Running head: THEORY AND CHANGE

Theory and Change

Allison Davis
Loyola University Chicago

THEORY AND CHANGE

Leadership is a personal idea for many. Because it engages with our values and how we
treat others, we want to help our communities be successful in ways that are affirming (Dugan,
2016, Ch. 2). Through looking at two leadership theories, emotionally intelligent leadership and
adaptive leadership, I will make suggestions on ways to proceed in a case study from
Northeasternish University. These theories were chosen based on my past experiences and
perspectives. I will begin by synthesizing the two leadership theories, deconstructing their
ideologies, and then reconstructing them. I will conclude by making suggestions about how best
to move forward in the Multicultural Student Affairs case study at Northeasternish University
based on the two leadership theories I have summarized.
Leadership Theories
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
Being an emotionally intelligent leader sounds quite alluring. According to Shankman,
Allen, and Haber Curran (2015), emotionally intelligent leadership is providing individuals with
the knowledge, skills, perspectives, and attitudes to achieve desired leadership outcomes
(Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4). Emotionally intelligent leadership has three key facets and 19 capacities
that interact dynamically in order for people to categorize themselves as emotionally intelligent
leaders (as cited in Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4).
Each of the 19 capacities is organized under one of the three key facets. The first facet of
emotionally intelligent leadership is consciousness of self (Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4). Consciousness
of self involves being self-aware of ones abilities, emotions, and perceptions. Being self-aware
means moderating emotions (emotional self-perception), being open to change (flexibility),
taking action (initiative), and striving for excellence (achievement), among others. The second
key-factor is consciousness of others. Consciousness of others means working with others to

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meet shared goals (building teams), identifying and resolving conflict (managing conflict), being
emotionally in tune with others (displaying empathy), and energizing individuals and groups
(inspiring others), among other capacities. The final key factor is consciousness of context. This
key factor includes interpreting group dynamics (analyzing the group) and interpreting external
forces and trends (assessing the environment; Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4).
Each of these facets and the capacities that constitute them are designed to interact
dynamically. There is no particular order in the way they should be approached for emotionally
intelligent leadership to be effective. As people act out these capacities, there is a positive
impact on those with which they work.
Adaptive Leadership
Adaptive leadership is focused on how people change and adjust to new situations.
Adaptive leadership is concerned with the behavior of leaders, rather than their traits. As Heifetz
(1994) mentioned, Adaptive leaders engage in activities that mobilize, organize, orient, and
focus the attention of others (Northhouse, 2016, p.258).
Adaptive leaders are characterized by six leader behaviors. The first leader behavior is
called Get on the Balcony (Northouse, 2016, p. 263). Getting on the balcony means stepping
out into confusion and tension and finding perspective in a challenging situation. This leader
behavior is considered a prerequisite for the leader behaviors that follow (Northouse, 2016).
The second leader behavior that plays a pivotal role in adaptive leadership is being able
to identify adaptive challenges. Leaders must identify and address challenges they observe in a
given situation before deciding their next steps. Treating challenges with the wrong kind of
leadership or making decisions about how to proceed before really pinpointing the problem is
considered a maladaptive practice (Northouse, 2016).

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Regulating distress and maintaining disciplined attention are the third and fourth
behaviors of adaptive leadership. Being an adaptive leader means preparing those one works
with to be flexible and open to change. Leaders using this theory to interact with their peers
need to monitor the stress people are feeling and encourage them to be open to change without
being overwhelmed by it. Regulating distress also means creating and maintaining an
environment where people feel safe and brave facing tough problems. The final part of this
leader behavior is regulating personal distress. When leaders regulate their own stress, they can
become fully available to those who look to them (Northouse, 2016). The fourth leader behavior
is maintaining disciplined attention. This action allows leaders to encourage those they work
with to focus on the work that needs to be done, even when their peers resist confronting the
change (Northouse, 2016).
A fifth behavior of adaptive leadership is giving the work back to the people. Workers
want guidance and direction from those to which they look, but too much of it can seem like
micromanaging and can actually inhibit others from doing adaptive work (Northouse, 2016). It
is important for leaders to encourage and support their peers without implying that the leader
does not trust their peers to do the work.
The sixth and final leadership behavior that Northouse (2016) points out as important in
adaptive leadership is protecting leadership voices from below. Doing so means being open and
welcoming to hearing voices from those in the organization who are systematically marginalized
or on the fringe, or even those who are considered deviant (Northouse, 2016, p. 271). It is
very important that leaders create a space where everyone is on equal footing and feels that their
involvement is wanted (Northouse, 2016).

