Successful leaders can and do adapt their leadership style to the situation and have strengths in self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Leadership Styles:
- Coercive
- Effective in emergencies and turnaround situations
- Inhibits flexibility and dampens morale
- Authoritative
- Freedom to choose approach to meet a common goal
- Does not work well with a team of experts
- Affiliative
- People first - increases morale and harmony
- Too much praise, poor performance isn't addressed
- Democratic
- Flexibility, responsibility, and fresh ideas
- Feeling leaderless and confused
- Pacesetting
- High standards, self-motivated and competent perform well
- Overwhelms the less competent, seen as taking over
- Coaching
- Personal development, helping people improve
- Doesn't help those who are resistant to change
In order to be a successful coach, address the advice monster that tries to control other people. Stay curious longer by helping them find the real issue. Drill down to find out what else might be causing an issue. And then ask again what the real challenge is. And finally what do you want?
