Developing Your Leadership Style

04/19/23

Developing Your Leadership Style

Integrity – Service – Excellence

Lt Col Lucia MorePathology & Clinical Laboratory

Flight CommanderEglin AFB, Florida

• Leadership definition• The office or position of a leader• Capacity to lead; one that takes the lead or

initiative• Synonyms

• Guide, pilot, pacesetter, forerunner, harbinger, conductor, director, boss, chieftain, head, honcho, master, commander, principal, superior, manager

What is a Leader?

• Leader versus manager• Managers are maintainers; systems/controls• Leaders are innovators/creators; people

• Leaders are perpetual learners• How can I do better?

• Demand and reward honest feedback• What you don’t know CAN hurt you…

What is a Leader?

• IS NOT:• Dictator• Arbiter of all information and decisions

• NOT a position, a process • Actions and style have tremendous influence over the

working atmosphere/morale • You may BE the problem!• Must be aware of own style, impact on others…BUT,

can’t worry about approval rating or strive for consensus on every issue to avoid unpopularity

Leadership Style

• Our values, attitudes, and character guide our behavior

• Ask for feedback to reduce “blind spots”• (what do I forget, who do I forget to consult…)

• Identify effect on others/change behavior to correct• Are you seeing improvements or further decline? Ask

your NCOs…they know!

• Utilize all the resources on the team; different styles bring different talents

Personal Style

• Leaders provide vision• Effective vision provides guidance• Leader models it/lives it = people respond to it• Think big…be willing to stretch

• Don’t limit your own potential• “Yeah, but…”

• Character and attitude are most important• Skills can be taught

What is a Leader?

• Leadership is NOT defined by position and is NOT comprised of a special, unique collection of traits

• “How many of you see yourselves as leaders?”

• Connotes bragging, arrogance

• “If we are to promote the exercise of leadership among all the players on the team it is essential to separate the process of leadership from the title of leader.”

• (from article by Robert C. Burgee prepared for AU-24, Concepts for Air Force Leadership)

What is a Leader?

• Must have foundation of acceptance and support• Genuine communication leads to trust in others’

motives

• Respect for others’ intelligence and commitment

• Manager must encourage diversity and be partners with team members

• Empower independent decision making

• Define desired outcome and let them get there

Personal Style

• No “best” style denotes leadership• Not only for the visionary or charismatic

• Frees follower from idea that leadership is reserved for those with titles

• Frees managers from idea that they must be smarter quicker, better informed and more decisive than anyone on their team

Personal Style

• The word “leadership” implies collaboration• You can’t lead if no one follows!• Partnership, teamwork, mentoring, support,

shared responsibility• Tap potential of initiative, creativity, and

energy from middle and lower echelons

Personal Style

• Developing your leadership style is a process• Grow into progressively more complex tasks at

successively higher levels of organization• Individual combination of knowledge, interactive

and thinking skills • Tend to focus and do well in strong areas • Areas of weakness may become a problem later

Personal Style

A word about time management:

Managers who don’t manage their time create even greater time management problems for their subordinates who spend significant time waiting for the boss

Personal Style

Personal Style

• Strategic leaders deal with risky, complex problems• Solutions too uncertain for unilateral decision

making• Need team input

• Leading organizational change…transformation

Strategic Leadership

• Solutions depend on shared understanding by those who implement them and invest in them

• Leader must understand and empower lower level leaders

• Don’t micromanage unless you have to; if you have to… you aren’t making your message clear enough!


• Most critical task: continued transformation of organization

• Balance stabilization with need to change; short term results against future gains

• Some are more comfortable than others with changes• Need to understand your own and others’

preferences• (generational leadership, personality styles)

• Must know how to make decisions/take action not dominated by your preferences/comfort levels


• It’s all about the people• Must draw people together around a set of shared

values and interests • Show future goals that are worth struggling for• Create confidence that these goals are attainable• Must be morally uplifting; means may be attained

in accord with high moral and ethical standards


• A strategic leader must:• Have person-to-person influence skills• Deal persuasively, collegially• Negotiate constructively with near equals (other

flight commanders, etc.); they have the power and ability to commit resources to achieve shared objectives

• Be proactive: understand the need for change and the balance between stability and creating change

Portrait of a Strategic Leader

• Effective leaders operate with top-level teams• No leader can manage, decide, implement alone• Purpose often seen most clearly by the strategic

leader…seeing and guiding is an important responsibility!