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Critical Perspectives
Theories are just one lens through which we can understand those around us and a foundation
upon which to build. Consequently, theories are not always all-encompassing. It is necessary to
think critically about the theories that have been formulated in our field and how best to utilize
them student affairs and higher education.
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
While I appreciate the theory and the examples that Northouse (2016) provides, the
capacities of emotionally intelligent leadership read like a recipe. It seems that when one is able
to act out each of the capacities, then that person is a successful leader. The theory itself is quite
prescriptive, telling readers all the things they need to do to become effective leaders, but not
providing any real-world examples of how those things look in reality. Leadership looks
different in a variety of spaces, so for a theory to read like a checklist can be misleading.
Another potentially problematic area is the capacities themselves. The theory pays little
attention to the social context in which its readers are placed (Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4). Capacities
like authenticity, initiative, capitalizing on difference, and facilitating change are easier for those
with agent identities than those with target identities. For Black women, for example, taking
initiative requires a certain amount of risk; people might see women of color as bitches or
emasculating.
In the same vein, authenticity might be difficult for a transgender person in a work
setting. Being authentic in a work setting comes with tremendous risk for them, especially since
it is still legal in many states for transgender folks to be fired. Being authentic is also a
subjective idea. People have multiple authentic selves depending on their environment, but does
that mean they are not being transparent or trustworthy? Multiple authentic selves do not mean a

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person is being deceitful; rather, they are performing in spaces in the way that is the most safe
for them.
Capitalizing on difference is a capacity reserved for those with agency and power. If a
person with a target identity attempted to capitalize on difference, it is a possibility that those
with systematic privilege would accuse that person of playing a race card or the equivalent.
Additionally, capitalizing on difference makes this capacity appear like a transaction, whereby
doing so, the leader or organization gets some type of award. Rather than focusing on building
relationships across difference, capitalizing on difference becomes about what people can gain
from attempting to approach problems through multiple perspectives.
In addition to its limitations, there are strengths to consider when examining emotionally
intelligent leadership. One of the ways in which emotionally intelligent leadership is helpful,
according to Shankman et al. (2015), is that the capacities that comprise it have no order in their
development (Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4). In other words, the capacities are not steps to a ladder,
where one can only reach the end goal by climbing up each step. Instead, the capacities differ
between contexts, where one capacity is needed more than another in a certain situation or
environment (Dugan, 2016, Ch. 4). This makes leaders who utilize this style able to use the
environmental dynamics of a situation before making a decision about how best to proceed.
Like Dugan (2016, Ch. 4) stated, another strength of emotionally intelligent leadership is
that it not only allows, but encourages, leaders to use their past experiences and perspectives to
alter the theory to best fit them and their environments. Because of this design, leaders are able
to incorporate their stocks of knowledge (Dugan, 2016, Ch. 2) into their work in a way that is
beneficial.

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I also think there is a lot of love that comes with emotionally intelligent leadership.
Boggs and Kurashige (2012) said that we urgently need to bring to our communities the
limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other (p. 47). Through
emotionally intelligent leadership, in being conscious of ourselves and of others, we can begin to
truly love the communities that we serve and with which we work. Having empathy for others,
and acting on it, is a form of love, and loving ourselves enough to recognize our strengths and
limitations is a type of self-care.
Adaptive Leadership
Much like emotionally intelligent leadership, adaptive leadership also reads like a
checklist. Even though it is described as a process, adaptive leaderships leader behaviors
(Northouse, 2016) appear to be a recipe for readers to follow in order to reach some ultimate
goal. This makes being an adaptive leader look much easier and appear more attainable than
what it actually may be.
In addition, adaptive leadership theory, according to Northouse (2016), was formulated to
address three types of challenges: technical challenges, technical and adaptive challenges, and
adaptive challenges. Technical challenges are problems in a community that are clearly defined
with known solutions that can be implemented through existing organizational rules and
procedures (Northouse, 2016, p. 261). In these types of challenges, members of the community
look to their leaders for the answers. Technical and adaptive challenges are ones that have both a
technical and an adaptive dimension. With this type of challenge, the leader can give direction,
but those to whom the leader look are the ones who need to learn to change and adapt. In
adaptive leadership theory, the leader behaviors are designed to only help leaders solve one of
these three types of problems.

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While these three categories may cover many of the problems that may arise in
communities and organizations, they are not broad enough to cover every challenge with which a
person might be faced. For example, according to Northouse (2016), the challenges highlighted
are more concerned with production, but how would an adaptive leader following the guidelines
in the theory react and address a problem in company values? They would be hard-pressed to
find the solution in the theory as it is written.
Furthermore, much like emotionally intelligent leadership theory, adaptive leadership
pays little attention to the social context in which its readers are situated. Regulating distress
(Northouse, 2016), for example, might be difficult for people who may have anxiety, or someone
who is facing personal challenges outside of work. Those two things do not have any bearing on
whether someone has the capacity to be an effective leader.
Protecting leadership voices from below (Northouse, 2016), for a different example, is
also much more difficult for people who have oppressed identities. Those with targeted identities
hold less influential power in leadership positions, in companies especially, and face challenges
when trying to hear from those at the bottom of the ladder. To build from that idea, those with
targeted identities who have been able to reach the top might have to behave in certain ways or
carry out the wishes of those above them (like hiring processes) in ways that might be
detrimental to those in their community. Doing so will ensure that they remain employed at their
current position, and might enable them to build a more solid reputation in order to make
changes further down the line.
Just as Northouse (2016) suggests, adaptive leadership is one of the few theories that take
a process approach, emphasizing that leadership is not trait-based or focused on characteristics,
but is more about actions and behaviors. In addition, this process-oriented approach highlights

