RESEARCH REPORT

Developing Leadership by
Building Psychological Capital
By: Marian N. Ruderman and Cathleen Clerkin
Contents
Introduction 1

Building Psychological Capital 2

The Study: Psychological Capital in CCL’s

Leadership Development Program (LDP)® 4

Study Design 6

The Coherent Breathing Intervention: Inner BalanceTM 7

Study Results 8

Preliminary Interpretations and Advice for Leaders 12

Questions Remaining and Next Steps 13

References 14

Endnote 14

About the Authors 17

Introduction
Leadership development is essential to global In this report, we share scientific findings
competitiveness and corporate sustainability. from a recent CCL study examining
Organizations often frame the development conditions that cultivate psychological
of leadership in terms of “competencies,” or capital within CCL’s weeklong Leadership
the behavioral skills and areas of knowledge Development Program (LDP)®.
required by the business. However, focusing
We found that LDP had positive effects on
on competencies alone dismisses the key
psychological capital, and that self-regulation
role that psychological resources play in
techniques may boost psychological
leadership—especially in today’s fast-paced
resources.
and uncertain global leadership environment.
We also discuss what psychological capital
The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) is
is, why it’s an important leadership resource,
currently exploring how to better address the
and what leaders can do to boost their
challenges of today’s workplace by making
psychological capital and cultivate positive
the development of psychological resources
psychological resources.
such as resiliency and optimism an integral
part of leadership training.

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 1

Building Psychological Capital
Although all leadership journeys are different, one thing is universal—there will be roadblocks,
interruptions, and detours. Psychological resources provide the inner energy necessary to meet
the demands of a changing environment (Gorgievski & Hobfoll, 2008). CCL is exploring how to
expand a leader’s psychological resources and cultivate a positive mental and emotional state called
psychological capital.

Psychological capital is created from four key • Efficacy is the confidence to take on
internal qualities—hope, efficacy, resiliency, challenging tasks and to put in the effort
and optimism. Research shows these qualities necessary for success.
are multiplicative and synergistic; when people
• Resiliency is the ability to bounce back and go
have all four, the positive effects are greater
further when beset by problems or adversity.
than the sum of each individual effect (Luthans,
Youssef, & Avolio, 2006; Luthans, Avolio, Avey, • Hope is the ability to persevere and redirect
& Norman, 2007). Psychological capital allows paths toward goals in order to succeed—a
leaders to boost psychological strength in the combination of willpower and way power.
face of change and build the resiliency needed to
address difficulties effectively. • Optimism is making positive assessments of
the future.

2 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

Psychological capital has been shown to important for leaders who set the tone and
be an important variable when it comes act as a model for others. A leader’s ability
to workplace performance. It is associated to engage with a range of perspectives and
with lower employee absenteeism, less create a climate for change is essential
employee cynicism and intentions to quit, to a successful workplace. Moreover,
higher job satisfaction and commitment, psychological capital helps leaders respond
and increased positive interpersonal effectively to the pressure, chronic demands,
behaviors (Luthans et al., 2006). Employees and responsibilities of authority.
with higher psychological capital tend to be
Unlike psychological traits such as
better off emotionally than those with lesser
extraversion or cognitive aptitudes such
amounts. They also are in a better position
as intelligence, psychological capital is
to support their employees and colleagues,
a psychological state. Given the proper
which enhances interpersonal exchanges.
knowledge, training, and attention,
Psychological capital can help people leaders have the capacity to increase their
sort through complex challenges, create psychological capital and to draw on it when
new paradigms, and respond to changing faced with difficult demands.
conditions. This capacity is especially

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 3

The Study: Psychological Capital in CCL’s
Leadership Development Program (LDP)®
One of CCL’s latest research initiatives incorporates relevant findings from neuroscience to psychology.
The goal is to broaden the perspective of leadership development to include more holistic and innovative
approaches, while fortifying the emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal resources of leaders (Ruderman,
Clerkin, & Connolly, 2014).
The current study explores whether psychological capital can be boosted by formal leadership development
efforts, such as CCL’s Leadership Development Program (LDP)®. LDP is intended to help mid-to-senior-level
managers better deal with organizational complexity. The program also is designed to enhance leadership
performance through the development of self-awareness, learning agility, communication, and influence.
It also stresses the ability to think and act systematically, to be adaptable, and to persevere. A variety of
techniques are used to enhance a leader’s potential, such as coaching, peer support, exposure to new
information, reflection, assessment-for-development, and experiential activities.

