Forceful Leadership and Enabling Leadership: You Can Do Both

Robert E. Kaplan

Jan 1996 · Center for Creative Leadership

About this ebook

Leaders need to be forceful--to assert themselves and push others to action. They must also be enabling--to discover and bring out the capabilities of others. The problem is that many executives see forceful leadership and enabling leadership as mutually exclusive or strongly favor one approach over the other, thus lacking the versatility they need to be effective. This handbook argues that the objective of management development is flexibility--to equip managers to handle a wider variety of situations. The book discusses how the concept of flexibility is played out in senior managers. It describes the emotional basis for executive leadership and the ways in which emotions are engaged when executives try to develop their leadership skills. The consequences of relying too heavily on one approach are also examined, and suggestions are offered for compensating and adapting leadership styles. The primary development task for forceful managers is to develop their trust in others; for enabling managers it is to develop self-confidence. Personal change begins with self-realization, followed by trying new behaviors. Four tables are included. (Contains 19 references.) (LMI)