How the Best Leaders Adjust

dancers

Source: Ewa Krasucka/wikimedia

Does one style of leadership work better all the time in all circumstances? Research my colleagues and I recently published in the Journal of Business and Psychology suggests that is not the case. In a study of over 700 Canadian employees in high-tech, manufacturing, and government organisations, we found that leaders might need to adjust their behaviors when their organization is facing a crisis.

During the course of this 18-month study, half of the participating organizations experienced a crisis, including financial downturns, industrial relations conflicts, and the culling of major initiatives, while the other half did not. In the organizations that did not experience a crisis, leaders who adopted a transformational style had the highest increases in subordinate motivation over the course of the study.

Transformational leadership consists of acting as an enthusiastic role model, articulating an inspiring vision that challenges and provides meaningful work to followers, encouraging innovative ideas, paying attention to individual needs, and providing positive feedback. This style of leadership was shown to promote high levels of subordinate motivation, particularly of the intrinsic type (that is, doing one’s job out of meaning and interest).

Transformational leadership may have these positive effects on motivation because it helps subordinates feel more competent, because it enhances the quality of relationships in a team, and because the invitation to participate makes followers feel more in charge.

Though transformational leadership still had a positive impact on intrinsic motivation in organizations experiencing crisis, another type of leadership behavior also helped. Transactional leadership, which consists of monitoring activities more closely and providing more directives, also helped sustain subordinate motivation during a crisis. However, when organizations are not in crisis, transactional leadership decreases intrinsic motivation, so it should only be used when needed.

This type of leadership in times of crisis might help subordinates deal with uncertainty and chaos. Monitoring things more and providing direction might reassure employees, which maintains their sense of competence while avoiding breakdowns in relationships. It might even provide meaning in chaotic times, which might help them continue to feel in charge.

In addition, we found in this research that a manager’s leadership behaviors, whether they are transformational or transactional, tended to have an effect on the entire team of workers. Whether the behavior was aimed at the entire group or aimed at an individual in particular (but witnessed by others), they had quite a uniform effect on all the individuals within the team. This means that leaders need to be aware that even behaviors aimed at a particular subordinate are likely to spill over to other team-members.

So if you are in a leadership position, just like dancers must adjust to each other, you need to adjust your movements to your subordinates’. The trick is understanding what your subordinates need to feel of competent, related, and autonomous. In smooth times, transformational behaviors are more likely to increase the satisfaction of these needs. But in times of crisis, you might need to monitor and guide them more so relationships are maintained and they can continue to feel in control and competent.