Tag: Leadership Style

If you want to conduct an executive leadership training initiative, you will have to have a good understanding of what the needs of the organization are and how the organization is structured. Then, you can train everyone — from top-management to supervisors, by addressing them all as a group. The focus is to get everyone on the same page by training everyone the same way.

You may ask — why? The rationale is simple. Leadership is a competency that all levels of the organization need to have. And the only thing that changes, is the discussion during the training sessions that makes the training fit the needs of all followers:

• Professional Communication and Authentic Leadership works best when the followers require constant education and communication.
• Decision-making helps followers feel comfortable being a part of the organization and taking responsibility and feeling empowered.
• Motivating People is effective in situations where the followers are lacking the drive to be the best that they can be and lack enthusiasm. Positive results do appear in those already motivated, however.
• Managing People is useful with followers that may lack confidence — but with the right combination of organization and planning, leaders can instill a sense of control.
• Core Leadership Principles is effective in situations where the follower needs a prescriptive method of leadership, but remains flexible to adhere to the necessary changes as they occur.
• Leading Change is useful with a group that is facing rapid change and must remain competitive, or find themselves becoming obsolete and lack drive and initiative to innovate and create.

Level UP Leadership assumes that leaders are inspiring their followers and that the followers are responsive and engaged. The model proposes two contingency variables — such as top-management and training across each department — that moderate the leadership-training platform to be consistent, applicable, and enduring.

Top management must be the first to be exposed to the model. Top managers determine the type of leadership training required so that the organization as a whole not only improves leadership prowess but also prepares followers to be fully engaged.

Follower departments and positions feed into the overall certification process. Personal job responsibility is enhanced as followers become a part of an overall initiative to improve leadership across the organization. Effective top-level leaders clarify the need for training and development to help all followers to be engaged to not only learn the leadership traits but also implement them on a daily basis.

Executive leadership certification has demonstrated that employee performance and satisfaction are positively influenced when the top-leaders, along with the followers, complete the training together. Promotions, acknowledgement, recognition, and engagement are documented outcomes of the successful application of the Level UP Leadership model.

The Level UP Leadership model is useful because it reminds leaders that their central purpose as a leader is to help followers determine a path of success. It helps followers reach their goals and objectives, and most importantly, leaders help followers do this in an engaging and effective manner.

 

Mostafa Sayyadi works with senior business leaders to effectively develop innovation in companies, and helps companies—from start-ups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders. He is a business book author and a long-time contributor to business publications and his work has been featured in top-flight business publications.

Michael J. Provitera is an associate professor, and an author of the book titled “Mastering Self-Motivation” published by Business Expert Press. He is quoted frequently in the national media.

 

The Level UP Leadership model is a theory based on specifying a leader’s style or trait that best fits the relationship between the follower and the organizational-work environment in order to meet and exceed the strategic goals of both the organization and follower.

Level UP Leadership identifies six factors that contribute to follower success and engagement: professional communication and authentic leadership, decision-making, motivating people, managing people, leading people, and leading change.

The Six Styles of Level Up Leadership:

1. The professional development and authentic leadership trait refers to both oral presentations as a leader to persuade followers through inspiration while providing an authentic leadership presence. The model argues that this trait, when used effectively, produces the most positive effect and when used inadequately causes followers to rebel and disconnect, leaving them unsatisfied. The most predominant use of this trait is during crisis times — but when a leader uses professional communication and authentic leadership by remaining steadfast, calm, and honest about current and future situations — this behavior tends to alleviate anxiety and win the hearts and minds of followers.

2. The decision-making leadership trait refers to situations where the leader sets an environment for challenging decision-making responsibility for followers, expecting them to perform at their highest level while avoiding groupthink, and provides confidence in their ability to make decisions at their level offering a clear justification of empowerment. This sees, organizations with a flat-structure in which decisions can be made at lower levels of the organization where most predominant, as opposed to tall-structures and centralized decision-making.

3. The motivational leadership trait involves leaders as assessors of the followers’ status-quo and makes suggestions for improvement. This style of leadership is predominant when employees are high on the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs (i.e., esteem, self-efficacy, and self-actualization). However, followers at the lower levels will still be motivated if the leader can address their needs.

4. The managing people leadership trait is directed toward the four functions of management by addressing the followers’ needs and preferences. The leader shows concern for the amount of control the follower needs, the individual leadership ability of the follower, how organized the followers are, and their ability to plan accordingly. This leadership trait is especially needed in situations in which tasks are challenging, ambiguous, and antiquated, or the relationship between the leader and followers are psychologically or physically distressing.

5. The core leadership principles trait refers to situations where the leader lets employees know what is expected of them by determining the tasks that the follower will perform, assessing follower-readiness levels, and picking the most appropriate leadership style (i.e., telling, selling, participating, delegating). The theoretical foundation and models attributed to this trait have been developed since 1930 with Kurt Lewin and this leadership application has the most positive effect when the followers want to be led but feel the push toward becoming a leader themselves for intrinsic satisfaction.

6. The leading change leadership trait refers to change agents, visionaries, and mission-driven leadership. Leaders let followers fend for themselves when the leader is not available in order to build a transformational leadership presence in an organization. The trait argues that change is a moving target and circling back to authentic leadership reveals a need for a proactive response to change as it occurs or is created. Recent focus has been on contingency planning and resilience. The most positive effect of this trait is when the followers have buy-in, feel empowered, and are acting as agents of change themselves.

These goals are designed to increase and build rapport between leaders, and followers — inspire them, and increase their satisfaction with their career so that they can become engaged and productive. Follower satisfaction is contingent upon the leader’s performance as both a facilitator and inspirer.

 

Mostafa Sayyadi works with senior business leaders to effectively develop innovation in companies, and helps companies—from start-ups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders. He is a business book author and a long-time contributor to business publications and his work has been featured in top-flight business publications.

Michael J. Provitera is an associate professor, and an author of the book titled “Mastering Self-Motivation” published by Business Expert Press. He is quoted frequently in the national media.