Whats Your Leadership Style

Proclaiming, Encouraging, Equipping, Supporting , what’s your Leadership Style?

"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy,"- General Schwarzkopf unintentionally spelt the essence of true leadership! Leadership in spirit is influential, courageous and visionary. True leaders lead by empowering their followers and command respect by virtue of their strength of character. They practice persuasion through informal authority instead of coercion.

Leadership is partly instinctive and partly learnt. The PTL model of leadership provided by Personal Transformation Limited, (a human capital transformation firm) brings out the factors that make a good leader and reflects upon the design and development of leadership.

PTL Model of leadership
According to the PTL model of leadership, a collaboration of three factors, namely-passion, temperament and character helps master the craft of leadership. Passion is reflective of a person’s leadership gifting which is determined by his inner drive. Temperament reflects a person’s behavioral instincts while character determines his personal maturity.

Every leader has a unique composition of passion, temperament and character that becomes his "leadership style". Of these three factors "passion or leadership gifting" plays the central role in determining a leader’s style of leadership. Passion is the inner most drive of a person and reflects an individual’s motivation and path he chooses to achieve it. This explains the difference in leadership styles.

Awareness about one’s individual style enhances the overall effectiveness of a leader. This knowledge also provides insights into the strategies that can be employed to build on strengths and overcome weaknesses. Leaders can also choose to imbibe the positive aspects of other leadership styles if they wish to do so.

There is nothing "right" or "wrong" about a particular leadership style. They are merely different in approach and leaders can adopt one of the choices depending on their motivation, drive, organizational culture and overall objective. In fact all seven leadership styles connect with each other in one way or the other. Discovering this connection helps create an ideal blend.

Leadership styles Proclaiming style of leadership

Leaders who practice the "proclaiming" style are largely values-driven and hold a strong opinion or perception about every issue. As they are straightforward and clear about what they want they react strongly. They do not believe in violation of values, which are firmly ingrained in their
value system. Proclaiming leaders have a distinct style of conduct. They are impressive and convincing speakers. Their charm and communicative skills help them win corporate negotiations.

Equipping style of leadership

As the name suggests, leaders who practice the equipping style are constantly indulged in equipping themselves with knowledge, skills and information. These leaders will remind you of your statistics professor. They rattle out figures and numbers with amazing accuracy and condemn people who talk without a strong statistical base to support their argument. Equipping leaders put forth their views in the form of reports, curricula, guidelines and proposals. Highly meticulous and organized, they expect the same from their followers too.

Encouraging style of leadership
Encouraging leaders are driven by the growth of their followers. They like to see people growing, doing well and prospering under them. Success of others gives them a high. Leaders practicing this style are committed to unleashing the potential of their followers and leading them to self-actualization. Encouraging leaders don the role of a mentor, extending unconditional support and encouragement. These leaders are extravagant when expressing positive emotions like recognition, appreciation and praise. Their parent-like attitude makes them share a bond of affection and love with their followers.

Empathizing style of leadership
Empathizing leaders wear feelers for others. They are highly sensitive to the needs and aspirations of people around them. Their decisions-are largely people-centered and hence are almost always accepted without any resistance. They may seem sentimental and emotional, however they maintain their humanity without compromising on work. These leaders are genuinely happy with the success of others and brood when failure touches their followers. People working under the empathizing leaders feel wanted giving a boost to their self-esteem. Empathizing leaders also demonstrate insights and assertiveness in their actions.

Directing style of leadership
Corporate vision is the sole motivator for leaders practicing this style. All their actions are governed by their drive to accomplish the goals and vision of their company. They mean business. Their communication is centered around strategies that could help achieve the ultimate objective. Directive leaders are clear in thought and concise in action. Directive leaders are like rudders that bring a straying ship back to its path. They are constant reminders of the very purpose of a corporate’s existence and keep the entire organization on track.

