ABSTRACT

This project will be focusing on Leader-Member Exchange theory and how leaders can use this tool to gain trust and awareness of their team. The issue that lies in front of leaders today is the lack of trust and confidence in leaders by the team members. The generational gap and the lack of empathy from people in leadership positions places leaders and team members at odds with each other. This lack of trust and generational gap issue are not only supported by outside sources but from personal experience. Seeing these issues arise and how Leadership can affect the group of people being lead, how to gain Leadership Capital with team members through the use of this theory. Leadership Capital is what is gained when you have these close relationships with your team members, this relationship currency is what you use to get team members to take on certain tasks. Also being explored is how Emotional Intelligence plays a part of effective Leader-Member Exchange. Emotional Intelligence or E.I. is the second important piece of the puzzle to gain the trust leaders look for within their team members. Using the combination these three techniques found through this research it will be clear how the use of these techniques can improve leaders work lives, improve the morale of the team being lead and increase productivity as a whole.