Class 1: introduction to leadership
Leadership characteristics
- the process of influencing other(s) towards the realization of a shared goal
(potentially outdated defi bc of AI, >< manager: someone who is higher in the
hierachy & who has someone lower than them but you can be leader without
someone having to grant you a hierarchical position (you can lead people even
wihtout them knowing it, you can not impose leadership on someone while you
can impose power as a manager could, so you can be a manager without being a
leader or with being a leader, but as an empolyee you can also be a leader bc you
can help people work towards a common goal and lead/infelunce them there))
- Everyone exercises some form of leadership (you dont have to hold a position of
power/hierarchy)
- Leadership can be developed & is dynamic influential process, not abt having a
position or a static label (but some people are born with charactersicts that make
them more likely/better suited to be a leader, eg extravert, openness,
intellegence, but behavourtraits can be thought and practiced to gain new
skills/behaviour/tactics)
- The effective leader behaviors / styles are context-specific (Oc, 2018)
- Women and men are equally effective as leaders (see Alice Eagly’s work)
- Many leadership practices are universal (Integrity, charisma, or team-oriented),
and some are culturally-specific (GLOBE studies, eg individuaistic vs collectivistic
cultures)
- Being a leader contains certain pitfalls (e.g., power, ethics)
Leadership training vs development
Relatively easy to do, learning the theories and Takes a while, its abt that you should perceive
tactics, recoomendations: yourself as a leader, its a lifestyle, across
someone’s entire lifespan, more complex &
1. Set of systematic learning inititaves of KSA’s holistic task associated with changing inherent
(knowledge, skills, attitudes) behavior of someone, not all indi experience the
2. Scientifically validated training (and evaluate same benefits/experience from the same
effectiveness) development program
3. Make it easy for learners to apply training
back to job (remove barriers to motivation & 1. Leverage work experiences for
transfer) development
4. Base design of training on multiple formats 2. Provide access to feedback and support
with opportunities for practice and feedback 3. Use evidence-based processes for
(enhance learning) structured reflection
5. Provide resources, opportunities for on job 4. Facilitating changes in self-views
training and incentives to use acquired KSA’s 5. Give it time to work
- Informal rule of “70-20-10”
o No real evidence for this theory
o States that if you want to develop as a leader 70% comes from
‘Challenging assignments’ (e.g., job transitions, unfamiliar responsibilities,
, obstacles), 20% from ‘Developmental relationships’ (e.g., coaching,
mentoring, feedback programsoften missing ), 10% from ‘Coursework
and training’ (e.g., reflection, personal development, “knowledge”)
- Mindful engagement model
o If you want to systematically approach your development as a leader you
have 3 steps
o Approach
1. Identify what you need to develop (perform a “needs analysis”)
(bc everyone has different needs/charc they need to gain/imporve)
2. You can “grow” as a person/leader: Growth (vs. Fixed) mindset
(you have to believe that youcan grow and reach your need)
3. Have a learning orientation & set learning goals
We are in a learning mindset not competitve mindset bc
we allow ourselves to learn by trail and error
it shows that at some point when we have learned
something we reach a leveling of ‘the confort zone’
where in order to improve we need to unlearn it and
learn it in a different way, which means that for a some
time we will be less effective in preferoming the task,
when youre in the learning mindset you allow this to
happen to later recover and have and increased
performance
o Action
Get out of your comfort zone by gaining some experience in leading
challenging assignments
EG Get unfamiliar responsibilities, Create change, Work across
cultures/boundaries, Manage diversity, …
o Reflection
Reflect & capture lessons of experience and make sense of what
happened and why
EG conduct an “after-events review” or debriefing, Soon after
experience, Consider counterfactuals (i.e., “what-if” scenarios),
Gather lessons learned and distill new insights
- Challenge & support
o All development boils down to striking an balance between two
fundamental ingredients: challenge and support
, o Without enough challenge we become stagnated, satisfied & content with
who we are & know and can do & with too much challenge and we become
overwhelmed, stressed out, closed and rigid. More likely to retreat and
defend than to open up and engage.
o Stetch zone 🡪 seeking out is essence of adopting a truly developmental
perspective on life
o Our ability to deal with failure depend on availability of meaningful support
counterbalancing antidote to life’s inevitable challenges
- Leadership toolbox
o Leadership is an influential process, not a position Without followers, there
are no leaders (look for follower(s) if you search leaders).
