"Developing Versatile Leadership"

Robert Kaplan and Robert Kaiser

MIT Sloan Management Review

Summer 2003, pp. 19-26

The authors of this article state that "we have found it helpful to define leadership skills and qualities in terms of paired approaches that may look like opposites but together constitute a balanced whole. This view leads to the notion of leadership effectiveness as the ability to draw freely from two opposing sides as appropriate for a given situation, unencumbered by prejudice against or bias for either—in other words, the ability to be versatile."

The authors identify two balances which they consider to be the most important:

1. The balance between forceful leadership and enabling leadership—"We define forceful leadership on the basis of a leader's own intellect and energy—taking charge, taking stands, having leadership presence, being decisive, setting challenging expectations for people, holding them accountable, making tough calls, asking probing questions and so on. We define enabling leadership as creating conditions for other people to be forces in their own right—empowering them, being receptive to where others stand on issues, being responsive to the needs of others, being understanding when others don't deliver, sharing the limelight and so on."
2. The balance between strategic leadership and operational leadership—"We define strategic leadership as setting long-term direction, thinking broadly about the organization, seeking ways to grow the business, aligning people with the vision and strategy and the like. We define operational leadership as focusing on short-term results, getting involved in operational detail, being grounded in the realities of implementing strategy, using processes to keep people on track and so on."

Research by the authors has sought to find a relationship between "Leadership Versatility Index" scores (ratings by co-workers on the above two balances) and leadership effectiveness (as rated by co-workers). A recent study found correlations of .60 between each of the two balances and leadership effectiveness. The authors contend that these correlations indicate that versatility in terms of these dualities may account for the majority of what it means to be an effective leader.

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