You may want to check out some research papers that used such variables. Choose a number of peer-reviewed research papers related to the subject from Google Scholar or similar credible websites, not from any non-credible source such as Google, etc. Check the measurement tools the researchers used in their studies. You may use SPSS as your measurement tool.
Avolio and Bass (1991) introduced the Full Range Leadership Model to shine light on the ability and behavior of leaders in different work situations. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire generates a psychological inventory from propositions that aim to assess leadership styles and leadership outcomes: it is a multi-rater (or 360-degree) instrument, which means that its output—the MLQ 360 Leader's Report—interprets and compares a leader's self-assessment with ratings contributed across the same items by associates. The article and presentation hyperlinked below reflect on a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire exercise conducted in May 2020.
Article The Full Range Leadership Model: Essentials and Practicum
Presentation Reflections on a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 360 Le...
Reference
Avolio, B, & Bass, B. (1991). The full range of leadership development: Basic and advanced manuals. Binghamton, NY: Bass, Avolio, & Associates.
Hi, Thank you for your question. In my opinion, you should mainly focus on business results. However it is very important to look at employee satisfaction, and enthusiasm to work on projects or the company in general. Also pay attention if new goals and innovations that were successfully adopted in this company, how it was done, and what was the outcome.
In my opinion, the positive results are a consequence of an excellent climate in the organization. The climate is built by the leaders (not necessarily the formal bosses). So I recommend evaluating the climate of the organization, along with the expected results. In this way, we will have an indirect evaluation of leadership.
on things such as (i) the type of leaders you are concerned with (C-suite? Project managers? Team leaders etc) (ii) The type of organisation in terms of size, industry and ownership (iii) the purpose and depth of your research (project, assignment, dissertation?)
Criteria for evaluation
you need to establish what criteria you will use to assess 'Best'. For example in terms of (i) outcomes for the organisation - KPIs especially Financial ones (ii) Sustainability (iii) Diversity, Inclusion and Equity
You Approach to leadership
You may also consider the different approaches to Leadership (e.g. transformational or transactional; authentic and value based; distributed; situational etc) and whether a there is a best practice (one best way of leading) or a best fit approach (it depends on the context).
The instrument for measuring leadership effectiveness with 3 KPIs: Strategy, team and leader growth. Strategy. How effective are leaders at formulating shared goals and explaining them to the team? Equipment. Do leaders attract and retain the right people? How are leadership efforts perceived by the team? How are potential leaders identified? Increase. What are the gaps between actual leadership and that needed to meet current and future challenges? How can you improve a leader?
Thank you for this interesting topic of discussion.
This topic has been extremely important since a long time. Just a few weeks ago I was reading somewhere that performance of leaders can be measured by the numbers of people they have made self reliant. I like the idea very much and thought that this is a very good idea.