RESEARCH QUESTION 1
Is participation in the leadership development program
associated with increases in psychological capital?

We believe LDP facilitates psychological capital development by giving leaders a chance to reflect on what
refuels their energy resources. They are able to recalibrate both the inner resources and behaviors required
to lead effectively. We also believe LDP addresses each of the four key internal qualities of psychological
capital:

• LDP builds efficacy by providing opportunities to • LDP gives hope by offering new leadership
learn new skills and practice them in a supportive behaviors and ways to grow as a leader. Research
environment. This is likely to build confidence and shows people feel hopeless when they are mired
belief in one’s ability to handle tough situations in in a rut and do not know how to fix negative
the workplace, which is critical to efficacy. situations. LDP offers tools leaders can use to get
out of ruts and address negative conditions in a
• LDP increases optimism by helping participants
proactive way.
imagine new possibilities through exposure to new
content and setting goals for positive changes— • LDP builds resilience by discussing the mind, body,
positivity about the future creates optimism. and spirit. Mental, physical, and social strategies of
resilience are explicitly discussed throughout the
weeklong course.

4 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

RESEARCH QUESTION 2
Does the practice of coherent breathing change psychological
capital levels over and above the regular LDP content?
The latest research in neuroscience suggests For leadership development purposes, we were
additional ways to increase psychological capital. For interested in a self-regulation intervention that
example, self-regulation techniques have been shown would be easy to learn, secular in nature, and provide
to generate psychological and physical well-being in a feedback on how well an individual is learning the
variety of groups. Self-regulation involves the ability technique. Even more importantly, we wanted a tool
to control impulses and direct one’s own behavior that had been shown to help people bounce back
through awareness of thoughts and emotions in the from challenging situations. We decided to focus
moment (McCraty, Atkinson, Lipsenthal, & Arguelles, on a technique called coherent breathing. Research
2009; McCraty & Zayas, 2014). shows coherent breathing is effective at increasing
positive outcomes; it improves health on a number
There are many tools to promote self-regulation:
of fronts (e.g. blood pressure and heart disease), as
coherent breathing, mindfulness meditation, body-
well as concentration. (See “Coherence and Coherent
scans, yoga, etc. Research in psychophysiology
Breathing” textbox on page 7 for more background
shows emotion regulation can enhance attention,
on coherent breathing.)
memory, and task performance (Bradley, McCraty,
Atkinson, Tomasino, Daugherty, & Arguelles, 2010). To determine whether coherent breathing could
These techniques build up the psychological reserves build psychological capital in leaders above and
needed to respond to stressful situations that leaders beyond our standard LDP, we added an experimental
are likely to encounter. coherent breathing session to the LDP experience
and compared the psychological capital accumulated
across LDP experiences.

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 5

 Study Design
We used two intervention groups. One group received the
standard LDP, while the other received LDP with instruction
on coherent breathing. A third group acted as a control and
received no LDP training at all. All study participants took an
assessment of psychological capital (Luthans, Avolio & Avey,
2007) on day one and again five days later.

