What is the first leadership consideration?

Two individuals, Bass and Avolio, developed four key elements of transformational leadership: Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration. The latter is defined as providing individual team members with sincere attention to their respective emotional states of mind, needs and concerns. Consider the trajectory of your career to date and the impact of leaders who have intentionally made it a priority to show interest in you, your family and your pursuits outside of the workplace. Are you able to easily recall these experiences? Ideally, you have more than a few positive memories of leaders who made a deliberate effort to get to know you on an individual level, encouraging you to succeed and replicate this core attribute.

Most importantly, leaders who practice individualized consideration understand the value of prioritizing their time in order build a personal connection with each team member, regardless of their title, tenure or job description.

Your workforce has a strong desire for psychological, as well as physical safety during both good and challenging times. This past April, McKinsey published A leader’s guide to communicating with teams, stakeholders and communities during COVID – 19 . The authors described the need for “candour over charisma” as a critical component. Being truthful and open, recognizing and listening to individual concerns and questions will help ease the minds of your employees, particularly in times of crisis.

The pandemic of 2020 has thrown a spotlight on mental health and a fundamental shift in work arrangements. With millions of people working from home out of necessity rather than desire, both leaders and teams are facing additional pressures, both personal and professional. As people find themselves in unfamiliar circumstances, juggling family responsibilities with work priorities, the need for increased compassion and consideration on the part of employers is essential.

It is incumbent on leaders to heighten their respective sensitivities in these circumstances. Every individual has his or her own unique set of personal challenges to manage, in addition to getting the job done. While the situation remains fluid and timetables for return to work remain unclear for many types of businesses, leaders must be cognizant of safety protocols as well as the personal preferences of their workforce. Employers and employees alike are navigating an unprecedented period in history. The acronym VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) is apropos when describing current times. With so many factors outside of a leader’s control, one constant remains during a time of crisis: Individuals look to their leadership for reassurance, steadiness, compassion and understanding. No matter the size of your enterprise, you can choose to adopt a considerate, thoughtful approach as a key priority.

Leaders often lament the fact that they find themselves being pulled in a myriad of directions. With so many demands on a leader’s time, deciphering the “urgent” from the “important” can be problematic. At the same time, leaders who are personally in touch and in tune with their team members have a greater opportunity to strengthen the relationship and harness their respective intrinsic motivation levels. Make it a priority to study the practices of leaders whose displays of humanness and humility have yielded loyalty and commitment amongst employees.

Your team needs to know that you have an interest and desire to learn what matters to them as individuals. If your leadership style is transactional, people may perceive that your attempts to connect are mechanical, i.e. that you are going through the motions in order to complete a “task.” By taking this approach, your employees will feel disconnected and disengaged as opposed to being heard, validated and understood.

As a leader, it is worthwhile remembering that giving individualized attention to your team members goes a long way toward building enduring relationships, both internal and external. In the words of J. Willard (Bill) Marriott, executive chairman and chairman of the board of Marriott International: “See and be seen. Get out of your office, walk around, make yourself visible and accessible.” Mr. Marriott’s wise words remain timeless and highly relevant for all levels of leadership. The simple act of putting your people first starts with you.

This article is a partial transcript of a video on YouTube. This video was recorded prior to COVID-19.

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Find sources: "Consideration and Initiating Structure" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Consideration and Initiating Structure are two dimensions of leader behavior identified in 1945 as a result of the Ohio State Leadership Studies. Reviews of research on these dimensions are described in Stogdill's Handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and research and Littrell's Explicit leader behaviour.

According to the findings of these studies, leaders exhibit two types of behaviors to facilitate goal accomplishment:

People-oriented (consideration)
Task oriented (initiating structure)

The model is similar to the Michigan Studies of Leadership.

In his Handbook, Stogdill expanded the model to twelve dimensions.

Prior to 1945 most studies of leadership sought to identify the individual traits of effective leaders.

Trait theories of leadership were the first to attempt a systematic approach of studying leadership. However, these studies yielded disappointing results when no set of traits were found that explained effective leadership.

In 1945, a group of researchers at the Ohio State University sought to identify the observable behaviors of leaders instead of identifying personality traits.

Leaders Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)

To accomplish this they generated a list of 1790 statements. This was narrowed down to 150 statements designed to measure nine different dimensions of leader behavior. These statements were used to develop the Leaders Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ).[1]

After further research, the LBDQ-XII, was developed, assessing 12 factors/dimensions of leader behavior.[1]

Consideration is the extent to which a leader exhibits concern for the welfare of the members of the group.

This factor is oriented towards interpersonal relationships, mutual trust and friendship.

This leadership style is people-oriented.

Some of the statements used to measure this factor in the LBDQ are:

being friendly
treating all group members as his/her equal
looking out for the personal welfare of group members
making him/herself accessible to group members

Initiating structure

Initiating Structure is the extent to which a leader defines leader and group member roles, initiates actions, organizes group activities and defines how tasks are to be accomplished by the group.

This leadership style is task-oriented.

Some of the statements used to measure this factor in the LBDQ are:

letting group members know what is expected of them
maintaining definite standards of performance
scheduling the work to be done
checking that group members follow standard rules and regulations

^ a b Stogdill, Ralph M. (1963). Manual for the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire – Form XII: An Experimental Revision (PDF). Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015.

Bass, Bernard M.; Stogdill, Ralph M. (1990) [1974]. Bass & Stogdill's handbook of leadership: theory, research, and managerial applications (3rd ed.). New York: Free Press. ISBN 9780029015001.
Farahbakhsh, Saeid (2006). "Leadership in Educational Administration: Concepts, Theories and Perspectives". Academic Leadership. Fort Hays State University. 4 (1). ISSN 1533-7812.
Judge, Timothy A.; Piccolo, Ronald F.; Ilies, Remus (2004). "The Forgotten Ones? The Validity of Consideration and Initiating Structure in Leadership Research". Journal of Applied Psychology. American Psychological Association. 89 (1): 36–51. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.36.
Frederick Littrell, Romie (June 2013). "Explicit leader behaviour: A review of literature, theory development, and research project results". Journal of Management Development. Emerald Publishing. 32 (6): 567–605. doi:10.1108/JMD-04-2013-0053. ISSN 0262-1711.
Tracy, Lane (1987). "Consideration and initiating structure: Are they basic dimensions of leader behavior?". Social Behavior and Personality. 15 (1): 21–33. doi:10.2224/sbp.1987.15.1.21.