The Introspective Leader's Advantage

Your leadership style is influenced, in part, by the natural role you tend to play. Perhaps you're a mentor-type, a great talent-spotter, or a clinical perfectionist. Whatever your style, throughout your career you've probably heard that you have a reputation for demonstrating certain qualities.

If someone pointed your style out to you, there'd likely be a flash of recognition. Chances are, however, unless you've asked, no one is spelling it out for you. This means that it's up to you to stop and think about what your natural leadership style actually is. Leaders who take the time to truly understand their natural roles and how those roles affect those around them have an advantage over those who don't take this inward-looking journey.

Finding your Role - Once you've identified the role or roles that you believe you most naturally fill, it's useful to test them by looking for objective supporting evidence. Start by listing a few of the ways your chosen role might manifest itself at work. Are these actions that you come by naturally? If so, great; If not, ask yourself why not. What is limiting your ability to fill the kinds of roles you would like to fill?It's possible that your selections are slightly off course. If there is no patient demand, it is possible that the role you'd like to play isn't aligned with your abilities. In that case, you need to reexamine the range of roles you identify with and assess whether your aspirations are clouding your perceptions of your strengths and weaknesses.

Is it the Right Role for You? - At the extreme, an increased understanding of your role can help you determine whether your position offers the alignment you need if you are to be satisfied over the long term. Consider the dentist - we'll call him Paul - who, in 2004, bought into a large practice.

Paul was flattered to be at the head of such a large practice, even to qualify for the loan. But many of his colleagues felt that he would be happier as an associate (his longtime position prior to his current position). He does not know if he is doing a good job as owner, he has not had the benefit of any business training. He has been taught he is a dentist, not a business person.

At leadership levels, the opportunities to let natural roles emerge often are limited by the regular demands of a wet-fingered dentist or by situational circumstance, such as key staff out on maternity leave, an intense periods of work resulting from new procedures, or an accounts receivable problem. All these things factor in to the mix of required and voluntary things you do each day. It's true that the day-to-day demands of a dentist can easily obscure the kinds of avenues a leader might prefer to pursue. The struggle is to try and find the balance to free up time to do more of the kinds of things that make your work ultimately rewarding.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of your Role – If we work with the mind set of a dentist as a CEO - we'll call him Paul II - whose clinical schedule is so intense that it crowds out most of the chances he has to step back and reflect or to mentor younger members of his staff, as he would like. The daily demands of Paul II play to his strengths as an intense perfectionist, and practice builder. But they don't allow him to be the people mover he also would like to be. Paul II knows that he is good at envisioning and articulating a long - term strategic view. He knows he is good at motivating and mentoring younger staff, if he only had the time. He knows that his time is invaluable in their eyes. In rare free moments, he meets with these people, answering their requests for general guidance and pep talks. Yet Paul II finds it difficult to incorporate that mentoring into what is already an overloaded schedule. His typical workweek is six days. Does Paul II have "an issue" delegating work? It's possible. More likely, the structure of his “control” isn't optimal. His practice is running him rather than the other way around.

Recently, however, Paul II has made some progress in incorporating more of his would-be role as mentor and visionary into his job, despite the organizational circumstances. His practice has begun offering a coach facilitated “SOS” Staff Meeting to help develop a “vision” and to help get his staff to be more accountable and responsible for their own success in the practice. He has now built into his schedule staff meetings designed to allow his staff input and time to develop strategies that they can collectively commit to as goals. This provides quality time between himself and his staff that they crave (and, by the same token, to allow himself to "indulge" in the kinds of mentoring behaviors he rarely has time for otherwise).

Becoming a Better Leader – Paul II is well aware that he needs to address the design and structure of his team. In the meantime, he has found a way to make his working life more enjoyable in the short term (Staff Meetings) and to send a message that he wants to leave a “Vision” for the long term.This CEO/dentist, Paul II, is also a good example of the benefit of having an increased understanding of one's own natural roles. He has begun to identify others' natural roles as well and, in doing so, is better able to temper the advice or counseling he gets and gives. He is also better able to set appropriate benchmarks for his staff with the understanding gained from staff meetings that actively discuss the roles that dominate his team now. Paul II is constantly seeking people (advisors and or coaches) who will instinctively help the team gel to become more effective.

The point is, at work, if you see something heading your way that doesn't play to your strengths, you can divert it or avoid it. However, you'll be rewarded if you bring people into the practice who can handle the kinds of things you're not great at." Are you managing your practice on the fly?

Adapted from Harvard Business School Press from Your Leadership Legacy - Why Looking Towards the Future will Make you a Better Leader Today by Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca. Copyright 2006 Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca. All Rights Reserved
http://www.management-issues.com/2007/1/30/opinion/the-introspective-leaders-advantage.asp