How do you rate as a leader?

Study links leadership behaviour to employee productivity

Does a leader’s behaviour really impact on employees' productivity? The simple answer is Yes. New research into leadership shows employees' perceptions of their team leaders has an enormous impact on the team's creativity and productivity.

At AttitudeWorks, we have developed a comprehensive breakdown of the specific behaviours identified in this research and how they relate to your performance as a leader. If you would like to see the list of these behaviours, a self-awareness questionnaire and more ideas on how to use this research with yourself or your team click here.

The study, carried out over an 18-week period by Harvard Business School, asked 238 employees from seven successful companies to recount one event each day that stood out in their minds. By analysing nearly 12,000 diary entries, the results found that the most frequent event recorded was employees' interactions with their team leaders.

Employees' perceptions of team leaders fell into two categories: positive and negative. Team leaders were perceived positively when they showed four behaviours:

1. Monitoring work effectively
2. Showing social and emotional support
3. Recognising good work privately and publicly
4. Consulting employees about work

Alternatively, employees had a negative perception of their team leaders when they showed three ineffective behaviours:

1. Monitoring work ineffectively
2. Failing to clarify roles and objectives
3. Dealing with problems ineffectively

Interestingly, the results showed that negative behaviours were reported more frequently than positive behaviours. The researchers believed this was because negative leadership evokes stronger emotional reactions than the way that positive leadership affects positive reactions. Also, the negative emotions were more specifically described than the positive ones (eg. anger and frustration compared with feeling happy).

The conclusion: Teams who considered their leaders to exhibit positive behaviours generated more creative ideas and enjoyed greater performance success compared with those whose leaders exhibited negative behaviours. Common sense wins again.

What can you do about this?

Consider the findings above. How would you rate yourself against each of the criteria?

Now think about this. If you asked your team to rate you against each of the criteria, would their perception match your own? Where would the gaps be? What might be causing the difference in perception? How might this be impacting on the productivity of the team?

See the list of behaviours on our Tools Page.

Want to know more about becoming a positive leader?

Leaders who consistently exhibit positive behaviours and manage their negative emotions are likely to be high in emotional intelligence. To find out more about the link between emotions and performance, or how to build leaders, teams and create a positive workplace culture contact AttitudeWorks.