I was appointed into my first ‘official’ leadership role in my 20’s. Over the following decades I was fortunate to observe some amazing leadership from those around me.
What I learned
“Care more than others think is wise”, this was something I learnt from an absolutely amazing Senior Leader, Julie Stott. She was once told by another senior leader that she cared too much, her view was that this was not possible, what’s too much?
I didn’t realise until I saw Julie in action that this was how I had been leading since that first appointment, it was what just felt natural and right for me, just care and all your decision making will come from a good foundation. This became my starting point for any Leadership Training that I delivered. When a friend starting her own business she asked me for tips on how to lead, she hadn’t led teams before, I suggested, to start with just care. Care about the team, the customers, the stakeholders, the quality of the product. The skills and the tools we could work on later.
Where I have seen leaders struggle is when they have a need to become experts in stuff, want to have all the answers and carry a fear of getting it ‘wrong’. The reality is that People don’t care what you know, they just want to know that you care.
The second important basis for great leadership is Maslow Hierarchy of needs (below). Don’t make big requests of your team if you haven’t taken care of these first. I have observed leaders/organisations making big demands on people when they haven’t covered even the basic needs. Paying a salary, even the best market salary, does make you a great leader.
We are all different and situations are all different
An important factor in being a leader is understanding yourself and understanding those around you. There are a few tools which you can play with that will help you in establishing this understanding.
Firstly the Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire.
Often we are unaware of how we best learn as an individual. If we are not aware of this then we are not able to select the way in which we best learn and ultimately make learning most effective and enjoyable for ourselves. Secondly if we are not aware of how others around us learn, we are not able to create the most effective and enjoyable way for them to learn. The result being we may organise training and development for them in a way which will not support their learning effectively.
The Honey and Mumford Learning styles questionnaire (attached) helps you to understand how you and others best learn. If your own learning style is an activist, you may enjoy getting stuck in and having a go, if this is how you then organise development for your team, you could be making the development difficult for the people who have a different style of learning. For example, a having a go, getting stuck in session for a theorist who may prefer time to take in information and digest it first, may feel overwhelmed, anxious and want to withdraw from an activist approach to training.
Other things to understand are Preferences. We all enjoy and thrive in different circumstances.
Same v Difference, Procedures v Options, Independent v Cooperative.
People can like things to be the same, it gives them safety and security, others like the idea that each task or day may be different and function best with variety. Some like to know how to do something and gain confidence in following a process, others like to know that they can shake it up a bit, create new ways and different options in their work. The key here is that we are all different, for our teams to feel confident and motivated we need to understand this about them and help ensure they have the preferences that enable them to function at their best, otherwise we are trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
The third aspect that is useful to be aware of is how we take on information.
The three prominent ways are Visually, Auditory, and Kinaesthetically. I have found this to be hugely important when communicating with teams. Many leaders that I have coached are not aware of this, yet it can hugely change how effectively we engage with different people. Just by understanding an individual’s prominent way of taking on information, can drastically increase their ability to understand us and their ability to be at their best.
Sometimes leaders tell me the type of leader they are, they offer up that they are a Democratic leader for example. But what if the situation requires a Bureaucratic leader, the building is burning down, we all need to get out safely, do you lead using the safe and well-practiced route, or do you ask what way everyone would like to escape and go with the option that gets the most suggestions.
Leadership Styles
Here are just some of the different leadership styles we may need to call upon at any given time, a great leader will flex their style to lead in the best way for different people and different circumstances.
- Autocratic – Decisions are made quickly with little or no input.
- Bureaucratic – By the book, follow procedures.
- Charismatic – Inspire, energetic, creates excitement.
- Democratic – Include team in decision making and generating ideas, leader makes the final decision.
- Laissez Faire – Team have freedom to work under own autonomy, has an organic nature.
- People Oriented – Heavily focused on developing and supporting the team.
- Task Oriented – Focus is on getting the job done, ensures deadlines met.
- Servant – The leader bends to the team.
- Transactional – Involves agreements and deals.
- Transformational – Expects the best from everyone, expects value to added.
It isn’t rocket science
Being a great leader is not rocket science. In the Leadership Programmes that I run, I ask the room to think about a time when they have been led in a way that they considered poor, we then list what they were seeing, hearing, feeling from that leader. Then they think about a time when they have been led well and list what they were seeing, hearing, feeling from that leader. It is simple to see what a great leader looks like, and when you list what you are seeing, hearing and feeling from that leader, none of it is rocket science. This is what I call Shadow of the Leader, set the shadow you want to cast and ‘be’ that person.