Evidence-Based Leader Behavior Encyclopedia
Our encyclopedia is designed to help students and researchers identify evidence-based leader behaviors from the top scholarly journals. The behaviors can be used to help reach goals in the Sanger Leadership Journey. Please note, we are constantly adding new research articles and looking into new features. If you have comments or suggestions, reach out to us.
To search for a specific behavior, use the filters below to select. You do not need to select a filter for each category. You can view more information about the Michigan Model quadrants here, including a self-assessment you can take.
Do you have a journal article and behavior to submit? Use our form and we will review and add it.
Organization | Org culture
Behavior:
Did you know that gendered business terms — such as “chairman” — can reinforce the stereotype tying masculinity to leadership? Use gender-neutral terms to support leaders of all gender identities (such as “chair”).
Organization | Org Strategy
Behavior:
When communicating a vision to others, use concrete language where there is a good chance each person will imagine the same vision to go with your words.
Team | Team inclusion
Behavior:
Take a moment to reflect on your friend group. Research shows that the presence of diversity is not enough to foster meaningful intergroup interactions because cross-race and cross-class interactions in college occur less often than expected. However, interactions across racial and social class predicted better academic performance for students.
Organization | Org Competitiveness
Behavior:
The findings indicate that lawyers often adopt uncooperative strategies in court to visibly distance themselves from opposing counsel who were once collaborators, highlighting a critical mechanism by which past collaborations can undermine rather than support future cooperative endeavors.
Individual | Influence
Behavior:
To lead or to be liked? Michigan Ross Professor Charleen Case and colleagues uncovered that leaders who are worried about prestige and how others perceive them often make bad decisions at the expense of the group. Experiment with divorcing your own feelings and ego from decisions and making the best decision for your team.
Team | Team inclusion
Behavior:
Teams that focus too much on what they have in common can miss out on the value of diversity. Make sure you help your team gain value from diversity by taking the time to regularly discuss individual member areas of expertise and strength.
Team | Team Creativity
Behavior:
Individuals who maintain both a high cultural breadth and high cultural embeddedness, otherwise known as culture brokers, are most likely to generate creative ideas that are both novel and useful to the organization.
Team | Team inclusion
Behavior:
Have you recently received feedback? Share it! When leaders showcase vulnerability by sharing feedback they receive, it creates team psychological safety without undermining their images as effective and competent.
Organization | Org culture
Behavior:
Want to increase workplace safety? Research shows that task-oriented leadership followed by relational-oriented leadership are the most important contributors to workplace safety.
Individual | Integrity
Behavior:
The more learning behavior and coaching driven by the leader, the more psychological safety that is fostered within the team, and the more team performance benefits as a result.