Leadership Behavior Outline

1. (Background/Context): Leadership is an often discussed component of successful interactions between teachers and student, CEO’s and employee groups, politicians and constituent groups. Less often discussed or perhaps less understood, are the behavior characteristics of successful leaders.

2. (Thesis Statement) Leaders and leadership are appear in different forms and settings. While leadership as a defined and uniformly agreed upon framework for governing the behaviors of others is not clear or definitive; a review of literature suggests leadership outcomes are influenced by leader behaviors that provide mentoring, promote relationship building and include professional development opportunities Comment by Seanan Kelly: A Thesis Statement: should be as clear and specific as possible and have a definable, arguable claim.  The thesis statement "telegraphs," what the reader can expect to read within the essay – in this case a discussion of three characteristics of leader behaviors that include mentoring, relationships and professional development – in that order (the order of the discussion points in the body of the paper, appear in the same order in the thesis statement).

3. (Summary of Document): The following presents a discussion of characteristics of leader behaviors that influence leadership outcomes. A discussion of characteristics common across a review of literature is included. The presentation concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for practice.

II. Themes Emerging from a Review of Literature Comment by Seanan Kelly: The themes below are examples For the outline and paper – you must identify your own themes.

· (Section Summary): The following section presents a discussion of characteristics emerging from a review of literature. Included is a discussion of the following themes: Leadership and Performance, Leadership Environment, and Leadership Relationships.

· For instance:

A. THEME 1 Leadership and Performance: 

1. What is the role of leadership and performance in leadership behaviors?

2. What is the influence of leadership and performance on leadership outcomes?

B. THEME 2 Leadership Environment: 

1. What is the role of leadership environment in leadership behaviors?

2. What is the influence of leadership environment on leadership outcomes?

B. THEME 3 Leadership Relationships:

1. What is the role of leadership relationships in leadership behaviors?

2. What is the influence of leadership relationships on leadership outcomes?

III. CONCLUSION

· Summary of the Presentation: The previous discussion examined characteristics of leader behaviors that influence leadership outcomes. A summary of key points follows and concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for practice.

· Revisit the key points from the discussion of the three themes.

· Recommendations for future research. 

· Discussion or Implications for Practice

Limitations, Recommendations for Future Research and Discussion/Implications Comment by Seanan Kelly: This will be a section of our writing we will continue to focus on and develop with increasing frequency as we move forward. Generally speaking, Limitations, Recommendations for Future Research and a Discussion/Implications section all support one another. These sections together begin and expand upon the “what do we do with all this information!? What does it mean in practical terms” – component of our analysis and discussion portion of academic writing. This also tends (in my opinion) to be the more creative aspect of academic writing as we have the opportunity to present our orientation to the information, supported as always, through a return to the literature, use of data points, data sets (government reports) and even contemporary event summaries. We return to a review of literature identify evidence in support our observations/recommendations/implications for policy development, program development and gaps in the literature that arise from the research results. What data/research is out there illustrating the importance of addressing these considerations across contexts? That’s the fun of academic writing – the labor tends to come on the front end, the enjoyment thereafter. We go through a process of constructing rigid research parameters, report the process and results, then get to discuss “what it all means potentially!”

** We can expand points from our discussion of themes here in two ways:

1. Recommendations for future research: how do these recommendations advance an understanding of leadership behavior out of which this discussion comes?

2. Discussion: How do the research conclusions or discussion points WE’VE IDENTIFIED in our analysis, potentially change the way in which leadership behaviors attend to organizational outcomes and help followers advance their sense of who they are as members of an organizational collective?

3. Discussion: How do the research conclusions or discussion points WE’VE IDENTIFIED in our analysis, perhaps texture how organizations are constructed and lead in an increasingly digital age with a transitioning workforce across generational demographics?