can share to help another person grow into a particular role.
36
LaTonya Wilkins: My mentor who has been my mentor and my coach and she's not my coach
anymore, she's like we're too close, I can't be your coach anymore. I'm like, oh. She's like, "I
want to be your friend", so I'm like, okay, so we'll be friends. But she was always like you need
to be a coach, like you would be a great coach. I was like, I'm already a coach and I thought I
was. But through leading leadership development teams but what I learned is I was an advisor. I
was the person that you say, hey, let me coach you. You're like telling someone not to do
something and that's not coaching them. Coach training opened my eyes and after I went to
coach training I started doing some traditional coaching and then I was like, gosh, this is really
special. Coaching is a very powerful tool and so I started using it for organizational change.
It's been an amazing experience to be able to make real change in organizations.
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Elizabeth Luckman: The distinction between a coach and a mentor is that a coach does not
offer advice but instead acts as a support as the individual makes choices that align with their
goals. As a mentor, a leader has specific advice and guidance based on his or her own expertise.
A leader as a sponsor is someone who tells others of the individual's achievements. Maybe this
looks like recommending your employee for a promotion, or sharing an innovation of their
senior leaders. As a sponsor you are helping others to see the potential in this individual
especially those that may not work with them regularly. Sponsorship is important to employee
development because that's how others learn of an employee's capabilities.
Here's an analogy that may help solidify these different roles. Think about the sport of bowling.
In bowling a person stands at the end of a long lane where 10 pins are set up in a triangle at the
other end and the person then throws a heavy ball toward the pins to knock them down. The trick
is that the line is long so it takes some strategy and skill to throw the ball correctly and along
each side of the lane are gutters and if the ball rolls into the gutter of course no pins will be
knocked down at all. When little kids bowl there are often rails along the sides of the gutters. It
prevents the ball from rolling into the gutters as the kids learn how to throw with strength and
precision. These gutter rails are like a coach, they simply keep you in your lane. There's no
expertise required to be a rail, it simply exists, but it's there to prevent the ball from falling off
the lane and therefore keeps it on its journey toward the pins. Because the ball is heavy and it
must be thrown in a particular way, the throw needs strength and precision. There's an art to this.
A mentor might be another bowler who has bowled for a long time. That mentor could show the
new bowler how to stand, how to throw it in the straight line or throw with the right curve and
even how to increase the speed of the throw. In this case the mentor is giving specific advice on
the skill of the game based on experience. When you're bowling you're usually only paying
attention to your lane and maybe the immediate group of people you're playing with. A sponsor
might go to another lane and tell one of the pros to come take a look at how much you've learned
over the course of one lesson. A sponsor might go to someone in charge and recommend you as
a member of a league.
38
As you can see, coach, mentor and sponsor roles are all important to the development of the
bowler and that's the same as developing future leaders. LaTonya Wilkins has a metaphor that
she uses that's also helpful in articulating the distinctions among these roles that leaders can play.
LaTonya Wilkins: It's a huge importance and so one of the metaphors I often use, I do coach,
sponsor and mentor. Imagine you're going to run a marathon. If you're running a marathon you
need all three. First of all, your mentor is going to be the person that says, "Oh, I've done this
before. Hey, here's my advice. Let me give you some advice about how to run this race, what to
39

eat, how to prepare". Your coach is going to be with you every step of the way. They're not
going to tell you what to do but they're going to be with you, they're going to facilitate the
questions, they're going to provoke thought around what you should do, they're going to motivate
you, they're going to hold you accountable so that's the coach. The sponsor, what they do is
they're finding the best races for you and you don't even know they're like, "Hey, I got you in the
Boston Marathon", like your sponsor might do that or "Hey, I talked to my friend, they're going
to get you in the Boston Marathon or whatever or the Chicago marathon". So, those are the three
distinct roles.
Elizabeth Luckman: Any given leader is going to play all of these roles to differing degrees
with their employees. The question to ask yourself is, when does this person need you to be a
coach? When do they need you to be a mentor? The leader follower or leader employee
relationship is in and of itself complex. At any given point the role of the leader should consider
what employees need the most to effectively solve the problems they were hired to solve.
40

