Leadership Styles and What You Need To Know

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In my last post, I discussed in some depth the various management styles and how to navigate them with finesse. If you have not read it, here is the link. While work management styles largely dictate the way a person would approach projects and tasks, it’s not quite indicative of your manager’s support, intentions and inner motivations.

It’s not uncommon to find a Master Delegator who is highly supportive of your growth or an extremely proficient leader who is utterly unconcerned about you or your career growth. It would be somewhat deceptive to project a leader’s work management faculties and domain proficiencies onto their intentions and motivations to bolster the team.

Transactional Trader

This leadership style fosters an environment that is strictly transactional. You are rewarded for a task well done and disregarded or reprimanded for an unsatisfactory performance. These leaders are often apathetic to team members who do not follow their preconceived set of rules or do not fare well on their self-fabricated performance scale. It’s a strictly give and take relationship and these leaders are often uninterested in your individual needs and only react to either reward or reprimand. Control commanders often tend to fall into this bucket owing to their result and action-oriented tendencies.

Example Situation

A manager informs his/her team that the ones who would go the extra mile and take on additional projects would be awarded a huge bonus and those content with their current workloads would get average ratings at best. When the team delivers, both the manager and the contributing team members benefit while members who are disengaged or distressed are pushed to the sidelines and eventually eliminated.

How to identify a transactional trader

• Folks who operate within the leader’s established rules and standards are promoted and held in high regard
• They are uninterested in your individual needs and often lack empathy. Perform or Perish is their mantra.
• New team members or members with unique needs or situational hurdles suffer under these leaders due to the leader’s lack of empathy and understanding.

How to manage a transactional trader

• If you have the energy and mindset to meet all of your manager’s expectations, then focus on ensuring that your performance and behavior align with your manager’s ‘definition of success’. Notice what patterns get rewarded and emulate them.
• Ask very specific questions to understand your manager’s expectations. For example,
  1. What are your expectations from me in this role?
  2. What would you have expected me to have accomplished in the next 3 months?
  3. What are the top 3 things that need my immediate attention?
• Use your one on ones to get continuous feedback to ensure you are on track. Your manager may not be very intent on coaching. The onus is on you to seek alignment.
• If you are finding yourself at loggerheads with your manager’s expectations or facing individual hurdles, then seek a mentor within the team. Are the expectations unrealistic? Have other team members faced similar issues? If your manager’s expectations are unreasonable or disruptive to a healthy work-life balance, move on. Nothing should come to the detriment of your health and well being.

Coach Captain

This leadership style seeks to bolster the team by taking a coaching style approach to team development. These leaders are often empathetic and are tuned to the needs of the individual team members. They look to uplift each team member by crafting solutions uniquely forged to suit a person. They listen to understand and invest energy into forging long lasting relationships with their teams.

Example Situation

A manager reaches out to an employee who does not seem very engaged to understand the employee’s unique situation and needs. The manager is informed of the unstimulating work that the employee is assigned to. The employee is immediately moved to a different project that is more aligned with his/her skillset. The current project suffers a bit while the employee is moved around but results in a more engaged employee.

How to identify a coach captain

• You feel supported and understood. Your manager truly listens to your needs and works with you on removing individual hurdles.
• They employ positive reinforcement by applauding minor milestones
• Mistakes are met with guidance instead of reproach and they put the team’s interests before their own

How to manage a coach captain

• Your leader is offering individual guidance, support and open communication. Respond by being equally open to feedback and guidance. Your manager cannot lend a helping hand if you are unwilling to collaborate and trust.
• High performing team members might feel slightly under appreciated or frustrated as your manager seeks equitable solutions in all situations. If you are left picking up the slack then speak up and let your manager know.

Self-Serving Strategist

These managers are threatened by their own team members’ successes and work tirelessly towards promoting their own interests. They are entwined in orchestrations that best serve them and are rarely ever present to guide or mentor their team members.

Example Situation

A manager attends a meeting and presents the team’s ideas as his/her own without offering due credit to the team. He / She gives the impression of indispensability within the organization and leaders above get a distorted depiction of the team.

How to identify a self-serving strategist

• Your manager rarely acknowledges your contributions publicly
• You are left out of high visibility meetings and often get information on a need to know basis
• You are excluded from strategic business planning and rarely get opportunities to interact with stakeholders outside of your team

How to manage a self-serving strategist

• Create visibility for yourself by reaching out to stakeholders and cross team members and foster genuine relationships
• Have skip level one on ones so the leaders within your organization are cognizant of your contributions
• Reach out to other team members who are very likely facing similar hurdles and put forth a collective feedback in front of your manager. Collective feedbacks are harder to be dismissed.
• Be tactful and do not openly defy your manager. You are very likely not dealing with a conscientious individual. For example, if your manager has deliberately asked you not to reach out to a stakeholder, instead of blatantly defying him/her, invite all stakeholders to review your plan or documentation on the team wiki. Participate in organization-wide walk-throughs and knowledge sharing sessions.
• If your manager is deliberately getting in your way of career growth, do not hesitate to walk away.

While we can explore and try to fathom the various leadership styles, there is no veritable overarching guide to managing an individual. Ultimately, your approach needs to be adapted and refined to befit the unique modulations of an individual’s psychological and emotional constitution. Always remember to lead with adaptability and situational tact.

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