Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association.

Reproduced [or Adapted] with

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FROM A
COMPLEXITY PERSPECTIVE
Richard E. Boyatzis
Case Western Reserve University
To stimulate sustained leadership development, a holistic model is described
that incorporates emotional and neuroendocrine aspects of learning, as well as
behavioral change. Intentional change theory, developed over 20 years utilizing
longitudinal studies of competency development and complexity theory, can
expand our impact on leadership development.
Keywords: leadership development, competency development, complexity, in-
tentional change
Intentional change theory (ICT)
1
explains sustainable leadership development in terms
of the essential components of behavior, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions related to
leadership effectiveness as a complex system (Boyatzis, 2001, 2006a, 2006b). This article
reviews previous studies and expands the interpretation using complexity theory concepts
focused on leadership development.
Sustained, desired change represents a metamorphosis in actions, habits, or compe-
tencies associated with leadership effectiveness. It may be in dreams or aspirations. It may
be in the way someone acts in certain situations. A person may rene her sensitivity to
others (Boyatzis, in press), become more optimistic (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000),
or learn how to articulate a shared vision for those in her organization (Bennis & Nanus,
1985). These changes are desired in that the person thinks, feels, or acts in a specied
manner. They are sustainable in that they endure. A sustained, desired change may also
include the wish to maintain a current state, relationship, or habit, but maintaining the
current state appears to require an investment of energy. In either situation, it requires
intentional effort.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard Boyatzis, Departments of
Organizational Behavior, Psychology, and Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, OH 44106. E-mail: richard.boyatzis@case.edu
1
For years, this was known as self-directed learning (Boyatzis, 2001; Goleman, Boyatzis, &
McKee, 2002; Kolb & Boyatzis, 1970).
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association
2008, Vol. 60, No. 4, 298313 1065-9293/08/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1065-9293.60.4.298
298
Desired Change and Discontinuity
Sustained, desired change often appears discontinuous over time, which can hinder
empirical testing of behavior, feelings, or perceptions (Boyatzis, 2006a, 2006b). Although,
to an observer, it appears as emergent or catastrophic change (Casti, 1994), it is more
likely experienced as an epiphany or discovery (Boyatzis, 1982).
In team development, Gersick (1991) labeled such change occurrences punctuated
equilibrium. In complexity theory terms, they are moments of phase transition, like the
sudden conversion of liquid water into gas when it hits a specic temperature. Golem-
biewski (1986) contended that bifurcations in organizational development will not be
experienced or viewed by the participants with the same worldview nor necessarily with
concepts with which they had viewed the organization previously. Fredrickson and Losada
(2005) and Gottman et al. (2002) suggested that a surge of positive emotion often
accompanies a desired change in team activities and marriages, respectively. Being
conscious of such shifts, however, is often not observed until the shift is quite dramatic.
Awareness of the social world around us seems inversely proportionate to the degree
of discovery (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). That is, for the self-aware person, change occurs
as a set of smooth transitions. To a person who is less self-aware, the changes will seem
surprising. Similarly, a lack of sensitivity may result in not noticing small changes in
someone elses behavior. Leaders face heavy demands that may smother their ability to
sense subtle alterations in themselves and others (Sapolsky, 2004). As a result, many
leaders do not recognize changes as they are happening. When nally noticed, they often
appear discontinuous.
The same forces may result in the changes being nonlinear, which presents the rst
feature of ICT as a complex system. The leadership development process often appears
nonlinear and discontinuous, being experienced as a set of discoveries. They are emergent
phenomena.
Leadership development research often uses statistical procedures that assume conti-
nuity. There are exceptions, such as the graphical analysis available from polynomial
regression. The top journals not only expect multivariate analysis but also favor those
studies that reveal interesting interactions. These interactions are a way to begin to address
the discontinuity of the phenomena being studied.
For example, in trying to predict performance from individual characteristics, studies
have often overlooked the tipping point concept (Holland, 1995). A tipping, or trigger,
point is the point at which emergence, or a discovery, occurs. It is a transition event. For
example, a person may verbally encourage collaboration in an organization with no effect
on performance. There may come a moment when one act of collaboration invokes a
change in others behavior. They notice it and follow a perceived induction. At this
moment, a small behavioral shift produced a dramatic change in effective leadership
behavior (Boyatzis, 2006a, 2006b; McClelland, 1998).
