“How Is Your Leadership Approach Better?”

As I recently drove from Yale to a friend’s home in CT, my mind wandered to conversation I had with a colleague. She had asked me a wonderful and provocative question: How is your leadership approach (eXpansive Leadership Model – XLM) better than all the others? After all, there are many leadership models and assessments, several of which are quite good. Here are three reasons that came to mind that might also serve as leadership tips to help you better lead your team (at work and home).

1. Adapt to Many Situations. The XLM can be adapted to manage many situations more effectively. The XLM consists of four interdependent leadership styles (Visionary, Rational, Empowering, and Commanding), consisting of four competencies. The four are positioned in a circle, as seen below:

XLM of a CEO

With this as a platform, it becomes easy for me to show clients how their perception of their own leadership styles may be different from how others perceive them (As illustrated in the CEO’s XLM above). Others’ perceptions ARE their reality. It also allows me to help clients expand their leadership capacity by growing the area within the circle.

For example, I worked with a client that had a wonderful service-oriented culture. In fact, they’ve made the “best place to work” list by Fortune Magazine on more than one occasion. The problem is that leaders were sometimes afraid to speak up for fear of being perceived as non-team players. Their empowering culture has also discouraged managers from having difficult conversations. I’m using the XLM to help others understand that they can stay connected to their “Empowering” approach AND, at the same time, stretch to access their Commanding style to speak up on difficult issues. The XLM is also a tool that is helping their supervisors coach better, counsel underperformers, conduct excellent performance reviews, and create individual development plans. How adaptable is your leadership approach?

2. Lead by Managing Tension. Everyone seems to be searching for balance these days. The editors of one of my professional journals dedicated an entire issue to this issue of balance. Let me ask you a question, when’s the last time you felt really balanced? So long ago, you can’t remember? Me too! Balance is hard to find these days. The old question, how can I find the right balance? is no longer valid. The NEW question is, how can I lead by managing the ongoing tension?

For example, how well do you manage the tension between: Meeting the needs of the team AND Meeting the needs of the individual; the Vision of where you want to go AND the Reality of your budget; Engaging others (Empowering) AND Executing a project (Commanding)… The XLM helps leaders manage the tension among these interdependent and opposing imperatives. Lack at the XLM above. Do you see how the numbered line creates an X in the circle? Now pretend that this X is really two rubber bands. Your job is to grow the area in the circle by pulling the opposing styles away from each other. The tension you would feel as the styles stretch AWAY from each other is the tension of eXpansive leadership. So, how are you leading by managing the tension in work?

3. Apply the Research. Many leadership approaches are based on a smart person (or worse, a winning coach) writing about how to get employees to do their work better, faster, cheaper, happier… What most of these approaches lack is the research that demonstrates that if you follow their prescription, you will experience their results. Could you imagine following a baseball’s coach’s medical treatment just because he said it worked for him? That’s crazy. Yet corporate leaders follow coaches’ leadership prescriptions all the time.

We need to apply the tools of science to leadership in the same way we apply them to medicine. The essence of science is prediction. If you apply a model based on solid science, there’s reason to believe you will achieve what the model predicts. The XLM is built on the latest research on leadership.

For example, I worked with a client that wanted to connect the research from Lominger’s work at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL – which included six thousand managers from 140 companies) to the XLM. When I did an analysis, I found ten key competencies that both predicted leadership success and linked to the XLM. This research predicts that leaders who possess or develop these “Top Ten” in this client’s organization would be very successful. The same may be true for you. Which few might you choose to help you apply this research and grow as a leader?

1. Increase self knowledge

2. Gain perspective

3. Manage vision and purpose

4. Listen

5. Manage conflict

6. Have strategic agility

7. Deal with ambiguity

8. Effectively build teams

9. Motivate others

10. Manage Innovation

The XLM is one of many models that can expand your leadership capacity. I created the XLM because it is adaptable, illustrates the tension among competing imperatives, and allows me to apply new research and learning. How is your leadership style and model doing the same for you?

            Keep eXpanding your leadership,

            Dave

P.S. Dave Jensen and his team transform proven leadership tools into your success stories. Dave is an executive coach and an engaging speaker at conferences, meetings, and retreats. He can be reached in Los Angeles, CA at (310) 397-6686. Click here for more info about the research-based, online 360-leadership assessment (XLM): http://xlmassessment.com/ )

P.S.S. You are welcome to republish these leadership articles, forward them to your contacts, or use my blog in your corporate newsletter or websites. Simply include my contact info at the bottom.