What's your design leadership style?

Biting the bullet

I recently bit the bullet, and decided to treat myself to some one-on-one coaching with Mags Hanley. More on that later, but if you’re looking to make a shift in your design career (whatever that may look like), then definitely, 100%-ly, TOTALLY hit Mags up.

Finally getting coaching is something that I’m proud of myself for doing for myself. It’s always been on my “list” since I was working at Bankwest 5 years ago, but I never really got around to it for one reason or another, and I’ve always put family and work before my own professional development. But it’s actually happened at a perfect time, where I feel like I’m really getting the most out of the coaching compared to if I’d done it earlier. Bizarre!

One of the areas that Mags has guided me through is understanding my past and current leadership style, and where I want to develop my leadership style.

Leadership styles

There are 7 leadership styles that people generally fall into, where 4 are positive and the other 3… well, not so positive. Interestingly, when we talked through this, I identified as a democratic style leader, but I also delve into the coaching style (based on the Atlassian leadership style quiz - have a go, and let me know what you get!)

In fact, the Atlassian blog has a brilliant rundown on the different leadership styles - here’s a quick overview below.

Authoritarian / autocratic: The top-down style of leadership is based on the idea that the boss is the boss, and that’s that. Employees and teammates are just people who follow orders.

Bureaucratic: Runs on rules and maintaining the status quo. The standard procedure always wins out. They may listen to employees, but if their ideas don't fit in the system, they won't go ahead.

Democratic: Relies on every team member providing input to help the team move towards the best decisions. The leader may still ultimately make the call, but it will likely be in sync with the team.

Coaching: These leaders can see the potential in their team members that can be unleashed to help the company grow. They know how to connect their team’s capabilities to the right opportunities.

Visionary: This is most-often revered in organizations that prioritize growth. You'll challenge team members to exceed their goals, winning people over to your vision.

Servant leader: You’re focused on elevating your team members first, knowing that their success reflects well on you and that your own reward will follow. Usually team morale is consistently high.

Laissez-faire: Where team members lack clear direction, and are left wondering what their collective goals are and what’s expected of them as individuals.

Looking back & reflecting

When I first moved into a management role, I simply did what I thought a manager would do. I told people what they needed to do. Boy oh boy, did that not work! I had mainly been exposed to authoritarian throughout my career (and that was simply because it was the most common approach).

As my career progressed, I moved through being a bureaucratic leader until in the last 5 years, I was more a democratic leader. On different occasions, I’d lean into different styles but on the whole, it’s more on the democratic side.

Over the last year, I’ve been building out my skills where I’ve been using more coaching techniques with my team members.

Where to next?

There are 2 evolving approaches that really resonate with me, and where over the next few years or so, I’d like to build my skills.

Situational leadership
This style of leadership is guided by a flexible-but-defined approach that relies on context. The leader adjusts their level of support and/or direction based on which of four developmental levels a team member falls into. Levels are determined based on the individual’s personality traits and levels of competence.

Mindful leadership
Mindful leadership is an approach that requires a leader to consciously cultivate their ability to be present, open-minded, and compassionate when interacting with their team members. Using meditation, breath work, and the powers of observation, the leader seeks to silence the mind’s “busy mode” during team interactions in order to build strong interpersonal connections.

Why these styles?
The situational style leverages the best out of the positive leadership styles, and is flexible enough to give people what they need and when they need it. And mindful leadership really takes into account the new world we live and work in, where we need to take a more empathic approach to the people we work with.

It’s something that I definitely need to work on. I’m not always mindful and present when I have conversations with people. My mind drifts, and I need to improve on my active listening skills. I also jump to the “fix-it” mode - it’s my default setting! I’m a people pleaser and fixer at heart, and I really need to be mindful that not everyone wants to be fixed.

Next steps
Over the coming month, I’ll be working on my learning and development plan at work, where I’ll be including these areas to develop in.

Key takeaway

Knowing your past and present leadership styles can form a great baseline for where you’d like to progress into the future.