Becoming a leader and managing a team involves
- managing relationships – between you, your team, other teams, and senior management;
- managing emotions – your own and that of others you communicate with;
- your leadership style and its impact on your team; and
- the importance of flexibility in your leadership style.
Importance of Flexibility
A lot is already being spoken about managing relationships and emotions. In this article, let’s go a little deeper on the importance of flexibility in varying your leadership style depending on the situation and the team members’ maturity. If you follow the same leadership style in every situation with every person, you may soon realize that it may not be appropriate and may not inspire your team members to give their best. Therefore, you need to learn how to vary your style and be a more effective leader. This is best done using leadership techniques and guidance under an expert Coach.
To practice the above, or we can say in “Situational Leadership,” the leader or manager of a team flexibly varies his leadership style according to the maturity or development level of the team members he is working with. A leader’s responsibility is to change his style, based on the situation, not the team members to adapt themselves to the leader’s style.
A dip into common leadership styles
Let’s now discuss some leadership styles. A team that is not efficient or productive can improve when the leader uses a more ‘control-oriented’ style and focuses on being organized, clearly defining roles, tasks, and metrics. A productive group of highly skilled and experienced workers may do well when a leader’s style is more supporting or delegating, allowing team members to work independently and take part in decision making.
The team leader is the one who takes all the decisions and informs the team members of their decision, and expects them to comply without questions. This ‘command and control’ leadership style is used to micro-manage the team. The leader here is very hands-on and closely monitors the team members working with him. This is a top-down leadership approach where employees are expected to do precisely what they are told. This style of leadership works best with team members whose maturity or readiness level is low. This style can be effective only when team members don’t have the right knowledge or skills for the role/job and often lack the motivation to complete the job.
In ‘coaching’ leadership style, the leader is still very hands-on with routine tasks. The leader ultimately takes the team members’ inputs towards decision making but makes the final decision himself. In this style of situational leadership, employees may ask questions and seek clarifications from the leader. This style would work well with those team members who are inexperienced and still learning. To increase their confidence and self-esteem, the leader often encourages and praises for small wins. This style can be effective when team members are motivated to do the job but don’t have the knowledge or skills required.
Another leadership style is when the leader provides direction to the team and gives them the responsibility to make decisions and leave implementation to the team members. The leader is less hands-on and can help solve complex problems, provide feedback, suggest areas of improvement, boost their confidence and motivation with encouragement and praise for doing a good job. This ‘supporting’ leadership style is most effective with team members who have the necessary skills but need their energies to be rightly focused and can be encouraged to develop the confidence and motivation to achieve their objectives.
Bold and dauntless, in ‘delegating’ leadership style, the leader mainly discusses the objectives to be achieved. How those objectives will be achieved is left to the team members to decide. The leader does not get involved in reviewing the routine activities. The team members take responsibility for choosing the tasks and the directions they will take. The leader then reviews the achievement of objectives at a higher level as per milestones or targets set and provides feedback or any course correction that may be necessary. This leadership style is to be used with team members who know their roles and are capable of performing independently, without supervision. Although risk-involving, it is most effective to delegate projects or goals to highly skilled, experienced, and individuals motivated to achieve.
A Coach can help you learn how to vary your leadership style In your leadership journey, your coach can be extremely valuable. He/she can help you learn how to be a better leader by allowing you to review your leadership actions, understand what went well, and what you could do better. Allow yourself to transform, establish the most suitable communication with your team, and achieve greater heights as a leader.
“Let him who would move the world, first move himself.” – Socrates