417. The Adaptive Leader: Blending Styles for Team Success
Great leaders know when to adapt their leadership style to elevate performance.
As a leader, you are responsible for ensuring your team achieves its objectives. However, the most effective approach to driving results is rarely one-size-fits-all. The key lies in your ability to assess your team's requirements at any given moment and adapt your leadership style accordingly.
Some teams may need more attention and coaching than others. By being present and investing time in developing your people, you equip them with the tools for eventual self-sufficiency. This need should be short-lived but essential to ensure they don’t go too far off track.
For a team that is consistently delivering, the challenge will be giving them space to execute while still providing support. Managing this type of team too closely could slow them down, but you still want to stay close enough to ensure they remain focused on the key priorities.
It's a delicate balance of providing appropriate levels of support and empowerment.
The most effective leaders understand that their role is to bring out the best in their teams, no matter the approach required at any given time.
Keep Learning
“Our research, conducted with more than 1,000 managers across the globe, suggests that what’s out-of-date is the idea that a leader should adopt a fixed leadership style that’s agnostic to the specific context in which he or she is operating. A single approach to leadership, whether traditional or emerging, is not going to meet the myriad of challenges that today’s leaders face.” - Jennifer Jordan from Finding the Right Balance — and Flexibility — in Your Leadership Style
“No one likes a boss who excessively scrutinizes work and constantly checks in. Not only is this micromanaging behavior annoying, it can stunt your professional growth.” - Amy Gallo from Stop Being Micromanaged
“Having a hands-off manager can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, these bosses give employees considerable initiative and empowerment. On the other hand, they can sometimes be so removed from the action that they’re unable to intervene when needed, making employees feel like they’re left to fend for themselves.” - Jean-François Manzoni from Dealing with a Hands-Off Boss
“When a leader takes too much ownership, there is no ownership left for the team or subordinate leaders to take. So the team loses initiative, they lose momentum, they won't make any decision, they just sit around and wait to be told what to do.” - Jocko Willink & Leif Babin from The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win
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Instead of the leader to take too much ownership he should rather delegate duties to help his team sharpen their skills
While heartedly agree. Adaptability is the 6th direction of my self awareness compass. It comes from a research interest in complexity leadership and complex adaptive system.
That’s for an interesting article!