How social networks can make a manager into a leader

Although you may be a manager and have authority over others, you may not yet feel like a leader. How does one become a leader in the eyes of their employees? A recent article entitled “When managers become leaders: The role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers’ perception of leadership” in The Leadership Quarterly examined the role of social networks in perceptions of managers as leaders.

Chiu and colleagues (2016) found that employees view their managers as leaders when they are seen as competent and supportive. The researchers found that when a manager has a large positive social network, employees are more likely to come to him or her for task-related support. This affords managers the opportunity to demonstrate competence.

In addition to having a large positive social network, managers should aim to eliminate negative social networks. Managers with negative social ties tend to be more ostracized. They also don’t have as many opportunities to demonstrate their leadership qualities, such as their competence and supportiveness.

Power is also a large determinant of whether managers will be perceived as leaders. Managers and leaders differ by the type of power they have. Managers have power given to them by their companies. They have reward power (i.e., ability to reward others), legitimate power (i.e., ability to gain compliance), and coercive power (i.e., ability to punish noncompliance). However, leaders have an informal type of power given to them by their followers. They have expert power (i.e., being seen as competent) and referent power (i.e., being seen as likeable).

In sum, managers who would like to be perceived as leaders should really consider all of these things. They should aim to foster positive social networks so that they can be viewed as competent and supportive. In addition, they should seek to acquire expert and referent power from their followers.