Other Concepts From Complexity Theory
So far, two aspects of complexity theory have been presented that inuence leadership
development- discontinuity and tipping points. Before mentioning others, some explana-
tion of complexity theory is in order. This article explores three features of complex
systems: (a) nonlinear and discontinuous dynamic systems, including tipping points and
catastrophic change; (b) self-organizing patterns of equilibrium or disequilibrium in which
299 SPECIAL ISSUE
emergent events start a new dynamic through the pull of specic attractors; and (c)
multilevelness (the application of this theory at all levels of social organization) and the
interaction among these levels through leadership and reference groups.
A complex system is a combination of systems that behave independently of their
components (Complexity Forum, 20012003). Although not specically applied to lead-
ership development, many of these concepts have been applied earlier to organizational
development and change. Hazy, Goldstein, and Lichtenstein (2007) reviewed early ideas
and studies applying complexity concepts to leadership of organizational effectiveness. At
the organizational level, there are Golembiewskis (1986) concepts of alpha, beta, and
gamma organizational development and the efforts at analysis focused on gamma-level
change (Golembiewski, Billingsley, & Yeager, 1976). At the team level, there is Fredrick-
son and Losadas (2005) work on positivity and negativity. In the third case, Gottman et
al. (2002) focused on dyadsin particular, marriage. In each case, the researchers portray
change as potentially nonlinear and discontinuous. They use complexity theory to examine
the effects of change. Each of these empirical studies and scholars used innovative
statistical methods for analysis.
Theories of change may involve an analogous problem in that they may hide or ignore
emergent dynamics. For example, Lewins unfreezingchangerefreezing theory of hu-
man change (Cummings & Worley, 2004) described the process but did not tell us why
the change occurred. This and other theories of change, such as those of Prochaska,
DiClemente, and Norcross (1992); McClelland (1965); and Golembiewski (1986), pose
two dilemmas for leadership development. First, they do not address leadership develop-
ment specically. Second, the actual change process remains the black box. In other
words, how the change is engaged and proceeds is left unclear as the inputs and outputs
are explained in detail.
In prepost change research, two problems occur. First, the effect is often limited to
one posttest. Second, the time gaps between assessments are often a function of a time
framework convenient or possible rather than a time series to observe the dynamics of the
change process over multiple time periods (Cherniss & Adler, 2000; Goleman, Boyatzis,
& McKee, 2002).
Desire as the Driver
The earlier description claimed that sustained, desired change is at the heart of
leadership development. The concept of sustained change was explained, but desired
change was left implicit. The studies reviewed in the next section show that adults will
only develop characteristics of effective leaders if they want to be leaders. Many people
engage in developmental activities to satisfy other peoples desires, not their own. For
instance, some pursue an MBA program to get the certicate of completion, not to change
how they act. Some people are pushed into leadership, whereas others are seduced by the
social desirability or they assume they should move up to advance their career.
In such cases, skills acquired temporarily (e.g., for a test) are soon forgotten (Specht
& Sandlin, 1991). Students, children, patients, clients, or subordinates may be making
efforts to change, but they are just going through the motions and not truly committed to
change. The desired endstate is compliance or approval, not necessarily change. This does
not apply to changes induced, willingly or not, by chemical or hormonal factors. However,
even in such cases, the subsequent behavior will be affected by the persons will, values,
and motivations. In this way, it appears that most sustainable, behavioral change is
300 BOYATZIS
intentional, as has been shown in cognitive and conceptual development (Sinatra &
Pintrich, 2003).
The dilemma with leadership development is that a person may want to be a leader
without investing the energy and time needed to achieve the required emotional, social, or
cognitive competencies (Boyatzis, 2001, 2006a, 2006b; Goleman et al., 2002). It may take
a wake-up call to bring him to the process of intentional change (Goleman, Boyatzis, &
McKee, 2002).
Leadership Development Outcomes
Much of the training in organizations and MBA programs is designed to produce
leaders or at least people who can act the way effective leaders act. This often means
producing the emotional, social, and cognitive intelligence competencies that have been
shown to predict effective leadership (Boyatzis, 1982;Goleman et al., 2002; Howard &
Bray, 1988; Luthans, Hodgetts, & Rosenkrantz, 1988; Spencer & Spencer, 1993).