Study Participants and Procedure

• Group 1: Standard LDP. Participants completed practice time in class and were encouraged to use
a standard five-day LDP program without any the technique on their own as well. Participants
alteration. They filled out a psychological capital were aware CCL was testing the efficacy of
assessment on day one and again on day five. coherent breathing for leadership development.
They filled out a psychological capital assessment
• Group 2: Coherent Breathing LDP. Participants
on day one and again on day five.
completed LDP programming and also received
instruction in coherent breathing. A 50-minute • Group 3: Pre-LDP. Control group participants
session on the first day introduced the coherent were registered for LDP, but had not yet taken
breathing technique and technology. On the the program. We emailed them a link to fill out a
subsequent four days, the program was briefly psychological capital assessment on day one of our
extended to accommodate the coherent breathing study and again on day five.
content. Participants were given five minutes of

6 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

 The Coherent
Breathing
Intervention:
Inner Balance TM

We used the Inner BalanceTM tool by

HeartMath® to train people in coherent
breathing. Inner Balance is a biofeedback
device that consists of an earpiece sensor
linked to an iPad app, which provides
information about current breathing patterns
and biological variables. Importantly, the
Inner Balance sensor provides instant visual
feedback that allows individuals to adjust
their breathing patterns in order to produce
higher coherence.

Coherence and Coherent Breathing

Coherence, in the case of this study, describes a In practice, coherent breathing is a smooth, slow,
highly efficient state in which the heart and brain are rhythmic form of breathing, combined with a mental
in synchrony; it is associated with a high degree of and emotional focus. The HeartMath method of
mental and emotional stability. Coherence involves achieving coherence involves three steps:
aligning internal and external systems and processes
1. focusing attention on the part of your
by balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic
body near your heart
nervous systems (Elliot & Edmonson, 2006).
Relaxation hormones are released, inhibiting 2. breathing slowly and evenly with a focus
the production of the stress hormone cortisol. on your heart
Coherence also stimulates the vagus nerve, which
is associated with both emotion regulation and 3. recalling a positive experience or feeling
alertness (Porges, 1992a). that activates a genuine feeling of positivity

Physiologically, coherence is calculated via heart rate Participants in the coherent breathing condition
variability (HRV)—the variation from heartbeat to were instructed in this technique.
heartbeat. Doctors consider a stable HRV pattern of
predictable variability to be an important indicator
of behavioral and physiological resiliency and
flexibility (Porges, 1992a, 1992b). Research shows
coherent breathing is one way to induce a more
predictable HRV pattern (Watkins, 2014).

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 7

Study Results
The effects of the two interventions (attending LDP and attending LDP + learning coherent
breathing) were measured by comparing the pre- and post-test scores on psychological
capital. Some promising trends were suggested by the data.

1. LDP increases psychological capital. The group attending the standard LDP increased all
four aspects of psychological capital. The average measures of efficacy, resiliency, hope,
and optimism were significantly higher at the end of LDP than at the beginning (see Figures
1–4). We also found a virtually identical increase among the coherent breathing LDP group;
they too increased on all four components of psychological capital. In contrast, the pre-LDP
control group—which had no intervention—did not increase in psychological capital over the
course of the week. We can conclude that the psychological resources that strengthen and
energize psychological capital can be increased via CCL’s Leadership Development Program.

Optimism Figure 1: Results of the pre- and post-test change scores for Optimism

5.5

5
Time 1
4.5
Time 2
4

3.5

Standard LDP Coherent Breathing LDP Pre-LDP

Hope Figure 2: Results of the pre- and post-test change scores for Hope
6

5.5

5
Time 1
4.5
Time 2
4

3.5

Standard LDP Coherent Breathing LDP Pre-LDP

8 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

 Resiliency Figure 3: Results of the pre- and post-test change scores for Resiliency

5.5

5
Time 1
4.5
Time 2
4

3.5

Standard LDP Coherent Breathing LDP Pre-LDP

Efficacy Figure 4: Results of the pre- and post-test change scores for Efficacy

5.5

5
Time 1
4.5
Time 2
4

3.5

Standard LDP Coherent Breathing LDP Pre-LDP

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 9

 2. The increases in psychological capital for the coherent breathing group and
the standard LDP group do not differ significantly. All participants in both the
standard LDP and coherent LDP group increased their psychological capital, and
the increases tended to be of similar sizes (again, see Figures 1–4).1

