After Decades of Research On Leadership, Here Is The One Thing We Know For Sure
After hundreds of years, research, and books, we know remarkably little about what effective leadership is about
There are dozens, if not hundreds of leadership models that “explain” what constitutes effective leadership. And hundreds of books. However, if we step back a bit, what do we really know for sure about effective leadership? Actually, almost nothing. In fact, there’s only one thing that we know for sure. Leadership effectiveness depends on the FIT between a particular leader, and the context within which he or she works. As you’ll see, this simple fact has huge implications for choosing leaders, and developing them.
It means that a leader who is effective in one situation may be disasterous, or simply ineffective if that same person works within a different context. It means that it’s not possible to predict what leader, what person will be effective in any particular further situation. Context, or “fit” is everything.
The Supporting Data
We like to think of our favorite leaders as superbly effective, and so there’s a tendency to forget that most leaders, even those who are held up as role models for future leaders inevitably failed about…