• Effective organizations have a sense of where they are going; effort justified by the purpose


• Effective leaders add value by undertaking responsibilities for which they are uniquely qualified (talents or position)

• Our job = look ahead/smooth the way for organization to transition from today’s work to tomorrow or next decade

• Create leadership climate so team sees purpose in lives and fulfillment in work

• We exist to support AEF!

• Strive for excellence!


• Teach by work and deed- enable others to achieve potential

• Pay attention to outside environment, changes, actions of key players • Any new programs, policies, BRAC, etc.

• Represent organization well to external/internal audiences


• Leaders require skills and abilities in three areas• Technical knowledge• Interpersonal/communication knowledge/skill• Conceptual skills

Leadership Skills and Abilities

• Lower level: (CGO)

• Using, operating, maintaining a system

• Solving well-defined problems, performing specific tasks and missions

• Upper (strategic) levels: employ systems within systems (FGO)

• Solve ill-defined problems

• Immediate future and long term

• Manager must have enough technical knowledge to know how to use it most efficiently

Technical skills

• Persuasion, negotiation, collaboration, effective reasoning, logic more crucial

• Need to be able to get consensus among contemporaries who might have competing interests/ideas

• Mutual trust/respect

Interpersonal Skills

• Must foster empowerment, learning, purposeful sharing of information

• Inspire trust in others • objectivity, consistency

• Personal openness• active listening, responding appropriately

• Respect others


• You are in a position to see the big picture, understand complex situations, take early action

• Gather info from external/internal sources, make sense of it

• Interpret for subordinates…need to be on board


• Network, scan, interpret, understand what’s going on that may have future relevance to organization• Expected growth in your MTF??? Increased

specialty care…what does the lab need to do to support it?

• Visualize and predict potential problems• Formulate least-risk solutions

• Sometimes requires assembled wisdom of a team


• Comprehend and set understandable goals• Develop concrete plans/tasks for allocating resources• Visualize interactive dynamics of large systems

• Decisions in one area may affect others• Unanticipated or undesirable indirect effects

• (2d, 3d, and 4th order)

Decision Skills

• Future focus and vision• Need a “sense of time” long enough to envision

major system-wide program implementation• Realistic planning• Problem analysis and diagnosis• Provide concept/guidance for entire program

• Envision desired future, assess current position• Understand what actions in the present can shape

what the future will be• Monitor progress

Decision Skills

The more senior you are, The more power implicit in position,

the more potential to USE power

• Opportunity for self-deception is greater• “Executive temptations” – impatience, huge

power to harm others, embarrass• Makes others reluctant to get involved, negative impact

on competence, decrease development and learning

• Need self-awareness, patience, read others


• Be a thermostat, not a thermometer• Effect change in order to create a climate• Leader attitude plus positive atmosphere = great

accomplishments• Leaders must model the leadership they desire• Can’t demand of others what you don’t of self

• Fitness, uniform, courtesy• What leaders do, potential leaders around them do

• Good and bad….

Creating Other Leaders

• Identify the potential in each future leader and cultivate it in light of the needs of the organization• Mentor wins because the rising star beneath them

can perform/produce• Org wins – mission fulfilled• Rising leader wins - gets mentoring

• Find the 1 thing you believe is an asset (maybe they don’t see it) and give 100% encouragement


• Starting point for all achievement = drive, determination, desire

• Leader know the desires of those they lead• Look for positiveness, servanthood (play team ball,

follow the leader), growth potential (hunger for personal growth), consistency (gets the job done), loyalty (leader/org above personal desires), resiliency (bounce back from problems), integrity, big picture mindset, discipline, gratitude• (does my mentor see these qualities in me?)


• Determine the needs of potential leaders• Expose to successful people• Provide secure environment where they can take

risks• Provide tools/resources needed• Training and continuing education


• Network: seek out mentors; be a mentor; • Core values: who do you see in the mirror?

