What Leadership Style Works Best for Your Organization?

What Leadership Style Works Best for Your Organization?

by Sharon Birkman Fink | Talent Management

 

There is constant change and turnover of jobs to find the right "leader," but the heightened demands of stakeholders and investors alike make those jobs harder than ever to fill. Leaders often find themselves in the line of fire for company performance that is shaped by economic and global competitive forces that the executives themselves have little direct control over.

 

The pressures are immense, and the resulting stresses can create friction within even the most committed and focused of executive teams.

 

Even though executive team members understand their company's business and culture, they may not have a conceptual understanding of the fundamental leadership skills required to meet both internal and external demands. To help them do that requires understanding - in a defined, academic sense - what leadership really is.

 

Understanding Leadership

 

Researchers define four leadership styles embodied in most leadership teams: inspirational, intellectual, individual and charismatic.

 

1. Leaders focused on inspirational motivation are high-energy people who are able to link meaning to action and communicate the benefits in an understandable way. They get people to respond with higher levels of attentiveness and dedication to reaching the goal.

 

2. Leaders who emphasize intellectual stimulation promote intelligent and thoughtful problem-solving processes and use creativity and innovation to benefit the organization. They encourage others to imagine, accept, support and implement ideas.

 

3. Leaders with the ability to demonstrate an individual approach define the needs of the group or team as a whole at the macro level, then tailor their actions and communication styles to resonate with each individual at the micro level.

 

4. Charismatic leaders define issues with a sense of emotional purpose. They are often less conventional and less accepting of traditional authority, but they are able to see and articulate what truly matters. Expressive, emotional and highly articulate, charismatic leaders are willing to take personal risks for what they see as the greater good.

 

Different functions and responsibilities within the same organization require different types of leaders. The charismatic leadership that motivates a sales team is very different from the intellectual leadership that more appropriately motivates a team of product researchers or technology professionals. There is no one standard leadership style, and no one standard communication approach.

 

Understanding Self

 

For executive leaders to work collegially with one another, and to effectively motivate a broad array of personality types, accurate and objective self awareness is crucial. Leaders can only understand and engage in dialogue with others if they understand their own motivational drivers and how they may be different from those of other individuals. Unfortunately, the everyday pressure of business responsibilities leaves little time for reflection and self-examination.

 

One route companies might consider is using leadership personality assessment in the context of a structured management development program. The best ones pinpoint the strengths and motivations of individual leaders and help them use these strengths to address their possible blind spots and identify what they will need to energize and recharge their personal leadership styles.

 

There is no one "best leadership style" and there is no scientific formula for building an effective executive team. The task requires a predictive understanding of how all the elements of human factors interact. Assessment tools can provide a way of measuring and understanding the interaction between personality traits and job responsibilities, including the ability to productively work with peers by accepting feedback, advancing teamwork efforts and communicating in ways that are meaningful to others.

 

 

[About the Author: Sharon Birkman Fink is president and CEO of Birkman International Inc., which provides an assessment tool used for 60 years by nearly 3 million people and 5,000 organizations worldwide to guide their hiring, retention, motivational and organizational development activities.]