We have all seen many posts on our LinkedIn feed about what makes a good leader. Most of these emphasize that the best leaders need to be participative consensus builders and a good coach for their people. Like many, I find these posts inspiring and have “liked” these often myself.
However, leadership in the real world is more complicated than these inspirational posts recognize. Leaders in the real world need to understand that, while they may be most comfortable with a certain style, their long term success will require them to modify their approach depending upon many factors. These factors include the scenario they face, the people they are leading and the overall context. The best leaders are not only aware of this but have a toolkit of styles for each set of circumstances.
Below I am summarizing some variations in leadership approach and the situations that every leader will need at some time.
This is the leader that can see what does not yet exist and articulate it in a way that inspires people to action. I am always amazed by how some leaders can take a blank sheet of paper and turn it into an amazing vision for the future. They are able to see potential where others see nothing. This is the leader that inspires a team to do something that has never been done before. Good visionary leaders not only explain what needs to happen but also why. It is not just about communicating to people’s brain, it also is about communicating to their heart to gain deeper commitment. This often involves a willingness to show vulnerability and telling stories that connect the vision to each individual.
When managing a team with uncertain or rapidly changing circumstances, a participative style is indeed the best choice. In these situations, it is important to get input from as many people as possible in order to make the best decisions. This requires a leader to be humble and understand that they may not have all the answers. It is also most effective when there is a high level of experience and competency within the team. This leader takes input from all stakeholders and comes to a decision that everyone can get behind. The best analogy I have heard for this style of leadership is herding cats. You need to be very skilled to get a bunch of independent thinking individuals all going the same direction. One tool that I have found helpful when leading in this style is to develop what is called a “consensus document”. This is simply a document that outlines the different options that were considered, why some were rejected and how the final decision was made. This allows everyone to have a voice and see that their input was considered even if the final decision was not what they wanted.
When working one-on-one, or even with mature teams, leaders need to often be the coach. The objective of the leader functioning as a coach is not only to solve the problem of the moment, but most importantly to develop the capacity of the person or team to respond to similar challenges in the future. In this style, the leader asks a lot of questions and provides very little direct advice. They may share their own experiences but only as examples to help the person or team find their own way. This leader is focused on developing long-term skills and abilities so that their people can become independent and successful. There is growing body of research that individuals who developed skills from this coaching process have better retention and grow in more profound way than those who are simply directed.
In cases where the direct report is junior or has not faced certain challenges or tasks, the leader may need to take on the role of a teacher. This involves being able to show how a person performs a task, obtain information and how it is interpreted. The reasoning needs to be explained. The teaching process has often best described with the steps that initially you show the person how it is done. Next, you work closely with the person as they do the tasks. finally they mature to do the task all alone with light oversight.
This is similar to the teaching form of leadership, but less targeted and directive. You can think of this as being like Yoda from the Star Wars movie who pulls sage wisdom from years of experience. I have had several mentors over the years that have given me words of wisdom that has stood up over time. Some of these include a mindset that when leading people you need to think that you have a bag of good will “rocks” and bad will “rocks”. A leader needs to fill up the bag of goodwill rocks to help when the time comes that you need the bad will “rocks” (and it always comes). I received other mentoring advice which was to recognize that history always repeats itself, so I can look to the past for a solution. Managers can often identify mentors as people that had significant influence over their career by sharing wisdom at key points on their journey.
Often times, leadership is simply about setting an example and modeling the behavior that is desired. When I think of this type of leadership, a scene from the movie Gettysburg comes to my mind where a general rode to the front line on horseback. His men pleaded with him to come down because he was too easy of a target. His reply was that “sometimes there are things more important than the life of a general.” This type of leadership is about showing that you will do what you are asking others to do. It can be something big like taking a stand against prejudice, shutting down a manufacturing process because it is not safe or small things like always having an agenda for your meetings and starting on time. This is about setting the tone, expectations of behavior, and influencing the culture of your team.
When a fire chief arrives on a scene of a fire, she jumps directly into a directive leadership mode. Unit 1 get the ladder to the second floor. Unit 2 run the water line to the front of the building. Situations that require fast action require an experienced leader to direct the team without room for variation or confusion. Leaders will also find that they need to be directive when there are potential regulatory compliance concerns or other legal consequences. These are situations where mistakes cannot be made. In these cases, direction needs to be explicit and unambiguous.
In a perfect world, leaders would have all competent, trustworthy and experienced staff as direct reports. In the real world though, this is not always the case. When there are performance concerns or the person is very junior, a leader must be comfortable directing the individual with clarity of objectives and even the steps necessary. Other forms of leadership can be utilized as the individual matures and develops positive experiences.
The descriptions above cover most of the leadership approaches required to be successful over time. Of course each leader needs to be themselves and have their own authentic approach. Also, it should be pointed out that while not every style will be best in every scenario, there some things a leader should never do, such as be abusive or lose professional presence.
In my coaching I often ask leaders to talk me through how they could respond to their challenges using these different leadership styles. I also ask for them to assess the situation and explain how they choose the approach that is the best fit. This gets them in a habit of assessing their leadership tool kit prior to taking action. With the most seasoned leaders, this becomes a very intuitive process.