Joseph Soares is a former advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada, and a managing partner at HR firm IBPROM Corp.
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Storms rage every day, often in more ways than one. Rain might pound against the glass of your office window while lightning tears at the sky. Inside, a crisis has exploded, and it’s all hands on deck trying to salvage some form of victory from the vicious jaws of defeat. You’re barking orders, sounding a bit too much like the thunder rattling the walls of the cubicles and growing closer with each passing minute.
By the time the storm outside has (mercifully) passed, so, too has the one inside. You head home. When you step through the door of your house, you’re met with a new problem: Your child got in trouble at school and your spouse is livid. Instead of taking charge, you nod your head, listen and go along with whatever they say.
You might not have noticed it, but you just switched your leadership style. You likely do it more often than you realize. It’s important to understand the core components of leadership and be able to identify your style so that you recognize who you are when dealing with others.
A (Sometimes) Shifting Landscape
I've written before about three common leadership styles, and how strong leaders understand the necessity (not just the importance) of adjusting their leadership style for different situations. Sometimes, employees need more supervision and guidance when a deadline is looming; therefore, transformational leadership may not be as effective. Other times, team members are highly educated, skilled and confident about the work they do and don’t need an authoritative style pounding down on them like the driving rain of a storm.
Each leadership style offers value in a variety of settings, but that’s not really what we’re talking about in this article. We’re talking about whether the style you've adopted as your default aligns with who you want to be.
Somewhere along your journey of life, you had a vision for who you would be one day. Is that the person reflected in your mirror each morning? Is this manager, CEO, boss or executive the man or woman you always envisioned you’d be? Do your employees respond to you the way you wish they would? Does your family?
It’s okay to use one leadership style for one person and a completely different one for someone else. There may also be times when you realize that who you envisioned yourself being (at work, in your family or within your community) is not who you are. You can change. You can shift your leadership style.
Three Steps To Changing Your Leadership Style
1. The first step is to identify your leadership style.
Specifically, identify the style you tend to rely on in a crisis or high-stress environment, as this will tend to be your primary style. Do you prefer an authoritative style? Or perhaps transactional? Maybe you’re more relaxed, or laissez-faire. For more details about these styles, check out this article that goes into detail on eight common styles of leadership or this blog post that discusses five styles. Different sources disagree on how many styles there are and exactly what each style consists of, but no matter what resources you use, you'll find a style or two that resonates with you.
2. Next, start making the transition.
Once you've recognized that a different leadership style appeals to you more, then you should create a plan detailing how you’ll make this adjustment.
A solid plan for this type of transition should include your starting point (your current leadership style) and the ending point (the style you'd prefer to utilize more often). Don’t expect overnight change; rather, try to focus on where you want to go during the first hour of the day for a week. Then become more attuned to your patterns and behaviors for longer stretches of time. Perhaps within a month or two, you’ll notice the new leadership style becoming more routine, more part of who you are now.
During this step, communicate with your team, family or whomever you lead. Let them know your observations, your goals and how you’re going to transition. Your team knows you. They know what to expect. If you begin to change and don’t tell them what’s happening or why, it can give off mixed signals or the rumor mill might start grinding into gear. If you’re up-front about these changes, however, your team can help you along the way, providing invaluable feedback that will get you where you want to be faster.
3. Finally, reflect and evaluate.
But first, offer yourself grace and mercy. Change doesn’t happen by snapping your fingers. It doesn’t happen like a bolt of lightning ripping through the air. Evolution takes time. So forgive yourself when you don’t get it right, but keep pressing on.
Throughout this process, continually reflect and evaluate how things are going. This should include asking yourself a few key, pointed questions:
• How has my overall attitude as a leader changed during these past (1, 2, 4, 8, etc.) months?
• How is my team responding differently to me as a result of these changes?
• When I've slipped back into my old leadership habits, were there precursors? Was there a trigger or stressor I can identify? If so, how might I use that next time to get ahead of the backsliding?
• Have I noticed a change in my personal life as a result of these efforts?
• Have I honestly made a solid effort to change? If not, what can I do to be more committed to this transition? (If so, reward yourself. Actually, reward yourself either way because this is a journey, not an overnight trip.)
At some point in the future, your leadership style will (finally) align with who you want to be, and that’s a great starting point for the next chapters in your life.
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