Leadership Essentials
For the business owner, you are a manager, leader, sales expert, and more. Importantly, in growing your company you’ve got to be able to lead people so that you can delegate and then focus on certain things.
Leading and Managing
Not all managers are leaders. You might have a brilliant vision and all kinds of people to help you achieve it, but if people are quitting before they come to work with you, or they quit mentally but stay on staff, it’s time to evaluate your ability to lead. It is not a sign of failure to admit that you are not a capable leader. It’s a sign that you need leaders who can lead!
Management is about the technical aspects of a job. Leadership is about inspiring people to give their best. Often, both roles fall to one person as a manager, but we also know lots of people who are leaders without a leadership role, who lead themselves capably and have people who look to them as mentors without even trying.
Leadership models abound, although there is one that really resonates with us that we will share here with you. In the work done by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard on the Situational Leadership II® model, they recognize four leadership styles. As you read about the different styles, think about where your own comfort level rests.
Director’s Style
Someone with a director’s style does well with new employees, who seem to easily respond to being told what is expected, having processes and procedures outlined for them, and having someone they can report to or ask questions of regularly. The director’s style is defined by a high emphasis on directing tasks and being able to account for results.
Coach’s Style
Coaches are able to blend supporting people and directing tasks. This is available to a leader when employees understand what is expected, but need some range of support in order to take independent steps and make things happen. A coach’s style has a high degree of involvement in directing tasks, with an equally high emphasis on supporting people.
Supporter’s Style
This style encourages people to come up with solutions and solve problems on their own. It provides them with the support they need in terms of tools and resources. The supporting style shows a low degree of directing tasks and a high emphasis on supporting people.
Delegator’s Style
Delegating means that the delegator holds responsibility for results, but that the work is done by others. We delegate to individuals who have high levels of related skill and the experience it takes to locate their resources and tools. Then they can report to the delegator at defined intervals. This style is one with a low emphasis on directing tasks, and an equally low emphasis on providing people support.
We all have a comfort and ease with one style, but there are times when staff performance, our own confidence, or a crisis demands that we behave differently.
When new people join the team, they understandably will need a level of direction that can be quite high and will leave little time for supporting people. As they gain skill and confidence, the leader can progress to a coaching style where they are still directing tasks but also able to offer additional support. As the employee makes progress, the leader provides more support and less hands-on direction until the direct report has the ability to accept delegated tasks.
This process can be cyclical. For example, a team that you can easily delegate to might go through a significant change or have a new system being implemented. You might have to start again with directing behavior before moving on to coaching, supporting, and then a return to delegating. It might look like this:
We also might encounter structures that do not allow us to delegate, which can be a tough job for someone who is a capable and effective delegator.