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Leading Small Groups: Theoretical Perspectives 175

mixed-sex groups revealed that task-relevant communication explained who emerged
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as leader. Furthermore, she found no significant differences in the amount of
task-relevant remarks contributed by men and women.
Sex, gender, and leader emergence are difficult processes to unravel. Time and
again, research provides evidence that men and women lead equally well, and group
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members are equally satisfied with both male and female leaders. In several studies,
females consistently score higher on multiple leadership skills. For instance, Zenger
and Folkman’s Harvard Business Review surveyed over 7,000 leaders across divergent
types of businesses; peers and bosses ranked females higher than males on 12 of 16
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central leadership competencies. Two of those competencies are traditionally mas-
culine: taking the initiative and pushing for the results. Other competencies are typi-
cally considered feminine: teamwork, building relationships, and being inspirational.
So what is the issue? Gender bias against female leaders still persists. And when
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women do find themselves in leadership positions, they often are penalized with neg-
ative reactions to behaviors seen as masculine (e.g., assertiveness), and if they act in a
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traditional feminine manner (e.g., caring), they are considered poor leaders. In addi-
tion, female leaders find themselves scrutinized more than their male counterparts,
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especially in leadership roles traditionally occupied by males. Facebook’s chief oper-
ating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, began her “Ban Bossy” campaign to push back against
the tendency to characterize females, even young girls, as “bossy” when they engage
in leadership behaviors. Females of color face even greater challenges as emerging
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leaders. We headed into 2017 with no black female Fortune 500 CEOs after Ursula
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Burns stepped down as CEO of Xerox and Rosalind Brewer left Sam’s Club. The
situation is worse for Hispanic and Asian American women. 27
Efforts such as Sandberg’s LeanIn.org provide women with the resources to
improve gender inequity in leadership. In small group task groups, some research
does show that if members hold off appointing a leader right away and get to know
each other and their strengths, females are just as likely as males to emerge as lead-
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ers. Further, as Hawkins pointed out earlier, task-oriented females are just as likely
to emerge as leaders as males. Emergent leaders who focus on the task strongly influ-
ence how other members perceive their ability to get the job done. Their actions help
the group make sense of information, set their expectations for success, and shape
how the group sees their capabilities. 29
The importance of task-focused communication is confirmed by De Souza and
Klein, who found that members’ individual abilities to contribute to the task and their
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commitment to the group goal were associated with their emergence as leaders.
They also discovered that groups with emerged leaders outperformed those without
them. This latter finding is supported by Kurth, who found that group members them-
selves considered groups with emerged leaders more successful. 31
What can we learn from this discussion of leadership emergence? First, even if a
group has a designated leader, one or more group members can also emerge as lead-
ers. Emergent leaders appear to lead primarily through referent, expert, and reward
power. Without a title or a legitimate base of power, they rely on communication skills
to lead and, by definition, have the support of other group members. In fact, while
this may appear obvious, research has shown that members who see themselves as
leaders tend to act in leader-like ways, reinforcing the likelihood others will see them

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