Adapting Your Leadership Style for Improved Results

As leaders, each of us has a certain leadership style. Much of it stems from who we are at our core, flavored by the experiences and examples we’ve had on the journey here.  With that said, it’s important for us to continue to learn new skills and adapt who we are based on our audience.

As we grow in our leadership role, we need to be very clear about our leadership competencies – both strengths and weaknesses. There are a gazillion leadership models out there.  But what does leadership mean to you? Do you lead with vision? Do you lead with drive? Do you lead to deliver? Or do you lead through people? You probably tend toward one or two over the others, but you should have capability in all four competencies. The key is learning to flex them appropriately based on the situation.

Think of the best leader you’ve ever had. What do you think their leadership preference was – Vision, Drive, Deliver, or People? Now think…how well did they adapt to accommodate all four leadership competencies to be the best leader?  Each person must flex at certain times to get the desired outcome. If a leader becomes too rigid in doing things their way, they may have people who are only following because they’re afraid of the consequences of doing otherwise. You and I both know that we don’t get the best out of our employees in a fear-based environment.

Our great leaders are clear about who they are as leaders, are capable of flexing when it makes sense, and are willing to hold their ground when it is right for the business. They have a backbone, and will make what they believe is the RIGHT decision, even if it’s not the POPULAR decision.

As a leader, you want people to follow you because they trust you, and because you are stretching them by providing opportunities they would not have without you. You want them to follow you because you have created a vision and they can see the connection between the organization’s goals and their own goals. People will stay…or leave…because of you. We’ve all heard about the Gallup Poll that found people don’t leave organizations, they leave their managers. If you are not willing to adapt your style, you will have a large exodus of employees. There are endless formulas for turnover costs.  Let’s just use the one that says turnover costs for a mid-level employee equal 150% of that employee’s annual salary. That isn’t pretty for the bottom line, and won’t reflect very favorably on the leader.

So think about your people. How do you need to adapt these four competencies – Vision, Drive, Deliver, People – to ensure that you create and maintain an environment of trust and productivity for sustainable business results?

Want to learn more about leadership and communication styles? Check out our assessments at PeopleThink.biz.

Till next time,

Karen

5 Tips for Building a High-Performing Team

Building and leading effective teams is a key leadership competency. But how do you create that special magic that results in not just an effective team but a high-performing team?  Consider these 5 tips as your magic wand…

1. Establish a clear purpose and specific goals. By definition, a team is a group of individuals with a common purpose.  That purpose and the milestones to achieve that purpose need to be clearly communicated and understood by every individual on the team.  For high-performing teams, it’s not just understanding the destination, but also – as team members – being able to help define the means to get there.  This ability to co-create results gives them a deeper commitment to the team purpose and improves performance.
2. Identify and include individuals with complementary skills.  These skills go beyond just the technical and functional skills required to achieve the purpose. Also consider decision making skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills and other “soft skills” that are necessary to succeed. Be sure that each individual – and the rest of the team – understands how their role aligns with the team purpose, and how their expertise contributes to team success.
3. Value diversity. Someone once said, “We only have harmony when we sing different notes.”  Include people on your team who are different than you and who represent different personality types.   Diverse teams perform better.  They perform better because they bring multiple perspectives, experiences and approaches to the table, which results in increased innovation, better problem solving and overall improved results.
4. Create a sense of mutual accountability. Be sure everyone clearly understands expectations. Challenge your team to set higher performance goals and establish an environment where they hold themselves – and each other – accountable for results.  Include regular progress reports, open sharing of mistakes made and lessons learned, and team discussions on moving through roadblocks.
5. Encourage open communication and constructive feedback. Perhaps the most important tip in creating a high-performing team is ongoing communication. You to the team, the team to you, the team among themselves. It is the overarching element of all these tips. Communicate the purpose and goals. Communicate to individuals and the team how they contribute. Communicate the value of diversity. Communicate expectations to create mutual accountability. Talk about things. Even the hard things.  And provide consistent and constructive feedback.

People often ask, “How do you know when you have a high-performing team?” If they have to ask…they do not.  Think of a time when you were on a high-performing team. It’s one of those things you just know. The team gels, team members have each other’s backs, the ultimate outcome(s) are for the team, not individuals. There’s fun, hard work and camaraderie. Ya just know.

Is your team a high-performing team?  If not, what’s stopping you from getting there?

Till next time,

Karen

P.S. Want to learn more about leadership, teams and career development?  Please “like” PeopleThink on Facebook.

Valuing Diversity to Improve Team Performance

Someone once said, “If both of us think exactly alike, one of us is unnecessary.”

We all know that any given project, or product development effort, requires a variety of skills sets and experience – behold the cross functional team.  But beyond that, our inclination is to put people together who have similar personalities; who seem to “click.”  We think that their natural alignment will provide harmony and accelerate productivity.  But harmony doesn’t always guarantee the best results. In fact, recent studies have shown that teams made up of diverse personalities are more innovative, better at solving complex problems, and are higher performing overall.

Diverse teams perform better because they bring multiple perspectives, experiences and approaches to the table.  These varying approaches and thought processes create a dynamic that is better equipped to deal with complex problems and challenges. Additionally, diverse personality traits within a team offset one another and build on each other for synergy and innovation.  A diverse team is much less likely to fall into “groupthink” which can actually impede performance.

Every team goes through a four-stage development process – forming, storming, norming and performing (Bruce W. Tuckman).  As part of the forming process, leaders should become aware of their own work and communication style, and strive to identify and understand the styles of those on the team. Create some discussion around individual work style preferences, communication styles and perceptions of the team goal.  Communicate the value that each style can bring to the achievement of that goal. Set up standards that provide for clear communication and sensitivity to the different styles.  Establish a process for dealing with conflict.

Learn from those whose style is different from yours. They can teach you to improve in your weak areas, and you can coach them to improve their skills in areas where you’re strong.   As the team continues to move through the development stages, continue to recognize and value their diversity.

Let them know, loud and clear, that ALL of them are necessary.

Until next time,

Karen