o Embracing “mindful approach” will help approach leadership development
systematically
o Performing needs analysis, engaging in challenging experiences,
continuously being in learning mode, seeking & welcoming feedback,
ensuring enough support are some critical aspects to develop and grow as
a leader/human being
Class 2: intro to decision making: behavioral approach
Behavioral economics-- history of behavioral decision-making
1759 – Adam Smith: Book: theory of moral sentiments – Clasical
economists
- States that behavior emerges from balance between ‘passions’ (ie emotions that
we feel & how they influence how we repsond to situations) and ‘impartial
spectator’ (ie perceptions we have abt how a spectator would want us to act)
1776 – Adam Smith: Book: The wealth of nations
- Behavoir is motivated by self-interest
1879 -- psychology
- First labratory to study psychology (ie study of behaviour (= everything
that can be observed from the outside of an indi, can be observed and
studies) and mental processes) (PRBLM these happen inside the body and
cannot be observed from outside)
- became own field of study
- Often though that metnal processes percede behavoir but sometimes
behavoir precedes behavoir and infleunces and precedes mental processes
1900 – neoclassical economics
, o started by looking at psycho to develop policies targeted at influencing
human behavior (eg how do we motivate employees) looked at insights
from different fields, but they did not like the psycho-analysis that
dominated psychology at that time (bc they considered their techniques
and methods as unscientific & subjective)
o psycho-analysis – Sigmond Freud
large focus on mental process and counscieness and pre-
counsiousnes
iceberg theorie
conscious / ego: behavoir/attitudes we are aware of and do
and dont do
preconscious / superego: behavoir/attitudes you know from
education/familie/friends (eg trained behavoir or routines)
that influence behavoir
Unconscious: most behavoir is determined by our
unconsciouness which we arent aware of We often dont
know why we do what we do
theory still stands today
1920-1950 – behaviorism
- =science of observable behavior, was major influence on neoclassical eco
- Critized subjective nature of gathering of data & attributions abt behavoir from
before
- Pavlov: made discorvies that couldnt be explained by previous theories (ie
pavlov’s dog)(classical conditioning), he developed more systematic & objective
approach of research a more positivistic/ measurable appraoch to study
behavoir
- Skinner: did operante conditioning on rats , study internal process more
objectively
- Characteristics
o Very objective & positivistic in methodoldy
o Devlopend first method that allowed to exame cause and effect, what
antecendets lead to what effect, causality between antecedent and
behavior
o Not interested in mental processes but just stimulus and response what
leads to what not why
- Consequences
o This knowledge was translated into economic and managemnet practices
in1940-1970 that still has influence today
o We are working in conditions that wewre designed by this neoclassical
vision, money is used as reinforcement to make us prefrom better and
faster
1950 – science of inference abt mental processes: Cognitive
psychology
- H. Simon : Ciritzed how neoclassical economics used mathematical modeling and
assumptions to research human behavoir that werent accurte and missed insides
that were developing in cognitive psychology & said they missed cognitive
revolution that was happening in pshycology that added accuracy to Behaviorist
findings and allowed for scientific study of mental processes (which explained a
stimulus provided a certain response)
Leadership characteristics
- the process of influencing other(s) towards the realization of a shared goal
(potentially outdated defi bc of AI, >< manager: someone who is higher in the
hierachy & who has someone lower than them but you can be leader without
someone having to grant you a hierarchical position (you can lead people even
wihtout them knowing it, you can not impose leadership on someone while you
can impose power as a manager could, so you can be a manager without being a
leader or with being a leader, but as an empolyee you can also be a leader bc you
can help people work towards a common goal and lead/infelunce them there))
- Everyone exercises some form of leadership (you dont have to hold a position of
power/hierarchy)
- Leadership can be developed & is dynamic influential process, not abt having a
position or a static label (but some people are born with charactersicts that make
them more likely/better suited to be a leader, eg extravert, openness,
intellegence, but behavourtraits can be thought and practiced to gain new
skills/behaviour/tactics)
- The effective leader behaviors / styles are context-specific (Oc, 2018)
- Women and men are equally effective as leaders (see Alice Eagly’s work)
- Many leadership practices are universal (Integrity, charisma, or team-oriented),
and some are culturally-specific (GLOBE studies, eg individuaistic vs collectivistic
cultures)
- Being a leader contains certain pitfalls (e.g., power, ethics)
Leadership training vs development
Relatively easy to do, learning the theories and Takes a while, its abt that you should perceive
tactics, recoomendations: yourself as a leader, its a lifestyle, across
someone’s entire lifespan, more complex &
1. Set of systematic learning inititaves of KSA’s holistic task associated with changing inherent
(knowledge, skills, attitudes) behavior of someone, not all indi experience the
2. Scientifically validated training (and evaluate same benefits/experience from the same
effectiveness) development program
3. Make it easy for learners to apply training
back to job (remove barriers to motivation & 1. Leverage work experiences for
transfer) development
4. Base design of training on multiple formats 2. Provide access to feedback and support
with opportunities for practice and feedback 3. Use evidence-based processes for
(enhance learning) structured reflection
5. Provide resources, opportunities for on job 4. Facilitating changes in self-views
training and incentives to use acquired KSA’s 5. Give it time to work
- Informal rule of “70-20-10”
