Featuring insights from Blake McMillan, co-creator of 5R, an award-winning leadership programme developed by researchers at the University of Queensland’s (UQ) Social Identity and Groups Network (SIGN) that helps leaders to create, represent, advance and embed a sense of shared social identity in the groups they lead.
Based on two decades of research, the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) is a rigorously validated tool designed to measure how effectively leaders engage in identity leadership — an approach focused on CARE: Creating, Advancing, Representing, and Embedding a shared sense of “us” and “we” in teams. Developed by Steffens and colleagues (2014), the ILI captures four essential dimensions of identity leadership:
- Creating ‘us’ – Identity Entrepreneurship – Leaders who unite diverse team members by fostering a sense of shared identity, clarifying core values, and aligning the group around common goals. This dimension enhances understanding, cohesion, and inclusivity within the team.
- Advancing ‘us’ – Identity Advancement – Leaders who advocate for the group’s interests over personal ones, championing collective goals and defending the group from external threats. This approach boosts group morale, promotes security, and encourages commitment.
- Representing ‘us’ – Identity Prototypicality – Leaders who embody the values and distinctive identity of the group, serving as role models for “what it means to be one of us.” This representation fosters trust, enhances group cohesion, and builds a positive group self-image.
- Embedding ‘us’ – Identity Impresarioship- Leaders who create meaningful activities, structures, and symbols that reinforce the group’s identity, making it visible and tangible within and beyond the organisation. This dimension validates the group’s existence, increases pride, and solidifies group cohesion.
These dimensions provide a comprehensive framework for understanding how leaders can create a cohesive and resilient team identity that drives engagement, trust, and collective success.
Why is the ILI of Interest?
The ILI is invaluable for leaders and organizations aiming to strengthen team cohesion, trust, and performance. Research has shown that effective identity leadership significantly enhances team identification, job satisfaction, work engagement, and innovation (Steffens et al., 2014; van Dick et al., 2018). By assessing leaders’ strengths and areas for growth in identity leadership, the ILI offers a pathway to becoming more inclusive, resilient, and effective leaders who can inspire shared commitment and purpose within their teams.
How Can I Improve My Skills After Taking the ILI? Researchers at the University of Queensland designed the research-led 5R Leadership Development Programme which is the leading program for building identity leadership abilities as assessed by the ILI. It is recognised as best practice for developing identity leadership from both the leader and team member perspectives. The 5R Programme takes leaders through five structured stages:
1. Readying – Why does ‘we’ matter? Understanding the value of groups for leadership and ways to harness this.
2. Reflecting – Who are we? Using social identity mapping to identify team members’ important group memberships as a basis for connection and growth.
3. Representing – What are we about and what do we want to be? Clarifying identity content through values, norms, and aspirations.
4. Realising – How do we become what we want to be? Developing strategies to align different identities and to embed activities as aspects of group identity.
5. Readying – How can we be better? Examining group history to ensure that ongoing identity leadership supports health, performance, and resilience.
The 5R Programme includes practical activities and reflection exercises that allow leaders to enhance their identity leadership in real-world contexts. Below are reflection questions aligned with each CARE dimension to guide leaders in deepening their skills:
Creating ‘us’ (Identity Entrepreneurship)
- How am I actively fostering a unified and inclusive environment?
- Are the group’s core values, norms, and ideals clearly communicated and understood?
- How can I better recognise and celebrate diverse contributions within my team?
Advancing ‘us’ (Identity Advancement)
- How have I recently championed our group’s core interests?
- In what ways have I helped the team navigate key obstacles?
- How might I do a better job of prioritising and advancing shared goals?
Representing ‘us’ (Identity Prototypicality)
- Do my actions and decisions reflect our group’s core values?
- How have I demonstrated what makes our group unique?
- In what ways can I exemplify our group’s ideals in my leadership?
Embedding ‘us’ (Identity Impresarioship)
- What structures and events am I creating to reinforce our group’s identity?
- Are there tangible resources or tools that help us live out our identity?
- How can I increase our group’s visibility both internally and externally?
