Leadership Secrets Every Business Leader Should Know (Part 1 of 2)

I have recently written several articles about The Stages Of Growth™️ Methodology, which is a business growth methodology that uniquely identifies the “rules of the game” that business owners and leaders must navigate to achieve sustainable growth.

The methodology clearly identifies what Stage a business is in, based on the number of employees in the organization, and highlights specific attributes and characteristics that are applicable at that Stage, which define the “rules of the game”.

Understanding this methodology, empowers business leaders to better predict and manage change within their organizations as they grow, making the change more manageable and less stressful for their organization.

The reason growth is so difficult is that the rules change as the complexity of the organization — measured by the number people in the organization — increases.

As businesses grow in headcount, they experience Classic Challenges which often make it seem like what used to work no longer does; well that’s true because the rules have changed.

Apart from these Classic Challenges, another interesting aspect that business leaders have to grapple with as their company’s grow, is how to adapt their management style.

Understanding the optimum blend of leadership styles to apply at the various Stages in the growth lifecycle, allows leaders to effectively lead and manage their organizations while building a great company culture.

In this 2-part article series, I’m going to cover the 6 Leadership Styles from The Stages Of Growth™️ Methodology and explain which blend of primary, secondary and tertiary leadership styles are relevant at each Stage.

So let’s look at the first three in alphabetical order:

Affiliative leaders focus on creating harmony and building emotional bonds with the team. Affiliative leaders recognize employees as people, putting less emphasis on accomplishing tasks and goals. Such leaders build tremendous loyalty and strengthen connectedness.

A leader with an Affiliative Style openly shares emotions, and values people and their feelings. An Affiliative leader may be heard saying, “People come first.”

It’s right behind Visionary and Coaching as the style to use to drive a team upward in reaching their goals. Used to heighten team harmony, improve communication, and repair broken trust, this style is described as collaborative competence in action.

However, the Affiliative Style is limited as a direct driver of performance because of the emphasis on feelings versus tasks. It can allow poor performance to go uncorrected, and promote the perception that mediocrity is tolerated. With little feedback from an Affiliative leader, employees are left to grow and improve on their own.

Coaching leaders develop people for the future. They can be heard saying, “Try this,” instead of, “Do this.” Coaching leaders communicate a belief in people’s potentials and an expectation they can do their best. They give feedback and instruction regularly and are willing to put up with short-term failure if it furthers long-term learning.

Coaches help people identify their strengths and weaknesses, while helping align work with their career goals. By linking people’s daily work to long-term goals, coaches keep people motivated.

Coaches are good at delegating — giving employees challenging assignments that stretch them versus just giving them tasks. This style works best with employees who show initiative and are looking for professional development.

The Coaching Style isn’t always the right style to use if employees lack motivation or require excessive personal direction and feedback.

Commanding leaders draw on three primal leadership competencies: influence, achievement, and initiative. This style is best used to bring a company out of crisis, to kickstart a turn-around, or with problem employees. A fire in the building would also bring out the Commanding Style.

This style is sometimes called the coercive approach. A leader may be heard saying, “Do what I tell you.” They tend to demand compliance and don’t bother explaining the reason behind their actions or decisions.

A Commanding leader exerts forceful direction to get better results and unhesitatingly seizes opportunities. They also tend to provide feedback by focusing on what went wrong.

The Commanding Style should be used sparingly due to its tendency to damage people’s spirits, pride, and the satisfaction they gain from their work. However, it is effective in times of crisis.

In the next article, I will cover the other 3 Leadership Styles and look at the most suitable blend of styles applicable at each Stage so leaders can better lead and manage their organizations.

For more information on how The Stages of Growth Methodology can help your business, email chris@valueight.com