Leadership‐shaping experiences: a comparative study of leaders and non‐leaders

Abstract

Purpose -By comparing "leaders" with "non-leaders" the current research attempts to shed light on the impact of early experiences on leaders' development. Design/methodology/approach -The study is presented in two parts, quantitative and qualitative. In the first (quantitative) part, a group of soldiers perceived as leaders was compared with a group of soldiers perceived as non-leaders, in order to examine the hypothesis that leaders have had more leadership experiences than non-leaders. Confirmation of this hypothesis led to the qualitative part, in which the sense in which the reported experiences had contributed to leadership development was explored. Findings -The leaders proved to have had more leadership experiences than non-leaders in their youth. Such experiences impact on self-perception as a leader, the development of self-efficacy in leadership, and the accumulation of psychological and behavioral knowledge related to the manifestation of leadership. Practical implications -Conceptually, the study adds knowledge regarding leadership development via natural experiences, particularly experiences that occur in early periods of life. Practically, the study adds knowledge that can improve selection processes of leaders, as well as knowledge that can be applied to leaders' development, particularly reflective methods. Originality/value -The contributions of this study are methodological, conceptual, and practical. The study offers methods and instruments to assess leadership and distinguish leaders from non-leaders..

The Reciprocal Effects of Self-View as a Leader and Leadership Emergence

“…Self-report measures have been shown to be a reliable way of measuring leader self-perception, with several studies demonstrating their predictive validity. For example, selfreports of leadership self-perception have been found to be predictive of the amount of leadership experiences individuals had during their youth (Amit, Popper, Gal, Mamane-Levy, & Lisak, 2009), leadership self-efficacy (Van der Mescht, 2004), and attitude toward leadership and leadership emergence (Kolb, 1999).…”

Factors Affecting the Affective Identity-Motivation to Lead (AI-MTL) of Lecturers: Case Study in X Unversity

“…In addition, this study also wants to understand the role of LSE in mediating the relationship between Past Leadership Experiences (PLE) and AI-MTL and between Perceived Job Stress as an Academic Leader and AI-MTL. Basing their views on Bandura's theory, Amit et al (2009) suggest that LSE mediates the relationship between past leadership experiences and AI-MTL. This is because past successful experiences are believed to increase someone's selfconfidence as a leader, which further increase his/her desire to take leadership positions (AI-MTL).…”

“…Past Leadership Experiences are also believed to boost someone's leadership skills (Bergner et al, 2018). Previous leadership roles are believed to form person's self-image as a leader and thus motivate him/her to take on a similar role in the future (Amit et al, 2009). Considering Chan and Drasgow's (2001) suggestion regarding the need to pay attention to organizational context in MTL, the researchers add two other factors that allegedly will also affect AI-MTL.…”

Challenging and Supporting New Leader Development

“…It's those beliefs and assumptions that drive their current behavior' (cited in Lee, 1989: 21). Research studies carried out by Kempster (2006) as well as Amit et al (2009) found that those who emerge as leaders proved to have had more leadership experiences in their youth, and that these experiences helped shaped their self-perception as leaders.…”