Your personality and leadership style
Which leadership style is most suited to your personality? Why?
My personality and leadership style is to work towards building a team environment, open to fresh ideas, maintain an effective turnaround and improve associate professional growth. My leadership style consist of various methods and techniques for improving employees proformance.
Your leadership style seems to be a mix of improving yourself and others. That's a great sign of a strong leader, Virgie! My guess is others learn a lot from you through observation of how you handle situations. What do you think?
My personality is best suited to the Affiliative style because I want everyone to work together, but when there is conflict of any sort, I tend to become Authoritative. My mother always said I was bossy! :-)
I prefer the team approach to projects, but I don't hesitate to take the lead if that will help us reach the goal.
So it sounds as if you have several styles that you can choose from. That's a great thing given the variety of situations (as you've described) that come up. Continued success, Susan!
I tend to lead toward the affilative style of leadership, but try to incorporate Coaching as well. I think it's important for an employee to understand you are concerned with his or her future. If you can identify that you are looking to find the employees strengths, he might be more inclined to identify his comfort level. If the employee can give you more information of where he feels comfortable and how he is motivated, half the job is done for you.
It sounds like you believe that tapping into your employees strengths and motivation can go a a long way in leading your team. I'm sure those who work with you appreciate that coming from their leader, Christina. How do your employees typically respond to your approach? I'm willing to bet that you get positive feedback.
What's funny is that right now, I am not seeing the positive feedback with a new team that I have. I have recently come into this position and it's going to take time to reep the benefits of encouraging the staff development (this was a point made in the material and I can't agree more - the coaching approach doesn't always have a quick turn around). However, as the leader of a former team I saw the same resistance, but after two years the team really came around and I received very positive feedback from them.
It can be difficult to lead a new team for sure, Christine. It sounds like you've got the right attitude for the job though. Keep up the good work!
I feel that my leadership style is mostly democratic. I like to involve my team in decisions by asking for their feedback and suggestions. I feel from experience that this helps all members of the team to feel that they are part of something and have more of a connection to the job.
It sounds like you really value the input your team prvoids when it comes to making decisions, Elaine. That's wonderful! Helping your team members feel connected to the decision making process can prove to be beneficial in many ways. How have your team members responded to thIs kind of inclusion?
I think I tend to use 4 different leadership styles depending on my audience and situation: the affiliative, pacesetting, democratic and coaching. Of the 4, I use more often the affilative and democratic. I think it is important to build team morale and generate a sense of purpose and vested interest in the teams success. I like for my staff to feel that each of their contribution has a great impact on that success. I therefore also involve them in coming up with ideas and new initiatives on how we can improve our process and generate more success. Their feedback on the results is also very important to me.
According to the assessment my style is Pacesetter. I agree for the most part. I believe in leading by example and assembling the best team you can. I understand the major weakness of this style is how it alienates underperformers. However, in retrospect I realize that my leadership style changes to be more supportive, understanding and tolerant of minor mistakes when the aptitude of an employee is in question. So I would say I'm a Pacesetter/Coach.
Considering that, my question would be "How does a leader switch styles from what's most natural and comfortable, to one more contrived, while maintaing trust and still remaining effective?"
Definately,the pacesetting style. I know as leaders we are to adapt to various situation and utilize the various styles accordingly. This is the expectation. However; we need to be honest with ourselves and know that we are not perfect and are creatures of habits. We all have personalities of our own. Not always do we act in all 4-6 various leadership spectrums. We all have a tendancy to lead a certain way or style. The goal as we develop and grow our leadership is to be aware of predominant styles and mindfully change the pattern. We need to learn to be flexible and willing to make changes within.
I believe personality traits and leadership style go hand in hand together for the most part. However; self-aweraness, willingness to recognize ones shortcomings, the ability to adapt to changes, and be flexible is what makes great leadership raise to the occassion.
Great insights, Janet. Thank you for sharing your views on your leadership and personality style. I get the sense that you are a leader that is aware of your strengths and opportunities, as well as your teams. This an excellent awareness to have so that you can build your team to compliment each other and work as a cohesive group. I'm sure that your leadership style is appreciated by the people that you work with!
Shannon Gormley
I firmly believe in building strong individuals and combining them into strong teams. I support and encourage all employees to communicate and grow while giving more responsibilities to those who earn it. The natural progression of leadership through our school has established a good mix of leaders and support who are comfortable in their roles. Striking a balance where the allure of moving up in the company is mitigated with a strong focus on our goals (creating prepared students), keeps the eye on the future in a healthy perspective. I find that those who do good work and go beyond their job description tend to redefine their role at work, and as a result, we lean on them more and more. I love the feeling when you know someone is great and they work hard and shine, unprompted. I appreciate a job well done, but even more, I really love when an individual's pride drives an employee to strive for excellence regardless of scrutiny or recognition.
brian,
Thank you for sharing your insight and experience! I get the sense that you have high standards for your team and are sure to have resources available to support them in achieving the goals. I also see that you have a great deal of pride for your employees and that they work hard to achieve and exceed the expectations set forth.
Shannon Gormley
I tend to be more decocratic or affiliative. For the most part, this is where I'm in my comfort zone - involving others. Because the more you can get someone to take "ownership" of his/her part of the project, the better the results. However, I do tend to overlook some shortcomings of other people, especially if they are convincing and tell me they are trying to perform at a high level.
Great insight here James. It sounds like you have a good handle on your personality. So now that you have this awareness, is there anything that you plan to do differently?
Dr. Jean Norris
The ledership style that is suited to my personality is coaching. I like to teach people new skills and help see them move up. I havethe ability to break things down to different people way learning. I feel like I have accomplish something when I can teach someone.