Behavior change does occur, as we know from research in elds as disparate as
psychotherapy and education (Barlow, 1988; Hubble, Duncan, & Miller, 1999; Kanfer &
Goldstein, 1991; Morrow, Jarrett, & Rupinski, 1997; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991;
Winter, McClelland, & Stewart, 1981). A dilemma is that most studies test one charac-
teristic, such as communications skills, or one outcome, such as job attainment.
When studied systematically, the impact of leadership development training has been
shown to be relatively short lived (Campbell, Dunnette, Lawler, & Weick, 1970). The
bounce seen in people returning from leadership development programs has been called
the honeymoon effect (McClelland, 1985). Campbell et al. (1970) showed that there is
often an immediate impact of the training. Within months, the new behavior exhausts or
atrophies. The Consortium on Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations
examined available literature on longitudinal studies of training and education on emo-
tional intelligence and found only 15 programs showing some positive impact on emo-
tional intelligence related to leadership and management effectiveness. Cherniss and Adler
(2000) reported that most of the programs had an impact on job outcomes, such as the
number of businesses started, or on life outcomes such as nding a job (Cherniss & Adler,
2000). This exclusive focus on job and life outcomes may confuse how the change
occurred. Furthermore, typically, the studies used relatively brief follow-up time periods.
Goleman et al. (2002) reported that those studies showed an improvement of 11% in
emotional and social intelligence up to 18 months after training (Hand, Richards, &
Slocum, 1973;Latham & Saari, 1979; Noe & Schmitt, 1986; Wexley & Memeroff, 1975;
Young & Dixon, 1996). Boyatzis (2006a) claimed that, Recent meta-analytic studies
conrm that signicant changes can occur, but these changes lack the impact that the
amount of investment might indicate (p. 611; see also Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Burke &
Day, 1986; Morrow, Jarrett, & Rupinski, 1997).
The results are no better from standard MBA programs, in which theres often no
attempt to enhance these competencies. The best data here come from research by the
American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The AACSB found that
graduating students from two highly ranked business schools showed only 2% improve-
ment in emotional intelligence, compared with when they began their MBA training
(Boyatzis, Stubbs, & Taylor, 2002). Students from four other high-ranking MBA pro-
grams, assessed on a range of behavioral measures, showed a 4% gain in self-awareness
301 SPECIAL ISSUE
and self-management abilities but a 3% decrease in social awareness and relationship
management skills (Boyatzis, Cowen, & Kolb, 1995).
This honeymoon effect may blind practitioners and scholars to the sleeper effect, in
which sustainable change in behavior, thought patterns, or emotional reactions does not
appear until maybe a year after completion of the change effort (McClelland, 1985).
Because the effect appears disconnected to intervention, it is easily overlooked or
misattributed to other factors.
Longitudinal studies at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western
Reserve University have shown that people can improve the emotional, social, and
cognitive intelligence competencies that distinguish outstanding leaders. A required
course was designed with ICT to help MBAs develop their leadership competencies. The
results were reported on two cadres (graduating classes) of full-time MBAs (average age
at entry of 28 with 5 years of full-time work experience) and two cadres of part-time
MBAs (average age at entry of 28 with 5 years of full-time work experience and
currently working) before the course was introduced, then eight cadres of full-time and
three cadres of part-time MBAs (similar in age and experience to the earlier cadres) after
the course was introduced (Boyatzis & Saactioglu, 2008; Boyatzis, Stubbs, & Taylor,
2002). A further analysis was conducted on two cadres of the part-time MBAs 2 years
after graduation (Wheeler, 2008), as shown in Figure 1.
These MBA students showed dramatic changes on videotaped and audiotaped behav-
ioral samples and questionnaires as a result of the competency-based, outcome-oriented
MBA program implemented in 1990 (Boyatzis, Leonard, Rhee, & Wheeler, 1996; Boy-
atzis & Saatcioglu, 2008; Boyatzis et al., 2002). Four cadres of full-time MBA students
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1-2
Years
3-5
Years
5-7
Years
Emotional
Intelligence
Social Intelligence
Indicates impact of company and government training programs 3-18
months after training on multiple emotional intelligence competencies.
