Leading with Support: The Role of Social Support for Positive and Negative Events in Leader Development

Abstract

In this chapter, I focus on the unique role social support plays in leader development (a focus on the individual rather than the dyadic or organizational effects of support). I examine various ways in which different types of support (both support that is focused on helping us through negative events as well as support that helps us celebrate and feel good about our positive events) and different support roles of leaders (both as support provider and as support recipient) may help develop leaders. First, I briefly review past work on leader development, highlighting three primary areas of interest in this field (self-awareness and identity formation, motivation and willingness to change and develop, and development of competence and key leader skills), as well as current tools that are employed to assist with leader development. Next, I make a case for why social support may contribute to leader growth in these areas, specifically through its ability to promote acceptance, provide affirmation, and bring in outside perspectives. I then dig into past work into various conceptualizations of both received support and support provision in both positive and negative event contexts to more deeply explore the ways in which these processes may contribute to leader development. Finally, I consider how early developmental models of relationships shape social support, how to respond to failure given our understanding of support, and how support needs may change over the career of a leader. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)