Whatever you do, Do that in style
Which one will you prefer to attend? A management talk or a boring movie? I second you. But it turns into a challenge when you are asked to give a management talk. When I’m pretending myself as leader and talking about leadership style same time I’m asking yourself ‘seriously!! Am I a leader?’
I still remember a job interview ten years ago. It was just after my graduation. My interviewer asked me ‘didn’t you lead any assignment in college?’ . “No. I was in team”. He was shocked. Because whoever he interviewed before me they led. I realized the world is full of leaders and I’m the only one in team.
Then I found a place where leaders are born. Yes. The same place you are in. Toastmasters. But last week it had put me into the same situation of ten years ago. What is your leadership style? Really? I asked my self? No answer. Toastmaster’s pathway said relax boy, if you can’t find I’m here to tell you. Just answer following questions and based on that you will find your leadership style.
Wow. Finally I’m going to get a leadership style. I carefully answered one after another. One..two.. hmm..six..seven.. oh final question. It was that moment when you have just one question to answer and your girlfriend’s dad says Yes. You are the one! For me “Result not found please try again”. Ah seriously ! well may be the leader has not born yet. let’s check all leadership styles. I want a fancy one.
I found six styles and most interesting thing was when I was able to relate these to the people I know.
Authoritative style: Due to recent data privacy issue in Facebook they need to change their policy to continue business. Obviously a developer who works for facebook development will not take the decision. Mark Zuckerberg will decide and will create a vision for facebook. This is authoritative style.
Coaching style : When we coach someone we don’t tell what to do. We help people to find their answers. You can relate this style with your teachers.
Democratic style: Democratic means they share the problem space. If you tell your people ‘Well guys. It is very unfortunate that there is a huge fire incident in our building. Tell us what would you suggest’ . this is not acceptable from a leader right? However decision making by consensus is not a good decision. Being a leader if I ask my people ‘this is our situation. Suggest us what can we do’. Then its better to give the leadership to the person who can suggest independently.
Affiliative style: This style is all about harmony. When you join a new organization. You are like a fish in different pond. You feel unsettled. Your HR, supervisor play a pivotal role to overcome the emotion in your brain.
Pace-setting style: As a pace setter I set my standard as well as I role up my sleeves and show my people how to achieve that standard. The leader works with team and show them how the job has to be done.
The last one is commanding style. It is my way or no way. It is appropriate in the fire like situation when you command your people to leave the building right now with out selfie with fire and posting on facebook. But don’t abuse this style.
After browsing all these styles I asked myself. Which one I like? I got a realization.
Leadership is not a tag which we label on someone’s forehead and tell others that he or she is your leader so you need to follow him/her. Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people.
First thing , If you are a true leader you don’t think you are a leader. But people think you are a leader by your ability to response in different situations. You just do what is needed as per the circumstances. The style of leadership you have today is according to the reality of current situation. If today you are surrounded by very gentle and obedient people like the toastmasters in this room then you operate one way. When our club meeting starts madam chair calls everyone “Please take your seat you have to start meeting on time” and like good boys and girls we follow. Hmmm..sometimes but yes we follow… But tomorrow when if a bunch of rebellions encompass you then your mode of operation will be different. You can’t employ the same method everywhere. If I recapitulate the whole thing. A leader cant be tagged by a particular style. But of course
whatever you do.. do that in style.
Som is a Cloud Infrastructure Architect, Public Speaker, and a Technical Consultant working in an MNC. He has around 15 years of accomplishments in IT solutions delivery for various financial institutions across the globe.
Som is the founder of “e2e Solution Architect“ and Udemy instructor. End to End Solution Architect is an educational forum for Data Science, Machine Learning, and end-to-end Cloud solutions for large-scale production environments.