3. Coherent breathing may be linked to resiliency. While the coherent breathing

LDP group did not have higher psychological capital overall compared to the
standard LDP group, we did find a relationship between coherent breathing and
resiliency. Specifically, the time spent in a coherent state was positively associated
with gains in the resiliency component of psychological capital between day one
and day five (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: The relationship of coherence points to changes in resilience

50
Total coherence 40
points logged on
Inner Balance app 30
over the week
20
10
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Increase in resiliency scores from day 1 to day 5

10 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

4. Prior experience with mindfulness is related to psychological capital. We also asked participants
how much experience they had with mindfulness practices and breathing exercises prior to
participating in this study. Overall, participants who had more experience with these strategies
had higher total psychological capital (PCQ) before they even entered LDP (see Figures 6 and 7).
This suggests that mindfulness and breathing practices should be investigated as methods to boost
psychological capital for leaders outside of and in addition to leadership training.

Figure 6: Total psychological capital by experience with mindfulness

5.4

5.2

5
Never tried
4.8 mindfulness
Tried mindfulness
4.6
a few times
4.4 Practice
mindfulness
4.2

4
Total psychological capital time 1 Total psychological capital time 2

Figure 7: Total psychological capital by experience with breathing exercises

5.4

5.2

5
Never tried
4.8 breathing exercises
Tried breathing
4.6 exercises a few times

4.4 Practice breathing

exercises
4.2

4
Total psychological capital time 1 Total psychological capital time 2

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 11

Preliminary Interpretations
and Advice for Leaders
Though the results reported here are preliminary, However, it is important to note that psychological
we can say both the standard LDP and LDP plus capital measures a state of mind, and states can
coherent breathing left participants feeling vary with events. After five days of intensive
stronger psychologically than before they came. reflection, support, assessment, and challenge,
They literally left with greater psychological it is perhaps not surprising that participants
resources. Additionally, it seems clear that feel stronger psychologically and more able to
coherent breathing alone cannot replace respond to demanding environments. Our hope
intensive leadership training. Rather, practices is that participants will regularly practice what
such as coherent breathing should be seen as they learned at CCL to sustain their psychological
supplemental and an adjunct to leadership training capital. Reviewing the experience and techniques
experiences. learned could help to maintain or even increase
psychological capital. We recommend that
Given that, research suggests psychological capital
participants view the LDP experience as the
boosts performance by increasing the ability of
beginning of a new approach to work life, and not
the individual to respond to the emotional and
as an end in itself. Leadership development is a
cognitive demands of challenging situations (Avey,
process and not an event.
Reichard, Luthans, & Mhatre, 2011). Participants
who received CCL’s leadership development should
feel better able to deal with challenges once they
return home.

12 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

Questions Remaining and Next Steps
Further study of LDP and coherent breathing increases in psychological capital beyond the
instruction is necessary to determine the question classroom. Coherent breathing, meditation, and
of “dosage.” In LDP, participants got only a short other practices may help to sustain and build
exposure to the coherent breathing technique. psychological capital over longer periods of
This raises questions as to whether the dose was time. We also hope to investigate how leaders’
sufficiently high to make a difference. The data psychological capital may affect others. Further
from the participants who had prior mindfulness research should also look at psychological capital
and breathing exercise experiences suggests that in the context of coaching, action learning, and
prolonged exposure to self-regulation tools does assignment-driven learning.
have a long-term effect on psychological capital.
The Center for Creative Leadership is also currently
However, a five-day LDP with brief coherent
looking into other ways to increase well-being
breathing sessions as an add-on may not be
and psychological resources in leaders (e.g., how
the ideal way to test the impact on leadership
quality of sleep, mindfulness principles, and an
development. The ability to generate psychological
understanding of physiological circuitry might
capital is something gradually built. HeartMath
accelerate leadership development.) We are
recommends considerable practice to establish a
working to see if an enhanced development of the
pattern of coherent breathing.
“being” of leadership is the sought after catalyst to
As a future research agenda, we encourage drive learning from challenging experiences.
the examination of the sustainability of

If you would like your organization to take part in one of our

studies, contact Marian Ruderman at [email protected].