Lesson 5 : Defining Leadership for Yourself
Defining Leadership for Yourself
Elizabeth Luckman: What does leadership mean to you? Why are you taking this course? What
is it you need most in the moment to grow and develop as a leader? It can be helpful to define
leadership for yourself. Give yourself a way to conceptualize leadership to help you determine
why it matters to you and how you can define for yourself the path you want to take.
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Let's do an exercise. I invite you to follow along with me in this video and pause when you write
and reflect. Get out a sheet of paper or a device and draw a line straight down the middle. On the
left-hand side of the page, list three people you think of as great leaders. What are the key
attributes of these leaders that you want to emulate? Where do you rank on those attributes now?
Be honest, what is the gap between where you are and where you want to be? On the right-hand
side of the page, list two people you think of as poor leaders.
42
What are the key attributes of these leaders that you do not want to emulate? Where do you rank
on these attributes? Given these two list, write out 3-5 things that you value in a leader.
Now, think about your leadership development. What do you want your leadership journey to
look like? Now I invite you to reflect on the following questions. Why am I interested in being a
leader? Why do I care about leadership? Why is this important to me? How does this connect to
who I am as a person? What leadership opportunities will I seek? Where do I want to emerge as
a leader? Do I want to take on formal leadership roles? Do I want to show up as a leader in my
teams? What are my leadership values? How will my actions align with my values? How will I
react when something or someone challenges those values? Take time to really think through
these questions, write down or draw out your answers. Talk about these topics with trusted
friends or colleagues who are also interested in developing as leaders. This is just the beginning.
You are thinking about why leadership is important to you and that is the core of a leadership
definition. You'll continue to revisit this definition as you develop as a leader. To wrap, I want to
make a point about these reflective exercises. There's a tendency to think that we can read a book
and learn about leadership, but that's just a start and a good start, there's no such thing as too
much reading. Leadership is a personal endeavor which means that to develop as a leader, you
have to do the work starting with yourself. This means personal reflections. It means running
experiments in communication and building relationships with others. Practice is where growth
happens and that is the foundation of this course.
43
Roberta Jorge: I normally want to be the first one to speak, just did that, but I wanted to see
what would happen if I do sit back and let somebody else take the reins, let somebody else give
that first idea, that first icebreaker and I've gotten better but it's still a work in progress.
Ryan Martter: I don't want to be the first one to speak. I'm a little bit paranoid of what I might
have a different opinion from everybody else. Being able to force myself to be one of the first,
maybe not be first still, I'll work on that, but yeah, being more of a vocal contributor rather than ,
somebody who takes it all in, absorbs it processes everyone else's and then tries to find that
happy medium on the back-end of it.
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Eric Scott: One thing I like to do, especially now after having the opportunity to be part of this
program in putting this into practice is when I'm at my job. At the end of every meeting I reflect
on my performance in those meetings and thinking about what could have I done differently?
Taking the thoughts I had about what I can do next time and then challenging myself, ensuring
that I try those different methods in the next meeting and I found that to be very helpful in
stretching myself.
Lucy Chang Evans: Yeah, going back to what leadership means to me, I think for me, a lot of it
is showing people the way there and seeing if they follow. If you are a good and effective leader
45

they will follow you. If you are supposedly leading a team and they're not following, you might
be doing something wrong. Using maybe the Agile method of project management, if you get
feedback and it's not working you got to change course and so one of the things I do is I try to
get as much feedback as I can and see if it's working before plowing ahead with the same
trajectory that I had in the beginning. I think it's a lot of trial and error and showing the way for
people. Not everybody wants to be the first one on the dance floor and if you have the courage to
do it, more people are willing to follow you.
Elizabeth Luckman: Learning leadership is not simply memorizing facts. Learning leadership is
taking ideas and wrestling with them to stretch and develop your leadership muscles.
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Module 1 Closing
Module 1 Closing
Elizabeth Luckman: So I think this is a really important module. To me the idea of spending
time setting up what leadership means and thinking about the history of leadership where it came
from. What competencies are important for today's leaders, the different roles leaders, leaders
can have all of this. I mean as I was working through this module, I spent a lot of time really
thinking about it myself and recognizing that it's just not something I do very often. So that's
something that really I think is it's a great place to start.
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Denise Loyd: Like pausing to reflect on what your practices are, how you can improve. I really
hope that our students already see that this is something that can be learned, right? That we can
learn and we can grow and keeping that mindset of growing, it's just critical to.
Elizabeth Luckman: This is the growth mindset module. [LAUGH] Everybody get in a growth
mindset.
Elizabeth Luckman: Yeah, everybody get into a growth mindset.
Denise Loyd: Absolutely.
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Kari Keating: Yeah, I think it's also when I came to teach in this space and then I would tell
people that you teach in leadership studies and leadership and teams and they'll and they'll say
like that's a field. Yeah, like it's a legitimate discipline with skills based, practices much like any
other discipline, math or music. That you can learn the skills and the techniques and the practices
over the course of your lifetime.
Elizabeth Luckman: Well that's exciting and it sets us up for digging into the next module and
sort of digging further into the act of and science of an art of leadership.
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Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader

Professor Elizabeth A. Luckman, Kari Keating & Denise Lewin Lloyd