22
September
2022
In a GCMA Inspire webinar, board member Ed Richardson – General Manager at Hankley Common – looks at different styles of leadership and where you might fit in What type of leader are you? What is good leadership and how can we adapt when we need to? In a GCMA Inspire webinar, association board member Ed Richardson considered these questions, and we’ll break down these views of the course of three articles. Ed, General Manager at Hankley Common, will talk about situational leadership and how to get the balance right but, in this first piece, he outlines the various leadership styles… What is your natural fit as a leader? There is no one size fits all to be shoehorned into: ‘this is a perfect leader and this is how they behave and operate’. But a company called Blake and Mouton categorised leadership into five different styles… Impoverished leadership: This is what they refer to as the most unsatisfactory style of leadership. The leader doesn’t really focus on work targets, isn’t really bothered about the welfare of their team, doesn’t motivate, and doesn’t innovate. This results in a workplace where people feel unhappy and there's a general level of confusion, disorganisation, and dissatisfaction. The leader is probably only just doing enough to keep their job.I'm sure we've all come across poor leaders in our time who've maybe done some of these things. Country Club leadership: The leader is focused on ensuring their team is happy, has low concern for production, and develops great relationships within a working environment, which is fun and exciting. They love being part of that team. They’re very agreeable. They support and develop their team and also believe that people work hard if they’re happy. The only downside of this sort of particular leadership style is there's a low productivity as this leader fails to control their team and give them direction. Authority-obedience leadership: This leader is concerned solely on producing results, task driven, and use team members purely as a resource to get things done. They haven’t really got an interest in the welfare of their team. This leader will tend to use discipline and punishment to achieve their goals. They’ll be autocratic, controlling, and will implement strict policies and procedures that they expect to be followed to the letter. Again, we can probably all think of examples where that's where that's happened. There are certainly some sporting examples! Middle of the road leadership: This is a bit of a compromise between the others. There is an average concern for both people and production but they also want to maintain the status quo – achieving productivity but not upsetting their team. As a result, productivity is average, and the team's needs aren't being fully met. This is a common approach to leadership, and many believe this is as good as they can do. I’d be the first to say that even now that's something I can fall into the trap of being - if I let... Please LOGIN to read the full article.
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