What's the role of psychologists in devloping the new generation of leaders? Prof. Dr. Ann M. O'Roark (St. Petersburg/USA) emphasizes: "Leaders should be advised to master an invitational leadership approach (ILA)".
"The ILA represents as a next generation model, one that is a consolidation of multiple sources of scholarly thinking and executive experience. From several countries and from several research centers, dominant features of contemporary psychological hypotheses about effective leadership overlap and can be merged.
ILA calls for skilled behaviors that are labeled 'charismatic' and 'participatory'. Charismatic behaviors are observed as inspirational and mentoring actions. Participatory behaviors are seen in a leader's method of involvement of others in planning, organizing, controlling, monitoring and evaluating progress toward the achievement of the shared undertaking.
The leader must have a vision, an ability to produce cognitive maps about self, others, the goal, and to see how they all fit together. The leader needs emotional savvy to address surprises and change in creative and courageous ways that are realistic and adaptive. And, the leader will use invitational power to activate effective controls and to transmit clarity about goals, plans, resources", O'Roark writes in her contribution "Synthesizing Knowledge About Effective Leadership", published in:
Anna Laura Comunian and Uwe P. Gielen (Eds.) - It's All About Relationships
Pabst, Lengerich, Berlin, Rockledge (FL/USA), 448 pages, ISBN 3-89967-014-0