What’s the Latest Research in This Area? The Global Identity Leadership Development (GILD) project, led by Rolf van Dick and colleagues, expanded ILI research to a global scale, involving over 50 researchers from more than 25 countries. The GILD project translated the ILI into 15 languages and compared its predictive power to other established leadership measures. With over 5,000 participants, the results consistently supported the ILI’s validity across various cultures and contexts (van Dick et al., 2018). Notably, the GILD project confirmed that identity leadership, as measured by the ILI, reliably predicts organisational citizenship, team identification, job satisfaction, trust, and innovation beyond other leadership models like transformational leadership, leader–member exchange, and authentic leadership.
Further research has shown that identity leadership, as assessed by the ILI, positively influences creativity and innovation within teams (Bracht et al., 2023) and supports mental health and well-being (van Dick et al., 2021; Steffens et al., 2018). Importantly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, identity leadership was instrumental in promoting resilience and adherence to health policies, underscoring its role in guiding teams through crises (Frenzel et al., 2022). This body of work has even informed public health policies globally, emphasizing the practical impact of identity leadership (Haslam et al., 2021; Van Bavel et al., 2020).
About the Scale Authors
Dr. Nik Steffens, Professor Alex Haslam, and Professor Stephen Reicher are leading experts in social and organizational psychology. Their research focuses on group dynamics, leadership, and the role of social identity in fostering effective, fair, and motivated organizations.
Dr. Nik Steffens, an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, investigates psychological factors that enhance organizational health and leadership development. His work, recognized internationally, employs innovative research methods to advance the field.
Professor Alex Haslam AM, a Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland, has made significant contributions to understanding group and identity processes in social, organizational, and health contexts. His prolific work has earned accolades across multiple branches of psychology.
Professor Stephen Reicher, the Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Social Psychology at the University of St Andrews, is renowned for his work on social identity, intergroup conflict, and leadership. As a co-investigator in the influential BBC Prison Study, he continues to shape the discourse on collective behaviour.
Together, their work underpins the critical importance of social identity in leadership and organizational dynamics, aligning seamlessly with the goals of leadership development in education and beyond.
References
· Bracht, E., Monzani, L., Boer, D., Haslam, S. A., Kerschreiter, R., Lemoine, J. E., … & van Dick, R. (2023). Innovation across cultures: Connecting leadership, identification, and innovative behavior. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 72, 348-388.
· Frenzel, S. B., Haslam, S. A., Junker, N. M., Bolatov, A., Erkens, V. A., Häusser, J. A., … & Van Dick, R. (2022). How national leaders keep ‘us’ safe: A longitudinal, four-nation study exploring the role of identity leadership as a predictor of adherence to COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions. BMJ Open, 12, e054980.
· Haslam, S. A., Steffens, N. K., Reicher, S. D., & Bentley, S. V. (2021). Identity leadership in a crisis: A 5R framework for learning from responses to COVID-19. Social Issues and Policy Review, 15, 35-83.
· Steffens, N. K., Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., Platow, M. J., Fransen, K., Yang, J., Ryan, M. K., Jetten, J., Peters, K., & Boen, F. (2014). Leadership as social identity management: Introducing the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) to assess and validate a four-dimensional model. The Leadership Quarterly, 25, 1001-1024.
· Steffens, N. K., Yang, J., Jetten, J., Haslam, S. A., & Lipponen, J. (2018). The unfolding impact of leader identity entrepreneurship on burnout, work engagement, and turnover intentions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 23, 373-387.
· Van Bavel, J. J., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., … & Willer, R. (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 460-471.
· van Dick, R., Codes, B. L., Lemoine, J. E., Steffens, N. K., Haslam, S. A., Akfirat, S. A., … & Kerschreiter, R. (2021). Identity leadership, employee burnout and the mediating role of team identification: Evidence from the Global Identity Leadership Development project. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18.
· van Dick, R., Lemoine, J. E., Steffens, N. K., Kerschreiter, R., Akfirat, S. A., Avanzi, L. …, & Haslam, S. A.(2018). Identity Leadership going global: Validation of the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI) across 20 countries. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 91, 697-728.
