Here's how you can tailor your leadership style to individual team members.

Take the time to get to know each team member personally and professionally. Understand their unique skills, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. This knowledge will help you tailor your leadership style to suit their individual needs. Adjust your communication style to match each team member's preferences and communication preferences. Some may prefer face-to-face meetings, while others may prefer written communication or emails. Pay attention to non-verbal cues and feedback to gauge their response to your communication style. Offer individualized support and guidance based on each team member's needs and developmental goals.

Last week, VCNO Kilby shared a leadership tip while speaking in Norfolk that he learned and has practiced during his career. Simply, meet with every single person of your team and get to know them. Easy to say. Exquisitely hard to execute. We will put our own road blocks in our way, the schedule will, our staff and supporters will, and life will as this is time intensive. However, the payoff is tremendous as you have engendered trust, valued your people, and learned what they hope to achieve and what skills they bring to the team. Together, with this connection, much more can be accomplished personally and professionally.

"Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge." - Simon Sinek ?? Start by assessing each team member’s unique needs and preferences. Understand their goals, skills, and how they like to receive feedback. How do you tailor your leadership style? Share your approach below! ??

In my experience, it’s essential to understand staff as individuals before trying to figure out where they truly fit into the bigger picture of the team.

This is essential for effective communication. If you don't take the time to do this, you'll often suffer from miscommunication that leads to frustration and misjudgment. So easy to get in front of this and just learn how your people take in information. Miscommunication will still happen, but if you understand both your and their communication styles, its easier to spot where the wires got crossed and fix things before they become problems, lead to frustrations, judgments and biases. Most collaboration, tasking, and feedback problems are communication issues at heart, stemming from the assumption that other people communicate (and thus receive information) like we do. This is not true.

In addition to collaborative goal-setting with your reports, remember that every person has a different experience with goal setting (and different expectations around goals). Make your expectations explicit, and share your philosophy and practices around goal setting with your reports: are goals stretch or committed? To what degree do you expect independent problem solving, and when and how do you expect reports to raise a hand when behind pace? Don’t assume that you and your reports speak the same “goal language.”

Most people's goals start with a "want" or a "hope." But without real thought of practicality, realism, or a plan of action. As a result, most goals (and new years resolutions) only get paid lip service. To really get buy in and action (and thus improvement) Goals must be SMART goals. SMART goals sound like a buzz word, but they WORK. And with the power of AI these days its super easy to write them. Take your employees goals and run them through your favorite AI tool together a couple of times until you get a realistic plan of action that you can discuss, follow up on, and hold to account.

To provide effective feedback, start by scheduling regular one-on-one meetings with each team member. Use these sessions to discuss their progress, strengths, and areas for improvement. Make your feedback actionable by suggesting specific steps they can take to improve. Use the "sandwich" method, where you start with positive feedback, then address areas for improvement, and end with another positive note to keep the conversation balanced. Encourage a two-way dialogue, allowing them to share their perspectives and concerns. Document the feedback given and the agreed-upon actions to track progress over time.

Führungsstile beeinflussen stark, wie Feedback gegeben und empfangen wird. Autorit?re Führung führt oft zu Demotivation und Stress, da Feedback meist einseitig und kritisch ist. Demokratische Führung f?rdert hingegen Motivation und Kreativit?t durch konstruktives und dialogorientiertes Feedback, was zu einem positiven Arbeitsklima beitr?gt. Beim Laissez-faire-Stil fehlt oft strukturiertes Feedback, was zu Unsicherheiten und Leistungsdefiziten führen kann. Transformationaler Führungsstil inspiriert und motiviert Mitarbeitende durch positives und unterstützendes Feedback, steigert deren Wohlbefinden und Leistung. Zu beachten w?re auch das 4-Ohrenmodel von Schulz von Thun, um zu verstehen wie Feedback ankommen kann.

Wesentliche Voraussetzung ist eine gute Selbstreflektion. Der eigene Führungsstil muss gut eingesch?tzt werden k?nnen. Dazu ist es wichtig, dass die Führungskraft sich über ihre eigene Pers?nlichkeit, ihre Motive und ihre Wirkung auf andere im Klaren ist. Ein Verst?ndnis für Unterschiede zu anderen Pers?nlichkeiten und Motiven ist entscheidend.

Growth opportunities at the intersection of organizational strategy and needs, and individual interest and motivation, are powerful for the organization and for maximizing individual opportunities for recognition and rewards. Work with your reports to identify those important Venn diagram overlaps to maximize individual and team performance.

Recognise that each team member may have different experience levels and comfort with autonomy. Provide more guidance and supervision to those who need it while allowing more autonomy to those who thrive independently.