Leadership style. Does it really depend on the situation? You have your own unique style, but when it comes to leadership, it really does depend on the situation. It comes down to two things: Competence and Confidence.
Your individual staff members are either competent or not and confident or not. You need to modify your leadership style to fit the situation.
- For staff members who are competent and confident, you will simply need to delegate. But be careful not to over delegate and burn them out.
- If your staff member is competent but lacks confidence, then you need to focus on the relationship. You need to provide emotional support by telling them you believe in them
- For staff members that lack competence but has confidence, then tackle them before the leave your office! They’re all excited, they just don’t know what they are doing. You’ll want to focus on the task. Train. Train. Train. You want that person to know what they are doing.
- If your staff member lacks both competence and confidence. When working with them, you want to make sure that you are providing both training and social support to get them back on track.
The key to effective leadership is to pay attention to each individual staff member you lead and stay in touch with them to see what kind of issues they are facing. Then simply focus on the task or the relationship or both.
For more on effective leadership, watch Kit’s presentation here. And don’t forget to check back next week for another video blog.