Looking through the lens of leadership: a constructive developmental approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between leadership development level (LDL) and leadership effectiveness utilizing 360‐degree feedback scores. Researchers examine raters' ability to recognize effective leadership practices using a constructive developmental framework. Design/methodology/approach – This approach is quantitative and involved data gathered from subject‐object CD interviews and 360‐degree feedback scores collected from individuals enrolled in an executive leadership development program. Findings – The analysis revealed that LDL predicted leadership effectiveness using the 360‐degree feedback measure across a number of sources including superiors, subordinates, and peers. In addition, researchers reveal that individuals that lead from higher levels are more effective in a number of leadership competencies (e.g. Leading Change, Managing Performance, Creating a Compelling Vision, etc.). Finally, the research demonstrates that superiors and peers can predict leader effectiveness better than subordinates or oneself. Research limitations/implications – Implications for integrating constructive developmental theory in both the research and practice of leader selection and development is discussed. Originality/value – This study is one of the first studies to empirically demonstrate the link between leadership development level and leadership effectiveness using the constructive developmental framework.