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 13

References
Avey, J. B., Reichard, R. J., Luthans, F., & Mhatre, K. Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Avey, J. B., & Norman, S. M.
H. (2011). Meta-analysis of the impact of positive (2007). Positive psychological capital: Measurement
psychological capital on employee attitudes, and relationship with performance and satisfaction.
behaviors, and performance. Human Resource Leadership Institute Faculty Publications, Paper 11.
Development Quarterly, 22(2), 127–152. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/
leadershipfacpub/11.
Bradley, R. T., McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Tomasino,
D., Daughtery, A., & Arguelles, L. (2010). Emotion Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2006).
self-regulation, psychophysiological coherence, Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive
and test anxiety: Results from an experiment edge. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
using electrophysiological measures. Applied
McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Lipsenthal, L., & Arguelles,
Psychophysiological Biofeedback, 35(4),261–283.
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breath. Allen, Texas: Coherence Press. 251–272. doi:10.1007//s10484-009-9087-0
Gelles, D. (2015). Mindful work: How meditation is McCraty, R. & Zayas, M. A. (2014). Cardiac coherence,
changing business from the inside out. Boston, MA: self-regulation, autonomic stability, and psychosocial
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:1090. doi:10.2289/
fpsyg.2014.01090
Gorgievski, M. J. & Hobfoll, S. E. (2008). Work can burn
us out or fire us up: Conservation of resources in Porges, S. W. (1992a). Autonomic regulation and
burnout and engagement. Handbook of stress and attention. In H. Hayne & R. Richardson (Eds.), Attention
burnout in health care, 7–22. Hauppauge, NY: Nova and information processing in infants and adults (pp.
Science Publishers. 201–223). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Porges, S. W. (1992b). Vagal tone: A physiologic marker
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Ruderman, M. N., Clerkin, C., & Connolly, C.
Lowe, J. (2014). Stop, think, breathe…vote: Mindfulness (2014). Leadership development beyond
in parliament. Prospect Magazine. Retrieved from: competencies: Moving to a holistic approach
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/science-and- (White Paper). Greensboro, NC: Center for
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Endnote
1
Note that the finding that coherent breathing training did not have an effect
on psychological capital above and beyond standard LDP training should not
be extrapolated upon beyond this study. This was a preliminary experiment,
and therefore, different dosages of training and/or additional group
differences that were not controlled for could be affecting the results.

14 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.

©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 15
16 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved.
About the Authors
Marian Ruderman, PhD, is a senior fellow and Cathleen Clerkin, PhD, is a faculty member in
director, research horizons at the Center for Research, Innovation, and Product Development
Creative Leadership (CCL®). Her work is focused on at CCL. Cathleen’s research interests include
leadership development, diversity, and work-life social identity management and diversity,
integration. A noted expert on women’s leadership, creativity and innovation, and applied social
Marian has coauthored more than 50 articles and cognitive neuroscience and leadership. Some of
book chapters on leadership. Her books include Cathleen’s recent research includes perceptions
Standing at the Crossroads: Next Steps for High- of nontraditional leaders, holistic leadership
Achieving Women (coauthored with Patricia Ohlott), development, innovation among women working
Diversity in Work Teams: Research Paradigms for a in male-dominated fields, and the link between
Changing Workplace (coedited with Susan Jackson), national identity and creativity. Cathleen has won
and the Third Edition of The Center for Creative multiple awards and honors for her research,
Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development including recognition from the National Science
(coedited with Ellen Van Velsor and Cynthia Foundation, the American Association of University
McCauley). Marian holds a PhD in organizational Women, and the Society for the Psychological Study
psychology from the University of Michigan. of Social Issues. Cathleen holds a BA in psychology
from the University of California, Berkeley, and
her MS and PhD degrees in psychology from the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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