Indicates impact of a variety of above-average MBA programs.
Figure 1. Percentage of improvement of emotional and social intelligence competencies of
different groups of MBA graduates taking the intentional change course. Large dashed line
indicates impact of company and government training programs 318 months after training
on multiple emotional intelligence competencies; small dashed line indicates impact of a
variety of above average MBA programs. From Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of
Emotional Intelligence, by D. Goleman, R. E. Boyatzis, & A. McKee, 2002, Boston: Harvard
Business School Press. Copyright 2002 by Harvard Business School Press. Adapted with
permission.
302 BOYATZIS
graduating in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995 showed 47% improvement on self-awareness
competencies such as self-condence and on self-management competencies such as
adaptability and the drive to achieve in the 1 to 2 years to graduation, compared with when
they entered. On social awareness and relationship management skills, improvements
were even greater: 75% on competencies such as empathy and team leadership.
With the part-time MBA students graduating in 1994, 1995, and 1996, similar
dramatic improvement was found. These students, who typically take 3 to 5 years to
graduate, showed 67% improvement in self-awareness and self-management and 40%
improvement in social awareness and social skills by the end of their MBA program.
In her follow-up study, Wheeler (2008) tracked two graduating classes of these
part-timers 2 years after they graduated, and they still showed improvements in the same
range: 63% on self-awareness and self-management and 45% on social awareness and
relationship management. This is in contrast to the baseline comparison groups of
Weatherhead graduates of the 1988 and 1989 traditional full-time and part-time MBA
program who showed improvement in far fewer of the competencies.
The course being based on ICT is one explanation for these results. Other factors
probably included shared belief in the concepts of faculty and program staff. The faculty
members were predominantly the same through most of the years studied, and the
admissions criteria were essentially unchanged (Boyatzis et al., 1996).
The positive effects of this program were not limited to MBAs. In a longitudinal study
of four classes completing the Weatherhead professional fellows program, Ballou, Bow-
ers, Boyatzis, and Kolb (1999) showed that these 45- to 55-year-old executives improved
in self-condence, leadership, helping, goal setting, and action skills67% of the
emotional intelligence competencies assessed in the study.
For development in context, Van Oosten (2006) reported dramatic improvement in
leadership and organizational effectiveness in a program using ICT at the individual and
organization levels. While the emotional and social intelligence competency program was
going on, managers and executives also engaged in appreciative inquiry to develop the
culture and organizational systems.
Five Discoveries of ICT
Leadership development involves emergence of nonlinear and often discontinuous
experiences in an iterative cycle: Boyatzis (2006a, 2006b) observed that the moments of
emergence are (a) the ideal self; (b) the real self; (c) a learning agenda; (d) practice; and
(e) trusting relationships that facilitate openness to the moments of emergence, as shown
in Figure 2.
First Emergence: Seeing His/Her Desired Future
The starting point in leadership development is the discovery of who the person wants
to be. This occurs through a moment of emergence of a new awareness into the persons
consciousness. Boyatzis and Akrivou (2006) reported that a persons vision appears in
many forms in practice. Theoretically, they contend that it needs three major components
to emerge from a persons ideal self. Like other strength-based approaches (Roberts,
Dutton, Spreitzer, Heaphy, & Quinn, 2006), it needs an awareness of the persons
strengths. Boyatzis and Akrivou (2006) call this a persons core identity. They further add
that a person also needs an image of the desired future and a sense of hope that it is
attainable.
303 SPECIAL ISSUE
Positive visioning is an important technique for creating new neural circuits that help
to guide future behavior, as shown in sports psychology (Bennis & Nanus, 1985; Carter
et al., 2000; Le Duff, 2002; Loehr & Schwartz, 2003; Meister et al., 2004; Roffe, Schmidt,
& Ernst, 2005). Creating a positive visioning seems to arouse hope (Curry, Snyder, Cook,
Ruby, & Rehm, 1997; Groopman, 2004), which in turn stimulates the parasympathetic
nervous system (PSNS) with a resultant increase in openness, cognitive power, and
exibility. In this state, a person can grow new neural tissue, a process called neurogenesis
(Erikson et al., 1998), and benet from the healing powers of an engaged immune system
(Manniz, Chadukar, Rybicki, Tusek, & Solomon, 1999).
