7.25.23 Boda Insights: Recent research on effective leadership

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We hope your summer is off to a good start and you are finding at least a little time to rest and rejuvenate.

Our team has been thinking about what makes high-performing leaders so effective and wanted to share a few of our thoughts and the research that is informing those thoughts:

  • Liz Wiseman has studied leadership effectiveness and her research shows a strong pattern in the traits of leaders who are most effective and generate the strongest results in their organization. In Multipliers, Wiseman shares clear data on what differentiates so-called Multipliers from Diminishers. In fact, her research serves as the foundation for our Multipliers Leadership Journey.
  • Stacey Vanek Smith, journalist and NPR host, looks at how women leaders can navigate the corporate context in Machiavelli for Women. The book was described by one CEO we coach as “the best book on gender bias I’ve read in my life.” They added, “I’ve bought it for hundreds of men and women at my company so we can be smarter about this.” Quite an endorsement!
  • Rob Cross and Karen Dillon explore micro-stress, or “small moments of stress that seem manageable in the moment, but drain our energy over time” and how this affects leaders in their article, The Hidden Toll of Microstress.
  • Why is it so hard for us as leaders to change our behaviors? Neuroscientist and addiction psychiatrist Jud Brewer explains how our brain processes and holds onto habits and what we need to do to change those habits in How to Break Up with Your Bad Habits.
  • In this TED talk, Frances Frei, professor at Harvard Business School, shares why trust is important, how it gets broken, and what leaders can do to repair it. She focuses on the importance of empathy, logic, and authenticity.
  • And last but certainly not least, our own Brodie Riordan’s latest book with Shonna Waters—The Coaching Shift—explores the value of coaching skills for leaders as they build relationships and improve performance, leveraging neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and other disciplines.

We hope you find these resources helpful and, of course, we’d love to hear from you.

The Boda/BTS Executive Coaching Team