“Successful leaders are learners. And the learning process is ongoing.”
John C. Maxwell
Achieving goals takes more than a great strategy. You need a strong team built with confidence and managed through a healthy leadership style that elevates everyone to new levels of success.
Many years ago, my company sent me to a nine-month leadership class. The company had promoted me to director status with a board position, and I needed extra training in my expanded role.
The training was exhilarating but grueling. The class lasted three hours, and after a full day of work starting at 5am, sometimes it felt like an endurance test.
Yet, the class was so well-managed with practical applications and interaction with peers that it was an incredible growing time for me. I honed my leadership and team building skills while learning new ones.
One theme was woven throughout the training:
Keep your focus while building your team.
One way to develop a leadership style that builds a strong team is by understanding how you lead.
This starts by asking yourself, “How do I lead?”
In a previous blog, we studied the relational leadership style, the ability to build rapport with a team in a way that maximizes everyone’s potential and creates synergy while achieving clearly set goals.
While I recognize that there are many effective leadership styles, and combinations of them, starting from this relational perspective goes a long way toward building a strong, effective team that achieves set goals.
Today, let’s look at two different leadership styles and their effects on team building.
These two styles are opposites. They are:
- Controlled and Contained
- Empowered and Released
Let’s look at the first one.
- Controlled and Contained
The Controlled and Contained leadership style is defined by the leader’s need to maintain supervision over every detail of their employees’ daily tasks. They require constant feedback from their team and full disclosure before any decision is made.
Those practicing this leadership style are “Helicopter Leaders.”
In this helicopter environment, tasks and team members are micro-managed. The leader hovers over each team member as they work to ensure the task is completed in the way they deem best. This type of leader believes that if they do not hover, then the task will not be completed in a timely and cost-effective way.
This method of leading creates several limitations for the leader and their team.
The first limiting factor of this leadership styleis tunnel vision.
Tunnel vision occurs when the leader is focused on a single task. It keeps them from seeing the big picture and consumes all their time, making them less effective.
To build a successful team, a leader should be focused on the established short-term goals while keeping long-term goals in mind.
When a leader’s time is spent hovering, the team may achieve a level of success with the short-term goals, but the time needed to execute the long-term goals is eaten away.
As a result, leaders end up working additional hours, leaving no time for anything outside of work.
The second limiting factor of this leadership style is stifling employees.
Employees who are micromanaged are less productive and have higher stress levels. They are undervalued and untrusted.
Employees are brought in to make the leader’s job easier by taking specific areas off their plate. If controlling and containing is your leadership style, then your team loses the opportunity to think and grow in their positions and bring value to the company.
- Empowered and Released
The Empowered and Releasedleadership style is defined as the ability to give the team the authority and freedom to accomplish their task within the framework of the department goals and visions.
This is building a team based on trust and confidence in the team’s abilities.
In this leadership style, the leader is focused on the macro—the overall goal. The team understands the macro, but they are also focused on accomplishing their task, the micro step leading to the bigger picture.
This leadership style does not require constant oversight of the team. These are “Fighter-Jet” leaders. They empower their employees by releasing to them the work they were hired to do.
This contributes to a successful team because the leader can stay focused on their mission while being available to answer questions and provide input.
This leadership style knows that to accomplish goals, the leader must empower each team member and release an area of responsibility to them. This style creates an environment of freedom for everyone.
Here are two freedom factors of this leadership style:
- Leadership clarity
Clarity brings the ability to see beyond the day to day, giving room to visualize and plan for the future.
Leaders with clarity are confident because they know the bases are covered and the work is done well. Knowing the strengths of each team member produces solutions for the challenges you face.
As leaders, we have been placed in our position knowing that we can accomplish the job at hand, and our team provides the support that will bring success in our area of responsibility.
When I was promoted to Director, we transferred someone from another city to take my old position. She was the opposite of me in every way, and we were a perfect fit.
She worked differently from me, but her methods for completing assignments were not critical factors in the team’s performance. I could give her any assignment and her team could complete it with excellence.
- Confident employees
Encouraging confident employees is the second freedom factor that is critical to successfully building a team and achieving goals.
Confident employees believe that they are trusted to handle the assigned task, making them more productive. They will take risks to improve the processes and grow their skills because they see mistakes as opportunities to grow.
Confident employees know that their leader values their perspective, and that they are listened to when they offer input.
When the employee is empowered and released, then the whole team grows and succeeds. This leadership style produces confident employees that make you look like a champion in the eyes of others.
Having talked about two different leadership styles, my question for you is this:
What type of leader do you want to be?
If you have not yet discovered your Relational Leadership Personality, download my free eBook, Relational Leadership.
So, let’s take some first steps to develop an effective leadership style to build a strong team.
First, take a few minutes and write down what type of leadership style you want to have to build your team and meet your goals.
Some of the attributes of a successful leadership style that you identify could come from people you have admired or watched over the years, those you consider great leaders.
For me, Bill Johnson is a great leader I have followed and learned from over the years. One key lesson I learned from him is empowering people through a willingness to make room for their growth.
In that empowerment, mistakes are made, but Bill uses them to facilitate growth in that team member. He has developed a strong team at Bethel Church in Redding, California.
Next, make three columns.
At the top of each column, write:
Great —- Good —- Need to Learn
Take the attributes of a great leadership style that you already wrote down and under these three columns, categorize them under what you are already great at, are good at, and need to learn.
You may want to get feedback from your team in these areas.
Prioritize your “Need to Learn” items and pick the highest priority. Then, find the best way to develop this area.
As you complete one area of development, moving it to “Good” or “Great,” go back and review. You may find the area you are working on includes other areas on your list!
These are simple steps for defining what you want your future as a leader to be, and ways to determine the next steps that will elevate your team and achieve your goals.
These steps will also prepare you for promotion.
As you work through your list, sign up on my website to receive timely encouragement on your leadership journey, and additional insight into how to grow your team.
I will help you connect to your best by clarifying your vision and developing and implementing the plan you need to be the best you can be.
Remember, you are the best investment you can make!
Let’s get the conversation started!
If you want to find your passion AND the why behind it, sign up for my 6-week online course, Compelled to Change.
In this class, you will learn practical and repeatable strategies to accomplish your dreams and be unstoppable!
Abundant Blessings, Cindy
Cindy Stewart has a passion for people and helping them connect to their life purpose, discover their passions, and live their dreams. Cindy’s latest book, God’s Dream for Your Life, brings clarity to your purpose while unlocking vision of what is possible in the natural and the supernatural. She is an itinerant speaker, an executive coach, and hosts a weekly podcast on Charisma Podcast Network. Along with her husband, Chuck, they lead The Gathering Apostolic Center in Tarpon Springs, FL.
Please email Cindy with any questions or comments to cindystewartauthor@gmail.com. She’d love to hear from you.
Remember, you are the best investment you can make.