Predicting Leadership Competency Development and Promotion Among High-Potential Executives: Role of Leader Identity

Individual characteristics in arts management careers: investigating the highly sensitive person scale on motivation to lead

Research on personality in leadership indicates that self-selection to leadership careers and artistic careers correlates with diverging personality profiles. People in leadership careers traditionally display lower neuroticism and higher conscientiousness than artistic individuals. In between, there are individuals entering arts management careers. To study these individuals directly, we collected Norwegian data from 91 musical theater students and 102 arts management students and compared with 109 business management students. As expected, conscientiousness and neuroticism predicted artistic careers against business management careers, aligned with the "arts for arts' sake" myth of artists. Interestingly, arts management careers were not different from artistic careers. They weren't more motivated to take on leadership roles than performing artists either. However, the Highly Sensitive Person Scale indicated that narrower traits of sensitivity predicted higher levels of motivation to lead in many artists. Some arts and arts management students seem to bring unique talents into forms of leadership particularly useful for artistic organizations. Our findings are discussed in terms of how leadership characteristics operate in the field of art, and the effect of domain-specific characteristics in this setting.

Developing engaged and 'teamful' leaders: A randomized controlled trial of the 5R identity leadership program

The social identity approach to leadership argues that leaders' capacity to influence and inspire others is grounded in a shared sense of social identity (or 'us-ness') that those leaders create, advance, represent, and embed for the groups they lead. The approach therefore argues that a key task for leaders is to develop insights and skills of (social) identity leadership that allow them to motivate and mobilize groups and transform them into a potent social and organizational force. In contrast to other approaches and programs which focus on leaders' leader identity (their 'I-ness'), the 5R leadership development program supports the development of leaders' social identity by raising awareness of the importance of social identity ('we-ness') for leadership and taking leaders through structured activities that help them build engaged and inclusive teams. The present research assessed the benefits of facilitated and learner self-directed versions of the 5R program (Ns = 27, 22 respectively) relative to a no-treatment control (N = 27). Results (including those of an intention-to-treat analysis; N = 76) indicated that, relative to leaders in the control condition, those who participated in both forms of 5R reported large increases in identity leadership knowledge, as well as medium-sized increases in both team engagement (a compound factor comprised of team identification, team OCB, team efficacy, and work engagement) and 'teamfulness' (comprised of team reflexivity, team psychological safety, team goal clarity, and inclusive team climate). We reflect on the importance of teamfulness for leadership and team functioning and on the value of programs that help leaders develop this.

Six Principles for Developing Leadership Training Ecosystems in Health Care

Leadership education in medicine is evolving to better meet the challenges of health care complexity, interprofessional practice, and threats from viruses and budget cuts alike. In this commentary, the authors build upon the findings of a scoping review by Matsas and colleagues, published in the same issue, and ask us to imagine what a learning ecosystem around leadership might look like. They subsequently engage in their own synthesis of leadership development literature and propose 6 key principles for medical educators and health care leaders to consider when designing leadership development within their educational ecosystems: (1) apply a conceptual framework; (2) scaffold development-oriented approaches; (3) accommodate individual levels of adult development; (4) integrate diversity of perspective; (5) interweave theory, practice, and reflection; and (6) recognize the broad range of leadership conceptualization.

Senior manager leadership competencies for quality residential aged care: an Australian industry perspective

Background

Documented poor quality and standards of care in Australia’s residential aged care (RAC) sector have highlighted a need to better understand the role of and skills required by, RAC senior management personnel to address these concerns. This study examined which senior management leadership skills and personal qualities are necessary to deliver and strengthen the quality of RAC, with the aim of improving understanding of the professional development needs of leaders in the sector.

Methods

We conducted 12 in-depth interviews with Australian aged care industry experts, including academics, and representatives from the primary health network, consumer, and provider advocate groups. Abductive, thematic analysis incorporated coding derived from existing leadership skills frameworks as well as inductively identified themes.

Results

Identified leadership skills were grouped into five domains including i) workforce development and retention, ii) governance and business acumen; iii) health systems knowledge; iv) stewardship and v) responding to regulatory and political contexts. Skills particularly emphasised by participants were those required to recruit and retain a skilled workforce, manage relationships, and promote a positive organisational culture and employee wellbeing.

Conclusions

RAC senior managers require a complex mix of business, human resource management, and clinical skills to deliver quality care in Australia’s complex RAC setting. The lack of any professional development framework to guide the acquisition or updating of those skills is a concern.