Leadership Style

Very few terms make me want to jump into traffic more than the term “leadership style.”

It sounds like this.

A leader tells me, “My leadership style is, I let everyone figure things out on their own. I don’t provide that much direction as I don’t want to micromanage them.”

While it’s not an objectively bad thing to have a leadership style, the reason why the term drives me bonkers is because rarely (if ever) are these styles born of reading, research, and what’s best for the team. Usually, they’re just what’s best for a leader who’s terrified to set expectations and hold people to them, so their “leadership style” is actually a backdoor out of, well, leading.

Leaders never tell me that their style is to “manage everything closely, to provide intense and intentional feedback, to make decisions quickly and decisively, and to understand and own that every single miss is on them.”

No.

They always sound like, “We’re a family here, and I treat everyone as such. I don’t really care about deadlines and details. I just want people to be happy” all while their culture is trash, their results are mediocre, and everyone is actually unhappy.

Sitting down and drafting your style of leadership is a smart move. Pressure-testing different components of it to land on a final version makes sense too. Getting bullied by resistant staff into pretending your style is hands-off, low on both development and support, and really just a collective lowering of the bar for everyone around you, isn’t wise.

And actually, it’s not a style as much as it’s a lack of a style.

Imagine a soccer coach telling the media, after a big loss, “My leadership style is about prioritizing fun. Winning is much less important.”

This would work if they were coaching five-year-olds, but not adults. You’re leading adults. So, maybe, your leadership style should be to actually lead them.