Ironically, teachers, coaches, and trainers know the importance of the ideal self, yet
they often do not take the time to articulate its formulation. When parents, spouses, or
bosses tell a person something should be different, they are describing the person they
want. This is called the ought self and often causes conict with the ideal self (Higgins,
1987). As a result of these factors, people often get anesthetized to their dreams and lose
sight of their deeply felt ideal self.
It is also clear from this framework that strengths-based approaches to development,
such as those described by Roberts et al. (2006), will probably work better than current
methods but fall short of what the person can achieve (Boyatzis & Akrivou, 2006). In
focusing on established strengths, such approaches develop the core identity component
of the ideal self as a driver of change but fail to capture the energy inherent in new
possibilities, as well as the emotional driver of hope.
With awareness of this component of ICT, a faculty member, coach, trainer, or
consultant should ensure that the prospective leaders in question have a well-articulated
ideal self and personal vision. Exercises in this area are not new, but the insistence that a
person use them to craft a personal vision is often overlooked. In such a case, the client
Discovery #5:
Resonant Relationships that help,
support, and encourage each
step in the process
Discovery #1
Ideal Self:
Who do I
want to be?
Discovery #2
Real Self:
Who am I?
Discovery #2
strengths: where
my Ideal Self and
Real Self are similar
Discovery #2
gaps: where my
Ideal Self and Real
Self are different
Discovery #3
learning agenda:
building on my
strengths while
reducing gaps
Discovery #4
experimenting with
being a leader
Discovery #4
practicing being
a leader
Figure 2. Intentional change theory. From Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of
Emotional Intelligence, by D. Goleman, R. E. Boyatzis, & A. McKee, 2002 (Boston: Harvard
Business School Press. Copyright 2002 by Harvard Business School Press), and Intentional
Change Theory From a Complexity Perspective, by R. E. Boyatzis, 2006, Journal of
Management Development, 25, 607623. Adapted with permission.
304 BOYATZIS
or student may feel that certain changes are expected, thus contributing to the ought self.
Each client or student should write his or her vision for the future and then talk about it
with trusted others.
Insight into the ideal self can be elusive. An obstacle can be eagerness to forecast the
future by merely extrapolating a trend from the present instead of envisioning a desired
future. Various tests can reveal aspirations (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005; McKee, Boyatzis,
& Johnston, 2008), and talking with close friends or mentors can help. These explorations
should take place in psychologically safe surroundings.
Second Emergence: How Does the
Person Act With Others?
Awareness of the current selfthe person others seeis elusive. The human psyche
protects itself from the automatic intake of information, but this ego defense mechanism
can confuse us into an image of who we are. This can feed on itself and become
dysfunctional (Goleman, 1985).
The greatest challenge to an accurate self-image is for the person to see himself or
herself as others do. Several factors contribute to false positives. First, others around the
person may not let him or her see a change. They may not give him or her accurate
feedback, and they also may be unaware of their own behavior. Second, those who forgive
the change, are frightened of it, or do not care may allow it to pass unnoticed.
Before a person can change, he or she must know what he or she wants to maintain.
Acknowledging discrepancies between the real self and the ideal self can be a powerful
motivator for change. However, as Higgins (1987) shows, the distinction between the
persons ideal self and his ought self can become an important additional discovery.
People often explore growth by focusing on deciencies or are encouraged to do so.
Organization-based leadership training programs and managers conducting annual re-
views often make this mistake. They leave well enough alone and focus on the areas that
need work. It is no wonder that many of the procedures intended to help a person result
in his or her feeling defensive under stresss, with the resulting decrease in cognitive
ability.
The second discovery can be achieved by using multiple sources for feedback about
the real self (Taylor, 2006). One method is 360-degree feedback, which is fashionable in
organizations today. Insight also may come from behavioral feedback (i.e., videotaped or
audiotaped interactions, such as those collected in assessment centers). Psychological tests
can help determine explicit aspects of the real self, such as values, philosophy, traits, and
motives.
