Designing effective leadership interventions: a case study of vocational education and training

The paper reports on research into effective leadership interventions. The findings and conclusions are derived from 12 diverse vocational education and training (VET) sites around Australia. Data are from 44 written survey and interview responses and five focus groups yielding a total of 64 respondents. The main finding is a four‐stage cycle of effective leadership interventions and is demonstrated through a case of enabling leadership. The study incorporates context‐dependent profiles of different leaders’ attributes at each of the four stages of the leadership intervention cycle. The research generates new theory and knowledge in an area of leadership research. That is, it is found that the traits and attributes of individual leaders are necessary but not sufficient to explain how to achieve effective and enabling leadership.