Objective, anonymous feedback can be a game-changer for leaders who want to grow in awareness of their leadership style, how their style (and their strengths and weaknesses) is affecting their teams, and the areas of opportunity for growth.
In my years of coaching leaders in a variety of organizations, I’ve found two common styles of leadership—each with their own advantages and setbacks.
The FIRST LEADERSHIP STYLE…
The RELATER.
These are leaders who love people. They are careful with their relationships. They value being respectful, kind, and not being overbearing.
The common challenge with this style is that the overuse of that style causes them to be less decisive and often more hesitant to hold employees accountable for results. They also tend to be somewhat conflict averse.
What ends up happening is the highly complying leader OVERWORKS themselves and feels STRESSED, because they’re trying to fill the gap that their tendencies often unintentionally create.
The challenge—they have to work harder for where they’re not holding others accountable; they feel stress and inward turmoil.
The opportunity—to learn and practice the mindset and skillset of coaching others into higher levels of accountability and engaging in conflict in healthy ways.
The SECOND LEADERSHIP STYLE…
The ACHIEVER.
This is the classic type A style. They are driven, results focused, and usually have perfectionist tendencies. They’re often demanding in their approach to people as their primary focus is the end result. They work hard and are usually really good at what they do. But sometimes, their approach derails or even breaks relationships.
Over time, this erodes trust, team morale, and eventually it limits overall effectiveness.
The challenge—because of their high expectations of people and difficulty connecting and relating to others, they are like a “bull in a china shop” and this eventually undercuts the results they work so hard for; they feel anger which expresses itself in outward turmoil for those around them.
The opportunity—to learn and practice the mindset and skillset of empathy, emotional/relational intelligence; shifting from getting results IN SPITE of people to getting results because of people/positive relationships.
Either of these extremes can cause leaders to be ineffective, yet there are also benefits to each style. The trick is being aware of the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities.
And it all starts with feedback, specifically 360 feedback, which is confidential, anonymous, and a thorough view of a person from all angles of the organization and context in which they operate. This gives the leader an overview of where they are excelling and where they can focus attention to become most effective.
We facilitate this process as part of Phase 01 of the Coach Approach to Leadership program. If you’d like to learn more, set up a call.
