When we hear that leaders should operate within their zone(s) of genius, it’s easy to think that this only applies to tasks that they excel at. Whilst this is true, the piece of the puzzle that is often overlooked is the positive correlation between a leader’s zone of genius and their leadership style.
Knowing your leadership style is vital because it will make your efforts to grow and scale your company more difficult.
These pitfalls can be avoided. Continue reading to find out where you fit within these 3 leadership styles.
Create Value
Leaders who create value for customers and colleagues are the best. These leaders are concerned with the core questions: How is my product selling? After signing up, are they engaging with the brand? Do they tell others about my brand? These are the important aspects that value creators want to improve and measure.
This type of leadership style is often found in marketing executives or salespeople, because they have a clear understanding of the business and its product’s value proposition. This is the group that goes out and tells the world why they believe people should purchase their product. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are two well-known value generators. Gary Vee, Elon Musk.
Value creator strengths
- Excellent sales and marketing abilities
- Excellent understanding of your business, brand and products
- You can create value when you bring together diverse industries. Steve Jobs is an example of a value maker. Apple was created by Steve Jobs, who brought together music and technology. The iPod is in high demand.
Inadequacies in value creation
- A strong belief system in their product or business can make it difficult for them to seek out advice and listen to other people.
- While the value creator’s personality and sales flair leads to success, it can cause friction amongst teammates and other leaders, as they may want things done their way
- If their product fails to live up to their expectations, the value creator can be accused of over-selling its benefits.
“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” – J.K. Rowling
The Business Operator
Are you a value creator? Are you a value creator? Business operators are concerned with the technology and systems that support the operation of the company. The business owner excels at the daily operations of the company, unlike the value creator who is focused on outside sales and marketing. This is why they are also known as the “systems operators”.
Jack Welch and Jeff Bezos are two examples of businessmen who have been successful in building and scaling up large entities through their business models.
Strengths of business operators
- Understanding the interconnectedness of each system and department is key to understanding how it impacts your overall business.
- Innovative business models and systems allow you to continue your business’ growth and keep it running.
Failures of business operators
- Sometimes business leaders can become too fixated on rigid systems that could limit creativity and make it difficult for them to be creative.
- Focusing on business systems may cause them to lose touch or make people feel unimportant.
The People developer
Do you want your team to grow and be satisfied with their work? Are you happy as a leader? You might consider yourself a people developer. The name gives it away, but here’s a brief explanation of this leadership style. People developers want to nurture and develop the talent of their colleagues.
You can think of Oprah, or the Oprah Winfrey Show. Everyone was allowed to share their talents, new books, or stories, from the cast to crew. It led to new pop stars and bestselling books. This wasn’t just the so-called “Oprah effect” in action, but a testament to her leadership style.
As the people developer, employees will be happier and more likely to stay with the company.
People developer strengths
- Build relationships with customers and employees
- Talent can be developed and grown, which leads to skilled employees and greater productivity.
- Are you able to create happy and healthy work environments which promote employee satisfaction?
People developer weaknesses
- A people developer is a person-pleaser
- Their attachment may make it harder to follow company guidelines and meet deadlines.
- An individual developer might have trouble enforcing sanctions.
- You might have to give negative feedback.
The business landscape is changing, and so are the leadership styles. Good leadership is one that is connected to the business’ marketing, its systems and its people. While others may naturally have one or two of these leadership styles, every leader can learn how to see things from a Value creators point of view, a Business operator’s and a People developer’s too. It is vital to have a variety of leadership styles in order for your business to succeed in an ever-changing environment.
How to leverage your leadership style for business success originally appeared on Addicted 2 Success.
How to leverage your leadership style for business success appeared first on Addicted 2 Success.