Third Emergence: Developing a Learning Agenda
The third emergence is the articulation of a way to get to the desired self, using
strengths and building on some weaknesses. The most critical element of this emergence
is that it is a type of plan for things the person wants to try and explore. The openness to
new activities and experiences is in contrast to the often felt obligatory nature of fullling
to-do lists or complying with an agenda for the future that a persons boss, spouse, or
others want for him or her. A learning agenda focuses on development. The stream of
literature in industrial and organizational psychology on learning and performance goal
orientations helps to clarify this difference. As Chen, Gully, Whaiteman, and Kilcullen
(2000) showed and Seijts, Latham, Tasa, and Latham (2004) claried, a learning orien-
tation seems to arouse a positive belief in ones capability and the hope of improvement,
305 SPECIAL ISSUE
with the result that people set personal standards of performance, rather than normative
standards that merely mimic what others have done. Meanwhile, a performance orienta-
tion can evoke anxiety about whether we really can change. In the longitudinal studies
cited earlier, Leonard (2008) showed that MBAs who set goals for change on certain
competencies improved more than on those competencies than did other MBAs. His work
extended the orientation literature into the development arena.
Strange Attractors
Leadership development produces sustainable, desirable change as an iterative, cycli-
cal process. As a complex system, it engages the cycle through the self-organizing
properties of the human organism. The positive emotional attractor (PEA) and the
negative emotional attractor (NEA) determine the context of the self-organizing process
and whether it is an adaptation to existing conditions or to emergent conditions. A
self-organizing system is inherently homeostatic, with the possibility of some form of
deterioration if it is not perfectly efcient (which humans do not appear to be; Ferber,
1999). The attractors are Lorenz attractors that pull people, individually or in groups,
toward them (Mackenzie, 2005).
Just like the properties in a closed system moving toward maximum entropy, as
predicted from the second law of thermodynamics, dissonance occurs in our social
organizations unless there is intentional investment. Over time, deterioration occurs. This
is because the human organism is not a closed system. We need social interaction for our
open-loop emotional system to function (Goleman et al., 2002). Life and career cycles
are also dramatic in their destabilizing effect. Whether dealing with the so-called 7-year-
itch or with a life cycle of varying periodicity described by Sheehy (1995) and Levinson
and Levinson (1996), a person occasionally seeks novelty and change.
Boyatzis (2006a) explained that intentional change theory fosters a disequilibrium.
The person is likely to seek readjustment as a new self-organized system. Boyatzis, Smith,
and Blaize (2006) documented evidence from medical studies and attribute it to the PEA
becoming the destabilizing force as it pulls the person toward his or her ideal self. By
focusing on possibilities, a persons parasympathetic nervous systems (i.e., PSNS) is
aroused. In this PSNS state, the person is calm, and his or her immune system functions
at its relative bestthe body is renewed. In this state, the person experiences neurogenesis
(i.e., the conversion of hippocampal stem cells into new neurons; Erikson et al., 1998).
The growth of new neural tissue allows for more spines to grow on the neurons, creating
more space for neurotransmitters and neuroreceptors, which are the basis for learning.
Howard (2006) suggested that changes initiated during this stage are more successful. This
is similar to the concept of positivity that Fredrickson and Losada (2005) applied to team
development, but they only focused on the emotions experienced and expressed. It is
closer to Gottman et al.s concept (2002) of the PEA in their work on marriages, with the
physiological components added.
The NEA is also involved. It arouses the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and helps
human beings deal with threats. In a threatening environment, the NEA pulls a person
toward defensive protection. The body shunts blood to the large muscle groups, closes
nonessential neural circuits, suspends the immune system, and produces the chemical
cortisol (Sapolsky, 2004). Cortisol inhibits neurogenesis and overexcites older neurons,
rendering them useless (Boyatzis et al., 2006).
Intentional change becomes critical to a persons adaptation, because provoking a new
desired state that is self-organizing will not likely occur by chance. Sustaining change is
306 BOYATZIS
challenging. Boyatzis (2006a) claimed that, The change must be driven by a powerful
force. Articulation and awareness of the Ideal Self activates the energy of the PEA (p.
