Linggo, Hulyo 3, 2011

Which animal best mirrors your own leadership style and why? by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

"Brilliant leaders need to be very decisive ... encouraging the independence of your staff based on effective coaching is also positive leadership behavior."

Not surprisingly one of the most popular choices is the lion, the king of the jungle. The lion rules his territory by dominating those around him . Nobody messes with a lion. Male lions are also great delegators; they eat , they sleep and they mate; the lioness takes care of everything else. Interestingly, very few female managers choose the lion as the animal that best reflects their leadership style. On reflection, many of those who choose a lion change their minds. Specifically, a lion tends to represent an autocratic management style, leading through fear rather than cooperation.


More surprisingly are the number of managers who choose a horse as the best reflection of their leadership style. The reasons normally focus on the fact that horses are strong, quick and graceful. They can be both independent , operate in a herd and work hard when they need to, while preferring a relaxed and carefree existence most of the time. Probably what this says about the leadership style of those people who elects for the horse is perhaps that they are leaders who seek an easy life , but can work hard and as part of a team when the pressure is on.

It is hard to imagine that a goose would spring to mind as reflecting key leadership behavior. Geese of course , are great team players but a flock of geese doesn't have an obvious leader. Perhaps that is the point. Allow the team to manage themselves and they will find a way of working together synergistically, just like geese do.

Another popular choice is the dolphin. People who choose the dolphin are quick to point out that they are very intelligent animals with great communication skills. They are by and large friendly creatures but become hostile when under threat. Brilliant leaders are also great communicators but are there many geniuses amongst them? The genius of brilliant leadership probably has more to do with surrounding yourself with experts who help you do a great job.

An animal that is sometimes considered by leaders in  certain environments is the sheepdog. This reflects the need to micro manage their people at every twist and turn to ensure they will all stay on track and get to where they are supposed to be going. This is probably indicative of the type of staff they are managing and the type of work in which they are engaged-often low skilled, manual environments.


A favorite is the eagle, particularly to reflect the behavior and traits of strategic  leaders. Eagle spend much of their time at a great height surveying the big picture. Eagles are also very protective of their young while encouraging independence from an early age. Much of this behavior sums up brilliant leadership. You need to have a view of the picture while being able to look selectively at the detail. Brilliant leaders certainly need to be very decisive and often, swift to act. The idea of encouraging the independence of your staff based on effective coaching is also very positive leadership behavior.

ADAPTING TO A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
If one had to choose just a single animal, the chameleon does just a little better than the eagle. Chameleon  of course, adapt and change according to their situation and environment. And this is precisely what brilliant leaders need to do. There are times when people need an autocratic leader;other times when they need an arm around their shoulder , or perhaps just to be left alone to get on and do a great job. The intutive ability to adapt and change according to each specific situation is often the trademark of brilliant leaders.
Perhaps you thought of one animals above , or maybe you had another idea, like the lady who put up a brave defense of why she had selected a mouse. The herding instincts of elephants , the communal nature of gorillas, and the wisdom of owls also feature regularly among people's choices of animal identity.
Of course , there aren't any right or wrong answers; leadership is not an exact science. There are common behaviors shown by many brilliant leaders. One can point out behaviors or actions and the effect they are having , or might have, in certain situations. But whether you choose to look or not and how you apply what you see is your own choice. People often change their opinion as to which animal's behavior  and traits they wish to mirror in terms of their own leadership style.

The reality is that there is that there is no single leadership style or management approach that will work. Brilliant leaders develop a toolbox that they can dip into depending on two people they are leading. Situations need to be managed while people need to be led. Both of these factors have an influence on the leadership style that is right at any given time. On the people side of the equation the main considerations will be the person's ability and motivation levels. While there are many situations that might come into play, the main considerations will be urgency and impact versus creativity and cooperation.

There will be times and places when a leader needs to roar like a lion to get things done, adopting an autocratic style. Other times the leader will need to act like a sheepdog, micro managing staff in particular  situation. When coaching or in performance review meetings , the leader will more likely exhibit the attributed characteristics of a dolphin, conducting intelligent leadership conversations with their staff.

Occasionally the leader will need to sit back and allow staff to perform , while monitoring what is going on from a distance. Based on their observations, when they spot that something needs their intervention, they should swoop in and deal with the detail before stepping back again. This is like the behaviou of an eagle. At times the leader needs to operate within the team; perhaps this is like the characteristics of a horse. There are times when the leader needs to allow the team to be self-managed; when creativity is required, or when they are all experts in their field. This is when the geese analogy would be best applied.

These examples emphasize the central point; in order to be a brilliant leader one needs to be extremely adaptable. There is no single style that will work all of the time because the ability of staff, the situations they face and the outcomes that need to be achieved will constantly vary.

Brilliant leadership is not about referring to a guide that tells you which style to adopt for a particular set of variables . Rather, it is about having an intuition for the right style at any given time based on the person, or people, and the situation. The challenge is to do this while remaining true to yourself and your own character. Leadership styles should  not be faked-they must remain genuine in order to be convincing. But nonetheless, you must still be able to adopt a variety of styles. These are the instincts which needs to be developed to become a brilliant leader.

2 komento:

  1. Oakland, CA–November 06, 2015 Mills College Professor of Biology Jenn Smith and experts from a wide range of disciplines recently examined patterns of leadership in a set of small-scale mammalian societies, including humans and other social mammals such as elephants and meerkats. The team’s findings were just published in the monthly science journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Their paper, titled “Leadership in Mammalian Societies: Emergence, Distribution, Power, and Payoff,” reveals some enlightening perspectives on the nature of leadership.

    “While previous work has typically started with the premise that leadership is somehow intrinsically different or more complex in humans than in other mammals, we started without a perceived notion about whether this should be the case,” says Smith. “By approaching this problem with an open mind and by developing comparable measures to compare vastly different societies, we revealed more similarities than previously appreciated between leadership in humans and non-humans.”

    Chimpanzees travel together, capuchins cooperate in fights, and spotted hyenas cooperate in hunting, but the common ways that leaders promote those collective actions have remained mysterious, Smith and her colleagues say. It wasn’t clear just how much human leaders living in small-scale societies have in common with those in other mammalian societies either.

    Read more here: www.mills.edu/news/2015/pressrelease-11062015-JennSmithCoauthorResearch.php

    TumugonBurahin
  2. Agree with every single one! But I'd add one more thing - good erp software is a must. With the support from microsoft dynamics ax I can always be sure I've got everything under control.

    TumugonBurahin