Investing style of leadership
Investing leaders are clever and probe to the point of conviction. They dwell on finer points and prefer to bring out weaknesses rather than celebrating success. They believe that success is a corollary of weaknesses eliminated. Being great communicators their conversations are crisp but
subtle.

Supporting style of leadership
Supporting leaders are people-centric. They are caring. Their actions speak for them. These leaders enjoy complete employee confidence and do not feel the need to give explanations or reasons for their decisions. Trust and faith are far too strong. Awareness about leadership styles is critical for effective leadership. A leader who knows his style of conduct is far more successful than his ignorant counterparts.

'Principles of Leadership" by Mr. Rudolph W.Giuliani (former Mayor of New York City)

1. The first principle of Leadership:
Believe in yourself...First of all be true to yourself...Unless you know what you stand for, you will never become a good leader.

2. The second principle of Leadership:
Have a vision...Great people in the history had all great visions and they believed where they want to be or the things that they want to do....Cases in point are Ronald Reagan...who thought communism was bad and he was the sole force responsible for the down fall of USSR...and Martin Luther King Jr...who had a dream that all American people in future shall not be judged by their colour of skin but the content of their character...
So one has to have a vision as to where he/she wants to take himself ahead in future...to be a successful leader.

3. The third one: Courage ...Ability to take Risk:
You got to be bold enough to take risk and have the courage to take it too.

4. The fourth one: Relentless preparation:
Always be prepared for any anticipated scenario in order that nothing unanticipated happens. But even at times on the occurrence of the unanticipated event you may take a modified route out of your multiple preparation for similar events to overcome such events and take the control of situation.

5. And the fifth one....Team Work:
The essence of leadership is to have very good team work. One has to assess the areas of ones weakness and see how best he or she can balance the weaknesses with the strength of his/her team members. A good leader has to be both a teacher as well as a motivator too.

6. Finally the last one... Communicate with others...
Finally a good leader must necessarily be a good communicator. One has to be able to communicate his/her ideals properly to his team members in his/her effort to achieve the goals.

SECRET OF LEADERSHIP

THE SOUND OF THE FOREST
Back in the third century A.D., the King Ts'ao sent his son, Prince T'ai, to the temple to study under the great master Pan Ku. Because Prince T'ai was to succeed his father as king, Pan Ku was to teach the boy the basics of being a good ruler.

When the prince arrived at the temple, the master sent him alone to the Ming-Li Forest. After one year, the prince was to return to the temple to describe the sound of the forest.
When Prince T'ai returned, Pam Ku asked the boy to describe all that he could hear. "Master," replied the prince, "I could hear the cuckoos sing, the leaves rustle, the hummingbirds hum, the cricket chirp, the grass blow, the bees buzz, and the wind whisper and holler."

When the prince had finished, the master told him to go back to the forest to listen to what more he could hear. The prince was puzzled by the master's request. Had he not discerned every sound already?

For days and nights on end, the young prince sat alone in the forest listening. But he heard no sounds other then those he had already heard. Then one morning, as the prince sat silently beneath the trees, he started to discern faint sounds unlike those he had overheard before. The more acutely he listened, the clearer the sounds became. The feeling of enlightenment enveloped the boy, "These must be the sounds the master wished me to discern," he reflected.

When Prince T'ai returned to the temple, the master asked him what more he had heard. "Master," responded the prince reverently, "when I listened most closely, I could hear the unheard... the sound of flowers opening, the sound of the sun warming the earth, and
the sound of the grass drinking the morning dew."

The master nodded approvingly. "To hear the unheard," remarked Pan Ku, "is a necessary discipline to be a good ruler. For only when a ruler has learned to listen closely to the people's hearts, hearing their feelings not communicated, pains unexpressed, and complaints not
spoken of, can he hope to inspire confidence in his people, understand when something is wrong, and meet the true needs of his citizens.

The demise of states comes when leaders listen only to superficial words and do not penetrate deeply into the souls of the people to hear their true opinions, feeling, and desires.