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The SHL
Corporate Leadership Model
Contents
Acknowledgements 3
Summary 3
Why leadership? 4
Introduction 5
1.
Key goals and Outcomes 6
1. Goal Focus 6
2. Organizational Level 7
3. Stakeholder Impact 8
2. Key Competencies 8
3. Individual Antecedents 9
1. Dispositions 9
2. Attainments 10
4. Context: Situational Variables and Culture 11
1. Contextual Uncertainty and Pressure for change 12
2. The role of culture 13
The SHL Model of Corporate Leadership 14
Outline description of the SHL Model of Corporate Leadership 14
1. Developing the Vision – the Strategy Domain 16
2. Sharing the Goals – The Communication Domain 16
3. Gaining Support – The People Domain 16
4. Delivering Success – The Operational Domain 16
Understanding Combinations of Behaviours 17
Risk factors 18
1. Individual risk factors 18
2. Contingent risk factors 19
3. What can go wrong? 19
Assessment strategy 20
Conclusion 21
References 22
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Professor Peter Warr, University of Sheffield, for his valuable contributions to the Leadership
project and to the production of this White Paper. Professor Warr carried out much of the literature review on which this
was based and contributed to many of the ideas put forward in this paper.
Summary
The SHL Corporate Leadership model derives from the generic model of the world of work described in Bartram,
Robertson and Callinan (2002) and Kurz and Bartram (2002). It provides a significant advance by taking account of:
• Both leadership behaviours (as rated by oneself and others) and leadership impacts
• Both individual and aggregated (i.e. team, group and organizational) measurements
• Both people-measures and contextual or situational measures
It proposes a framework that takes into account organizational culture, values and other contextual factors as the
environment within which to assess and develop leadership.
Leadership is about influencing people such that they come to share common goals, values and attitudes, and work more
effectively towards the achievement of the organization’s vision.
Management is about keeping an existing system running, whereas leadership is about creating it, developing it or
changing its direction. Confusion is sometimes generated by the fact that it is difficult to conceive of a person who has
leadership skills without that same person also having management skills. While they may be conceptually distinct, they are
in practice found side by side. For that reason, individual assessments need to consider both.
The SHL Corporate Leadership Model combines the widely accepted ‘transformational’ and ‘transactional’ themes into four
main functions that describe the leadership process. Each function has its characteristic types of behaviour.
1. Developing the Vision: The strategy domain
2. Sharing the Goals: The communication domain
3. Gaining Support: The people domain
4. Delivering Success: The operational domain
This White Paper elaborates on these four leadership functions and shows how the Great Eight competency factors of
the SHL Competency Framework (Bartram, 2005; Kurz & Bartram, 2002) combine in pairs to provide coverage of these
four functions. For each function, one competency factor provides a transactional or management focus and the other a
transformational or leadership focus.
The issue of risk factors (impeding behaviours, derailers) is considered and an approach is presented that distinguishes
between individual and contingent risks. It is proposed that these need to be considered separately for each of the above
four leadership functions. In addition, we need to consider both misbehaviour and incompetence when looking at individual
risk factors.
Why leadership?
Why is leadership so important? It is perhaps a self-evident truth that leaders are critical to the success or failure of
ventures, for without leaders, there is no one to give direction, to motivate, to imbue a sense of commitment and passion,
and without these there can be no success. We view much of history in terms of the leaders of important ventures
and organizations, a practice that has given rise to one view of leaders as ‘great’ people. Within the commercial world,
leadership has always been important. However, the importance of individual leaders or teams has probably become
increasingly apparent, as the commercial and economic environment has changed. As will be discussed later, pressure for
change and uncertainty are two of the major factors that organizations have to respond to.
Bain and Mabey (1999) give four reasons why the importance of people within organizations in ensuring competitive
advantage has increased over recent years:
1. “Regulated and protected markets have declined significantly, and on a world-wide basis.
2. Product life cycles are shorter and new technology is being made redundant at a faster rate each year.
3. Access to the required financial resources is not an inhibitor today given the mobility and flexibility of the
financial markets.
