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:
-
- Optimism
- Resiliency
- Self-efficacy
- Flexibility
That ain’t too bad to begin with! But the teams also reported:
-
- 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
More Quick Hits
Coffee Makes Business Teams More Effective
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences just couldn’t resist reviewing this piece of research, from a few years ago, after I stumbled across this (likely because some background algorithm had recommended it to me based...
Caffeine Makes You More Prone to Impulsive Buying
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences fascinating piece of research just published shows that drinking coffee makes you more impulsive. That means you are likely to buy more, and more items you actually don’t need....
Healthy Brains Are Hotter Than You Think
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences hen we get sick we get a fever and we all know what our body temperature should be: around 37°C. Too much above that and we have a fever, and too much below and we risk...
Unpredictable Parents Disrupt Brain Circuitry in Children
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences ntuitively we all know that good parenting is essential to kids’ healthy development. We all agree on that. But as soon as we try to define what good parenting is we then enter into...
A New Study on Inter-Brain Synchronisation
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences n case you didn’t know it brain synchronisation (or inter-brain synchronisation) is a thing. And a pretty cool thing. This happens when two, or more, people do similar things...
Unique Social Genes in Human Beings
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences ne differentiating factor with human beings is our pro-sociality. This means we are a social species, and this sociality is seen in our ability to empathise, be socially tolerant,...