Applying academic research in everyday leadership

With questions such as whether leadership can be taught, if women are as effective as men when leading, and the value of interventions when creating transformative leaders, Julian Barling, PhD, presented the October 27“Science of Leadership” talk with both enjoyable and engaging stories and solid research data.

During his presentation, Barling described the value of consciously developing leadership skills when using one of the many theories available. He noted that no one theory had more success than the others. He did mention however, that negative leadership behaviours (being impolite or abusive, passive, not giving rewards or punishment, or unethical leadership) were always a bad idea.

“He’s thought deeply and richly about these things and presents them quite well,” said Nick Turner, a Haskayne professor in Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics who has collaborated with Barling in this area. “His book is a synthesis on leadership research. While a lot of his research is on transformational leadership, he sort of steps back from that and brings many perspectives.”

Barling is the Borden Professor of Leadership in the Queen’s School of Business, a Queen’s Research Chair and author of a new book, “The Science of Leadership”. He has over two decades worth of experience in leadership research and leadership development with executives.

The event was proudly sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. Its aim is to get academic research on leadership accessible to the public.

“Leadership doesn’t have to be heroic. There’s a lot of value in what we could consider the small stuff. Ninety-nine percent of leadership happens in everyday context,” said Turner.

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