How many times have we heard the suggestion that good a leadership style is essential to success? But then we ask ourselves of all the leadership styles what is the best one? Or is there a point in time when any of the leadership styles could be the right one? Are we meant to juggle styles in order to match situations or is there another way to know if we’re being effective as a leader?
Leadership is no longer just about style, but about a much larger responsibility of how the leader impacts the workplace and the organization. Leaders are expected to be the champion of the corporate strategy, ensuring it is extended into all areas including branding and operations. They create work/life balance within a supportive corporate culture that lends itself to collaboration and innovative job designs that spur commitment and productivity. They lead more productive teams by looking after all the factors that impact commitment and productivity, allowing for corporate alignment with the strategic objectives.
Building a corporation that works for everyone needs to have a balance of all four types of cultures – Performance, Administrative, Developmental, & Intimate – to allow for flexibility in the way things get done and ensuring they do get done. Other than providing employees with a level of work/life balance, job design may be the next important factor to motivate or deter employees from achieving the best productivity on the job.
Although there is a time to use any one of the six suggested leadership styles: Coach, Democratic, Producer, Coercive, Pace Setter, and Affiliate, the resulting dominate or most pervasive style will set the tone in how we:
Lead People: By example or as they are told
Manage Processes: With Integrity or sleight of hand
Supervise Activities: Objectively or subjectively
The question of whether we “Work to Live” or “Live to Work” is often asked by employees. The rewards from working can often greatly enrich our lives, but to overly commit our life to work can often have devastating effects on our personal life. Finding that balance becomes a major responsibility for both employer and employee with often dramatic positive results in productivity, loyalty and overall success of any organization.
So before you pat yourself on the back for having an exceptional leadership style, take a look around you and see what impact you are having on the people, processes and successes of your team or organization.
For more information on doing a “Leadership Impact Analysis” contact me at jvankoeverden@localhost
