Some of the strongest relationship-oriented leaders I have met in my CEO roles were amazing to watch. They could truly do magic for employee engagement and get a team moving in the same direction. However, relationship-oriented leadership also needs to be balanced, as I will show you in this article. We start with an explanation

I have met many task-oriented leaders during my CEO career, and the more senior they were, the more disadvantageous their task-oriented leadership was. Task-oriented leadership always has a place, but it must be balanced carefully with other behaviors, as I will explain in this article. Let us start with a short and precise explanation of

Path-Goal Theory is a contingency theory of leadership developed by Martin Evans and Robert House. The main idea behind Path-Goal Theory is that the leader takes responsibility for providing followers with everything the team needs to follow their path to their goal. As a CEO that leads by purpose and intent, I like that Path-Goal

As a CEO interested in leadership, I had to dig deeper into Scientific Management, or Taylorism. Scientific Management has significantly impacted management research and has profoundly influenced many other frameworks. This article explains the background, characteristics, and a few examples of Scientific Management. Let us start with a few overall answers to provide a setting

Behavioral leadership theory focuses on the effects and effectiveness of different leadership behaviors. As a CEO, I constantly study the leadership behaviors of others to assess performance, leadership capabilities, etc. The behavioral theory of leadership is essential to this day, and lots of the previous research on behavioral leadership formed the foundation of the situational

In my leadership role as a CEO, I must use a contingency theory of leadership due to the fast-changing, complex environment of today. Contingency leadership theories allow for different leadership tools for various contingencies or situations, ranging from working with a new inexperienced team, handling change, coaching when appropriate, and being more commanding when required.

The Trait Theory of Leadership focused on leadership studies in the first half of the 20th century before behavioral and contingency theories started gaining ground. This article explains the trait theory of leadership, its origins, and several trait theory examples, guiding us toward developing exemplary leadership traits. Many of them are skills and characteristics I

As a senior leader in business, I find most leadership theories fascinating, including old ones such as the Michigan Leadership Studies, a leadership research program aimed at determining leadership behaviors connected to high-performing groups. The Michigan Leadership Studies primarily involved interviews with high and low effectiveness examples of leaders and followers. This article will tell

The Three leadership styles by Kurt Lewin rose to fame as part of the Lewin leadership experiments of 1938 and 1939. This article presents the Lewin leadership styles experiments together with some well-founded criticism putting their results into a different light. We start with a few answers to set the stage for you. What was

If you have read my article on the Kurt Lewin Leadership Styles, you noticed my skepticism towards them. This article explains my reasoning in a bit more detail. I see five areas of significant concern for the usability and viability of the Lewin leadership styles framework. I explain them thoroughly in this article. In the