In coaching, young managers often express the need for clear leadership recipes. This is understandable, as they do not want to make any mistakes. However, the many existing leadership theories offer little help, especially because the personality of the manager is rarely part of the considerations.
Some theories see certain behaviours or personality traits as a prerequisite for leadership success, for example charisma – whatever you want to understand by that.
Other approaches also see leadership success as dependent on the circumstances in which line managers and employees find themselves: personal relationships, task structure or positional power. It is rarely mentioned that different leadership styles can lead to success and that these depend on the personality of the manager.
Personal leadership style
It seems obvious to me that an enthusiastic, extraverted, self-confident manager in the same situation with the same employees will lead differently than a reserved, introverted, and self-critical person. Due to a persistent leadership stereotype according to the above-mentioned leadership theories, many people only consider the first-mentioned person to be suitable for leadership. People who do not fit this stereotype therefore often take themselves out of the running for a leadership position. This is regrettable.
A few years ago, a client demonstrated to me how this temptation can be countered with a dash of humour: Elsa (name changed) was offered a personal and professional assessment by her company.
It helps not to take yourself too seriously
While we were working together, she received an offer within the company to take on her first leadership role. We therefore extended the personality analysis to include the question of her personal leadership style. The result was a mixture of natural leadership strengths but also challenges that she still had to work on.
Elsa brought a small booklet about herself to our last session. She told me that she would introduce herself to her team by presenting them with this «user manual» for dealing with her. She explained, for example, that as an introverted person she could appear distant under stress, which should not be taken personally. After all, if something bothers her, she would express herself clearly – she is also direct. As a result, she could sometimes overshoot the mark in the heat of the moment, which her colleagues would be allowed to address.
A few weeks later, Elsa told me that her new employees had listened to her comments with their mouths open and couldn’t believe their ears. A supervisor with strengths and admitted weaknesses – they had never experienced that before. Of course, she had all her employees on her side from day one and formed a powerful team with them in an open and trusting atmosphere.
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