Team Leadership: How to Define, Apply, and Measure It

A small group of experienced business leaders and academics have teamed up to create an innovative and potentially disruptive approach to developing leadership in the 21st century. The result is a unique, people-centric, and scientifically researched theory of leadership linked to an accurate data-based assessment and diagnostic product. This is the result of several years of study and development as well as many years of curiosity and experience. This is a new approach to leadership development.

The authors use a combination of leadership experience, research, and science to move away from unprovable theory and subjective judgment to deliver a definable product with unlimited application. For individual leaders looking to maximise personal development and results or for organisations wanting to analyse leadership and its effects across an entire structure or business, this book will redefine understanding and development.

The work has proved that team members’ perceptions of a leader and leadership behaviours will define their motivation, willingness, loyalty, output, and mental health far more than the actual leadership behaviours themselves. The authors’ application of Emergent Team Leadership Theory, why and to what degree team members attribute leadership to their leaders, directors, or managers, leads to accurate assessments of how leaders and leadership are viewed in teams, businesses, and organisations. Importantly, the work is so accurate that individual leaders can define precisely where to focus their personal development to get the most from themselves and their teams. Even for leaders and managers of the same grade in the same role, personal leadership development and training will be different.

This work has developed the Leadership Pathway Audit™ that measures the effectiveness of leadership for any leader or any team and will, over time, chart how leadership changes as any factor of the leader, the team, or the situation changes. Each leader, director, or manager gets a unique representation of the perception of their leadership at any time and a detailed report on the data and perceptions behind this representation. There are limitless options for following this with bespoke analysis of an individual’s leadership and for personal development programs tailored to their profile and organisation. Equally, reviewing the entirety of a business or organisation’s leadership profiles gives an incredibly accurate view of leadership across an entire company organisation, or sector.

Geoff Ribbens MA; BSc; FCIPD; PGC ed; PGC coaching

Geoff Ribbens has lectured to postgraduate students in organisational behaviour at several universities: Thames Valley University, Bath University, Oxford Brooks University, Reading University and Birkbeck, University of London. He has considerable experience in consultancy, training, and coaching in all aspects of organisational behaviour to a wide variety of organisations both public and private. In the 1980’s he was one of the first academics to move management qualification courses such as NEBSS, Certificate in Management Studies, Diploma in Management Studies, and MBA out of the university setting so they ran within organisations themselves. In more recent years he became a business development coach for Oxford Innovation Ltd and helped the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) both in the Thames Valley and in Cornwall – European-funded programmes. Whilst working for Oxford Innovation Ltd he developed an online questionnaire (Growthmapper) to quickly identify the coaching/training needs of SMEs. Geoff Ribbens retired from Oxford Innovation Ltd and established Business Enlightenment which designs and delivers online diagnostic instruments called Pathway Audits™. Pathway Audits™ cover the identification of the strengths and development needs of organisations. One of these Pathway Audits covers Leadership, the Leadership Pathway Audit™ or LPA. The LPA is unique in that it has an operational definition of team leadership based on the theory that leadership is an ‘emergent social property’ not the property of the leader The unique approach is called Emergent Team Leadership theory (ETL). ETL means that leadership can be measured and can lead to explanations. It approaches leadership from a scientific perspective and identifies the ‘necessary conditions which are jointly sufficient for leadership to emerge in teams.’

Mark Abraham OBE

After graduating from Sandhurst Mark had an operational career in the Army that included leadership roles in the UK as well as abroad. Rising to the rank of Brigadier, his earlier career saw him commanding platoons and troops in Germany and as a Commando. He was an Adjutant in the first Gulf War of 1991 and a Squadron Commander in a Mechanised Brigade. As a Lt Col, he commanded a Regiment in Iraq as well as during industrial action in the UK. His time included policy roles in the MoD, attendance at Staff College and, as a Colonel, he was a Director at the Defence Academy, teaching leadership and staff responsibilities to the Army’s future leaders. He was the head of Employment for 3 years before moving back to operational delivery, becoming the COO of the Army’s regional structure with responsibility for all UK regions before becoming the COO of Home Command covering all UK activity. During his career, he led work to advise the US Government on aspects of culture change and lectured the European Institute on culture change and leadership in large organisations. Mark was a member of a Business in the Community Board for 9 years and was appointed OBE for his work on culture change in 2010. He is currently a Director of Garnett Interactive and the Garnett Foundation delivering culture, leadership, and change training to large public and private sector organisations as well as, separately, delivering projects on leadership, culture, change and D&I for the NHS, Central and Local Government, Higher Education and Infrastructure Developers.

Alistair Cumming MSc; FCIPD; FHEA.

Alistair draws on over 30 years of experience in Learning and Development, organisational design and organisational change roles, working for major organisations across very different industries and cultures, including working internationally at regional and global levels. Professionally he has extensive experience of the design and delivery of training, formal and informal facilitation of groups, and coaching of individuals. As an interim Manager and Consultant, he is employed by large and small organisations helping them to implement change and build the skills and capabilities they need for the future. He now blends his time between work within business. Academia, education and the voluntary sector. His academic work includes lecturing on MSc and Level 7 programmes. LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistaircumming/