In 30 seconds
Command and control or administration-focused leaders hinder progress and create toxic environments. Servant and transformational leadership styles provide better alternatives. By prioritising employees’ needs, fostering communication, and encouraging innovation, servant leaders create thriving organisations. Transformational leaders inspire growth, building positive work environments. Effective leadership demands courage and clarity, enabling tough decision-making and transparent communication. Inspiring teams requires articulating a vision, embracing risk, and instilling confidence. By fostering trust and collaboration, leaders drive sustainable outcomes.
In 2.5 minutes
What type of leader would you prefer?
- One who likes to control everything and everyone around them, only letting people know something if it affects them directly, keeping teams in boxes playing them off against each other,
- a leader who is unsure and timid about the future so tends to focus on administration and ‘how we’ve always done it before’, closed off to new ideas, or
- someone who focuses on the needs of their teams, empowering them to succeed by creating a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration and leading them toward a better future?
We’ve been around long enough to witness the impact of these styles of leadership on people and businesses, and we know which one delivers the results – by a long way, especially in the complex world in which we live and work.
It’s definitely not command and control fear-based leadership which has negative effects on both employees and organisations. This style of leadership can lead to decreased productivity, high turnover rates, and a toxic work environment.
And it’s not the administrator who is risk adverse and focused on maintaining the status quo oblivious to the needs of their teams, customers, and changes in their marketplace.
An alternative to these poor excuses for leadership is servant leadership. This style focuses on serving the needs of employees first, with the belief that happy employees will lead to a successful organisation. Servant leaders prioritise communication, collaboration, and empowerment.
An equally good alternative to servant is transformational leadership, which inspires and motivates employees to achieve their full potential. Transformational leaders focus on building relationships with employees and creating a positive work environment. They encourage creativity and innovation and provide opportunities for growth and development.
By implementing alternative leadership styles such as servant leadership or transformational leadership, organisations can create a positive work environment where employees feel valued and motivated.
Leadership requires courage and clarity to make tough decisions and communicate them effectively. In servant and transformational leadership, these qualities are especially important because they help leaders build trust with their teams. When leaders are transparent about their decision-making process and communicate clearly, team members feel more comfortable sharing their own ideas and feedback. This leads to better collaboration and ultimately better outcomes for the organisation.
Additionally, courage and clarity are key to inspiring teams to achieve their goals. Leaders who are able to clearly articulate their vision, purpose, strategy and goals, while also being willing to take risks and make bold moves, can motivate their teams to do the same. By showing that they have confidence in their team’s abilities and are committed to achieving success together, leaders can create a culture of trust and collaboration that drives results now and sustainably into the future.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
Stories from the field
Since our workshop yesterday:
Steph sold 80-100hrs this morning with his customer.
Robert has followed up 3 or 4 leads and booked a number of customer meetings.
I sat in a meeting and did a WWW with a customer, got 3 Fs out. Got another one in 30mins.
And it’s before 11 am.
A little confidence goes a long way eh. I’ll need more delivery capacity…
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