Being leader of a group and being able to motivate your employees every day is challenging. Knowing that your team always expects the best from you can cause anxiety and stress, which sometimes translates into tensions and misunderstandings between team members. How to avoid this! Find out what your employees are looking for in a good leader to keep your team united and productive.
In this article, we have listed and analyzed in detail, which can be grouped together to create winning profiles.
In fact, there are six types of leaders …
1) Authoritative Leader – This is what we all imagine, who leads the group and leads the team towards the common goal. He has clear ideas in mind and is able to empower his collaborators, who feel involved in the development of the company and work towards achieving the OKR meaning (Objectives and Key Results) with greater awareness.
2) Sociable Leader – For him people come first. It wants to create a positive work environment that stimulates serenity and harmony between colleagues. He is able to transfer the culture of his company to the team members who recognize themselves in the system of shared values and ideals.
3) Democratic Leader – Seeks confrontation with his own collaborators to build a consensus based on everyone’s participation. He knows how to listen to the needs and points of view of everyone, managing to create a sincere relationship with those who work with him.
4) Leader Coach – Supports and transforms its employees in view of future developments. He loves to experiment with new techniques and activities to propose to the group. He is flexible and knows how to adapt his way of relating to others according to the person in front of him, for example to those who have just arrived in the company he proposes an orientation path so that he can fit in better, to those who have been working in the company for years. Recognizes his maximum trust and the possibility of assuming new responsibilities.
5) Workaholic Leader – Works tirelessly and expects the team to follow him with the same commitment and enthusiasm. It demands excellent performance, a sense of responsibility and managerial and decision-making skills. However, on the one hand it is fair and stimulating to empower the group, on the other hand the demand for performance on a par with a leader for all can cause loss and confusion.
6) Coercive Leader – Requires his team to do what he wants and this negatively affects even the atmosphere in the workplace. A good leader must overcome still prevail, such as shouting and bawling against his own collaborators, not knowing how to work in a team and wanting to be right at all costs.
The first four (authoritative – sociable – democratic – coach) are models to emulate, the last two (workaholic – coercive) less. The best leaders know how to manage all these positions every day, identifying the behavior to keep according to the situation that is presented to them. Furthermore, they know how to bring out the best in their colleagues by creating the basis for a peaceful and stimulating work environment for all.
A good leader has skills in emotional intelligence
There are emotional aspects that further enhance the skills of good leader qualities and that refer to emotional intelligence, which is the ability to recognize, use, understand and consciously manage both one’s own emotions and those of others.
Among the skills of emotional intelligence to be a good leader are …
- Self-awareness – that is the ability to read and understand one’s emotions, recognizing their impact on work and on relationships with others. The predisposition to realistically assess one’s strengths and weaknesses, without forgetting a pinch of self-esteem.
- Self-management capacity – to be able to seize every opportunity. We need a spirit of initiative, the ability to adapt to change and to overcome obstacles, to be able to control emotions and negative impulses that would otherwise ruin the work environment and the relationship with others.
- Social awareness – that knows how to create empathy, recognize and satisfy the needs of employees and customers.
- Social skills – for example the ability to inspire a vision, to influence and guide the team, to reduce differences and find solutions, to cultivate and maintain a network of relationships.
And you, what kind of leader are you?
