My newsletter went out last week and I decided to share the article I wrote here on my blog in chunks – this is my first chunk.

Given the abundance of research into what differentiates the most outstanding leaders, why does leadership practice fall so far short of the theory? And what are the implications for organisations as they plan for the development of their leaders?

Outstanding leadership: what does the theory tell us?

In 1960, Douglas McGregor proposed a simple theory of leadership, in his book The Human Side of Enterprise, which has become commonly known as the XY Theory. According to his theory, leaders fall broadly into two types. The X-type manager believes that staff dislike work and will avoid it if they can, relying on the threat of punishment to compel staff to work. The Y-type leader believes that effort in work is as natural as work and play and trusts staff to apply self-direction in pursuit of organisational goals. Both types of leader, according to McGregor’s theory are “right”: their beliefs predict the behaviour of staff over time.

More recently, Daniel Goleman has shared a view of effective leadership in his book The New Leaders which outlines a range of leadership styles which the most effective leaders are able to draw on to meet the needs of the situation. Goleman and his co-authors draw on rigorous academic research which has been widely tested in organisations.

These are just two models of effective leadership amongst many and have in common an underlying belief that people are self-motivated and can be relied on, with the right support, to draw on their own resources to work effectively. This is a theme which Daniel Pink has explored, drawing on research findings, in his recently published book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.