The Behavior of Leaders

WILL greatly increase our understanding of leadership phenomena if we abandon the notion of "leadership" as a trait, and concentrate instead upon an analysis of the behavior of leaders. It is not easy to accomplish this shift in viewpoint, for our ways of thinking about "leadership" have been encumbered by many beliefs not in accord with be havioral facts. The problem is further exacerbated because "leadership" is a value-laden concept charged with much emotion. To be a leader is "good"; not to lead is "bad" so each of us fancies himself a leader. We consequently have tended to use ""leadership" primarily as a slogan, not as a strictly scientific concept. But even our gains from the use of this term as a rallying cry have been short lived and spurious because we inevitably have been plagued by the fuzziness of our definitions. Hence, in the present context we first shall examine the defini tional problem, noting the strategic ad vantage of studying leader behavior as distinguished from "leadership" per se; and shall then describe two leader be havior skills that clearly characterize "effective" leaders, and comment on their pertinence for teachers.