Leadership – It's All About Style

Someone Once Asked Me...How would you define your management and leadership style? Silly, grasshopper!

In seriousness, I responded that I have a blended style most influenced by Stephen Covey (initially with the Franklin Planner Class taken many moons ago), and over the last few years David Allen with his Getting Things Done methodology. I am absolutely goal and results oriented, but I would classify that as my management style.

Leadership is completely different. Leadership is about people, and helping others to be more successful than if they had never met you. My leadership style is dynamic, and almost chameleon like, meaning, I attempt to change to be the most effective for the given situation. People, and thus situations, are unique, and require a custom leadership style. However, with that said, you must have consistency, and even though the style may be different, or the path to get where you are going may be different, the end result should be the same. To obtain consistency, you rely upon your principles, and values to guide the way - they are your rock, your foundation. Staying true to your values and principles is how you build credibility and it is how you 'lead by example', or never get in a situation where you 'ask someone to do what you would not do yourself'.

I also fully believe that people inherently want to the right thing, and most importantly, they want to do a good job and be successful. Of course, there are some that fall out of that, but fortunately, they are easy to pick out, and the solution is to send them on their merry way. However, there are good people, who are not successful. Why? They either do not have the tools to be successful, or they are in the wrong career/position. Through careful conversations, one must determine the root cause. Possibly the right answer is to help them see that they are in the wrong position, and help them get in the right position, which may be inside your company, or even outside. Even if the person does need to leave the company, eventually, they will be better off both from a career and personal perspective. If the person is in the right position, then the issue could be situational, communication, or tools. The key is to identify the barriers of success, and then put a plan in place to resolve. More often than not, the root cause is communication - did the person know the goal, what is preventing the goal from being achieved. Identifying the problems is the key to success.

TWS (TW Smith) is one of the key authors on the website, Random Central, a site dedicated to random thoughts and ideas to make life more enjoyable. Please visit our web site for tips and tricks on life's challenges.

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