LEADERSHIP
Supportive Leadership Is a Thing So Pay Attention
Simon Sinek said that “in the military, they give medals for people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may survive. In business, we give bonuses to people who sacrifice others.”
Arthur Carmazzi said that becoming “a great leader is not a destination, it is a journey. Every new situation we fail in or make the wrong decision for provides a new dimension to our greater leadership ability.”
Great leaders show concern for the well-being and needs of their followers.
Truly great leaders demonstrate kindness, a considerate understanding for their followers’ challenges.
Why?
Because they care.
They’re invested in their followers’ development. Great leaders behave like foster parents, they nurture others unselfishly.
This article will discuss supportive leadership.
Supportive Leadership Examples
Before jumping into supportive leadership allow me to list a few scenarios, that few followers experience first hand:
- A CEO that shows concern, respect, and interest in follower differences, like cultural or social values, and lifestyles.
- A leader who’s aware of the personal problems of their followers and makes concerted efforts to help.
- A leader that makes a conscious effort to encourage and provide equal air time to everyone. They distribute privileges equally and equitably.
Supportive leadership is about concern for humanity.
“In the military, they give medals for people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may survive. In business, we give bonuses to people who sacrifice others.”
— Simon Sinek.
Supportive leadership is about LOVE for humanity.
Leaders Eat Last
When I first watched Sinek's’ video I was moved. His words impressed on my mind … “they give medals” to those “willing to sacrifice themselves” so others can “survive.”
In business, “we give bonuses to” those who “sacrifice others.”
Pause and think about that.
Only great leaders eat last. Here’s what they look like:
Supportive
- Problem-oriented
- Descriptive and helpful
- Genuine
- Their words are consistent with their actions
- Loyal and encouraging
- Specific and fair
- Interactive — they listen
And here’s what they don’t look like:
Non-supportive
- Person blame-oriented (name and shame)
- Always evaluating
- Words are Incongruent with actions
- They put people down, or insult
- They don't care about others
- Tend to be general and vague
- One-way communication — do what I say, not what I do
The challenge for leaders is not knowing who to provide interpersonal support to.
No.
The challenge for leaders is to know why.
To be effective, a leader must adapt to different environments and diverse followership.
One approach that advocates recommend is that leaders should use interpersonal support as a reward. A tactic born out of behavioral psychology, based on operant conditioning and associated learning, according to Skinner. The rationale is that a leader should show the most concern, providing the greatest encouragement to their best performers.
I disagree.
Supportiveness through positive reinforcement alone fails to address the needs of highly-skilled followers whose performance is deemed under-par. Most workers are unhappy, disengaged, 70 percent according to research.
Ask why?
Different employees need different things. A genuinely concerned leader offering support is not always the right answer, at least not on the surface.
Carmazzi proposed 3 situational factors, leadership avenues, or options:
- Enhance
- Neutralize, or
- Substitute
To enhance performance, an intimate understanding of the person is of paramount importance.
What do do?— Enhance, Neutralise, Substitute, or something else?
Carmazzi didn't have all the answers, just a hypothesis.
You have the answers.
Three-Dimensional
With leadership there are three known dimensions, behavioral styles worth noting, which are:
- Task-Oriented
- Relations-Oriented
- Change-Oriented
Below are a few attributes of each dimension:
№1 — Task-oriented leadership
- Plan short-term
- Assign work to groups or individuals
- Motivated to organize work activities to improve efficiency
- Clarify expected results for a task
- Directs and coordinates work activities
- Sets specific goals, standards, and metrics for performance
- Explains policy, rules, and standard operating procedures
- Regularly monitors operational performance
- Resolves immediate problems that impede work
№2— Relations-oriented leadership
- Socializes with their people to build relationships
- Recognizes contributions and accomplishments
- Encourages and supports those with a difficult task
- Conveys confidence in a team or individual
- Provide coaching and mentoring
- Consults with people about decisions that affect them
- Allows people to determine their way to do a task
- Aims to resolve conflict in a constructive manner
- Keeps others informed about decisions that impact them
- Use stories, ceremonies, and rituals to build cohesiveness —team identity
- Recruits competent employees with the team and organization in mind
№3 — Change-oriented leadership
- They monitor the market and competitors for ideas
- Survey external environment for threats and opportunities
- Interpret events to convey urgency for change
- Share exciting opportunities across the organization
- Encourage others to see problems as opportunities
- Facilitate collective learning
- They develop innovative strategies that complement core competencies
- They encourage and facilitate innovative thinking, an entrepreneurial ethos for the organization
- Experiment and test new approaches
- Make symbolic changes consistent with renewal
- Encourage members efforts to implement change
- They celebrate wins and progress, no matter how small
- Influence stakeholders to support change
Supportive leaders are change-orientated and always eat last.
Final Thoughts
Henry Ford said that “thinking is probably the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few people engage in it.”
As a leader, your job is to think, first and foremost.
Let me repeat that, “as a leader, your job is to think.”
Recap
To conclude, I could harp on about the three dimensions of leadership mentioned above:
- Task-Oriented
- Relations-Oriented
- Change-Oriented
But I’m not going to. I don't want to waste my time or yours and pimp out a few takeaways for the sake of it.
You got this!
Renew
Forget what you know. The world needs those courageous enough to bring what we don't know to make room for new ways of leading, a more human way that resonates with followers.
You maybe ridiculed initially, in fact that’s a guarantee. But stay the journey.
What’s the alternative? Repeating the same thing and expecting different results is one option, but there’s one problem, that’s the definition of insanity according to Einstein.
Joe Luca said it’s “Time for Change.”
I agree with Joe.
