Basic Leadership Preferences – A High-Level Overview
Each of us possesses a preferred leadership style. This is your natural style – it feels right, it makes sense to you. In its simplest interpretation, let’s consider two very basic dimensions to your preferred leadership style:
Primary Focus – What you are most likely to pay attention to when leading others.
Task-oriented = your primary focus pertains to getting the task completed.
People-oriented = your primary focus pertains to being considerate of people’s feelings, being inclusive, and encouraging active participation.
Implementation – How you prefer to interact with group/team members. This dimension of your preferred leadership style tends to establish your overall attitude as a leader and the approach you naturally adopt with others in order to be successful. Specifically, this dimension affects: • Your mode of communication • Your expectations of yourself and others • The strategy (long-view perspective and approach) and the tactics (short-term actions) you employ to produce desired results or outcomes. In this context, you may naturally choose to adopt the role of either a director or a facilitator. • DIRECTOR: Your approach is based upon “command and control.” That is, you direct (command) others to perform specific tasks while maintaining personal control over most (or all) planning and decision-making activities. A director may seek to employ the power associated with her/his position and/or title. PROS: A leader who directs provides perceived organization and structure, often by employing and expediting a step-by-step process which may achieve short-term results more quickly. In situations where quick decisions and immediate action are paramount, this approach often instills confidence in followers and creates an impression that the situation is well in hand. CONS: On the “down side,” this approach may also limit individual creativity, repress group innovation, and/or foster resentment among followers if the leader becomes too overbearing. FACILITATOR: This approach is based upon assisting the group/team to collaborate in order to collectively achieve results that are often better than those that could have been achieved independently. A facilitator uses her/his personal abilities, skills, knowledge, and charisma to engage, persuade, influence and negotiate rather than relying upon any power associated with position or title. PROS: A leader who facilitates becomes a hub for open communication and a partner with her/his group in pursuing longer-term successful outcomes. This approach often promotes creative problem-solving as well as greater team buy-in and satisfaction. CONS: On the “down side,” collaboration takes more time, effort, and a lot more skill on the part of the facilitating leader. Followers looking for quick fixes or immediate decisions may perceive such a leader as indecisive, weak, or “wishy-washy.” Critics often refer derisively to “decision by committee” and show prominent signs of frustration (even resentment) with regard to the slowness of the process and its lack of precision.
Regardless of your natural/preferred leadership style, different situations may demand different approaches based upon the:
People involved
Environment and/or circumstances
Short- and long-term intentions
Keep in mind two important factors:
Employing the same leadership approach in all situations and with all people usually yields less than optimum results.
Different leadership approaches can promote vastly different results.
Are you employing the best leadership approach given the people and circumstances involved? Being observant, flexible, and adaptive in your leadership approach gives you options and usually yields significantly better outcomes.
Balanced Leadership
Effective leadership results from balancing concern for task and concern for people.
Being task-oriented promotes high productivity.
Being people-oriented promotes an environment charged with high morale.
Effective leaders adapt their leadership approach to: 1) fit the needs of both individual group members and the group as a whole, and 2) support the best overall outcome given the circumstances of the situation.
Directing a group may minimize confusion, and reduce the amount of time required for planning and decision making in certain situations. It can even postpone some forms of conflict (for a limited time). This approach is often most successfully employed with inexperienced group members who need strong guidance and in high-stress situations where quick and decisive action is required (e.g., in emergencies or just prior to a deadline).
Facilitating a group promotes trust, improved communication, group ownership of tasks, teamwork, skill development, and usually results in longer-lasting outcomes that exceed what could have been achieved through individual effort alone. This approach works well with groups that include a wide range of personalities, and in situations that allow time enough for the collaborative process to evolve.
Performing such a balancing act is not always easy, but your skill as a leader will continue to grow as you learn to adapt your leadership approach to accommodate the needs of individual team members and situations. By sharing the power and the leadership, you can have it all – high productivity and high morale as well as trust, better communication, cooperation, collaboration, and superior overall results. Not a bad deal, eh?
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