Leadership Characteristics of Extension Agents Facilitating a Healthy Communities, Civic-Engagement Randomized Trial in Rural Towns

Abstract

Leadership styles and skills are associated with group dynamics, creativity, and project implementation in community change initiatives; specifically, collaborative leadership skills can lead to a greater likelihood of effective, sustainable improvement in the health of communities. This study sought to examine the leadership styles and skills of Extension Agents engaged in leading a community policy, system, and environmental change initiative. Our aim was to describe how collaborative the leadership style of these leaders was and how high they scored in collaborative leadership skills. Data were collected among Extension Agents at baseline (n=7), prior to program training or implementation, focused on leadership style and collaborative leadership skills. A 16item leadership styles survey was used to assess Agents' scores for four leadership styles: 1) authoritative; 2) democratic; 3) facilitative; 4) situational. Collaborative leadership skills were measured using the Turning Point Collaborative Leadership Questionnaire, which evaluates key behaviors within the six skills of effective collaborative leaders: assessing the environment, creating clarity, building trust, sharing power and influence, developing people, and self-reflection. Agents were most often authoritative in their leadership style, although four out of seven Agents had two styles tied for highest score. Most Agents scored as excellent in assessing the environment (n=4), sharing power and influence (n=5), and developing people (n=5). The highest proportions were in the strong category for creating clarity (n=4), building trust (n=4), and self-reflection (n=4). While Agents demonstrated variety across the characteristics, there were consistencies both in leadership type and collaborative skills. Clinical Trial #: NCT05002660. ClinicalTrials.gov. Registered 4 August 2021.

Keywords: Extension; civic engagement; collaborative; leadership skills; leadership style.

Figure 1

Collaborative Leadership Skills Model for Actionable Change

Figure 2

Collaborative Leadership Skills Across Educators

Figure 3

Collaborative Leadership Skills For Each Educator