616). Fredrickson and Losadas (2005) emphasis on positivity rather than negativity for
team effectiveness is an illustration of the work of these attractors. It is also why they
claimed that there is likely an upper limit to the effectiveness of positivity by itself.
To try new behavior, a person often needs a type of permission to let go of old habits
and try new ones. This permission typically comes from interacting with trusted others.
Clients or students must spend sufcient time in the PEA to be ready for their time in the
NEA and the stress of adaptation. In this way, the consultant, coach, or faculty member
is simultaneously a cheerleader (predominantly positive), guide (conscious of the persons
state and progress), and provocateur (pushing, pulling, cajoling the client or student into
the PEA or NEA when appropriate).
Fourth Emergence: Experimenting With New Habits
The next emergent awareness in leadership development comes in the form of
experimenting and practicing behavior characteristics of effective leaders. This may be
reinforcing some behavioral habits that have been effective in the past or trying new ones.
The experimentation and testing of the new behavior must be followed by a period of
practicing them until they become second nature or unconsciously enacted. Barlow (1988)
described how cognitivebehavior therapy has shown dramatic results by encouraging
people to practice rst in a safe setting and then in actual work and home settings.
The practice period can complement work settings, but a person may have to nd
activities outside of work in which they can be in leadership roles. Dreyfus (2008) studied
managers of scientists and engineers who were considered superior performers. She
showed that the effective ones had tried their team-building skills in sports and clubs in
high school and college. When they were bench scientists, they worked in relative
isolation. To keep their new talent alive and rene it, they volunteered for leadership
positions in community organizations and professional associations.
Both of these examples illustrate an important feature of the experimentation and
practice phase of leadership development. Kolb and Boyatzis (1970) showed that the
person needs exibility to experiment, possibly fail, and then succeed with the new
behavior. Eventually, he needs to have the emergent awareness of his own ability to use
the new behavior well. He needs to see himself using it in real settings. For this sequence
to occur and for the person to have the time and space to have the emergence occur, Kolb
and Boyatzis (1970) showed why he needs safe settings. The consultant, coach, or faculty
member should help the person nd safe settings in which to practice the characteristics
of an effective leader.
Fifth Emergence: Others Helping Us
Boyatzis (2006a, 2006b) explained how sustained, desired change for individuals
needs others to help, guide, support, and sometimes coax us along the process and through
the emergent moments. Such relationships provide a sense of identity. He explained how
they create a context within which people interpret progress on desired changes, the
utility of new learning, and even contribute signicant input to formulation of the Ideal
Self (Boyatzis, 2006a, p. 617; see also Kram, 1996).
Helping relationships work through the trust a person experiences and the safety
from that trust. Coaches, teachers, consultants, and even friends can be mediators;
moderators; interpreters; and sources of feedback, support, and permission for change
307 SPECIAL ISSUE
and learning. Through their observations and feedback, but mostly through their
support, a person develops a sensitivity to cues that signal a possible relapse. As
mentioned earlier, Wheeler (2008) showed that MBA graduates who worked on their
goals in multiple life spheres (e.g., work, family, recreational groups) improved the
most on the leadership competencies.
Ballou et al. (1999) showed that a similar series of emergent changes occurred and
were sustained in a leadership development program for people in their 40s and 50s. In a
year-long executive development program for doctors, lawyers, professors, and engineers
mentioned earlier, Ballou et al. (1999) found that:
Participants gained self-condence. Even at the beginning of the program, others found the
participants high in self-condence. In follow-up questions, the graduates attributed the
increase in self-condence to an increase in the condence to change. Their existing reference
groups (i.e., family, colleagues, community groups) had a desire for them to stay the same.
The professional fellows program enabled them to develop a new reference group that
encouraged change. (Ballou et al., p. 346)
Isomorphic Leadership Development and Interaction Among the Levels
According to the theory, sustained, desired change occurs at any level of human and
social organization through the same ICT process. This proposes that sustainable change
at any one level must involve developmental work at the levels below and above it (Hitt,
Beamish, Jackson, & Mathieu, 2007). Although not a new idea, the combination of ICT
and complexity theory helps explain why this is so important. These other levels, in order
of increasing social size, are as follows: individual; dyad or couple (including boss,
subordinate relationships); team, group, or family; organization; community; country/
culture; and global.