4. Economies of scale are much less important today than even a few years ago… increasingly the consumer is
demanding greater variety without any cost penalty”
This White Paper is based on a project carried out by SHL in 2001-2. It involved an extensive and exhaustive review of
the research literature on leadership and examination of current and past approaches to leadership measurement. The
leadership model was updated in 2011 based on additional reviews of the recent literature and research conducted at SHL.
In this paper we present some of the conclusions we drew from that work and an approach to leadership that we believe
builds on the best current research and thinking in this area.
Introduction
In the SHL approach to leadership, we explicitly make a separation between the notions of management and leadership.
It is generally accepted that management includes planning, organizing, monitoring, maintaining routines, handling
deviations from desired progress, and so on. These activities are typically viewed as relatively routine, whereas leadership
is seen as more proactive. Some writers in this area describe management in rather negative terms, seeking instead to
communicate the importance of leadership. That is not our view; good management and effective leadership are both vital
to organizational success: but they are different.
Management is about keeping an existing system running, whereas leadership is about creating it, developing it or
changing its direction. Within any organization the proposed approach to leadership should be part of an equally important
approach to developing management.
Confusion is sometimes generated by the fact that it is difficult to conceive of a person who has leadership skills without
that same person also having management skills. While they may be conceptually distinct, they are in practice found side
by side. For that reason, individual assessments need to consider both. Management is similar to leadership in embodying
a power differential and an expectation that a manager will have impact on others.
We might think in terms of three kinds of behaviours:
• those only found in leaders;
• those found in both leaders and managers;
• and those only found in managers.
Given that we must include the middle category in an account of leadership, some aspects of management will inevitably
be covered in our approach to leadership. There have been many attempts at defining leadership. The following is provided
as a working definition: Leadership is about influencing people such that they come to share common goals, values and
attitudes, and work more effectively towards the achievement of the organization’s vision.
To get to grips with the concept of leadership we need to clarify what sort of ‘influences’ we are talking about, and who is
‘influenced’.
The SHL Approach to Leadership covers four main types of variable:
1. Key goals and outcomes. What are the consequences of leadership? What impacts do leaders have? What are the
focus, level and breadth of these impacts?
2. Key competencies. What are the desirable leadership behaviours, what are the key competencies?
3. Individual antecedents of those competencies. What are the individual dispositional factors that lead to
such behaviours?
4. Context: Situational and cultural variables. These include the various ‘drivers of’ and ‘barriers to’ success.
The approach also considers the role of risk factors, both in terms of individual characteristics and contextual contingencies.
3 2 1
Leadership Outcomes
Leadership Behaviours Impact of
Potential Competencies behaviours
4
Context
Drivers & Barriers
Culture & Values
Situational Factors
1. Goal Focus
Impacts can be achieved in a range of areas – not just the financial ones. A taxonomy for this has been set out in Bartram et
al (2002) and represents an approach comparable to the balanced scorecard approach (Kaplan and Norton, 1992).
The four criteria defined by Bartram et al, and expanded into a model of eight Goal Factors by Kurz & Bartram (2002), are:
1. Economic. This is fundamental, as commercial Organizations that are economically ineffective will not survive. As with
all other criteria, the effectiveness or otherwise of an Organization in economic terms is inextricably linked with the external
economic environment. Effective Organizations must be able to adapt to changes in the economic climate.
2. Technological. Organizational effectiveness requires use of technology for service and product development, their
delivery and for internal communication. The nature of the business will impact on the roles technology can play, but
effective use of technological resources can be as critical in Organizational success as effective use of people.
3. Commercial. The nature of the commercial environment within which an Organization operates is critical to its success.
Effectiveness can be defined in terms of finding or developing a specific market niche, or confronting the competition head-
on and taking market share.
4. Social and personal. This is intended as a broad notion of social, to include socio-political, ethical and cultural measures
of effectiveness. Organizations are not only collections of people, but also have impacts on people (customers, suppliers,
shareholders and the public at large) outside. The effects of economic success or failure are social effects (employment,
standard of living and quality of life). Organizational goals may have ethical, social and political dimensions. As such, they
may conflict with purely economic goals.
