Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
A paper just out has looked again at leadership style and impacts on employee engagement and also various team effectiveness measures.
Greta Mazzetti of the University of Bologna, Italy, and Wilmar Schaufeli of Utrecht University in the Netherlands have just published an analysis of this. Specifically, they were looking at what is called an engaged leadership style which is classed as a style in which leaders fulfil employees’ need for autonomy, feeling competent, and feeling cared. In short very much in line with our SCOAP model.
They surveyed 1048 employees across 90 teams in a Dutch organisation twice, 12 months apart.
What did they find?
They found that those who experienced engaging leadership had a boost in:
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- Optimism
- Resiliency
- Self-efficacy
- Flexibility
That ain’t too bad to begin with! But the teams also reported:
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- Higher team effectiveness
- A boost in team resources
- Better performance feedback performance feedback
- Higher trust in management
- Better communication
- Higher participation in decision-making
So, this is yet another study to show that positive and engaging leadership style has dramatic positive impacts on performance in business at multiple levels●

Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
Reference
Greta Mazzetti, Wilmar B. Schaufeli.
The impact of engaging leadership on employee engagement and team effectiveness: A longitudinal, multi-level study on the mediating role of personal- and team resources.
PLOS ONE, 2022; 17 (6): e0269433
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269433
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