Balanced Leadership

How to be an Effective Leader

There are many definitions of leadership but balanced leadership is the one that I have always strived for.  It is the ability to get the best out of your team in any given situation.  It’s all about giving your team the skills and the support they need so they are motivated to deliver the vision of your business and are equally committed to achieving it.

Getting the best out of others requires many skills and the first thing to understand is that we are all different.  To quote Ken Blanchard; “Different Strokes for Different Folks.” this means that you always have to adapt and balance your leadership style depending on the individuals within your team, their skills, their level of experience and their learning style.

Leading a Junior Team

I only learnt about leadership retrospectively after having been responsible for a team for sometime.  In the hospitality industry where I started my career I was a junior manager and  was put in charge of housekeeping.  No training other than a quick intro to the chambermaids!  As you can imagine the main challenge was a lack of motivation as well as them being from different cultural backgrounds.  I was also very young and inexperienced at the time.

I went on to lead a number of different teams and was eventually sent on an excellent leadership training programme.  I realised that some things I was doing pretty well while others needed quite a bit of work! I put my training into practice, building bigger teams and then going on to co-found a business with 25 employees and a senior leadership team.

Leading Senior Managers

The more senior positions that I recruited for, the more challenging it became to get the right people and ensure they had leadership qualities themselves in order to effectively manage their own team. My leadership style had to be adapted to these more senior people who were motivated high achievers that often put themselves under a great deal of stress.

The Importance of Balance in Leadership

When I first managed people, I was naturally supportive but this was considered too soft, too collaborative while my (often male colleagues) were more direct and controlling.  In fact, over time I discovered the importance of different leadership styles which Ken Blanchard talks about in his book “The One Minute Manager” although I kind of worked it out for myself before even coming across the book!

Style 1 - Directing: High Directive Behaviour and Low Supportive Behaviour

The leader provides specific direction about goals, shows and tells how, and closely monitors the individual’s performance in order to provide frequent feedback on results

Style 2 - Coaching: High Directive Behaviour and High Supportive Behaviour

The leader continues to direct the goal of task accomplishment but also explains why, solicits suggestions, and begins to encourage involvement in decision making

Style 3 - Supporting: Low Directive Behaviour and High Supportive Behaviour

The leader and the individual make decisions together. The role of the leader is to facilitate, listen, draw out, encourage and support

Style 4 - Delegating: Low Directive Behaviour and Low Supportive Behaviour

The individual makes most of the decisions about what, how and when.  The role of the leader is to value the individual’s contributions and support his or her growth.

Becoming a Balanced Leader

1️⃣ Start with 1-2-1’s with your team

2️⃣ Agree and set clear goals

3️⃣ Ensure that they have the skills needed to attain these goals

4️⃣ Check they are committed to accomplish these goals

5️⃣ Agree on the best leadership style that will ensure they achieve them

Good leadership makes a major difference to the success of a business. The team performance will improve, individuals will develop and your business will grow.  AND, you will feel more in control.  

Some will question this last point.  “If I'm not doing everything myself, how am I more in control?”

Well it's all about having systems in place so you have clear objectives and can measure the results

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