New Research Presents Groundbreaking Evaluation Tools and Impact Findings on KLC Leadership Programs

Report Validates the Effectiveness of KLC’s Leadership Development Path in Building Relational Skills to Exercise Leadership on Adaptive Challenges

Third Floor Research – the research partnership between the Kansas Leadership Center and Kansas State University’s Staley School of Leadership Studies – has released a new report highlighting the impact of KLC’s leadership development path on relational leadership skills.

KLC’s three-program path conceptualizes leadership as an activity and creative approach to solving organizational and community challenges. It’s grounded in the KLC principle that engaging others is a “must” in making progress on our toughest challenges.

The purpose of this new study was to understand how KLC’s leadership development path helps people bridge the gap between learning and practicing leadership. The report also presents the first application of new evaluation tools developed by Third Floor Research that measure adaptive leadership competencies. These measures assess relational capacities in leaders, rather than focusing solely on individualistic competencies and examine the unique mindset components essential for exercising adaptive leadership.

“This report marks a significant milestone for Third Floor Research. We have developed a new way to measure ‘mobilization’ as an individual’s leadership behavior. We are now able to better assess and understand the act of exercising leadership compared to prior research that focuses on the ‘influence’ of a leader. This novel research aligns with KLC’s aim to make progress on adaptive challenges while adding value to the global field of leadership studies,” said Tim Steffensmeier, Ph.D., director of Third Floor Research and assistant vice president, director of engagement & outreach and professor of leadership studies at Kansas State University.

This report incorporates part of a doctoral dissertation by Keyhan Shams, Ph.D., that explores how adaptive leadership ties into effective reasoning, focusing on self-awareness, role clarity and managing conflict. Shams received the Fredric M. Jablin Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation, “Bridging the Gap between Learning and Practicing Leadership: Developing New Instruments to Evaluate Leadership and Adaptation,” at the International Leadership Association Global Conference last week. (A peer-reviewed scholarly article based on Shams’ dissertation has been published by The Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies.)

The study findings advance theoretical research to explain the underlying cognitive mechanisms for leadership behavior and the role of some of the mindset components in predicting adaptive leadership behavior.

1. This study explains the reasoning process people take to exercise leadership and reports that enacting adaptive leadership starts with cognitive dissonance.
2. Exercising leadership is a burdensome process, both emotionally and cognitively, even after people develop leadership skills.
3. The Your Leadership Edge and Lead for Change programs positively impact people’s adaptive leadership behavior. They enhance a person’s awareness of defaults, needs and purpose. The programs also instill in participants the need to disturb the status quo to make progress.
4. KLC’s leadership development path has unbalanced effects on people’s leadership behavior, meaning that people with higher self-awareness, self-efficacy and reflectiveness typically benefit more from the path.
5. The tendency for people to make multiple interpretations is a significant predictor of adaptive leadership behavior.
6. The study revealed thinking barriers that people may face while exercising leadership. For instance, people can explore multiple interpretations, but act on their own preferred singular interpretation. Or people might not attempt to solve a challenge again if they felt like they failed on their first attempt.

“This report outlines a decision-making process that people use to exercise leadership and offers insights into challenging moments in practice. Leadership teachers, coaches, and consultants can use the decision-making concept map in this report to support their participants/clients, particularly during the moments of failure,” said Keyhan Shams, Ph.D., research assistant professor at Kansas State University and assistant director of Third Floor Research at the Kansas Leadership Center.

The latest report from Third Floor Research is available for free download.