Who’s driving the bus?

Leadership Styles can define company success. How does your style benefit your company, and what should you look out for?

When leading a team it’s important to understand how your management style is impacting those around you. Every personality type has positive aspects that improve leadership, but there are also traits with a potential negative impact to watch out for. Knowing your possible pitfalls allows you to minimize negative outcomes. It’s important to develop an objective view of your personality to identify traits that transition good leaders into great leaders.

Let’s take a look at four common leadership traits and their potential blind spots.

Need for Control

Leaders with a high level of Dominance are always looking to move forward, tend to be opinionated at times and have high expectations. They successfully push their team to meet deadlines with quality work. Others may find this intensity unsettling, while their high expectations can make them tough to satisfy.

If this sounds like your leadership style, be sure to make space for others and manage your internal drive. You might be ready to move on to the next task, but is the rest of the team? Step back and let others take the lead on smaller projects to show you trust them, and be thoughtful of the implications that accompany large changes

Need to be liked and interest in others

Leaders that are high in Extroversion tend to be energetic, amiable, and enthusiastic. They are influential at creating and articulating their strategy and vision to those around them. This enthusiasm for their ideas can be their downfall as they can come off as forceful or dismissive of other people’s ideas.

With this leadership style, it’s important to be patient with both your team and yourself. Include others in your thought process to keep everyone on the same page while encouraging discussion and new ideas.

Need to Process Information

This leadership style has a humble, team first approach. They share success as a team and encourage collaboration. They are supportive and caring of their team but may need to develop a convincing identity and leadership brand.

If this sounds familiar, make sure you are setting a clear vision for you and your team. Set clear direction for others and vocalize your opinions on ongoing projects. Hold yourself and your team members accountable for their responsibilities and timelines.

Need for Perfection

Leaders with high conformity blend creativity and logic together to solve issues. They establish clear boundaries and are comfortable operating independently. They may even have difficulty passing tasks to others if they don’t fully trust their team.

With this leadership style one of the best practices to adopt is communicating with patience and clarity to your team. Listen to your team’s opinions on tasks and try to remain open and flexible. Be mindful of the grand scheme and learn to delegate.

Leadership in a company can be the difference between success and failure.Of course, the other behaviors ‘blended’ with the main driver needs to be considered. Each leadership type has its own challenges that need to be recognized and addressed. Ignoring your blind spots won’t make them go away – it’ll just make them worse. The first step to identifying these blind spots is to identify your leadership style. Learn more about your own personality traits and how they impact you by taking our ProScan test today!

Ready to further develop your leadership abilities? Enroll in our Leadership Impact! Workshop.