Tatum: Learn What Kind of Leader You Are

For the next few issues, we are going to discuss leadership styles and help you decide which kind of leader you are inherently. Knowing how you lead will allow you to fine-tune your rough edges and become a well-rounded manager. It will also help you in choosing and training your teams. Using a football analogy, you can have the best wide receivers, but if the quarterback cannot get the ball to them, you will not move the chains forward.

So, to start, ask yourself this one question: “A leader is…what?”

How did you answer it? Did you choose to look at someone else, like a higher ranked manager or another peer who you try to model yourself around? That is what most people do—look outside. However, you need to recognize that internally, anyone can become a leader. Even if you are not managing a team daily, you might still have to step into a leadership role from time to time.

So, before we start going over each style and their respective pros and cons, think about this: Why do leadership styles matter? Here is a quote that I have taken and placed in my leadership training presentation: “Understanding how you lead and want to lead will give you a better sense of control over the size and scope of your reach and impact.”  To be a good leader, you need to become a highly effective one. So, once you decide how you lead, take charge and move forward.

Transactional leadership. You give me this, and I will give you that. That is the easiest way to explain this one. These leaders give out instruction, and you either reward for a job well done or punish if something is not done to your standard. This is a very dictatorial style of leadership. This can be a good style for environments that are filled with strict processes and procedures to follow. The type of employees you want for this style are those who enjoy being rewarded for doing an excellent job. If your company has any kind of sales commission bonuses, this style can keep your customer service advisors motivated to always hit their marks for financial gain. The one negative for this style is that it does stifle creativity or finding new, faster, safer ways to do things. If you find that you are the type of manager who is constantly producing new ways to reward your teams, then you are set right into this style peg.

Transformational leadership. These types of leaders are constantly seeking new and better ways to do things. They wish to make a positive change in the way that they go to business. They frequently look for input from those under them to create innovation in the workplace. These are great leadership qualities to have in any business, as they allow your team to feel like they have a say in how things are done. These leaders have highly motivated teams, and they feel like they are given a purpose. Under this leadership style, employees are given a lot of rope to try things and create new processes in the workplace. While this is a good style to build a tight-knit team of collaborators, it can have a downside. As you and your team are always looking for the best way to complete each job, not taking someone’s idea and putting it into practice may make that employee feel slighted and lose motivation. Not all new ideas are good ones, and this type of leader still needs to know when to take a step back.

These are just two of the many leadership styles that we will discuss over the next few months. In the meantime, think about how you lead and manage your business. As you start to read these over, you will find your place in line.

Now, do not be concerned if you find yourself a little of a few styles, as that is perfectly fine. “Mutts” are what we call these in leadership training. They have a little bit of this and a little bit of that and it makes them who they are. When we get to sales styles in the future, you will find that ‘’mutts” are usually the best type of people.

But for now, do you see yourself in either of these two leadership forms? If so, take notes on what you can do to fine-tune yourself in that style. Look up leadership classes online in this style. There are likely many online videos and courses that you can take to bring yourself to a higher level of leader.