For example, sustainable change within a family, team, or small group occurs through
the cyclical group-level denition of the ve discoveries. The ideal self becomes a
shared vision of the groups future. What does the group want to be, and what can it be?
Similarly, sustainable organizational change occurs through the ve ICT discoveries at the
organizational level, and so on at the community, country, and global level.
Akrivou, Boyatzis, and McLeod (2006) and Boyatzis (in press) examined ICT at the
group level. They observed that a sports team cannot succeed without a leader, the captain
who keeps people working together. He or she is the link between the individual and the
team change. Meanwhile, the coach is the person who links the team with management.
The owner or general manager operates between the organization and its fans, the press,
and the community. Effective team development requires effort at the individual level,
among various dyads, and at the organization and community levels. It takes effective
leadership on many levels to effect sustainable change.
Bidirectionality of information is necessary within levels of a complex system to
ensure the isomorphic process. An agent must carry the contagion of emotional and other
messages back and forth among the levels. ICT holds that effective leadership does this
among the individual, dyadic, team, and organization levels (Boyatzis, 2006a, 2006b). For
interaction with larger levelscommunity, country, globaleffective leadership and
social identity groups (often in the form of coalitions) are also needed for sustained
change.
Thus leadership is a primary feature of the complex system focused on sustained,
desired change. Besides creating teleos and purpose within a level, effective leadership
308 BOYATZIS
enables interaction among the levels, and that interaction in turn produces adaptive
behavior. The rst degree of interaction among the individual, dyad, small-group, and
organization levels of ICT is effective leadership. The second degree of interaction, which
in addition to resonant leadership enables interaction among all levels of ICT, is through
the formation and use of social identity groups. Many of the organizational or small-group
conditions may have been present for a long time, but when a capable leader appears,
magic happensor more accurately, ICT happens (Howard & Coombe, 2006; Van
Oosten, 2006).
Once the social organization gets larger than the number of people who can comfort-
ably sit around a table, campre, or circle, coalitions begin to play a critical role. The
specic coalitions are those formed around a theme, which is often dened in terms of
values (what is good or bad) and becomes an identity-forming group. It is then up to the
leadership (again, the rst degree of interaction appears critical) to synthesize this into the
needed experience for most of the people in the social group at that level (Smith, 2006).
A consultant or coach attempting to facilitate sustained, desired change will need
effective leadership relationships at dyadic and larger system levels. This raises the
question: Just who is the client? If a consultants effectiveness in an organization
development project depends on possessing leadership at community level, but the
organization is paying him or her for their work, then he or she must expand the scope
of the project and gain support for addressing community issues. Similarly, faculty or
coaches working to help people develop as leaders face the dilemma of working on
their critical dyads (bosssubordinate relationships both upward and downward in the
organization, as well as spousepartner relationships) and working with organiza-
tional teams.
Concluding Thoughts
Leaders can be developed, or more accurately, they can learn behavioral habits of
effective leaders. They can change in desired ways but not without effort and intent. By
extension, teams, organizations, communities, and even countries can change in desired
ways, but again, without purposeful desire, the changes may be slow or result in unwanted
consequences. Such unintended effects may engender a shared hopelessness. Various
segments of this article explored the emergent discoveries of intentional change to assist
a consultant, coach, or faculty member in designing and executing change efforts.
2
ICT helps us examine leadership development and see how individuals, groups, and
organizations can create leaders and bring about desired changes in a sustainable manner.
Complexity theory provides many concepts useful to understanding sustainable change.
With these sets of observations and results from research, those of us in helping roles can
reignite individual and collective will to make the world a better place.
2
See McKee et al. (2008), for exercises to assist a consultant, coach, or faculty member in
creating the discoveries of intentional change.
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Correction to Mahoney et al. (2008)
In the article Content Analysis of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and
Research (Volumes 44-59) by Kevin T. Mahoney, Walter C. Buboltz Jr., Barlow Soper,
Dennis Doverspike, and Byron J. Simoneaux (Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice
and Research, 2008, Vol. 60, No. 3, 246-258), the title of the journal was printed
incorrectly on page 257 as Counseling Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. The
correct title of the journal is Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research.
DOI: 10.1037/a0013909
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