Leadership Lessons

I will admit it, I have screwed up as a leader. I think everyone has but few will admit it muchless write about it so it's forever out there. Unfortunately, I think this is a topic that should be put in black and white, even if it is at my own expense.

When I was writing High Performance Recruiting (https://a.co/d/dDQJGyd), I decided to tackle what kinds of leaders high performing recruiters need. I decided to keep the same theme of 7 and developed them based on my experience working for some fantastic leaders. I even surprised myself and developed a chart to show when to use which leadership style.

Wait, are you following the High Performance Recruiting page? If not, stop and do it now! Here you go ?? https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/high-performance-recruiting-news/?viewAsMember=true.

I like complex information in a chart so this was great. The horizontal axis indicates conflict which can be defined as strife with hiring managers, challenging market, low candidate pool, or even conflict on the team. Essentially, it is anything creating angst in your process. The vertical axis is descriptive of your team health: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Once you have the quadrants, now we can look at the different leadership styles

Quick overview of what the chart is telling you:

1. Coach - Central to the matrix, a coach represents a balanced leadership style that considers both team health and conflict, aiming to guide and develop team members. This is the most versatile of the leadership styles.
2. Shepherd - In the top left quadrant, this style focuses more on team health than conflict. A shepherd leads by nurturing the team, ensuring each member is cared for and the team operates harmoniously. They are primarily there to make sure the team stays focused and has what they need to succeed.
3. Change Agent/Negotiator - In the top right quadrant, this leader deals with both high team health and conflict. They are adept at navigating through changes and conflicts, negotiating to maintain team cohesion and adaptability. Which style is needed is highly dependent on the type of conflict.
4. Doctor - Positioned in the bottom left quadrant, a doctor focuses on remedying issues within the team that are causing poor health. It is important to use the doctor style when conflict is low because when the battle is raging, it's harder to be effective in this leadership style.
5. Scientist/Navigator - In the bottom right quadrant, this leadership style is utilized when dealing with high conflict and potentially lower team health. A scientist or navigator may use analytical and strategic skills to steer the team through challenges.

So where did I screw up as indicated in the title?

As I sat back and revelled in my accidental genius creating this chart I was faced with a very cold, hard fact: for most of leadership career I operated under one leadership style and would not change.

In the book, I share the story of how before getting in HR, my nickname in the financial sales sector was "Little Tyrant". I was always sent to regions that needed to be turned around and needed someone with the backbone and vision to execute. I was young, eager to prove myself and took pride (a little) in my nickname. I was totalitarian most of my early leadership career because I had to be. Unfortunately, this lead to a comfort level in this leadership style that I took too long to change.

This matrix is a reminder to me that every situation and team is different. High performance recruiting teams need a leader who can embody one of the seven listed above at any given moment. I feel the last ten years of my leadership career has been a journey to discover this truth. I also recognize that along the way, I screwed up.... MAJOR.

I remember finishing the last chapter on the leadership styles and closing my laptop. It was a Saturday night and I am usually pensive over the weekend so I thought over the material I had put together. I also thought through my career and had to own up to the fact that although I was writing chapters on leadership, I am still learning. Here are some of the lessons I have learned so far:

1. I now know that it is ok not to have all of the answers. No one expects a leader to be a know it all.
2. Vulnerability in leadership is a powerful bonding agent, regardless of the team size, scope or mission. When you're not on your A game, it's ok to let your team know. Afterall, that's what a team is for.
3. It's not "lonely at the top" when you lead your team the right way.
4. Lead with context as often as you can versus leading with control but understand there is a time when both are needed. Know the difference.
5. Empathy in recruiting and in leading high performance recruiting teams, is not a weakness. It's a lost art that we need to bring back; especially with what many in the world are going through.

So when you see me post about leadership, please understand I am not posting as an expert but rather as a student. I was hit with a serious case of humility while writing the book and I am thankful for it. I think self-awareness is a key success metric to any leadership role. The second is transparency which is what I am trying to practice in this article.

For those who I may have hurt while learning this lesson please know I am truly sorry. I promise that I have thought of you a lot over the last few months and even reached out to some of you to apologize. I will be the first to admit when I screw up but sometimes it takes me a while to learn that I did. My hope is that you learned how "not to" lead based on my example and have excelled in your own way.

My hope is that you take a moment to learn more about the 7 leadership styles mentioned above by either checking out the content on my blog on High Performance Recruiting or heading over to watch it on YouTube. Even if you do not do that, I hope this article makes you pause and reflect, maybe even learn from my mistakes.

Here's to the leaders who are willing to admit that we are still learning!

Learn more about the 7 traits of High Performance Recruiting teams in the video below.

Interesting Posts From the Week

I have had the opportunity to review Hypercontext and their product is slick. Check out their latest update:

I really enjoy the podcast Rocket (getrocket.com) puts out. Here's a great clip on the art of social media in recruiting:

What does a battleship have to do with recruiting? Well, I'll let this post spell it out. Definitely made me stop and think.