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that leaders and followers mutually affect each other, making leadership an interactive activity
(Northouse, 2016, p. 275). Because of this, leadership is seen as a partnership, and not an act that
relies on formal, authoritarian approaches.
A second strength of adaptive leadership is found in its title: adaptive. Adaptive
leadership is all about learning to successfully engage with inconsistency and various challenges
without letting them overwhelm either the leaders or those with whom they work. This is
particularly useful in the field of higher education, where student populations change by the
semester and where the needs of the study body change just as quickly.
The language of the leader behaviors in adaptive leadership are also very technical.
Maintaining disciplined attention (Northouse, 2016, p. 269), for example, is very
unapproachable terminology for a concept that may not be as complicated as its language
suggests. By dissecting what each of the leader behaviors mean and placing them into the context
of ones own experiences, those terms can become realistic tools. Maintaining disciplined
attention (Northouse, 2016, p. 269) becomes encouraging and helping people become resilient
in tough work.
Joining Forces
The best way to act out adaptive leadership and emotionally intelligent leadership is to
use them alongside one another. Where the capacities of emotionally intelligent leadership ask
readers to vary their use depending on context, it is adaptive leadership that will enable leaders to
do just that. With the skills of adaptive and emotionally intelligent leadership, leaders will be
able to step away from a situation to determine what needs exist and how best to move forward.
Adaptive practices, like getting on the balcony, will help emotionally intelligent leaders
to understand the dynamics of their community, as well as step into fray of a tough situation in

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order to be empathetic to those with whom they work. Being able to respond to change and
encourage others to meet change with a positive attitude, in addition to giving them the skills
they need to become adaptive themselves, is only possible if leaders are emotionally intelligent
and are conscious of others.
Case Study: Northeasternish University
There are infrastructure problems in Northeasternishs new centralized Multicultural
Student Affairs office. While new director Raymonds intentions are well and good, his ideas of
centralization are in direct opposition to the vice-presidents wishes that the education of underrepresented students is a job of every unit on campus. In addition, it also appears that Raymond
is not paying attention to those with whom he works, isolating the work of Multicultural Student
Affairs by not attending meetings about collaboration and asking his staff to compromise student
learning.
Dugan (2016) notes that while emotionally intelligent leadership was intentionally
designed for use with working with college students, that it is transferable to other populations,
as well. This type of leadership would be very useful for Raymond as he interacts with his team
and others across the university. Being conscious of others and conscious of context in this
situation would enable Raymond to see and appropriately respond to the members of his team in
a way that both encourages and pushes them. Understanding their emotions when it comes to
their new office set-up and the changes that have been made would make Raymond empathetic
to their anxieties.
Adaptive leadership would also be quite useful to Raymond to display in his new office.
Adaptive leadership is all about how leaders encourage others to adapt to new challenges and
situations. This office restructure is very new to many of the team and can be frustrating for

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them. Change is not an easy thing to process. If Raymond were to get on the balcony
(Northouse, 2016, p. 263), he would be better able to see the challenges currently facing his team
in the new change and help them develop the skills to not be overwhelmed by it. This approach
would be useful for Raymond personally, as well, because it would enable him to see that his
initial ideas for the new office are not working as expected, and would encourage him to try a
different path.
Because Raymond was an internal hire, his ideas about success for the new unit could
come from past experiences at the university; he might be assuming that because a certain
strategy worked for one area that it will work for another. By being an adaptive leader,
Raymond will be able to understand that his strategic plan was not working for the office or the
students and be able to critically think about the way he can help to improve it; this is a form of
getting on the balcony (Northouse, 2016, p. 263). Doing so would also be an effective way to
showcase what being an adaptive leader can look like to the rest of his team.
By utilizing these two theories in his work, Raymond would be better able to collaborate
with others and understand their perspectives. Raymond appeared to be very passionate about
his work in the new Multicultural Student Affairs division and passionate about his students, but
that passion was concealed by his inability to be conscious of others and context. His ambition,
in this particular case, clouded his ability to be conscious of the context of his new team and the
support they needed in this new circumstance.

Conclusion
Both adaptive leadership and emotionally intelligent leadership are styles that are very
important and useful in the field of higher education and student affairs. Practicing the two

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theories together will be particularly helpful for Director Raymond at Northeasternish

University. By looking at theory critically, readers are able to discover new lenses through which
to understand those with whom they work, and personalize those lenses to fit their needs.

References:

Boggs, G. L., & Kurashige, S. (2012). The next American revolution: Sustainable activism for
the twenty-first century. University of California Press.
Dugan, J.P. (2016). Chapter 2.
Dugan, J.P. (2016). Chapter 4.
Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.