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Chapter 10 - Mindsets for Change Leaders

Exploring a Cognitive Approach for Leadership Development

from Part IV - The Development of Change Leadership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2023

By
Bradley Hastings ,
Dave Bouckenooghe  and
Gavin M. Schwarz
Edited by
Shaul Oreg ,
Alexandra Michel  and
Rune Todnem By
Shaul Oreg
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Alexandra Michel
Affiliation:
Universität Heidelberg
Rune Todnem By
Affiliation:
Universitet i Stavanger, Norway
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Summary

Decades of research confirms that the behavior of leaders influences change outcomes. Correspondingly, leader development has aimed to identify and develop the individual traits and attributes that are precursors to desired behaviors. However, where this approach has traditionally targeted static precursors and, thus, relatively stable sets of behaviors, there is growing evidence that successful change requires leaders to switch behaviors during change. We introduce mindset activation as a leader development approach to aid this switch. We elaborate on two common change processes – top-down and bottom-up – and establish a connection between the desired leader behaviors of these processes and the fixed and growth mindsets, respectively. In doing so, we propose a means of operationalizing the activation of fixed and growth mindsets for leader development during change. This new approach overcomes some of the limitations of the traditional focus on static precursors of behaviors, by providing a more precise account that encompasses the malleable and dynamic nature of personality system processes to enable effective change leadership.

Keywords

change leadershiporganizational changemindsetsleadership development
Type
Chapter
Information
The Psychology of Organizational Change
New Insights on the Antecedents and Consequences of Individuals' Responses to Change
 , pp. 208 - 234
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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