Leadership Style Assessment

Leadership is commonly associated with action – trying, doing, achieving. However, there is another side to leadership that focuses on the followers: trust. Leaders need to actively trust their followers to show courageous leadership. This may sound simple, but it’s often harder for goal-oriented achievers.

The act of trusting often requires letting go of our need to control outcomes or people, our defense mechanisms, and our preconceptions about what is “right.” For hard-driving controlling types, such as the coffee-clutching professionals who make up much of today’s workforce, this goes against the grain of everything they stand for. Trust runs counter to the take-charge ethos that epitomizes today’s business world. In many companies, the most valued employees are those who, when encountering challenging situations, control chaos, force order, and take decisive action. As the Roman poet Virgil said, “Fortune favors the bold.”

“Trust Courage,” for managers, is a tricky thing. On one hand, you need your employees to trust you so that they follow your direction enthusiastically. On the other hand, you have to monitor their performance, which, if done too closely, often feels like distrust. Plus, many managers work in companies layered with systems that are inherently distrustful. It is more difficult to fill workers’ “trust buckets” if you’re an extension of a system that doesn’t trust them. “Sure,” your workers may say, “I’ll trust you… just as soon as you get the company to stop random drug testing, monitoring our e-mails, and making us submit time reports.”

New managers in particular are challenged with Trust Courage. Consider, for example, how hard it is for new managers to delegate important tasks to employees. In such instances, if the employee screws up, it can reflect on the manager, not the employee. Consequently, many new managers struggle to fully let go of delegated tasks, choosing to hover above direct reports like smothering parents. In so doing, they become Spillers, thwarting employee development and keeping themselves mired in tasks that they should have outgrown by this stage in their careers.

Delegation involves not acting on the temptation to grab the task back from the employee. The ability to delegate is directly proportional to how much trust a manager has in an employee. Trust doesn’t come easily for new managers (or immature experienced ones), because it involves intentionally refraining from controlling an outcome (or a person). If the manager doesn’t trust that the employee will get the job done, they will grab the task back and do it themselves — or worse, they won’t even give the task to the employee in the first place. The result is a sort of leadership dependency whereby workers wait to be told what to do, like baby birds waiting to be fed. When this happens, a dangerous spill cycle begins; the leader keeps doing the tasks, which keeps the workers from gaining the skills to do the tasks, which keeps the leader from delegating the tasks, which keeps the leader doing the tasks, etc.

Trust Courage involves taking risks on other people and accepting that you might get harmed in the process.

Trust is risky. When you trust, you become vulnerable to actions that are beyond your direct control. Your success becomes dependent upon someone else’s action. The challenge here is one of reliance; you have to give up direct control and rely on the actions of others. It is this lack of control that makes trust so difficult. Trusting you can harm me. Because of this risk, it takes courage to place trust in others. It takes Trust Courage, for example, to let employees do their jobs without interference. It takes Trust Courage to accept that, despite their best efforts, employees will make occasional mistakes.

To learn more about how to develop courage, attend HRDQ’s webinar “Courageous Leadership: How to Build Backbone, Boost Performance, and Get Results”. This webinar will allow attendees to understanding why courage is the premier personal and professional virtue while learning how to create an environment that supports ongoing courageous behavior. Participants will also receive tips on how to increase their courage while inspiring more workplace courage.

This webinar is based on the HRDQ product “Courageous Leadership.” Courageous Leadership is a comprehensive training package that introduces courage-building, which is a practice that guides leaders to readily meet challenges, fully embrace change, and speak more assertively.

Effective leadership is a skill that every manager needs to master. Effective leadership means more success – for the individual, team and organization as a whole. With strong leadership a business can thrive.

There are four types of leadership. One type is direct leaders who take charge and are forward and honest. Spirited leaders are energetic and assertive, and they lead by inspiring. Considerate leaders lead by being empathetic and building group harmony. Finally, systematic leaders are logical and they tend to plan carefully. Managers can encompass some or all of these leadership styles. Knowing your style is important, but also knowing ways to improve is crucial.

There is always room to improve one’s leadership skills. A few of them are listed below:

Create Your Vision

Vision is the ability to imagine the organization’s future and inspire others to work toward achieving goals. Leaders should continually look for new ideas and opportunities and ways to achieve them. Staying focused on the goal and assessing tasks and responsibilities as they unfold is essential.

Pursue Excellence

Leaders should set high expectations for themselves and identify ways to go the extra mile for employees and customers. They should strive for the best results from their staff and take risks when necessary. They should also seek new ways of doing things and be open to other suggestions.

Communicate Effectively

Communication is one of the most important ingredients for effective leadership. Managers should show their passion for the organization, voice ideas in a clear manner, listen to others, and share personal anecdotes to increase understanding. They should end with a call to action.

Build Trust

Managers should remain trustworthy in order to keep their team’s faith in them as a leader. They need to keep their promises, communicate directly and openly, be honest about problems, and take responsibility. If a leader is trustworthy their followers are likely to be trustworthy as well.

Inspire Others

Inspirational leaders are easier to follow. Managers who demonstrate their vision and communicate their ideas are inspirational. They can use a variety of approaches to inspire others around them.

Be Enthusiastic

If a leader is enthusiastic and appreciates their job, the positive environment will affect the entire team. When a leader shows enthusiasm they show others that work matters.

Develop your leadership by viewing HRDQ’s webinar Leading is a State of Being: Effective Leadership Skills . You will learn the key characteristics of effective leadership, how leaders can build trust and confidence with their employees, the behaviors that undermine leadership performance, and how to act decisively and demonstrate leadership during crises.

Further your leadership knowledge with the Leadership 101 customizable course. This is an effective training program that gives both newly emerging and experienced leaders and managers the tools and techniques for developing and refining their skills. This learning resource helps organizations retain employees and clients, make better decisions, and improve performance.