How Adaptable Are You As a Leader?

As a leader, it’s easy to believe that others need to respond to your needs, but the most successful leaders know that reality is just the opposite.
In the 1970s, Robert Greenleaf of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership started the “servant leadership movement.” Greenleaf founded this concept on the belief that an organization functioned better if leaders were servants first and leaders second, rather than the other way around. He encouraged servant-first leaders to focus on helping their teams grow in their jobs and fulfill their professional goals. Specifically, Greenleaf believed that when people are able to advance and learn at work, they’re happier and more productive and naturally more loyal to their organizations.
One of the most important aspects of being this type of servant leader is the ability to quickly adapt your leadership style to individual circumstances.
Four Common Leadership Styles
What are the various styles of leadership? Although many exist, the following outlines the four most common styles I see as a coach when I shadow executives in the workplace. Each of these four styles has both positive and negative aspects. As you read them, ask yourself these questions:
• Which style do I use most of the time?
• Have I used all four at some point?
• If not, what opportunities do I have for expanding my leadership style “menu” so I can move with agility from one style to another?
1. Democratic/Participative Leadership. In this style, a leader asks for inputs from others before making a decision. This style works effectively:
• when working with a group of team members who have good on-the-job experience and who can provide valuable input.
• with a team that needs to be heavily involved in the early planning stages of a project.
• when you find yourself promoted and suddenly working with former peers who have now become your direct reports.
2. Bureaucratic Leadership. This style involves using procedures and laying out a step-by-step written plan. This style works effectively:
• when precision is important or a project is particularly complex.
• when working in a highly regulated environment (like banking or insurance) which requires rigorous compliance.
• when working on a project that’s extremely technical in nature.
3. Charismatic Leadership. This style leverages personal charisma to keep employees motivated and moving forward. This style works most effectively:
• if your team or company has experienced a setback, such as the loss of a key client or recent layoffs, and you need to boost employee or team morale.
• when you have a big project to finish that requires creativity, and it must be done exceptionally well and/or quickly.
• when your team faces a major change, and you believe buy-in may be difficult.
4. Autocratic Leadership. This style tells people what to do without input from them. This style works most effectively:
• when urgent decisions need to be made, as in a crisis.
• when working with junior team members who may need more direction.
• when working in high stress or confusing situations where team members are looking for clarity and strong direction.
What Are Your Style Preferences?
Think about how you operate daily as a leader of others. Then, look at each leadership style, and estimate the percentage of time you spend using each. Write down the estimated percentage for each style so that they all add up to 100 percent.
Now, review your answers, and ask yourself these questions:
• What is your most frequently used leadership style? Your second most used leadership style?
• Are you relying too much on only one style?
• What percentage of each style do you think is optimal for your current position and given your current team?
With answers to these questions in mind, write down your “goal” percentages for each style, e.g., the percentage of each style you would like to have or that you feel is most appropriate for someone at your level and in your position. Which style needs to change the most, based on your analysis?
Once you identify the style you want to incorporate most into your menu of leadership behaviors, begin to look for situations where you can try that style. Challenge and stretch yourself, and you may be surprised to discover the difference it will make in your ability to lead in today’s increasingly diverse workplace.

Strategies That Keep Profitable Customers Coming Back

Amid the impersonal busyness of the airport, I feel drawn to his warm oasis. My shoes don’t need shining, I think as I take a seat to have my polished shoes shined at Nacho’s shoeshine stand in Terminal 1 at the LA airport. Nacho (his real name) looks up and smiles. I rationalize my decision, Well; my shoes can’t be TOO polished as I fly out to work with the Federal Reserve Bank.
Why would I choose to spend money at Nacho’s getting my shoes shined when they didn’t need it? Because he delivers what scientists tell us are the keys to profitable repeat customers. Do you?
Researcher Timothy Keiningham and collaborators followed 8,000 customers for two years to explore the relationships among survey responses, loyalty behavior, and company growth. (1) They concluded that there is no single metric that links customer loyalty to company growth. However, these investigators did review several strategies that you can customize if you want to draw profitable customers back to you. Many of these RARE DC qualities compelled me to have my polished shoes shined at Nacho’s stand:
1. Reliability - provide dependable and accurate service.
2. Assurance - convey trust and confidence.
3. Responsiveness - deliver prompt service, especially when customers need help.
4. Empathy - offer personalized experience with a caring attitude.
5. Delight Customers - investigate what “high satisfaction” means to customers.
6. Calculate the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS is derived by measuring your customer’s response to this question: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” Those who rate you as a 9 or 10 are classified as “promoters,” those who rate you 6 or lower are your “detractors.” Your NPS score is calculated based on the difference: between the percent promoters minus the percent detractors. Although the NPS has been touted as “the one number that you need to grow,” Keiningham’s follow-up study of 15,000 customers from 21 companies revealed the connection good, but maybe not the single, best measure. (1, 2) I don't believe there is just one 'best' measure.
In our search for simplicity, we sometimes see simplistic solutions to complex issues. Yet Einstein warned us to “make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Linking customer loyalty to growth is neither simpler nor easy. Nacho’s secret recipe for success is magical mix of all six of these strategies. For example, in the past year he has changed my shoelaces (without being asked) and given me a new canister of shoe polish (when I merely asked about it) - all without charging me. That’s what keeps us, his profitable customers, coming back, even when our shoes don’t need shinning. How are you going to adapt these ideas to polish your customer loyalty program?
Keep stretching when you're pulled,
Dave
1. Timothy Keiningham and colleagues; Linking Customer Loyalty to Growth, ‘MIT Sloan Management Review,’ Summer 2008, 51 - 57.
2. F. F. Reichheld; The One Number You Need To Grow, ‘Harvard Business Review,’ December 2003, 46 - 54.