o No real evidence for this theory
o States that if you want to develop as a leader 70% comes from
‘Challenging assignments’ (e.g., job transitions, unfamiliar responsibilities,
, obstacles), 20% from ‘Developmental relationships’ (e.g., coaching,
mentoring, feedback programsoften missing ), 10% from ‘Coursework
and training’ (e.g., reflection, personal development, “knowledge”)
- Mindful engagement model
o If you want to systematically approach your development as a leader you
have 3 steps
o Approach
1. Identify what you need to develop (perform a “needs analysis”)
(bc everyone has different needs/charc they need to gain/imporve)
2. You can “grow” as a person/leader: Growth (vs. Fixed) mindset
(you have to believe that youcan grow and reach your need)
3. Have a learning orientation & set learning goals
We are in a learning mindset not competitve mindset bc
we allow ourselves to learn by trail and error
it shows that at some point when we have learned
something we reach a leveling of ‘the confort zone’
where in order to improve we need to unlearn it and
learn it in a different way, which means that for a some
time we will be less effective in preferoming the task,
when youre in the learning mindset you allow this to
happen to later recover and have and increased
performance
o Action
Get out of your comfort zone by gaining some experience in leading
challenging assignments
EG Get unfamiliar responsibilities, Create change, Work across
cultures/boundaries, Manage diversity, …
o Reflection
Reflect & capture lessons of experience and make sense of what
happened and why
EG conduct an “after-events review” or debriefing, Soon after
experience, Consider counterfactuals (i.e., “what-if” scenarios),
Gather lessons learned and distill new insights
- Challenge & support
o All development boils down to striking an balance between two
fundamental ingredients: challenge and support
, o Without enough challenge we become stagnated, satisfied & content with
who we are & know and can do & with too much challenge and we become
overwhelmed, stressed out, closed and rigid. More likely to retreat and
defend than to open up and engage.
o Stetch zone 🡪 seeking out is essence of adopting a truly developmental
perspective on life
o Our ability to deal with failure depend on availability of meaningful support
counterbalancing antidote to life’s inevitable challenges
- Leadership toolbox
o Leadership is an influential process, not a position Without followers, there
are no leaders (look for follower(s) if you search leaders).
o Embracing “mindful approach” will help approach leadership development
systematically
o Performing needs analysis, engaging in challenging experiences,
continuously being in learning mode, seeking & welcoming feedback,
ensuring enough support are some critical aspects to develop and grow as
a leader/human being
Class 2: intro to decision making: behavioral approach
Behavioral economics-- history of behavioral decision-making
1759 – Adam Smith: Book: theory of moral sentiments – Clasical
economists
- States that behavior emerges from balance between ‘passions’ (ie emotions that
we feel & how they influence how we repsond to situations) and ‘impartial
spectator’ (ie perceptions we have abt how a spectator would want us to act)
1776 – Adam Smith: Book: The wealth of nations
- Behavoir is motivated by self-interest
1879 -- psychology
- First labratory to study psychology (ie study of behaviour (= everything
that can be observed from the outside of an indi, can be observed and
studies) and mental processes) (PRBLM these happen inside the body and
cannot be observed from outside)
- became own field of study
- Often though that metnal processes percede behavoir but sometimes
behavoir precedes behavoir and infleunces and precedes mental processes
1900 – neoclassical economics
, o started by looking at psycho to develop policies targeted at influencing
human behavior (eg how do we motivate employees) looked at insights
from different fields, but they did not like the psycho-analysis that
dominated psychology at that time (bc they considered their techniques
and methods as unscientific & subjective)
o psycho-analysis – Sigmond Freud
large focus on mental process and counscieness and pre-
counsiousnes
iceberg theorie
conscious / ego: behavoir/attitudes we are aware of and do
and dont do
preconscious / superego: behavoir/attitudes you know from
education/familie/friends (eg trained behavoir or routines)
that influence behavoir
Unconscious: most behavoir is determined by our
unconsciouness which we arent aware of We often dont
know why we do what we do
theory still stands today
1920-1950 – behaviorism
- =science of observable behavior, was major influence on neoclassical eco
- Critized subjective nature of gathering of data & attributions abt behavoir from
before
- Pavlov: made discorvies that couldnt be explained by previous theories (ie
pavlov’s dog)(classical conditioning), he developed more systematic & objective
approach of research a more positivistic/ measurable appraoch to study
behavoir
- Skinner: did operante conditioning on rats , study internal process more
objectively
- Characteristics
o Very objective & positivistic in methodoldy
o Devlopend first method that allowed to exame cause and effect, what
antecendets lead to what effect, causality between antecedent and
behavior
o Not interested in mental processes but just stimulus and response what
leads to what not why
- Consequences
o This knowledge was translated into economic and managemnet practices
in1940-1970 that still has influence today
o We are working in conditions that wewre designed by this neoclassical
vision, money is used as reinforcement to make us prefrom better and
faster
1950 – science of inference abt mental processes: Cognitive
psychology
- H. Simon : Ciritzed how neoclassical economics used mathematical modeling and
assumptions to research human behavoir that werent accurte and missed insides
that were developing in cognitive psychology & said they missed cognitive
revolution that was happening in pshycology that added accuracy to Behaviorist
findings and allowed for scientific study of mental processes (which explained a
stimulus provided a certain response)