• Integrity, humility, service• Know what your personal goals are, but don’t pursue

them at the expense of others• Believe in yourself; if you don’t, no one else will• Balance: spiritual, physical, mental fitness

• You set the example whether you intend to or not!

Leadership

If the whole world followed you,

would you be pleased

with where you took it?

Parting Thought

• Four (4) generations working together

• Different values, experiences, styles and attitudes create

• Misunderstandings

• Frustrations

• Diverse work environment

The generation gap is increasing communication gap

(this information is From Generational Leadership, Col Alton Powell, III, USAF, MC, CFS, Chief, Population Health Support Division, Nov 04)

Generational Leadership

• Traditionalists (Matures/Silent Generation)

• Baby Boomers

• Generation X

• Millennials (Generation Y/Generation Next)

Generational Leadership

• Born 1925 – 1945• Influences

• Great Depression, Roaring Twenties, World War I, World War II, Korean War, G.I. Bill

• Characteristics• Patriotic, loyal, “waste not, want not,” faith in institutions• Military influenced top-down approach

• Value logic and discipline• Don’t like change• Want to build a legacy

Key Word: Loyal

Traditionalists


• Suburbia, TV, Vietnam, Watergate, protests, human rights movement, drugs, and rock ‘n roll

• Characteristics• Idealistic, COMPETITIVE, question authority

• “Me” Generation• Money, title, recognition• Want to build a stellar career

• Key Word: Optimistic

Baby Boomers


• Sesame Street, MTV, Game Boy, PC, divorce rate tripled, latch-key children

• Characteristics• Eclectic, resourceful, self-reliant, distrustful of

institutions, highly adaptive to change and technology• Possibly most misunderstood generation• Need a balance between work and life - Freedom• Flexible and motivated• Want to build a portable career

Key Word: Skepticism

Generation X


• Expanded technology, natural disasters, violence, gangs, diversity

• Characteristics• Globally concerned, realistic, cyber literate, “personal

safety” is number one concern• Value diversity / change• Been involved entire life• Want work to be meaningful

• Key Word: Realistic

Millennials

• All have different needs and desires• All are typically loyal for different reasons• All will require different approaches to managing

• Balance• Feedback

How do we get them to going in the same direction?

Work Characteristics

• Mature: want to work with people, not email, more likely to write a memo than shout across the room, base decisions on what worked in the past

• Boomers: “People who live to work” – willing to sacrifice for success; recognition is important; more optimistic and team oriented

• Gen X: value a work/life balance; “work to live”; would rather work with email vs. people; individual oriented

• Gen Y: learning opportunities; flexible working arrangements; want a fun environment; need highly collaborative and optimistic atmosphere

Work Characteristics

• Matures: the personal touch – hand written notes

• Still motivated by traditional perks: executive washrooms, company cars, upfront parking

• Boomers: treat as equals, public recognition, the personal touch, reward work ethic and long hours

• Gen X: Family style work atmosphere, casual/comfortable; give them freedom and great responsibility, work they can feel control over, need more constructive feedback, fun work environment, latest technology

• Gen Y: Continuing education, ability to develop work skills, on the job training, multi-tasking opportunities

Motivations

• Matures• “No news is good news”

• Boomers• “Feedback once a year, with lots of

documentation”• Generation X

• “Sorry to interrupt, but how am I doing”• Millennials

• “Feedback whenever I want it at the push of a button”

Feedback

• Matures• “The satisfaction of a job well done”• Respect

• Boomers• “Money, title, recognition, the corner office”

• Generation X• “Freedom is the ultimate reward”

• Millennials• “Work that has meaning for me”

Recognition Systems

• Matures• “I learned the hard way, you can too!”

• Boomers• “Train’ em too much and they will leave”

• Generation X• “The more they learn, the more they stay”

• Millennials• “Continuous learning is a way of life”

Training

• Matures• “Job changing carries a stigma”

• Boomers• Job changing puts you behind”

• Generation X• Job changing is necessary”

• Millennials• Job changing is part of my daily routine”

Career Management

• Different generations of employees need to understand each other’s different motivations and work characteristics

• YOU need to know how to reach them

Career Management

Expeditionary Medics

Documents

Developing Your Leadership Style