An effective leader is one who makes a demonstrable impact on one or more of these criteria in a positive way by
influencing the behaviour and performance of others.
Once the goal focus has been identified, it is then necessary to specify in qualitative terms what the critical success factors
are and from this to identify measurable key performance indicators.
2. Organizational Level
Organizations need leadership at all levels. While the corporate leader and top team may have the greatest impact on the
setting the direction for the organization, leaders at other levels also have their roles and need to make impacts that will
aggregate together in building towards the organizations desired goals. Leadership is needed from supervisors of work
teams, from creative groups, from project teams and so on.
In the SHL Leadership model, we differentiate five organizational levels as shown in the table below. Each Level is
associated with different degrees of job complexity, types of jobs, qualifications and richness in terms of the demands
made upon an individual’s
competencies. The definitions provided for these are consistent with those used in defining job levels within the UK
national occupational standards framework.
The main focus of the present white paper is on levels four and five. However, we must not forget that leadership attributes
and leadership functions are important at all levels.
3. Stakeholder Impact
In considering impacts, we also need to consider who is impacted and the scope of the impact. There are, broadly, five
categories of people who are affected by the impact a leader will have.
1. Investors and shareholders. Effective leadership engenders trust and is important in ensuring that the Organization
provides a good return on investment, long-term stability and growth.
2. Employees look for job satisfaction, stability of employment, career prospects, personal development, good pay and
rewards. Leadership is important both through the primary and secondary routes described above in creating a positive
work environment, giving clear direction and providing inspiration and motivation.
3. Customers are indirectly affected as good leadership, especially in relations to customer service areas, helps ensure
they perceive the organizations as providing value for money, quality of product or service, good support and
after-sales care.
4. Suppliers want to work with an Organization that is dependable and provides them with long-term stability as a market;
reliability in payment, and is aware of the constraints on the suppliers’ ability to supply. As with customer service,
effective leadership impacts on this.
5. Others look for the impact of the Organization’s activities on their environment and way of life (economic, social,
political, and cultural) to be positive and beneficial. Leaders, whose roles involve impacts with the outside world, are
crucial in managing this effectively. Leaders of major organization in the public service sector and senior managers in
large multinationals are all perceived as providing leadership that is broader than that required for their organization on
its own. Such leadership may be in areas of standards setting, professionalism, good governance and probity,
strategy, and innovation.
Finally, a leader’s impact may be broad or narrow. A leader may have impact within their local work group, the local
organization, the immediate local environment, nationally or internationally.
2. Key Competencies
Desirable leadership behaviours or competencies have been classified and labelled in many different ways. Some
approaches from the literature are summarised below.
• ‘Initiating structure’ and ‘consideration’ behaviours (from the 1940s) are sometimes termed ‘task-centred’
and ‘person-centred’, covering planning, organizing, target-setting etc., and fairness, sympathy, concern etc.
respectively. They emerge in some form in most models, and need to be covered in ours. It is possible to view and
measure each one in overall terms or through several sub-components. In addition, ‘laissez faire’ leadership (taking
little action) was identified in early writings, and is still examined in the literature. It seems to represent the
‘low’ end of the above behaviours. A meta-analysis by Judge, Piccolo and Ilies (2004) shows that consideration
and initiating structure are both positively related to leadership outcomes, with consideration structure being more
highly related to follower satisfaction, motivation, and leader effectiveness, and initiation structure having slightly
higher relationships with leader job performance and group-organization performance.
• More recent emphasis has been on ‘transformational’, ‘innovative’ or ‘charismatic’ leadership versus ‘transactional’
or ‘maintenance’ leadership, usually assessed through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ, Bass
and Avolio).
