Shades of grey in implicit effective leadership: Searching for clarity in the midst of paradox

In this paper, we extend research on implicit leadership theories by exploring and clarifying the content and structure of effective leader prototypes. We invited 78 Chinese and 50 American business practitioners to describe effective and ineffective leaders. Drawing on grounded theory approaches, we coded 671 statements of participants and found 41 leader attributes. After grouping these attributes into eight themes, we found that the structure and content of effective and ineffective leader prototypes indicate a departure from existing implicit leadership theories. In particular, we discovered a paradoxical theme regarding leader power, whereby this attribute could be simultaneously viewed as both effective and ineffective. This finding also emerged in a follow-up qualitative study that used archival data to explore the attributes of four exemplar powerful business leaders in the United States and China. Our studies probe the differences between effective leaders and typical leaders in implicit leadership theories and evoke scholars' attention to the paradoxical evaluation of power in effective leaders. We discuss the implications for future research and managerial practice stemming from the ambiguity surrounding certain aspects of leadership effectiveness.