Find Your Leadership Style
All leaders have different approaches to problem solving and team building.
In our current business environment, leaders are increasingly recognizing
the need to change their style of leadership to succeed. We’ve found this to
be the case at Honestly, and you’re likely sensing it as well. Great leaders
are continually learning from both outside role models and colleagues
within their organization.
So what are some easy steps to take on the path to becoming a more
successful leader?
Telling versus listening
There’s a fine line between telling people what to do and listening carefully
before deciding what to do. Business, technology, and workforce
expectations are changing much too quickly for authority derived from an org chart to be sustainable. Wise leaders collect ideas and perspectives
from a range of qualified team members throughout their organization
before making the authoritative decision.
Showing gratitude
Most employees need to feel their work is meaningful to the business and
understand they’re contributing value. As a leader, how can you recognize
employees for their efforts and demonstrate ways you value them for
devoting their time to your business? Little things such as checking in with
team members on a consistent basis to see how they are doing and if they
need any support can make a big difference. Small touches can often yield
large returns.
Creating a leadership culture
A culture based around leadership doesn’t happen by accident; it’s
grounded in the shared values and understanding of what being a leader is. Think about how you lead others by providing answers, guidance, and
support for them as individuals and as part of your team. Consider training
that promotes personal and professional growth. By creating opportunities,
you’ll have better success identifying different types of leadership within
your company.
Naturally, leaders should be open to learning from others, especially when
it comes to digital information. Technology has caused shifting mindsets
when it comes to leadership and ambitious employees search for leaders
worth following. As we mentioned earlier, successful leaders seek advice
from outside peers to clarify thoughts and spark additional ideas.
Making decisions based on data
With tools currently available to company leadership, there are ample
opportunities to make data-informed decisions to help guide your
company. Leaders often ask open-ended questions and adjust goals as new
information emerges, while using data-driven decisions to be more agile in
competitive markets. Benchmarking against your specific competitors or
industry standards provide valuable insights and can answer the question
of where to go next.
Testing new initiatives
In fast-changing environments, leaders must be more adaptable when it
comes to making decisions and expand their approach to incorporate new
behaviors. Nimble leaders re-evaluate their decisions as needed and
recognize that changing course in response to new information is
sometimes necessary. In addition, launching initiatives with the intent of
testing and adjusting can lead to better results.
Becoming a more effective leader requires self-awareness to understand
one’s natural tendencies and gain insight through interactions with team
members. Think about your leadership style. Once you understand your
natural tendencies, you can work to navigate tensions and manage team
members through learning, adapting and practicing different leadership
approaches. By drawing on your leadership origin story and understanding
your natural style, you’ll become a more adaptive leader and improve your
effectiveness not by emphasizing one approach over the other, but by
developing the dexterity to shift between approaches dictated by each
situation.
RESOURCES
Articles
Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions — This article describes leadership tensions, outlines the dangers in ignoring them, and suggests coping strategies for balancing the two approaches.
5 Leadership Principles That Inspire Loyalty And Productivity — This article provides helpful tips to become a leader worth following.
What’s Your Leadership Origin Story? — This article explains why sharing
your own story about becoming a leader can influence how you work with
others.
Books
How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers — Learn the principles and guiding philosophies of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, and many others through illuminating conversations about their remarkable lives and careers.
How to Listen with Intention: The Foundation of True Connection,
Communication, and Relationships — Learn to connect, create rapport, develop trust, and build deep relationships.
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter — A thought-provoking, accessible, and essential exploration of why some leaders (“Diminishers”) drain capability and intelligence from their teams, while others (“Multipliers”) amplify it to produce better results.
Podcasts
Coaching for Leaders — Leaders aren’t born, they’re made. This Monday show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations.
Leadership and Loyalty — What generates leadership and loyalty today is vastly different than what it was less than a decade ago.
The Heartbeat — A podcast about leadership hosted by Claire Lew, CEO of Know Your Team. In each episode, Claire interviews a leader she respects to distill their greatest management mistakes, business learnings, and advice.
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