Leadership Style: Why Should Managers Care What People Think?

Introduction

“You manage things. You lead people.” Grace M. Hopper

Grace Hopper was a trailblazing computer scientist and one the U.S. Navy’s longest-serving and highest-ranking female officers. She was instrumental in developing COBOL, the most widely used computer language in the world by the 1970s, and retired as Rear Admiral at the age of 79. In February 2017, Yale University renamed Calhoun College in her honor after years of controversy over John C. Calhoun’s legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately promoted slavery. In my view, she nailed that distinction between leadership and management more succinctly than anyone, and was also proof that executives must excel at both if they are going to maximize organizational performance.

Much has been studied and written about leadership to the point of complete saturation. It is overwhelming for executives to consider the plethora of theories, tactics, and models of leadership in attempting to assess and improve their own effectiveness. Who is right? What is the best management style? How can leaders apply the volume of research to themselves and their organizations?

There are no easy answers, and every executive and manager has to figure it out for themselves based on their own world view, personality, and behavioral traits, but my general recommendation is that professional managers must seek out feedback and work toward improving their leadership effectiveness overall. This can be done through seminars and training, feedback tools and profiles, and just simple self-assessment and reflection, but what people think about you as a leader really DOES matter. Whether employee perceptions are accurate or not, “perception is reality” and it affects individual, team, and organizational performance.

Leadership Style

If you Google, “What is the best leadership style?” you won’t get a straight answer. You will find that, “It depends.” While there is no “right” answer, it is true that effective leadership requires flexibility and being able to adapt behavior to accommodate the specific situation, the task at hand, and the people with whom you are dealing. Regardless of which management books are on your shelf, or your personal temperament and leadership philosophy, the preponderance of research and literature, in general, leans toward being more participative and less autocratic.

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (author of “The One Minute Manager”) developed the Situational Leadership theory with four basic styles, and that emphasizes there is no “one size fits all” style. The four styles are:

Directing (S1): Telling people what to do and how to do it.

Coaching (S2): Selling ideas to get group members to buy into the process.

Supporting (S3): Allowing the group to take a more active role in decisions.

Delegating (S4): A less involved, hands-off approach to leadership.

In The Managerial Grid by Blake and Mouton, there are five styles based on relative emphasis placed on “concern for production” and “concern for people.”

Daniel Goleman of “Emotional Intelligence” fame has described Six Styles of Leadership that all have an appropriate time and place. Goleman also co-wrote bestseller Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence with Richard Boyatzis of Case Western Reserve University. Rick Boyatzis is considered the "Father of Competency-Based Training," and his work and research in The Competent Manager was very deep and thorough. It is the basis for numerous leadership competency models and training programs in organizations all over the world. I am fortunate to be able to call him one of my mentors, and here is proof - I am officially a "comrade in competence."

The Six Leadership Styles include:

Pacesetting - Expects and models excellence and self-direction

Authoritative - Mobilizes the team toward a common vision and goals

Affiliative - Works to create emotional bonds

Coaching - Develops people

Coercive - Demands immediate compliance

Democratic - Builds consensus through participation

In general, some combination of Authoritative with Democratic and Coaching styles is considered "best" combination over the long-term.

No matter what theory is used as the basis for leadership survey feedback, the executive has a tall order in understanding and doing something with the feedback to improve their own effectiveness. In any case, self-assessment, reflection, and positive change is very hard, but outstanding managers tend to seek out leadership development opportunities and training, and tend to get the most out of it. Whether you are a seasoned executive or a young “up-and-comer,” it is good to explore these tough questions if you take your role as leader seriously.

Leadership Assessment and Development

Some executive and managers couldn’t give a rip what their subordinates think, and that is certainly their prerogative, but the research is clear that leadership style has a direct and profound impact on bottom-line organizational performance. Maybe even more importantly, leadership affects an organization’s ability to change, adapt, and improve over time, and cannot occur without some fundamental behavior change at the top. If a manager sees a need for change due to quality problems, safety or compliance issues, employee dissatisfaction, customer complaints, or any number of indicators, it may be time to look inward.

There are many valid sources of information about your leadership effectiveness and personal strengths and improvement areas, including:

Intuitive Self-Assessment - Your own view of strengths and areas for improvement

Feedback from Others - What people tell you about your tendencies

Instrumented Feedback - Data from questionnaires or surveys (self, peer, manager, or employee)

Many executives and managers have a ton of survey feedback in three-ring binders full of data on leadership, learning style, personality type (e.g., Myer-Briggs Type Indicator), temperament, and other personal characteristics from years of workshops and leadership development programs. While gaining insights about oneself if a good thing, what really matters is what the leader does with the data.

Conclusion

Grace Hopper’s “managing things and leading people” theme runs through just about every leadership theory and associated assessment tool. I encourage all executives and managers to seek out help from their Human Resources and Organization Development experts and consultants, and use research-based, scientifically sound, valid, and reliable survey instruments or questionnaires for personalized and behaviorally-specific feedback as a part of their leadership development strategies.

Regardless of what theories and methods you choose, always ask the tough question, “So, what?” In other words, why does my leadership style matter? What are the implications of my style on individual, group, and organizational performance? And, what can I do differently to be more effective?

If you do choose to embark on a journey of organizational self-renewal and “culture” change, get ready to take a long, hard look at yourself in the process. Good luck!

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