Leadership Behaviors

We've talked about Skill & Will; the two parameters affecting the developmental levels of employees in their life cycles. So to be able to impact the team members’ performance and development, these two need to be impacted.

A leader influences team members to improve their skills and will by using his/ her behaviors…

There are 2 different kinds of behaviors that impact the said parameters. And leaders need to exhibit different kinds of behaviors based on the team members' development level according to their skill & will level.

The behaviors are Supportive Behavior & Directive Behavior.

Supportive behavior is Relationship oriented behavior and impacts the Will levels of team members.

Directive Behavior is Task oriented behavior and impacts the Skill of team members.

Supportive or Relationship Oriented behavior involves listening to people, encouraging them and their efforts, involving them in problem solving and decision making etc.; the extent of the last 2 will depend on their individual skills.

Directive or Task oriented behavior involves clearly telling people what to do, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it and then closely supervising and monitoring them and provide course correction if they err anywhere.

To be able to exhibit the right kinds of behaviors with the team members, the leader needs to stay in touch with the team members and understand them. It requires effort to inspect and identify where they are on the Skill/Will scale. (more about this scale in the next article)

Behaviors help after you have identified where team members lie on the scale. Consequently, mapping them right, becomes extremely crucial. Without comparative accuracy you will not be able to use the right behaviors with them and fail as a leader as they might get behaviors contrary to what they require.

One more thing to remember… there always has to be a mix of both behaviors in a leader. You do not need to be at 2 extremes. Not only supportive or directive; however the extent of Supportive & Directive needs to be high or low depending on the skill/ will level of the team member.

One important question to ask ourselves before we move ahead!

How do you map a person on the scale... based on what?

First thing to do is to identify the skills required for a particular role, job, and task... make a list of all competencies required.

Then check where the person lies, in each of them. This can be ascertained by the specific actions he/ she takes and the output or performance generated.

You may find that they lie on various developmental levels on different skills and you will have to use directive behavior only in those situations where that particular skill which he/ she is low on, needs to be used or exhibited.

Will on the other hand is basically the motivation level of a person and can be ascertained by their behaviors, body language, willingness to volunteer, openness to feedback and various other things apparent from their behaviors.

So to gauge skill levels look at actions, and to gauge will levels look at behaviors.

You will have to be prepared in your mind and be aware of the developmental levels of your team members at all times during every interaction with them to be able to exhibit the right kind of behaviors with them.

Signing off for now… Be back soon with the Skill/ Will scale!!

Ciao!