• The large-scale analysis by Avolio, Bass and Jung (1999) of the most recent MLQ version (MLQ5X) supported a
six-factor solution for 36 items and also a three-factor higher-order account. The six factors were labelled
Charismatic/Inspirational (CI) leadership, Intellectual Stimulation (IS), Individualised Consideration (IC), Contingent
Reward (CR), Active Management by Exception (MA), and Passive-Avoidant (PA) leadership. It has been
conventional to view ‘transformational’ leadership as including CI, IS and IC; and ‘transactional’ leadership as
including CR, MA and the Management-by Exception (Passive) part of PA.
• The three-factor account suggested by Avolio et al (1999) adds to that dichotomy: Transformational leadership (CI
and IS), Developmental-Transactional leadership (IC and CR) and Corrective Avoidant leadership (MA, PA and
laissez faire).
• Similar components are covered in the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (Alimo-Metcalfe and
Alban-Metcalfe, 2001).
• Judge and Piccolo (2004) evaluated the relative validity of transactional and transformational leadership styles
through a meta-analysis. They concluded that each leadership style has a unique contribution in predicting specific
leadership outcomes. Another finding was that transformational leadership was strongly correlated with contingent
reward (transactional) leadership, which supports our viewpoint that in practice both are needed depending on the
context. Bass (1985) argued that although transformational and transactional leadership are separate concepts, the
best leaders are both transformational and transactional, and Howell and Avolio (1993) expressed similar views.
• Several authors have set out lists of leaders’ (or at least managers’) behaviour. For example, Yukl and Van Fleet
(1992, p.156) propose 16 key practices.
• The perception of positive leadership behaviours can vary across cultures (GLOBE study: House, Javidan, Hanges
and Dorfman, 2002). When leadership behaviours match the stereotypical perception of a leader we are more likely
to attribute leadership qualities to a person (referred to as prototypicality). Prototypical leader behaviours can vary by
culture (Brodbeck et al., 2000).
Much of the confusion in the approaches to leadership competencies arise from the failure to differentiate on the one hand
between leadership and management and on the other between individual and contingent factors. The model outlined later
makes these distinctions a core part of the model. We believe that provides a degree of much needed clarity that sets our
approach apart from others.
3. Individual Antecedents
These are the ‘disposition and attainment characteristics’ (Kurz and Bartram, 2002): that underlie or are prerequisites for
leadership behaviours. They include aspects of cognitive ability, relevant knowledge, certain personality dispositions and
forms of motivation. It is useful to view the antecedents of all behaviours (not necessarily those of leadership) in two broad
categories: dispositions and attainments. Leadership behaviours can be viewed as specific instances that manifest these
underlying characteristics in a particular situation.
1. Dispositions
Aptitudes and abilities. A general need in organizations is for fluid cognitive ability, as well as for specific psychomotor
abilities or processes of creative thinking or complex thinking. Such variables are important in studies of managers.
Style or personality. Self-reports of personal styles are in effect a person’s descriptions of his or her typical behaviours,
so necessarily link to the key competencies (see 2, above). Recent research has confirmed not only the importance of
links between personality traits and leadership, but also shown how the pattern of relationships depends on context. A
meta-analysis of many studies carried out by Judge et al (2002) showed, for example, that while Extraversion, Openness
to new experiences and Emotional Stability are predictive of leadership in business settings, for more bureaucratic
settings (government and military) the predictors are Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness and Extraversion. Overall, the
correlation (multiple regression) of the ‘Big Five’ personality factors and leadership effectiveness was 0.39.
Motives and Values. Less common is the examination of leaders’ and managers’ motives, values or attitudes. For
example, what motives underlie certain behaviours in a particular setting: a desire for power, for money, or to achieve
ethical goals? Motives, values and personality overlap, and relate to corporate culture when aggregated across individuals.
In general motives may be viewed as more localised in time and space while values are deeply internalised and set the rank
ordering of importance and the prioritisation given to potentially competing demands: making money or treating people
well; creating a stable working environment or ensuring innovation and change can flourish. Examination of motives and
values may be particularly important in assessing risk factors in leadership, and get to the bottom of so-called ‘personality
clashes’.
