We should no longer manage we should lead...how many times have you heard that?

But in reality (well in my humble view) that could be considered a misleading statement. They both go hand in hand; I believe that to be truly effective you need to manage and lead. And as with most things in life you will be more one than the other but recognising that you need to tackle both might help you in your role.

Having been a Manager for many years I thought about different situations I had faced in the corporate world to see if I could determine which one I was – a Manager, a Leader or both.

When setting goals, developing, mentoring, engaging and motivating my team I was undoubtedly relying upon my Leadership skills. Yet when determining the overriding organisational focus, planning, resourcing, and influencing the broader executive management team I was definitely drawing on my management skills.

So I have decided that, depending upon the setting and organisation, I am a little bit of both with a definite leaning towards Leadership.

And how successfully you lead your team definitely influences your outcomes. But do you really know what your Leadership style is or that of your Team Leaders?

Why was leadership style important?

With 28 staff coordinating the self-insurance, claims, injury management and return to work function across the country (for >20,000 employees); I was often asked how did we do it? How do you design, plan and build an effective claims and injury management team?

While we will be writing more about ‘how’ in future articles, I can say that effective Leadership was definitely a key factor. If we were going to ‘get it right’ we needed to have the right leaders and develop and harness their talents.

So having a clear understanding of the Team Leader/s style and approach and the resultant dynamics of their teams was a definite must.

What type of leader are you?

There is a great deal of valuable advice, information and choices out there regarding Leadership; here is one that I found useful. It is by no means the only method used at the time but it proved to be a valuable tool nonetheless.

It’s a simple but very telling questionnaire that indicates which style/s of leadership you might be demonstrating.

Here is a snapshot. We all know one of these; which one are you?

1.       Autocratic

Senior managers make all the important decisions with no involvement from employees.

2.       Bureaucratic

Manager manages “by the book”. Everything must be done according to procedure or policy. He or she enforces the rules.

3.       Democratic

Employees allowed to make own decisions. Some businesses run on the basis of majority decisions.

4.       Laissez-Faire

"Hands-off¨ style of management. Manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible.

5.       Paternalistic

Managers make decisions in best interests of employees after consultation.

Was the questionnaire valuable?

In our case it definitely helped the Team Leaders to better understand their style; some were quite surprised by their results this leading to a desire to hone and even change their approach.

It enhanced my understanding of how they ‘ticked’; this in turn facilitated the development of more focused and effective Learning and Development Plans.

And it was invaluable in shedding light on why some teams were more (or less) engaged; better (or worse) performing. It was evident that some teams, in order to feel more empowered, needed a leader that was less Autocratic and more Democratic or less Laissez-Faire. So this was something tangible that we could work on together.

As an aside, it even helped me to better understand my manager and thus modify my approach with him; realigning my expectations, improving engagement and ensuring better outcomes.

Can this help even if you are not a leader?

Recognising the leadership styles of others is valuable if you are in a position that involves influencing others.

And that is predominantly what we do. We influence. Injured workers, treating health professionals, site supervisors, managers, employers, insurers and the many other stakeholders are all influenced to hopefully bring about positive outcomes.

A Claims Manager in an Insurance company or even a RTW Coordinator in a smaller organisation may benefit from having some understanding of the leadership style of the Supervisors/Production Managers/Department Managers etc.

If the Production Manager has a Bureaucratic style changing your approach may help to make them more receptive.

We know that a Bureaucratic leader usually ‘manages by the book’ so providing them with more detail and clearly demonstrating legislative and procedural compliance might help you get the outcome that you need. Conversely providing less detail but more outcome focus to a Laissez-Faire leader could also get you better results.

The purpose is the same; only the approach differs.

But how can you determine what their leadership style is?

How you tackle this could depend upon a number of factors; the culture of the organisation, your role, the working relationship, or even their seniority in the organisation but maybe, just maybe you could ask them to complete the questionnaire (or something similar).

If you have to  ‘sell’ this notion then sell it on the basis of providing a more tailored service delivery and that understanding them better will help to facilitate this.

Or if all else fails, complete the questionnaire on their behalf. In my case, I completed the questionnaire based on what I knew of my manager’s approach.

It’s not an accurate science but it will give you some idea of their style.

To Lead or not to Lead...

Whilst all of the Leadership approaches have pro’s and con’s again, in my humble view, I am not convinced that the first two, Autocratic and Bureaucratic would be best suited to our line of work.

Yes, there is a definite need for technical and legal governance however it seems that our predominant focus is one that requires empathy and engagement. A softer touch so to speak. Having a Leadership style that demonstrates those qualities can help to engender that approach in the team and possibly even in the broader organisation. That said, having a tougher Manager that can deal with the bureaucracy of a company is a definite plus.

Our jobs can be tough at times; we deal with many people when they are at their very worst, experiencing pain, frustration, confusion, anger and loss – the style in which a leader helps to navigate the rough seas can be the difference between sinking or swimming.

Helping your team leaders (and yourself) to effectively balance the fine line between Managing and Leading could improve your team dynamics and outcomes. And having a better understanding of how the Supervisors/Production Managers/Department Managers/Employers ‘tick’ can aid you in refining how you approach, interact and most importantly, influence them.

In management mode, the manager provides and coordinates the structure, systems, governance, focus and resources; it is predominantly an organisational role. Whilst leadership motivates, develops, engages and encourages the team to help them achieve the organisational goal.

But first you need to understand your style.
 

So take the quiz; you might surprise yourself.

 “Management is the skill of getting people to do something that you want them to do because you want them to do it, whilst leadership is the art of getting people to do something you want them to do because they want to do it."

- (Anon)