It is also worth noting that when Judge et al (2002) examined a broader range of traits than just the Big Five they found
some even stronger relationships with leadership. In particular, traits with a strong motivational component (dominance,
achievement, locus of control) all had substantial correlations with leadership.
Managers who are successful tend to have energy, stamina, hardiness and continuing good health. These attributes
underpin the persistence of motivation and effective behaviour across years, but they rarely appear in the literature.
Recent studies have also looked at the motivation to lead (Chan & Drasgow, 2001; Kark & van Dijk, 2007), showing that it
predicts ratings of leadership potential over and above personality variables.
Interests. The sphere of an individual’s interests will influence their choices of work setting and the extent to which they
will get satisfaction from working in one function or context rather than another. Interest categories are useful for capturing
expertise that is profession, function or industry specific, and are likely to be good predictors of ‘overall performance’ in
closely related jobs, or closely related competencies.
2. Attainments
Knowledge and skills. Despite theoretical suggestions and empirical evidence about the crucial role of knowledge in the
determination of effective behaviour (e.g., Schmidt and Hunter, 1992), this is under-emphasised in the leadership literature.
We need to consider knowledge both about job tasks and about organizational functioning. The former (labelled as ‘task
expertise’) covers both declarative and procedural knowledge (and thus ‘skills’), and the latter (‘organizational wisdom’ ‘tacit
knowledge’) includes wider practical understanding.
Experiences and qualifications. McCall (1998) emphasises the need to put high potential talent into developmental
situations where they can gain the experiences necessary to perform successfully at later career stages.
Qualifications (for example, MBA or DBAs, qualifications gained on leadership training programmes etc) formally attest
to knowledge, skill and experience. The value of different types of qualifications on leadership performance has received
little attention in the literature. However, if it is possible to ‘develop’ or train leaders, it should be possible to break down
some aspects of leadership expertise into relatively discrete sets of knowledge and skills that can be taught at practical and
theoretical levels.
• Fiedler (1967) argued that the most effective leadership style was a function of three variables: his or her power
relative to subordinates, the degree of task structure, and the quality of leader-member relations. In situations
favourable to a leader (e.g., high power, high task structure and good relations) and in situations unfavourable to
him or her (e.g., low power, low structure and poor relations), a task-oriented style was advocated, but otherwise
a person-centred approach was recommended. Evidence has not been very supportive, and the model has faded
away (rather than being explicitly rejected). One problem is that even with only three dichotomised situational
factors, analyses have to cover eight settings, and comprehensive tests of predictions in all those settings are
difficult to carry out and interpret.
• House’s (1971) path-goal theory drew attention to the importance of a leader identifying goals valued by
individual subordinates and setting up paths to those goals. Aspects of the situation such as the nature of the task
and subordinate attributes were said to determine the optimal approach. The number of variations in goals and
paths between settings and individuals is clearly considerable, and, despite plausibility and general acceptance
as a partial account (emphasizing employee motivation), empirical evidence is slim. Hersey and Blanchard (1982)
extended the idea in their model of situational leadership to suggest that leaders’ emphasis on setting up paths to
goals should depend on two aspects of subordinate maturity (job maturity and psychological maturity). While again
plausible, this has rarely been examined or demonstrated.
• The multiple linkage model (Yukl, 1981) assumed that situational influences arise from variables such as subordinate
effort, subordinate ability, type of work organization and other task-related features.
• Vroom and Yetton (1973) presented a prescriptive decision-making theory to identify the appropriate leadership
behaviours in different situations. The effectiveness of a given procedure was said to depend on a large number of
variables, such as the amount of information possessed by a leader or by subordinates, the likelihood of subordinate
acceptance of a particular decision, and the complexity or importance of the decision. The model was presented as
a set of flow charts, of such complexity that the measurement and observation of all combinations has never
been achieved.
• Building on the work by Vroom and Yetton (1973), Vroom and Jago (2007) suggested a taxonomy of situation effects
that describes how situational variables affect the leadership process: (1) organizational effectiveness is affected
by situational factors not under the leader’s control, (2) situations shape how leaders behave, and (3) situations
influence the consequences of leader behaviour.
• Ling, Simsek, Lubatkin and Veiga (2008) examined whether organizational context influences the extent
to which CEO’s have an impact on performance of small to medium sized firms. Focusing on transformational
leadership style, they found that CEO’s had a more direct effect on firm performance in smaller firms. Their impact
on firm performance was also higher when they had longer tenure as CEO’s and were the founders of the firm.
• Hackman (2003) gives some examples of how structural factors can limit the influence of leadership or
management. ‘For example, in cockpits structural factors such as cockpit technology, the culture of flying and
the regulatory environment are the dominant influences on the work of cockpit crews, rather than behaviour of the
crew captain.
• Leaders shape the work environment of their followers. Piccolo and Colquitt (2006) observed that the more
transformational a leader’s style, such as engaging in inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation, the more
autonomy and task variety followers had, and the more highly they identified with their tasks. This made the
followers feel more intrinsically motivated and committed to their goals, which resulted in higher task performance
and organizational citizenship behaviour.
In the present approach, we try to balance complexity and the need to maximise potential validity against practical
considerations. To achieve this we need to limit the number of situational variables we consider to those that are most
likely to have an effect on a leader’s performance and impact. The current literature is not very helpful in identifying what
these variables should be; almost all writers merely point out that situational differences are important and then pass on to
other topics.
Low external pressure for change Medium risk, slow change Low risk, maintain status quo
Improvements Change by evolution and Process change and maintenance
continuous improvement
In relation to the above classification, it may be that contextual uncertainty increases the value of transformational
behaviours, whereas those are of more limited importance (or may even be disruptive) in situations of stability and clarity
(Waldman, Ramirez, House and Puranam, 2001).
Degree of contextual uncertainty and the speed with which change is required are both key factors in making any
assessment of leadership risk (see below).
For each pair of the eight factors, one emphasises the transformational aspects of leadership and the other the more
transactional (or management-focused) functions. As each of the Great Eight are very broad collections of competencies,
it is important to note that they are not purely transactional or purely transformational. For example, the factor ‘Analysing
and Interpreting’ is relevant for most managerial or leadership roles, but in our model the emphasis is stronger in the
Transactional focus. In terms of changes between the original and updated 2011 model, in the updated model ‘Interacting
& Presenting’ is a competency with transformational focus as persuasiveness is a key component of this leadership style
(e.g. Judge & Piccolo, 2004).
Leading and Deciding is still transformational but has moved from the leadership function ‘Sharing the Goals’ to ‘Gaining
Support’. Gaining support involves motivating and empowering others to become part of the guiding team and to deliver
strategic objectives. It also involves removing barriers to change which requires taking control, exercising leadership by
giving direction and initiating action. As discussed earlier, leaders shape the environment of their followers (Piccolo &
Colquitt, 2006).
Adapting and Coping now sits with the Transactional competencies (rather than Transformational) as within a management
focus (transactional leadership) a leader (or manager rather) is more likely to have to adapt to change, operate within a set
structure and deliver given targets. Transformational leaders, on the other hand, shape people’s views and share the goals.
The focus of Adapting and Coping is on accepting new ideas and goals and responding positively to change.
Functions Competencies
Transactional focus Transformational focus
1 Developing the Vision: The strategy Analysing & Interpreting Creating & Conceptualising
domain
2 Sharing the Goals: The Adapting & Coping Interacting & Presenting
communication domain
3 Gaining Support: The people domain Supporting & Cooperating Leading & Deciding
4 Delivering Success: The operational Organizing & Executing Enterprising & Performing
domain
The model considers the context in terms of (1) the impact area, (2) the situation, and (3) the culture within which
leadership occurs. These have been discussed above. In summary:
1. The impact area is defined in terms of goal focus, organization level and extent of impact.
2. The two key situational variables are Contextual uncertainty and Pressure for change (as defined above). These define a
two-by-two matrix of situations, each cell of which is likely to favour different patterns of leadership behaviour.
3. The assessment of culture provides the means of exploring the fit between the leader as an individual and both the
prevailing organizational culture and any intended culture change.
For any given project, a leadership risk assessment needs to be made. This assessment would seek an answer to the
question: What would be the consequences for each of the key impact areas in this situation of a failure in leadership?
Following on from that, each leadership attribute needs to be considered to assess its criticality in ensuring that failure
does not occur.
Delivering success is the function most clearly requiring a fine balance between leadership and management skills. It is
also the function within which barriers to success can act to hinder progress. Such barrier can include:
• Formal structures that are no longer appropriate
• A lack of the necessary knowledge and skills in the workforce
• Managers or others failing to support individual’s behaviours aimed at realising the new vision.
• Inappropriate or ineffective communication systems.
This function is related to the competencies in Enterprising & Performing and Organizing & Executing in the SHL
Competency Framework’s Great Eight Factors.
Transactional focus
Scores
Low High
Transformation High Leader Corporate Leader
focus Low Contributor Manager
Risk factors
Unlike management, leadership is a high-risk activity. If a manager fails to manage well there will be some downside,
but in many cases, those they are managing will continue to work and contribute positively to the organization. If a leader
provides the wrong direction, or fails to have the impact necessary for achieving a change in direction, the results can be
disastrous for the whole organization.
In assessing leadership impact and risk factors it is important to consider the position the leader occupies in the
organisation and the discretion (autonomy, decision-making power) that comes with the role. The more senior the position,
and the more formal power the leader has, the more impact leadership behaviour is likely to have. Time is also another key
factor to take into account: over what course of time is the leader expected to show an impact?
Each of the four main functions described above has risks associated with it. These risks can be differentiated into
individual and contingent risks.
Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) describe how traits can result in positive or negative leadership behaviours. For
example, of the Big Five Factors, Extraversion is most strongly and consistently related to leadership emergence and
effectiveness (Bono & Judge, 2004; Judge et al., 2002): extrovert behaviours make leaders more likely to come across as
transformational, positive and naturally exerting influence over others. Excessively extroverted leaders can, however, have
a tendency to display behaviours that are overly bold and aggressive, thereby making it more difficult for subordinates and
other people in the organization to work with them.
Similar to the Big Five, the Great Eight competencies can be used as a framework for adaptive and potentially maladaptive
work behaviours.
Assessment strategy
The assessment strategy for the SHL Corporate Leadership model has four strands to it:
1. Situational assessment to identify the leadership qualities required, the culture, and the impact parameters.
2. Risk assessment, to evaluate the chances of success or failure, the consequences of each, and the risk
mitigation options.
3. Individual assessment of the leader or potential leaders.
4. Assessment of the outcomes achieved and the specific impacts the leader has had.
This involves the assessment of three parallel sets of variables. One set relates to the individual leader, the second to the
groups and teams within which the leader operates, and the third to the setting.
1. The leader: Individual measures:
a. Assessment of the individual’s potential (using, for example, SHL’s OPQ32, Motivation Questionnaire, FastTrack
and other ability test measures, Scenarios and other instruments).
b. Assessment of the individual’s behaviours (using self-and other assessment of competencies), including the
identification of individual risk factors.
c. Assessment of their impacts through performance appraisal.
Rather than assessing ‘only a person’ or ‘only a situation’, it is desirable to take a ‘person-in-context’ approach to leadership
development. Through multi-source ratings, it is possible to identify development needs for each set of key behaviours.
The format for reporting follows the four main functions defined above: Developing the Vision, Sharing the Goals, Gaining
Support and Delivering Success.
Conclusion
The leadership approach outlined here represents a functional view of leadership. It focuses on what leaders do and what
impacts they can have on the effectiveness of organizations. SHL’s assessment instruments provide the tools needed to
measure relevant attributes at the individual, group and organizational levels. The model of corporate leadership provides
the framework for making sense of these measures and for developing intervention and consultancy programmes for
supporting succession planning, organizational change management and other such processes.
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